The Gifted season 2 finale recap: A tragic sacrifice promises a new beginning

The Gifted season 2 finale ends with a tragic sacrifice but a promise of a new beginning.

This whole season has been leading up to a confrontation between all of the factions. Unsurprisingly, in order for the stakes to be high enough, someone needs to bite the dust. “oMens” has a fantastic first half, with plenty of action leading up to Reed’s heroic sacrifice. Unfortunately, The Gifted kind of rushes a happy ending which feels like a way to offer some closure for fans if there isn’t a season 3. Luckily, there is a massive cliffhanger which will leave the audience definitely wanting more.

The Underground Prepares

The Frost Sisters confirm Reeva’s worst fear: Lorna and Andy have returned to the Mutant Underground. Naturally, the Inner Circle is furious about their new situation but Reeva is confident the group will be able to adapt. She takes the betrayal personally though and quickly has Benedict Ryan send his Purifiers to go after the Underground.

Hot. The Gifted season 2, episode 15 recap: Monsters. light

More from FOX

At the apartment complex, the Underground is trying to figure out a strategy. Ultimately it comes down to one thing: they need to take down Reeva. In order to do so, Lorna thinks it’s best if Andy and Lauren use their Fenris powers to take down the Inner Circle’s building. Caitlin doesn’t want to put her kids in that situation, which feels a bit ridiculous. Now that she has Andy back, she’s hesitant to put them back in the field? She’s been pushing Lauren all season and neither kid is willing to sit on the sidelines.

Heading next door, the Struckers begin to pack and chat about what’s about to come. Andy tells his dad that he felt like he was in so deep with the Inner Circle that there was no turning back. However, their chat in the episode before was enough to convince him that he’s still a part of the family. Reed tightly hugs his son and promises he will always love him no matter what happens. After that touching family moment, Caitlin and Reed head to the basement to grab some guns while the kids stay upstairs.

Unfortunately, the building is completely surrounded by Jace Turner and his Purifiers. John, Lorna, and Marcos are busy in their apartment burning all of the Underground files when the hate group shows up. It’s a short scene, but at least Lorna is able to reunite with her two closest friends before the bullets start flying again.

To make things more complicated, Shade sneaks the Frost Sisters into the building so they can quickly grab Andy and Lauren. Forcing the kids out, the family is left shaken and scared. John keeps seeing Clarice around the apartment but is eventually able to use his tracking to glimpse at the sisters. To buy the group some time to track down the kids, John offers to distract the Purifiers long enough to form a hole for the rest of the team to drive through.

Underground vs. Purifiers

To be honest, when The Gifted put John in his comic book warpaint, our first instinct was that he would bite the dust. Luckily, “oMens” just gives him a pretty badass fight scene instead. It’s been a long time since John got to be the leader we got to know in the first season. Nevertheless, he uses his jean jacket and ax as a weapon before grabbing onto a giant chain to take down some Purifiers. He buys enough time for the Underground to escape, and John takes off while the Purifiers are distracted.

He drags himself into a nearby alley and prepares to succumb to his wombs. Thankfully, Erg appears out of thin air to help out. While John is initially too proud to accept, Erg encourages him to fight in honor of Clarice. Eventually he agrees, and John begins to punch Erg so the former Morlock can power up. He has such an interesting ability that it’s a little disappointing The Gifted never found a real use for him this season. With most of the Purifiers taken down, John leaps into the alley so he can take down Jace Turner.

John giving Jace an epic beatdown feels a bit like fanservice but in a good way. Jace is easily one of the most hated characters within the fandom and the series seems to be aware of it. While Jace begs for John to kill him, he can’t do it. John is a hero and despite the fact this is the man responsible for Clarice’s death, he knows revenge isn’t the answer. In one of the closing moments in “oMens”, we get to see Jace unconscious in the hospital. Looks like the Purifiers just lost their leader!

Fenris

Meanwhile, the Frost Sisters are dragging Lauren and Andy through the tunnels to their destination. They’re fighting it the whole time but Sophie and Phoebe are relishing the pain their inflicting. Esme calls Reeva to update them but is beginning to have second thoughts about the mission. She knows the kids could have a seizure if they force the two of them to activate their Fenris powers. Reeva tells her to get it done, and the other sisters begin to force the kids to move. Esme is having doubts, especially when Lauren brings up this “mutant freedom” the Inner Circle is promising seems a lot like what Sentinel Services does.

Despite Esme’s trepidation, the sisters eventually force the two Struckers to bring down the Sentinel Services building. Lauren is devastated and even Andy is horrified about what they’ve done. However, The Gifted has taken the time to show how Lauren struggled with the five people who died in the season 1 finale and we can’t imagine how this will impact her moving forward.

Physically drained, the kids are forced to continue on by the Sisters. Luckily, Lorna, Caitlin, Marcos, and Reed show up. The Frosts are about to make the kids use Fenris to murder their family, but eventually, Lorna gets through to Esme. She points out that this is no different than what the scientists used to make her and her sisters do with their powers. That moment of hesitation is enough for Marcos to blast Phoebe and Sophie before they can do any more damage. Esme stays behind with her sisters, but we can’t imagine these three will be on good terms if the series gets renewed.

The Story of Reed Strucker

Throughout this whole season of The Gifted, we’ve been able to see a flashback for a specific mutant. However, “oMens” gives us quite a few scenes of Reed and his family before they joined the Underground. He joined the Mutants Crime division as a prosecutor after the attack on 7/15 and seeing the fear on his family’s faces. This is the only way he can think of that will keep actively help him keep his family safe.

Considering Andy has grown so much since the first season, he isn’t given a flashback the way Lauren is. Instead, we see teenage Lauren, who looks about the same as she did in season 1, call her dad after a mutant attack a party she’s at. She breaks down on the couch about how afraid she was and Reed encourages her to find strength in that fear. Lauren tries to get the courage to tell her dad the truth, she was the mutant who attacked the party! Sadly, she just hugs him and he’s none the wiser to her pain.

Inner Circle vs. Underground

Andy and Lauren are too injured to move, as well as harboring a lot of guilt over their actions. Even without Fenris, Lorna knows they need to keep moving if they want to stop Reeva. Reed agrees and convinces Caitlin the best thing for their kids is to leave them behind. When they break into the underground parking lot for the Inner Circle, they’re surprised by the group of Max’s goons. Honestly, The Gifted didn’t do a fantastic job making these villains that fleshed out this season because they all just seem like generic underlings.

Nevertheless, Marcos and Caitlin take on the mutants while Caitlin and Reed make a play for the elevator. Caitlin shoots Shade, not that we’re going to miss him, but realizes they might not make it upstairs. Reed knows that Reeva’s powers cause everyone else’s abilities to go on the fritz which is what he’s banking on. He kisses her goodbye and asks her to protect their family before taking off before she can follow behind.

In the penthouse, Reeva is lounging about confident about her success. When Reed confronts her, she belittles him for being the most pathetic von Strucker. Unfortunately, she doesn’t completely understand his powers and Reed winds up becoming a human bomb which takes the entire place down. Reed’s arc comes full circle, but his sacrifice does lose some of its emotional weight because of how telegraphed it is. Unfortunately, The Gifted doesn’t give him a goodbye scene with Lauren like he got with Andy and Caitlin. Considering their father/daughter dynamic has been a highlight this season, it’s a little disappointing we don’t get to have a final scene between the two.

A Happy Ending

Ultimately, “oMens” feels pretty rushed by the end. Caitlin returns home to hug her kids while Andy and Lauren voice over a montage sequence that gives all of the Underground members an ending. Lorna and Marcos reunite with their daughter, hinting they’ll probably wind up raising her together now. John and Erg shake hands, officially allies in a fight for equality. Esme isn’t with her sisters but she does make sure Benedict Ryan’s dirty laundry is aired out for the public. Finally, the Struckers hold a small memorial for Reed and deal with the fallout from the night’s events.

At a small meeting with the entire group, which now includes Esme and Erg, it’s revealed more mutant factions are growing. People want to join this group and Caitlin vows that they will rebuild the Mutant Underground again.

However, that’s put on hold when John senses something coming. Clarice jumps out of a new portal wearing a snazzy new outfit and telling the group to come with her. Considering the showrunner teased season 3 would take some inspiration from Days of Future Past. We definitely want to see where The Gifted would go next season. Hopefully, if it does get renewed, the show also deals with the aftermath of Lauren and Andy killing hundreds of people. It feels a little glossed over but it did seem like the series had run out of time to tell any more stories in the finale.

dark. Next. The Gifted: Will the underrated X-Men show get a season 3?

While this season has been a bit of a mixed bag with some uneven writing, there was still a lot to enjoy. The show has done pretty well when trying to deal with various social issues by tackling it from all sides. With such a strong cast and a plethora of great stories to tell, we’re hoping the show returns next year.

What did you think of season 2? Be sure to tell us in the comment section below!

Home/FOX

The Gifted season 2 finale recap: oMens

By Kelly Shanaphy | Feb 26, 2019