The Gifted Ends the Season with a Huge Shift

Okay watch the finale before reading this because you need to see the intensity played out in front of your own eyes.

Quick Summary: The Struckers opt to protect their family blood or not no matter the cost as Lorna becomes like her blood in order to build a new world in the gripping and intense finale.

Family Is the Ultimate Power: This literally is what the show has been about- family whether blood related or not.  For the Struckers the episodes force them to have a complete turn around as they not only shoot at humans but let their children kill in order to save the rest of the family.  It was never about not letting Lauren and Andy use their powers or acting like mutants it was about when to use them.  You don't go blatantly kill people but when you are attacked and every member of your surrogate family is fighting to survive you do what you have to.   The Struckers realized that it was a war and in war horrible things happen and young people go off to fight that war. This completes the great arc that was started for Reed and Caitlin in the pilot.  They are now leading the mutants and it seems even with Andy going dark they still will.  Lauren and Andy's bond proved destructively powerful.  Got to believe that the Hellfire Club will want Lauren to join next season and will do whatever in their power to get her on board.  Marcos and Lorna losing each other was so sad breaking apart another family.  We started the season with Lorna and a male Strucker away from the Underground and we end that way.  Nice full circle.

Can You Feel the Thunderblink: Now it has only been a few short days since Dreamer's death so getting John and Clarice together already would seem icky and not right.  Luckily Blair Redford and Jamie Chung have such a nice chemistry and by golly just make it work.

The Conference: Using kids as shields shows your character but so does not caring that kids were used as shields.  


Every Character/Actor Has a Moment: With a large cast, major action and a plot to move along it would be understandable if someone got short shifted but not with these eps. A few to point out here.  Hayley Lovitt's Sage, Jeff Daniel Phillips' Fade and Jermaine Rivers's Shatter have special scenes esp Lovitt who has a few lines to get the audience to see why Sage goes dark.  That twist was perfect at the end because while we knew Polaris and Andy would turn bad we didn't expect Sage. 

Sharon Gless's return as Mama Strucker was perfect.  I would love to see her guest star again.  Check out Gless's other work as well from Burn Notice to Cagney and Lacey to the Trials of Rosie O'Neil.  The woman made the female lead drama role what it is.

Amy Acker and Stephen Moyer get some quality time putting humor in with the donuts scene to drama with Mama Strucker and Andy to kick-ass action stars.  Once again I say they have the hardest jobs because they have to be the humans and be on the side of reason.  Here they got to evolve the characters more and the season ended with some meaty material for next year for them to play off of.

Percy Hynes White and Natalie Alyn Lind have perfected the sibling chemistry and they also got a chance to showcase they frustration and despair as White reviled in this new Andy that has always been humming under the surface.  Lind, trying to save her brother as Lauren, had her conflicting emotions on her face.  She knew how hard this was for him but couldn't let him go all evil.

Sean Teale was so raw and pained as he tried to convince Lorna to do the right thing.  Emma Dumont showed the conflicting thoughts in Lorna's mind but made it understandable why she was feeling the power of her bloodline. All season long these two have been the best scene partners ramping up each character moment together.

Always Leave the Audience Wanting More: Where will the Underground call home?  Will it still take place in Atlanta?  This is a Civil War blooming here, will more join the Hellfire side?  What happens next to Jace? 

Small Nitpicks: One thing the show is going to have to be careful of next season is not missing out on golden opportunities.  Dreamer could have been made a hound and John could have had to fight to get her mind back.  Pulse could have been used by SS in the finale to stop the Mutants from fighting (but Lauren and Andy could have had to combine them and fight through it all).  The last scene was amazing but as an audience we knew it was coming (Sage reveal really saved it) but we needed some even bigger OMG moment.  With the leads being Acker and Moyer it would have been amazing if Reed found out (to himself) that some of his powers were coming back.  Or if Caitlin went to cry in the bathroom about Andy and then starts holding her head as a voice talks inside (because she is actually Emma Frost but doesn't realize it, I mean why the blonde hair if not for a big reveal later).  With having to wait so long to see it again the show needed something huge to have people talk and get others to start to watch. 

Don't Go Playing Mind Games With My Heart- ep 11 Review

This is full of spoilers for The Gifted ep, 11 X3 be forewarned before you read and need to portal yourself out of there.

Quick Summary: The Frost Girls play the ultimate game of chess as they turn each of their pawns to their side to battle Trask for the Hellfire Club. 

The Seeds Planted Now Grow: This ep brought back little things from previous eps to make things connect even more as we head into the finale in two weeks.  There was Andy drawing Fenris again as he did in the pilot feeling back like he was then- lost.  In comes literally one of the Frost girls to play on his need to be useful and the hinting of the ability to turn to the dark side.  Even scarier was that he could hear them in his mind.  Lorna's time in the jail being hurt by humans came back as well as Esme told her of her real father and how she needed to protect the baby.  Lorna was high off the baby making her even more powerful, a fact that scared Marcos, and seems posed like Andy to go the way of her relatives.  Clarice was a loner at the beginning of the series and the flashback shows why.  After watching Dreamer die she is changed to the point where she is siding with telepaths and complementing Lauren in a way that may make her switch sides. 

See Why You Should Listen To Your Parents: Caitlin and Reed's predictions and worries all started to come true.  By not trying to figure out a peaceful solution and allowing Esme and her sisters back into the Underground the Mutants are now in much further distress.  The Struckers looked pose to lose their kids (at least one but most likely two).  Marcos will lose Lorna.  John will lose the goodness that was his heart.  And more Mutants will die or be pushed to join the evil Hellfire Club.  Leaving was a good idea- too bad it didn't work.  Two reasons:  first of all Trask, SS and the Hellfire Club all wants the Strucker kids and their great powers.  The Mutant Underground is in more danger with them there.  Pushing the war to another country could end it all together because the Strucker kids could keep the place safe and the government wouldn't allow any Trask or SS people there.  Secondly as humans Reed and Caitlin are on the outside looking in.  What happens when they in the Underground turn against them?

Once Again The Acting Gets Me Every Time:
-Skyler Samuels is so amazing as the triplets.  She makes them have individual nuances and puts humor and fun into a still creepy, crazy, evil performance.   This makes the sisters so actually enjoyable to watch.  Her talent has not only moved the plot along but did it in a way that engaged the viewer to want to go more Cuckoo.  The storyline could have failed if not in the hands of someone like Samuels.  Serious bravos here.
-Blair Redford did what is so hard- allow John to break down without it being cliche or over the top.  Instead he made it so real I felt emotional watching him. 
-Sean Teale does such great work in the small moments even when the camera just is on him a second.  He showed Marco's fear about Lorna, his sadness when the Struckers were leaving, his trying to convince the others not to listen to Esme and the viewer is glued to what he is doing.  We become Marcos because Teale lets us in, we begin feeling the same way.
-Emma Dumont gets to explore more of Lorna's layers here and what is truly memorizing is when she shows us how Lorna is almost becoming unhinged.  We have all loved Lorna from day one but now there is some fear there and also understanding.  Masterfully done.
-Kudos also to the Struckers who have formed such a great, noticeable family bond now.   Those little scenes with the kids or with Teale and the looks between each other...Stephen Moyer and Amy Acker provide such a fierce and worried at the same time front.  They have probably the most difficult parts to play because they are humans and parents who are worried for their children.  Each week they have to sing the same song but still make it new and engaging.  Not an easy task but that is why two gifted (pun intended), veteran actors where given the gig.

What is Next in This Game of Chess:
The Hellfire Club has money and power and evilness.  So does Trask Industries and even SS.  Meanwhile the Underground continues to have hardly any supplies, no control over any of this and are now being split apart by the Frost girls.  This doesn't sound good.  Marcos brought up and schooling and Andy mentioned it too which makes me think Caitlin's contribution is going to come into play in the finale.  Wes proved to be a good guy and important...which side will he go to if Lauren turns to the evil?  Has Jace gone far too over to ever be redeemed?  That scene with Esme and Caitlin in her first ep... they had a great connection will that come into play?  And what will happen to Marcos if he loses Lorna to evil? So much good stuff to chew on.

One last thing- the dual funerals was just what brilliant writing/direction looks like.  So meta too.