Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Scott
went on a field trip with Rogue. Blizzard conditions and the manipulations of a
certain blue femme fatale lead to Scott being alone with Rogue and said blue
femme fatale, Mystique. She reveals that she’s Ms. Raven Darkholme and that Xavier
knew and kept it from Scott before shoving him off a ledge. This proves to be
the final straw for Rogue, who grabs her boss and learns what really happened
the night her powers manifested. She and Scott regroup and try to escape
Mystique, but she hounds them. Quite literally when she shapeshifts into a wolf.
Rogue is able to hold her off long enough for help to arrive in the form of the
Blackbird and Wolverine. On the flight back, Rogue officially changes groups,
becoming an X-Man and being welcomed with open, but completely covered arms. Enough
recapping, let’s get to it, shall we.
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| No good has ever come from Victor Creed's smile |
This episode opens with Victor
Creed aka Sabertooth, Wolverine’s age-old nemesis, breaking into a restricted
area and climbing the Bayville water tower. Well, that’s ominous.
We then jump over to Evan Daniels,
who just got a bad grade on a history report. Apparently, he mixed up Regan’s
Star Wars defense program with the hit film franchise, as I think we have all
done at least once. His teacher decides to give him a chance to make up his
grade with an extra credit assignment. He gives Evan a video camera and tells him
to do a report on current events important to him. Evan’s stoked to use a
camera that is so beyond obsolete at this point it’s silly. Evan plays with the
camera a bit, and sees that the zoom is good enough to see Logan pull up to the
Mansion several miles away.
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| So we have a preppy girl, goth girl, and sports guy together? The Cliques at Bayville high must be so confused by the Institute kids. |
He’s spooked by Kurt, who is
hanging from the window sill. After nearly spiking Kurt, he gets told that Kurt’s
bouncing early to his image inducer checked out. Unbeknownst to them, Sabertoot
is watching them both from the water tower via a set of binocular and smiling
evilly. It’s NEVER good when that beast smiles.
Still oblivious to Sabertooth’s presence,
Evan goes about his day and plays with the camera a bit. He spies to two of his
fellow Xavier kids, Kitty and Rogue, arguing about a book. It’s Kitty’s, Rogue
has it, it’s this whole non-important thing. They’re interrupted by Kitty
bumping into a dude, and starting to flirt relentlessly, to Rogue’s disgust.
The dude, who we will never see again, get’s Kitty interested in trying out for
“Dracula The Rock Musical.” Is this a thing? I’ll look it up later. Rogue makes
fun of Kitty for wanting to try out for a play just to impress a dude, and
Kitty thinks Rogue is jealous for not having the moves. They’re interrupted by
noticing Evan and start yelling at him for recording them without their
permission. He deflects by asking about the musical and defuses the situation. We
sure Evan’s an only child? Because he can play de facto siblings incredibly well.
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| Oh no, he's figured out our technology! |
After school, Evan goes to skateboard
and get some footage of him in motion. At the same time, Sabertooth lands on
the rooftops and starts following him from above. Which I’m so confused by.
Victor Creed is a six-and-a-half-foot tall behemoth biker in a trench coat, how
could anyone NOT notice him? But Evan doesn’t until the beast tackles him and
swipes the camera. Sabertooth scampers off, and is able to switch on the
camera. Oh no, he’s discovered technology! He finds the video of Logan and the
mansion and smiles evilly again. Okay, how did he know Evan had footage of
Logan?
Evan recovers from the fall, tracks
down the camera and reclaims it. There’s a brief interaction with an attention seeking
Toad, but Evan blows him off. That’s just rude. Sabertooth continues to
watching Evan from a distance and smiles evilly while licking his teeth. That is
somehow creepier than just smiling.
The next day, Evan gets up and accidentally
launches a pair of spikes, shattering one of his lights and his mirror, not for
the first time. Ororo comes to check in on her nephew, when she sees the camera
and hears the premise of Evan’s project is quite adamant that she and the other
X-Instructors review it to ensure Evan’s not showing any Mutant funny business.
He spies on Jean for a bit, before
being caught and tossed aside, and then decides to record something more
interesting. At that moment, Scott and Logan start running an obstacle course
in the Mansion’s front yard. They basically run along the sidewalk and dodge
projectiles. Evan records while skateboarding behind them. Yeah, that’s getting
cut in editing. Logan saves Evan from a buzzsaw launcher and starts yelling at
him for being stupid and careless. He erases that scene, and then looks over
the rest of Evan’s recordings. Turns out, Victor recorded a thank you message
to Evan for showing him where Logan is. It’s at that moment that Sabertooth
attacks.
Okay. Wait one second here.
Sabertooth, whom has all the same powers as Logan, (IE can track by SCENT),
works for Magneto and with Mystique, had no idea that Logan worked for Charles
Xavier at his lavish estate? Da hell?
Whatever, Sabertooth attacks. The
X-Men are scrambled by Xavier, who was watching via cameras and telepathy, and
also activates the mansion defenses. Logan wants to fight alone, but Storm isn’t
having that. She lightnings blasts Sabertooth, Cyclops eyebeams him, and Jean
throws objects telepathically. They, plus the defenses, drive Sabertooth off who
roars that this isn’t over! Logan chases after him, but loses him in the woods
near the mansion. Logan returns to the mansion and gives Charles a status
report. They know Sabertooth won’t attack the mansion again since he knows it’s
too well defended, but Logan believes he’ll take a hostage to draw him out.
Dark. Evan overhears this and decides to do something about it.
He runs into Kitty and Rogue, who
are arguing again, this time about the Dracula soundtrack to help with their
auditions. Evan again inserts him into the conversation, and offers to help
them with their situation, if they’re willing to improvise with him. Evan and
the girls leave the mansion, with Sabertooth watching from a distance. He smiles
evilly and says that this is too easy. Yes, it’s almost like they’re luring you
out. Ya dumb extinct cat.
Scott tries to leave the mansion for
dinner as Logan comes down. He shuts that idea down and tells Scott the mansion
is on lock down until Sabertooth is handled. He asks were everyone is, and is
annoyed to hear that Evan, Kitty and Rogue slipped out.
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| So with this takedown, Rogue has officially taken out more baddies than anyone. You go girl. |
The three escapees set up in a park
just a way away from the mansion. When Rogue looks like she can’t get into the
groove, he suggests tapping a finger against Kitty and absorbing her dance moves
to better coordinate. Rogue does, and the two actually start moving in sink.
Just in time for Sabertooth to charge and try to grab one of them. He goes for
Evan first, but the kid pulls his porcupine routine. He throws Evan aside at
Rogue, and charges at Kitty. She just phases past him, but gets grabbed and thrown
when she tries to check on Rogue and Evan. He goes after Rogue, who’d recovered.
She tries to get a hand on him, but can’t get her hand on him. Logan arrives
and starts wrestling with Sabertooth. They clash and toss each other around,
but Rogue is able to sneak up on Sabertooth and grab him. She drains him and
knocks him out. This causes her to transform into a beasty, hairy form, and
delivers one of her best one liners, “And I just shaved my legs last night!”
Logan figured out that Evan set this all up, and grounds him for putting
himself in danger and both girls for going along with it. When they ask what
they’ll do with Sabertooth, Logan says they’ll put him somewhere to cool off.
They fly Sabertooth out to Alaska or Canada and drop him off. He’s clearly
disorientated, so I guess it’ll be a while before he can make his way back to New
York.
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| Fun sight gag, but begs the question why Rogues BMI doesn't increase when she drains Blob. Someone else ask her that question, though. I'll monitor from a safe distance. The Moon. |
The episode ends with Evan’s video,
which he dedicated to his new family, showing the X-Men doing some of their
less insane activities. It ends with Kitty and Rogue dancing along with Dracula
in the play. I’ll call bs on that musical being ready to go in a week, but
otherwise that was a sweet way to end it.
While it’s not in my top tier list
for X-Men: Evolution episodes, this was on the better side. I liked the focus
on Evan, it’s been a while since he got much attention. He’s about as much of an
early 2000s kid as you’d expect, so many of his phrases and interests feel a
bit dated, but not in a bad way. Just in a very familiar way for those of us that
grew up at the turn of the last millennium. I especially liked his final plan.
He’s largely untouchable with his spikes, Kitty can’t be grabbed if she knows
it’s coming, and touching Rogue is about as dangerous for the grabber as the
grabbie. I’m sure his plan would be to force Sabertooth to try to get Rogue,
who can disable him. But it was a good thing Logan showed up to help, as the
plan clearly wasn’t going great. My only real complaint was the logical
inconsistency of Sabertooth somehow not knowing where Logan lives. Again, given
his own abilities to track and his connections, I just don’t see how there’s
any way that he couldn’t know where Logan is. Other than somehow Logan blocking
his scent and Magneto deliberately keeping the info from him. But I just don’t
see that happening. So yeah, a solid episode. Next time, though, we get to see
a family reunion of sorts. Charles’ favorite brother Cain is stopping by to see
him. Note* Charles only has one brother, so that’s not saying much.
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