Title: The Gifted: “outfoX”
Network: FOX
Air Date: December 4, 2017
Genre: Science Fiction, Action, Thriller, Adventure
**Warning: Spoilers**
Last week, I discussed the implications that this week’s episode, “outfoX”, could have on The Gifted as a whole. I maintained that it would be important for Andy to somehow display that he really wasn’t in control of his of powers when combined with Lauren. While Andy does exert some restraint when the siblings combine powers, I do believe that the show has given you a small answer in regards to how he seems to control his powers so effectively, which was important to have this week. Although that’s the case, “outfoX” suffers from other issues in regards to consistency.
With the emergence of a new voice, Esme, the telepath, in the Mutant Underground after last week’s episode, the mutants devise a plan to help break out those imprisoned within Trask Industries. It’s during this plan when I saw some of the worst moments in the show’s short history thus far. Blink, a rather consistent character in regards to her abilities, was tested once again when she was tasked with getting Andy, Lauren, and Dreamer out of trouble before it was too late. But, for some reason, she wasn’t able to conjure a portal to get them out. In previous episodes, you’ve seen her do this when the pressure was on, so I don’t see any reason why she couldn’t do it all of the sudden.
Of course, there was a reason. That being to leave Andy and Lauren isolated and contemplating whether or not they should use their combined power to escape the clutches of Trask Industries and Sentinel Services, killing everybody within the building in the process. Blink not being able to conjure up a portal to get them all out of there granted The Gifted the ability to do what it had intended to do: get Andy, Lauren, Blink, and Dreamer captured by Trask Industries. Although it was an important scene, I couldn’t get on-board with the decision the writers made when figuring out how it would all go down. It would’ve made more sense if Blink was incapacitated before she tried to summon a portal and not vice versa.
Instead of showing that Andy wasn’t in control of his power, you saw that it was actually Lauren who wasn’t in control. With Reed saying that sometimes Andy wasn’t in control of his powers, you got the feeling that there were times–off-screen–when the young mutant has struggled with controlling his abilities (in “outfoX” you even saw him miss the Sentinel Spider when trying to take it out). But in that moment, when he and Lauren joined hands, you witnessed that he was the one in control enough to stop from bringing down the building, not Lauren. Certain stimuli may affect Lauren and Andy in different ways, which may have caused me to misread Andy’s progression as a mutant.
Andy’s development is as strange as his character, so it’s hard to distinguish what makes sense and what doesn’t. I’ve been getting the idea that his power is directly connected with his anger; the more enraged he is at the moment, the more likely he’ll be out of control. In the moment when he and Lauren were surrounded, you could see that he wasn’t angry, but more defeated. Props go to Percy Hynes White for being able to distinguish between these emotions on-screen. Natalie Alyn Lind also did an excellent job in that scene, showing that destroying the building would’ve gone against everything she stood for (and everything we thought we knew about her).
There were finally some serious consequences for the Mutant Underground’s continued aggression against those hunting them down. With Andy, Lauren, Blink, and Dreamer captured, you can finally say that the group of mutants has failed. These consequences were important because of what they implied: the Underground wasn’t invincible. But these unfortunate outcomes came because of a mistake in the writing in regards to Blink’s abilities/character, and that made me feel as if that everything that happened afterward was a mistake too. Even before the mishap with Blink, “outfoX” felt a little off, especially that scene where Dreamer and Polaris pry information out of the Trask security guard. Blink was just the icing on the cake.
Verdict: The Gifted ends its hot streak with, although important, an episode that shows that even the pros can make mistakes. Blink’s inability to summon a portal for herself, Andy, Lauren, and Dreamer is inconsistent with her ability of control over her powers in past episodes. The consequences that finally come knocking on the Mutant Underground’s door feel more like a tap because of this mistake with Blink. Andy and Lauren joining hands sheds light on who’s actually in control of their powers and who isn’t.
[review]