THE GIFTED Review: “Threat of eXtinction”

THE GIFTED: L-R: Sean Teale and Emma Dumont in the “threat of eXtinction.” Co. Cr: Eliza Morse/FOX

The Gifted Episode 8 ‘threat of eXtinction’ Review

By Emma Crow

Last week’s episode lacked momentum, and this week’s episode isn’t much better, unfortunately. Our ragtag team of mutants continues to fight this vague war with Sentinel Services without any significant achievements. We do however get to meet some new characters and there is a significant plot twist that is genuinely shocking and has the potential to create some interesting tension. 

This week’s episode begins with, you guessed it, a flashback. We flash back to London 1952 where two mutant siblings with the ability to unleash magnificent power when they clasp hands, are on the run. (We’ll find out the significance of these siblings later.)

In the present day at Mutant HQ, the Strucker’s have a family meeting in which Reed fills everybody in on the revelations from last week: the mutant experiments are being funded by a private contractor, Trask Industries, and Reed’s father worked there for most of his life. Reed and his father haven’t spoken in 20 years because grandpa Strucker was not the most attentive father. However, a reunion is necessary in order to get information, and, it just so happens that Grandpa Strucker lives only 2 hours away!

Reed recruits John to go with him while the rest of the Struckers stay behind. (I guess it’s dangerous? I don’t know.) Before they go, John goes on a mini mission with Eclipse and Blink (who is only coming because Polaris is not really in the mood to deal with Eclipse these days, yikes).  Their mission is to fetch some refugees, but, of course, the mission doesn’t go smoothly. One of the refugees, a young woman named Esme reveals she’s a telepath and has been hearing strange thoughts from one of the other refugees. 

John attempts to question the refugee until he sees the Sentinel Services tattoo on her wrist and realizes she is one of their mutant projects. The SS mutant attacks, but she is eventually taken down by the combined efforts of John, Blink, and Eclipse. It’s my absolute favorite thing when the mutants combine their powers in unexpected yet really effective ways. It’s so cool! They restrain the SS mutant and take her as a hostage in order to (hopefully) get useful information out of her.

That’s the only exciting thing Blink gets to do in this episode. She spends the rest of the episode bonding with a child mutant refugee named Norah who also has highly visible mutant characteristics. Before Blink went on the refugee rescue mission, Dreamer asked if they were cool and of course Blink said no. Dreamer has never once apologized for manipulating Blink’s mind, but later, Blink apologizes for being sassy to Dreamer. Excuse me? How does that make sense?

Turns out that Norah was at the same foster home that Blink grew up in and witnessed the Sentinel Services attack. Blink asks Dreamer to take the bad memories away from the young mutant. I guess Dreamer’s ability does have some positive uses? And I suppose Blink and Dreamer are just totally cool now.

Meanwhile, Caitlin and co. are back to nursing. Caitlin has a little chat with the telepath, but is eventually recruited to help with the SS mutant hostage.

Polaris, Eclipse, and Dreamer are having no luck getting information out of the mutant hostage. The mutant is too fast for Dreamer’s pink mind manipulation gas and Eclipse and Polaris can’t agree on how best to proceed. Polaris is ready to go in hard with violent persuasion, but Eclipse isn’t down with that. Eventually, they realize that the SS mutant is showing signs of drug addiction. This is where nurse Caitlin comes in. She is able to sedate the mutant (with a little help from the Strucker children), but the mutant is growing very weak from withdrawal and won’t survive long. 

They find her file and discover that her name is Chloe and she was arrested by Sentinel Services after destroying a doctor’s office after they refused to treat her child. Chloe is unable to speak, so they recruit their recently acquired telepath to read Chloe’s thoughts. She’s able to mentally show Chloe images of the lab where the experiments are being performed before she dies. 

Meanwhile, John and Reed make it to his dad’s antique shop, and Grandpa Strucker is not thrilled to see his son. He becomes more cooperative after John and Reed reveal what Trask Industries has been up to these days. He seems overly interested in his grandchildren’s mutant gifts and then reveals why. His father and aunt (the brother and sister from the flashback) were mutants with the exact same abilities as the Strucker children. When they combined their powers by clasping hands, they were able to unleash destructive power, which they used for terrorism. 

Grandpa Strucker also inherited mutant abilities, but he ran away from his father and aunt and hid his powers. He then began working on a cure for the X gene in all mutants at Trask Industries, but failed. He did succeed in creating a cure for a specific mutant… HIS SON REED. That’s right; Reed was born a mutant, but his father gave him a medicine that nearly killed him and took away his X gene. What a plot twist! I’ll admit, I did not see that one coming. 

Before they can dwell on this mind-blowing revelation, Sentinel Services shows up with Gus, the ability-blocking mutant, to question Grandpa Strucker. He goes down to try and prevent them from finding Reed and John, but before he leaves, he warns that the Strucker children have destructive power and that the world must be protected from them. 

Grandpa Strucker uses his mutant gift to create an explosion that sends Sentinel Services running, but not before they shoot him dead. Gus also dies in the explosion, so John and Reed both mourn over a lost loved one. 

Reed returns to his family sad, and the Strucker children clasp hands, foreshadowing their doomed destiny (according to their grandfather). 

No new episode next week, but it looks like in the next episode the Strucker kids will be forced to use their combined power. That can’t end well! See y’all in two weeks.