The Gifted

I just got around to watching the season finale of The Gifted, the Fox series that continues the story of the world of the X-Men, presumably after the movies, although I didn't get to see the last few just yet so I dn't know exactly what happened. For those not in the know, apparently the final battle between the X-Men and the brotherhood was an event so big it has become known by it's date alone, much like 9/11. In the wake of that event, the mutants are no longer a secret and the prejudice isas strong as ever. While I understand public fear, I've always wondered if it was a smart idea to openly hate people who are actually capable of hurting you in such horrifying ways. It's one thing to be afraid and want to protect yourself, but the movement in the X-Men universe to put mutants down is short-sighted when civilians turn into lynch mobs against people who can make explosions at will. Anyway, there seems to be four sides in the conflict and a case is made for each to be the good guys while the other three serve as villains, it all depends on the perspective of the character featured in each scene.

According to the promotional ads the central characters are the Strucker family, led by patriarch Reed Strucker, a prosecutor who gets the brunt of cases involving mutants, and he has trusted in the law that he serves to uphold, that is until his children turn out to be mutants. Andy Strucker is being bullied at school and his rage manifests in the destuction of a school dance. His sister Lauren saves him with her more defensive power and when they are both outed they are forced on the run. In an instant their parents put their children first before anything, even Reed's career, and he uses his knowledge of the Mutant Underground that he used to prosecute to try to smuggle his family somewhere safe, effectively ending his career. The Struckers are a heart-warming contrast to the rest of the world where most mutants are instantly outcast and abandoned by their parents or forced to hide their powers, the Struckers simply accept what has happened and try to survive together as a family. The Struckers go into hiding with the Mutant Underground where the parents become the outcasts as the only humans among mutants. Andy and Lauren are a little cliche in how her powers make her the protector and his make him the more destructive of the two and how they grow into personalities fitting their powers, which may seem appropriate if I hadn't seen the trope so many times, but the actors are working with the material and selling it well.

The primary villain for the first season is Jace Turner, the face of Sentinel Services, the government organization that is trying to control the mutant threat. Sentinel Services is the de facto villain against the mutants, but being represented by Jace there is a level of sympathy. During the infamous battle between the X-Men and the Brotherhood, his daughter was killed, an innocent child who was playing in a park when a stray explsion from the battle ended her life. Jace never found out which side was responsible and he doesn't care, he knows mutants are dangerous and he wants to protect people from this danger. He is motivated by revenge, but it's not the kind that leads to blind hate, rather caution taken to an extreme.

Then there's Roderick Campbell, the more secret villain who is turning mutants on each other, brain washing them into sleeper agents. He is so cruel and cold in everything he does he seems to be the true villain of the story until the season finale revels that he has a brother with cystic fibrosis which in the X-men universe gives him a really twisted perspective on genetics, that his family can be hit by such a debilitating genetic condition while there are others who seem to be blessed by their genetic mutations. His actions and personality make him such a bad guy, Jace Turnr seems like an anti-hero by comparison, but his motivations to use genetics to benefit humanity make him seem like a somewhat sympathetic character who may only appear to be a villain because the general perspective is in support of the mutants.

Finally, there is the Hellfire Club, which once included the Strucker's ancestors and Magneto, whose daughter is Polaris better known through the season as Lorna, the Leader of the Mutant Underground. Polaris can use magnetism like her father and she is also bipolar, which is cliche, but it leaves her with a complicated situation, stay with her lover and father of her unborn child in the mutant underground, or follow in her father's footsteps to rebuild the Hellfire Club. Again, this is approached with sympathy, unlike how X-Men introduces Magneto as the villain and you kind of hate him before you know why, Polaris is introduced as a hero and you watch her descent in such a relatable way that even when she gives in to her darker impulses, you know her well enough that you understand her decisions and question whether the moral argument against the Hellfire Club is enough to actually see her as a villain.

After looking at the other sides of the story, there is even an argument against the Mutant Underground, the successors of the X-Men, that thy may be the villains for everything they do to dodge the law even if it is for survival. If the second season is as interesting as the first, the X-Men may be playing second fiddle to The Gifted.