I could have told you this was coming. In fact, I did, multiple times since the end of Season 1 saw a fracture between the members of the Mutant Underground. Lorna was always going to get here. She was always going to ‘come to her senses.’ She was always going to realize the end didn’t justify the means.
Now, I expected that to be more of a Marcos is dying and I can’t take it decision than a calculated this is going too far, I won’t be part of this decision, but to be quite honest, I’m really, really glad it was the second one. It speaks to the kind of person Lorna is, and to the fact that the reasons why she joined the Inner Circle in the first place were never selfish.
She always just wanted peace. A place where she could be free, a place where her daughter could be free.
For that, she was willing to sacrifice Marcos, and the reason she was willing to do it was Dawn. For her daughter, she was willing to sacrifice everything, to turn her back on her family, to do what she thought she needed to do.
But that didn’t mean Lorna was ever the villain. “There are lines, there have to be,” she says this episode, and last week I talked about how she and Andy were always going to chose to help John, that was a given – but this is something different. This is choosing to help not because someone she loves is in danger, but because it’s the right thing to do. I’ve talked about black and white before, and how this show usually operates in shades of grey. This episode does a great job of showing us that, once again, not just with Lorna, but with Jace, who finally, finally seems to feel some remorse for the man he’s become.
Talk about overdue.
“People bend, they adapt, but they don’t change,” Caitlin says at some point in “meMento.” She says it like a good thing, but I don’t think it is. I also don’t think she’s right, as much as she wants to be. She’s speaking from a place of wanting to believe her son, Andy, the only one in the Inner Circle who, despite everything, still seems to be mostly drinking the kool-aid, is still good.
She’s speaking from a place of wanting to believe her daughter, Lauren, could never be bad.
But her way of seeing the world is too simplistic. It always has been. The ideals of good and evil are all nice and well, but do Caitlin, and Reed, and by extension, their kids, live in a world with clear cut choices? Does the Mutant Underground? Or the Inner Circle, for that matter?
The Purifiers are a hate group. We can sit here and appreciate the moral grey area Jace Turner occupies, but he’s willingly become the villain of this tale. He’s chosen, again and again, to let his anger and his fear rule him. And you can say so have Lorna and Andy, but is it truly the same? Is it?
And, will anyone be willing to work with Jace if he decides he can’t take it anymore?
Because the thing about these people, about Lorna and Andy, and the Mutant Underground, is that they’re family. And family never gives up on each other, no matter what. That’s why, as mad as Clarice was with Marcos, she forgave him. That’s why Marcos had to ask for forgiveness, even if he was just doing what he thought was best by telling John about the Morlocks.
And that’s why Marcos had to forgive Lorna, or maybe not had to, but was always going to. Not just because he loves her, and not because she asked, or explained, or even because she found him and asked him to help her save people, but because he’s strong enough to bear that burden, strong enough to forgive her for it. It isn’t about putting her needs first, it’s about understanding that sometimes, people fuck up. Sometimes, they fuck up badly.
But if you love them, and they love you, and they haven’t, you know, joined the Nazis, maybe there is a way forward?
Plus, because they’re the best part of this show and every second they’re apart the show suffers, and there are only five more episodes to go, so it was criminal to keep them apart any longer, but that isn’t here nor there.
The Mutant Underground and the Inner Circle were never going to see eye to eye. They were never going to agree on methods, and at some point, they were going to end up clashing. But, the introduction of the Purifiers, a certifiable hate group, made this about something else in a way this show is very adept at doing, just as Reeva’s willingness to work with them cements all we’ve thought about the Inner Circle.
Do the end justify the means? Sometimes we think the answer is yes, but do they really? Are we truly willing to let the entire world burn to get what we want?
Reeva is.
Lorna isn’t.
And Andy, well …hurting Purifiers is one thing, but I’m willing to bet Andy isn’t really willing to see the entire world burn either, and he really, really won’t stand for anyone hurting his family.
So, Ted and his “I was afraid for my life” crap that we’ve all heard before can go to hell. Jace and his doubts, and his good guy posturing that, somehow, never translates to him actually doing something good, can go to hell.
Life might be about shades of grey, but at some point, we all have to take a stand. We all have to decide what we’re willing to fight for. Lorna has decided. Andy’s turn will come soon. And, much like them, so must we all make our stand in real life. We must stand for those who cannot stand for themselves, speak for those who cannot defend themselves, and we must also choose our sides, understanding that no side is every perfect, and there is no true good or evil.
Which doesn’t mean there isn’t right or wrong.
Agree? Disagree? Share with us in the comments below!
The Gifted airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on FOX.
