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Inhumans Recap: “Divide And Conquer”

By Kelly Shanaphy

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Inhumans, “Divide And Conquer,” is a minor improvement from last week’s two-part premiere bumping it up from unwatchable to passable television.

The acting is significantly better, but the storyline is so thin and the character themselves are nearly impossible to root for. With Inhumans officially pulling in ratings lower than Agents of Shield‘s average, it seems unlikely it will get a second season. Hopefully, that means the plot manages to take shape soon rather than just generic fight scenes.

At this point, Marvel is completely happy to rip off the mutants while Fox still retains the rights. In “Divide And Conquer,” Maximus gains a new ally in the form of a deadly inhuman named Mortis (who is a mutant villain), who turns out to have all the bratty snark of a young cyclops as well as his powers!

It’s almost amusing how much Marvel thinks that they can sneak these things past fans without them noticing. Nonetheless, Mortis turns out to be a formidable ally in Maximus’ fight when he joins Auran on Earth to take on Gorgon and his new ex-military surfer buddies from last week. While the fight between the leader of the Royal Guard and Auran is absolutely terrible due to all the jump cuts, the addition of new Inhumans works well to expand the world.

Like Gorgon, Karnak also gets himself into a bit of trouble in “Divide And Conquer”. After accidentally wandering onto an illegal pot farm, he is taken hostage by the three growers. While they bicker over whether to kill him or not, Karnak attempts to use his powers to distinguish an outcome that would set him free.

Unfortunately, when he kicks a table over, which should have caused the building to collapse, but doesn’t cause anything. While Ken Leung is trying his hardest to make the character work, but so far Inhumans chooses to talk about his past in broad strokes rather than show anything to give the audience a look into Karnak’s life. Nonetheless, it looks like he isn’t going to be reuniting with the royal family anytime soon after he accepts an offer to join the pot growers as their new worker.

Meanwhile, Black Bolt’s life isn’t going over well in a jail cell. The guards are perceiving his silence as a sign of disrespect so they throw him into the general population. Luckily, he meets the first Earth-born inhuman who tries to help him escape jail. During a gang fight in the yard, the two manage to escape into a helicopter piloted by Henry Ian Cusick (The 100) whose motivations are currently unclear. Sadly, Medusa shows up just a second too late to grab her husband and she ends up taking the scientist from the premiere hostage in an attempt to find Black Bolt again. While Anson Mount significantly improved this week, Serinda Swan is still one of the weakest links of the royal family. She’s a talented actress, but the script isn’t doing her any favors and despite her best efforts, the character isn’t as sympathetic as the series believes.

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Speaking of poor acting, Crystal is up there as well in this episode. She’s in the same boat as Medusa, the script offers her no breaks by just having her sit in her room all day listening to music. Her triumphant moment of “Divide And Conquer,” comes when she refuses to call Maximus her king to the genetic council and instead flees with Lockjaw to Earth. Her brother-in-law only takes her abandonment of Attilan to display just how cowardly the royal family has been and finally cements his position as the king of the Inhumans.

The biggest problem with “Divide And Conquer,” and by extension the series, is that it has yet to offer up a reason as to why the members of the royal family are considered the heroes of the story. Even in the flashbacks, Black Bolt is shown as an impetuous prince who doesn’t want to be a king because it’s boring, despite his entire privileged life coming from the hard work of the slaves in the mines. Now the genetic council and Black Bolt refuse to abolish the caste system because “that’s the way it’s always be done,” and it’s almost offensive. Meanwhile, Iwan Rheon injects a sinister attitude into Maximus, but so far all he’s wanted to do was stop the slavery in the mines because he realizes that it could have easily been him if it wasn’t for his family. Again, why are we supposed to be rooting against him?

Next: Inhumans Recap: “Those Who Would Destroy Us”

Next week, Inhumans promises a brother vs. brother showdown, and hopefully, that will finally offer up some more depth to this feud.

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