Things are blowing up!
(Late Review: this episode aired on 11th December)
The last mission was a fiasco. Four mutants of the Underground (Andy, Lauren, Clarice and Sonya) have been captured by Sentinel Services. The rest are visibly upset. Tempers are blown. And no one knows what to do.
With her best friend captured, Lorna is all for attacking the lab at once, backed by Esme the psychic, who's still clamoring for her family in there. But this would be a suicide mission, and the Struckers, surprisingly keeping quite level point this out and suggest, once again, that they use some of Reed's contact in the justice system. This brings some scorn from Lorna, but then they are all overruled by John with no decisions made except not to do any attacking... yet, which makes Esme storm away in anger and leaves Lorna mad at the Struckers for their retained belief in the system.
No one cools off. The Struckers go off by themselves to talk and think up a way to rescue their children without either killing them or anyone else in the process, or bringing the full wrath of the justice system down on them. Esme, reading their thoughts and seeing their encounters and talks with Sentinel Services officer Jace Turner, comes in and suggests that they go talk to him instead. Reed and Caitlin realise this is their best bet, however impossible it may seem, and sneak out of the compound.
Meanwhile, back at Sentinel Services, Dr. Campbell, now recovered from his injuries demands the captured mutants are handed over to him. Jace is reluctant at first, but after some interrogation of Sonya and Clarice, he gives in, ignoring Sonya's tearful apologies for unwittingly making him relive losing his daughter all over again. Campbell transports them to his lab and tries to make Andy and Clarice go Fenris, but they adamantly refuse. He tries to force them by threatening Clarice and Sonya, but they still won't do it. And right there in front of them, he pulls a gun and shoots Sonya, killing her instantly. The kids are enraged. And having no choice, they grasp hands and turn on the sesnors in the adamantium wall, obliterating them totally. Campbell is exhilarated --he has never seen such powerful abilities like this, and now has enough data to study it.
Back at home, Jace is happy with the capture. Then Reed and Caitlin show up, holding a gun and asking to talk. Of course, he refuses to hear them, but his wife is there and they have no choice. But the Struckers argument for their kids is lost on both Turners, having lost a kid themselves. Until Caitlin takes over and pleads differently, using the state of the mutants who go through the hounds program, touching the wife who now realises that her husband has been commiting acts against basic human rights in the name of their daughter. Jace finally gives in and goes down to the Trask Industries labs to retrieve the mutants. When he sees that Sonya has been killed, his convictions are strengthened, and he takes out all the mutants who are in holding, including those he supplied and those he didn't.
But Esme, being as manipulative as ever, has laid a trap. After the Stuckers had left to see Officer Turner, she had gone to the other leaders of the Underground and told them the plans, leaving her own role in suggesting it out. But, seeing as it was too late to stop them, she had then suggested that the mutants wait to see if it would work. If it did, and the mutants in the lab were trnsported away, they could attack the convoy and rescue their friends. John, Marcos, Lorna, and Shatter head out to stake the lab, taking Esme with them to read the guards minds, and when Jace loads the mutants into a van, they are there waiting.
And then Esme turns.
Showing abilities far stronger than she had let teh others believe she had, she knocks Marcos out, and proceeds to telepathically control the guards in the compound to shoot at themselves and turn off the captured mutants' restrictive collars. While the guards kill themselves and each other (some by really bad suicides) she walks up to the vam. There, she is jpined by her two sisters, perfect copies of herself with the exact same abilities, and together they take out the rest of the guards. Marcos, awake now and watching from the bushes rushes back to the others, horrified beyond his senses, and only able to say one thing: 'They are killing everyone'.
What a twist! Though Esme has been acting odd from the beginning, this homicidal turn was definitely unexpected, along with her Professor-X level powers. With the massive killings and shooting of Officer Jace, and the mass escape of the captured mutants, now under ehr control, things are definitely going to get hotter after the short midseason break!
The Gifted Returns on 1st January 2018 with '3 X 1', only on Fox
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