The Gifted is everything to me. It may not have the production value of shows like Gotham, Legion, or Krypton, or the lighthearted fun of Legends of Tomorrow, but it’s a rare example of a comic adaptation that, as unlikely as it is, manages to be well executed and faithful enough to the spirit of the source material to please the fans. Here is a non-exhaustive list of things I’m hoping to see in season two.

8. Rachel Summers

Before the first episode with Esme came out, all we knew about Skyler Samuels’s character was that she was a telepath, and that, combined with the fact that the Hound program had already been introduced, made me think something along the lines of, oh my God, Rachel-Rachel-Rachel, yeeesssss, remember how to breathe. Guys…It wasn’t Rachel.

I was talking to someone a while ago about both The Gifted and the X-Men movies, and we bemoaned the lack of Rachel and the disrespect for the Summers family. She didn’t appear in Days of Future Past, despite the fact that was her first appearance in the comics and she had a central role. Here, they actually went with a Roderick Campbell and the Hound program plot without bringing up Rachel, the most famous Hound. If Rachel doesn’t show up later, it’ll be a travesty of justice.

7. Utopia

Yes, I recognize that I’m demonstrating a trend in what I want here. Shut up.

Supposedly, the Struckers spent the season trying to get to Mexico, where the anti-mutant laws are looser. You know where else those laws would be looser? The country Cyclops founded to give all mutants a safe place to go when he got sick of waiting and asking nicely for baseline humans to stop persecuting them. Polaris bringing down the plane could be a catalyst for broader mutant persecution, prompting the need for a country for mutants.

Matt Nix said in an interview that season two will focus more on mutants out in the world and the idea of the mutant underground as a network, rather than a place. This makes it unlikely that the lead characters would actually go to Utopia, but doesn’t rule out the possibility of a running plot of the characters hearing rumours about the X-Men still being alive and getting ready to actually stand their ground. I know this one is unlikely, especially because Cyclops will probably be considered “movie territory”, but I think they ruled out any possibility of cleanly dividing who got what once they made Polaris – Magneto’s daughter, who’s also the woman that nearly became Scott’s sister in law, – a main character.

6. Dreamer Back

I loved Sonya and thought she had a lot more potential, but her death was very poorly handled. We were told about her backstory, rather than had it shown through flashbacks the way we learned about every other character. It was pointless, because Andy and Lauren did what she told them not to thirty seconds later anyway. We saw her funeral, but not how her death actually affected any of her friends. No one mentioned her when trying to get through to Lorna, and nor did Lorna bring her up as part of her justification for killing Campbell.

Even before her death, she was treated more as a tool than a character, pushed into situations that didn’t actually make sense but were for the sake of moving the story along to where the writers wanted. There was no reason for her to not take away her memory from Clarice once Clarice regained control of her powers or tell Clarice what she’d done, but she didn’t do either of those things because the writers wanted to cause conflict between the two of them, introduce the love triangle between them and John, and provide justification for Clarice to take off later. She was an awesome character, Elena Satine is a great actress, and she deserved way better than to be pointlessly killed off. Bring her back.

5. Fewer dropped plotlines

Remember how when Caitlin went to her brother for help, the episode ended with Agent Turner ordering the shut down of every mutant sympathizer and safe house? I’d understand if you don’t, because it was never followed up on. I kept anticipating that coming up again, but it never did.

4. Deeper exploration of mutants as a metaphor for persecuted minorities

To be fair, The Gifted started off really well in that regard. In the beginning, it was as if every episode explored a different aspect of how that was true. The later episodes veered away from that in favour of more action scenes, which I find sad – there’s plenty of that in other X-Men related media. The Gifted was unique because of its focus on the “lesser” mutants, on characters without the resources that go along with being one of the X-Men.

People tuned into the show for different reasons. Maybe some did it because of how it was promoted as being family story, others because it was X-Men related, and so on. I did it for a variety of reasons. One of them was Polaris, who in the comics, has been the victim of frequent terrible writing. But the primary reason I watched that first episode was because it was in its own universe and promised to dive into how mutants are an analogy for marginalized people in a way that the movies didn’t, focusing on the characters as people more than just a way to show off cool powers and fight scenes. I was delighted by the first few episodes. Later? Not so much. I’m hoping season two remembers what mutants are supposed to represent.

3. The Morlocks

The literal mutant underground. This one is unlikely, I know, what with the whole the next season is going to focus on mutants interacting with the broader world thing. To be clear, I am very excited about that. One thing about the movies, not so much a flaw as a different focus, is how insular they are. They focus on the same few characters over and over again in the context of the school. We don’t see much of regular, non-politician humans or mutants that, for whatever reason, don’t join the X-Men or the Brotherhood. It’ll be awesome to get to see that. But the Morlocks could add a new level to the range of perspectives on how mutants should act that we’re seeing.

The mutant underground is, in a way, the reincarnation of the Xavier Institute. There are differences, of course – fewer resources, generally less impressive powers, the fact that they’re not actually a school – but they’re the spiritual successor in that they were founded by the X-Men to have the same values. The Hellfire Club has been and will continue to be more militant and goal oriented. The Morlocks have traditionally been the visible mutants that can’t fit in with human society and mostly just want to be left alone.

Sonya’s comics counterpart, Beautiful Dreamer, was a Morlock before she was killed by Purifiers. She was such a minor character, I don’t think anyone expected her to appear here. The Gifted‘s version of Sonya isn’t a visible mutant, but the fact that she appeared suggests to me that the writers have at least considered bringing in the Morlocks. I’d get why they might decide against it – adding a faction of visible mutants could mean overstuffing the cast and being forced to spend a significant chunk of the budget on makeup – but I think alluding to their existence would help flesh out the world in which the show takes place.

2. LGBT characters

Mutants aren’t a metaphor for any specific type of marginalized person – they have aspects of many. This includes people of colour, the disabled, and LGBT people. Several of the characters in the mutant underground aren’t white. Lorna is, but also mentally ill and living without access to health care and medicine (it was also implied that she’s bi through the whole “Tinder is full of girls that are into mutants thing”, but that probably wasn’t intended like that). The Gifted has done a much better job in regards to diversity than the films, which are almost absurdly white, but it’d be nice to have that extend to LGBT characters.

1. For God’s sake, let the Struckers actually learn the lesson

1. The Struckers complain about how the leaders of the mutant underground are handling things.
2. They learn that they’re being naive to the point of stupidity and that they don’t have any idea what it’s like to be a mutant.
3. They resolve to start pulling their weight more.
4. Rinse, repeat.

The Struckers may be the focus of the show, but it really doesn’t work. I’d love them getting reduced screentime, but I’m smart enough to know that probably won’t happen. So I’d at least like them to not have the same yo-yo plot for another season. The show has been pushing the idea of the Struckers as leaders in the mutant underground which I find a fundamentally gross concept. Even setting aside the fact that they’re not mutants, ninety percent of the issues the mutant underground faced throughout the season were their fault, but their response to Fade and Sage pointing out how much harm they’d caused was to completely deny all responsibility, like it was absurd and petty to even suggest it.

Here’s the issue with the Struckers: they’re fundamentally selfish. You could make a case that it’s just them coming to terms with not having the privilege they’re used to anymore and struggling to get used to what the mutants have always known, but that doesn’t excuse their frequent oh, it’s okay for you to risk your lives for us, but it’s asking too much to ask us to help out. Caitlin complained about Lorna teaching her kids how to survive.  They see the world as all about them. Reed had no qualms about prosecuting mutants until it turned out his kids also had active X-genes. We were supposed to consider him not calling the police on a girl that couldn’t control her powers while being taunted and instead just telling her and her father to leave an example of him being a ~good guy. Caitlin didn’t have any issue with her husband’s job finding out about their kids’ powers and considered Lauren and Andy’s argument over the use of the word “mutie” as them having an argument over social studies class. Marcos called them out on that in the second episode, and they still didn’t seem to get it by the end.

Lauren is seventeen. She’s not some child that needs her mother to make all her decisions about her life for her. I think someone mentioned that the first season took place over about three weeks, and if that’s the case, then Lauren definitely needs her parents to stop speaking for her, because she mentioned that before Andy’s powers manifested and they went on the run, she’d planned to move somewhere far away once she turned eighteen. She spent years hiding her powers, genuinely afraid of how her parents would react, but is somehow content with letting them tell her how to use them. It’s not logical. Season one had the kids mostly used as a way to keep the parents involved with the plot. The finale changed the status quo a bit by tearing down the HQ and having Andy decide to leave, so I’m hoping that season two will involve the characters actually progressing.

As much as I adore the show, I think the Struckers are the weakest link. They have potential to improve, but they’re really going to have to be less static as characters for me to care about them as much as I do the others.

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Anyone else have anything they hope to see? Let me know!