THE GIFTED Season 1 Episode 3 Review: eXodus

The best thing I can say about THE GIFTED so far is that I’m finally starting to remember everyone’s names. There are still way too many characters for a show that’s so new. Between the mutant underground, Sentinel Services, and the Strucker family, the list goes on and on. That’s not even counting single character stories like Polaris and the mysterious doctor who likes mutant siblings. 

There’s so much going on that the story moves at an extremely sluggish pace. For whatever reason THE GIFTED feels the need to check in with every character, every episode. For example, we got a scene with Polaris in which absolutely nothing happened. She just tried to use her powers and nearly had a seizure trying to do so. The scene was pointless and led to zero plot movement. We could have been spending time developing the other stories in the episode. 

Another lackluster storyline was Mr. Strucker trying to work with Sentinel Services in order to save his family. It followed the beats you’d expect it to. He tries his best to follow “the plan”, but his heart gets in the way when innocent people get involved. So he manages to escape and make things worse for himself. Textbook plot developments so far. 

The only interesting part of the episode was Kate trying to get her brother to help her. This storyline at least led to some slight development. Though, it also followed a paint by numbers script. Naturally the kid would use his powers and the family would get found out. Then the suburban rednecks show up, wanting the kids. 

This led to the most interesting development of the episode, which was when the red head (who is still new enough that I cannot remember her name), planted memories within Blink that made her attracted to Johnny. Apparently this process has been done before and it’s gone horribly wrong. It’s an interesting ethical dilemma, one I hope the show will focus on, but I don’t exactly give it much credit in that department. 

But it led to the fact that they’re transferring Polaris and Strucker to a black site for interrogation. This might finally mean that some story lines are condensing, and the show will be streamlined. I’m still hoping we’ll get a look at the larger picture of this season. Enough with the single scenes with the doctor and let’s get things moving.

Written by Peter Freeman, THE GIFTED Beat Writer

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