The Gifted Review: eXodus (Season 1 Episode 3)
A lot of words come to mind in regards to The Gifted Season 1 Episode 3 “eXodus”: boring, derivative, gross, but, more than almost all of that, the word that jumps out the most — and is perhaps the root of the problems with this series — is that it’s just simply lazy.
The most obvious and noteworthy area is the decision to implant romantic memories of Thunderbird into Blink. On a purely plot level, it’s meant to give her an emotional anchor to root her teleportation powers in. That’s not the real reason, though.
Beyond the gross, disgusting implications of Blink’s personal consent and agency, it is a cheap, lazy move to fabricate a love triangle between Blink, Thunderbird, and Dreamer, as if someone informed the writers that a show like this ought to have one and they realized they forgot to set one up before now.
Let’s get something perfectly clear here: this is an asinine, barrel-scraping plot point, but it’s most importantly repulsive. Implanting memories into someone is, by itself, an intriguing concept, but this is not the way to employ that.
It is an unacceptable mistreatment of a female character, all in the hopes of creating romantic drama and tension that doesn’t need to exist in the first place.
The most maddening thing is it could be possible to position a lover’s triangle between these three without the use of memory inceptions, were it not for the fact that we don’t actually know or care about Dreamer as someone with a connection to Thunderbird.
This is the first episode that she has been properly introduced in any meaningful way or even as somebody that has an actual name. You want a love triangle, The Gifted? You need to put some actual effort in to that and not whatever this abhorrent nonsense is.
The Gifted gives you two choices: laziness or bad decisions. The latter abounds in the Strucker Family portion of the episode.
It’s always great to give Amy Acker something to do (no, seriously, it is), but why, for the love of God, does it have to be something as stupid as going to her brother for political help? All the while bringing her wanted children along for the ride, who turn to not be needed and instead escalate the situation.
In the end, this is a roundabout way of finding out where and when Reed and Polaris are being moved, but there are any number of ways of getting to that point without coming up with a plan so profoundly dumb that Jon Snow would be proud.
“eXodus” is not all bad, however, just most of it. Reed’s arc in this episode that revolved around him finding a way back to the Mutant Underground is surprisingly moving.
While most of the political messaging has been rather blunt and heavy handed, Reed’s continued interactions with a mutant mother and daughter captured something that The Gifted is constantly trying to relay, although in ways that are something less than subtle.
No matter what you might think about a certain group, they are still people that can be adversely affected by others with more power than they possess.
A part of the reason this works so well is, similar to what’s been said already, this isn’t lazy. It doesn’t take shortcuts or take cheap opportunities. Instead, it’s quietly emotional and that surprisingly works to the show’s strengths. The problem is the show doesn’t know what its strengths are yet.
What did you think of this episode of The Gifted? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
Reviewer Rating:
User Rating:
The Gifted airs Mondays at 9/8c on FOX.
Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.