‘The Gifted 1×07 – eXtreme Measures’ Review

After all the action over the last few weeks, The Gifted slows down a little. Focusing on building tension in the mutant group, and showing how far Sentinel Services are willing to go, we are now seeing a build up to a possible war.

The Gifted

This week Eclipse (Sean Teale) must do as promised and answer the call of the Cartel. When Reed (Stephen Moyer) finds out about Lauren’s (Natalie Alyn Lind) new friend’s past tension is caused between father and daughter. Thunderbird (Blair Redford) tracks down Blink (Jamie Chung) to help her in her search, and Jace Turner (Coby Bell) and Dr. Campbell (Garret Dillahunt) work together on a plan to take down the Mutant Underground.

When Eclipse went to the Cartel for help in his bid to free Polaris (Emma Dumont) he knew that the price he would have to pay would cause tension, and that is exactly what it does this week. He seems to enjoy the work he does, but Polaris is less than happy when she witnesses it. While it is understandable that she is not happy, it is the price they have to pay. Though it does feel that this connection will no doubt cause the mutants plenty of problems in the future.

With Jace and Dr. Campbell revealing the plan to infiltrate the Mutant Underground with sleeper agents, it seems no coincidence that Lauren’s friend Wes (Danny Ramirez) came up as a person of interest to Sentinel Services. While this was used to build up tension with the Struckers, what is more interesting is, what if he had already been caught before he found himself with the other mutants.

If Wes is a sleeper agent, he is a danger to Lauren. Though he did leave the group this week, if he returns, it will be interesting to see of Sentinel Services “activate” him and force him to attack. The idea of the sleeper agents manipulated by Dr. Campbell is interesting, as is what he is willing to do to protect his plans. The fact that Jace is willing to go along with these plans though shows the depths of his obsession in taking down the mutants. Which will be his downfall in the end.

Another important storyline is the one between Blink and Thunderbird. I for one am glad that he managed to bring her back into the fold, and there is a growing relationship of trust between the two. It will be interesting to see if anything grows from this, especially with the issue of the planted memory in Blink’s head.

This week of The Gifted was interesting because although it didn’t really focus on action, it built up the story for future episodes. The introduction of the sleeper agents adds a new danger that is going to cause plenty of issues, especially to people that are becoming favourites with the audience.

What is working well with the show is that we care about the mutants, especially the families that make up the Mutant Underground. We want to see Eclipse and Polaris be a success and have a happy life with their child, we want to see the Strucker family finally find peace. In many ways, the mutant group as a whole are a family, and most importantly they are one we care about.

Even without this episode being action packed, it is still entertaining and does the important work of building up the story for this season. Like I’ve said before, Legion may be my X-Men show of choice, but in a television world where there is room for more than one mutant show, The Gifted is well worth watching.

The Gifted is shown in the UK on Fox TV on Sundays at 9pm.

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