It’s time to play catch up with Inhumans before the season (series?) finale this week. “Something Inhuman This Way Comes…” was written by Scott Reynolds and was directed by the ever wonderful Kevin Tancharoen, a staple in the
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. directing pool. Reynolds is clearly a staple of the Scott Buck stable having written for
Iron Fist and
Dexter. “The Gentleman’s Name is Gorgon” was written by Charles Murray and was directed by Neasa Hardiman, whose credits include a number of shows I didn’t recognize. Murray’s credits include
Luke Cage,
Sons of Anarchy, and
Third Watch. Finally, “Havoc in the Hidden Land” was written by Quinton Peeples and directed by Chris Fisher, whose credits include
The Magicians,
Person of Interest, and
Warehouse 13, so you’d expect him to do well with action and special effects. Peeples also wrote for
Iron Fist, as well as
Unforgettable and
Flashforward.
The first thing that struck me with “Something Inhuman This Way Comes…” was just how beautiful Hawaii is as a backdrop. The second thing was just how over the ellipsis in the titles that I was. We continue to see how being on earth is changing the Inhumans. Karnak (Ken Leung) still has no social graces, but he’s really enjoying being with Jen (Jamie Gray Hyder). This was easily my favorite storyline because Leung is always a joy to watch and consistently delivers a good performance despite the dreadful writing. Hyder also delivers in this episode, so I was very sorry to see her go.
Reno (Michael Trotter) tries to shoot them, and I loved Karnak deflecting the bullet, but of course he still doesn’t quite have his powers back and it’s deflected into Jen. The run away only to fall into Ted’s grave. They’re saved when Reno gets a call from the even badder drug dealers who end up killing Reno.
Karnak and Jen hide, and he stops her pain and then gets the bullet out. Jen wants to call the police, but Karnak convinces her to go back to the camp, where they inevitably are trapped. Karnak is still plagued by doubt and doesn’t know how to act on a plan with that doubt. Jen tells him that everyone feels doubt – but that’s ok because it helps people to find new solutions. Of course, that is literally Karnak’s gift – to see the flaw and fix them before acting. Jen tells Karnak that she’s got his back and believes in him.
Karnak’s doubts are interspersed with the memory of Gorgon (Eme Ikwuakor) taking the US flag off the moon to put up in his room. Karnak explains why he has to take it back – and then he tells Gorgon that he’ll always be cleaning up the messes that Gorgon makes – and of course this is completely paid forward in the latest episode when Karnak brings Gorgon back to life. The fight scenes here are terrific and Leung is terrific with that staff – even when it gets cut in half! Definitely a highlight of the series.
Karnak loses the fight and Gorgon arrives to find him hanging upside down and being beaten. Gorgon considers what Karnak would do and goes in and takes them out by stomping. Gorgon gets Karnak down and then frees Jen. He’s clearly pleased when she says that Karnak talked about him a lot.
Also beautiful in this episode was the red Buick Skylark that Louise (Ellen Woglom) was driving. Black Bolt (Anson Mount) and Medusa (Serinda Swan) catch up and snuggle while she drove. Honestly, the two come off as irresponsible teenagers more than King and Queen. Locus (Sumire) remains locked in the trunk. However, when she gets out, she starts to open Medusa and Black Bolt’s eyes.
When Maximus (Iwan Rheon) calls Locus, Medusa answers and tells him that Black Bolt wants to have a few words with him. Maximus looks appropriately terrified, but he tells Medusa he’s looking forward to their family reunion. Rheon is at times terrific, but I kept feeling like half the time he wasn’t sure of the characters motivations or how he was expected to deliver a scene.
They use Locus to find Karnak. Locus can’t describe what she does to Louise, who is curious as a scientist, but Locus reveals that she’s actually always wanted to be a healer. Medusa insists that terragenesis decides for everyone. Louise points out the irony that it was their parents who had wanted to change the caste system and that’s why they’ve been overthrown – for not wanting to change the system. Eventually, they catch up with Gorgon and Karnak. Locus is shot and killed, but as she lies dying, she tells Black Bolt that he can change. He can be the King they deserve. She also tells them that Crystal (Isabelle Cornish) is also on earth.
I loved how Gorgon liked the looks of Louise! Jen tells them that she is calling the police and tells them to leave – they are the epitome of “illegal aliens!” Karnak can’t believe that she’s dumping him! So he gets to experience it from the other side. She doesn’t need gifts to see that they’ve had a good time, but there’s no future for them.
Declan is performing autopsies on Auran (Sonya Balmores) and Sakas (Matt Perfetuo), but of course, Auran comes back and heals herself as Declan watches. She kills his assistant and grabs Declan by the neck, demanding that he hand over Black Bolt. Auran calls Maximus, and he tells her not to tell Declan she works for him and not to let any harm come to Declan – but he doesn’t tell her what he wants with Declan. Mortis and Floras (Krista Alvarez) have captured Sam (Faleolo Alailima) who burns through his bonds and tries to escape, but they capture him again.
Crystal and Dave (Chad James Buchanan) spend the episode transporting about Hawaii with Lockjaw – much to Audrey’s displeasure. Crystal is impressed with how big Hawaii is and she’s overwhelmed by the ocean. Dave gets her to come swimming with him in the Ocean and tells her to just hang loose – they’ll find her family later. Crystal admits that she feels safe with him. She’s surprised to feel this way about a human because all they’d ever seen was war and terrorism on earth.
Meanwhile, back on Attilan, Tibor (Ptolemy Slocum) is not quite on the same page with Maximus. Maximus reveals his vision of freedom to Tibor and tells him that he’s sending Inhumans to the surface to fight. Everyone will have to earn their freedom. He had to sacrifice his own family after all! The episode ends with Tibor finding allies to stand against Maximus.
“The Gentleman’s Name is Gorgon” begins with Maximus having a nightmare of his family returning home. Maximus puts his plan in place to send the miners to war against Black Bolt. Tibor points out that the people won’t be happy about it. Maximus is convinced the people love him so much that they won’t care and if Black Bolt kills them, the people will hate him more.
There’s a nice memory sequence in which Maximus remembers training with Gorgon, who doesn’t take it easy on Maximus at all. Maximus says he’s part of the royal family and doesn’t need to be able to fight like Gorgon, but Gorgon points out that the royal family needs to be stronger, more cunning, and better fighters than everyone else. When Maximus grabs a staff and clubs Gorgon with it from behind with no warning, Gorgon is angry, but Karnak points out that it was more cunning and clever – even if it was underhanded.
Audrey (Liv Hewson) is still angry and threatens to call the police. Crystal sets her phone on fire, and then she and Dave go to set off a signal.
Louise has Locus’ comm link and Auran calls to tell them that they are at Declan’s and will kill him and Sam. Black Bolt sends Karnak and Gorgon to save the humans while he and Medusa continue to look for Crystal with Louise who can track her energy signal. Karnak is still having doubts, but Medusa assures him that he’s still Attilan’s best fighter.
Black Bolt confronts Medusa about bringing up their parents. She reminds him that he’d wanted to be better than they were. They need to let the people decide what happens to Maximus. They see the lightening signal that Crystal puts up and are finally reunited with her – and they arrive just as she’s kissing Dave. She tells the others that he’s a good person and he’s helped her. They introduce Louise – also as their friend and a good person.
They all go back to the barn to get Lockjaw only to be trapped by the police. Audrey really did call them. Louise remarks that Audrey is the kind of person they were talking about. Medusa asks Louise to take care of the police. I loved that she and Dave pretend to be a couple, casting Audrey as the crazy ex-girlfriend. The police easily buy it, but it means that Louise doesn’t get to go to the moon, and Crystal doesn’t get to say good bye to Dave.
While waiting for the others to arrive, Declan warns Auran that she may not be able to repair herself indefinitely – he’s seen some degradation in her DNA. The miners have arrived as back up and were totally in awe of the grass and everything else. Auran has no time for that and tells them to focus. They’re soldiers now – but of course, there’s more to being a soldier than that.
When Gorgon and Karnak arrive, Gorgon tells Karnak to just act like he has his powers - no one else will know any different. I really liked how easy it was for him to completely psych out Auran. Karnak also puts being more clever to work for him when Mortis shows up. Mortis wants him to tell him all the ways he can kill him. But of course, Karnak can’t do that. Instead, he talks about how he stood up for Mortis when he came out of terragenesis. Before they knew what his powers were, he killed a lot of people. Mortis says that Black Bolt was just as dangerous but he got more chances. Karnak keeps talking, saying that it was only because of him that Mortis is alive – the choice was the cell or putting him down. Gorgon distracts Mortis and Karnak manages to strangle him unconscious.
Karnak also spares Loyolis (Aaron Hendry). Gorgon fights Auran, who somewhat surprisingly surrenders. She’s afraid now that she won’t be able to come back after what Declan told her. Karnak tells Declan about Maximus and Declan reveals Maximus paid for all the research.
Meanwhile, in the stupidest moment of the series yet – and that’s saying something! – when Mortis inevitably wakes up, instead of just killing him when he refuses to surrender, Gorgon stomps the entire building down on both of them. If the end result is Mortis dies, why commit suicide? But that sets us up for the stupidity in the next episode.
Finally, Maximus kills Tibor for trying to go against him and smears his blood on Bronaja’s (Ari Dalbert) face. Bronaja is clearly terrified of Maximus.
This brings us up to “Havoc in the Hidden Land.” Declan finally explains his relationship to Maximus when Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal and Karnak regroup. They conclude that Maximus wants to go through terragenesis again, but that is strictly forbidden. Karnak kills Auran to send her back to Maximus as a message – believing that she isn’t truly dead, of course.
Medusa, however, is suddenly the advocate for completely changing up how they’ve been ruling. Whether it’s Sinden or bad writing, it’s not that it’s completely unbelievable that one of them would finally figure out that they’ve been being the bad guys by keeping their people locked into a caste system and not listening to them at all, but her complete turnaround seems to come out of nowhere. Yes. She’s learned from Louise, but the characterization simply felt completely inconsistent to me – there was no careful building of motivation. At any rate, she suddenly wants to know what kind of King kills his brother. Black Bolt insists they’ve only done what they need to do to survive. Medusa wants the violence to stop.
Crystal takes Maximus’ people back as an act of good faith. She tells Maximus that Black Bolt wants to parle. She also tells him that Gorgon is dead. Maximus agrees to the parle, and is happy because he’s getting what he wants – for the first time in his life, his family has to come to him.
Black Bolt uses Lockjaw to call Triton (Mike Moh), and suddenly it’s revealed that Black Bolt and Triton knew all about Maximus’s plan and had one of their own – that they didn’t share with anyone else! Medusa is rightly very angry. Black Bolt also reveals a secret Royal bunker on Attilan. They also take Declan with them – and it’s kind of hilarious that he doesn’t believe them at first when they tell him he’s on the moon.
Medusa confronts Black Bolt and tells him that it’s his duty as her husband to tell her everything. More than that she is Queen and they should move together or not at all. She tells him that her time on earth allowed her to step back and gain perspective on how people view her.
Maximus is waiting for Auran to wake up. He tells her that he will honor Gorgon, but he’s also going through with his plan. She tells him that she admired someone who had overcome being human to become King. He’s less to her for wanting to be Inhuman. But Maximus hates that he’s always seen as “less than.” His new story will be that you can go from least to greatest!
Declan and Karnak discuss what he’s doing there and what he’s supposed to be doing for Maximus. Declan assumes that Karnak can’t understand the science, completely and foolishly under estimating him. And of course, this gives Karnak the idea to use Auran’s DNA to try to bring back Gorgon. Medusa points out that it’s forbidden to undergo terragenesis again because they don’t know for sure what will happen – it could bring on madness.
The parle takes place and Medusa translates for Black Bolt. They tell Maximus that they’ll allow his terragenesis but they will remain King and Queen and re-establish peace. Maximus accepts. Medusa hesitates to hand over Declan – exchanging a human for their benefit, but of course, once Maximus has Declan, he reneges on the deal – he’s simply rescued a friend from them! Black Bolt promises to kill Maximus the next time he sees him.
Declan tells Maximus that the procedure still needs to be tested – he’s not at all sure that it’s safe, but Maximus doesn’t care.
Almost all the characters remark on how being on earth has changed them. Crystal tells Medusa that she’s sad that she left Dave without saying goodbye. Humans aren’t all bad. She saw normal people leading normal lives – and she’d at least like to have the chance to choose that.
Karnak seems to have his powers back and it was awesome to see him run the possibilities again – and lots of cool stunt and wire work in the scene with Auran in the pool room. He tells her that earth changed him too. He also saw the flaw in her DNA and wants to help her. He knows she regrets choosing Maximus and Gorgon’s death.
She gives him the DNA and helps to get Gorgon into the chamber. It doesn’t seem to work and they have to run away – but of course after Declan comes in, Gorgon wakes up and looks like he has lost his mind and is going to kill Declan!
Meanwhile, Maximus has been lured into the open. Triton is a one man wrecking crew. This was another great fight/stunt scene. Triton wins and brings Maximus to the bunker.
How have you been enjoying the series? What are you hoping to see in the finale? Are you hoping for more? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
