"Ascension, Part II"
Writer: Greg Johnson
Director: Frank Paur
Original Air Date: October 25, 2002
Synopsis/Review: This episode begins
where the last one left off. The different teams are going to confront
the horsemen, while Wolverine gives them a short (and rather good) pep
talk.
Now, this synopsis is
going to work a bit different from most. Since most of this episode is
fight sequences that flip back and forth between scenes rather quickly,
I’m going to make things simple and tell everything that happens in a particular
fight scene up to the next commercial break before I go onto the next scene.
So it’s NOT going to be in the same order that it’s shown in the episode.
Now, with that being said:
In Mexico, Shadowcat,
Angel, Sunspot, Havok, and the Scarlet Witch go to confront Magneto. He
uses his powers to cobble together a Sentinel and sends it after them.
The Scarlet Witch gets pounded on by a huge metal part, but she’s okay-
Shadowcat manages to phase her through it in time. Kitty tells Wanda that
she has to forget that Magneto is her father- otherwise, they’ll lose.
Wanda’s having a hard time with it, though. (Oh, Wanda, how different you
are…) The team tries to down Magneto, but they’re having a hard time even
avoiding all the different metal stuff thrown at them.
In Egypt, Jean, Boom
Boom, Colossus, Multiple, and Magma take on Xavier. Jean tries to convince
Xavier telepathically that what he’s doing is wrong, but it doesn’t work,
of course. Colossus throws one of Boom Boom’s huuuge booms at Xavier, and
Magma tries to burn him up, but to no avail.
In China, Storm starts
a hailstorm that rains down on her pursuers- Beast, Spyke, Iceman, and
Berzerker. Iceman creates a quick ice “tent” over them to keep them from
being pelted on by the golf ball-sized hail. Berzerker tries to zap Storm,
but she dodges. Spyke tells everyone else not to hurt her- she’s a victim
in this, just like they are!
Wolverine, Cyclops,
and Nightcrawler enter the Sphinx and search around for Mystique. A puddle
of water morphs into her behind Nightcrawler and kicks him into Wolverine,
knocking them both into a pillar. Cyclops fires at Mystique, but she actually
morphs a hole in her stomach, allowing the beam to pass through before
she morphs back into her normal self. Mystique jumps and morphs into a
horde of bats, which plague the trio of X-Men.
Deeper in the Sphinx,
Apocalypse has that cerebral interface headgear on inside the Eye of Ages.
He’s overseeing the activation of the pyramids. Suddenly, at all three
pyramid locations, the top halfs glow and separate before lifting off into
the outer atmosphere. In China, Spyke wonders where they’re going, and
Beast guesses that in order to affect the entire planet, they have to be
much higher. Jean gasps- they’re too late… The pyramids reach the outer
atmosphere and break apart into several smaller pyramids, which start to
locate themselves equidistant from each other around the globe. Energy
lines link each pyramid to the others.
S.H.I.E.L.D. sends its
last three Sentinels up to take out the pyramids. A S.H.I.E.L.D. soldier
tells this to Nick Fury, who nods his head and knocks on a door in the
flying base. It opens, and on the other side is Rogue, who admits him before
it’s closed…
The Sentinels start
to fire on the pyramid parts, and although they initially have shields,
they eventually break down, and two or three of them are destroyed. Apocalypse
gets mad and mentally sends a message to Magneto.
Back in Mexico, Magneto
has been giving his pursuers quite the fight. Beast manages to radio to
everyone else that they should try to focus on destroying the pyramid base,
since they’re the power sources. However, it’s clear that Magneto’s winning-
he manages to knock everyone out. He soon gets the message from Apocalypse
and leaves for a bit, entering the outer atmosphere and creating a “bubble”
somehow around himself to keep the air in so he can breathe. He quickly
rams the Sentinels into each other and heads back to Earth.
While he is gone, Wanda
regains consciousness and tries to wake up Kitty, but to no avail. She
tries to hex the power stream emanating from the pyramid, but she doesn’t
have the power to. Magneto soon comes back and throws a huge Sentinel part
on top of her- only this time, it’s Quicksilver who saves her! Yep, the
Brotherhood has changed their minds and come to help out. Toad says that
they “bummed a jet, got lost, and STILL managed to get here”. He offers
to hug Wanda, but they’ve got bigger problems- Magneto throws the jet at
them, but Blob stops it in time. Avalanche sees Kitty lying on the ground,
and, angered, uses his powers to their fullest extent, buring Magneto under
a bunch of trees. Kitty wakes up during this and sees him do it.
Meanwhile, in China,
Iceman manages to freeze Storm while Spyke tries to take out the pyramid.
Storm isn’t downed for very long, though, and breaks out of the ice prison,
summoning up a whirlwind which carries the others off.
In Egypt, Tabitha continually
pumps out her booms for an army of Multiples, who are busy slingshoting
them at the Professor. Colossus, meanwhile, goes up to the pyramid and
tries to smash through it. Xavier sees him, though, and psychic-blasts
a couple of Multiples into non-existence before going after Colossus and
sending a bolt of psychic energy at him, rendering him ineffective. Magma
also gets knocked out by another bolt of energy. Jean, however, has used
this time to hook up to the portable Cerebro helmet that they’ve got in
the helijet, and she and Xavier form astral projections of themselves and
battle mentally.
In the Sphinx, Nightcrawler
manages to teleport Cyclops and Wolverine into the next room, where they
quickly close the door shut to keep the bats from getting in. Logan tells
‘Crawler to port behind the next door and report, as he smells somethin'.
Kurt says that he’ll be right back to report, but… he doesn’t. Apocalypse
has managed to take him out on the other side of the door before he could.
Meanwhile, Mystique has somehow gotten into the room that Scott and Logan
are in and takes Scott out by surprise. She then turns her hands into a
couple of scythes and attacks Logan. It doesn’t work too well, so she then
turns into a bunch of cobras. Yup, that seems to be a bit more effective…
Apocalypse is now lying
down in the Eye of Ages, though, and he says that “the evolution begins”.
The device powers up, and the mini-pyramids in the atmosphere all start
to emit a black energy cloud that soon covers the Earth…
All over the world,
the sun is blotted out, and we see lightning start to strike down everywhere.
Over in Egypt, though,
the battle continues. Xavier and Jean continue their fight mentally, but
Jean’s eyes start glowing green, and her shield takes on a bird shape.
A huge mental shockwave comes out of her astral form, knocking Xavier’s
astral form back into his body. That did it for Jean, too, and her astral
form absorbs back into her body, and they both collapse to the ground.
Xavier gets up a few seconds later, though, and readies his astral projection
again for another strike…
In Mexico, Toad asks
if they’ve won… but Quicksilver knows better. The tail of the jet rips
off from the rest of its body and is hurled at the Brotherhood, who dodge
as Magneto bursts forth from the trees…
In China, everyone has
been knocked out from the wind except for Berzerker. He staggers up to
where Storm is, who sends a lightning bolt down on Berzerker. Berzerker
takes the bolt and fires part of it at Storm, knocking her into a cliff
sde. He's about to re-direct the rest of it at her when Storm calls down
a sudden downpour, which “shorts” Berzerker out. Beast groans and sits
up, and mumbles through his intercom to Wolverine that they’re not going
to make it…
Logan gets the message,
and tells Beast amidst grunts while fighting the snakes that don’t give
up hope, they’ve got one play left…
Outside the Sphinx,
a S.H.I.E.L.D. helijet lands, and Rogue opens the door. She turns to Dorian
Leitch and his mother. She tells the kid that he has the power to save
a lot of people right now- but in order for it to be useful, she’s got
to borrow it for a little. She touches the kid, knocking him out and absorbing
his powers. His mother catches him while Cannonball flies Rogue into the
pyramid after a nod from Nick Fury.
Logan manages to wrestle
free of the snakes and charges towards the door to Apocalypse’s chamber,
but Mystique morphs into a panther and chases after him. She’s just about
to pounce on Wolverine when Rogue and Cannonball burst into the room, and
Rogue nullifies Mystique’s powers, turning her back into her real self.
Logan quickly carves a hole in the door, and tells Rogue to move! Mystique
jumps on Logan and attacks him before he can follow.
Rogue enters the chamber
and quickly uses Dorian’s powers on the contraption, nullifying it. Apocalypse
gasps “no...” as he loses his energy. Magneto, Mystique, Storm and Xavier
also collapse as the device that was controlling them loses its power,
and they fall to the ground, and the chips that were controlling them fall
off their heads. Rogue then runs up to the Eye of Ages and starts closing
it up on Apocalypse. Apocalypse catches her hand and tries to stop her,
but he’s too weak to do much (because he himself was powering the device),
and she pulls her hand out of his grip and finishes closing up the device
on him. Logan then enters and jumps on top of the device as Apocalypse
starts pounding on it, and tells Rogue hurriedly to turn the power back
on. She does, and the device starts powering up and closing in on itself.
Rogue and Logan hurry away as it spins around, glowing, before it disappears.
Logan picks up Kurt’s awakening form as Rogue asks where it went. Logan
isn’t sure, but he guesses that it slipped through the cracks of time…
hopefully to never be seen again. Rogue doubts that they’ll be that lucky.
As they exit the Sphinx
(amidst “falling stars” caused by the mini-pyramids in the atmosphere falling
to Earth), a groggy Scott asks Logan if they did it in time. Logan admits
that it was close, but… yeah. Kurt tells Rogue that she did it- the girl
who cut herself off from the world has just saved it! Rogue says that she
wishes she could admit that she did it for the world, though. Mystique
runs up to them and stops them before they can leave the Sphinx and tells
them that she wants them to know that all of the things she did… it was
because-- Kurt stops her in her tracks, though, and tells her to save it.
Rogue adds that Mystique doesn’t even believe her own excuses, so just
leave them all alone. Kurt teleports himself and Rogue out, leaving a glowering
Mystique behind.
In China, Spyke and
a recovering Storm hug and make-up, while the same happens in Mexico with
Magneto, Pietro, and Wanda. Kitty’s feelings for Lance also have crept
up again in reaction to his recent act, and they leave the scene with arms
around each other.
In Egypt, Boom Boom
thanks Colossus and Magma for inviting her to “the party” while Jean levitates
up Xavier to her level and they hug. Behind her back, though, Xavier looks
at Jean, concerned…
Later, everyone- both
in the X-Men and the Brotherhood- are gathered on the front lawn of the
X-Mansion. Xavier thanks everyone for their contributions, and the fact
that they all succeeded. He tells them all that is was not without its
price, however, and many challenges await them in the future. He knows
this because he has glimpsed the future in the mind of Apocalypse. He tells
them how he has witnessed enemies become friends (during which we see Magneto
in the Danger Room, engaging in a fun training session with the New Mutants-
including Wolfsbane and Jubilee!), and sadly witnessed friends become enemies
(we see a slightly older Jean suddenly become overcome by a fiery form-
The Dark Phoenix). He also tells them that he has witnessed his X-Men grow
and change (we then see older versions of Shadowcat, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman,
Storm, Nightcrawler, X23, and a now-flying Rogue gathered in front of the
X-Jet), and he has seen that some people never change (during which we
see older versions of the Brotherhood members, in addition to Pyro, in
front of a wall with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo written on it). But, Xavier
says, for better or for worse, he has seen that the X-Men will always be
there. And for that, he is proud. During these final two sentences, we’re
treated a short scene involving a flying army of Sentinels as well as a
smaller guy leading them (who I'm told is Nimrod, an advanced Sentinel
character from the comics). We also see a big group-shot of all the X-Men,
plus Colossus, Boom Boom, Spyke, Gambit, and X23, in front of the Mansion.
And that’s… it. Fade to black.
Last Words: Well, for Evo's last episode, it certainly went out with a bang. Wonderful writing, dialogue, pacing, etc. My only complaint about the episode, and it's a rather major one- the way Apocalypse's plan was thwarted was unusually predictable. I mean, quite a few people had guessed that Leech would be the undoing of it all. Also, we never actually got a real Apocalypse/X-Men battle. The rest was simply awesome, though. Normally, such oversights would probably give this ep a 8/10, but the "future visions" ending was TOO cool, so I couldn't bare to give it any less than a 9/10. It was also incredibly moving as well, for anyone who has followed the series for a while and grown attached to the characters. Such a crying shame there was never a Season 5...
Overall Rating: 9/10 Excellent