‘The Gifted’ Just Deepened Its X-Men Ties In A Major Way

Last night’s episode of The Gifted, “got your siX,” once again referenced the X-Men and deepened the show’s connection to Marvel’s premier mutant superhero team in some exciting ways.

SPOILERS for The Gifted episode six, “got your siX,” follow.

Up until now, we’ve known that the X-Men, the Brotherhood of Mutants, and even the Mutant Liberation Front exist in the world of The Gifted. We also knew that at least the X-Men and the Brotherhood had at some point gone missing. The Mutant Underground, which includes Polaris, Thunderbird, and Eclipse among its members, exists as a separate group concerned with providing mutants with a mean of escaping persecution by the anti-mutant government.

Up until now, it has seemed that the X-Men and the Mutant Underground have operated independently of one another. The 7/15 incident led to the enactment of strict anti-mutant laws, which led to the formation of the Mutant Underground shortly before the X-Men disappeared. However, last night revealed that the X-Men may have been more connected to the Mutant Underground than fans thought.

In the episode “got your siX,” Thunderbird has a conversation with Dreamer he questions whether the X-Men made a mistake in choosing him to be a part of the Underground. This is the first indication we’ve had that the X-Men were involved with choosing the group’s roster.

The conversation also revealed that the X-Men warned the Mutant Underground that a war was coming before they mysteriously vanished and that the group did not say whether mutants would win the war. This could mean that the X-Men didn’t simply vanish but somehow knew that they’d be away from the public for a time and helped form the Mutant Underground to make sure that mutants had someone to turn to once they were gone.

Being the harbingers of war is a bit out of character for the X-Men. Usually its Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants who are ready for a war between humans and mutants. Perhaps, in the style of “Days of Future Past,” the X-Men received a warning from the future telling them about the coming war. The message they gave the underground would then not be a pessimistic assessment of human-mutant relations but a statement of the fact of the matter.

If this was true it would also show more influence on The Gifted from the classic “Days of Future Past” X-Men story, which fits nicely with the arrival of the Hounds and could be another clue that Rachel Summers is coming to the show.

The Gifted airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.