The Gifted started off with a bang! The Struckers have a couple of mutants in the family. And their lives have been turned upside down. With the help of the mutant underground network, they just might make it. The family is being hunted down by Sentinel Services. Agent Jace Turner is determined to bring them in for an accident at a local high school. The mutant underground have been fighting the Sentinels for some time. One of their own has been captured and they are desperate to get her back.
Click Here to Read the Series Premiere Recap of THE GIFTED “eXposed”
In “rX”, the Strucker family have been separated from Reed Strucker (Stephen Moyer). Reed was left behind when Clarice (Jamie Chung) had trouble keeping her portal open. Reed was shot causing him to hesitate jumping through the portal. Now he has been captured by Sentinel Services. The family has been transported to the mutant network’s HQ.
Flashback…
A year ago, the Struckers were just another average family. The family along with Reed’s mother, Ellen (Sharon Gless) are all out at the bowling alley having fun. Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind) spots a man yelling at a group of teens. Caitlin (Amy Acker) tells her to leave things alone.
The teens are laughing at a little girl who is vibrating. The girl’s father is yelling at the teens to stop and the girl is yelling at her dad. The girl gets angry and gust of wind hits the teens, spilling their drinks and food all over the. The entire bowling alley is staring at the girl.
Reed steps forward and introduces himself. He tells the man to leave with his daughter before there is more trouble. When he returns to his family, Lauren asks why they had to leave. Lauren already has her powers and hasn’t told anyone. Lauren is scared. She is not sure of what her dad will do if he found out.
Present day,
There is a lot of confusion about what just happened. Reed Strucker did not make it through the portal. Clarice is barely conscious. Marcos (Sean Teale) and John (Blair Redford) are trying to calm everyone down. Caitlin has a lot of questions. Lauren and Andy (Percy Hynes White) are worried about getting their dad. John fills in the family about where they are and say they can’t go after Reed. Marcos tells them he needs Reed back too, but they can’t do anything right now. For now they have to take care of Clarice.
Agent Turner (Coby Bell) puts out an APB for the Stuckers and the mutants. Turner checks in on Reed. He tells him to rest up and then they will have a chat about his family.
John asks Sonia aka Dreamer (Elena Satine) to find a doctor for Clarice and a home for the Struckers. She asks who they are and what happened. He turns the question to Marcos. Marcos says they help mutants in danger and the Struckers were definitely in danger. John knows Marcos’ actions were about Lorna. He says he wants her back too, but not at the cost of the organization. Lauren interrupts and says something is wrong.
Clarice has a temperature and and her breathing is erratic. Caitlin admits that she is a nurse, but doesn’t have much training in mutant care. Clarice has some sort of seizure. Caitlin says Clarice’s system may be unstable and affecting her powers. She needs a lot of different medication to stabilize Clarice or she could die. They can’t take her to a hospital because Clarice is a fugitive.
A portal opens up. They see a road on the other side. A truck is headed straight for them. Everyone moves out of the way of the portal and Clarice passes out just before the truck hits. The truck swerves to avoid going through the portal. The truck bed made it through and crashes in to the room.
At the correctional facility, Lorna (Emma Dumont) is taken to a holding cell. She has on a collar. Once the cell door is closed, Lorna attempts to use her power and is immediately knocked to the floor. The other inmates laugh at her. The inmate across the hall tells Lorna the collar is to prevent her from doing anything dangerous. She says Lorna will be picked on. The only way mutants leave the jail is in a body bag. She says Lorna won’t last if she doesn’t have backup. Lorna says she has backup, but not in jail.
At the mutant HQ, everyone is safe, but they don’t know how Clarice did that or how to stop it. Caitlin has a cut on her head, but she’s fine. John moves Clarice to a table and Clarice seizes again. The portal opens up to the same road. This time there are more people on the other side. One of the humans has a gun. Marcos starts to use his light to blind the man with the gun and John stops him. Lauren steps forward and is able to close the portal using her ability.
Everyone is impressed with Lauren’s ability. John says they are all in danger if the portal opens again. He asks Caitlin if she can help Clarice. He says they can get the medications she needs. Caitlin says the medications she needs are only available at a hospital. Marcos says they will take Caitlin to the hospital to get them. He asks Lauren if she can close the portal if it happens again. Lauren says she can. Caitlin disapproves of the plan. She doesn’t want to leave Lauren. Lauren says its okay.
Clarice opens the portal again and more people appear on the other side. John tells Sonia to get everyone safe. The police are there. John can hear them talk about getting more back up. Lauren closes the portal, but it’s getting harder to do. Andy tells Lauren that what’s she’s doing is insane.
John and Sonia talk about what’s going on the other side of the portal. Sonia says they need to get Clarice out of HQ. John says it’s too dangerous to move Clarice. They just have to hope Marcos gets back in time with the medicine.
At the Sentinel Services HQ, Agent Turner asks Reed if he knows his rights. Reed reminds Turner that he is a federal prosecutor. He is upset that Turner sent sentinels after his children. Reed knows Turner has nothing on him. He says Turner is denying him his rights. Turner says he hasn’t been charged, but he can change that.
Marcos and Caitlin head to the hospital. Marcos assures Caitlin that John can protect her children. Caitlin changes the subject and ask Marcos to honor his deal with Reed. Marcos reminds her that Reed is trying to send his girlfriend to jail. He asks Caitlin if her children weren’t mutants, would she be standing up for mutants in general.
Marcos and Caitlin get to the hospital. There are a lot of people in the waiting room. Caitlin tells Marcos they will have to wait to get into the treatment area unless they have a real emergency. Marcos exposes his gun wound to get into the emergency room.. They tell the nurse that Marcos is her boyfriend and is in need of immediate attention.
The doctor asks what happened to Marcos. They make up some sketchy story and the doctor pulls Caitlin aside. He points out the cut on Caitlin’s head and says he has an obligation to report any sign of mutant abuse. Caitlin assures him that she is okay. The doctor leaves and Caitlin grabs a set of scrubs so she can blend in.
At the prison, Lorna is being led to the showers and an inmate spits in her hair. The guard makes her move along. Lorna see another mutant in a different cell and keeps moving. In the showers, Lorna washes the black dye out of her hair, revealing her natural hair color is green. All of the women in the shower stare at her.
Later in the cafeteria, Lorna tries to talk to the other mutant in the prison. She introduced herself as Polaris. She asks the mutant about the collars. The mutant is uncomfortable and tells Lorna that she’s not the first person to think she can escape. She tells Lorna to stay away from her.
Turner informs Reed that he will be charged with terrorism. They know Reed used Lorna’s case file to contact the mutant underground. Reed’s colleague ratted him.out. Turner questions Reed’s ability to judge mutants. He tells Reed that his daughter died in a mutant accident. He says he doesn’t know if the blast of energy that killed his daughter came from a good mutant or a bad mutant, but he doesn’t care.
At the hospital, Caitlin makes her way to the pharmaceutical cabinet. She grabs a lot of bottles and walks out to find the doctor talking to the police. She rushes to Marcos and tells him what’s going on and they run. Once they get outside, Marcos uses his ability to heat up the door so the police can’t touch it.
At the prison, an inmate tells Lorna that the mutants in jail work for her. Lorna decline. the inmate says she has the power in jail. Another inmate attacks Lorna. The inmate says she knows that Lorna is pregnant and she kicks Lorna in the stomach. Lorna uses her power, despite the collar, and pushes a table up against the inmate and traps her against the fence. The inmate’s associates start to beat up Lorna, but the guard stop the fight. They put Lorna in solitary.
At mutant HQ, Clarice’s fever is running high. John tells Sonia to get everyone out. Things are getting worse. The portals are opening up more frequently. Lauren is getting tired, but she says she can handle it. She opens another portal and there is a SWAT team on the other side. Lauren cannot close the portal. The force of the portal pushes her back. A member of the SWAT enters the portal and John stops him. He throws the cop back through the portal. Other SWAT members start to run through, but Andy uses his ability to push back. Clarice falls off of the table, hitting her head and the portal closes. John check on Clarice to make sure she is okay. Her portals open all over the room. John tells everyone to get out of the building.
Turner tells Reed he is making a mistake thinking they are the only ones in jeopardy. He takes Reed to a room where the cops are talking to his mother. Reed tells him that they are harassing her. She knows nothing. Turner tells Reed he can stop it. He just has to tell Turner where his family is.
Caitlin asks if things for mutants are always that bad. like at the hospital. The mutants have rights. Marcos says as soon as someone calls them dangerous, all of their rights are gone. Caitlin asks about Marcos’ family. He says they kicked him out when they found out about his abilities. Lorna saved him. She is his family now. Caitlin starts to freak out. Marcos tells her to calm down, it’s their security measure. One of the mutant can project fear on humans.
They get to the gate and a mutant tells them that they are evacuating the place. Clarice’s portals are popping up all over. Caitlin finds Lauren and Andy. Marcos asks for the medication. Caitlin says she doesn’t know the dosage to give to Clarice. She tells the kids to go with Marcos and goes into the building.
Caitlin sees John watching over Clarice, but she can’t find a way down. She has to jump through a portal to get to them. She injects Clarice with potassium and the portals stop. Clarice calms down and everyone is safe.
Later, Clarice wakes up and asks John if everyone is okay. He says yes and makes fun of the damage she caused. He asks her about the portal to the road that she opened. She doesn’t remember. He tells her to rest and she apologizes for putting everyone in danger.
Caitlin tells Lauren and Andy that she is proud of them. Andy asks about Reed. Caitlin says they will find him. She tells them it’s time that they join the fight with the mutant underground. They will fight to bring everyone home.
Turner meets with Reed again and asks if he’s ready to talk. Reed has sat on Turner’s side of the table before. If Turner was going to charge him, he would have done it already. Reed says Turner has over played his hand. He knows Turner is desperate. Reed proposes a deal. He says he will cooperate and go down for everything, but Turner has to leave his family out of it. Reed tells Turner to get him a lawyer. Turner agrees, only if he gets the mutant underground. Reed agrees.
At a lab somewhere, Dr. Roderick Campbell (Garret Dillahunt) asks his assistant to find information about mutant siblings. Dr. Cambell wonders if the Strucker children have been found. His assistant says the Sentinel Serves are still searching for them. Campbell tells him to get the head of that investigation on the phone. While he waits, he reads a story about mutant incident in Rio de Janeiro in the 60’s.
Thoughts…
Very good follow up to the premiere. The show remains fast paced, yet still gives each story line enough development to remain interesting. I really like that Marcos explains to Caitlin what it’s like to be a mutant and the persecution that mutants go through. It gives the audience more insight as to what they are fighting for.
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News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
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