S02.E07: no Mercy

[Bort]

Quote

Reeva reveals her plans for a major mission for the Inner Circle to secure some needed funds. Meanwhile, the Mutant Underground must contend with Reed's unstable powers, hoping that some medical help from Caitlin and Lauren will keep his destruction in check. Also, Jace is introduced to Benedict Ryan, a well-connected public figure who supports the efforts of the Purifers, but the two may not see eye-to-eye. Then, Thunderbird finally confronts Blink about her dealings with Urg, after weeks of tension over their meeting.

Airdate: Tuesday, November 13, 2018

[HunterHunted]

So the reason you hire Sharif Atkins for a part like this is either because his character is going to be in it for the long haul or you're planning on killing his character and are trying to extract the most amount of sympathy from his death. This episode proved to be the latter. Sorry Sharif. It's too bad you weren't cast as Jace. I might have actually given a shit about Jace with a better actor.

Reeva is so damn stupid. Even if Rebecca's original psychopathy hadn't warranted hospitalization, her long term institutionalization should have given Reeva some pause.

I don't love Blink. I don't love the Morlocks, but John trying to act like the Mutant Underground has any superiority over the Morlocks is fucking ludicrous.

Honestly, the dipshits in the Mutant Underground just need a collar for Reed. He's got a really bad case of "old dog, new tricks."

Spoiler

I'm pretty sure naming the bank after Graydon Creed was an easter egg, but it would be kind of hilarious to see Mystique and Sabertooth's strangely nonmutant son pop up. 

[bow]

This show and flashbacks...it’s getting old. I don’t think we need Reeva’s backstory. I honestly don’t care how bad it was. That doesn’t make you a bad person. Your choices make you a bad person.

Reeva’s plan is insane without practice.

Reed’s powers are awesome. Why doesn’t he think he can just wait it out? Why doesn’t his family? Take him to the clinic? That doesn’t seem like a good idea.

Turner sucks like usual, but apparently he’s still with the purifiers and is moving up fast.

This poor date of Reeva’s is screwed. Oh, a company that hurts people, Reeva? Like yours?

I like Esme. I think we’re supposed to. She will come around.

What’s worse than an ice pick to the back of the head? Torture? Nice welcome, but honestly Turner should get what’s coming to him.

Well duh Reed’s powers would trigger when he looks at a picture of his family (with Andy included).

[Some of these episodes are really good. This is not one.]

Reeva is a monster regardless of whether or not she needs to be. She lied. She doesn’t care what humans get hurt (for the most part), she cares about the mutants (for the most part).

Nice adamantium mention with the vault. Humans are definitely going to die. The other three are either going to be pissed, stuck downstairs, or both.

Finally Caitlin is concerned about something other than Andy. Now is not the time for Lauren to go crazy. Unnecessary drama.

Blink redirects every question. What a liar. Siding with the Morlocks helps the underground? I’m not so sure about that yet.

Rebecca is a total idiot (aside from being a murderer). This teaches that one person’s actions speak for everyone. That’s not how society should work.

Fuck. I guess she’s not a fan of democracy. What a great message. 

 

RIP Stan Lee.

[blackwing]

I guess I don’t understand why they needed a whole team of mutants to get into that bank vault.   Couldn’t the Frosts just blue eye everyone into doing what they wanted?  Doesn’t matter that the only people with the vault code were two states away.  They’d find a way.   Or why not just use Polaris?  Why the need for Rebecca?  Polaris is the Mistress of Magnetism and one of the most powerful mutants.   Adamantium is a metal.  She couldn’t open it herself?

Really couldn’t care less about Rebecca.  Fast forwarded everything Jace.  And I couldn’t care less about Blink and her “struggle” either.  

This was a bad episode.

[Mysteris]

So this happened.

I didn't know Reeva had anything close to a heart. She looked genuinely broken when her lover got killed. Maybe she should have thought of that when she recruited Rebecca. The girl is unstable at the best of times and we've just learned she does not take insults well. Though I kind of have to fault that bank teller too. I mean, how dumb are you to mouth off to a bunch of mutant-powered bank robbers like you're some kind of badass?

 

When Esme cooed to the baby about it being her very first bank heist, I'll admit, I chuckled.

 

Blink's not exactly wrong. The Mutant Underground has pretty much been spiraling into irrelevance. I don't get what Eclipse and Thunderbird have against the Morlocks other than they live in a sewer.

 

Reed. Blah blah, boring.

 

Jace: Why couldn't he have been in the bank when Rebecca went psycho on the place? The only good news we learned tonight is that his wife finally wised up and put a no-contact order in place. Seriously, the woman can do so much better and I'm glad she realized that.

[AnimeMania]

I can't understand why the Morlocks would want to brand anybody in their group looks human. They could send human looking mutants out to get jobs at food stores and they could siphon food back to the group.

[Chris24601]

1 hour ago, AnimeMania said:

I can't understand why the Morlocks would want to brand anybody in their group looks human. They could send human looking mutants out to get jobs at food stores and they could siphon food back to the group.

Because they’re fanatics; radical isolation in this case. They’re essentially a cult that cares more about identity than what is practical for survival. The brand (and adopting a “mutant name”) is a way to show you put that identity above all else and makes it harder for the human-looking mutants to leave the cult if they change their minds down the line.

The irony is that because they won’t be practical, they’re stuck leeching off humanity like parasites. The only difference between their thefts and Reeva’s is scale.

[Gwen-Stacys]

Whew, Blink spilling all that tea was needed. Viewers have been saying that the mutant underground is incompetent and short sighted since last season.

Poor Sharif Atkins :(

The Inner Circle has all of the big personalities on their side. And it's almost hilarious watching their teamwork taking down the back vs TMU last episode's failed fight against humans in pickup trucks

Damn, the light-skinnededness keeps jumping out of Jace!

I don't care, I still like Rebecca. I called her turning people inside out the moment they showed what her power was. The Sharif aside, I kind of loved it? It's the first time I've made any noise for this show (outside of the Cuckoo reveal last season). It was a horrified squeal, but still. "Crazy" characters are fun because they tend to throw a wrench in things and stoke drama in believable ways. Rebecca knocked TIC win train off the track, while also proving that they do have moral guidelines that they follow. No unnecessary deaths on missions. But I wonder how Andy's gonna take this? Is he gonna turn on his new girl, or is he gonna stick by her and attempt to reign in her crazy?

[Chris24601]

Yeah, Rebecca just utterly hosed Reeva’s long-term plans. Pulling off the heist and putting out the video about how horrible Creed Financial was to mutants would make them out to be sympathetic Robin Hood types.

Now they’re monsters who slaughtered a bunch of innocent people. Sharif’s kids (who are now orphans) will be trotted out as victims of the mutant menace, the Purifiers will look less radical and lots of innocent mutants will suffer as a result.

And you can kiss any hope of a “mutant homeland” being established without massive bloodshed goodbye... and Reeva did it to herself by choosing to use a psychopath to do the job instead of finding another method.

Rebecca is basically the poster child for why human/mutant relations are basically irreconcilable; because people who are walking WMDs and people who have violent personality disorders is a Venn diagram. Where it overlaps there’s mass death and destruction and because each mutant is unique there’s no one-size-fits-all way to deal with it in a rational and just manner; in the case of mutants with destructive powers the line between locking people up for what they might do and letting someone who could level a building full of people because they lose control (physiologically or emotionally) just walk around where justice can be found is both razor thin and jagged as the edge of a broken glass pane.

In terms of storytelling Rebecca’s actions also create a bit of a problem in that, unless Andy and Lorna take some serious steps (as in “Frak this, I’m out!” with a side of “Rebecca has to be stopped.”) they run the risk of ending up as irredeemable as Rebecca by association (I’m pretty sure that’s why they wrote the plot-point of Esme being asked to watch the baby into the episode so she’d not be morally on the hook for what happened during the heist... it’s pretty telegraphed that she’s going to jump ship before the season’s out while the other two will end up dead).

I’m almost positive Andy’s headed for the irredeemable camp (Reeva and the other two Cuckoos as well); the Fenris effect is just too big to keep on the table... it’s practically the Voltron Blazing Sword in terms of how to end a threat once the stakes get high enough to warrant its use and you just can’t keep going to that well unless you want to look like a Saturday morning kids show. So yeah, I think Andy is headed for dead-ville, though if he’s lucky he’ll get a redemption equals death style ending.

Lorna is probably going to take measures to not be irredeemable, but I’m just feeling it’s going to be in a way that won’t let her come back to the Mutant Underground afterwards. Marcos, Lorna and baby happy together is just way too domestic and functional for a show like this.

I’m also pretty sure the Morlocks are headed for a bad end. Rebecca’s actions will stoke the Purifiers and something will send them in the Morlocks’ direction because radical isolation (while stealing from the people you’re isolating yourself from) won’t be enough to keep the anti-mutant death squads from wanting you dead. It’s just hiding from your problems and that never works in fiction.

[tennisgurl]

Maybe bringing in a psychopathic teenager with scary high level super powers wasn't the best idea ever, Reeva. If she was trying to portray them as sympathetic Robin Hood types, thats all down hill now. Now things will just get worse for all mutants, and give he Purifiers more support. I still am kind of loving Rebecca though. She is a major wild card being thrown into this whole volatile situation, and I am actually pretty interested in seeing where it goes from here. And, Andy might want to send a "its not you, its me" text. From several states away.

I cant stand Jace, and I love that his ex wife is getting a restraining order. He is the worst kind of whiner, mixed with being a racist asshole. I cant even make myself feel bad about his daughter anymore, he has used her death as an excuse to do so many terrible things. And, worse of all, dude is boring. 

The biggest shock this episode is that Reeva really did have a soft spot for her poor, doomed mark, and really did want to leave him to his own devices when she was done with him. Of course, as soon as he pulled out the picture his kid drew, I knew he was toast. 

So, basically mutants have the choices between the Hellfire Club (murderous and creepy), the Mutant Underground (poor and ineffectual) or the Morlocks (smelly and culty) or just try to live your life and hope no Purifyers try to kill you, or anything comes up with a reason to lock you up. Yesh. 

Esme and the baby were weirdly cute, especially "its her first bank heist!" I definitely think she is heading for joining the good guys, or at least leaving Reeva.

[roctavia]

Ugh, Reeva and co are so dumb... you have an unstable teenager, clearly not happy that they were leaving all of the humans alive and you just turn your back and walk away??? They could have stopped her just by actually watching her instead of walking away from her. March her out of there in front of you when she's clearly wanting to kill everyone.

 

I still don't care about Jace and he is so gullible....

[Lady Calypso]

I know they're never ever going there, but how awesome would it be if they actually had the guts to have Andy join Rebecca in the psychotic stuff and they could become a pretty awesome evil power couple? But, of course they'll never do that because this is all to get Andy to finally go back to his family so...boo.

Crazy Rebecca was fun, but more to it, Reeva's a complete dumbass. I called it a few episodes ago with her being short-sighted, and it was proven here. How did she not see this coming? I guess now we start the timer on Rebecca's life. Will she die in the next episode? A few episodes from now? Who knows, but I doubt she lasts past this season.

Esme and baby Dawn were cute. 

I do think Clarice is right about Morlocks and the Mutant Underground. We have seen the Mutant Underground do some stuff, but it's not like the Morlocks have done nothing. I think the two factions should be joining together against the Inner Circle instead of judging each other so harshly. 

As much as I love me some Sandy Cohen, I refuse to watch anything Jace-related if I can skip it.

I do feel bad for Reed. I do think he should have gotten help a lot sooner because it's real late for all of this, but I do feel bad for him overall. And we finally got a good Caitlin/Lauren scene so...progress on that front!

[AngelKitty]

At the end of this episode all I could think was, "Well, that's what you get for using powerful, unstable teenagers."

The problem with this show, for me, is that there really is no one to root for. Horrible things are being done to everybody by everybody, and they all have a point. Unfortunately, I don't even see a solution.

It looks like there are 2 episodes left and I may or may not watch them.

[blackwing]

On 11/15/2018 at 9:45 AM, AngelKitty said:

It looks like there are 2 episodes left and I may or may not watch them.

Wait, there are only two episodes left?  Is there a source for that?  Has the show been cancelled?  Last season was a deliberately short season of 13 episodes... I would have thought that Season 2 would get at least as many, unless it has in fact been cancelled mid-season.

Edited November 16, 2018 by blackwing

[Raja]

29 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Wait, there are only two episodes left?  Is there a source for that?  Has the show been cancelled?  Last season was a deliberately short season of 13 episodes... I would have thought that Season 2 would get at least as many, unless it has in fact been cancelled mid-season.

No, they are just following the basic cable example and airing two shows with shorter seasons rather than one show spanning both sides of the Christmas break

[CooperTV]

If Reed's storyline with his resurfaced X-gene this season is making the gene inactive again, I've no idea what's the point of this at all. It seems like the complete waste of time, especially for the viewers.

The Not-Purple-Haired-Lady-Anymore is the most annoying obnoxious character after Caitlin (who got marginally better this episode). I can never remmeber her name but the one who lied to John about everything and was self-righteous about it.

Te Inner Circle stuff was actually interesting.

The Ex-Sentinel guy is The Worst (tm).

[slf]

I find that I really only like Clarice and Esme. Polaris and Reeva come off as dipshits; clearly all this is doomed to fail and not in a 'hindsight is 20/20' kind of way. Andy is whiny and lacks a developed personality. John just keeps getting blander and blander, I feel like they have no idea what they want to do with him so they just have him punch things and angst. Reed's story line has no emotional momentum for me, in no small part due to the actor's three facial expressions. Reed is descended from incestuous mass murderers, he was experimented on by his father and had his mutant gene suppressed as a child,  he worked against mutants to not only find out his own children are mutants but so is he, now his powers are emerging and they make him a danger to everyone around him. That's...a lot. It's like Rogue but with a more messed up backstory. And yet a lot of the time when the show cuts to his scenes it's like, "oh yeah, this is still happening, I forgot." Lauren and Eclipse are more interesting than their respective story lines are letting them be.

[paulvdb]

On 16-11-2018 at 5:31 PM, blackwing said:

Wait, there are only two episodes left?  Is there a source for that?  Has the show been cancelled?  Last season was a deliberately short season of 13 episodes... I would have thought that Season 2 would get at least as many, unless it has in fact been cancelled mid-season.

There are 2 episodes left before the show goes on a short break. It will be back on January 1.

[AngelKitty]

On 11/16/2018 at 11:31 AM, blackwing said:

Wait, there are only two episodes left?  Is there a source for that?

Sorry to have caused a ruckus about this but I was so annoyed with the show that I tried to find out how many episodes were left and Wikipedia seemed to indicate there were only 2 left. I was relieved enough that I didn't even think about how that would make it an unusually short season.

4 hours ago, paulvdb said:

It will be back on January 1.

Do you know how many episodes there will be?

[Lantern7]

Watched it tonight. I totally get the impatience. It's weird that we have two Marvel-inspired series on TV . . . one goes through the motions and occasionally is awesome, while Legion puts in way too much brains and surrealism into an hour.

Rebecca is not a canon character, right? Because she needs a nickname, and all I got is "Inside Out Lass." She friggin' killed everybody in that bank. When she got Reeva and Cuckoos 2 & 3 shook? Dang. Oh, and she's unintentionally pulling Andy towards the dark side, which is neat. I mean, he cn't screw up his hair any more than it has been, right? Of course, we'll probably get Fenris vs. Inside Out Lass, and that will underwhelm.

Really hoping Jace gets smacked upside the head soon. And often.

[CooperTV]

On 20.11.2018 at 5:39 AM, Lantern7 said:

Rebecca is not a canon character, right? Because she needs a nickname, and all I got is "Inside Out Lass."

They call her Twist.

Edited November 22, 2018 by CooperTV

[Tachi Rocinante]

Well that was . . . dark.  They should've named the episode "My teen angst bullshit has a body count".

Any chance Sharif Atkins' character is a mutant and survived?

[lion10]

Did Reeva not know that Rebecca was institutionalized for killing her entire family and being a pyschopath?  Because it seems like if Reeva knew enough about Rebecca to know her powers and what facility she was held in, she must've known how unstable she was but neither the Frosts nor Reeva seemed to really take any precautions with her or keep her on a shorter leash.  I hope that gets brought up next episode. 

 

The Mutant Underground looks like its on its last legs, but at least everyone is acknowledging that so something better is born from the ashes.  In a way, the MU is in the middle ground of the Morlocks and the Inner Circle.  The Morlocks have given up trying to engage with the human world at all and are just hiding away and the IC is determined to carve out a place for mutantkind in the midst of the human world.  I'm assuming their ultimate endgame is Genosha.  Rebecca killing those bankers is gonna give the Sean Hannity-type (was he on Scandal??) active fuel for the fire and it looks like mutants will lose a lot of the good will the IC's cultivated through their exposure of blatant and illegal mistreatment of mutants.  

 

Gotta say, I really appreciate how the writers have fleshed out the history of mutants on Earth with references to mutant businesses being denied loans and the Kick (Crack) Epidemic of the 90s.  

[Raja]

23 hours ago, lion10 said:

Did Reeva not know that Rebecca was institutionalized for killing her entire family and being a pyschopath?  Because it seems like if Reeva knew enough about Rebecca to know her powers and what facility she was held in, she must've known how unstable she was but neither the Frosts nor Reeva seemed to really take any precautions with her or keep her on a shorter leash.  I hope that gets brought up next episode. 

 

Perhaps they discounted the reports preferring to believe that they were lies built upon anti-mutant prejudice.