The Gifted, Season 1, Episode 10: eXploited
This episode of the Gifted is actually a pretty good one. I mean, Gifted has always been a solid series when it actually deals with mutants and not, y'know, random cartels, and while its future might be somewhat murky due to Disney purchasing Fox, I really wish that we at least get a conclusion to the first season. Perhaps the only thing that makes Gifted somewhat less exciting is that it doesn't feature any big superhero names beyond maybe Polaris, and a lot of what it does is just, well, generic superhero stuff. It's not doing anything weird with its format the way that, say, Legion or Runaways do, being a trippy psychedelical story in the former's case and a teen drama meeting a superhero cult story in the latter.
But the Gifted is some really solid superhero storytelling. And despite some rather iffy patches, I found myself really rooting for these characters who, other thank Blink and Polaris, aren't characters I've even heard about. Last episode, we have four members of our cast -- Lauren, Andy, Blink and Dreamer -- captured by Sentinel Services. And as Jace Turner reminds us in her interrogation with an extremely apologetic Dreamer, he's still nursing a grudge over the whole 'you made me think my baby girl is alive, you sick fuck' thing. And as such, Turner hands over all the mutant prisoners to Roderick Campbell, the crazy scientist who's totally making biological weapons and is the psychotic mind behind the 'Hound' program.
The majority of the cast -- Eclipse, Polaris, Thunderbird, Reed and Caitlin -- argue about just what they should do... and I really think that Reed and Caitlin's idea of going to the authorities is the stupidest thing of any magnitude they could've think up of. But in between all this arguing, we have the wild card -- Esme the telepath -- in it all. It's pretty surprising how she started off as this random telepath that is conveniently nearby two episodes ago. She even gets her own perhaps-unnecessary flashback where she infiltrates an anti-mutant senator's campaign, which ended disastrously and in her (unseen) 'family' being captured.
And, well, Esme is essentially pulling the strings of everyone involved to get things in her way. I'm not sure just how she managed to predict just what Jace Turner is going to do, but she sends Reed and Caitlin off to talk to Turner, and their very heartfelt talk to Turner... doesn't actually change Turner's mind because Turner is an angry dick, but his wife? When she hears of all the talk about torture, about how the Strucker kids awaits a fate-worse-than-death(tm) and how Turner's actions in the name of law is easily equitable to terrorism... her question "what are you doing in the name of our daughter?" hits hard for Turner. This causes him to demand a transfer of the prisoners back into Sentinel Services' jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, Esme also convinces the mutant leaders Thunderbird, Polaris and Eclipse to hit the convoy of prisoners. And it's a very interesting take on Esme as a voice that gets things done -- she stays in a corner, behind doors, listening and searching people's brains for information, then comes in and plays on their emotions to get things done. And honestly? While the episode initially portrays her as a shifty, 'where is her true allegiance at' wild card, it turns out that her manipulation is for the best.
Because, well, Roderick Campbell is a crazy, evil, cold-hearted son of a bitch and he demands that Lauren and Andy use their powers while locking them in an Adamantium-layered chamber. And while the Canadian Adamantium reference made me go yay... really? You have a room's worth of Adamantium and you use it to... make a testing chamber? Lauren and Andy refuse to kowtow to Campbell, who proceeds to execute Dreamer in front of the helpless Blink. And by god, that was a pretty traumatic and sudden death. Dreamer's easily one of the less important mutants, but she's spent a fair bit in the past few episodes becoming increasingly important, and that was an effective way for the writers to justify turning Lauren and Andy back into scared kids. They hold hands, and they unleash the power of twin mutants and blow up the room... but apparently that's not enough to kill Campbell or rip off their collars.
And just as Turner is about to perhaps be moved towards a more pro-mutant standpoint... Esme knocks out Eclipse and unleashes the full force of mutant powers on Sentinel Services, and essentially got everyone in that courtyard other than Turner (who is spared by knocking his head and being unconscious for a brief moment) to kill themselves, shoot themselves, grenade their own car... and unlock all the mutant collars. She manages to single-handedly rescue the twins and Blink by manipulating events and killing a fuckton of people in easily one of the most violent (if cathartic) sequences of the series, and at the end we get the wham shot that the 'family' she's been talking about is her two twin sisters, and together their powers are presumably stronger (google tells me their comic-book counterpart is called the 'Stepford Cuckoos', and, well, that's a pretty appropriate name). I definitely really would've liked if Esme has been developed more than two episodes, but it's honestly decently done.
And, well, after a whole episode of seeing mutants being oppressed by the psychotic Campbell, seeing Sonya get murdered, and seeing the poor kids be traumatized and forced to do things they clearly don't want to do... and even the more sympathetic Turner turning a blind eye at the horrors that the Hound program and the mutant holding facilities are doing, it's honestly hard to say that I don't root for Esme as she delivers some justice to the people who oppress the mutants... it's just that it's the wrong people.
It's a very enjoyable episode, don't get me wrong -- Esme was great and the Campbell stuff was chilling, and Turner's character development was decently done. I just really wish that the Polaris and the Strucker parents' motivations and competence were better handled, and that Esme was foreshadowed earlier... but it still made for a decently entertaining episode of the Gifted. I just, y'know, wished Polaris and Thunderbird and the rest of the main Mutant Underground dudes actually did more than just sulk around and occasionally remind us of their powers.
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