The Gifted is back from holiday break, and the previous episode’s cliffhanger led right into some surprising twists and turns. The show continues to be the best live-action X-Men offering there is, as it seamlessly mixes character development with action and suspense.
Here are five things about “eneMy of My eneMy.” Spoilers abound.
1. Andy gets some agency.
When The Gifted opened, 12-year-old Andy Strucker discovered his mutant powers and found himself immediately placed at the front of a race war. Since then, events buffeted him from crisis to crisis. Even after he decided to leave the Underground with Lorna, he was never in control.
So, it was nice to see him not just gain some agency in “eneMy of My eneMy,” but advance the plot a bit, too. He made a convincing case to Lorna for helping the Underground with John’s rescue. If he hadn’t spoken up, she wouldn’t have helped at all.
Andy played a big part in the operation, and for a few moments, it looked like he might fall back into the warm embrace of his family. But after he saw John’s condition at the Purifier compound, sitting next to the torture implements Ted prepared before the attack, he snapped. The doubt and loneliness he’s felt since Rebecca tragic death washed away.
Andy is all-in with the Inner Circle, and he’s only a half-step away from being a villain.
2. Caitlin doesn’t like it. Not one bit.
Caitlin’s intensity is remarkable. She tortured a drug-addicted mutant. She was the driving force on an ill-fated attempt to stop the Inner Circle from breaking out Rebecca. Each of these actions was believable, if not defensible, for a mother that’s determined to get her son back. But at times her behavior and dialogue were simplistic and hard-to-believe.
Last night we got this pearl of wisdom from her: “The only way we’re getting him back is if we destroy the Inner Circle.” Caitlin said this after Andy walked away from his family and left. Attacking your teenage son’s friends because you don’t like them always works out, right?
I get it. The Inner Circle needs to be stopped. Andy spoke about wiping out humans. He called them monsters, and we know where those ideas came from. Caitlin wants her son back, and she’s willing to go to extremes to do it. But marrying the two ideas together in a neat little cause-and-effect couplet is just stupid.
Caitlin came across to me like a controlling mother who believes that by wiping out the competition, she can get her son to run into her arms again.
3. Methinks Marcos and Lorna doth protest too much.
I take notes during each episode. That’s what I wrote when Marcos and Lorna started quibbling over the radio during the drive to the Purifier compound. The scene was a perfect mix of mildly amusing and moderately painful.
Lorna’s move to the Inner Circle was believable but the hard break from Marcos, while necessary, has been hard to swallow. So, the cute squabbling, the bonding over her headpiece, and the kiss that “doesn’t change a thing” were welcome developments.
But they complicate matters, don’t they? The Inner Circle is going to face off again. Will they do what needs to be done when the time comes?
4. Jace falls even further.
If planning an attack on a church wasn’t low enough for you, Jace has more. He tortured John for a few hours, telling himself that doing it with loud music was the high road. Then, he lost his cool turned a shotgun on him — several times. He was about to kill John when he had to run.
Jace’s interrogation was handled remarkably well and serves as another example of The Gifted’s smart writing. We’ve been watching his radicalization play out week after week, and the pieces fell together in “eneMy of My eneMy.” As soon as Jace realized that Andy and Lorna had left the Underground, you knew that their appearance at the compound would have unfortunate ramifications. (Points for not having Thunderbird volunteer that information, by the way. He’s a military man.) Jace’s meltdown was surprising in its intensity while entirely in character. Jace blames it all on the mutants. The loss of his job. The death of his daughter. The collapse of his marriage. It’s all been done to him. He bears no responsibility.
Continued below5. Clarice blames herself?
Clarice was willing to do whatever it took to rescue John from the Purifiers. Even after complaining bitterly about how little she trusts, she agreed to go to the Inner Circle for help. As the episode progresses, we learn that she blames herself for John’s capture. I was surprised, and a little put off by that.
Clarice was tricked into helping John, and Marcos kidnap a (mostly) innocent civilian and then left in anger as questioning turned toward torture. She was justified. She was right. I find it hard to believe that she fell into the trap of blaming herself for not being there.
That’s all for “eneMy of My eneMy.” What do you think? Will Marcos and Lorna end up back together to raise Dawn? Will Lauren ever forgive Andy? What’s next for The Gifted?
