WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the first season of Fox's The Gifted.
Fox's X-Men drama The Gifted, has slowly revealed itself to be about something greater than what viewers may have initially believed. What began simply enough as the Strucker family seeking to protect their mutant children from the government agents who pursued them has gradually transformed into a supervillain origin story for Lorna Dane, aka Polaris. In Monday night's Season 1 finale, she finally embraced the legacy of her father Magneto and joined with the rekindled Hellfire Club, effectively filling the void left by his mysterious disappearance. With one side of TV show's philosophical debate now with its own Magneto, that means the other side -- the Mutant Underground -- needs a Professor Xavier.
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But rather than Caitlin Strucker (Amy Acker), who ensured the Mutant Underground provides a school for the children and opposed Lorna's more militant leanings, that role has been filled by none other than Polaris' boyfriend Marcos Diaz, aka Eclipse (Sean Teale). A character created for The Gifted, Marcos has been part of the group's leadership -- alongside Emma Dumont's Lorna and Blair Redford's John Proudstar -- since the first episode. Possessing the mutant ability to absorb photons and project light from his fingertips, Eclipse has been compared by creator Matt Nix to Wolverine, as far as his attitude goes. But while that's true in some aspects, Marcos better represents the X-Men's founder rather than its wild card.
There are numerous differences between Xavier and Marcos, with the latter resorting to work for a Mexican cartel after being rejected by his family as a child, the most important element they share is that they're devoted to ensuring peace between humans and mutants. It's Eclipse who brings the Struckers into the Mutant Underground, and who must repeatedly defend their presence there. But while he initially helped them in hopes of freeing Lorna from Sentinel Services, it's easy to infer that Marcos sees in the loving family something he was denied, yet could still have.
With Lorna serving as The Gifted's Magneto analog, Marcos becoming its Professor X continues the tradition of tragic lovers on both sides of the mutant/human divide. Thanks to Fox's X-Men movie prequels, it's difficult not to see Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr as star-crossed. The same is true for Marcos and Lorna.
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Since Lorna's rescue, and the revelation of her pregnancy, the TV drama has carefully unwound her relationship with Marcos with arguments that seem trivial and even predictable. However, they also demonstrate that any romance involving a child of Magneto was always doomed to fail. Both Lorna and Marcos are fully capable, and powerful, in their own right. But Marcos has always been the more romantic of the two, with his almost-suicidal devotion to rescuing her and keeping her on his side. Not unlike how Charles was with Erik. The scene in which Lorna and Marcos combine their powers create the Northern Lights serves as the culmination of their love in the way that "Peace and Serenity" did for the leading men of X-Men: First Class.
It's been stated multiple times on The Gifted that John, Lorna and Marcos were "chosen" by the X-Men before their disappearance, which imbued Marcos with a sense of responsibility to the Mutant Underground. The status of the X-Men has been left murky in the first season, but the effect the team had on mutants like Marcos is clear: He believes in their goal of peace with humankind, even though he's been targeted by them multiple times. Combined with his love for Lorna and her determination to fight back against humanity, Marcos possesses the same optimism espoused by Charles Xavier.
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It makes it all the more tragic when Marcos hopelessly pleads with Lorna in the Season 1 finale not to destroy the jet carrying Dr. Roderick Campbell, the creator of the Hounds Program, and his anti-mutant ally Sen. Montez. The lines in the sand are forever drawn in the final minutes as Marcos says, "Our kid has to live in this world!" only to be answered by a coldly determined Lorna: "It's time to make a new world."
With The Gifted renewed for a second season, the Mutant Underground is broken, but not destroyed. Marcos' ability to see the fact that all of them are alive as a positive, and to understand that this struggle takes sacrifice, indicates he'll likely assume more of a direct leadership role. As the Professor said in X-Men Legends II, "the world needs dreamers to give it a soul," and now more than ever, no one has dreams of a better future than Marcos.
Returning for Season 2 in the fall, 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, and Percy Hynes White as Andy Strucker.