'The Gifted' Season 1 Episode 7 'eXtreme measures' Recap: Picking Off Mutants Like Cherries [SPOILERS]

The Mutants of “The Gifted” are about to face off with their own kind. The episode picks up right where we left off, where Marcos (Sean Teale) receives a call from his ex-girlfriend Carmen (Michelle Veintimilla). Meanwhile, Reed (Stephen Moyer) and Sage (Hayley Lovitt) comb through some secret files they recovered. They are trying to dig into a plan that’s already in motion.  The Mutant Underground is piling up with more refugees and Sentinel Services is amping up their surveillance as try harder to keep everyone safe. Thunderbird (Blair Redford) volunteers to find Blink (Jamie Chung) before Sentinel gets to her first and reveals their headquarters.

Drug Deals and Trust Issues

Everyone is having a hard time trusting their own this week. Reed doesn’t trust Lauren’s (Natalie Alyn Lind) new boyfriend and Marcos is lying to Polaris (Emma Dumont). Amidst the Sentinel Services tracking them, they have time to deal with their own personal drama. Starting with Marcos, who uses the excuse of getting supplies as a way to meet up with his ex-flame for a job. Carmen asked Marcos to set fire the supplies of a rival-cartel with his “magic hands.” Unable to refuse and knowing the consequences, he agrees. But he isn’t quite smooth with his lie when Polaris worries he is taking too long in getting supplies. Especially when the mutant to blanket ratio isn’t adding up and the food is running out.

Meanwhile, Reed discovers Wes (Danny Ramirez) is a wanted mutant. He is wary of his daughter spending too much time with him, and he confronts Lauren about it. But his daughter sees it as his father being the anti-mutant lawyer he was at the beginning of the season. And yet, she can’t shake the feeling about what her father said. Because just like what Sage said, trust is the foundation of the underground. Wes admits not only to the Struckers of his past crimes but to everyone in the Underground. He learns it’s better to say the truth to gain the trust of the people who saved him than lie about it. Sadly, Marcos didn’t learn the same lesson.
Polaris finds out Marcos is contacting with Carmen again. Worried her boyfriend is being lead back to her dark past, she asks Dreamer to help her track down Marcos. But Polaris later learns Marcos doesn’t want to be saved. Polaris and Dreamer witness Marcos causing an explosion. He returns to the headquarters as if nothing happened. But Polaris wasn’t having him lie again. She confronts him leading to a “You lied to me/ But I did it for you” argument.

‘The Gifted’ and It’s Mutant Assets

If you think Agent Jace Turner (Coby Bell) really has it out for mutants, now it’s personal.  He recruits the help of Dr. Campbell (Garret Dillahunt) to capture mutants. Dr. Campbell has unorthodox methods in capturing and detaining mutants that worries Jace. Because Dr. Campbell’s work has attracted the Department of Justice (DOJ) calling off the Sentinel Services’ mission. The plan was to use Mutant assets—brainwashed mutants under the control of Campbell—to spy on the Mutant Underground. “The Gifted” makes it look like the government is after mutants, but Campbell takes it to a whole other level. The DOJ’s concern is that it uses unethical practices to target an innocent group, especially the killing and brainwashing of mutants.

Jace’s defense is that mutants are not innocent people. He even argues mutants are terrorists who need to be stopped whatever means necessary. Campbell heard that message loud and clear.  He activated one of his mutant assets to make it seem the chief of DOJ is suffering from a health condition. This is where Jace realizes Campbell is more dangerous than anyone thought. Jace is troubled by Campbell’s methods of silencing the DOJ but the doctor knows how to manipulate the agent. Campbell takes advantage of Jace’s loss as a way to get Sentinel Services to activate his Mutant assets. It’s later found out at the end of the episode that Campbell is working for Trask Industries. They were supposedly shut down by the government back in 2006 for their unethical practices on mutants.

Blink Returns to the Mutant Underground

Because of Dreamer and Thunderbird, Blink decides to leave the underground to search for her friends. But the underground needs her more than ever. Thunderbird volunteers to find her and convince her to come back—though it was more of the fact he felt guilty than wanting to gain an asset. It didn’t take him long to find Blink trying to make soup out of scraps. He tells her the underground needs her and she needs them, but Blink is still angry with what Dreamer did to her. So Thunderbird tries a different approach to gaining her trust back. He offers to help her find whoever she is trying to find. This leads them to the road Blink kept opening portals to when she was going haywire a few episodes ago.
It turns out the road leads to a mutant foster home. Blink has fond memories and hopes to find her foster parent still there, because it was the only place she felt safe. Sadly, it was taken down by Sentinel Services. Blink is brokenhearted to find the blood of her foster parents. She agrees to come back to the Mutant Underground but not because Thunderbird regained her trust—Blink is angry now. Just like Jace, things are getting personal when the people you love are involved. The only thing Blink wants from the Underground is to extract revenge on Sentinel Services for killing the people who made her feel loved and safe.
“The Gifted,” continues next Monday with “threat of eXtinction” at 9/8c on FOX.