Rachel Bellwoar reviews the seventh episode of Marvel’s The Gifted…
You can leave the Mutant Underground, but you can’t leave the fake memory they planted in your head behind. So Blink explains, when John tracks her down this week. Claiming the Mutant Underground needs her, and leaving out the disenchanted looks he’s been sending his girlfriend these days (she was the one who planted the memory in Blink’s head in the first place), John wants Blink to return, but Blink has other plans. She’s searching for the road her portals went to when she almost died, and all the while the memory she’s been given replays. Blink describes it as having a soap opera in her head. Maybe she has it confused with the soap opera that’s this week’s episode of The Gifted.
That’s no dig at soap operas (I’m a big Jane the Virgin fan) but ‘eXtreme measures’ lays it on pretty thick, and John and Blink have one of the better storylines. Marcos’ debt with the Cartel gets called upon once more, and while I wouldn’t know where to begin explaining the job he’s hired to do, it’s enough to know it concerns drugs and setting them on fire (?).
What it doesn’t have anything to do with is the other characters. Lorna’s certainly hurt by Marcus’ lies, but nothing comes out of their confrontation, and it’s not long before she’s back to throwing objects at kids for their training sessions (these sessions need to change-up routines). Kate continues her push for academics, and one of the funnier lines of the night has her expecting Lauren and Andy to write a paper, but it’s a passing reference, nothing more.
Maybe’s Kate’s dedication is semi-lame, but Reed’s lameness gets another name. After using the wrong tone with Andy in last week’s episode, Reed goes two for two in the parenting department by looking to cause a rift with his daughter, after learning her boyfriend, Wes, has a criminal record. For a glimmer of a second I thought they were setting Wes up to be a mole, which would’ve really shook things up, but the truth is he fell in with a bad crew when his parents kicked him out of the house.
Lauren didn’t know, and isn’t thrilled, but by overreacting (pulling Andy out of training when he can’t find her) and confronting her, instead of having a conversation, Reed loses his higher ground. That he thinks he needs higher ground with his daughter is the problem. She’s not somebody to be quelled into obedience, but talked to (something he does just fine with Wes later on), and in sticking to the wrong tact, he’s made his character a buzzkill. Reed deserved the benefit of the doubt before, but at this point he’s dragging his overly supportive wife down.
Back at Sentinel Services, Jace starts to realize what he’s let loose in Dr. Campbell, when the DOJ representative arguing against them has an “accident.” The strong, female character gets to be incorruptible but suffers serious injury as a result and, for an episode that also includes a lovey dovey montage where Wes and Lauren share their first kiss, it’s a jarring bit of violence that should shake Jace’s allegiance. He’s angry, so there’s no guarantee it will work, but if seeing a colleague hurt doesn’t test his resolve, hearing Dr. Campbell invoke his daughter’s name should give him second thoughts.
Rachel Bellwoar
