Maddy and Ryan are in full form for this week's episode of the Mutant Ages, so we hope you're ready for an ADHD roller coaster. Regardless, this week's episode of The Gifted was not exactly an A+ but it wasn't bad by any means. John has been kidnapped by the Purifiers, which means the remaining Mutant Underground members have to get Lorna and Andy's help because they need some serious firepower to overtake a human militia with an organized compound full of guns. Reed and Caitlin are thrilled to have their son back... until they see what he's become, and what Lauren has been warning them about for *months* now.

Next episode: "meMento," The Gifted

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"eneMy of my eneMy," The Gifted

"meMento" is not only an all-time great episode of The Gifted, it's one of Maddy and Ryan's all-time favorite episodes of TV, period. Every single character's storyline comes to a head in some way. Lauren Strucker gets enchanted by the music box that's passed down through her family for generations, and it seems to be kicking off her villain era. Meanwhile, Lorna is questioning the Inner Circle's true motivations now that Reeva Payne has enlisted a trio of serial killers to perform a mysterious mission. And when Lorna reaches out to Marcos, their relationship naturally gets rekindled. With John bedridden and wounded once again, Blink is questioning whether she can stay with someone so self-destructive. Most striking of all is Jace Turner's storyline, in which he decides to stand up for his Purifier cop friend who shoots an innocent mutant child. Jace's mental health takes a real dive after that one.

Next episode: "hoMe," The Gifted

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"meMento," The Gifted

"hoMe" may not be a five-star episode of The Gifted, but with so many bangers in season 2, we can forgive it. We learn that Evangeline co-founded the Mutant Underground with Erg, the leader of the Morlocks, but then screwed him over. Despite that, she still blackmails him into joining her (along with the rest of our Mutant Underground hold-outs) for a "last stand," although it's not entirely clear that that entails. We'll never get to find out, because it fails, but in the process, Erg and John have a "last stand" of their own and it leads to Blink finally dumping John (long overdue) and joining the Morlocks (also long overdue). Meanwhile, Reed Strucker becomes fascinated by the music box that has his daughter hypnotized, and his daughter and wife go fight some cops and possibly get Uncle Danny killed. Remember Uncle Danny, the lawyer? He's back for some reason.

Next episode: "teMpted," The Gifted

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"hoMe," The Gifted

With only a few more episode to go before its cancellation, The Gifted is still chugging along, ramping up the stakes of the Inner Circle's motivations. In "teMpted," Lorna engages in some bad spycraft and learns that the Inner Circle's most dangerous new recruits intend to bomb the Pentagon and the White House. She loops Marcos in on the plan, which leads to a climactic murder at the end of the episode (not of Marcos, at least we hope not). Before we get to that, though, Marcos spends this episode underground trying to help save the life of Glow, who gets shot by police in the process of stealing food for her fellow Morlocks. With the help of Marcos, Blink, and the controversially human Caitlin, Glow survives, and even Erg has to admit that Caitlin helped in the end. Meanwhile, Andy is working with the Cuckoos to brainwash Lauren into joining the Inner Circle, and it just might've worked, if not for Reed stepping in and flourishing the ol' anti-mutant serum.

Next episode: "calaMity," The Gifted

E-mail us your feedback at themutantages@gmail.com or follow us on social media at TheMutantAges, MIDImyers and RyanPagella. If you like what you hear, please consider supporting us via patreon.com/themutantages. Thanks!

"teMpted," The Gifted

Multiple major characters die in "calaMity," the third-to-last episode of The Gifted's final season, except wait, we shouldn't call Sage a major character, should we? It's a damn shame what this show has done to her, and we can't believe how anti-climactic her death scene turns out to be. Sage takes the fall for Lorna's bad spycraft within the Hellfire Club, even though the reasons for her being the scapegoat don't make a lot of sense. The rest of "calaMity" is a thrill ride that builds up to Jace leading the Purifiers in The Gifted's version of the Morlock Massacre, in which a surprisingly high number of Morlocks survive, thanks to Blink calling Marcos (and not her ex-boyfriend John) to bring in all the ex-Mutant Underground folks with some getaway cars. Unfortunately, despite everyone's best efforts, it's Blink who doesn't make it out of this situation alive. But isn't she supposed to be alive at the end of this show? Hmmm...

Next episode: "Monsters," The Gifted

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"calaMity," The Gifted

The second-to-last episode of The Gifted, "Monsters," is mostly about moving chess pieces around the board. That is to say, all of the characters need to be in the correct spots before the finale. The result is kind of boring to watch, and there are a few scenes that get wrapped up in ways that don't quite make sense. Lauren and Caitlin are on the run from the cops, but their escape ends up being surprisingly simple in the end, thanks to Marcos and Reed's help. Reed is finally using his mutant powers, and it's going surprisingly well... so well that he has discovered he enjoys using them to kill people (RIP Wilson, Jace's boyfriend). Jace Turner still can't manage to get on the right side of history, but Esmee Cuckoo sure seems like she's about to. And of course, Lorna and Andy finally leave the Hellfire Club in this episode, a decision that was long overdue since Reeva's plans for world domination have become downright evil.

Next episode: "oMens," The Gifted

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"Monsters," The Gifted

The Gifted deserved a better finale for season 2 than "oMens," and it definitely deserved a better series conclusion than this, but "oMens" is nonetheless the final episode of this show before its cancellation. Unfortunately, it's anticlimactic and clunky. We get to see all the plot points you would expect, such as the Mutant Underground finally coming together to face off against the Hellfire Club and Esmee Cuckoo betraying her sisters to join with Lorna, but it all happens so fast and with so little reflection on the part of the characters involved that it's pretty disappointing to watch. There's just one good scene in which John Proudstar uses his super-strength to beat up a shitload of Purifiers, and it's extremely satisfying. 

Next episode: The Gifted wrap-up/reflections

E-mail us your feedback at themutantages@gmail.com or follow us on social media at TheMutantAges, MIDImyers and RyanPagella. If you like what you hear, please consider supporting us via patreon.com/themutantages. Thanks!

"oMens," The Gifted

Having finished both seasons of The Gifted, Maddy and Ryan get together for a big reminisce about what worked, what didn't work, and the larger legacy of this show as an X-Men adaptation. The disappointing series finale cast a shadow over this recording and our feelings about the show as a whole, but we nonetheless had plenty to choose from when it came to deciding on our favorite episodes and our favorite characters. Also, of course, what song should Andy have beatboxed but didn't?

Next episode: Listener mail!

E-mail us your feedback at themutantages@gmail.com or follow us on social media at TheMutantAges, MIDImyers and RyanPagella. If you like what you hear, please consider supporting us via patreon.com/themutantages. Thanks!

Looking back on The Gifted (2017-2019)

Maddy, Ryan, and Todd convene to answer listeners' questions, including ones about which five X-Men should go on a cross-country RV trip together, which X-Men would be able to stand eating ten hot wings in 5 minutes (without using their powers), various X-Men novelizations, and even some more discussion of what Magneto was doing in X-Men '97. In our defense, one of you wrote us an email about it, so we had to talk about it again, okay? The episode ends with a rousing game of Two Truths and a Lie, but sadly no episode of The Mutant Ages: The Comic Book. We'll be back with that sometime soon, but we haven't recorded that yet. Instead, what's coming up is...

Next episode: Deadpool 2 (Part 1)!!!

E-mail us your feedback at themutantages@gmail.com or follow us on social media at TheMutantAges. If you like what you hear, please consider supporting us via patreon.com/themutantages. Thanks!

Listener Mail, September 2025

Maddy, Ryan, and Todd discuss the first half of Deadpool 2, which is thankfully an improvement over the first Deadpool movie, but it still has a lot of Vanessa and Wade's chemistry-devoid love story that should not be in the movie. Despite that, we finally get to bring back the long-missing "Who's Gay?" section, which says a lot about how much this movie sets up Colossus/Deadpool and Cable/Deadpool flirtations and bits. The first half of the movie is really just a long wait for Domino, the best part of the movie, whom we'll just have to tell you more about next time.

Next episode: Deadpool 2, Part 2

E-mail us your feedback at themutantages@gmail.com or follow us on social media at TheMutantAges. If you like what you hear, please consider supporting us via patreon.com/themutantages. Thanks!

Deadpool 2 (2018), Part 1

Maddy Myers and Ryan Pagella review and break down the queer subtext of every X-Men cartoon/tv show/movie/game/book EVER. And maybe date Wolverine.

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