On December 16, 2018th, I watched The Gifted’s “iMprint,” which was about the Hellfire’s latest ambush and the Purifier’s latest attack on the mutant underground. Moreover, this episode explored the origins of the Frost sisters, the Rebecca story, and Shatter’s death.
To begin, this broadcast starts with the Frost girls and a mysterious, unknown doctor. In one tense scene, the doctor is talking with the girls, saying: “Time for another exercise girls. This is a bad man with a secret. I need you to look inside his mind and tell me what it is. Don’t make me ask twice girls.” Strangely, this doctor resembles the Frost sisters in facial features.
Nonetheless, this doctor wants the much younger Frost girls to torture this man; however, the Frosts don’t want to torture anyone. One Frost sister, Esme, cries out in this scene, pleading: “He’s scared. He thinks you’ll find his family and hurt because they are mutants.”
In a similar protest, the man being tortured pleads for his life to the younger Frost sisters. He tells the Frosts, screaming: “Please don’t kill them.”
Also, in this installment, Polaris reveals what’s important to her to the Hellfire Club. In regards to Reeva and the Frost sisters, Polaris explains this priority: “Well, here’s something that is important to me. My baby! Who may notice if mommy comes home riddled with bullets.”
Aside, the Purifers celebrate a victory at the hospital. The leader of the Purifiers says: “You all remember Turner here. Well, thanks to him, we hit that mutie clinic last week. And he’s been doing a real good job on some of the patient files you found there.”
During “iMprint” Turner continues the process of radicalization within the Purifiers. Turner tells Purifier followers: “Who else can make a mutant underground disappear.”
Turner explains the underground works within the system. He says this to the Purifier followers: “These terrorists stay ahead of the system because they work for the system. They use our own society against us, court orders, warrants. One of them scarries into a church. Suddenly they are untouchable.”
Moreover, Turner comes up with a plan to gain people’s support. He tells the Purfiers: “Guess what. Mr. and Ms. PTA don’t want to be on the same side as a hate group. If you keep running around waving your guns, beating up doctors, that is exactly how people see you. They see you as a hate group. But if you do this right, they’ll come running to your cause.” Jace wants the the Purifers to appeal to the people by looking like good guys.
That being said, Turner wants to get credit for capturing the underground mutants. He tells the Purifier followers: “Truth is somebody solved the mutant problem. It’s going to be us.”
In regards to the Andy and Lauren storyline, Andy makes Lauren think. Andy tells Lauren: “Do you really think getting a few mutants to Mexico is helping?”
Meantime, the Frost sisters have a private talk with Reeva about Polaris. They tell Reeva: “It seems we have a choice. Trust her or lose her.”
Meanwhile, Esmae is spying on Polaris. As she goes to talk to Polaris, she stops and reads Polaris’ and baby Dawn’s mind before knocking on the door. After a short while, she enters and talk with Polaris about Reeva.
In the talk, Polaris questions the latest plan. Polaris explains to Esme: “I told you, I am not going blindfolded into a slaughter.” Polaris doesn’t want to join a suicide mission.
However, Esmae tries to reassure Polaris of the plan’s success. She tells Polaris: “We have maps and blueprints of the target.”
It’s this program where the Purifiers become an extremist group by bombing churches. Blink reports to the group: “Shatter just called. He said he the Purifiers bombed a sanctuary church in Baltimore. They’re bombing churches now. I mean, that is a crazy big step for them. Even for them.”
Moreover, Blink continues to monitor the police in the wake of the latest Purifier attack. Blink conveys this information to the mutant underground: “I checked police scanners. The cops are out in full force. It’s not a good time to move.”
These latest Purifier attacks lead to reprecussions for the mutant underground. Shatter explains the consequences to the group: “The human groups that used to help us. They won’t even take calls.”
From Shatter, we learn about the underground’s membership. Shatter discloses to the group: “Lots of these folks have been living in shelters and churches for awhile.” Shatter dicusses the composition of the mutant underground, which sounds a lot like undocumented immigrants.
Aside, Shatter talks about his attempted suicide with Reed. Shatter tells Reed: “Everything I touched was turning to crystal. It was terrifying. When I looked in that mirror, I saw a monster. So I tried to kill it. I didn’t put out the lights, but I cracked the windows a bit. I guess sometimes the more you reject the things you can’t face, the worst you make it.” I was thinking, perhaps, this scene is foreshadowing a death in a cinematic way.
Later in the show, Esme and Polaris meet to discuss plans about the next hit of the Hellfire Club. Esme points out the next target to Polaris, revealing: “You wanted to see the target. There it is{bank]. It’s not just a bank. They got a mutant detection system. We can’t get close without setting off alarms.”
Esme explains the history of Greed Financial to Polaris. She discloses the whole terrible history to Polaris:
“Lorna, this place was built on mutant suffering. Creed Financial started funding mutant slavery in the 1950s in South America. They pushed through anti-mutant legislation for slumlords and mutant ghettos. And they spent the 1990s creating the Kick epidemic. They got their hands in everything, even local Purfier chapters.”
By hitting Greed Financial, the Hellfire Club hopes to inspire more mutant followers. Esme says to Polaris: “You saw what happened after we hit the hospital. Hundreds of mutants took to the streets. We hit this place, maybe thousands. We’ll inspire an army.”
When discussing the hit on the banking institution, Esme reveals her and her sister’s past to Polaris. In a very emotional talk, Esme confesses to Polaris:
“It’s not just a cause. It’s personal, for me and my sisters. Creed Financial funded the lab that created us. My sisters and I are clones. They made us do terrible things. For years it went on till we couldn’t take it no more. We stopped the guards before they could put the collars on. And we did what we had to do. Fire! We were thirteen years old! We got out, but we didn’t escape what they did to us. The things they made us do.”
It’s this shared, terrible history which drives the Frost sisters.
During “iMprint,” the Purifiers catch up with the Baltimore underground. The meeting happens at the Baltimore location of the mutant underground. The mutants must escape or be locked up in a detention center with collars.
Later, Polaris catches Esme in a lie when Esme sings a lullaby. Polaris turns to Esme and demands:
“Where did you hear that song? I don’t think so. That’s the lullaby I sing to my baby. My aunt sang it to me as a kid. She learned it from my mom. It’s all I have from her. I only sing it to Dawn, when we’re alone. Why you in my baby’s head? When Dawn stopped crying earlier, was that you in her head? Don’t lie to me! Is this your idea of trust? Is anything you tell me even real? I understand. Nothing you say is real. If you or your sisters so much as look at my daughter again, I will kill you. Just keep your monsters away from me and my daughter.”
Polaris wants the Frost sisters out of her baby’s head and her head.
It’s this episode, too, we learn Rebecca has a tragic family history. A psychiatrist who treated Rebecca for a brief time disclosed to Lauren and Caitlyn:
“I need to show you something. We recorded all our patients’ sessions at the hospital. We had to drug her. Otherwise, she could just turn her collar inside out. The cops found that out the hard way. She has the ability to twist things- a sort of dimension manipulation. This was after she first came. We thought she was on her meds. We were wrong. I quit the hospital the same day. The autopsy said she turned them inside out. That’s how I knew you weren’t Rebecca’s family. That’s how she killed them too.”
Rebecca killed her family and police officers.
Meanwhile, Esme pitches her plan to Reeva about being honest with Polaris. Esmie talks to her sisters and Reeva: “No. That’s what he wanted us to be. You said ‘We’re building a new world.’ But if we are going to build something lasting, something real, then people need to believe, especially Lorna.” However, Reeva and the sisters disagree with Esme.
Sadly, in this segment, the underground loses a key member, Shatter, an original underground Chicago mutant who appeared in Marvel Morlocks in the June 2002. During the underground Baltimore escape, Shatter was shot by Turner while battling the Purifiers. Originally, in Marvel Morlocks, Shatter died in Atlanta.
Towards the end of “iMprint,” Esmai tells Polaris the whole story about her origin. She explains the history this way:
“You deserve to know the whole story. We didn’t start off as triplets. During our exercises, they kept two of us locked up as leverage. Celeste and Mindy had to stay back that day. When we decided to escape, we thought we could save everyone. We were wrong. Mindy and Celeste. We couldn’t get them out. We never told anyone that story before. Not even Reeva. I felt death. I was a part of my sisters when they died. I felt the terror and pain like it was happening to me.”
Lastly, Turner regrets the lastest attack on the underground mutants. However, the Purifier’s leader consoles him, saying: “Those are some pretty words about nobody getting hurt. But that man that died knew what he signed up for. He died a hero. And it will inspire dozens more. You what to make an omlette dude, you got to break some eggs.”
Overall, I enjoyed “iMprint” even though I didn’t watch the series for weeks, since I was busy programming video games. But I liked to hear about the origin of the Frost sisters in this episode. However, I didn’t like the fact that Shatter died, since he was one of my favorite Morlocks. This episode was a good one.
