The Gifted S2E13 “teMpted” – Strucker Secrets & Morlock Mediocrity

To start this episode we flash back to a younger Erg while he’s still a member of the Mutant Underground. While in the tunnels/his eventual home, he susses out a traitor, his own girlfriend/wife who sold mutants out for their freedom. He tells her he never should have trusted a human and never will again. So we now have a simplistic reason for his distrust of humans all wrapped up in a bow.

A present-day Erg and the rest of the Morlocks prepare for another raid for food and supplies. Clarice/Blink has volunteered for every one, wanting to help out and make up for lost time.

Meanwhile, Reed informs the Underground (san Clarice) they’ve lost the leaders of the  West, Midwest, and South factions. Even when they reach out to mutants who are still free, no one’s interested in joining them. They’re in deep trouble, especially with the Purifiers and Inner Circle on the same side against them.

Lorna/Polaris and new recruits to the Inner Circle testing their powers. The mass murderer one flirts with Lorna and she’s not very into it. After their encounter she uses her magnetic powers to make a blade cut her, the blood an excuse to leave training. Lorna makes her way into his room to learn about the secret mission he’s on.

Marcus and Lorna sit in a car in the pouring rain where she tells him she found building plans for the White House, in case you haven’t seen enough cinema about people trying to blow up the White House.

On their latest raids the police show up. Clarice gets them all through her portal but before she does her new friend Mason gets a bullet to the chest. Clarice wants to bring her to a hospital but Erg won’t go for it, worried Sentinel Services will make her turn on them and reveal their location. They’ll do what they can with what they have.

Lauren’s parents are worried about her because she refuses to sleep, not wanting Andy to “probe her mind.” About 30 seconds into their conversation Blink portals in for Caitlin’s help treating Mason.

Reed walks in on Lauren listening to the family music box, and tells her a creepy fairy tale he heard from his dad. It’s about a father riding in the night on horseback with his son. His son hears something terrible calling out to him, which his father says is just the wind in the trees. When they get home the son is dead and the song the music box plays is what he heard that night. Reed thinks that his dad was trying to warn him about the darkness that exists within the Strucker family. He’s worried about the effect it will have on Andy and Lauren. If it makes Lauren more like Andy they’re at risk of something truly evil.

Caitlin and Marcos Diaz/Eclipse follow her down the sewers, Marcos coming because his powers also involve light, which Caitlin thinks may help heal her. Erg is furious that a human was invited to the Morlocks’ home, which he says puts the whole community in danger. He says Caitlin should leave mid-treatment but is convinced to let her stay until she saves one of their people.

Caitlin says she needs something to make Marcos’ mutant power heal Mason that sounds super made up. Erg says it’s out of the question but Caitlin delivers a good burn saying she doesn’t think he’s a pharmacist and a post-apocalyptic pirate. While she, Erg, and Clarice are hunting around for supplies at a clinic Purifiers arrive. Erg gets hit with a shotgun but can still use his powers to blow them away. A lot of explosion-based powers on this series.

Lauren chugs an energy drink to stay awake but still falls asleep. After a second of seeing Andy she wakes up (good call) but falls asleep again (darn.) Andy tells her he just wants them to be as connected as they used to be. At that moment we see the Cuckoos are using their dream connection to hypnotize her into trusting Andy and taking his hand in a dream. When she does they start glowing really brightly and they experience what happens when they use their abilities together. He says to meet her so they can do that in real life but she runs off, which she should have the second she saw Andy.

Reed sees a note from Lauren indicating she’s going to meet Andy and tries to find her with John Proudstar/Thunderbird. While they search John realizes Reed knows more than he’s telling about the abilities that run in his family. They find Lauren who looks super evil. She says they don’t understand what she’s dealing with but Reed reveals that he’d found the music box as a boy and was drawn to it. That’s why his father tried to suppress his powers because of that. Lauren says she can’t resist anymore but Reed has a possible solution.

The mass murdering Inner Circle member can tell someone was in his room. Another member says he’s drunk and paranoid but he’s not convinced, which might spell trouble for Lorna. He tells Marcos she’s worried he suspects her but she still needs to learn more about their plan to blow up the White House. Marcos says he’ll capture him and use his powers to torture the details out of him, something he hates doing, but Lorna has another idea. She can feel her way through simple stuff on a computer with her magnetic powers like a password, so maybe she can get into his computer.

After Lorna hacks into his computer, the mass murderer begins to threaten her. But Lorna  holds a knife to him, saying she’s royalty in the Inner Circle so if he’s going to run his mouth she’ll need a lot more than a guess.

Caitlin saves Mason with her science-fiction blood transfusion idea. Impressed and grateful, Erg draws an M on her face, making Caitlin kind of an honorary purifier. Meanwhile, Reed injects Lauren with what he uses to suppress his powers in the hopes of keeping Andy away. Andy feels that something changed, and the Cuckoos aren’t happy.

We see the mass murderer get into his car and Eclipse lights up his fist to reveal he’s in the back seat, a very cool moment. It looks like he went back for the torture plan. His opponent is able to push his hand away and you see the car light up from the outside as they duel, which is very visually engaging and probably a lot better for the budget of the lowest rated drama on FOX. To end the episode Eclipse limps out of the car before it blows up.

This was a pretty good episode outside of making Erg’s complex feelings towards humans extremely simplistic. The legacy of the Strucker family was genuinely engaging for the first time since I started recapping this series, at least, and I’m excited to see how it develops, though the less Andy the better. The next episode is in two weeks so I’ll see you then!