Esme Frost

Esme Frost is a recurring character during the first season of The Gifted. She was promoted to series regular for the second season. She, along with her identical sisters Sophie and Phoebe, are telepathic mutants who share a hive mind-like connection.

She joined the Mutant Underground as a refugee, and secretly manipulated it into helping her free her sisters, Sophie and Phoebe from the custody of Sentinel Services.

Early Life
Two months prior to Exploited, Esme, using the fake name Stacy, went undercover as a staff member for Senator Montez during one of his rallies. She asked him if she could attend some of the meetings along with him, and he agreed. After he went back talking to his campaign manager, Esme was interrupted by a telepathic warning from her sisters, Sophie and Phoebe, who told her to get out of there, as Sentinel Services had arrived at the rally looking for them. Esme ran outside and into the crowd, trying to escape as her sisters continued to yell at her telepathically in unison.

Esme managed to escape successfully however her sisters weren't so lucky in that regard, sending out a telepathic message for her to find them. Esme knew she couldn't do that on her own, so she devised a plan to fool the Mutant Underground into unknowingly helping her, while also using unsuspecting parents, Reed and Caitlin Strucker as her pawns, knowing they would do anything for their imprisoned children.

Season 1
In threat of eXtinction, Esme was with a group of refugees that hid in a shed at Eternal Grace Church, where they waited to be escorted to the Underground Network. Upon the Underground's arrival, she informed Thunderbird that she is a telepath, and that while in the shed, she got weird vibes from another refugee, later to be identified as Chloe Tan. However, Thunderbird was attacked while questioning the suspicious refugee, as was Esme, who was punched in the stomach at super speed and thrown over the hood of a truck, knocking over a young boy, and injuring him in the process. Fortunately, Thunderbird, Blink, and Eclipse eventually managed to subdue the attacker.

Having sustained a nasty cut during her altercation with Chloe, Esme was treated for her injuries by the Underground's resident nurse, Caitlin Strucker. Despite Esme saying it was nothing, Caitlin determined that she would need stitches. Caitlin had heard of her heroic actions back at the Church, concluding that Esme was a Psychic. Sort of, Esme replied. She could feel the thoughts of those within close proximity. Hearing this, Caitlin asked if Esme could read her thoughts. Esme agreed to do so. Her eyes glowed bright blue while using her ability. Esme could tell that Caitlin was concerned about the war between mutants and humans, and she didn't want her and her husband to end up on opposite sides of their kids. Esme then apologized for prying, as she could tell that Caitlin was growing uncomfortable. Caitlin brushed it off, joking that Esme shouldn't look into her college experimentation days. After giving her name, Esme told Caitlin that she was valued in the Underground.

Esme later agreed to read Chloe's thoughts after Caitlin, Eclipse, and Polaris had brought her in for questioning, but determined that she couldn't speak, whether this was physical or mental remains unknown. Polaris asked if she was capable of reading Chloe's thoughts as Caitlin had said she could. Esme replied maybe, which didn't exude confidence in her ability, which concerned Polaris, so she felt it necessary to remind Esme what they were fighting for. However, Esme needed no reminder. Sentinel Services had her family, meaning she was more than willing to fight. Just as before, Esme eyes glowed while reading Chloe's thoughts. She sensed need and pain. A deeper dig revealed that Trask Industries, which was North of the Underground, had killed her husband and took her daughter. Unfortunately, Chloe died on the table soon thereafter.

In eXploited, Esme was present at the meeting on how to get Sonia, Clarice, Lauren, and Andy back from Sentinel Services. She watched as Reed, Caitlin, Marcos, and Lorna argued with one another. She listened with great interest as Reed and Caitlin argued that they want to use the system to get their children back. However, Lorna wanted to launch an attack. Fed up, John smashed a table and told them how they were all in it together. Marcos and John decided to set up scouts at Sentinel services and Trask.

Later on, while Reed and Caitlin were going over their contacts, Esme eavesdropped on their conversation. She used her power to read Reed's mind and saw his memories of being with Jace Turner. She knocked on their door and apologized for interrupting before asking if she could come in. Esme told them how she thought that they were right about not attacking Sentinel Services as they both had family there and another attack would only get them killed. She explained that it is a human problem that needs a human solution, and Reed and Caitlin are the only ones who understood that. Reed told her how they haven't had much luck finding some help. She suggested going to Agent Turner and try to appeal to him as he's the only one who could probably do something. Reed and Caitlin were skeptical due to their past with Turner; but Esme told them that they could try to convince Agent Turner to take the mutants out of Trask labs to do the right thing. Caitlin responded by asking "so they can sit in prison?" Esme said that it was better than becoming apart of the Hound program. She told them to think about it as Lauren and Andy's power in the wrong hands could change everything. After Reed and Caitlin decided to go along with the plan, she watched as Reed went to go get Jace's address and Caitlin went to get the car and supplies.

Long after Reed and Caitlin left, Esme approached Marcos and Lorna to talk about the Struckers. She lied to them about reading the Struckers mind and told them about how the Struckers went to Jace. She smiled after they left to explain the situation to John before following herself. While they explained the Strucker situation to John, Esme continued to lie to them about the Struckers coming up with the idea that Jace could get the mutants out of the labs. She explained how Reed and Caitlin don't understand as they're humans, not mutants. Esme explained that even if they succeed in convincing Jace to move the mutants, they would be locked in a detention center, "as if being behind bars is better". John believed that if Jace does move the mutants, it would give them the opportunity to rescue them. Marcos said it would be a big risk as the last time they did that and Lorna told him that it's all the reason to hit Sentinel back. John asked Esme if she believed the Struckers could pull their plan off. She told them that it is possible as Reed is lawyer and was one of them. However, Lorna said that they needed a plan. Marcos told them that they need to let Shatter and Sage know about the plan to rescue the mutants.

When the mutants learned that Sentinel Services were at Trask and were going to move prisoners, Esme was surprised that the Struckers actually pulled it off. Thunderbird and the others were ready to move in when they were on route to break all of the mutants free and Esme volunteered to come along as to read the minds of the guards to find the route they were planning to take. Marcos agreed to bring her along.

When they arrived at Trask, she and Marcos went off when for the front gate when they saw that the prisoners were already about to be put on route. When Marcos' back was turned, Esme pulled out a taser and stunned him. She then pushed herself into the mind of the transport's driver and had him shoot all the agents inside the van before shooting himself. She then went into Agent Weeks' mind and had him shut down the power dampening collars before commanding him to shoot Turner and some guards before taking his own life. She then went through the Sentinel Service agents and had them start shooting at one another. She then commanded one agent to pull the pin on a grenade and go into a car where an agent was trying to call for backup. When the path was clear, Esme went to the van where she was reunited with her sisters. Together, they had the remaining agents kill themselves before looking at Andy, Lauren, Blink and the other freed mutants and told them that the fun was only getting started.

Personality
Esme is a crafty but sneaky individual that easily uses her powers to manipulate those around her. She uses her power to plant fearful images into Polaris as to incite action from the Underground to attack Trask as to free her sisters. She is also quite impatient as she consistently spoke against waiting and planning for caution. She is also quite underhanded as she had manipulated the Struckers into trying for their peaceful negotiation tactic but went around and told the mutants about it, making it sound like they were going around their back to have their fellow mutants be behind bars instead of a lab. Esme has proven herself to be somewhat bloodthirsty as she used her powers to make all the Sentinel Services officers shoot one another with a calm smile on her face. It is clear that her sisters share in that nature as well.

Esme and her sisters have a tendency to speak in unison, allowing each other to take over with the conversation randomly as they talk together. They are also strategic and cold-blooded given that they risked the lives of the Mutant Underground in order to persuade them into agreeing to an alliance after seeing how advanced their enemy was becoming.

According to Skyler Samuels in a interview Esme is the peacekeeper between Sophie and Phoebe.

Physical Appearance
Esme is a young Caucasian woman with light skin, dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. When she uses her telepathic abilities, her eyes glow with a bright blue hue, and glow even more when acting under the hive mind. She and her sisters are completely identical to each other, including the tendency to have matching hairstyles and outfits, even down to the accessories.

Powers and Abilities

 * Telepathic Hive Mind: Esme and her sisters share a linked hive mind, which allows them to share thoughts, communicate and maintain a continuous telepathic connection over great distances. The link is strongest when they are in close physical proximity, and their collective mind also allows for increased telepathic power and shared intellect. When the girls use their telepathy, their eyes glow bright blue, and they glow even more when acting under the hive mind.
 * Telepathy: Esme and her sisters possess the ability to read minds and project their thoughts to others. They are able to analyze people's memories and influence minds, as seen when Esme implanted a vivid nightmare into Polaris' mind while she slept. Though they individually possess their own telepathy, their telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together.
 * Empathy: Esme and her sisters possess limited emphatic abilities, as Esme could read Chloe Tans' emotions, sensing a lot of need and pain.
 * Mind Control: Esme and her sisters have shown the ability to control multiple people’s minds at the same time, as demonstrated when they forced several Sentinel Services agents to kill both their fellow agents and themselves.
 * Pain Inducement: Esme and her sisters can induce mental pain inside people’s minds, as shown when they rendered two Sentinel Service agents writhing on the ground, clutching at their heads in pain.
 * Psychosomatic Symptoms Inducement: Esme and her sisters have the ability to influence the minds of others to produce a series of illusory psychosomatic actions, that cause the body to react as if it were actually physically experiencing it; for example, they have shown to be able to induce the interruption of the respiratory tract.

Trivia

 * In the comics, Esme Cuckoo is one of the Stepford Cuckoos, a set of telepathic quintuplets and one of the clones of Emma Frost. The clones were created by the Weapon Plus program (the same program that grafted adamantium to Wolverine's skeletal structure and gave Captain America his superhuman abilities). The project was code-named Weapon XIV, and the goal was to create thousands of telepathic clones of Emma Frost (one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet), that when combining their telepathic powers into a hive-mind, they would be capable of killing every mutant on the planet. Five of the clones were sent to infiltrate the Xavier Institute, to both gain the X-Men's trust and hone their telepathic abilities, and there, those five clones (Esme, Celeste, Phoebe, Irma and Sophie) took on the code-name the Five-In-One, or as they were more commonly referred to as - The Stepford Cuckoos.
 * Coincidentally, the mutant drug Kick was mentioned in the episode Esme was introduced in. In the comics, Esme Cuckoo had ingested the drug to boost her telepathic abilities, and that was ultimately one of the contributing factors to her eventual death at the hands of Xorn. Esme had also influenced her sister, Sophie, to partake in the drug and that eventually led to her death due to overdose. After those events, with only three sisters remaining, the Five-In-One became known as the Three-In-One.
 * Skyler Samuels revealed through an Instagram livestream that the names of Esme’s sisters are Sophie and Phoebe and that their last name is Frost.