Poor critical reception or not, Marvel’s Inhumans is continuing to power forward, chugging right along as they work towards completing their eight-episode first season.
Building on the fact that the exiled Royal Family found themselves split apart on the Hawaiian island of Oahu during the events of last week’s two-episode premiere, our characters found themselves still attempting to find one another to no avail.
This is where we talk about one of the thing’s that frustrate me most about the current storyline of Inhumans: Lockjaw’s lackluster performance in teleporting the various Inhumans from Attilan to Oahu. I mean, Lockjaw most certainly is a good boy, but why’d he teleport each of the characters to separate parts of the island, when Crystal specifically told him to transport theme where Triton was last seen? But I digress, that probably should have been a conversation to have last week.
Overall, I was pretty impartial to this episode. There were a few things I really didn’t like, but I don’t think they were bad enough for me to think that this was a horrendous episode — or at least as bad as most comments section across the internet will say.
First things first: I enjoyed the increased flashbacks to Black Bolt’s youth where we saw both him and his brother Maximus undergo Terrigenesis. After the two princes (Insert Spin Doctors Here) underwent the Inhuman ritual, the scenes that played out provided some much-needed world building and character development.
Unable to speak, Black Bolt was made the heir apparent to the throne — a position he did not want — while the Genetic Council wanted to lock him away for being a danger to Attilan. Meanwhile, Maximus — the son of Agon who actually wanted the throne — was rendered ineligible for the position as the Terrigenesis robbed him of his Inhuman genetics, making him a mere human.We were introduced
We were introduced to a few new Inhumans — NuHumans, if you will — which were transported to Earth to help Auran kill the members of the Royal Family one by one. The first character Maximus choose to help Auran is a bad guy by the name of Mordis, an Inhuman who’s been locked away on Attilan for quite some time. The rest of the crew is pretty forgettable as they get their butts kicked by Gorgon and his Hawaiian surfer bros.
Karnak managed to stumble upon a rather large marijuana-growing operation, and this is where the show started to feel like Lost to me. Not because of the ganja, of course. But because we’re introduced to a group with shades of “The Others.” The scene that plays out is rather humorous, as the overly braggadocious leader of the group instantly wants to kill Karnak, which leads Karnak into a monologue where 1.) we find out he’s still powerless after hitting his head and 2.) he explains the tattoos are the result of a mistake he made as a teenager. They are some gnarly warpaint or ancient Inhuman ritual passed down. Rather it’s something Karnak probably got as a bet in high school, and as I’m rather big fan of the character, I feel this was something that was made more grounded than it needed to be.
We meet Henry Ian Cusick’s character very briefly and he’s still certainly the mysterious type. He makes to call to Black Bolt’s cellmate Sammy on Oahu and informs him that Black Bolt is Inhuman. Sammy and Black Bolt then start a jail yard fight — which leaders to a riot — and the two make their way to the courtyard to escape. It’s revealed here that Sammy is also Inhuman, where he warm his hands up, somewhat similar to the effects we saw in Iron Fist.
Cusick’s character — previously announced as a geneticist named Dr. Evan Declan — picks Black Bolt and Sammy up from the courtyard in his helicopter as Medusa’s left chasing the helicopter down with Elle Woglom’s Louise.
After publicly denouncing Maximus, Crystal’s able wake Lockjaw up for a split second to transport her to Hawaii where the two-ton dog passes out immediately upon arrival and he’s promptly hit by a recreation vehicle in the middle of the jungle.
Final Verdict:
3 OH MY GOD THEY RAN OVER LOCKJAW!s out of 5. Again, the flashback sequences with Black Bolt and Maximus really showed great development between the brothers, giving us a solid look at Maximus’ thirst for the throne. The Karnak scene just seemed odd and a bit misplaced and it’s almost becoming too obvious that they tried to save money by putting Lockjaw in the series less and less.
What’d you think of “Divide and Conquer?” Let me know in the comments below!
