Before we get too far, I may go full-on Inhumans spoilers in this review.  We’ll see how it goes, ya dig?

After last week’s “Make Way For Medusa…,” Marvel’s Inhumans is officially past the half-way point in the show’s tumultuous first season.  And while the show has had its fair share of ups and downs — mostly downs — with both critics and viewers, the latest episode — “Something Inhuman This Way Comes…” — did an excellent of offering up some much-needed character development for the likes of Crystal, Karnak, and Gorgon.

With the Royal Family spread out on the island of Oahu — solely for the convenience of creating conflict — for the first half of the series, the group manages to get together and reunite to put their heads together and figure out how their going to snuff out Maximus’ coup d’etat.  Well, for the most part — Crystal (Isabelle Cornish) is still figuring out what it’s like to be a peasant…er human.

Regardless of the series’ shortfalls to date, “Something Inhuman This Way Comes…” seemed long the strongest episode of the show thus far.  Through the use of a few flashbacks, we dig into the backstory of Karnak (Ken Leung) and Gorgon (Eme Ikwuakor) and find out the former largely feels responsible for keeping the latter from destroying Inhumanity as we know it with his braggadocious ways.  And I think it certainly painted a picture we all needed to see so we could understand who Karnak exactly is — and perhaps more importantly, why he acts the way he does.

While I absolutely hated the majority of Karnak’s dialogue last week — especially the inability to figure out how to take off a bra in the midst of tent sex — I felt the character rebounded this week in an episode in which he was the main star.  He finally got his powers back, which we first saw when he was able to avoid being shot in the face by splitting the bullet in half.  That was badass, right?

We further saw use of his intellect when he knuckle-punched a bullet fragment — from the aforementioned split bullet — from his pot-growing girlfriend Jen.

Karnak’s fight scene with The Others — or whatever the hell we’re going to call the new pot farmers that killed the old pot farmers — was a bright spot for the show, especially when it led to Gorgon running in to stomp his hoof and finally reunited with his cousin.

In terms of the King and Queen themselves, I’ve been fairly impartial to the both of them for most of the season and my feelings for them really didn’t change throughout this episode.  The two went on a buddy journey with Louise — this show’s version of Arrow’s Felicity Smoak or The Flash’s Cisco Ramon — and the henchman of Auran’s they took at the end of last week’s episode, an echolocating Inhuman named Locus.

The only other arc that really stood out to me was the progression of Crystal.  With a character that’s gotten criticized to the max throughout the first four episodes, her “fish out of water” scenario with her friend Dave is starting to grow on me.  After all, it’s pretty realistic, right?  She’s the princess of an alien race and now she’s forced to wear flannel (on Hawaii?) with daisy dukes.  I’m sure we’d all act in similar ways, even moreso if we had to wear the jean shorts.  I know I’d be cranky as hell.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed “Something Inhuman This Way Comes…”  I thought the story finally advanced at a reasonable pace and was satisfied enough with the characters arcs we got, it’s just a bummer this couldn’t have come a week or two sooner.

Final Verdict:

4 Jen don’t go breaking Karnak’s hearts out of 5 –  Like I’ve said, I liked the episode.  Was it perfect?  Absoultely not.  But it’s definitely the best we’ve seen so far this season and I hope it grows from here.

One-shots:

  • I’m pretty bummed out when it comes to Henry Ian Cusick’s Dr. Declan.  As an agent — or acquaintance — of Maximus’, his storyline with Auran seems pretty muddled and messy.
  • After getting saved by Gorgon, Karnak cut the tape holding his hands together apart and combined with his green hoodie, we got his entire look from Warren Ellis’ run.  Have I mentioned how much I love that run yet?  I love that run.
  • As ridiculous as the surfer bros were, I missed them this episode.  Maybe they’ll be back to help the Royal Family get back to Attilan.
  • I apologize to the fans of the King and Queen, but I’m definitely not diggin’ Black Bolt or Medusa so far.
  • After a Karnak-centric episode this week, I’m hyped to see Gorgon in the spotlight in next week’s “The Gentleman’s Name Is Gorgon.”
  • Wait, did we see Black Bolt use lightning in the preview for the season finale?  God, I sure hope so.