WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the midseason finale of The Gifted, "eXploited," which debuted Monday on Fox.
In the world of Fox's The Gifted, Trask Industries was secretly revived to conduct illegal experiments on mutants, in the process creating the deadly Hounds. However, there's another top-secret program from X-Men lore that seemingly remains on ice: Weapon X.
Intended to induce superpowers in test subjects for military purposes, the covert government project is of course most famous for transforming Logan into the killing machine dubbed Weapon X (aka Wolverine). Although the details of the program have changed in Marvel comic books over the years, in Fox's X-Men film franchise, it's based at the Alkali Lake military complex in Alberta, Canada, as most recently seen in X-Men: Apocalypse.
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That same Weapon X Program receives a sly nod in this week's midseason finale of The Gifted, which also introduces to the television series Adamantium, the nearly indestructible fictional iron alloy that's bonded to Wolverine's skeleton and forms his signature claws.
Following their capture in last week's episode by Sentinel Services, teens Lauren and Andy Strucker (Natalie Alyn Lind and Percy Hynes White) are begrudgingly delivered to Dr. Roderick Campbell (Garret Dillahunt), who has a particular fascination with their combined abilities. Like their great-grandfather and his twin sister, the mutant terrorists known as Fenris, Lauren and Andy can unleash massively destructive energy whenever they clasp hands.
To measure the extent of the Strucker children's powers, Dr. Campbell places them in a special "testing room" at Trask Industries.
"Are you curious about the walls?," he tells them from the apparent safety of an adjoining room. "They're lined with Adamantium, an extremely rare metallic alloy. It took a while to acquire. We found some in a defunct military installation in British Columbia. It's indestructible, so it's perfect for ... exploring powers."
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Campbell refers to British Columbia rather than the adjacent Alberta, which could either mean that his knowledge of Canadian geography is sketchy or that there was a second military complex not that far from Alkali Lake. Whatever the case, it's obvious that he's referencing the Weapon X Program.
But more important than any potential geographical error is Campbell's misjudgment of the indestructibility of Adamantium, at least when its subjected to the combined powers of the Struckers.
When Lauren and Andy refuse to demonstrate their ability, Campbell murders another one of his captives, the Mutant Underground member Dreamer (Elena Satine). Shaken by what they witnessed, and by the likelihood that Blink (Jamie Chung) will die next, the Struckers clasp hands, and provide Campbell and his researchers with a display of power they weren't quite prepared for: The Adamantium-lined walls buckle like cardboard.
Returning Monday, Jan. 1, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox, 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.