What if The Gifted isn’t actually about the Mutants?
With every episode, I wonder more and more if perhaps the true hidden meaning behind the show is that you can be a hero, even if you don’t have powers. Tonight’s episode only continued to support my theory.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
With every good superhero show, especially when it comes to the X-Men, there’s always a larger message – prejudice, race, sexuality, gender politics, immigration – but with The Gifted, we haven’t yet been able to identify the issue this show is trying to address. Which got me questioning if maybe the issue isn’t about the mutants, maybe it’s about Kate and Reed Strucker (played by Amy Acker and Stephen Moyer, respectively).
In tonight’s episode, “boXed in”, we saw both the humans help the cause and save the day – Reed used his Sentinel Services knowledge to not only inform the Underground, but risked capture to draw them away from the Underground HQ.
Meanwhile, Nurse Kate saved a life by performing surgery. Yes, she had assistance from her mutant children, but Andy donated his blood – an act that we humans can do in our own daily life.
We’ve seen Kate use her nurse skills previously. In “rX”, she took Eclipse (Sean Teale) to the hospital and got the medication needed for Blink (Jamie Chung).
And the escape in “eXit strategy” wouldn’t have been completed if not for Kate with the getaway car and Reed’s knee screws – the only metal in the transport van for Polaris (Emma Dumont) to use.
So far we’re only 5 episodes in, so who knows where the story will go from here, but it’s an interesting thought to keep in the back of your mind: what if The Gifted just wants to remind us that we too can be heroes, powers or not.
Let me know your thoughts (on this, or just about The Gifted in general) on Twitter at @yaeltygiel
And don’t miss new episodes of The Gifted, Mondays on FOX.
— Yael Tygiel