Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 50

 This one gets trippy.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Rogue went on a bit of a field trip with Remy LeBeau aka Gambit. The Mutant with the ability to charge objects with enough energy to turn anything into a bomb played this… well, to be honest, kidnapping, as an attempt to give Rogue a little push to go out and see the world like she’d been threatening to do for a while now. But in actuality, his less than stellar adoptive father Jean Luc had been kidnaped by a rival thieves’ gang and he needed Rogue’s memory stealing powers to help him find and free his dad. Rogue is, obviously, quite pissed when she discovers this and almost abandons Gambit but comes back to help get both LeBeau’s out in one piece. With a slight assist from Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops and Nightcrawler. They part ways, with Rogue feeling more secure with her real family and seemingly ready to start moving past what happened with Mystique. Gambit, as a parting gift, leaves her with a Queen of Hearts, his favorite playing card in this continuity, as a non-verbal wish of good luck. That was weirdly wholesome of him. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Logan leading a small group of his Mutant charges, Kitty, Kurt, Bobby, Sam, and Rogue, on a dirt biking outing. They’re enjoying the local landscape just a few days before the area is supposed to be flooded to create a reservoir. Logan and tells the kids to partner up before riding off. Kitty has trouble controlling her bike, falls behind her partner Rogue and takes a wrong turn to a lower part of the canyon. She ends up hitting some debris that Rogue knocks loose and careening into the canyon. Oh, that’s probably going to ruin her day. … What? She can pass through solid objects, my fears of her dying via falling are insanely low. My point is proven when her bike falls and breaks into a billion pieces, but she phases through the ground and grabs onto an outcrop of the canyon. She pulls herself up, the ledge breaks and she drops a few more feet to the ground. She hits the ground hard but survives. Logan, who’d been racing Sam, notes the black smoke raising up from Kitty’s wreck and goes to look for her.

 

It's strange that finding a person in a canyon
isn't even in the top 100 X-Men intros. 

Kitty is almost crushed by more falling rock, but is pulled out of the way by a mysterious Native American girl around her age. She introduces herself as Danielle. Kitty is apprehensive when Danielle admits to having seen her use her powers, but Danielle is super psyched about it as she is also a Mutant, but claims her powers aren’t as flashy. She tells Kitty that she lives nearby in a place called Dark Hollow with her Grandfather. The others arrive and Logan runs over to make sure Kitty is alright. When Rogue pulls up, Logan is very angry with her for leaving her partner behind. The music sting makes this seem like a big deal… but I don’t think this ever gets brought up again between the two of them.

 

We cut to the X-Mansion, where Danielle is being orientated by Charles. Rogue arrives and apologizes for leaving her behind, but Kitty isn’t all that upset because it lead to her meeting Danielle. Xavier calls the students to meet in the dining area for a meeting. Meanwhile, Logan is tricked into a rematch with Sam since their motocross raise was interrupted by Kitty’s accident, Sam trying to humble his teacher a littler by raising the bet to loser has to wash the dirt bikes. Charles introduces Danielle Moonstar to the group and Kitty pulls her aside to show her around the institute. Logan asks Charles what sort of powerset they’re dealing with, and Charles tells him that she has a form of telepathy but she has some emotional issues that may make her powers unstable. Logan points out that troubled kid plus mental powers is a dangerous combination.

 

Later, a training session in “surprise” situations is underway. The New Mutants have to get across a lake in a storm while other X-Men pull “surprises” to complicate the situation. Bobby, Danielle, Sam, and Roberto are on a team together. Roberto and Sam are almost immediately taken out, but Bobby and Danielle almost make it to the goal thanks to an ice bridge, but it shatters and the two fall into the water. Danielle seems to be emotionally triggered by being in the water and her powers go haywire. Her form of telepathy seems to involve accessing other people’s powers as Jean, who’d been leading the training, is thrown skyward, Kurt gets stuck in his demon dimension, and Kitty falls through the ground. There’s a flash and everyone is back to normal, thanks to Charles. He reveals that that Danielle’s power locked them in their own personal nightmares for a second.

 

To be fair, Logan has this nightmare a lot on his own.

Later, Danielle leaves a meeting with the professors, clearly angry. Kitty tries to encourage Danielle, but her past issues dealing with people that are terrified of what she can do with her powers makes her feel on edge. That night, Danielle has terrible dreams and that puts everyone else into their own nightmares. Logan is back in the Weapon X Tank, Storm is crushed inn her room, and Xavier wakes up to Sentinels attacking the mansion. Damn. Upon waking up, Charles calls to Kitty and tells her to meet the teachers in the kitchen. They have a meeting where Kitty assures them that Danielle is asleep and never left her room. Charles believes her and sends her off to bed. Kitty lingers long enough to hear Charles tell Logan that he’s not sure what their next step is, but they need to deal with Danielle somehow. Kitty sits up, watching her friend for a minute, but when she goes to sleep, Danielle wakes up.

 

Damn, girl needs some sun.

       The next morning, Kitty wakes up to find that Danielle is gone. So is her bed, her clothes and, seemingly, everyone’s memory of her. When Kitty runs into the kitchen and starts yelling at Charles, Logan, Jean, Scott, and Kurt about Danielle being gone, they’re all confused as to who the hell she’s talking about. Later, we see Kitty calling around to try to find Danielle, asking someone if they’d heard of her or her grandfather Black Eagle, but is getting nowhere. Charles comes in and tries to tell her that she’d just had a very realistic dream, but Kitty doesn’t believe him. Charles tells her that she’d been unconscious since her biking accident yesterday, and that hopefully with more rest the dream will fade. Kitty tries to sleep but has nightmare about the mansion drowning in water and sees Danielle begging her for help. When she wakes up, her cell phone goes off and she hears Danielle begging her for help.

 

Kitty goes to the kitchen and starts screaming at Kurt about Danielle. He still doesn’t know who that is. Kitty, getting desperate to find an explanation, says that maybe the professor wiped their minds of Danielle. When Kurt points out how insane that sounds, Kitty doesn’t seem to notice and demands he teleport her to Dark Hollow. It’s too far for him to get there, but he agrees to take her as close as he can.

 

Meanwhile, Logan and Sam have a rematch of their motocross race. The race is complicated by the New Mutants being around to add additional obstacles as they drive. Ray electrifies water, Roberto throws rocks down on them, and Amara creates a lava trail to slow them.

 

Kurt and Kitty teleport to Dark Hollow and find that the town is abandoned. Kitty hears a ringing pay phone and hears Danielle again begging her for help. When Kurt calls out to her, it’s revealed that the phone’s receiver isn’t even connected. Desperate, Kitty pages through the old phonebook and find a listing for the Moonstars. They head out and find Danielle’s Grandpa, Black Eagle, sitting on his porch and looking spooky. He implies  that the town basically left after Danielle’s powers kept causing them to have ever worsening nightmares. He explains that Danielle went hiking in the canyon and disappeared two years ago, much to Kitty and Kurt’s shock.

 

The race between Sam and Logan comes to an end when Sam tries to use his highspeed flight to cannonball his way to victory… but the terrain ends up being too rough and he crashes his bike. He lands inches from the finish line and Logan drive right on through.

 

Kitty and Kurt are exploring the canyon, looking for Danielle. Kurt points out that it seems impossible that Danielle could be missing in the canyon for two years and for Kitty to have met her, but Kitty thinks she knows where Danielle is. They teleport back to where Kitty crashed her bike, and she prepares to phase into the ground to look for Danielle. Kurt wants to get help, but Kitty won’t wait. She dives into the water and phases through the ground. Kurt teleports to the other Mutants and tells them about what is going on with Kitty.

 

Good to meet again, for the first time.

Kitty, meanwhile, phases into an underground cavern. It’s filling with water. She finds Danielle in the cavern, she’s encased in some kind of blue glow. Kitty wakes her up and the glow fades. They meet for real, which is sweet, but we then we learn that they don’t have a way out, which is much less sweet. They’re too far down and Kitty thinks Danielle is too weak to be moved. The X-Men arrive topside, and Logan has Bobby freeze the water to buy them time. Sam tries to break a hole into the cavern, but is stopped by Logan who doesn’t want to risk a cave in. Danielle explains to Kitty that she’d been hiking when a cave in buried her underground. Topside, Amara uses her powers to melt a tunnel through the ground to the cavern. Kurt is then able to teleport down to them and free both girls.

 

Danielle is taken back to the X-Mansion to recover. She and Kitty bond a little as Kurt asks Charles’ the important question, how the hell did that happen? Charles explains that Danielle’s powers put her into a sort of hibernation that kept her alive for the last two years. She and Kitty met through a sort of out of body experience and that lead to a… unique friendship. Huh.

 

This was an okay episode. Danielle’s powers are interesting, and I could see how they may have turned her into the ultimate social pariah. Inducing Nightmares just by being around her does not sound like a good time. Also doing a whole dream fake out for Kitty was a nice touch to show not only how powerful that Danielle is but also add some uncertainty as to who or what Danielle is. The X-Men have dealt with a few beings that pray upon people’s dreams, so the idea that Danielle Moonstar might be Shadow King or some other psychic parasite isn’t outside the realm of possibility. The only thing that kind of confuses me about this episode is its placement. This is the last episode before the two-part finale. And you spend it introducing a one-off character that doesn’t factor into that finale? Surely, we could have done an episode to set up more of what Apocalypse is doing or seeing how SHIELD is preparing the Sentinels and Logan’s feelings on that instead of a one off is all I’m saying. Danielle’s power would be extremely useful and I’m kind of bummed she wasn’t introduced in season 2 with the other New Mutants. But, no use crying over spilled milk, I guess. Next time, it’s the beginning of the End. Apocalypse is coming. 

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