REVIEW: The Gifted, Episode 102
After airing its pilot episode, The Gifted is back with its second episode entitled “rX” and in it we saw a race against time to stop Clarice from destroying the Mutant Underground.
The episode started with what I thought was a great scene in which we saw the Strucker family play bowling, when a girl with powers started being mocked, while everyone did nothing but watch. This, in my opinion, showed that most of the people there didn’t do anything because they shared the same opinion. The girl ended up getting upset and using her powers, and only then Reed interfered and told the girl and her father to get out, because the police was going to be after her. Sure this kind of showed Reed cares a bit about mutants, but not enough to publicly defend them, only to whisper in their ears to run away, and then turn his back, not really caring if they were going to take his advice.
In present day, with almost everyone back in the mutant underground, Clarice started going into shock and using her teleportation powers, always opening portals to the same road. Even though Lauren was able to close them, it did take some time. This made the police start to weapon up for when it happened again, and when it did, we saw another little showdown between mutants and the police. The situation grew worse, and portals started opening everywhere, making everyone evacuate the Underground.
Meanwhile, Marcos and Kate, who knows a little bit about medicine, went to a mutant hospital to try to steal supplies and save Clarice, since they can’t take her to a hospital. To get there, Kate opened Marcos’ wound from last episode, making him bleed light (which is always going to be weird). Because of the stupid made up excuse about how Marcos got his wound, and because Kate had some wounds of her own, the doctor thought she was suffering from domestic violence. I wonder if he would still think this if Marcos wasn’t a mutant. Maybe. Maybe not. I actually like to think so, since I think doctors are also trained for this. He even called the police, which, of course, turned out to be a problem, but a minor one. They got there just in time to save Clarice and the whole Underground. This last part didn’t really feel very realistic. I can buy the whole mutant thing, but a person who is dying and collapsing doesn’t just wake up one second after taking a shot (at least I don’t think so, but I am no doctor, so I am sorry, and glad, if this is a reality).
At the same time, Lorna started to adjust to her new life in prison, where she tried to make a mutant friend, only to learn that in there it is every woman for herself. Expect of course, the prison queen, who is never alone. Glad Lorna kicked her ass in the end, but, of course, not without getting kicked too, and on the belly which is even worse since she is pregnant. ecause she is a mutant, they didn’t even take her to the infirmary, but immediately to the “hole”.
Finally, in the aftermath of the last week’s episode, Reed was caught, imprisoned and questioned. Jace, the guy from the Sentinel Services, really did seem very desperate to get Reed to cooperate, so desperate that he played all his cards in a matter of hours. Because Reed was many times in the other side of the table, he knew exactly what was on Jace’s mind, so in the end they pretty much made a deal under his terms, expect for one thing: Jace wants the Mutant Underground. We didn’t hear Reed’s answer, but I think he will give Jace what he wants, and I really don’t blame him, since this is his family we are taking about. I think most people would do that.
I definitely continue to say this show really screams racism and homophobia, because what we see here is very similar to what used to happen with black people years ago (and even today unfortunately). People will always look at people who are different from them as inferior (fortunately not everyone, but a majority), but what they don’t know is that it is totally better to be different and mocked than to be kicking and like them. There is no such thing as superior people, only different, and if some can’t live with that, maybe they should get a time machine and go to a time where people agree (which is definitely many centuries ago). Sorry if I went a little bit off topic, but I really wanted to say that.
Overall, this was a good episode, but I feel like the pilot was better, since it had more action. To be honest, this kind of felt like a stall episode, but of course that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, because, as I said, it was. I am giving it a 7.8/10.
The third episode is entitled “eXodus”, and I hope we start seeing some efforts for the Strucker family to be reunited, because it already seems that together is where they all belong.