The Gifted – S02E07 – no Mercy

After months of secret planning and preparation, the Inner Circle blows the doors off their bank vault, as everyone else attempts to have character moments.  I’m sure the word “attempts” gave away the tone of the review, but for the rest of the details there is still

Title: “no Mercy”

Director: Nina Lopez-Corrado
Writers: Brad Marques

Cast:

Stephen Moyer as Reed Strucker
Amy Acker as Kate Strucker
Sean Teale as Marcos Diaz / Eclipse
Natalie Alyn Lind as Lauren Strucker
Percy Hynes White as Andy Strucker
Coby Bell as Jace Turner
Jamie Chung as Clarice Fong / Blink
Blair Redford as John Proudstar / Thunderbird
Emma Dumont as Lorna Dane / Polaris
Skyler Samuels as Esme Frost / Sophie Frost / Phoebe Frost
Grace Byers as Reeva Payge
Anjelica Bette Fellini as Rebecca / Twist
Sharif Atkins as Quinn
Tom O’Keefe as Officer Wilson
Agam Darshi as Benazir
Peter Gallagher as Benedict Ryan
Gunnar Anderson as Ryan’s Assistant
Rob Demery as Bank Guard
Steven Sean Garland as Bank Manager
Andrew Hunter as Activist Mutant
Hayley Lovitt as Sage
Desmond Phillips as Lead Purifier

Premise:

Reeva reveals her plans for a major mission for the Inner Circle to secure some needed funds. Meanwhile, the Mutant Underground must contend with Reed’s unstable powers, hoping that some medical help from Caitlin and Lauren will keep his destruction in check. Also, Jace is introduced to Benedict Ryan, a well-connected public figure who supports the efforts of the Purifers, but the two may not see eye-to-eye. Then, Thunderbird finally confronts Blink about her dealings with Urg, after weeks of tension over their meeting. (From Trakt.)

High Point:

Rebecca’s highly telegraphed move at the end of the episode did not come across as epic or shocking as the show wanted, but at least that shoe has finally dropped.

Low Point:

This set up for a great heist story, but after planning and plotting for a few episodes, we instead opt for a frontal assault.  I feel like we were robbed of a fun Mutants Rob A Bank story.

The Scores:

Originality: 3/6 Nothing in this episode was a surprise, except the reveal about Reeva’s social life.

Effects: 4/6 The effects have improved from previous episodes, but they still aren’t as clean as they once were.

Acting: 5/6 While the episode wasn’t thrilling overall, the acting does everything it can with what is available.

Production: 4/6 The production has been consistent, though hardly groundbreaking.

Story: 2/6 The story has been paint-by-numbers so far this season, and this episode has been that even more so.  They also make a big show of spending a long time working their way up to disabling X-Gene detectors, then walk into the building in assault formation, in broad daylight, powers blazing.  Did they disabled the X-Gene detectors just so they didn’t have to listen to a siren?  Also, Reed was surrounded by metal, but we haven’t seen any indication that metal wasn’t affected by his powers.  The show seems to be forgetting to put a cohesive narrative behind its big moments.

Emotional Response: 3/6 While it doesn’t make you upset with the way events are portrayed, the characters all have big emotional moments and turmoil, and asides from the teenage couple and Reeva’s minor guilt pangs, none of it seemed to evoke any empathy.

Overall: 3/6 The series may be stalling out, but they clearly have some more plans in the works for the side plots.

In total, “no Mercy” receives 24/42, and no mercy from me.

 

4 replies on “The Gifted – S02E07 – no Mercy”

  1. My wife thinks they are trying to use Reeva’s sudden conscience to redeem her, but that it is too little, too late. I think they are trying to make her into a Magneto (from the comics) character who has an agenda, and will do everything for her cause, but isn’t a bad person, and so she isn’t looking for pointless murder. Killing a room full of mutants because you need to do that to take control and save mutants? Sure. Killing a room full of humans just because? There’s no need for that.

    • I blame the writing for the situation with Reeva. They haven’t done anything up to this episode to show her in any situations where a conscience might show up clearly (though there have been very subtle hints along the way). Assuming it really was a pang of conscience and not just annoyance that the needless killing was going to make things harder for her long term plan or that she went against orders.

      It is going to be interesting to see how all of team not-so-good-guy deals with Rebecca’s inner psychopath coming out so blatantly. This is probably going to turn out to be the inciting incident leading to serious changes at team not-so-good-guy, especially given developments with Esme who they’re clearly setting up as a rebel.

  2. Regarding the metal thing: I thought they were using metal because it’s denser than other things and thus takes longer to be destroyed during an incident. I don’t think they thought it wouldn’t be affected by Reed’s power. Instead, it was a sort of sacrificial shielding. I agree that it would have been better if they had done something to make that clear, assuming they actually thought that far.

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