Inhumans Episode 1.4 – Make Way for... Medusa
Original Air date: October 13th 2017 on ABC
Episode 4 of the Inhumans slowly started moving the story forward after last week’s stagnant episode. After Black Bolt and his new buddy escaped from prison they were whisked away in a helicopter by a strange benefactor. His name is James Declan and we learn he’s a genetic researcher. He claims to want to help and that he’s helped many like them previously. He takes some DNA samples and discovers that Black Bolt’s DNA is not like the any other Inhuman DNA he’s ever seen. It’s different, perfect even. Probably because he’s purebred Innhuman not like the Earth based Inhumans. He is excited and wants to do further tests. He calls someone to tell them of the discovery and it turns out to be Maximus, on the moon.
So I guess cellphones work just fine in Attilan. Maximus tells Delcan to kill Black Bolt but Delcan says he can’t. He explains Black Bolt’s DNA might hold the key to fixing human imperfection and maybe even giving regular humans Inhuman abilities. Maximus is still scarred by not having been granted any abilities from his Teregenesis and dreams of someday becoming Inhuman. As such he decides to alter his plan and not have his brother killed, at least not yet anyway. Black Bolt soon discovers Delcan has ulterior motives so he and his prison friend escape the research facility. Back on the moon Maximus tries to convince the Genetic Council to allow him to start doing genetic experiments on himself but they refuse to allow it. Instead he just has them killed.
During this time Medusa is still attempting to reunite with Black Bolt. She kidnapped Louise at the end of the previous episode. Louise worked for some NASA looking place and seems to be some sort of astrophysicist obsessed with outer space. This section might have been the strongest of the episode. Ellen Woglom is the standout actor of the series as Louise. She’s sarcastic, funny and her facial expressions when dealing with the overly self entitled Medusa are priceless. The pair has some ups and downs but they eventually find Black Bolt.
Unfortunately it all seems too convenient when they just happen to find him as he’s escaping Delcan’s research facility. This also just happens to be the exact time Auran and Mortis show up looking for a fight. In an absolutely ridiculous sequence Black Bolt unhooks a hose from a propane tank so that if Mortis uses his flame on skills he’ll end up blowing everyone up including himself. It’s such a bad scene and it ends even worse. Mortis blows up him and his friends while Black Bolt and his friends all escape unscathed. They end up kidnapping one of Auran’s Inhuman trackers who can supposedly track anything. Clearly they intend to use her to find the rest of the royal family.
In a separate story thread, we know Crystal and Lockjaw made it to Earth during the previous episode and Lockjaw was injured. The ATV rider who hit him has Crystal to deal with and she’s pissed. He tells her that a friend of his can help and it just so happens she’s a vet. The whole sequence seems pointless and nothing more than a method to get Crystal to meet a potential love interest. Essentially the vet checks out Lockjaw and says he’s ok and just needs some rest. Similarly Karnak’s story also seems completely useless and just a set up for him to start a romance with the female pot farmer.
Gorgon’s story isn’t quite as bad as those but it’s still pretty useless. He decides after having lost one of his human allies in a fight against Auran and Mortis that he’s not willing to risk anymore of them. In a really weak scene he tells these surfers turn Special Forces guys that he considers them to be family. He says he can no longer protect his family and has to leave. It was a cringe worthy scene attempting to be emotional. Like come on, first off all you just met them. Second he’s supposedly the head of the Royal Guard why are they making him so pathetic.
So although the main story seems to have moved a step forward the secondary stories are getting worse. I’m really hoping they drop the idea of trying to introduce love stories or romantic options during what should be an epic intergalactic civil war story. If this was a story arc in a later season maybe that would fit but at this moment it doesn’t fit. I also really hope Karnak gets his abilities back soon and the family reunites. Maybe the Royal Family will embody the gestalt concept that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I really hope they can keep the thread with Delcan’s genetic research too as it was actually kind of interesting and would probably be a good way of tying this to Agents of Shield.