I’m still not sure what’s up with this trend of mini flashbacks to start the episodes with. I guess it’s to showcase how the leaders of the Mutant Underground got started? I feel like this stuff that could be written into present day scenes, if it needed to be shared at all. So far we haven’t actually learned anything of note from these scenes.
The episode was split into four story lines, which made for a very busy episode. There was the Sentinel Services, Tommy/Blink, the stuff with Lauren and Wes, and then Marcos and the Cartel. It’s a lot to try and fit into an episode that barely hits forty-five minutes. Frankly, any one of these story lines could have been cut in order to give the others a bit more to breath, but I digress.
The weakest of the story lines was easily the drama between Lauren and Wes. This is the soap opera nonsense that I was hoping the show would avoid. At the very least I’m thankful that they tackled it, solved it, and did away with it all in one episode. It just seemed like a way to keep characters like Strucker and Lauren in the show while they’re stuck at the headquarters. It’s okay to not features some of your main characters and focus on others.
Going in order of weakest to strongest, there’s the stuff with Marcos and the Cartel. Like the last storyline, this was one I had hoped was a pit stop in the season. But it seems like it’s going to be a recurring thing. At the very least we got a little peek behind the kind of person Marcos really is. Whether this is the beginning of something more sinister, we’ll have to wait and see.
I do wish that we didn’t have to deal with the drama between him and Lorna though. Especially when the obvious solution to the issue was to have Dream just take the memories from Carmen. Then she forgets all about Marcos and everyone goes home happy.
The story with Tommy and Blink was better than I’d expected. Tommy is probably the only truly interesting character on the show right now (aside from Dr. Campbell who we’ll get to in a moment). This is because you never really know what he’s thinking, but his heart is always in the right place. For example, he says he’s going after Blink in order to keep her from exposing where the Underground is hidden. At the same time, he seems to genuinely care for her. I’m not sure if this is the start of a love triangle (gag), but his relationship with Blink is definitely getting more complicated.
Lastly, there’s Agent Turner and Doctor Campbell. Normally Turner is the most frustrating character on the show, and that’s because the writers feel they need to beat us over the head with just how much he hates mutants and they killed his daughter. This time we even got a slow-motion moment of reflection. We don’t need to be told about this every single episode. We understand where the character his coming from, his back story, motivations, all taken care. Now let the character live in the present.
At the very least this seems be showing Turner’s limits. It’s ironic that a guy who is willing to tell the DOJ to shove it feels queasy about working with Campbell. Maybe it’s that he doesn’t like taking orders, or he knows that Campbell is running the show now. Either way, it’s nice seeing him uncomfortable. He’s overextended and his paying the price now.
Campbell on the other hand, is starting to assert himself more as a villain and it only does good for the show. Garrett Dillahunt was great as a Terminator in the Sarah Conner Chronicles and he shines here as the slimy and manipulative doctor. I hope that this continues over the course of the next three episodes.
Written by Peter Freeman, THE GIFTED Beat Writer
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