"African Storm"
Writer: Nick Dubois
Director: Gary Graham
Original Air Date: November 17, 2001
Synopsis/Review: This episode begins
in some tribal village in the middle of Africa. A bunch of the tribespeople
are doing their little dance around the fire, either doing some ceremony
or praising their god or something. Anyway, a guy with a skull mask on-
presumably the tribe leader- steps out of a nearby tent. The tribespeople
immediately fall silent and cease their ritual. The skull-masked leader
tells his people that the search is over- their "wandering goddess" has
been found. He essentially tells his people to get ready, 'cause they're
going to get her back. He throws a torch onto the wooden idol, which is
a carving of a woman- a lay-over shows Storm as we fade to the opening
title sequence...
...When we come back,
we're now at Bayville High. Jean walks out into the outdoor area, looking
for someone. Scott, sitting with Terran, sees Jean and calls her over.
The two try to initiate conversation with Jean, but she feels a bit awkward
seeing Scott with another girl and leaves off to go find Duncan. (If you
can't see the irony here, well.... you need glasses.) Spyke zooms by her,
though, quickly yanking the milk off her tray ("Hey, thanks!" and taking
off. Being the nice gal that she is, Jean uses her powers to "trip" Evan
off his skateboard, flying into table and knocking a bunch of trays off
him. Evan looks up from the place where he landed, to find... Principal
Kelly! What a surprise!
Later, at the X-Mansion,
Storm is waiting around in the Danger Room. She hears a couple of spooky
whispers, but nothing's there. She started to get a little nervous, until
Evan finally shows up. She chastises him for being late, and he apologizes-
he got "held up at school" (i.e., probably detention or something). They
then proceed to start the training session- it's a simulation called "Stormcatcher",
in which Evan is supposed to protect Storm while she walks to a certain
point. Evan manages to protect Storm against such things as metal tentacles
and pitfalls, but then a box closes up over Storm. Spyke tries to puncture
his way through the cube, but his bone spikes do nothing to it. Storm starts
to panic, and she suddenly releases a bunch of lightning, destroying the
cube and ending the simulation, but hurting herself slightly in the process.
Storm's a little agitated, but Spyke defends himself- he didn't activate
that box! Spyke runs out of the Danger Room, upset that he couldn't free
his aunt from her box prison. Storm ominously responds that she didn't
activate that box, either... and no one's in the Danger Room control room...
Getting up, Storm makes
her way back to the elevator up to the main levels. Going through the hallway
to get there, she hears the same strange whispers and other sounds, and
she sees a human form dashing out of the corner of her eye. Storm quickly
tries to turn on the light switch, but it's not working. She hurriedly
makes her way to the elevator, nearly into a panic as she finally enters
it. She comes face-to-face with Beast, though, who startles her. Beast
chalks up her reaction to his appearance, and says he has that effect on
a lot of people, heheh. They go up to the main floor, and Storm, now calmer,
asks Beast what he wanted. Beast holds up Evan's report card, which he
found in the trash. It's not very good...
That night, it's getting
pretty foggy. Rogue, coming in from a ride out with Risty, shivers a bit,
and obviously doesn't like the overall "mood" set by the fog. She activates
the security system after entering the Mansion.
Later in the night,
Storm's sleeping. She's having nightmares/flashbacks. We figure out that
she used to be the African tribe's "goddess" when she was a bit younger.
She gave them rain when they needed, and they praised her, thinking that
she was a goddess because of her powers. One day, she left (apparently
after some events which made her realize herself that she wasn't a goddess),
though, much to the anger of the skull-faced leader. As Storm's having
the nightmares, we see a shadow come up to her bed. She abruptly startles
awake, yelling... only to find no one there. Wolverine soon comes in- he
sniffed something, too. He can't find anybody, though. Shadowcat also comes
in to check on Storm after hearing the yell, but leaves after Wolverine
assures her there's nothing there. Xavier comes in, asking Storm what's
been going on lately. Storm replies that she guess she's just getting frustrated
with Evan- no matter what she tells him, he never seems to take school
seriously. Xavier responds that maybe the Institute isn't the right place
for him- perhaps Evan would be better situated back at his home. Storm
agrees, right as Evan starts to come into the room- he hears what they
say, though, and quickly backs out, heading back to his own room.
The next morning, Storm's
getting ready to take a bath- she turns the faucet on, goes to get a couple
of things from inside the mirror cabinet- but when she closes it again,
there's a water-vapor skull on the mirror! Storm cries out, dropping the
things she was getting.
Xavier's wheeling through
a hallway when a drop hits him on the head, leaking from the ceiling above.
He immediately heads upstairs.
Kitty hears Storm's
cry, and phases into the bathroom, seeing Ororo sitting by herself, apparently
in a sorrowful daze, the tub overrunning behind her. Kitty asks Storm what's
run, but Storm doesn't divulge what's bothering her- she insists she's
fine, even as Xavier and Jean come up to Ororo as she leaves the bathroom.
After Ororo's left, Kitty calls Xavier's attention to the bathroom mirror-
which is broken...
Later that morning,
Storm, now fully dressed and ready, come into Evan's room, seeing him packing
up his clothes. Evan admits that yeah, he heard what his aunt and Xavier
were talking about last night. Storm asks him if he thinks that's alright,
and Evan angrily says that he's fine with it. It's not like he's gotten
really close to anyone here, anyway. Refusing to let the conversation carry
on further, he heads off to school.
Later, at school, Rogue
is talking with Risty as they walk down the hallway. Rogue tells Risty
about Storm's odd behavior lately, and Risty sympathizes with Ororo- after
all, having that claustrophobia must be hard. Rogue immediately stops the
conversation- how'd Risty know about Storm's claustrophobia? Risty hurriedly
comes up with an explanation about just hearing it as gossip, and quickly
hurries off, leaving behind a confused Rogue. (Oops. Strike one, Mystique.)
Later at school, Kitty
runs up to Scott and Jean. She tells them that Evan's leaving the Institute
after today! The three hurry back to where Evan is.
Meanwhile, Evan's packing
up his locker, taking all his stuff out of it and preparing to leave the
school. Kurt asks Evan if there's anything that'll make him stay- he doesn't
want the guy to leave! Evan just rudely responds that he doesn't know why
Kurt's so worked up over this- it's not like they were friends. As Evan
leaves, Kurt mentions that he thought they were... Jean, Kitty, and Scott
come up to Evan, asking him what's wrong, why is he leaving? Evan just
essentially shoves them all aside, practically yelling at them all that
it's no big deal, he doesn't care. Evan angrily dumps all his books into
the trash can before leaving.
Back at the X-Mansion,
Beast is moseying around in the fog on the front lawn when he's hit in
the head by a football, and an incoming Cannonball. He's alright, though,
but he wants to know what all of the New Mutants are doing out here as
they all run up. Berzerker says that they were supposed to have a session
with Storm, but she never showed up- so they improvised. Beast just smiles
and talks about the "following costly repairs" when the improvise. He leads
them into the Danger Room, setting up a volleyball net and giving a volleyball
to the kids for them to use- only NO POWERS. The game gets underway, and
Sunspot immediately slams the ball really hard onto the other side- TOO
hard for him to do without using his powers. Berzerker angrily points this
out and starts using his powers too, and the whole thing becomes a big
power-fest. Beast jumps out of the now-dangerous volleyball arena, sighing
to himself.
Later that night, Storm
is having nightmares again. Wanting some fresh air, she goes out onto the
balcony to catch some fresh air- only to suddenly find snakes curling around
her feet! Yelping, Storm quickly flies up to the air- where she sees Evan
skating away into the fog. Storm flies down to the ground and runs after
Evan, yelling/pleading with him not to run away, but he apparently doesn't
hear her. Storm suddenly runs into one of the African tribesman, who she
pegs as Mirambo. Surprised to see him here, Mirambo immediately warns Storm
to turn back- the Hungan has come for her! Storm quickly pushes past him,
wanting to catch up with Evan. A couple of shadowy African tribesman follow
her, though, eventually managing to encircle her. Storm tries to fight
back, only to get shot in the neck with a tranquilizer dart. As Storm is
carried away by the tribesman, Evan noticed the skirmish (as he is descending
the Institute's gate from the other side), and notices his aunt in trouble.
Finding that they disappeared into the fog, Evan immediately goes back
to the Institute and wakes up the Professor, telling him what happened.
Later, Storm awakens
to find herself in a very tight, confined space in a hold of some sort.
She starts to panic because of her claustrophobia, and tries to force her
way out of the hold using her powers, but it's no use. She eventually collapses
from fear.
A while later, the door
to the hold opens, but Storm's in such a trance that she barely notices.
The skull-faced man- the Hungan- makes his way in, explaining to the weather
witch that he has finally found her. And, now that her spirit is broken,
it shall be his! He takes out his staff, says a few magical incantation
words, and actually manages to absorb Storm's soul into his staff.....
Huh. Go fig.
Meanwhile, Wolverine
races up to the foggy docks in his motorcycle, sniffing for Storm's scent-
yep, he found it. The other main X-Men members (minus Beast) quickly catch
up with him, and they head for the boat where Storm's scent is coming from-
until Logan detects another scent. He quickly reaches behind a box and
catches an African man- Mirambo, who insists that he means them no harm.
Logan asks what this is all about, and Mirambo explains the situation to
them- that the Hungan essentially took Storm's powers for their own. The
X-Men continue on, and soon the various African tribesmen "henchmen" start
attacking the X-Men, via darts, arrows, grappling hooks, whatever. The
X-Men manage to evade and/or subdue the many tribesmen, though, and make
their way up to the boat- where they're attacked by Storm herself! She's
being controlled by the skull-faced guy's staff, the aformentioned man
all sadistic with glee up on a higher deck of the boat. Storm sends all
the X-Men running for cover. Spyke remembers Storm's advice about "Following
her voice", though, and manages to listen carefully through the fog to
the Hungan's chants. Evan then quickly emerges from behind one of the dock's
crates and fires off a round of spikes at the Hungan- one of them successfully
breaks the soul-catching gem on the end of the staff, and Storm's soul
flows back into her. Now back under control of her own body, Storm sends
the skull-faced guy blowing out into the ocean via a huge whirlwind. So
much for him and his henchmen... This uses up all of Storm's remaining
power, though, and she falls from the sky, Evan barely managing to catch
her before she hits the ground. Storm weakly looks up and smiles at her
"saviour".
The next morning at
the X-Mansion, Evan comes up to Storm and his mother in the lobby. He's
ready to leave. Storm responds that he was talking over the situation with
his mother, and they agree that, after Evan showing the maturity and level-headed
thinking that he showed last night, they think it'll be alright if he stays.
Evan immediately cheers, apparently letting go of his "I don't care if
I leave" attitude. He runs back to the other entering teenage X-Men, congratulating
himself on being able to stay, and for rescuing Storm last night. Whee,
you go, Evan. Now go away, your lines are corny.
Last Words: This episode was fairly well-written, but a few major things bothered me. For one, I don't like all the magic voo-doo stuff used by the Hungan in this episode. Especially the Storm soul-snatching. C'mon, that stuff doesn't belong in X-Men- this is sci-fi, not fantasy. Pretty corny, if you ask me. Not to mention that if the Hungan could really steal people's souls, you'd think he'd be a lot more powerful than just the head of a remote African tribe... Evan was also a little annoying, too, although he wasn't nearly as bad as in "Spykecam". Both Evan and Storm were given some very good characterization, something both of them needed a little more of- especially Storm, who had been in the series since the beginning and still hadn't had an episode focused on her 'till now.
Overall Rating: 7/10 Good
(NOTE: This episode was aired as the seventh episode of Season 2, even though, in actuality, it is the eighth.)