THE GIFTED Season 1 Episode 11 Review: 3 X 1

Par for the course with this series, we opened this episode with another flashback about a main character being persecuted for being a mutant. I’ve yet to understand the purpose of these scenes, as they continue to tell us what we already know. These characters suffered greatly at the hands of bigoted humans. We’re beaten over the head with it every episode. These scenes simply take up screen time. It feels manipulative. 

Speaking of which, the opening sequence also felt a little manipulative. All it basically did was reaffirm everyone’s position. Agent Turner wants to hunt mutants and the mutants want to be free. We get it. My hope was that this would lead to some interesting moments between characters and move the story forward. 

Instead we spent a whole episode letting the Struckers run away, knowing that they would be forced back to the Mutant Underground. All of this was by design it seemed, as the Frost triplets played everyone like a fiddle. For whatever reason the Hellfire Club, which has infinite funds, needs the help of the Mutant Underground in order to defeat Trask Laboratories. 

Also, apparently the Hellfire Club is a thing now? Up until this episode (which is the penultimate episode mind you) the Hellfire Club was something that disappeared decades ago. It’s more than silly for it to be appearing out of the blue now and be such an important plotline for the end of the season. It feels like something that would have better been saved for the second season. 

The episode felt rather pointless overall because we as the audience know that half our main cast isn’t going to separate from the rest of the cast. I understand the Strucker’s reasoning for leaving, I just didn’t feel like we needed to spend an entire episode waiting for them to figure out that it was the wrong idea. 

One thing that has constantly confused me is how Blink’s powers work. Sometimes she says she can’t use them to get into places she’s never been. But she used them to get into the church. But then she doesn’t use them to get the crew back to the car. It’s really odd and seems to work based on dramatic license. 

Overall, I was left wanting more with this episode. I’m hoping that the finale will leave the show with some potential, but most of the show hasn’t made me confident of that.

Written by Peter Freeman, THE GIFTED Beat Writer

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