WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for The Gifted Season 2 episode “outMatched,” which debuted Tuesday on Fox.


Virtually from the 1963 debut of the X-Men, Marvel's mutants have been viewed as representing minority groups, whether African-Americans, the LGBT community, Jews or Muslims. The metaphor doesn't hold up to close scrutiny, as the oppressed don't possess extraordinary abilities that might enable them to fight back against their oppressors, but it endures, and it frequently results in powerful stories. Fox's The Gifted leans into that theme, albeit inconsistently, with Season 2 opening on a raid on an apartment complex, no doubt intended to evoke the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, before pivoting to interpersonal drama and the conflict between the Mutant Underground and the Inner Circle.

But with the fourth episode of the season, "outMatched," the X-Men spinoff returns to timely societal issues, if only briefly, with the reintroduction of the anti-mutant hate group the Purifiers.

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Debuting in the 1982 graphic novel X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, the Purifiers were a group of Christian fundamentalists, led by Rev. William Stryker, engaged in what they viewed as a holy war against mutants. They've clashed time and again with the X-Men and X-Force, determined to carry out their crusade to eradicate mutants.

A Purifier from The Gifted Season 1
A Purifier from The Gifted Season 1

The Purifiers were introduced to The Gifted in the first season in a flashback to Clarice (Jamie Chung) and her friend being harassed by a group of men in black hooded sweatshirts emblazoned with white crosses. Their presence was felt again in the season finale as members of the Mutant Underground traveled with the Frost sisters (Skyler Samuels) to an anti-mutant summit as part of a high-risk plot to kidnap Dr. Roderick Campbell and bring an end to the Hound Program. But apart from a passing mention, the Purifiers had seemingly been forgotten by the series, at least until this week, when the group's anti-mutant fervor finally intersects with the aimlessness and despair of Jace Turner.

Played by Coby Bell, the disgraced former Sentinel Services agent has arguably become even more driven to bringing fugitives to justice. Bristling at life in the private sector, and increasingly at odds with his wife, he sought to make his skills and knowledge useful to a Washington, D.C., police precinct, and perhaps in the process bring down the Mutant Underground, only to be rebuffed. Torn between saving his marriage and pursuing justice, or revenge, for the daughter killed in the mysterious 7/15 event, he chooses the latter. And that brings him into direct contact with the Purifiers, who we learn aren't all hooded goons harassing mutants in theater parking lots. Some of them are even police officers.

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Officer Wilson (Tom O'Keefe), whom Turner encountered at the precinct, reaches out, identifying himself as a Purifier by the cross tattoo on his arm. When Turner indicates he has no interest in joining a hate group, Wilson replies, "I get it, you hear the lies in the media, about how we're all bigots. The fact is, we're regular folk who love our species, our country and our families." He seems perfectly harmless, friendly even, reminiscent of white nationalists occasionally trotted out as spokespeople to help normalize the movement's repugnant views. When Turner politely refuses his offer, Wilson offers him his phone number, in case he should ever change his mind.

However, he doesn't have to wait long, as the Inner Circle's plot to free a mysterious mutant from the Linwood Mental Hospital is provided cover by the release of all the super-powered patients. The "mutant attack," as media reports describe it, is all that's required to make Turner dial the phone, and find a placed where his knowledge can be put to use.


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.