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.
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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.
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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 6th
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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