REVIEW: Marvel's Inhumans "The Gentleman's Name Is Gorgon"
Hallelujah, we’re finally getting closer to the end. We’re all reunited, sort of, and we’re all headed back to the moon, again sort of. We are finally coming to a point where we can put the show behind us. So why is it that I still don’t feel anything?
I have to be honest and admit that for a majority of the story I kept wondering why the episode was named for Gorgon. After finishing the episode, I’m given a reason…but I still don’t care. And that’s the show’s fault because I really liked Gorgon. Only something as disappointing and dull as this series could make me feel meh about someone’s death, and this coming from someone who actually felt something in Agents of SHIELD when Lincoln died.
The thing is, I know the show knows how to do a focus plot. They did one for Medusa, and they did one for Karnak. What was the problem for doing one with Gorgon? Even in the flashback, they focused on Maximus, which is something no one needs. There’s still plenty of information we could have used to get to know Gorgon like what was his life like or if he needed to learn a lesson. Maybe the writers just didn’t like the character. Maybe it’s my own stupidity for trusting that we would have something. Maybe it’s just the plot.
The plot not only did not go how I would have preferred from last week, but actually went in the completely opposite direction. The Royals barely show deeper care for the humans while the humans still risk life and limb to help them. What is the major lesson here? Sure, they learn humans aren’t all bad (what a stretch), but they hardly show any real character change from understanding that fact. They hardly even change at all.
In fact, if we look at it closely, they seem to be going backwards in some cases to the point of being literally stupid. They have to be told of what to do next by the human characters and still act so sure of themselves when in contact with each other. At the rare times when we cross into a deeper theme like this stupid caste system it’s instantly brushed aside for the current plot which is moving a snail’s pace. Sure, hold off on discussing the balance between free will and destiny when you can tell us we need to find the others for the fifteenth time.
Then again, the only other times we get really close to approaching a deeper theme is with Maximus, and that’s more of the hitting a shovel over your head kind of posturing. Anyone above the age of five knows that a caste system is bad and that sending people out to die is bad. Any show that thinks that could be a deep message not only doubts its own intelligence but mine as well. I take offense at that.
In the end, nothing of note really happened in this episode, except that they happened to kill off two likeable character. Then again, those happen at the same time, so the impact is shockingly minimum. As we get closer to the finale, I have to say that some of these characters deserved better, or at least Gorgon does. The man died in a poorly-shot fight sequence taking out the only interesting bad guy of the show. That’s not the way someone should go.
If this is the way I feel when someone I care about dies, I’m a little wary about how I’ll feel in the future with whatever they choose to do to Maximus. If he doesn’t die, I’ll be ticked. If he does die, I know it won’t be in any way satisfying. So apparently my choices are between mad and less mad. I shouldn’t have to hope for that.
As a penultimate episode, this was a dud, but the show is a dud so it’s not a shocker. It’s not action-packed, revolutionary, or emotionally impactful, just like the rest of the series. I guess that’s how the rest of the show will be remembered if we will remember it at all.
