Ryan and Maddy are still loving The Gifted, with season 2 delivering yet another great episode in "unMoored." This episode is brought to us by League of Legends, which Andy is playing every night he spends in the Hellfire Club mansion, apparently. But he's keeping his teenage angst secret when it comes to missing his family and especially his sister, and Reeva Payge isn't going to stand for that, since it's interfering with Andy using his powers. Esme Cuckoo and Lorna do their best to protect Andy in their own ways, but at the end of the day, Andy has to admit what's really going on or else Reeva's going to cut him loose (fatally). Meanwhile, the rest of the Strucker family is in a state of complete emotional turmoil and it's fascinating to watch them fall apart. This show is legitimately well-written now!

Next episode: "coMplications," The Gifted

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Ryan and Maddy invite Todd and Ry T back on the show for another reading of a Christmas-themed X-Men comic. This time it's Uncanny X-Men #165 (2009), a surprisingly plot-heavy comic that gets into Laura Kinney's backstory and introduction to the X-Men, plus a side story about Gambit getting back his eyesight (after losing his sight in a battle that wasn't even that interesting, according to Maddy who is writing this description and just looked up the old comic where it happens). After we finish reading the X-Men comic together, Ryan presents us all with a Mystery Comic that none of us could have predicted in advance.

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Next episode: "unMoored," The Gifted

E-mail us your feedback at [email protected] or follow us on social media at TheMutantAges, MIDImyers and RyanPagella (plus, FoxHarper and SCnightblade). If you like what you hear, please consider supporting us via patreon.com/themutantages. Thanks!

Ryan and Maddy watched the first episode of The Gifted's second season and immediately discover why people prefer season two. Everything is better, most importantly the writing; we already liked the actors, and now they finally have something great to work with. The Mutant Underground has become far more ragtag, working out of a secret room in a hospital and rescuing mutants from the SWAT-team like presence that Sentinel Services has become. Lauren has to teach her parents how to move on from the fact that Andy abandoned all of them. And meanwhile, Lorna and Andy have forged a friendship in the bowels of the Hellfire Club, where Lorna is afraid to deliver her baby but must do so nonetheless. It's a gripping episode with great moments for every character, and we kinda can't believe this is the same show.

Next episode: The Mutant Ages 2024 Christmas Special!!!!

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Ryan, Maddy, and Todd watch the second half of Deadpool (2016) and realize they probably didn't need to divide this episode into two parts because there isn't that much to say about the second half of Deadpool (2016). Wade Wilson's arch nemesis Francis kidnaps his ex-girlfriend Vanessa for some reason. Deadpool, Colossus, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead team up to save Vanessa and destroy a helicarrier in the process. Why is there a helicarrier? We can't actually explain anything that happens at the end of this movie, and it's not funny enough to justify itself, either.

Next episode: The Gifted season 2????

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Maddy, Ryan, and Todd convene to analyze the first half of Deadpool (2016), which we probably didn't need to divide into two parts because it turns out this movie is really simple. Also, most of these jokes do not hold up! Bounty hunter Wade Wilson meets a hottie named Vanessa, finds out he has cancer, dumps her so she doesn't have to watch him die, then participates in an experimental treatment program that gives him superpowers but also makes his entire body look like shit and gains him a super-powered nemesis named Francis. More in Part 2, such as Blind Al, the best part of the movie! We didn't exactly have a great time watching this, but compared to some of the Fox films we've watched lately, it does at least have a coherent plot that's easily summarized.

Next episode: Deadpool (2016), Part 2

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Maddy and Ryan do a miniature listener mail that is mostly just a return to The Mutant Ages: The Comic Book, because we didn't have that many emails to read this time around. We answer questions about how to fix The Gifted (the question everybody wants to know the answer to) and how we would go about writing Bobby's coming-out story on X-Men '97 if it were up to us.

Next episode: Deadpool Part 1 (the first half of the movie)

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Maddy and Ryan finally reached the season 1 finale of The Gifted, titled "X-Roads," and it's not bad. Finally, there's a plot on this show! Lorna breaks with the rest of the Mutant Underground by deciding to resort to violence in respond to Dr. Krieger's evil plan, which then leads to a larger shake-up at the episode's conclusion. Andy and Lauren also end up resorting to violence once Jace Turner discovers the Mutant Underground's hideout. Took him long enough, since it turns out that place wasn't very well hidden after all ...

Next episode: Listener mail!

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The Gifted aired its finale in two parts, and this is the first half. Unfortunately it's also the more boring half; we'll get to the real action in the next episode. In "eXtraction," Thunderbird, Eclipse, Blink, Lorna and the Cuckoos work together to break into Humanity Today, an anti-mutant conference that Dr. Campbell (or as we always call him, Dr. Krieger) is attending alongside anti-mutant bigot Senator Montez. But that plotline doesn't come to a head until the last five minutes of the episode. Up until then, this is a meandering episode about the Strucker family trying to reconnect with Reed's mom to save her from getting waylaid by Sentinel Services. This plotline goes nowhere and this episode didn't need to exist. Dang it, The Gifted, why are you like this?

Next episode: "X-Roads," The Gifted

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With a title like "3 X 1," you'd think this episode of The Gifted would be all about the Cuckoos, but mostly this episode is about the Struckers deciding to leave the Mutant Underground only to return once again by the time the episode ends. Why does Reed Strucker love to walk in circles? We do still get to see some fun moments with Esme and her sisters, and we get a little bit of new information about the Hellfire Club and its motivations, but overall this episode could stand to have quite a bit more plot in it. This is also the episode that introduces the plot point that Polaris has bipolar disorder, so Ryan and Maddy do some deep dives into their own diagnoses and the various diagnoses of the X-Men in discussing that.

Next episode: "eXtraction," The Gifted

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Maddy, Ryan, and Todd read the five-issue comic book series "X-Terminators" and loved it. We go over the major plot beats and outline all the reasons why it's great and everyone should read it. Namely that it's four women being hilarious hot messes who love each other and love ribbing on each other. They get into some hot water with Dazzler's shitty ex-boyfriend and then bomb their way out of it.

Next episode: "3 X 1," The Gifted

E-mail us your feedback at [email protected] or follow us on social media at TheMutantAges, MIDImyers and RyanPagella. If you like what you hear, please consider supporting us via patreon.com/themutantages. Thanks!