As John becomes ever increasingly desperate to achieve a meaningful victory for the Underground, he risks pushing away those he loves most. The Inner Circle has issues of its own, even as it stands on the brink of achieving its goal. Lauren faces a difficult discussion with her parents about the true nature of Madeline’s work with the X gene.

It’s difficult to put into words just how incredible this latest episode of The Gifted is. It’s been a consistently solid show since its opening episode, with powerful writing that isn’t shy about addressing the issues that lie at the heart of the X-Men franchise, and it’s performed above and beyond what should be possible on a television show budget by always knowing exactly how best to deploy the resources at its disposal. This episode, despite being a little over halfway through the current season, feels like a culmination of sorts, like the show hasn’t been restrained by budgets and other mundane concerns for the past season and a half, but more as if it’s been restraining itself, holding its power back until this moment.

Starting with a flashback to the day Rebecca was turned over to Sentinel Services by her own parents, it’s an instalment that doesn’t let the viewer stop and breathe for one moment as it throws heavy punch after heavy punch.

First there’s the Struckers – Lauren’s discovery last week that Madeline’s intent for her DNA might not be so benevolent after all means that now she has to go and have a really difficult conversation with her parents. On the one hand yes, Madeline’s research may save Reed’s life. On the other hand, it’s being provided by someone who may basically have the exact same goal as the Purifiers, for all that she might have a ‘gentler’ way of going about it. For a family that’s already been through so much, it’s a horrible position to find themselves in.

Then there’s the Underground, or more accurately at this point, John, Marcos and Clarice. Marcos is devastated that he’s just had to say goodbye to his daughter without ever really having got to know her. Clarice is increasingly disillusioned with the Underground’s methods in the face of mutant suffering across the country. John, meanwhile, is just desperate for any kind of win, and determines to beat down that ‘Regimen’ lead in any way possible. For the first time, we see John not just reckless, but careless, whether it’s dragging his friend along without giving him time to mourn or misleading his girlfriend and putting her in danger. You sense that it can only end one way, and then on top of that there’s the revelation of exactly what the Inner Circle’s plan is, and the implications it will have going forward.

At Inner Circle HQ of course, there’s the small matter of Rebecca to deal with. Andy’s upset at her incarceration by Reeva leads to him making a rash decision – hardly the character’s first – but one that will have devastating and lasting repercussions for everyone. After all, just because he’s in love with Rebecca, and just because we know why she feels so betrayed and angry at the world doesn’t change what she is, and her affection for him doesn’t mean he can reason with her any more successfully than anyone else, regardless of what he thinks.

And there’s Jace and his continuing association with the Purifiers. For a while there it seemed as if maybe there was a chance of him pulling back from what is clearly an extremist organisation. But it seems as if he’s fully on board now, and the declaration that they are now officially a citizen militia doesn’t exactly suggest that peace and harmony will reign wherever they go. Jace might be ignoring the fact he’s got a tiger by the tail here, but the complexity of the character to date suggests to me that the time is coming when he’s going to see the truth of what he’s doing and have a lot of regret – only time will tell if he gets there too late.

It all just keeps coming, one body blow of a revelation or scene after another and by the end of it I felt genuinely slightly breathless with the pace and impact of it all. Last week I worried whether they would have the budget and the chops to do the war that seemed to be brewing justice – this week, I’m worried whether I’ll be able to cope with the war that’s been set up. It’s quite incredible how much more believable, impactful and real this war feels than anything that’s been set up in the X-Men movies. This has real stakes, and a sense that a war in the real, global sense of the word is about to start.

Verdict: The most affecting and powerful hour of genre TV I have watched in 2018 and easily the best live action treatment of the subject of Mutant-human conflict in the X-Men universe that’s been put on screen. Flawless. 10/10

Greg D. Smith