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The Gifted season 2, episode 16 review: oMens

By Wesley Coburn

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Fox’s “The Gifted” wrapped up an intense and traumatic second season with “oMens.”

The second season of The Gifted wrapped up with “oMens,” and what a wild ride it was.

Last week a lot happened in “Monsters.”

Reed Strucker (Stephen Moyer) murdered the Purifier Ted, Jace Turner’s (Coby Bell) irritating sidekick, in television’s least-shocking (though no less frightening) incineration ever.

Lorna Dane/Polaris (Emma Dumont) finally rejoined her family in the Atlanta Mutant Underground, having convinced Andy Strucker (Percy Hynes White) to leave the Inner Circle and come back, too.

Reeva Payge (Grace Byers) and the Frost sisters (Skyler Samuels) are out for revenge for Lorna’s spy efforts, looking to finally accomplish their goal of scaring humanity into granting a mutant homeland.

Having learned that the Morlock society he violently cleaned out in “calaMity” included children, Turner is wondering where that leaves him, while John Proudstar/Thunderbird’s (Blair Redford) powers disappeared from grief at losing his girlfriend Clarice Fong/Blink (Jamie Chung).

Showdown time

With as large of a cast as this show has, and as many different storylines that have been juggled this season, the finale essentially boiled down to a series of one-on-one face-offs.

The Frosts kidnapped Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind) and Andy and forced them into using their Fenris powers to destroy the Sentinel Services headquarters.

With Erg’s (Michael Luwoye) help, Thunderbird fought off the Purifiers attacking the apartment and broke Turner’s wrist, but held off murdering him.

Polaris reminded Esme of what she’d said during “iMprint,” and while’s she distracted, Marcos Diaz/Eclipse (Sean Teale) blasted Sophie and Phoebe to death with his lasers.

Reed acted as a human bomb and blew up Reeva and the Inner Circle building.

Flashbacks

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We never completely learned what happened on 7-15, but it was roughly the equivalent of 9-11 in this world. It occurred five years ago in Dallas, and the flashbacks mainly dealt with Reed’s response to his children’s fear and his desire to keep them safe.

This was the reason he transferred to the Mutant Crimes Division, in an attempt to rid the world of what he thought were menaces. Some were and are. Some are somewhere in between. Most are just people trying to live their lives.

The other flashback took place three years ago after the party Lauren mentioned in “coMplications” during high school where she caused a lot of broken windows, but couldn’t tell her dad yet about her powers.

Where things currently stand

Andy and Lauren promise to keep fighting for mutant rights in the wake of their father’s death. Turner is badly injured in a hospital bed. Esme coerces Benedict Ryan (Peter Gallagher) into admitting his Purifier leadership on live TV. Polaris and Eclipse reunite happily with their baby, Dawn, back from Aunt Dane’s care in Missouri.

Erg meets with Thunderbird, Polaris, Eclipse, Lauren, Andy, Cailtin and Esme in the junkyard and outlines their new situation – mutant groups across the country have heard about their exploits, and Reeva’s revolution is well underway. Caitlin vows to start a new Underground, which everyone seems to agree with.

A very healthy Blink then portals in from a fiery burning scene likely from an alternate dimension, stating “Something’s happened. Come with me.” End of episode…end of series? (Hopefully not.)

Mutant miscellany

  • Both of Natalie Alyn Lind’s sisters, Emily and Alyvia, are also actresses. Was 12-ish Lauren played by one of them?
  • In the comics, Thunderbird was (very briefly) a member of the X-Men, where he was a teammate of Colossus, Storm and Wolverine.
  • “What if our challenges and tragedies make us who we are?” Caitlin asks in one of the flashbacks. It’s an interesting line, but a little forced in its foreshadowing poignancy.

Next. The Gifted: Monsters review. dark

Thoughts

With as many plot points and as intricate a storyline as The Gifted featured this season, “oMens” did about as well as could be expected at wrapping them up. It was a little on the predictable side, and given how much time the Struckers argued, Reed’s death didn’t have the required impact it probably should have.

A little more loose plot threads wouldn’t have gone amiss, though not necessarily an Agent Carter ending with nothing whatsoever resolved and an SSR officer murdered by an unknown shooter.

With the way the episode titles are punctuated, it seems like showrunner Matt Nix is spelling out “X-MEN,” which would mean that he planned for four seasons. If that’s true, and possible, could the third season’s main arc be “Days of Future Past,” given that final scene?

At present, it is unknown if The Gifted will be canceled or renewed for a third season.

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