Tv Review: The Gifted s1 e5 BoXed in

imagesyFresh out of rescuing Polaris and Reed, our plucky band of heroes are trying to get back to the safe house. They split up. Reed and Thunderbird end up back at the compound to a happy family reunion and in time to help lure the SS away from the compound. Cait and the kids help save the mutant shot during the rescue of Polaris and Reed.

Meanwhile, Eclipse and Polaris get sidetracked when they run into SS front man Turner, and decide to use Dreamer’s powers to pull out Turner’s memories of the secret government mutant detention centers and how their friend Pulse became an SS stooge. (Hat tip: Brainwashing.)

Which means Blink learns for certain that her memories have been messed with.

So who is the good guy and who is the bad? Certainly every character has justifications for their actions. Turner is hunting down mutants because a mutant attack killed his young daughter and devastated his life. Polaris is so very enraged at Turner, and so willing to hurt him because he threatened her life and that of her child.

Now that the world is set up (and really, the actions and event presented are horrifying not just on their own, but also in how they mirror actual events in our “real” lives) we can see the characters struggling to make the right choices (or failing). The define themselves by their actions and the moral limits they put on themselves. (Even if they need help, like Polaris needs Eclipse, to check them. Even if she needed help, Polaris still shows more restraint that her comic book father, Magneto, would have in the same situation. Likewise, we, the audience know that Turner knows the mutant hunts and experiments are wrong, but he doesn’t hesitate to do what is easy for him, and to act on his own anger.)

This is the kind of strong storytelling that keeps me watching, even if I know where the plot is going.

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