The Gifted, Season 2, Episode 13: teMpted
That's... that's not a bad episode, actually. Sure, it's essentially just a stopgap between the previous episode and what I assume is going to be a faster-paced episodes to close off the season, but... I dunno. Not a whole ton seemed to happen in this episode, but the buildup to the series of development we got at the end was all right? It's just such a shame that the previous episode was kinda poopy as far as character developments go that I'm not the biggest fan of the storylines being explored. Maybe why the story felt so great was a significant lack of focus on the damn Purifiers and redundant flashbacks. Maybe that's what the series needed.
The Blink/Erg/Caitlin storyline is probably my favourite out of the three main stories that happened in this episode, as... as simple as it was. It's just pleasant, y'know? I felt like, as with most episodes of Gifted, the random inclusion of a flashback showing how Erg was betrayed by his ex-girlfriend was a bit shoehorned in, but when Glow gets accidentally shot during a food-gathering mission, Erg insists that they only work with Morlocks. Blink, being a lot more level headed, ends up teleporting into the surface and ask Caitlin and Marcos for help. Well, mostly Caitlin -- Marcos is just there as a literal bloodbag and to shoehorn some bland fake love-triangle into the mix. Thankfully that plotline was quickly resolved and handwaved by all the parties involved.
I feel like it's genuinely contrived that the Purifiers just happened to be patrolling and entered the hospital that Blink, Caitlin and Erg were trying to synthesize the cure, but it did fill the action quota of the episode, I suppose. I dunno... nothing that happens in this subplot was honestly particularly spectacular, but I just felt like Caitlin finally not being an asshat and actually being a confident healer that ends up causing Erg to rethink his stance on human allies and eventually accept Caitlin as an honourable mutant is pretty well-handled. As icky as that sewer-goop tattoo probably is.
Perhaps in stark contrast to the well-done scenes among the Morlocks that honestly ends up ultimately being filler, is the genuinely bland and "get this over with" sequence with Polaris's espionage, and her bizarre need to have to check in every five minutes with Marcos. I know that Lorna's sort of panicking due to the seeming deadline and she's not exactly a spy, but... I dunno. The scene where she tries to investigate the Cruise Killer Crew of Generic Side Characters felt particularly hilariously bad... and I know that it's intentional, but, jeez, it kind of went too long.
Anyway, the Inner Circle plans to hit the White House and Pentagon or some shit, Douche Cruise Guy whose name I don't think we even really got ends up suspecting Lorna, gets intimidated by the whole "queen" shit, and ends up getting attacked by Marcos... except Marcos ends up not realizing that the dude has a gun and is forced to kill the other dude in self defense. Although, honestly, I totally thought for a moment that this is how we lose Marcos.
The scenes of Lauren trying to keep herself awake, and then succumbing to temptation when Andy and the Cuckoos reach out to give Lauren another taste of the Fenris powers is well done... although I guess the music box is just straight-up evil for some reason? I'm genuinely baffled at this plot point, because Reed acknowledges that he was drawn to it as a kid too and it's dangerous. What, because the ancient Struckers put their hair in it or something? I dunno, Not a huge fan of the music box, although thankfully the episode does give some pretty decent Reed/Lauren drama. It's drama that by rights I really should've hated, but Lauren very nearly gives in to the dark side until Reed finally gets his ass off of moping about and starts being a parent. And then, um... Reed gives the temporary cure to Lauren? It's a development that weird me out, but we'll see.
It's a neat episode, I guess. It started off really slow, and despite by all rights having all of the formula of an episode that would've annoyed me, I actually ended up liking this one a fair bit... although admittedly at this point in The Gifted I'll take whatever I can get.
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