“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
I thought it better to start with a quote, especially one that pretty much encapsulates everything “Monsters” is, everything this season has been, than to start with me saying that I told you we’d get here and there’s absolutely nothing surprising about the stand-off that’s coming our way in the season 2 finale.
Of course, just because you know something is coming doesn’t mean it can’t be satisfying, and in many ways, this episode is just that: satisfying. We’ve been with these people for so long, we’ve felt their pain, and we rejoice at their joy. So yes, when Andy walks into that room and embraces his family, we’re happy. When Lorna walks into the apartment and into Marcos’s arms, our hearts soared. And when they all stood together on the roof, at the end, we all let out a deep breath.
This, however, doesn’t erase everything that came before, doesn’t erase the arduous path to the place we all knew were were going to end up at, doesn’t erase that this show ended up, in fifteen episodes, exactly where I speculated it would after the first episode of season two.
A wasted season? Not really, because we got to see these people grow, and we got to see new relationships explored. A brilliant season? The answer to that, sadly, is also no, because as much as we love these people (and we really, really do, that’s always been the saving grace of this show), we don’t really love the day to day of what they’re doing, the decisions they’re making or the plot points they are involved in.
This show excelled in season one despite the fact that it was, in many respect, too obvious in its messaging, because we could still be surprised by the choices these people made, because they were still growing, and we were growing with them. Season two brought more growth, but no surprises, and so it feels like whatever these characters were doing, the journey was for them alone.
We weren’t included.
Will The Gifted get a season 3? The odds, right now, are not in its favor. Will I be sad if they don’t? Yes, because I love Lorna and Marcos, Andy and Lauren, Reed and Caitlin, John and Clarice. But I don’t love anything they’ve done this season, no particular event has touched me deep, no message has felt particularly poignant. And when you have such good characters, such good actors, that feels like a huge damn waste.
But this is not the end, not yet. One more episode to go. May it be the episode that makes us yearn for more. May it be the one that changes my mind. Nothing else has.
Things I think I think:
- The mentions of the X-Men and the Brotherhood need a payoff, yesterday.
- Nowhere, everywhere, the spaces between everything …so that’s where Clarice is?
- Because she’s gonna come back and save them all at the last minute, I know it.
- NO way she’s really gone.
- Also, this is the first time I actually feel Thunderblink.
- Stupid men and how they deal with grief.
- LORNA AND MARCOS MY BABIES.
- “Please, Lorna, bring my son home.”
- Jace, no one cares about your crisis of faith. No one.
- Lorna and Andy FEELS.
- John and Marcos FEELS.
- Well, that’s a way to let out the energy, Reed.
- Not really gonna miss that dude.
- Every time Marcos makes that face, I want to hug him.
- Fucking Reeva. So THAT’S why the Morlocks got slaughtered?
- “We’ve come too far to give up now.”
- Caitlin broke my heart a little bit, when she offered to sacrifice herself for Lauren.
- Fine, more than a little bit.
- Reed using his powers is my aesthetic.
- It’s truly hard to believe you can be good again, but the fact that Lorna is trying with Andy means the world.
- “Today, I killed a man.”
- Oh, this parallel.
- The whole play on monsters is something the show should have taken advantage of way more. It would have made for a better season storyline for Andy than …whatever was going on with him.
- “All you can do is show him the path, you can’t make him take it.”
- Gah, all these reunions.
- I teared up, okay?
Agree? Disagree? Share with us in the comments below!
The Gifted airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on FOX.
