Even though life is what it is, we were able to see this
week’s episode of ‘the Gifted’ – ‘meMento’ - and it was good.
Where to start? Real life sucks, so let us skip over it and
go forth somewhere else. ‘meMento’ had less conflict and more drama than the
episodes of ‘the Gifted’ usually do. Central in it were the relationship of
Marcos and Lorna, the struggle of the Struckers, (though Andy sat this episode
out), Jace having an epiphany of some sort, and Clarice drawing the line in her
relationship with the Morlocks, (‘the Gifted’ version of them, anyhow). And
again, where to start?
The relationship of Marcos and Lorna was masterfully done.
The young couple in question genuinely tried to make it work with other people,
but because the show’s budget is not big enough still, it did not work, and
they came back to each other. How do the lyrics go? ‘After all stops and false
starts, we keep coming to our hearts, two angels that are destined to fall.
After all that we’ve been through, after all’… Yeah, that is how. Marcos and
Lorna, Eclipse and Polaris, are back together again, (and it can be noted that ‘meMento’
did mention Magneto, just not by name – either ‘the Gifted’ is being
unnecessary coy, or there’re some copyright issues involved – it can be either
thing or something else entirely), and they learned that Reeva is in cahoots
with Benedict Ryan at least on some level.
…Benedict Ryan is the leader of the Purifiers in this
universe, and Jace’s new boss. As it was already mentioned, Jace had an
epiphany of his own in this episode – he realized that he is working for a
variant KKK here. On one hand, calling this out on ‘the Gifted’ took some guts –
AoS had its’ own variant, (from S3 onwards) – the Watchdogs, but it never
acknowledged them as KKK directly. ‘the Gifted’, with its’ Purifiers, did –
bully for them.
What is the difference between the groups within the Marvel
universe? The Purifiers are religious bigots, while the Watchdogs are not as
much. Indeed, the Purifiers already appeared in a cameo back in S1 of ‘the
Gifted’, showing their comics’ trademark black-and-white get-up, but now they
are more of a secular, rugged, rough-and-tumble outfit with no order…though
Jace is shaping them up into something…or at least he did. Now that he realized
that the Purifiers are KKK, and are chaotic evil to his lawful neutral, he
might be more ambiguous about them. The damage, however, has been done, as he
told Benedict Ryan (cough Benedict Arnold cough?) about Lorna and Marcos and
co. working as a team to rescue John/Thunderbird from the Purifiers’ back in ‘eneMy’
– and Benedict probably told Reeva, so now both she and Andy will have some
flack coming their way for sure.
This brings us to the Struckers: on one hand, Lauren herself
is going into the dark side, (raising the question – where does it leave Andy,
then?), and on the other, Reed and Caitlyn are having their own issues as to
how to deal with this situation. Trivia alert: the Erlking is a poem/song by
Goethe; it’s, naturally, Gothic, and it consists of a rider and his boy
(presumably) as they are being chased by the Erlking…just think Shakespeare’s
Oberon, for example. The boy sees him and his entourage, the rider – does not,
(or is in denial), and so when he arrives at their destination, he discovers
that his boy has died in his arms. Yeah, it is a dark poem, (but then again,
Goethe and his fellows usually didn’t do sweetness and light in their works,
period), but the version that Reed and Caitlyn discussed in ‘meMento’? ‘the
Gifted’ clearly took liberties with the poem, creative license at its’ finest.
The end?
No, because there is also Clarice and the Morlocks. Well,
not really, not anymore – Clarice has rejected the Morlocks’ way of life, it
seems, so now their relationship with her will change. Of course, considering
that the cast and crew of ‘the Gifted’ went to some distance to bring them to
the show, the Morlocks aren’t disappearing any time soon, but on the other
hand? The conflict between them and the Mutant Underground, (primarily John and
Marcos, here), was one of the most contrived and unbelievable on ‘the Gifted’,
so hurray that it is over. What will happen next as the mutants – all of them –
on ‘the Gifted’ go and prepare for some sort of a civil war is another story,
and we’ll just have to wait and see as to where it will go in the future
episodes, (provided that real life doesn’t intervene and prevent us from
watching this show)…
Well, this is it for now. See you all soon!
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