“Behold… The Inhumans” is episode one of season one of Marvel’s Inhumans.
This, the first episode in a short-lived series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, opens by passing the Moon and heading towards the Earth before finally ending up on the island of O’ahu in Hawaii. It is raining and a young woman is running through the jungle. Armed men are following her. She leans against a tree and a hooded man appears and touches the woman, telling her she is safe. His name is Triton and he has been looking for her, because she is one of them, Inhumans, removing his hood and revealing that he has green skin.
The woman doesn’t know why this is happening and Triton explains she was exposed to terragen, and no, it hasn’t made her a freak. There is a place where all the people are like her, the city of Attilan, and Triton can take her there. The woman hears something and tells Triton that they are here. The two run – so much for being safe – as the armed men open fire. The woman is hut, fatally by the looks of it, and Triton runs off, as the attackers fire at him with both bullets and grenade launchers. Triton is hit, in a possible overuse of bullet time, and comes to the edge of a cliff, jumping into the sea below. One of his pursuers tells someone that the mission is accomplished.
A man and a red-haired woman are on a bed when something on a nearby table chimes, perhaps a wrist communicator of some kind. The man tries to get it but can’t reach. The woman’s hair can, picking the device up and moving it away; her hair is also holding the man’s arm. The device beeps again and the woman asks if he can remember what it was like before they were king and queen. The man does not answer verbally and the woman says she cannot either. The two later go out onto a balcony of the building, which overlooks a city, Attilan. There is blue sky above them. Which would appear to be a hologram, because the city is in a lunar crater, hidden under some type of cloak on the Moon.
A lunar rover is travelling the Moon’s surface, amazingly and rarely accurately in silence. The rover gives an impact warning, as it is being operated remotely. There is another impact warning, something thumps onto the rover in the view of its camera, then the feed goes dark. The rover was being operated from the Callisto Aerospace Control Center, California, and is no longer responding.
The king and queen are walking through a crowd in Attilan and the king gestures to a man in the crowd to follow. The three arrive and another asks where Triton is, but they are not going to wait. The king is not talking, instead using sign language. One of those there shows a live feed to Earth from the lunar rover. Which a man with hooves then brings in, saying it’s another one for their collection. He is asked what something is and the answer is not the baby car. It’s what’s above it on the screen. Which the man says is his hoof. He does not see a problem. The hoofed man, Gorgon, says that the rover was banging against their walls and as the leader of the Royal Guard it was his duty to do something. Something smart he is told by another, Karnak. Besides, no-one on Earth is going to know it’s a hoof. The woman who was piloting the rover, Louise, is looking at the last image and saying it looks like a hoof. Her boss, George Ashland, asks if she wants to say a hoof crashed their Moon rover. She replies that she said it looked like a hoof, not that it was a hoof.
The king, Black Bolt, wants to do nothing. The man he told to follow them, Maximus, is his brother and he says that is his brother’s strategy for everything. That sooner or later the humans will find them and, because they are humans, they will attempt to destroy the Inhumans. Gorgon asks Maximum if he knows this because he is one of them. Maximus states he is not one of them. He has never been to Earth and, regardless of what his genes might suggest, he is Inhuman like the rest of them. Which does not appear to be universally agreed with. Maximus tells the others that when Earth comes they will be unprepared. That they need to strike first, to go to their rightful home. The red-haired woman, Medusa, tells Maximus that this will lead to war. He wants to know whether Medusa is speaking for herself or the king. When told she is speaking for herself, he wants to know what the king thinks. Black Bolt touches Maximus and Maximus says that he trusts him. On Earth, Ashland is saying that they still don’t know what it means. Louise says it means they just wasted $80 million – Ashland queries the ‘We,’ saying she was the one at the controls. They need to figure out what this is.
In Attilan, a terragenesis ceremony is being held for a boy and a girl. Behind Black Bolt, some of the others are talking. Karnak’s comments result in Gorgon telling him this is why he never gets invited to make birthday speeches – because he was being pretty down. Gorgon asks Medusa where her sister is. A younger woman, presumably the sister, calls a dog to her. The dog looks to be a bulldog – but a really, really big one, as it’s as tall as she is. She tells the dog to take her to the grand hall, and it teleports them both there, where the ceremony is being held.
At the ceremony, the young woman, Crystal, opens a box revealing crystals. She removes some and the boy and girl enter sealed chambers. This is all very formal and ritualistic. Crystal drops the, err, crystals into the boxes. The crystals break and become gaseous. The two are told to leave and the girl shows she has butterfly wings. Gorgon thinks fliers are awesome, he loves fliers. The boy says that he feels the same. Maximus tells him that sometimes terragenesis takes a while to fully manifest. He touches the boy on the shoulder, and the boy drops to the ground, spasming. Probably not what was expected to happen. When the boy comes out of it, he tells Maximus he saw him, with snakes all over him.
Outside, the two are shown to the crowd. A heckler says to send the boy to the mines but Maximus replies that he is yet to undergo testing by the genetic council. Maximus is sure the council will find something. Even though they didn’t with Maximus himself, the heckler points out, and Maximus should be digging in the mines with the rest of them. Maximus agrees the heckler has a point. He had the worst possible terragensis. But his brother is the king. Maximus knows that others are not so fortunate. Their finite kingdom forces them into a strict caste system. On Earth, they would have an entire glorious planet to live on. Maximus appears to be speechifying for popular support. Then Maximus’ wrist device goes and, by the look on his face, it isn’t good news.
Maximus enters a room where the others are eating and tells them that Triton is dead. An individual is lead in, who showed Maximus what happened to Triton. Led in, because they cannot see, having essentially projectors for eyes. Black Bolt admits he sent Triton to Earth. The recent spread of terragen throughout Earth, thanks to the contamination of the water supply (due to the events of the Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode “S.O.S.: Part 2”), those who are at least part Inhuman have been changing. Black Bolt tells the others that these new Inhumans are members of their own family, descendants of those left behind when the others moved to the Moon. They will be brought back, not left to suffer. Maximus feels that brining more people to Attilan when they can barely support their existing population is a bad idea. Instead, they should go there. Black Bolts tells him to trust his king. Maximus leaves, clearly unhappy. Once Maximus has gone, Karnak tells Black Bolt that whether Maximus is right or wrong, he is dangerous. Black Bolt may think he is being tough, but Karnak doesn’t. Maximus has the ear of the people and undermines the king’s authority. As he was just doing before arriving. Gorgon calls for Crystal, as he wants to head out to look for Triton. Before Gorgon leaves, Black Bolt tells him that it is a rescue mission, not revenge, and takes Gorgon’s gun. Crystal tells the giant teleporting dog to take Gorgon to Triton’s last location.
Maximus is up to something, in true stereotypical villain style. Even his dialogue is rather stereotypical. He’s clearly plotting something and his plots reach quite some way, and his brother seems to be caught totally unawares. All in all, not the most electrifying start to a series.