The Gifted – unMoored

By: Darryl Ley

Three years ago in Tucson, Arizona we see John Proudstar/Thunderbird (Blair Redmond) in a dive bar fighting a number of armed men barehanded. After the fight we see John counting his winnings when he is approached by Evangeline Whedon (Erinn Ruth), a mutant lawyer and ally to the X-Men there to recruit him to run a mutant underground station.

John is dismissive of the offer, but Evangeline is insistent that she has found the right person citing his commendations during his military career before he was expelled after the events of the mutant terrorist attack on 7/15. She says the X-Men helped her at her lowest and now she can help him.

In the present John goes to see Marcos/Eclipse (Sean Teale) in his room. Marcos has been investigating the files he got on the Inner Circle but can’t work through all the complicated files. John reluctantly reveals that he might know someone that can help.

At the Inner Circle the Frost Sisters – Esme, Sophie and Phoebe (Skyler Samuels) are summoned by Reeva Payge (Grace Byers) who is concerned about the blackout across Washington D.C. Reeva is covering things up, but she wants everyone involved to be killed. Esme is reluctant with Sophie and Phoebe accusing her of becoming soft due to her time spent with the Mutant Underground.

At the Mutant Underground Clarice Fong/Blink (Jamie Chung) and Lauren Strucker (Natalie Alyn Lind) tell Cristina (Danube Hermosillo) that they may have found her sister. she wants to go with them, but when they refuse her powers blow up a nearby light bulb. Later that night Lauren has the dream with Andy (Percy Hynes White) again. They are on the roof when Andy grabs her hand and won’t let go and their combined power triggers. Lauren screams “no” and rips away from falling over the side of the roof. As Andy looks on horrified we see him waking from the dream in his room.

In Atlanta we see former Sentinel Services Agent Jace Turner (Coby Bell) return home. He and his wife Paula (Frances Turner) talk about their day, but he seems pretty distracted. Eventually, he reveals he has been thinking about the massive blackout in Washington D.C., which starts the two fighting as his wife does not believe that he has moved on because he is keeping his old records from Sentinel Services. He tries to assure her that he has gotten past it.

At the Mutant Underground while John lies next to a sleeping Clarice he is racked by guilt about losing the Atlanta safe house and remembering when Evangeline chose him to lead it. He talks with Blink about Evangeline and she’s concerned because he looks so worried about the meeting. He explains their shared past and that Evangeline helped him go cold turkey from the painkillers and drinking. He’s worried that she won’t forgive him losing the Atlanta safe house.

The Frost sisters are walking through an airfield while coordinating the clean-up mission, killing the security guard at the munitions factory and blowing it up to remove any evidence. Back at the Mutant Underground Caitlin Strucker (Amy Acker) is packing for the trip to see Evangeline while arguing with Reed Strucker (Stephen Moyer). She accuses him of having a favorite child and he accuses her of not being present while Lauren hears them next door. He asks her not to, but she leaves.

The Frost sisters confront Mr. Hines (Mark Rowe) who seems to be buying a private plane. They telepathically force him to walk into the blades of a propeller but before he can Esme runs him over with a fuel truck.

At the Inner Circle Andy is looking tired when Lorna Dane/Polaris (Emma Dumont) enters. He lies to her and says he was up playing League of Legends and she reminds him how seriously Reeva takes the training. Reeva and Sage (Hayley Lovitt) are supervising Andy’s training, which requires him to blow through a number of walls of increasingly stronger materials. He is doing well until he gets distracted by the thoughts of his nightmare about Lauren and fails to blow up the final wall. Reeva and Sage are monitoring Andy’s vitals and Reeva quickly tells Sage to summon Fade (Jeff Daniel Phillips) for an assignment.

In Philadelphia John, Caitlin and Marcos meet with Evangeline who is angry that they are at her current job instead of hiding as they are all presumed dead. John asks for help with looking through the financial records of the Inner Circle. Evangeline is visibly concerned when she hears the name and is surprised that the person who got them those records is still alive.

Reeva meets with Andy and talks with him about the danger of your mind being distracted while trying to use your powers. Reeva asks if there if there is anything he wants to tell her, and Andy says that he will do better in the next training session later that day.

Andy goes to Lorna to talk about training. He says he thought that he was just missing his family, but now it seems like he needs to be with Lauren. Lorna makes it clear that if Reeva suspects that Andy isn’t 100% on her side and says she will get rid of him without a thought. Andy insists he is fine though and then takes his leave when she goes to feed the baby.

We see Andy outside of a store where he buys a disposable phone and calls the clinic looking for Lauren. Instead, he gets his father and hangs up. We see afterwards that he has been observed by Fade who calls Reeva with a report. At a bar we see Jace talking to one of his former colleagues Agent Myers (Carl Palmer) when he finds out the reason for Turner’s visit is to find out more about the Washington D.C. Blackout. He immediately shuts down the conversation and calls it a conspiracy theory telling Turner to concentrate on his new job and life.

We next see Jace at home as his wife enters and sees him throwing away his old Sentinel Services files and he apologises to her. Evangeline has her firm round down the details in the files John handed over and tells them that the Inner Circle is preparing for war and alerts them to the existence of Reeva Payge explaining that she staged a coup at the Hellfire Club.

John wants to take her on using the strongest members of the Mutant Underground across the US. Evangeline refuses to help citing the crackdown on mutants after the events of Atlanta which she calls his failure. She then throws them out of her office only for John to double back telling the others to meet him afterwards

Andy gets a visit from Lorna to tell him the training room is ready, and he again runs the exercise and again fails at the last wall distracted by the nightmare. This time though the Frost Sisters are observing telepathically and tell Reeva the problem is the sister.

John returns to talk to Evangeline and she reveals that she thinks that they can’t win against the Inner Circle. She gives him the contact details of a mutant separatist called Erg, but still thinks they won’t win. Reeva and the Frost sisters are considering what to do about Andy. Esme advocates for him, but Reeva issues an ultimatum either he is with the Inner Circle or he must be dealt with.

Reeva then meets with Andy and asks him if anything is wrong. He denies having an issue and we see her prepare to attack him when at the last moment he admits that he has been in contact with his mother for the last six months, never replying until today when he tried to content Lauren. He reveals about the nightmares with Lauren to Reeva and she tells him to use them as motivation instead of fearing them.

Cristina and Jazmine (Mia Ella Clayburn) are reunited and Reed checks in with Lauren to see if the sisters reuniting stirred some things up and suggests she might not be being honest with him. She reacts angrily confronting him about his constant arguments with his wife Caitlin about Andy leaving. She reveals that she has learned all the names of the people she killed in Atlanta with Andy. She is also angry that neither of her parents have ever talked to her about it. After she leaves Reed’s mutant powers fully manifest and we see his touch disintegrating matter.

Caitlin and Marcos talk about the trip and she urges him not to give up hope before leaving. We see John getting up in the middle of the night to take out his frustrations by punching the side of a truck as he remembers all his recent failures while Reed and Lauren silently drive the sisters to their new home. Meanwhile, Andy finally breaks through the last wall.

After breaking the champagne bottle he was drinking from, Marcos remembers his first date with Lorna and uses his powers refracted through a shard of glass to throw a bright green light out into the stormy night. Lorna sees it and finds Dawn running a high temperature. She lifts her from the cradle and calls for help.