Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 38

A Mind break of epic proportions. 

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Wanda finally tracked down her dad. The angriest Maximoff twin was lured to her father’s secret base on Mt. Arrowrose. Magneto, deciding that Wanda’s attempts to destroy him were inconveniencing him, got his latest recruit Mastermind to rewrite her memories to remove all the horrible stuff and lead her to believe that Magneto was a loving and attentive father. At the same time, Toad was attempting to trick Wanda into loving him by using Kurt’s stolen Image Inducer to make him look like a not-Toad. It doesn’t work, but his hounding her is what let him know she was in trouble. He convinces Kurt to help him free Wanda, which was a harder sell than normal as Toad ruined Kurt’s meeting with his girlfriend Amanda’s parents, but he does go along with it. They free Wanda, Amanda tells Kurt she’s not going to listen to her parents to stay away from him, and Pietro convinces Toad to not tell Wanda the truth about her past as it’ll keep her from running off again. Dark ending, really. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Rogue and headaches really don't mix...

We open with Scott and Rogue playing racquetball. The two hit back and forth a few times before Scott misses, and I assume Rogue wins. I don’t know that rules of racquetball. She nonchalantly asks if he wants to play again tomorrow, but he’s seeing a concert with Jean. Rogue tries to play off not being super bummed out by this but fails kind of miserably. To me, that is, Scott doesn’t seem to notice. Once alone, Rogue has a migraine of some kind and gets flashes of Jean’s memories.

 

Later, Mystique meets up with her precognitive “friend” Destiny. Destiny has come to warn her that Rogue is in danger. She says that Rogue has always had a part to play in Mystique’s greater destiny, but her presence is growing dimmer. She believes that might mean that Rogue might not have a future. This dialogue is played over Rogue smacking the racquetball back and forth a few times before hitting it so hard into the wall it explodes and suddenly, she’s having another headache memory, this time of draining Blob. She throws her racquet, and it imbeds itself into the wall.

 

The next day, Rogue is doing her hair and getting more flashes of Jean memories. Logan knocks on her door. He wants to check on her because he found the remnants of her racquet, but Kitty runs in and grabs her before she’s forced to either tell the truth or lie. They meet Jean in the garage, she’s giving them a lift in her new SUV. Kitty suggests Jean drive a carpool to the big concert, but when Jean mentions going with Scott, she, and Kurt who teleports in a moment later, start teasing her about going on a date with Scott. Much to her, and Rogue’s, discomfort. Later, Rogue is heading to the bathroom, but when she goes to push open the door, she has a flashback of copying Kitty’s power and phases through the door. Oh my. Inside is Mystique… I mean, Risty. You remember that Risty is Mystique, right? Right. She claims that her parents back in the UK had kept her coming back to the US for a few weeks after the Sentinel incident, to explain her disappearance. Rogue apologizes to Risty for hiding the Mutant thing, goes for a drink of water, but then flashes back to her first episode where she drained Storm and fries the fountain with a lightning blast. Whoops. She runs off. Risty follows her and a frantic Rogue tries to explain her powers to Risty. She claims that she retains some part of everyone she’s absorbed, and after the last year or two, it’s getting crowded. Risty suggests going to the concert together to laugh at nerds and to get Rogue’s mind of things, to which Rogue reluctantly agrees.

 

Giving Rogue Shapeshifting powers right now
is... problematic.

That night, the concert is going on and everyone seems to be having a good time. We see Tabitha rocking out, Kurt and Amanda dancing along, Kitty comes in with Jamie (he was the only one who didn’t have plans) and Jean teases Kitty for being on a “date” when she sees the two of them walk by. Jean and Scott are both super awkward about them being on a date and it’s kind of cute. Rogue sees Scott and Jean and has a flashback to when she took Scott’s power on the mountain back in episode 7 when she joined the X-Men. Risty asks if she still has a thing for Scott, which she denies. Risty and Rogue push forward in the crowd. She keeps getting bumped and having flashes of people she’s absorbed. A girl who’d been sitting on her friend’s shoulders falls, ripping Rogue’s sleeve off and she accidentally absorbs from randos in the crowd, further filling her head. She finally bumps into Risty, transforming her back into Mystique. Now having a large dose of shapeshifting power in her system, when Rogue has her next flash, her body shifts to match it. And, unfortunately, her next flash is to Sabretooth. Whoops. As Sabretooth, she runs onto the stage and roars at the crowd before causing a bunch of damage by knocking over amps. Jean stop the crowd from being crushed, Kitty keeps her from pancaking a bystander, Multiple tries to restrain her, Kurt teleports some debris she threw to keep it from hitting anyone, and finally Scott blasts her into a wall. While covered in debris, Rogue has another flash and swaps to a new form and powerset, Juggernaut. She runs through a wall and escapes, with Mystique in pursuit. The X-Men decide to regroup at the Mansion.

 

Rogue as Juggernaut almost gets caught by police, but she swaps to Magneto and magnetically throws the cop car back. She then swaps to Quicksilver and runs away, before almost being cornered again, but this time swapping to Arcade, that one off villain from last season. She enters an alley and transforms back to herself. Mystique finds her and tries to explain what happened. She claims that she did it to be close to Rogue, but Rogue doesn’t believe her, knowing that Mystique used her to spy on the X-Men. They fight, both in Mystiques form before Rogue returns to normal. Mystique drops the bombshell that everyone who knows the lore between these two already saw coming, but was probably shocking to newbies in the 00s, that Mystique is her adoptive mother. She adopted Rogue when she was four. Rogue runs off, and Nightcrawler teleports away, but doesn’t take his form for some reason.

 

This is, what, the third time Mystique has
lied to Rogue's face?

She turns into Sabretooth again; smells Logan driving by and attacks him. Logan’s sense of smell tells him that that isn’t Sabretooth in front of him. Scott and the others arrive in the X-Van, and Scott blasts her without realizing what’s going on. Logan explains and he and Scott move into the warehouse he blasted into her. Scott tries to reach out to her, but that causes her swap personalities to Scott and blasts him, before turning into Lance and almost crushing them with debris. She returns to normal and asks for their help. Logan and Scott both say they will, but when Scott says they’re her ‘friends’ she remembers Risty, says she ‘has no friends,’ turns into Storm and causes a storm. Logan and Scott are thrown out of the building. Jean asks what’s going on, and Scott explains that it’s like every personality she’s ever absorbed is fighting to take over. Rogue, flying on air currents, returns to her normal form, and fires an optic blast. Jean just barely pulls them out of the way. Logan thinks that means she’s gotten control of all the powers and once and that’s bad. The X-Jet flies toward her, carrying Ororo, Xavier and Hank, and she magnetically tosses it aside. Everyone is okay, though. As Rogue optic beams everything in sight, Storm takes to the sky.

 

Giving Rogue multiple powers is always neat but
also extremely dangerous.

Jean tries to pull Rogue down but she fights back, throwing Jean instead. Kurt teleport grabs her, but she teleports right back. Storm flies up and tries to lightning blast her, but Rogue throws back a bigger blast, dropping her. Jeans saves Storm, and Logan tells them to get back. He can take more punishment than anyone. He has Bobby ice launch him into the sky. He tackles Rogue to the ground. When she lands, she makes copies of herself as Logan tries to talk her down. He also has experience with things not making sense in his head. One Rogue lifts him up magnetically and the other four optic beam him. He gets swarmed by Rogues and he says that she’s letting the voices in her head push her around, and the real Rogue wouldn’t stand for that. She takes the clones back in, but she’s not sure she can get control. Xavier rolls up and tells her telepathically to help him delete the excess minds from hers. They do so, visually represented by Rogue shapeshifting into the form of each person she drained, from the football guy to Kurt to Pietro to Storm to Scott to Blob to Mystique to Risty to Kitty to Sabretooth to Lance to Arcade to Magneto to Jean to Toad to Beast to Juggernaut. I guess the various randos and less important characters like Multiple didn’t leave enough of an impression to get a shapeshifted form. Logan asks if she’ll be okay, and Xavier says he’s not sure.

 

Back in the mansion, Scott goes to talk with Xavier. He explains that Logan hasn’t left her side since she was brought in, and that driving out those other minds left her weak. And that’s on top of learning her connection to one of the series big bads. Logan tells her that getting over this won’t be easy, that something about betrayal sticks around, but that she’ll learn to deal with it, and to do that she just needs to let her real friends help her. Rogue grabs his hand and starts crying. Outside, Mystique and Destiny pull up in Destiny’s limo. She says that Rogue is back in her future, but now a great darkness looms on the horizon. Both their fates are in the hands of an ancient mutant that is about to rise again. She takes off her glasses to show her clouded eyes for dramatic emphasis.

 

…

 

Apocalypse! Apocalypse! Apocalypse!

 

That’s not in the episode, I just like foreshadowing the rise of En Saba Nur.

 

This was a great episode. It’s established canon that the memories Rogue absorb messes with her head, and that she does retain a piece of the people she absorbs. Hell, her super strength, and flight powers that most versions develop is based on draining Ms./Captain Marvel so completely that it’s effectively permanent. So, the idea that Rogue keeps the power she takes in, she just normally doesn’t have access to it is tracks. Adding Mystique’s shapeshifting and the mentally jarring truth about their connection, ya, I could see why Rogue would retreat into her own head and let the little bits of people she’s absorbed take over and run amuck. It is unnerving when Rogue gets enough control that she keeps her form but has access to all the powers. Like, I’m used to Rogue showing off one ability she only has for a limited time, but seeing her fly, shoots lasers from her eyes, controlling storms and magnetically moving thins is just… wrong. Rogue and Mystique’s connection is something I knew about (having seen X-Men: The Animated Series in my youth), I saw this reveal coming. I find it odd that this is new info for Rogue when she’s absorbed Mystique’s memories before, but maybe she didn’t dig deeply enough that time. I don’t know, (shrug). I liked Logan opening himself up to Rogue to try to talk her down. Logan is a reserved character, so him admitting he’s been betrayed before, and it hurts feels like a big deal. Oh, and the crush on Scott thing is dull. Sorry, I hate love triangles. Rogue is going to be recovering for a while, which I also liked, if a character is hurt and doesn’t recover by the next episode, you know they’ve been hurt bad. We’re going to do two more episodes of X-Men: Evolution before switching to She-Hulk. So, next time, another key to Apocalypse tomb reveals itself. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 37

 Time for a rewrite.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Evan was going through some changes. The youngest member of the main X-Men team over the last few episodes has had issues with controlling his spikes. They would grow with only mild provocation, shoot out with a sneeze, and not retract at all unless he forced it. While dealing with that, he attended a skateboard competition sponsored by Spear Sport’s and its new Pow-R8 drink. The Morlock Callisto reveals to Evan that Pow-R8 is poisonous to Mutants after he takes a mouthful and almost dies and asks his help to shut down the bottling plant. He does, destroying the bottling plant with just a little help from the X-Men. Unfortunately, Evan’s spike condition is getting worse, and he elects to stay with the Morlocks, for at least a little while, to try to learn how to deal with being a Mutant that can no longer hide what he is, much to Ororo’s heartbreak. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Hey Mastermind, your muttonchops are neat.

This time, we start on the streets of Venice. A man with impressive muttonchops is walking around the city, using some sort of mental power to change his appearance as he crosses paths with people. The metal around him starts groaning and shifting and we hear Magneto’s trademark magnetic noise, and he tries to run. Magneto corners him, flying in from a distance. The man tries to hide or defend himself, but Magneto tells the man, Mastermind, that his illusions don’t work on him. He grabs Mastermind and tells the muttonchop-having Mutant that he has a job for him.

 

We jump to a traffic jam on a bridge, Wanda Maximoff being driven somewhere. Her drive is interrupted by a massive fire breaking out atop the struts of the bridge. The fire takes on the form of rearing horses. As everyone else runs, Wanda gets out and spies her father’s Aussie henchman Pyro dancing amidst the flames.

 

Moving on, we arrive at Bayville high as it’s being let out. Nightcrawler is walking with his girlfriend Amanda, who is trying to encourage him for his big “meet the parents” moment. Kurt is worried because his image inducer has been acting up. Amanda says that’s fine as she wants her family to meet the real him, turning off his inducer and showing off Kurt’s blue form. He hurried turns it back on. We see Toad watching them atop some garbage for a bit before hopping away. How odd. Kurt does want to meet them but thinks showing his blue look might be a bit much for the first meeting. He and Amanda see the fire, as do Scott and Jean who were driving by.

 

Wanda's pissed.

Back on the bridge, Wanda knocks Pyro from his perch with a magic blast. Pyro shows off some parkour skills and recovers, but not before dropping a key chain that Wanda picks up. It says Arrowrose. He causes a big explosion by blowing up a oil tanker, knocking Wanda to the side of the bridge. Scott and Jean, and Storm save people from the debris and put out the fire. Jean and Scott pull Wanda up and ask what that was about. Wanda tells them that dear old dad was telling her to stop following him or looking for his errand boy, Pietro. Jean mentions Pietro isn’t in hiding, but back at the Brotherhood house, obviously infuriating Wanda.

 

At the Brotherhood House, Pietro is using his newly given position of leadership to force Toad, Blob and Lance to do his bidding. Blob is making him lunch, Toad is being forced to hold the TV antenna on the roof, and he berates Lance for how long it’s taking him to fix the transmission on the jeep. Lance, in frustration, tries to crush him with a chair. The others say they’re fed up too. Pietro starts a speech about how they need strong decisive leadership if they’re going to move up to the big leagues with Magneto, but then sees Wanda walking up the street, screams, hides in the closet and tells them not to tell her he’s here. Toad greets her warmly, but Wanda shoves him aside without a glance. Toad betrays him immediately. Pietro again claims he doesn’t know where Magneto is, that he only contacts Pietro when he needs something. She shows Pietro the Arrowrose keychain and Toad thinks its related to Mount Arrowrose, a nearby ski resort. Toad tries to get Wanda to notice him, proclaiming his devotion to her and asking what he needs to be to win her love. She blasts him and says, “Someone else.” Poor Toad, but I 100% get the revulsion. The line someone else gives him an idea.

 

He cleans up nice.

Kurt arrives at Amanda’s house and introduces himself to her parents, Magalia and… he doesn’t have a name so I’m going to call him Frank. Her folks seem to like him, but he’s incredibly nervous. At that moment, his inducer starts acting up and he turns into his blue form. He teleports around, just barely dodging Frank and Magalia’s glances until he gets his inducer working again. Amanda tells them he’s a “track star” to explain his quick movements. We jump to after dinner, and we see someone creeping up on the house. Toad bursts in and tries to steal the image inducer. He and Toad wrestle for the inducer, causing major damage to the Sefton house as they do. But he doesn’t break her grandma’s vase, so that’s something. He kicks Toad out of a window, but he then fires his tongue out and steals the inducer, revealing Kurt’s real form to the Seftons. Damn.

 

Surprise, Mother F***er!

Sometime later, Wanda is riding the ski lift to the top of mount Arrowrose. A guy sits beside her and obviously hits on her, but then he smiles, revealing Toad’s teeth. Wanda blasts him out the side of the lift. Later, Wanda’s scarf gets blown away, another guy offers to get it, but starts frog hopping, revealing him to be Toad. He's blasted again. Wanda sees Pyro take the ski-lift. She follows and is joined by Toad again. This time he’s pretending to be Eric, the Ski instructor. Toad impresses her with this one, but she sees Pyro snowboarding off and follows him. She follows Pyro to a giant metal dome. Before she can do anything about it, she gets gassed by a sphere and taken inside.

 

Later, Kurt is looking forlornly at a picture of him and Amanda. Toad comes in, asking for a favor. Kurt immediately attacks him, demanding his inducer back. Toad says he’ll give it back in exchange for a small favor.

 

Magneto, this is pretty messed up, not going to lie.

Inside the dome, Wanda is being held in restraints. Magneto comes in, revealing that he instructed Pyro to lead her here so they could have a father daughter chat. He claims that leaving her at the hospital was difficult, but he claims it was for her own good. He says that he had hoped they could start over, build a new relationship, but Wanda says screw you dad. Magneto tells Wanda that her quest to destroy him has become a liability, so he’s going to… correct that. He calls in Mastermind and tells Wanda that Mastermind will alter her memories and that, hopefully, her mind won’t be too damaged by the process. Mastermind starts working, changing Wanda’s worst memories about the hospital and time after into happy memories with her, Magneto, and Pietro.

 

Outside, Toad and Kurt arrive. Kurt tells Toad that he’ll help him with this, but they’re getting his inducer back as soon as their done. Toad reveals he does, in fact, still have it. Kurt takes it and is about to storm off, but Toad appeals to their similarities. Namely, that they both must hide things about themselves to fit in. Kurt agrees to keep helping. Kurt put the inducer back on and turns into Erik. They teleport inside. They dodge around Colossus moving boxes and find Mastermind messing with Wanda’s head. Mastermind tries to warn Magneto, but they’re too quick. Toad tries to get the restraints off, but they’re too tight, so Kurt just grabs Wanda and teleports them a few feet over to get her out. Just as Magneto, Pyro, Gambit, and Colossus arrive, Kurt teleports them all away. His minions are about to give chase, but Magneto stop them. He asks if Mastermind finished the job, Mastermind confirms, and Magneto says to let them go. Back at the lodge, Wanda wakes up and sees Erik’s handsome face. Hazy from what happened, I imagine, she kisses him without thinking, only for him to turn back into Toad. Kind of a nice twist on the fairy tale, kiss a handsome prince and he turns into a Toad. Kurt speaks up for Toad, saying he is gross but he did risk his life to save her. She thanks him, he catches a fly with his tongue, she shutters in disgust and storm off.

 

Later, Kurt has an evening walk with Amanda. We learn that while her parents have forbidden her to see him, like any teenager she said, “screw that,” and is going to keep dating Kurt. Much to his own surprise and joy.

 

At the Brotherhood house, Wanda is tidying up some of her things, and Toad is utterly baffled at her sudden disinterest in killing her dad. She remembers being mad at her dad, but not why. Toad tries to tell her, but Pietro rushes him out of the room. Pietro tells Toad to just let that stuff drop, as if she’s no longer hunting Magneto, she’ll stay at the Brotherhood house, near Toad. Toad happily agrees, as he decides if she can get over hating her dad, there is hope for him yet.

 

Okay, while it’s not the worst thing Magneto has ever done, rewriting his daughter’s mind to get her to stop pestering him is probably the most messed up thing he’s done to an individual. Oh, and this is never fixed in series, Wanda spends the rest of the series believing she grew up with a kind and loving father. Messed up. I am impressed with Toad’s level of commitment to trying to win over Wanda. I feel like showering regularly, brushing his teeth and stop eating flies would be much, much easier than stealing a hologram watch. Trying to trick her is very, very wrong but I can appreciate his dedication to trying to win her over. Kurt continuing to be insecure about his looks is not a plot point I love, but I get why it keeps coming up. Being a teenager is hard but being a blue furry demon looking teenager is infinitely worse. I hope the Sefton’s forbidding Amanda from seeing him was more about wrestling with a Toad and wrecking their house than him being a blue demon. I hope you liked Mastermind, not sure if he officially joins the Acolytes, but he serves as Magneto’s on staff telepath from this point onwards. Next time, Rogue’s powers go haywire in a BIG way. See you then. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 36

Surely, the Morlocks could find a nicer place to live than the sewers. Surely.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Mystique got out. She escaped Area 51 with relative ease and set about getting payback on the person she most blames for her incarceration, Scott “Cyclops” Summers. She takes on his brother’s, Alex Summers, form, and lures Scott to Mexico. She then gases him and throws him into the middle of a desert without supplies or his glasses. He might have died out there if his eyebeam hadn’t drawn the attention of a crew of oil rig workers, and his psychic pangs of pain reach Jean Grey back in New York. He’s taken to Mexico City and accidentally destroys the roof of the hospital he was taken to. Mystique finds him again and the two duke it out, while Jean, Xavier, Storm, and Wolverine arrive to try to find him. He’s able to hold of Mystique long enough for Jean to find him. She kicks Mystique’s ass with telekinesis and drives her off. On the ride home, Jean and Scott seem to shift from platonic to romantic, much to their teacher’s approval. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Oh, Hi guys!

We open at the Spear Sport’s bottling company on a stormy night. It’s like Gatorade. We’re shown several people coming out of the sewers. If that wasn’t enough of a tip off, the prominent beak like-nose on one fella and a little girl with disproportionately huge hands make it clear that these are Morlocks. Remember, they’re a group of Mutants that typically have abnormal physiology that makes it hard for them to dwell among humans so live in the sewers. The group of four start smashing any boxes or equipment labeled with Pow-R8. Three of them are caught by security, but the fourth, the little girl with big hands, removes her gloves and touches the security guard’s arm, freezing him in place. They run off as the security alarm starts blaring.

 

We return to Spear Sports in the daylight, the owner, Guy Spear, storming in and being quite upset to hear that their plant is shut down for the day. The factory floor is in ruins, there’s a huge hole in the wall and broken bottles everywhere. The guard is just recovering from being paralyzed, but he isn’t coherent, according to his assistant. Spear wants to keep things quite because they’re only a week out from releasing Pow-R8, so he doesn’t want to bring in cops.

 

We cut to Bayville High, were a few students clip out the skater from a Pow-R8 add. We join Scott as he cautiously leaves his classroom. He sees Kitty coming towards him in the hall, turn and runs away. He bumps into Jean, and we learn they’re both avoiding Kitty for some reason. Evan, meanwhile, opens his locker and gets spooked by trap set inside, that Powr-8 Skater guy on a spring. It’s covered in nails to look like his spikes. Another student joins him, taking the skater guy off the spring and helps Evan to his feet. This nameless student seems to try to ingratiate himself with Evan, saying how he thinks powers are cool, giving tips on how to avoid bullies and so on. He’s going to ruin it in a minute. Dick. Meanwhile, we learn why Scott and Jean are avoiding Kitty. They almost get off campus without her seeing, when Kurt teleports onto Scott’s car and tells them she just got her driver’s permit. They know. He tells them she’s looking for any licensed 18-year-old to ride with her. They know. They drive off as Kurt tells them that he thinks the professor will ask them to do it, and they shout, “WE KNOW!” as they go. Guess they’re trying to avoid that execution, huh? Kitty sees them drive off and tries to flag them down, but they speed up. Kitty sees Rogue and asks when her 18^th is. Kitty Pryde is not subtle.

 

Evan and his ‘fan’ run into some bullies, and he tries to threaten them with his new “friend” Evan. Evan tries to walk away, but they start shoving him and demanding to see his thorns. Kurt and his girlfriend Amanda walk up just in time to see Evan Spyke up, having spines pop out of his forearms, chest and up his spine, and beat the snot out of the bullies. Kurt runs over, pulls Evan out of sight and teleports them away.

 

Back at the mansion, Scott and Jean are called in by the professor and he starts trying to sell them on being Kitty’s driving instructor. Logan comes in, only having heard that the job Xavier want’s done requires nerves of steel, and might be dangerous, and assumes it’s up his alley. Scott and Jean run off before he can change his mind. We cut to Logan riding shotgun with Kitty, who is so excited about driving that she doesn’t wait for the gate to open to let them out. Don’t worry, she phases them through.

Oh, not good.

 

Evan returns to his room, spikes still out, crossing paths with Ororo. She wants to talk to him, but Evan is angry and says not now. He sits in his room and broods for a bit before trying to retract his spikes. It takes visible effort for him to pull them in, and, to his shock, when he takes off his shirt and checks, the spines on his back are still visible. Oh my.

 

Logan and Kitty return to the mansion, the X-Van having a newspaper box stuck in the hood, a stop and street sign partially phased into the back, and Logan looking horrified. He returns the keys to Xavier, saying “Scott and Jean are right. I owe them. And you, Chuck.” Uh-oh. Later, Scott and Jean hear Kitty in the library. Jean, in one of her coldest moments, telekinetically lifts her boyfriend and pushes him inside.

 

In the kitchen, some of the kids are having breakfast. Evan is chugging milk until Berserker, who I just tonight learned is named Ray, asks for the jug. Evan pushes it to Ray but is horrified to see the backs of his hands are spiked. Ray doesn’t notice. Ray asks Evan if he’s still doing the Pow-R8 Skate competition because it’s about to start. Whoops.

 

The face you make when you see someone you
know but don't want to be seen.

Guy Spear is MCing the event, and using it to show off his new drink. We’re shown one of the Morlocks, a one-eyed woman with an eyepatch, watching from beneath the bleachers, Evan skating in at the last minute and his friends showing up in the stands as Spear finishes his speech.  Evan starts his skateboard run and does extremely well. He takes some of the Pow-R8 stuff, but the woman knocks it from his hand when he tries to drink, harshly whispering “Poison” as she does so. Ray sees her walk by and clearly knows her. The competition keeps going on, with Evan being the only one who seems to be the only skater not messing up badly. When he ends his run, another skater accuses him of cheating. Spear comes in and tries to calm things down. When he hears Evan is a Mutant, though, he says he’ll need to talk to the judges. Evan, knowing where this is going says forget it and skates off. He takes and drinks some of the Pow-R8, and immediately throws it up. His vision get’s cloudy and he accidentally launches spikes everywhere, damaging his surroundings. Ororo and Bobby stop a sign from falling on the crowd, Kurt saves a kid from falling, and Ray sees Evan and the one-eyed woman head in the same direction. Evan goes to the amphitheater that he and Hank McCoy like, and is ambushed by the Morlocks, one phasing in from behind and grabbing him while the little girl stuns him.

 

Back at the mansion, Kitty basically Fast and Furious-style drives Scott’s car to the front of the Mansion. She runs to talk to Kurt, and the two teleport away to help look for Evan while Scott announces he never wants to ride in another vehicle again. Inside, Hank and Xavier are running tests. Xavier concludes that the Pow-R8’s “toxic eliminators” aren’t dangerous to humans, but are very poisonous to Mutant cells. Ororo is adamant they find him.

 

Evan, meanwhile, is with the Morlocks. They give him a drink of something that eases his symptoms, but the One-eyed woman, Callisto, explains that he needs rests to recover. He wake up sometime later and overhears Callisto and Caliban, the Mutant tracker, talking. Callisto reveals that she thinks that Evan’s mutation is getting more extreme and that he may want to join them. Caliban isn’t so sure. The big nose guy, Lucid, arrives, telling Callisto that Spear added security to his facility and they could use Evan’s help. Caliban is against it. Evan joins them and Callisto tells him why they’re attacking Spear’s bottling plant. Namely, Pow-R8 is being dumped into their sewer home by Spear and it’s seeped into everything.  As Pow-R8 is extremely poisonous to Mutants, that’s incredibly bad. Evan agrees to help. Caliban tells them someone is spying on them. It turns out it’s Berserker… I mean Ray. He tells Callisto that she’s got to know that the X-Men will get involved when they know Evan is with them. She isn’t concerned, though, as they’ll only know if Ray tells them, and she has the little girl, Torpid, sneak up and stun him.

Bye Evan, I'll miss you.

 

Later, the Morlocks attack the Spear plant again. They plus Spyke, break in jut as Spear comes in and finds his security staff frozen. They pour a chemical into the Pow-R8 vats, destroying the chemicals that hurt mutants and gum up the pluming. In the sewer, the paralysis wears off on Ray and he escapes from the other Morlocks. He calls the professor as he runs. Spear surprises the Morlocks and has his guards fire tasers. One of the shots goes wide, hits a junction box, and causes an explosion. The Morlocks run into the sewers, implausibly outrunning a tide of Pow-R8 until they hit a wall. Evan makes spikes to use as steps to pull them above the poisonous liquid. When all seems lost, Cyclops’ eyebeam slams through the road above, cutting them a way topside. Jean floats down and uses her telekinesis to push back the Pow-R8 and lift the Morlocks upwards. They escape as Storm summons a big thunderstorm to dilute the Pow-R8. After, Evan walks off with the Morlocks before anyone notices.

 

Later, Xavier explains the situation to Spear, who claims to not have known his drink was dangerous to Mutants. Xavier believes him, and explains that the Morlocks aren’t a trusting sort, as they’ve seen the worst of human nature up to this point and only rely on each other. Hence why they didn’t talk to him about it.

 

The X-Men, meanwhile, search the sewers for Evan. He finds Ororo and talks to her. She wants to take him home, but Evan says that he wants to go with the Morlocks, to “take a break” from the craziness. He walks off before she can talk to him. I do not envy the conversation Ororo is going to have to have with her sister.

 

Payback sucks, don't it, Charles?

Xavier gets his comeuppance for pushing off Kitty’s drivers training, as Logan told Kitty to play chauffeur for Xavier. As they drive off Spear orders Pow-R8 be brought back online ASAP, as it has suddenly become a lot more valuable.

 

…

 

No, Pow-R8 is never brought up again.

 

This was a fine episode to serve as Evan’s send off. I have read that he was a character that the writers consistently had trouble writing for, so in retrospect I’m not shocked that they decided to cut him. And, at least they had been foreshadowing all this season that Evan’s mutation was growing more… aggressive and difficult for him to control. And the spikes coupled with how angry he’s been lately; I could see why joining the Morlocks might seem… therapeutic to him. Even if he has to live in a sewer. I think that the Pow-R8 as unintentional poison was a good plot McGuffin, but I must admit I’m always a bit confused by the “it doesn’t effect humans,” bit when we’re shown a bunch of humans falling down after learning it’s poisonous. I get it, that was supposed to show us that skating is hard, and that Evan is good as he’s the only one not messing up, but the scene paired with the poison reveal had me thinking the humans were being affected too, just not as severely. Much like the Kitty and her pyramid hat subplot from last season, the Kitty driving subplot was silly fluff, but I at least chuckled at her insane driving antics this time. As I said earlier, this marks the end of Evan as a regular cast member. He’ll still appear in the opening and closing credits, and he’ll have a few more appearances, but they won’t be for a while. Next time, Toad tries to impress Wanda. No, he still doesn’t realize regular bathing would go a long way to helping this. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 35

Being lost in the desert would be terrifying.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Wanda is out for blood. She is hunting her father, but runs into a roadblock when her best lead, the Mutant tracker Caliban is unable to find Magneto due to Magneto’s enhanced powers. She then shifts her hunt to Pietro. She finds her twin brother and traps him and almost literally giftwraps him for the police. The hope being that Pietro is either loved or useful enough to Magneto that he’d free him personally. Unfortunately, no, Magneto delegates rescuing his extremely loyal son to the Brotherhood boys via his minion Gambit. The boys are willing to save Pietro on the hope that they’ll get to join Magneto’s Acolytes. They’re followed by Rogue and Kitty, who saw Gambit, and new tomfoolery was afoot. They stepped in and saved the soldiers that the Brotherhood would have killed in their effort to free Pietro. Kitty is the one to get him out of a truck before it fell from a cliff, and Quicksilver peace’s out after. Wanda, who was watching from a distance, vows this isn’t the end. The Brotherhood boys are told they failed their mission, as it was an utter disaster but are told they’ll get additional chances if they impress their new boss, Pietro. Oh, and Rogue and Kitty are scolded for skipping school to follow the Brotherhood. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

I just... can't believe this is holding her.

We open the episode at Area 51, where Mystique is being held for study. For some reason, she’s being held in place by straps to a table, even though we know she can turn into a bird. Weird. She flashes back to her capture, clearly still harboring a grudge against Cyclops for leaving her. One of the scientists examining her wants to do some test that involves her right arm. Her colleague tells her to wait so he can grab an added restraint to hold her, she decides to not wait for plot reasons, Mystique gets free and assumes her form to sneak out. She only gets a little away before they realize what happened and sound the alarm. She swaps forms a few times to get outside, before escaping as one in a Murder of crows. Yes, that is the official term for a group of crows.

 

We jump to the X-Mansion where they’re just putting the finishing touches on the reconstruction. Some of the kids are helping to put the finishing touches on the outside, Rogue and Evan are putting up art (which is forgotten when Evan almost spikes Rogue on accident and she chases him down for revenge) and Bobby is helping Hank set up the computer system. Meanwhile, Scott and Logan are setting up a satellite dish, shirtless for some reason. Scott asks Logan for some advice, as he’s thinking about telling Jean how he feels about her. Logan gives the advice in the form of a motorcycle metaphor, i.e., say something before someone else does, Scott doesn’t get it, and Logan, frustrated, tells him that either he can tell Jean, or Logan will. Scott is then attacked by Crow Mystique as she flies by. On the ground, Jean almost hits Storm with a statue she’s moving because, shocking no one, she’s distracted by Scott shirtless. Ororo, being a good mentor, also tells Jean to go for it.

 

Ohhhhh no.

Later, Jean and Scott cross paths and are super awkward for a second before Kurt interrupts, telling Scott that his brother Alex is calling. Alex explains that he’s stranded in Mexico after a surfing competition and ask if his big bro can get him. Scott agrees and tells Jean that they can talk when he gets back. Scott flies charter… for some reasons, despite having access to the damn X-Jet, and meets Alex at the airport. He leads Scott to a side alley, reveals he’s Mystique in disguise, who gases Scott and tells him it’s payback time. Sometime later Scott wakes up in the middle of the desert without his shades or vison. Oh no.

 

Scott begins trekking through the wilderness, a task obviously made more difficult because he must do it with his eyes shut. He’ll occasionally risk opening them to see a little way ahead of him, blasting whatever is in his line of sight when he does. He wanders until nightfall when he hears some coyotes following him. He holds them off with an eye blast and runs.

 

Meanwhile, Jean wakes up, having seen this in a nightmare. Xavier joins her and she tells him about the dream. He asks if maybe she had a nightmare, but she claims to know. Xavier is skeptical though, as Scott is too far even for him. Wow, it is so weird to have Xavier be wrong about something involved with telepathy.

 

Well, this sucks.

Scott at that moment fights off several coyotes, even blasting one right out of the air based on what he hears. Some workers at an oil rig see the lightshow he’s firing and go to investigate. They grab him and drive off before the coyotes can kill Scott after he fell from a cliff trying to get away from them. Mystique, watching from above calls them ‘meddling fools’ and follows in owl form.

 

Back at the mansion, Jean calls Alex and is horrified to hear a perplexed Alex admit he hasn’t called Scott and has no idea what Jean is talking about.

 

Scott wakes up in a hospital. The workers took him to one in Mexico city after finding him. The doctor, trying to be helpful, wants to check for a concussion. Which involves checking his pupils. Damn. He gets restrained, eyes forced open, and he blows out the roof. He wanders off in the confusion.

 

Xavier has found Scott in Mexico city using Cerebro but can’t find his exact spot. Jean swears she will find him.

 

Scott wanders blind through Mexico city, finding a pay phone, but it’s not working. The X-Men land and Jean, Wolverine and Storm split up to search. Scott is found by some locals that want to kick his ass for blowing the roof off their hospital. Scott grabs one and proves his power by blowing a hole in the wall at point blank range and asking if they really want a piece of him. The guy’s two buddies leave, but the one Scott captured is revealed to be Mystique. She taunts his blindness and swears that her fun has just begun. She tries to gas him again, saying they’ll try the North Pole next, but Scott knocks the gas thing from her hands They start fighting, Scott risking eyebeams to try to stop her. Thankfully, his strong connection with Jean lets her see though his eyes for a second, and she informs Xavier what she saw. He tells her to go to the Plaza of the three cultures and she sprints to it.

 

Finally!

Mystique obviously has a huge advantage over Scott in terms of her physical strength and the ability to see their surroundings. She knocks him into an old warehouse. This proves to be a poor decision on her part, as the creaky boards make it much easier for Scott to track her. He ends up collapsing the floor and they’re dropped into an old underground area. Scott blasts the few electric lights evening out their vision a little. He throws her into some crates. Jean comes down and tries to get him to relax, while hefting a spear and trying to skewer him. She makes the mistake of saying that Cerebro lead her right to him, tipping Scott off she’s Mystique and he blasts her again. She tries to tackle him again, but the real Jean arrives, and she telekinetically grabs Mystique. Jean flings her around and when Mystique taunts her with “How sweet. Girlfriend to the rescue,” Jean replies, “you go that right, lady,” and smacks her hard into a wall. Jean comforts Scott and tells him it’ll be alright. On the X-Jet, Jean gives him a spare set of glasses and then kisses him on the cheek and holds his arm affectionately. Logan says, “It’s about time,” and Storm and Xavier agree.

 

I really liked this episode. Mystique is a damn sadist, so anyone who knows her character knew she’d be back, and she’d get her vengeance on Scott. Taking his visor and throwing him into the desert to die from either dehydration, hunger, heat, or via wildlife is textbook Mystique. She wanted Scott to not only die but die terrified. This plus using her shapeshifting to further confuse Scott once he’s into a more populated area. It’s all very Mystique. I also liked that while Scott was hampered by his lack of vision, he was still resourceful and able to make progress in returning home. Using his blasts as a signal flare after the sun went down was a brilliant use of his powers. I’m glad that Jean and Scott finally decided to move forward with their relationship, as I’m an old school Scott/Jean supporter and that Duncan guy was a butt. It was a bit odd for Logan to be the one to give Scott the advice to move forward, given his… complicated part in Scott and Jean’s romance, but it fits with him being a mentor for Scott and not being remotely interested in teenage Jean because he’s not scummy. The bit about Jean and Scott having an intense psychic link is a bit cheesy, but Jean is the most powerful psychic ever, and if she was going to telepathically link to anyone, it’d be her oldest friend that she now has a strong desire to make out with. Really, my only complaint is that opening scene when a doctor for no reason freed Mystique… because. Like, you couldn’t wait the 2 minutes it’d take for her coworker to get another restrain and hold her in place. Like, come on, be patient, damn it. Next time, Evan’s life gets… complicated. See you then. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 34

 Oh, hi Gambit.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, the students are adjusting to the new normal. They’re living in an emergency shelter in the un-exploded part off the Danger Room. Xavier lets the older kids know that they’ll be allowed to go to the local Bayville High School for one day, as the next night will be a big schoolboard meeting on whether to ban Mutants. School goes about as well as you can imagine, a bunch of relationships are ended, they get called slurs, and Principal Kelly is plotting to see them kicked out. There’s also a subplot of Kurt hiding his real identity and distancing himself from his friends to preserve the illusion of the human Kurt Wagner. Kelly invites the Brotherhood boys back to the school and pushes Jean’s ex-boyfriend Duncan to use them as part of his revenge against Scott. Keep in mind, Jean broke up with Duncan for being an asshole, Scott was not technically involved. The night of the big speech, while Jean gives a speech about Mutant rights, Scott, Kitty, Rogue and Evan battle Duncan and the Brotherhood, the X-Men not using their powers to prove a point about control. They beat the Brotherhood, prove themselves and are officially invited back. It’s taken with mixed feelings as the students know they’re in for more hate. Sucks. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Wanda walking through a bad part of town. Some locals try to get her to pay to walk down their street, and she uses her powers to terrify them. Once alone, she goes to another back alley and finds her quarry, Caliban. For those who might not remember him, he’s an albino Mutant affiliated with the Morlocks. His powers allow him to track just about anyone on the planet. Wanda tracked him down to try to find Magneto. Unfortunately, Magneto is an exception. He claims that Magneto is too powerful for him, but I bet his helmet helps. He offers to find someone else, and Wanda asks him to find Pietro. And somewhere a white-haired young man felt a chill go down his spine.

 

Construction is easy with Mutants.

Back with the X-Men, the mansion is coming together nicely. Evan and Kurt start walking to class, both are not jazzed to go to school. Evan is pissed that none of his friends stood by him, and when Kurt says they probably weren’t real friends, he angrily lashes out and points out Kurt might not have many friends either without his image inducer. He turns it off and reveals the real Kurt. Depressed by this thought, Kurt bamfs away, Evan realizing he was an asshole as soon as his friend disappeared.

 

We’re show Roberto Da Costa aka Sunspot standing on the top of the rebuilt main building. He’s charging up on solar energy, transforming into his Sunspot form. He’s basically a dark figure surrounded by a flaming energized aura. Once charged, he joins the other New Mutants and helps them and Storm and Beast clear out the debris from Cerebro, using their powers to metal a bunch of slag into a huge metal cube. He goes to dispose of the cube, running into Scott, Jean, and Kitty as they run to Scott’s car to get to school. So… Evan and Kurt had to get to school early? I guess. They leave as more construction crews pull in. There’s a gag that shows the company’s name and slog after the gates shut. “Confidential Construction Company. Your Secrets are safe with us!”

 

Back at the Brotherhood house, Toad is wearing one of Pietro’s old uniforms and being an asshole. Lance tells him to knock it off and the boys get in a fight about who is “in charge.” Which seems weird, considering Lance has been in charge consistently since they got their damn team together. Whatever. Lance tries to get the other two to focus and help him clean. Because if Mystique comes back to see her house wrecked, she will murder them. Blob asks why they’re doing Pietro’s room, pissing off Lance who throws him, and most of Pietro’s stuff out of a window with a seismic wave. Not sure how his powers work on wood and the second floor but whatever. Toad runs off still wearing Pietro’s suit but trips himself hopping away. He slams into Wanda’s door, breaking it and crashing to the floor. He says it was an accident, for real this time, and covers his eyes. Something tells me she’d shown him ‘accidents” are punishable. Lance grabs Pietro’s suit and pulls it off Toad, getting an eyeful of bare Toad buns and clearly almost barfs. He tells him to put something else on.

 

We cut to Wanda arriving at a small diner in the middle of nowhere. She sees Pietro reading a paper at the counter and warns him of his impending doom by making his coffee cup dance with electricity. She demands to know where their dad is. He tries to run, but she stops him with her powers. She tells the bystanders to leave and starts throwing dishes at him. He swears that he doesn’t know, that Magento comes to him, not the other way around. Wanda elects to bait Magneto, shutting her twin up in a cabinet, then into the freezer, then rips the freezer out and throws it outside, causing the police car racing to investigate the disturbance to crash. Wanda escapes while the cops are distracted by a Maximoff in a box.

 

Back at Bayville High, Kelly wipes his hands of the Brotherhood Boys, telling Lance that he and the Brotherhood Boys are expelled and not allowed on Campus again. When Lance points out Kelly invited them back days ago, he admits that he’s dropping them. Lance causes a quake, pinning Kelly against the wall with his desk and storms off. Outside he is met by Remy LeBeau, aka Gambit. Lance wants to fight, but Gambit deflects, telling him to gather the Brotherhood Boys and to meet them back at their house. Lance refuses and storms off.

 

Regardless of universe, he pisses her off so
easily.

Rogue sees Evan getting bullied by a pair of goons. She tries to intervein but gets shoved over. Evan spikes up to scare them off, which works but puts him at risk for expulsion. Rogue tells him to retract the spikes, but Evan can’t for some reason. He finally does, but it’s clearly an effort. Rogue goes to stop the bullies. They round a corner and run into Gambit. He tells them to not mess with Mutants. The bullies aren’t impressed… until Gambit takes a pencil, charges it, and uses it to blow up a tree. They run and agree to keep their mouths shut immediately after that.  Rogue runs into Gambit. He tells her that he’s just passing through, calls her Cherie and walks away. … Given that Rogue is 17, I think, at this point and Gambit is at least 20, calling her sweetheart feels… ookie. Kitty joins her and suggests getting Scott, but Rogue says there is no time, so they follow Gambit.

 

Lance returns to the house. Toad is in another Quicksilver costume, and Blob I forcing junk into a closet. Lance comes in, causing seismic waves. He warns that one of Magneto’s stooges is on their way. Toad asks which one, one of Gambit’s explosive cards lands and he chuckles “Oh… that one.” After the explosion, Gambit leaps in and a fight breaks out. Gambit, being significantly better trained then them, easily overpowers them, knocking Blob to the ground, and wrapping Toad in a curtain that he charges and threatens to detonate if they don’t talk. Lance agrees to talk, duh. He tells them that Magneto has a job for them, which is a test to prove themselves to Magneto. They just have to bust out an old friend of theirs, Pietro.

 

The Boys drive off, with Kitty and Rogue watching from a distance. Rogue has kitty phase them into a truck and they follow. They’re implausibly able to follow the Brotherhood boys by hopping between trucks and cars as they go, periodically having Kitty phase out and scout where they’re going. Writers, you could have just given them a car. Or had Rogue steal Logan’s bike.

 

Pietro's back.

They come across the Brotherhood boys as they prep to free Pietro. Lance causes a quake to stop the convoy holding him, knocking several jeeps off the side of a mountain. The Brotherhood Boys cause a lot of damage, but Kitty and Rogue intervene to ensure no one dies. Rogue gets in close, stealing Lance’s powers. Pietro almost goes off the side of the cliff, Blob not able to grab him in time, but Kitty leaps in and phases them both out. Pietro gives her a backhanded compliment and then races off. Wanda, watching from above, swears that this is not over. The Brotherhood Boys drive off, Rogue almost getting them with a quake. Rogue and Kitty are almost taken into custody, but they impressed the Major in charge of the unit, who lets them go. He says he’d give them a ride, but they’re cars all… exploded. The girls walk off, an angry Kitty saying they’re finding a phone and calling Scott.

 

Gambit arrives at the Brotherhood house. He tells the boys they messed up, and that they aren’t getting to join the Acolytes. But, that wasn’t their only shot at the big time. He tells them they’ll have other chances, but need serious leadership. Who’s the leader Magneto has in mind? Pietro. Nepotism at it’s finest. He orders them to get to cleaning as Gambit leaves.

 

Back at the mansion, Kitty and Rogue explain what happened to Scott and Xavier. Xavier applauds their ingenuity and desire to help, but warns that they can’t get involved with every problem. They have lives to live, School to attend, and detention for skipping 6^th period. The episode ends on Scott and Xavier giving them a “wah wah waaaahhh” look.

 

This episode I think was only okay. It is a lot of set up for events to come, but the plot in and of itself is kind of thin. The plot feels a bit scattered, with Wanda’s search for Magneto and then Pietro as the obvious A plot, but it’s surrounded by a fair amount of fluff. Some of it’s interesting to see, like the New Mutants cleaning up Cerebro, but doesn’t really go anywhere. I do like that they’re keeping the thread that the Mutant most angry about their situation is Evan. He’s snapping at his friends constantly, getting in fights… and seems to be losing control of his powers. The fact that he couldn’t retract his spikes at first will be important soon, just not now. Seeing Gambit again was nice. He’s a hall of famer X-Men character for me, as I grew up with him as the charming rogue in X-Men: The Animated Series. He’s got a lot of charm, but a more… sinister edge since he’s one of Magneto’s main guys. I sort of get Magneto’s plan here. He gave the Brotherhood a mission that he knew that they’d probably succeed at, but mess up enough that he could reinsert Pietro into the group. This’ll give the Brotherhood a chance to improve and give Pietro a chance to show if he has leadership potential. The glaring hole in this plan is 1. His vengeful daughter also lives in the house, and 2. The even more vengeful ex-lieutenant Mystique ALSO lives there. Chances of this plowing up in someone’s face seems high. I also felt the “lesson” that Rogue and Kitty should have stayed out of this one felt tact on. Like, they needed another 2 minutes for the episode so they include this little finger waggle that they should have gone to class. And their truck hopping was silly. Both girls are old enough to have their licenses, just let them have a car. It could still have been wrecked and they must call Scott. All I’m saying. So yeah, okay episode. Next time, Mystique is back. Oh no. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 33

It's amazing Public school politics is more ruthless than the US Congress.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, the team was still reeling from the Sentinel attack and the MIA Professor Xavier. While Ororo and Hank go to congress to try to keep the politicians from jumping on the “Mutant Menace,” the others tried to stay low. It worked about as well as you could imagine. Logan leaves after Scott steps up and orders that they do a defensive strategy, the rational being that they aren’t the US military’s enemy, and they should refuse to be made into one. While running from military choppers, the team learns about Juggernaut attacking a nearby dam, clearly plotting to drown a small city nearby. They fight the unstoppable Juggernaut, get thrown around a bit, but do ultimately stop him with a combination of Cyclops’ eye blast, Iceman’s freezing and Rogue draining his powers a little. After the fight, Rogue uses the information she dug up from Jug’s nogging to find the professor, who had been mysteriously swapped with his brother. They bring him out, and the US President gives the X-Men a full pardon and asks the people to wait and see about Mutants. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Pretty good likeness of Scott.

We open on the X-Mansion at night. The students are living in a sort of temporary barracks in the intact wing of the Danger Room. The mansion is currently under reconstruction. Kitty is up getting a late-night snack as several guys in Halloween masks sneak onto the grounds. She and Kurt spot the intruders on the monitors and teleport to the ground level to scare them off before they set off an alarm. Oh, and they think it might be the Brotherhood boys. Nah, it’s some high schoolers in rubber masks. The show tries to make them seem shocking or scary, but one of them is in a letterman’s jackets for goodness’s sake. She and Kurt wrestle them into the dirt, unmasking them and realizing that they are just students. They’d come to graffiti hateful messages on a wall. Kurt and Kitty send them backing, Kitty remaking that it was a lot simpler when it was just the Brotherhood that actively hated them.

 

The next morning, we see Jubilee packing up and being taken home by her parents. Logan laments that she’s the second student to be pulled out, the second one after the Lycanthropomorphic Rayne. Xavier understands their fear, and admits that he failed in his promise to keep the children safe. Logan tries to blame himself for not catching Mystique’s scent while she was acting as Xavier, but Xavier points out he should have sensed her mind in Wanda’s hospital room. He concludes that her enhanced powers, which she obtained in the season 1 finale, make her significantly more difficult to track or detect. Logan goes for a ride to clear his head.

 

The next morning, the older student’s are called into a meeting with Xavier. The professor explains to Scott, Jean, Kurt, Kitty, Rogue and Evan that the schoolboard has decided to let the students start attending classes that day, provided that they don’t use their powers. This is their last chance to show off before a big school board vote on whether they should ban mutants permanently. Kitty admits that she’s scared to go back, but Xavier stresses that they need to work with people to be accepted. Evan is visibly angry at still being labeled as a monster. Kurt notices in the paper Xavier was holding that he's listed as identity unknown, as his blue form is just different enough from his Kurt Wagner disguise that I guess folks aren’t make the connection. He’s excited to still have his secret, but obviously also a little disappointed in himself for being excited. Xavier tells them that he wants them at the meeting, to show the people behind the powers.

 

School goes about as well as you’d imagine. Lots of generic “we hate you,” lines from other students, Evan is the most visibly upset of the group but Scott tells him to just keep cool, and Kurt socially distances himself from his friends to preserve his secret identity. It’s clear from a look that it’s over between Scott and… looking it up… her name is… Taryn! Yeah, Scott’s not-Jean admirer isn’t cool with the real reason Scott keeps his sunglasses on. Duncan shows up and tells Jean that nothing changes between them because of her powers, and then immediately ruins it by suggesting she use her telepathy to help him cheat on tests. Oh god, this guy. Jean breaks it off with him and immediately pulls Scott and the others (Scott literally, the other’s figuratively) behind her. Principle Kelly watched the Xavier Student’s arrival rather ominously from his car. Inside Scott and Jean have a moment while their hand hold lasts a bit too long to be platonic before heading to class.

 

Logan, meanwhile, is riding his motorcycle when another rider pulls up along side him. He flexes his fist, turning it into steel. Yeah, that’s Piotr Rasputin aka Colossus. Logan chases the Acolyte, but Colossus causes a major traffic pileup, slowing Logan down enough for him to get away. … So… why did you reveal yourself, Piotr? Just to show the Acolytes are nearby, I guess.

 

At the Brotherhood house, Toad and Blob are mocking Lance. Why? Because Kitty broke off their Romeo-Juliet style romance and is now refusing to go anywhere near him. I’m shocked this didn’t worked out. Sooooo much sarcasm right there. Lance starts shaking the house in frustration when Principal Kelly knocks. He personally invites them to the school. He lets them know that their new notoriety should make sure no one messes with them and is clearly not planning to use them for his own ends. Again, lot of sarcasm on that last half.

 

One of these three would be terrifying to fight, and,
hit, it's the goth.

At the School, Kurt is enjoying hiding, until his girlfriend Amanda runs over and almost spills the beans. He pulls her aside and lets her know that he’s not ready to show who he really is to the world. She asks what about his friends, to which Kurt says that he’s sure they’ll be fine. A point immediately proven false as we’re showing Duncan attacking Scott to force him to use his powers to get expelled. I’m not sure he’s thought this through, as Scott not using his powers just means he’ll be bullying someone. Scott tells him he’s not worth it and tries to walk away. Duncan has his goons grab Scott and takes his shades. Scott easily drops the goons despite his eyes being shut, and then Kitty and Rogue show up to give him back up. Duncan backs off, saying they won’t last two days. Rogue returns the shades, Scott thanks her and he walks off. Kitty spots Kurt watching from a corner, and she and Rogue find him just in time to pull a St. Peter. … He denies his connection to his friends, for any non-Christian readers who don’t have biblical stories shoved down their throats, all six of you. Later, Principal Kelly asks for Duncan Matthews to be sent too his office.

 

Logan, having continued the chase, finds Colossus in a barn in the country. He throws his motorcycle at Colossus, which the big shifter throws off. Wolverine tells him that he “got my attention. Now let’s talk!” and then dive at him with claws extended.

 

Kelly meets with Duncan. He covertly but obviously tells Duncan that he should use the Brotherhood Boardinghouse crew to attack Scott and the other Mutants. Like, he doesn’t say those words, but it is the most obvious subtext ever.

 

Logan throws Colossus outside. Colossus grabs a tractor and throws it at him, saying that he’s been tasked with delivering a message to Logan from Magneto. He shifts down and delivers the message, it’s a recruitment pitch to join the Acolytes. Logan isn’t interested and learns that Colossus isn’t a willing member of the Acolytes. He won’t say what Magneto has on him but confirms it’s ‘enough’ to keep him in line. Logan gives him a counterproposal, offering him a spot on the X-Men roster where he belongs, but Piotr declines.

Kelly going full racist.

 

At the school, the Brotherhood boys come in and make a nuisance of themselves. We cut to Jean practicing basketball with her team. She’s immediately accused of using her powers to make a basket, much to her shock. She denies it, but no one believes her. She sees Principal Kelly pulling her awards from the trophy case. He has decided to return them, as he feels that there’s no way to prove that Jean won them without using her powers. He’s clearly being racist to Mutants, going so far as to call Jean a menace and demands she return her soccer MVP trophy. Dick. That’s right, he doesn’t deserve a DICK acronym.

 

That night, Xavier asks Jean to make a speech for the pro Mutant side. She agrees but says she wishes the others would arrive to give her backup. The others walk up, but Duncan pulls up in his car and threatens Scott. He reveals he brought the Brotherhood boys as backup when Evan, Rogue, and Kitty refuse to go inside. So, it’s one asshole plus three Mutant assholes vs. 4 Mutants that are trying to show restraint. Fun. Kitty immediately accuses Lance of being a hood, and Lance starts shaking the ground, shouting that he guesses he’ll never be good enough for her. To which I say, bro, good enough for her was just not actively attacking her friends. That is such a low bar!

 

Woo, Jean, give a speech!

As they fight, Jean gives her speech. She gives the usual talking points, anyone can be a Mutant, everyone deserves the right to a public education, that sort of thing, juxtaposed over her friends fist fighting with the Brotherhood plus Duncan. Lance’s quakes finally get so bad that it causes the building to start to collapse. Everyone runs outside to see the Brotherhood boys wrecking the place. Kelly tries to use this as evidence that Mutants are dangerous and can’t be controlled, but Xavier does point out that none of his students are using their powers at all despite ample reason to do so. Lance nearly kills parents and Kelly with a big quake, but they’re saved by Kurt breaking down and teleporting, Jean’s telekinesis, Evan’s spikes, and Kelly himself is saved from a flying car by phasing Kitty. Now that the power gloves are off, Lance calls for the retreat. The Brotherhood boys run. Kitty asks Kurt to turn off hiss inducer and dazzle them with the real him, but he’s not quite ready.

 

The next morning, the upper classmen join Xavier for another meeting. Everyone is pessimistic about their chances, but Xavier says that in light of the life saving and Jean inspiration, they’re being welcomed back to school officially. They’re not super jazzed by this, really, because they’ve got to deal with outright hostility. Xavier tells them to take heart and consider this an honor to be the first to show the world what it’s in for.

 

After two full seasons of the X-Men working in secret and having several near misses with their powers being revealed, including that one where they should have been revealed if not for Xavier mind erasing everyone present and Magneto frying the recording equipment, it’s nice to see X-Men: Evolution starting to deal with the Mutant’s dealing with intolerance. That’s like 80% of what their stories ultimately revolve around. I liked seeing Kelly finally being blatantly hostile to the Mutant students. They set it up well in season 2, making him one of the few people to notice all the weird and dangerous things that have happened because of Mutant activity. Hell, they all but assured us he’s the only one who remembered the Brotherhood attack in the season 2 opener. His hostility isn’t completely without merit, but obviously he is fixated on proving there are no good Mutants, so targets good Mutants with obviously bad ones. It just great to see an asshole be an asshole. Kurt’s decision to try to distance himself from his friends is a bit of a dick move, but I kind of get it. He’s spent most of his life being looked at as a monster or freak by the vast majority of people, I personally can’t begrudge him wanting to extend the dream of being normal just a little while longer. Not helping Scott was too far, but ducking down, I get. I’m glad that the Lance/Kitty thing is pretty much over at this point. I mean, he still holds a candle for her, so goes out off his way to help her a few more times but trying to make a relationship work is done. I don’t think it was a necessarily toxic pursuit, but Lance, ya know, actively tries to kill her friends. Often. There was no way that works long term. Just sayin’. I respect the hell out of the students holding back during their fight with the Brotherhood boys. Scott fist fighting Duncan was obviously not going to turn out well for Duncan. Oh, the football player vs. the dude who has what is just shy of a lifetime’s worth of combat training, whoever is going to win? I like that the ending isn’t exactly happy in the student’s eyes. Sure, they get to continue their normal lives and go to high school like any other teen… where they’re no social pariahs, will be looked at with fear and scorn, and will have to deal with the Principal that’s only better than Darkholme at this point because he’s not actively trying to kill them… yet. I’d have mixed feelings about that too. But that’s high school for you. I’ll see you next time. 

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