'The Gifted' Season 1, Episode 8 'threat of eXtinction' Recap: A Strucker Family X-Gene Revelation [SPOILERS]

“The Gifted,” Season 1, episode 8 has the Mutant Underground facing a threat when they discover a new refugee is a spy working for Sentinel Services. Meanwhile, Reed (Stephen Moyer) visits his father to get to know more about Trask Industries. But what he finds out is far more than what he expected. “The Gifted” ties in more threads into the X-Men universe by introducing the connection between the Struckers and the Fenris twins.

‘The Gifted’ Strucker Family Tree  Have Mutants Too

After finding out his father, Otto Strucker (Raymond J. Barry) is connected to the brainwashing of mutants, Reed and Thunderbird (Blair Redford) pay Otto a visit. The father and son haven’t had much of a relationship as Reed explain to his children. It’s the first time in years, Reed would contact his father again. Visiting him would revisit old feelings of abandonment and resentment. Thunderbird and Reed find him running an antique shop in Chattanooga.
Surprised by his son’s visit, Otto tells them they are wasting their time since Sentinel Services already came with questions. Reed and Thunderbird refuse to leave and asks him about his work in Trask Industries. Otto tells them the company collapsed years ago. But Reed tells him its back and they are experimenting on Mutants. Reed insists his father’s research and his children being mutants is not a coincidence. His father realizes he cannot keep the secret away from Reed any longer. Otto invites him upstairs and they leave Thunderbird in the shop. The father and son talk about Reed’s family. It was a heartwarming moment until he asked about the powers of his grandchildren.

The episode opened with a flashback from 1952 London, where two Mutant Siblings are hiding from the government. These two mutants were also the cause of an explosion in San Janiero mentioned a few episodes ago. It’s later revealed by Otto that those Mutant siblings are the Fenris twins—Andreas and Andrea von Strucker. He tells Reed that Andreas was his father. Otto himself is a mutant who ran away from his family in pursuit of a normal life and a cure for the X-gene. He was able to find it and tested it out on Reed. Shocked by his family’s background, Otto tries to warn Reed about his children’s powers before Sentinel Services came barging in.

Capturing the Spy Amongst Refugees

Before joining Reed, Thunderbird, Blink (Jamie Chung) and Eclipse (Sean Teale) meet with a preacher who has been sheltering humans. Luckily for them, a telepath named Esme (Skylar Samuels) warned them about picking up a few bad thoughts from one of the refugees. She points at the tired and gray looking mutant. Thunderbird grabs the other refugee and sees the Hound tattoo on her arm. The Hound uses her super speed to fight them off. But Eclipse, Blink, and Thunderbird use a combo move to trap the speedster mutant hound and allow Thunderbird to knock her out.

Later in the headquarters, they place the Hound in a cell hoping to get answers out of her. But she’s refusing to talk and she looks scared of anyone approaching her. Polaris (Emma Dumont) tries to use a cartel approach to torture her but Eclipse stops her. The two can’t put aside their relationship drama. Still bitter about her boyfriend joining the cartels again, Polaris and Eclipse cannot see eye to eye on how to get the Hound to talk. In the middle of their argument, Eclipse noticed something familiar with the Hound’s mannerisms. She was presenting symptoms of withdrawal. Eclipse realizes that Trask has been injecting some sort of drug into the mutants to increase their powers and do their bidding.
Eclipse calls in Kate (Amy Acker) to help them treat the Hound. She only needs to be restrained for Kate to inject a sleeping drug into her system. Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind) and Andy (Percy Hynes White) volunteer to help. Andy would push her against the bars and Lauren would shield her. Amazed by her children’s abilities, Katy was able to get the Hound unconscious enough to properly restrain her. But it looks like Trask has done something so traumatic that she cannot even speak.

Restraining Relationships in the War

Reed, Otto, and Thunderbird are trying to figure a way out when Dr. Campbell (Garret Dillahunt) and Sentinel Services has Otto’s shop surrounded.  Otto tells Reed that everything he has done was to protect him, and he’ll continue to do just that. Otto faces Campbell and the Sentinel when they had Pulse hold down the fort. Their family is a different kind of mutants, far more powerful than anyone can imagine. Otto tries to tell Campbell to leave since he has already been questioned. But Campbell refuses to and tries to get on his good side by telling him he is only continuing Otto’s work, with a few minor adjustments.

Before Sentinel Services searched the room upstairs, we see the full force of Otto’s powers. Even with Pulse trying to block him, he proves to be a more powerful opponent than Campbell expected. After shooting Otto, his powers backfired and burned his antique shop. Pulse was also a casualty to the hellfire. Reed and Thunderbird gave them both a burial before heading back to headquarters. Reed comes back, sad about his father’s death and ready to tell his family the truth about the Strucker family lineage.
Meanwhile, Sage (Hayley Lovitt) tells the team about the Hound’s name. Her name is Chloe, and she was captured by Sentinel Services after attacking a doctor who refused to treat her child. Kate then suggests they ask Esme, the new refugee, to help them get in the Hound’s mind.  Esme was able to get the location of Trask Industries and see the lab full of brainwashed mutants. Sadly, Chloe died from the withdrawal. The Mutant Underground are now more determined than ever to stop Trask and Sentinel Services.
“The Gifted” continues next Monday, December 4th, with “outfoX” at 9/8c on FOX.