The Gifted's Mutant Homeland Project, Explained

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the Season 2 premiere of The Gifted, "eMergence," premiering Tuesday on Fox.

The opening moments of The Gifted's Season 2 premiere not only introduce the governing Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, previously only mentioned on Fox's X-Men spinoff, but also new antagonist Reeva Payge, and her dream -- one that she was willing to risk so much in Atlanta to move closer to reality: the Mutant Homeland Project, which to Marvel Comics fans may evoke images of Magneto's utopian island of Genosha.

Few concrete details are provided in "eMergence," but we can piece together enough clues from the episode, from the comics and from interviews to get an idea of what the Mutant Homeland Project entails.

When taken to task by the Inner Circle for the events of the Season 1 finale, Reeva (Grace Byers) concedes that she and the Frost sisters (Skyler Samuels) took extreme measures, without authorization, but only with the best of intentions. "What do we all want?" she asks the group. "It's simple: We want peace. We want freedom. We want to feel safe in our homes. Let's be honest, none of that happens unless mutants have a place of their own. [...] We did it for the sake of a dream that we all share."

William (Ray Campbell), who in Season 1 seemed to be the Frost sisters' Inner Circle contact, mockingly applauds Reeva's rhetoric. "Enough. Very pretty speech, Reeva. Bravo. But the Mutant Homeland Project has been discussed, and dismissed," he says, giving a name to her dream. "It is too dangerous."

Their exchange also reveals that the recruitment of Lorna Dane, aka Polaris (Emma Dumont), whose power level may only be encountered once in a generation, and Andy Strucker (Percy Hynes White), both of whom have familial connections to the Hellfire Club, is viewed as essential to Reeva's plan, whatever that may be.

From the vision of the dawn of a new era on The Gifted

We get another clue late in the episode, when Lorna experiences difficulty in childbirth, and Reeva uses the Frost sisters' telepathic abilities to share with her a vision of "the dawn of a new age," a phrase reminiscent of the "Dawn of the Mutant Age" tagline used in the marketing of Season 2. That vision is indistinguishable from a presidential inauguration, with Polaris raising her fists from the platform at the U.S. Capitol as banners depicting a double helix unfurl to cover American flags. We're left to wonder whether Polaris is truly the key to Reeva's plan, or if the manipulative Frost sisters have constructed similar scenarios in which Andy Strucker, or even someone like perpetual hanger-on Sage, is central to this new mutant age.

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Regardless, it raises a major question about Reeva's dream: Is it for a new "homeland" for mutants, a paradise separate from humanity, or for an America controlled by mutants?

“So the vision that she has is that — and I mean, it’s no secret — she fully believes that it is impossible for humans and mutants to live peacefully in the same world,” Byers recently explained to CBR during a visit to The Gifted set. “Her experience has told her that. The present has told her that. She has lost lots of people and lots of things due to that. So it has been proven to her time and time again that it’s just not possible, and so she is working for a world and a nation where the mutants can live unharmed and at peace and free.”

Over the course of his 55-year comic book history, iconic X-Men antagonist Magneto has, at turns, sought to either create such a mutant homeland, or else conquer humanity in the name of homo superior, whom he's convinced is destined to become Earth's dominant life form. He at last found the former, at least temporarily, in Genosha, an island nation northeast of Madagascar that thrived in the late 20th century through the enslavement of mutants. The Genoshan government was eventually overthrown by the X-Men, and the country descened into a civil war that only ended when the United Nations ceded control to Magneto.

He began to rebuild Genosha as the mutant paradise he'd envisioned, only to first come into conflict with the X-Men when his plans expanded beyond the borders of the tiny nation, and then watch his dream seemingly destroyed by Cassandra Nova (effectively, Charles Xavier's twin; it's a long story) and her Wild Sentinels.

While The Gifted has repeatedly referred to Polaris' father, whom we know to be Magneto, the series has yet to actually mention his name, with creator Matt Nix likening him to Voldemort from Harry Potter. However, it certainly appears as though the Fox drama is setting up a Magneto-like figure who could become a savior of mutantkind. The question is, whether that's his daughter Lorna, or the kingmaker Reeva.

It's Polaris who welcomes the "new age," to the cheers of the masses assembled on the National Mall, in the telepathic vision. However, a mutant homeland, or else mutant supremacy, is clearly Reeva's goal. Oh, sure, Lorna, like Andy Strucker, wants to stop running and hiding; she hopes for a place where her daughter can grow up safe. She's even killed Roderick Campbell and anti-mutant Senator Montez in the Season 1 finale in an effort to bring the Hound program to an end. Still, that was only at the urging of the manipulative Frost sisters, whom we now know were operating on Reeva's orders.

If Polaris is central to this new future for mutants, whatever form it ultimately takes, then it's likely only as a figurehead, buoyed by her power levels and her connection to He-Who-Must-Not-Be Named. It's Reeva who will be the power behind the throne, the puppeteer pulling the strings and, in order to get Lorna, and mutantkind, to that place.

Airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, Fox’s The Gifted stars Stephen Moyer as Reed Strucker, Amy Acker as Caitlin Strucker, Sean Teale as Eclipse/Marcos Diaz, Jamie Chung as Blink/Clarice Fong, Coby Bell as Jace Turner, Emma Dumont as Polaris/Lorna Dane, Blair Redford as Thunderbird/John Proudstar, Natalie Alyn Lind as Lauren Strucker, Percy Hynes White as Andy Strucker, Skyler Samuels as the Frost sisters and Grace Byers as Reeva Payge.