Reed and Caitlyn have differing opinions on Lauren’s focus on developing her powers and studying her family history. Jace is instructed by Ryan to continue Purifier raids, but faces some stark realities, and Lorna starts to question exactly how far Reeva might be willing to go.

Remember all those mutant prisoners who were suddenly freed when their collars got turned off at the end of the mid-season finale? The ones we saw starting to break out of incarceration as it looked like the war was about to kick off, but then forgot about last week so that we could focus on the rescue of John? Well, this week… they aren’t back. At least, a handful of them are, but mostly that mass breakout of extremely dangerous people with immense powers is just a background noise to events.

The ones we do focus on are with the Inner Circle – Reeva has some sort of plans for them to do something that ‘needs to be done’. Lorna is a little perturbed because she recognises them as a group who infamously murdered several thousand innocent bystanders in an incident on a cruise ship, and as committed as she is to the cause, she’s not down with mass murder. Reeva assuring her it’s all a part of the plan doesn’t make her feel any better about it, and she turns elsewhere for help.

Meanwhile, in the Strucker household, things are getting a little tense. Pulling out the old Von Strucker music box, Lauren is spending far too much time for Reed’s liking listening to it, researching old family history and honing her powers with intensive training as we saw at the tail end of last week’s episode. Caitlyn is ok with it, insisting that things have stepped up a notch now to the point where holding back isn’t an option, and that Lauren can handle it. A close run in with the authorities doesn’t do much to change anybody’s minds and frankly, it looks like all bets are off with regards to the older Strucker sibling.

And back at Mutant Underground HQ, John is still recovering from the effects of several buckshot rounds to the chest, which is taking a little while. Clarice is worried about what might happen to him when he is better though – if he keeps fighting it’ll only happen again, after all. Marcos goes to reach out to some other Underground stations to see what’s what but ends up having an encounter he hadn’t bargained for and receiving news he could never have expected.

Then there’s Jace Turner, told by Ryan to continue generalised Purifier activity rather than pursue his personal vendetta against the specific mutants he just found out for sure are very much alive. Turner’s rapid descent may be scoffed at by some but it feels more pertinent today than anything. Seeing how small steps rapidly escalate into large downward leaps is as realistic as it is terrifying. It’s painfully obvious where things are headed, and when the inevitable happens, Turner is faced with a choice that might go on to define the rest of his life. Even after he chooses, it’s not clear whether it’s a choice he’s going to stick with. I predict things are about to get very interesting for ex-Agent Turner going forward.

If anything, the final reveal only adds to my conviction on that score. As surprising as anything else the show has done so far, it sets up fertile ground for all sorts of possibilities. The war that’s coming isn’t just going to be epic – it’s going to get messy.

Verdict: This one may wrong foot a lot of people because there is quite a lot of rapid change going on here, but it really is handled extremely well. Shows like this all too often get into a rhythm they find hard to get out of as time goes on – indications at the moment are that The Gifted won’t have that problem. 9/10

Greg D. Smith