The Gifted Just Added Three X-Men Characters You May Recognize

The Gifted pulled no punches in its midseason finale, shockingly killing off one of the main mutants, only to introduce three new ones you may recognize from the X-Men comics!

After being taken prisoner by the FBI, Andy (Percy Hynes White) and Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind) were put in an impossible situation: use their newfound destructive powers, or watch Campbell (tktk) execute one of their mutant friends. Campbell's tactics may have succeeded in the end, but they came at the cost of Dreamer (Elena Satine), whom Campbell killed to "motivate" the kids. Blink (Jamie Chung) and the kids may have been rescued in the end -- if you really call psychotic telepaths a rescue team -- but they probably just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Just when you thought Esme (Skyler Samuels) and Marcos' (Sean Teale) rescue mission might be a success, Esme turned on her fellow mutant and made countless agents murder each other with her powers of mind control. That's when we learned just who and what Esme is. That sweet, unsuspecting little telepath is actually one of three identical triplets X-Men fans may recognize as the Stepford Cuckoos (or Cuckoo Sisters), and their agenda seems less than liberating.

"They are identical triplet clones," showrunner Matt Nix clarified when we asked about this newest twist. "Technically they are the clones of Emma Frost -- the cloned 'daughters' of Emma Frost... They're telepaths whose powers are strong individually but much stronger when they're together. They are also concerned with protecting mutants and the future of their kind, but they have very different ideas from the mutant underground about how to go about that. They're willing to take much more extreme measures than the folks in the mutant underground and really make no apologies for it."

The Gifted Just Dropped a Huge X-Men Hint

It's hard to ignore the similarities between these girls and the Brotherhood, who also used extreme measures to facilitate their "mutant friendly" agenda. They both want to save mutants, but Esme and her sisters will cut down anyone and anything in their path -- including other mutants it seems.

"As far as they're concerned, they know how to deal with the situation, and they know if they just presented their plan directly to the mutant underground, there's no way they'd go for it," Nix says. "So Esme takes it upon herself to make sure that she can rescue her sisters and the other mutants in the facility in a very, very hardcore way. And again, she makes no apologies for that."

The Gifted airs Mondays at 9/8c on Fox.