With Reed and Lorna being moved to a new high security Sentinel Services facility, a brief opportunity presents itself for the Mutant Underground to come to their rescue. But are the risks they will have to take worth it?

One word – stakes. This show has them, and it has them in spades. We’re only four episodes in and I already care deeply about each protagonist and what happens to them. In three hours of TV with this many characters on screen, that’s impressive.

This week, the episode focuses exclusively on the plan to spring Reed and Lorna from the custody of Sentinel Services. At first, it’s just more of the talk we’ve seen before, as the gang argue amongst themselves about how exactly they will break into a high security facility without casualties, helpfully illustrated by a flashback to a similar caper a few years prior which went all kinds of wrong. Then Caitlin has a bright idea of how to minimise that risk, but there’s only one problem – it’ll require some information, the kind that isn’t easy to get.

Fortunately (or not, depending on your point of view), Marcos has an old contact he can tap up who will likely have access to the knowledge they require. There’s just two complications, and neither of them is particularly easily overcome.

The episode gives us a nice bit of background to flesh out Marcos in particular – it’s impressive how deep the show is willing to go with its narrative, unafraid to remind us that our heroes aren’t necessarily shining paragons of virtue without beating us about the head with it or veering into overkill territory. What we see informs the character of Marcos and lets us know that things could very well come back to bite him later on.

Elsewhere, it’s interesting to see the first interactions for a while between two other characters. Having not parted on the best terms the last time they spoke, it’s unsurprisingly frosty, and the energy between the two is perfect, allowing things to breathe without dragging. Pacing, thy name is The Gifted.

As is par for the show now, the main plan (the heist) is the focus of the entire episode, everything else building around it to a high point. The action at the end of the episode is frantic, and that’s where those stakes really start to kick in – we can’t be sure as an audience who will succeed, who will fail or even who will survive, and the writers play on that well to really build tension. It all rises to a pretty spectacular crescendo and one that’s equal parts terrifying and joyous to watch.

Special mention once again to the actors, who are knocking this one out of the park week after week. Nobody is po-faced, there’s never any sense of things being over-dramatic, but everyone takes things seriously enough that in spite of the sci-fi tech and mutant powers, you believe in what you’re watching. That applies across to the board, even to the very youngest cast members, and it’s impressive to see.

Verdict: Week on week, this show just gets better and better. Had you told me after episode 1 that three episodes later I would be literally on the edge of my seat, I would have scoffed. Outstanding stuff. 9/10

Greg D. Smith