Rogue and Gambit take a trip.
Last time on X-Men: Evolution,
Evan’s back. Ororo’s nephew had gone through a more extensive transformation
since he left, now being covered in spike armor, and gaining the ability to
launch burning spikes. Tensions between humans and Mutants are raising.
Morlocks tend to be in the crosshairs even more than other Mutants, as their
visible physical differences makes it easy for them to be targeted. Evan, being
one of the more powerful Morlocks, sets himself up as their protector and isn’t
taking harassment lying down. Jean’s ex Duncan attacks a pair of New Mutants,
and gets his car wrecked by Evan. In retaliation, Duncan and his crew steal mining
lasers and use them to attack the Morlock’s sewer home. Things lead to a full-on
riot, but it’s finally stopped by the arrival of Dorian Leech. Dorian is a
child that had been suffering from terrible headaches all episode that
culminate in a shockwave that short out all the electronics in the area as well
as Mutant powers. The episode ends with Xavier telling Dorian’s mother that
there is a place for Dorian at the Xavier Institute when he’s ready. Enough
recap. Let’s get to it.
Rogue, use Tackle!
We open with Rogue in her mindscape
as she tries to sort out her trauma from the whole “shattering her mom” thing. This
takes the form of grasping arms reaching for her as a giant statue of Mystique
stares at her judgmentally before falling to the city below her. She breaks out
of the trance Charles is trying to lead her through and announces that she
needs to just get away for a little bit. She grabs her bag and leaves despite
Charles trying to talk to her.
Later, Rogue nearly arrives at the
high school, turns to try to leave and immediately runs into Kurt. Kurt, despite
still being visibly upset about the whole “pushed mom off a cliff” thing, is still
taking it way better than he really should and is just kind of mopey
about it. He asks if the rumors about Rogue leaving are true, to which she says
she’s still thinking about it. He doesn’t say anything as she walks off. She
makes it about ten feet before she’s grabbed by Gambit. Gambit tells her that
she’s tense and should sleep off her tension and hits her with knockout gas. Remy,
the hell?
After the opening credits, Rogue
wakes up on a train with Gambit. Not like a passenger car, like a cargo car.
Guess they’re playing turn of the century traveling vagrant. She tries to attack
him, only to discover that her hands and feet are bound. He claims that he’s
offering freedom, which is somewhat ironic given her literal bound captive
status. He says that he’s been watching her, feels that she’s unhappy with her
current situation and is just giving her the “push” to move forward. He
promises to free her when they get to where they’re going.
Back at the Mansion, Kurt is
looking for Charles and is clearly distraught when no one can tell him where
Charles is. Logan ends up being the first person to ask why Kurt is looking for
Charles. Kurt explains that Rogue never came to school, and despite his mixed
feelings towards her right now, he’s concerned for his sister. Logan, being proactive,
heads out on his motorcycle and starts hunting for her. Using his incredible
sense of smell, he’s able to track down her backpack and gets a whiff of Gambit
too. Ohhh, Remy, you’re in trouble now.
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Logan aka Wolverince aka Mama Bear.
Not having any other leads, Logan
heads towards Magneto’s old base in New York. There, we find Pyro. The Aussie
member of the Acolytes is entertaining himself by, I kid you not, watching Magneto’s
death on a loop. Yeah… St. John is a flipping sociopath. Logan grabs him and demands
to know where Gambit is. Pyro uses his powers to make a fire dragon to fight
Logan, but Logan has seen Pyro enough times to know how his power works. If you
haven’t read my villain profile on the guy, Pyro’s form of Pyrokinesis is
impressive, but requires a constant fuel supply to work. Logan, knowing this,
slices off his flamethrower’s gas tank and Pyro’s dragon disintegrates. Now in
total control of the situation, Logan throws Pyro around and again demands to
know where Gambit is. Pyro reveals that the Acolytes died with their boss, as
Colossus went back to Russian, Sabretooth ran off to parts unknown, and Gambit
vanished too. Logan, pissed, throws Pyro back into his chair. Pyro, needing a
pick-me-up, restarts watching Magneto’s death. Damn.
We jump back to Rogue and Gambit on
the train. She asks about his whole card thing, and Gambit explains that they’re
52 explosives he can always carry on him, and that he saves the Queen of Hearts
for the last. She pretends to be interested in his ‘help’ gets freed and
immediately tries to throw him out the train, saying that she doesn’t like
being pushed in any direction. Gambit takes her point, and then warns her that
he’s not pulled back into the car, he’s going to use his powers to blow the
train sky high. She pulls him in and goes to punch him, he grabs her hand and
pulls off her glove, saying that he’s willing to let her drain him if it’ll
prove to her that he means her no harm. She almost touches him but pulls back,
saying she doesn’t want him in her head.
At the mansion, Charles was able to
track Gambit with Cerebro after he used his powers. Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops
and Nightcrawler suit up and follow.
Rogue asks where they’re going, and
Gambit reveals that they’re on their way to Louisiana, New Orleans to be
specific. They arrive in the middle of Marti Gras and stop for a bite to eat.
Gambit reveals that part of the reason they’re in town is to see his thief of a
father and that he’s not happy about it. They’re interrupted by several goons,
one of which is named Julien. He reveals Gambit’s full name, Remy LeBeau and
goes to take him out. Rogue and Gambit fight off the goons and make a break for
it. They hold off the goons well, Rogue draining one of them and getting
flashes of a man being hostage somewhere.
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Solid rescue team right here.
In the Blackbird, the team has
arrived in Louisiana. Charles radios in to tell them that Rogue and Gambit have
been using their powers in town. Logan points out that that is a bad sign. They
prepare to land and start searching. Kurt points out the sheer impossibility of
finding two people in the French Quarter of New Orleans during Marti Gras.
Back with Rogue, she reveals that
she got an info dump from Julien and backfills Gambit’s life story. He’s from a
crime family called the Thieves Guild, Julien is from another family called the
Rippers, and that Gambit’s father was kidnapped by them. Gambit tells Rogue to
not get involved and walks off. As soon as he’s out of sight, he looks back to
make sure she’s following him. Smart Gambit, telling Rogue to not follow know
that’s exactly what she needs to hear to keep following. Rogue catches
up to Gambit a second after Gambit spies Scott walking around. He turns them
around as Rogue reveals that his father is being held at Blood Moon Bayou and
that he’ll need her help to free his dad. Gambit tells her he’ll handle it, but
she insists on helping to make up to herself for the whole… mom murder thing.
Gambit and Rogue take a boat out into
the bayou and bond over the fact that they’re both the adopted children of less-than-ideal
parents. Specifically, less than ideal parents that just wanted a powerful
enforcer, more than they wanted a son/daughter. Rogue points out that Gambit is
at least trying to save his father, which is more than she did for Mystique.
The X-Men are in pursuit.
The Rippers detected that Gambit
and Rogue were on their way in and fire a damn RPG to try to kill them when
they get spotted. Thankfully, Gambit and Rogue used their old boat as a decoy
and it got toasted as they floated by on blowup raft. They almost get spotted
by a camera that Rogue remembers via her stolen memories, she knocks them to
the ground to avoid being seen. They tumble a few feet and get tangled up,
Gambit’s pinky touching Rogue’s ear. He passes out, and then wakes up to a thoroughly
pissed off Rogue who now knows that Gambit was playing her from the start.
Rogue, being upset at being used for at least the 50th time storms
off, Gambit trying to rationalize it by saying his dad’s life was at stake.
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Not a happy camper, is Anna Marie
Alone, Gambit breaks into the house
and finds his father, Jean Luc LeBeau, tied to a chair. Gambit frees Jean Luc
and wants to make a break for it. Jean Luc, being an idiot, wants to take the opportunity
of being in the Ripper’s stronghold to wreck the place. Gambit just wants to
take his dad and go. They’re almost attacked by the Rippers, but Rogue came
back and drained them to give the LeBeau’s a chance to escape. A laser shootout
starts because this was an early 00s show and real guns would be too much.
Rogue uses her stolen memories to lead them to a back exit as Storm arrives and
starts wrecking the place with a hurricane. Kurt and the others also help to
break the old mansion to bits to help with Rogue’s escape. She and the LeBeau’s
steal a speedboat and drive off into the bayou, the X-Men and Rippers in
pursuit. Using their powers, they’re able to dodge the Rippers for a bit until
their boat gets capsized. Rogue is almost attacked by crocs, but Kurt teleports
in to save her. Gambit destroys the last of the Ripper’s speedboats before
Logan pulls him from the water and almost stabs him. Rogue stops him, though.
Rogue tells Gambit that she’s going back to the mansion and that she doesn’t
care what Gambit does. He isn’t so sure, but tells her that she’ll be fine as
she has a good support structure. He slips the Queen of Hearts into her hands before
leaving with his father. Kurt asks if she’ll be okay and she thinks she will.
This episode was good, as I like
Gambit and am happy to see more of him, but it also felt a little weird. Gambit
and Rogue have had an on-again, off-again romance for as long as both
characters have existed, it just feels weird here as Rogue is at most 17 and I’d
say Gambit is 20 at youngest. Age difference romances are fine, it’s just
always weird when you see hints of one starting with a minor is all I’m saying.
I do like that this episode highlighted their similar backstories, as being the
children of criminals that wanted to use their powers for personal gains. Remy
and Anna Marie’s closeness is usually tied to that similar background and the fact
they’re both southern. It seemed obvious to me that Gambit was setting the whole
thing in motion to get Rogue to help him on this mission, saying stay away when
he is praying that she follows him, but then I’m a 32-year-old man watching a show
from my youth. Expressly showing him watching Rogue make sure she follows him
is a helpful touch for any kid that doesn’t get nuance yet. I like that we’re
seeing Rogue have some lingering feelings about the whole… murder thing. Don’t
get me wrong, I totally see why Rogue would want to push Mystique off a cliff,
but no one hates a parent so completely that they wouldn’t feel some
lingering pain at having done the deed themselves. I also like that Kurt, while
still angry, still behaved like himself. He puts distance between himself and
Rogue, but he’s still the first person to notice that she’s gone and that
scares him, obviously. The battle at the Rippers Mansion was neat, although I
roll my eyes at the thought of a group of thieves affording laser weapons even
in a comic book universe. The state of the house suggests resource limits that
make buying charged particle guns… unlikely is all I’m saying. Having the
episode end with Gambit passing off his lucky card to Rogue as a silent wish of
luck was a nice touch too. It’s a sign of affection that is nuanced, a little,
and less… problematic than like a hug or kiss would be with a minor. Yes, I’m
harping on this, but the older I get the less okay I get with 17-year-olds
dating adult men in fiction. It’s an incredibly weirdly prevalent trope and we
really need to stop using it. So yeah, a good Rogue and Gambit episode only
hampered by the age difference that these versions of the characters are
dealing with. Have a good night, everyone.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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