"Badda Bing, Badda Boom"
Writer: Greg Johnson
Director: Steven E. Gordon
Original Air Date: October 6, 2001
Synopsis/Review: This episode begins
with a training exercise going on at the bay cliffs near the Institute.
Nightcrawler's "unconscious" (although he talks an awful lot, heh) and
"stranded" on a cliff face. Cyclops "finds" him and radios Logan, who sends
down one of the New Mutants- Tabitha Smith, aka Boom Boom. We quickly learn
that Tabitha has absolutely no interest in doing the job seriously, though,
and goofs off the whole time. Nightcrawler appears to like Tabitha's joking
around, apparently (as he does it himself quite a bit), and "accidentally"
falls off the lift, giving Tabitha a quick scare before teleporting back
on, laughing at her. While taking Nightcrawler back up in the lift the
other New Mutants are operating, Boom Boom starts throwing her little exploding
balls (her Mutant power, which I will herein refer to as "booms" for short)
against the cliff face, starting to rock the lift back and forth. Logan
yells at her to knock it off, but Tabitha ignores him, and continues doing
it- until Nightcrawler bumps something sensitive after he's rammed into
the cliffside during one swing, and falls off the lift, towards the rocky
waters below. Logan manages to dive into the water at the last minute,
however, and rescue Nightcrawler from a watery grave.
Back in the Institute,
apparently during the "debriefing", Xavier explains to his students the
importance of following the rules set before them. He chastizes Tabitha
and Kurt for goofing off during the training session, and, as punishment,
they're prohibited from using their powers for some time, they're grounded,
and they'll both be having training sessions with Logan after school for
a while. Tabitha looks ready to protest, but Kurt holds her back, telling
the Professor that, yes, they both accept their punishment.
Meanwhile, at the Brotherhood
house (Yay! We finally get to see where the Brotherhood hangs out!), we
find out that they're out of food and getting low on money- after all,
they don't have Mystique to provide for them anymore. Toad responds that
he knows where they can get some, and hops upstairs to a locked doorway,
attempting to force his way in via ramming it and banging himself silly.
That's apparently the doorway to Mystique's room, and he figures that she's
got to have some spare money left inside there. Lance, Pietro, and Fred
stop Toad from breaking in, though, since if Mystique ever gets back and
finds out her room is busted into, she'll be mad, to say the least. Todd's
still determined to get into Mystique's room, and Freddy throws him into
the wall in response. (Heheh, good way to end an argument...) Anyway, Lance
tires of the clowning around and leaves for school, Todd taking off right
behind him "for my own safety!"
Later, at school, Tabitha's
locker is stuck, so she uses one of her booms to "force" it open when no
one's apparently looking. Kurt sees this, though, and comes over, telling
Tabitha that they're not supposed to be using their powers, remember? Tabitha
just shrugs it off- what's the point of having their powers if they don't
get to have fun with them? Before Kurt can come back with something, she
quickly takes his Social Studies textbook and hamburger (after "asking"
him, without giving him the chance to answer) and heads off to her next
class. Kurt stares after her for a bit, kind of zoning out, when Spyke
startles him out of it, dragging Kurt to the Chemisty class they're late
for.
In the school's office,
a man watches Kelly tell his assistant to put the money for the Fundraiser
Carnival tonight. (It's to raise money to repaint their gym that was burnt
in the fire from the fight scene in "Growing
Pains", by the way). The man smirks a bit, and then the assistant's
attention is drawn to him, and he asks him what he's here for. He says
he'd like to see his daughter, Tabitha Smith. The assistant checks her
records, but it turns out that Tabitha's not allowed to have unexpected
guests pick her up- he'll have to go the Xavier Institute. He thanks her,
and heads off.
Tabitha is going down
the hallway to her next class when she runs into the man- her dad, as is
established by now. Tabitha's apparently a bit frightened/surprised at
her Dad's presence. Her dad explains that he's tracked her down for months
now, but Tabitha interrupts him, obviously distrusting him, and runs off
to her class, leaving behind her frustrated dad.
Later on, in the lunch
room, Kurt's talking to Scott, who's a bit bitter that Jean's going with
Duncan and not him to the Fundraiser Carnival tonight. Then Boom Boom shows
up, giving Kurt back his Social Studies book, which now has writing all
over it. She then almost takes Kurt's drink (he tells her that "there's
a soda machine right over there") and leaves, waving bye-bye to Kurt and
walking away in an obviously seductive way... Kurt stares after her, admitting
to Scott that "she's kinda cool" (translated as, "I have a crush on her"),
but Scott tells Kurt to be careful around her... she did, after all, nearly
kill him this morning...
Tabitha walks up to
the vending machine outside of the lunch room and runs into Avalanche,
who's getting his own soda from the machine by inducing a very minor rumbling
in the ground beneath it. Tabitha then walks up to the soda machine and
shows Lance HER stuff by dropping one of her booms into the slot and stepping
back as it explodes, spilling out a bunch of sodas and change form the
machine. Lance tells her that that IS impressive- she'd fit right in at
the Brotherhood place is. Tabitha shrugs it off, not really wanting to
leave the Institute right now, and leaves. Lance stares at the change blown
out of the machine, an idea definitely percolating in his head...
After school, back at the Institute, Tabitha's
dad is there, telling Xavier that he wants to see his daughter. Xavier
replies that Tabitha's mother was very explicit in her instructions- Tabitha's
dad does not have any parenting rights towards her, period. Xavier wants
Mr. Smith to leave, but he at first refuses- until Logan comes in, threatening
to slice off Mr. Smith's hand if he doesn't leave, heheh. As luck would
have it, then Tabitha comes in the room, takes in the scene, and sighs.
Xavier lets her dad talk with his daughter for a little bit, and they head
to a private room.
Mr. Smith explains to
his daughter that the reason he's here- besides seeing her, of course (of
course)- is because he and her mother have been running into tough times
lately. Tabitha interrupts him- she knew it, all he wanted was money. Mr.
Smith has apparently used Tabitha in the past to blow open bank vaults,
etc., to get the money he needs. Tabitha's dad responds that it's just
this one last time, then he'll be out of her hair, if that's what she wants.
Tabitha reluctantly agrees, and asks her dad where he needs her- and he
responds he needs her at the Carnival Fundraiser tonight...
Later, Kurt's sitting
on his balcony, looking out over the bay, when Boom Boom surprises him-
she apparently just climbed up the balcony to talk to him... Anyway, Tabitha
says that she's going out to the Carnival Fundraiser, and she was wondering
if Kurt wanted to go with her. But Kurt responds that they're grounded.
Tabitha insists that she'll just go on one ride- and the only way she'll
be able to do that is if Kurt pops them there and back quickly, before
anyone notices. Kurt at first refuses to go along with Tabitha, but her
"big pouty lips" attitude finally gets to him...
...So, Kurt and Tabitha
go to the carnival, and have quite a bit of fun there. They also decide
to cause quite a bit of mischief, throwing booms in people's pockets or
in their food and then teleporting away before they're noticed.
Scott, meanwhile, is
at the Carnival, dateless, when he comes upon Terran, who was with Jean
and Duncan, but just seemed to be getting in the way, so she left them.
She just happens to be going on the ferris wheel at the same time he is,
and they both sit in the same cart together. As they go up, Scott notices
Kurt and Tabitha popping around discreetly, and shakes his head...
Blob, meanwhile, is at the Carnival, just
about to eat a sub- when it explodes all over his face. Lance, who's with
him, spots Tabitha and Kurt, and they try to follow them, only to lose
them.
Kurt pulls Tabitha aside, saying that it's
been fun, but it's been THREE HOURS now, and they need to get back to the
Institute. Tabitha spots her dad waiting by some bleachers a bit aways,
and tells Kurt that she has to go to the bathroom first, quickly dismissing
herself before Kurt can say another thing. As she runs over to her dad,
Lance and Fred spot her again, and hide behind the bleachers as she converses
with her dad. At first she tries to convince her dad to just let her raid
some pay phones and arcade games, but he has bigger plans in mind- he wants
them both to get the fundraiser money out of the vault in the office. Tabitha
relucantly agrees after her dad's convincing, and goes with him. Lance
smirks behind the bleachers... it looks like this is there chance to finally
get some money...
Kurt spots Tabitha and
her dad going off towards the school, and finds Scott, telling him the
general situation (leaving out Mutant-related parts for Terran's benefit).
Scott replies that Jean and Evan are also at the Carnival, and goes and
gets them, dismissing himself from Terran's presence.
Tabitha and her dad,
meanwhile, successfully break into the school (with Tabitha's help, of
course), and break into the bank vault, taking the money. As soon as they
step back out into the hallway, though, Toad grabs it and hops off. They
follow him into the burnt-out gym, where Avalanche and Blob are waiting.
Tabitha is at first like, "Oh, well! Guess that's that! Let's go, Dad!",
but he pulls her back, telling her to use her powers.
Suddenly, part of the
wall explodes inward, and in come Cyclops, Jean, Spyke, and Nightcrawler
(in their uniforms?! Where'd they get them?). They want the money, too-
but to return it back to the safe, obviously. Thus begins a short battle/game
of keep-away, but Tabitha's dad eventually gets the money bad back, and
heads up the gym's stairs. Tabitha races after her dad, and they ascend
to the burnt roof. Mr. Smith's foot suddenly falls through the already-weak
woodwork, and he drops the money a few feet out of reach. Tabitha wants
to help her dad, but he just tells her to keep the others away, reaching
for the money. Tabitha pleads with him to FORGET the money, and grab her
hand, but he stubbornly refuses, eventually grabbing the money and collapsing
the floor under both of them. Nightcrawler manages to teleport them both
to safety before they hit the floor, though. Tabitha's dad, being the grateful
soul that he is, backhands Nightcrawler and runs off towards the school
entrance, Tabitha racing after him, yelling at him to stop. They both make
it out to the front, only to run into the cops, who had come after a silent
alarm was tripped. They both put their hands up in the air relucantly,
submitting to the cops...
Later, at the police
station, Xavier and Kurt are waiting outside for Tabitha as she walks out.
She asks how what's going to happen to her father, and Xavier explains
that he's going to be in jail for sometime, as in addition to the charges
for coercing her, he's got several outstanding warrants. Tabitha sadly
replies that she'll just take her stuff and leave the Institute- they don't
have to worry about her anymore. Kurt says that Tabitha doesn't have to
leave, but she replies that yes, she does- she just doesn't fit in at the
Mansion, at least not right now. She waves goodbye to them sadly, walking
away as Xavier tells her that if she ever needs someone, they'll still
be there for her...
Later, back at the Brotherhood
house, we find out that now the water's been shut off, due to their lack
of money. Lance is drinking from one of the few water bottles left when
Boom Boom suddenly bursts in to the place, taking Lance's water bottle
for herself. She "asks" if she can stay with them for a while, as she needs
a place to crash. The Brotherhood really doesn't give her an answer, as
they're still too dumbfounded, but she just takes that as a yes and heads
upstairs. The Brotherhood members cringe as they hear her blow up a "locked
door", and they quickly run upstairs to find Boom Boom checking out Mystique's
room! What they're even more surprised to find, though, is that Mystique's
room is richly decorated and huge, while the rest of the house is run-down
and average-sized. Tabitha says with a smile that "it'll do", and then
shuts the befuddled Brotherhood out of her room, insisting on "having some
privacy". Hehehehehehe......
Back at the Mansion,
Kurt's sitting out on his balcony again, moping over the loss of Tabitha.
Scott comes up, asking Kurt what's wrong. It's not the punishment (now
he has to wax the X-Jet, do the laundry, and clean the Danger Room out
for a month- AFTER Logan's sessions), though, it's that he doesn't understand
why Tabitha left. Scott responds that he's not sure, but hopefully she'll
come back after she sees what it's like out there. Kurt says that he has
a feeling she knows exactly what it's like out there...
Last Words: This was a very funny episode- at least, up until the end, but hey, life ain't all fun and games, y'know. It's nice to see one of the New Mutants' backgrounds explored, and their overall personality established with an episode focused just on one of them. Boom Boom is hilarious- almost as funny as Toad, in fact- and I love her character. Yeah, she'd proabably be annoying if you knew her in real life, but because you don't, she's a cool character. It's interesting to see how she essentially played with Kurt to get what she wanted, and how she just took everything in life as either a joke or not a big deal the majority of the time. It's also good to see that she has a serious, sad side under it, that she's hiding through humor. Definitely Boom Boom's episode to shine in. A couple of small quirks- after all, how did the X-Men change into their costumes for the fight scene? And where was Pietro during the aforementioned fight scnene? But other than these small things, a nearly flawless- and funny- episode.
Overall Rating: 10/10 ...Wow.