While it afforded the family a greater connection and emotional stakes in the world they’re now an integral part of, it temporarily lost sight of the dynamic that was the key to show’s early success. Campbell and his “Hounds” program gradually took center stage, overshadowing the plight of the Strucker family as they grappled with the hereditary X gene and uncovered the truth about Reed's past. That balance was upended as the plot machinations of Dr. When the series first premiered, it was praised for the way it balanced comic book action with family drama. The move is a smart one to be sure, as it ups the ante for the series moving forward, and gives The Gifted a chance to approach what it excels at from an entirely different angle. And in doing so the series demonstrates what Campbell’s role was intended to be all along: the catalyst for one of its most important characters to choose violent aggression over passive resistance, a choice that, once made, can never be undone. Seeing Polaris take significant steps toward proving the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree affords The Gifted a chance to splash around in some morally gray waters. Even with his villainy unchecked (the guy totally pulled a Greg Stillson by shielding himself with a kid) and despite a fine performance by Garret Dillahunt, Campbell offered the show little more than a two-dimensional villain hell bent on wiping out an entire species. Campbell and Senator Matthew Montez, after witnessing the Humanity Today rally, is a demonstration of the show’s willingness to alter its course and complicate things in more interesting fashion than constantly pitting its mutant characters against Coby Bell’s Jace Turner and the forgettable faces of the Sentinal Services soldiers. If anything, pushing Polaris to cross the Rubicon of political assassination, taking out both Dr. Instead, the surprise comes as Polaris confirms she has much more in common with her father than just her magnetic powers she’s willing to extreme action for what she believes in. His decision, then, to join the reformed mutant society that consists of Polaris, Esme, Sage, Mustache Guy, and Bald Mustache Guy Who Slowly Punches Walls, is not entirely surprising, nor was it meant to be. That choice tears more than one family apart, and, to the credit of Nix and his writers’ room, The Gifted sowed the seeds that at least one half of the Strucker children was headed in the direction of the Hellfire Club, even if he didn’t know it existed yet.Īndy had been leaning into this turn down a darker path as early as the season’s third episode, ‘ eXodus’, as his interpretation of the conflict was not only cut and dry, but also fairly reminiscent of Magneto’s. As the finale's final moments demonstrate, everything boils down to a matter of choice, a single decision about how these characters will respond to a hostile world they literally have the power to change. The far more interesting conflict The Gifted chooses to focus on is the one that pits mutant against mutant in the battle against those aiming to wipe them both out.
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