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Five Thoughts on The Gifted’s “teMpted”

By | January 23rd, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

The stakes are ratcheting up steadily as we approach the end of The Gifted’s second season. The Inner Circle’s attack on the Underground has left the devastated, while the Purifiers are acting with impunity. Clarice’s defection to the Morlocks may end up bringing them into the fold, while Lorna has all but quit the Inner Circle.

Let’s dive into episode 13, “teMpted.” Please note: there are spoilers below.

1. Erg is a jerk.

I thought Erg was just a zealot. We’ve seen him rail against humans. We’ve seen him force people to scar themselves to join his community. And they scar themselves in a way, mind you, that makes it impossible to rejoin the surface. But it turns out he’s not just a zealot. He’s a real jerk, too.

In the opening flashback, we see a pre-apocalyptic pirate Erg betrayed by a human lover. Sentinel Services captured her and somehow coerced her into revealing information that led to the capture or killing of many mutants. As a result, we are supposed to assume, that Erg believes no humans can be trusted.

I get it. Pam got many people killed. One-trial learning is a thing. But in “teMpted,” he refuses to trust Clarice. Clarice helped the Morlocks and then threw away her entire life to join them. Then, when Glow is shot, she goes back to the people she left to ask for help. Erg’s response? He literally tries to pull Caitlin off of Glow to stop her from helping.

Erg eventually relents. Then he “thanks” Caitlin by mimicking the Morlock brand on her face with mud. Wow. What a prize this guy is.

2. Reed? Still a jerk too.

I was little puzzled by the flashback scene with Reed and the music box we saw a few episodes ago. I was puzzled because if I took it at face value, it meant that Reed had at least an idea of just how dangerous the music box is. And surely he wouldn’t have let his daughter have it and then slowly watched her become addicted to it. Not if he had reason to believe it more than just a childish fascination. Right? Right?

Wrong. Reed did know how dangerous the box is. And he let her become enthralled by it. He watched it get to the point that his daughter, a fugitive from the fascist anti-mutant police, ran away and wandered the city in a semi-psychotic stupor due to lack of sleep. Then he finally decided, “Hey, maybe I should tell her about my experience with the box.”

Earlier he told her half of the story. Why didn’t he finish it? Why did he dance around the issue? I can’t figure out how the box advanced the story at all. The tension between Lauren and Andy doesn’t need a prop. They’re brother and sister, and they share a link similar to the one Andreas and Andrea did. Adding the music box and making Reed even more of a lousy Dad. What was the point?

I wonder if the Strucker kids would be safer with the Inner Circle? At least Reeva would treat them like valuable weapons.

3. Lorna, the Super Spy.

Lorna needed to figure out where Max goes in the evening so she could tell Marcos. So, her stroke of genius is to break into Sage’s computer and look at security cam footage. That’s right: she hacked the mutant computer expert’s rig. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this is how Reeva figures out she’s the traitor.  (Thanks for ruining that with the coming attractions, Fox!)

4. The rest of the Underground? Also jerks.

So the Inner Circle is going to make a run at Washington D.C. This makes sense. Disabling the U.S. Government would create the opening Reeva needs to set up her mutant empire.

The problem with a storyline like this in the mutant universe is that there’s so damn many of them. If your cast of 4 misfit mutants and one highly dysfunctional are going to be the only people to stop it, you have to figure out a way for nothing of the mutants to show up.

The Gifted’s solution was to burn an office building and tell us that the Underground leaders were inside and are all dead now. Then they have the remaining members of the Underground be crybabies. When John didn’t have all of the answers for them, they took their toys and went home.

Continued below

5. Polaris is Royalty.

Despite being a mediocre spy at best, Lorna is still Polaris. When threatened by Max about her inept search of his room she reminded him, and us, who she is. “I think your forgetting who you’re talking to.” She finally played the “royalty” card that Reeva gave her. It was a great scene in an otherwise mystifying episode.

What did you think? Should Reed throw away his “Father of the Year” mug? Should Erg abandon his hopes of running for public office? Let us know in the comments.

 


//TAGS | gifted

Eric Goebelbecker

Eric is a software engineer who lives and works in the NYC metro area. When he's not writing, he's reading. When he's not writing or reading, he is displeased. You can find his personal blog over here.

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