The Royal family continues their search for one another.  Maximus show off his crazy eyes.

Behold… The Spoilers

“The system isn’t perfect for everyone…”

Black Bolt and Medusa have a sweet reunion in the back of Louise’s stolen car that turns tense when the queen reveals who shaved off her tresses.  Black Bolt is visibly pissed, but his anger can wait for now.  Locus (Auran’s minion that was taken by the royal couple at the end of last week’s disappointing showdown) is banging around in the trunk (quick tangent: none of the Inhumans know what a trunk is, but they know what human money and a cab company are?).  Locus uses her echo location and leads them in the direction of Karnack.

Along the way there are a few arguments about Attilan politics and the cast system.  Locus wanted to be a healer, but her powers forced her into tracking for the family.  The king and queen rational their enforcement of the caste system, but their reasoning sound hollow when Louise questions the validity.

“Only crazy fanatics don’t feel doubt”

Karnack and Jen’s post-coital bliss doesn’t last long in the morning light.  The two exit their tent to find a crazed Reno waiting with a loaded gun.  Reno fires and Karnack gains his powers just enough to deflect the bullet, but his “sight” didn’t catch his splitting the projectile would lead to Jen being hit by a ricochet.  Karnack and Jen run into the jungle and fall into Ted’s shallow grave.  Reno follows, but is distracted by the arrival of his buyers.

Jen and Karnack run through the jungle until Jen collapse from the blood loss.  Karnack pulls the bullet fragment from her side with the power of Inhuman, then sews the wound up.  Karnack is dealing with an emotion he has never felt before, doubt.  Jen assures him uncertainty is not a bad thing and he should embrace the feeling.  “It makes us question things, helps us find new solutions” she assures him.  The two make a plan to return to the camp site and ambush Reno. What they don’t realize is Reno’s buyers are crazier than him.  They killed Reno for turning on his partners and are looking for them.

Reunited and it feels so good

When the buyers arrive at camp, Karnack takes out several of them before he is knocked out, stung upside down, and beaten.  Gorgon comes to Karnack’s rescue (he followed the old blood trail from when Karnack hit his head) and frees his cousin.  The two grab Jen and head back into the jungle to get their bearings.  They don’t get too far when they hear gun shots and commotion.  Black Bolt, Medusa, Locus, and Louise arrived at the camp and finished off the drug buyers.

Locus then promptly drops dead from a gunshot wound.  Before she dies, she pleads with Black Bolt to be a better king to his people and tells Medusa Crystal escaped to Earth.  Jen splits from the group to call the police and encourages Karnack to embrace the occasional bit of doubt.

Maximus the Mad

Much to the shock of Declan and his assistant, Auran wakes on his autopsy table and heals her wounds.  She questions Declan and kills his assistant when he attempts to subdue her.  Auran calls Maximus where he reveals he is working with the doctor and she is doesn’t need to ask any more questions, just keep Declan safe.  The right-hand woman is angry Maximus is not telling her the whole story, but she follows orders and calls Mordis and Flora back to the facility.  They found Sammy and Auran makes a plan to use the doctor and Sammy to get Black Bolt to them.

Maximus has Tibor go through the files of those who have gone through Terrigenisis to acquire someone to help Auran.  He finds one person working in the mines to help.  Luckily, he is one of the few who is happy to work for the new king.  Many Attilan citizens are questioning Maximus’ intentions.  He is not delivering on his promises of freedom and a resistance group uncover themselves to Tibor.

Thoughts

Crystal bonds with Dave, but more importantly, Lockjaw is healed.

I understand Inhumans only has eight episodes, but the producers want to build a big scale series filled with rich characters on minimal work and a shoestring budget.  Then de-power our “heroes” before the non-comic reading audience (i.e. the majority of the audience) gets a chance to understand who these characters are with these abilities.  At best, the storytelling becomes jumbled and is sucks because there is a really interesting story buried underneath.

Dropping Karnack/Jen love story is fine.  I didn’t buy it all that much.  What’s disappointing is Karnack refusal to return to Attilan because of her would have been an interesting conflict.  It would have posed a massive blow to the Royal Family.  He is clearly important to getting Black Bolt back on the throne and loved by his cousin.  Now it seems as if Crystal might be the one to carry on the “wanting to stay” storyline, diminishing what good have been a great plot.

The episode gave put the relationship between Karnack and Gorgon front and center.  While they call each other cousin, it is clear they are more like brothers.  Karnack is the older, wiser sibling overseeing the younger, impulsive Gorgon.  Stuck on Earth, both of them realize they need to channel the other in order to survive/find the rest of the family.  This revelation would have been even more impactful if Karnack wanted to stay on Earth.

Killing off Locus so quickly and confusingly was frustrating.  She was a perfect stand-in for much of the audience wondering why we should root for the pro-slavery Royal Family.  Keeping her around would have been a perfect character offset to Black Bolt and Medusa’s way of thinking.

Till Next Week!

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The Nerdling was born in the majestic land known as Texas and currently resides there after several years of journeying through Middle Earth in a failed attempt to steal the one Ring from that annoying hobbit, serving the Galactic Empire for a time, and then a short stint as a crew member on the Serenity. Since moving back to her homeland, Nerdling flirted with a hero reputation. Saving children from the dangers of adoring domineering, sparkly vampires (champions with souls are the only vampires worth loving) and teaching normals the value of nerdom, all while rooting for her beloved Dallas Stars. Then came the Sokovia Accords and her short spell of saving others came to an end. With Darth Vader’s reputation rightfully returning to badass status, Nerdling is making her way back to the Empire. They do have cookies, you know. You can find her on Twitter @nerdlingstale.