The Gifted S02E10 Review: Working Together Maybe

The Gifted, Season 2, Episode 10: eneMy of My eneMy

On with our coverage of the second season of The Gifted, with episode 10! And it's... it's pretty decent? Honestly, this episode and the previous one are pretty solid episodes in general, it's just that the handling of the characters in previous episodes have been a bit iffy. This episode sort of continues in the semi-strong streak we've been having by setting up a pretty simple "good guy/bad guy" bit, with the Mutant Underground grouping up with the Struckers after they return from their side-quest, and they decide to call up Polaris in order to get some firepower to help liberate Thunderbird, because he got his fool ass captured by the Purifiers.

And it's... it's a decent premise, for sure. The Purifiers are definitely the worst of the bunch, with even its supposedly-sumpathetic member, Jace Turner, growing more and more unlikable by the episode. I guess we're supposed to think of Jace as the only reasonable one, since he's the only Purifier who's willing to give Thunderbird a chance to explain himself, and almost buys into the truth about how Polaris and Andy Strucker has joined the Inner Circle, meaning that there are multiple mutant groups now (how is this a revelation to the dumbass Purifiers?)... but ends up losing his grip on sanity and riddles John with buckshot when the united front of main characters assault the Purifier compound. Actor Coby Bell does his best at making Jace at least be a bit sympathetic, but the blatantly telegraphed misunderstanding twist honestly just makes me sort of shrug at the whole thing.

And... and if nothing else, the little meeting between the strained members of the Underground and the Inner Circle is interesting, with Lorna and Marcos having a decent tense "let's pretend to not hate each other while also secretly wanting to fuck" thing going on, Andy and Lauren having their whole sibling piss-off contest going on, and Blink consistently being fun as she manages to able to basically calm down Lorna, Marcos and Lauren at different points in the episode. And, admittedly... the tension felt a wee bit artificial at times, but considering The Gifted's track record at episodic tension and wangsty drama, this was honestly semi-decent.

It's satisfying to see the Gifted sort of engage in some pretty fun, if basic, mutant-on-racist action, with some awesome badass-slow-walk moments when our united mutant crew arrives and basically curb-stomps the damn Purifiers. While Polaris and Andy end up returning to the Inner Circle at the end of the episode, It's admittedly pretty nice to see the cast all together again. The conflict between the Inner Cricle people is still here, though, with Lorna making it clear that she doesn't intend to get close to Marcos (although she kisses him), while Andy is all-too-delighted to brutalize and crush the legs of some fool who tried to shoot Lauren. Justified, sure, but at the same time, it's clear that the boy's fucked in the head when it's torture for torture's sake. It's sort of fun seeing Andy gleeful in the chance to get his family to see what all this "eradicating the hateful racists" thing is all about, when, y'know, doing violent torture on people who might deserve it is definitely not the answer.

Overall, a solid episode of television, even if I admittedly realize that the poor pacing and dull writing that the show's had over its history probably has far more sway on critics and show executives, leading to the show's cancellation after this season. Shame, because it just starts to pick itself off the ground in this second half of the season.