The Gifted: Ranking season 2 episodes so far

THE GIFTED: L-R: Blair Redford, Sean Teale and guest star Jeff Daniel Phillips in the “gaMe changer” fall finale episode of THE GIFTED airing Tuesday, Dec. 4 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2018 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Annette Brown/FOX.

1 – “gaMe changer” (2.09)

As several other sites (including some within the FanSided Network) pointed out, titling the midseason finale of your TV show “gaMe changer” takes some serious guts. But, did the story ever live up to it?

Thunderbird flew off the handle despite getting chewed out by both Blink and Eclipse, to the point of kidnapping a random guy at a technology company called Regimen. It didn’t go so well.

The Struckers argue for a while over the ethics of whether to continue treatment in Charlotte, as their blood samples will likely be used to defuse all mutants permanently. This story thread provided a lot of the meat of this episode to chew over when it comes to worldviews.

Andy breaks Twist out of her imprisonment, where the couple plans to escape. But before that can happen, they get into an argument in the elevator, she tries to murder everyone else within the Inner Circle, and Andy accidentally snapped her neck in preventing this from happening. The Inner Circle – led by Polaris and Andy on this mission – then deactivates the mutant control shock collars used in prisons throughout the country, leading to mass jailbreaks in Atlanta, Austin, California and Michigan, and likely other locations as well.

Thunderbird has been kidnapped by the Purifiers, Polaris needs Eclipse’s help for something, Lauren is getting increasingly violent, and all those prison breakouts are going to create a lot of havoc in the season’s 10th episode, “eneMy of My eneMy,” airing on Fox at a new time – 9 p.m. ET – on New Year’s Day.