"Blind Alley"
Writer: Doug Molitor
Director: Curt Geda
Original Air Date: October 19, 2002
Synopsis/Review: This episode begins
at the ol' Area 51 compound. Some doctors have Mystique strapped to an
examination table. One of the doctors wants to loosen one of Mystique's
arm straps so that she can examine her, but the other doctor says that
she's a tricky one, so wait while he gets a restraint. He goes to get one,
but when he comes back, the female doctor brushes past him, telling him
that Mystique was too keyed up, so she had to sedate her. The doctor looks
over to the examination table, though, and sees a white-skinned hand fall
out from under the cloth laid over it... The doctor urgently gets on the
com system and tells the soldiers to detain the other doctor (Dr. Eaton),
as she's really Mystique. One of the soldiers sees "Dr. Eaton" hurry by
him, and tries to detain her, but Mystique manages to kick him out of the
way while morphing into him. Mystique/Security Officer Chris Barr makes
a hasty exit, but the real Chris Barr does the same thing the doctor did
a moment earlier, and tells the base that Mystique is now him. Outside,
one of the soldiers spots Mystique (now in her regular form), but before
he can chase her down, Mystique disturbs a flock of crows and quickly morphs
into one, flying away with the flock...
Later, at the Mansion,
things have finally gotten back to normal- all of the Mutants are all pitching
in around the place and putting the final touches on the now fully-reconstructed
Mansion. We're treated to several cool/funny scenes involving the some
of them fixing stuff up, and then we finally center on Scott and Logan,
who are fixing up the new satellite dish on the roof. Oddly, BOTH of them
have their shirts off during the hardly-strenuous activity. Although I
could easily see Logan doing this, I never thought Scott was the type to
take his shirt off in public unless he was in a swimming pool or something.
Er, anyway, he's distracted with Jean (who's helping put the finishing
touches on the new fountain with Storm), and he tells Wolverine in a not-so-subtle
way that he doesn't know how to break it to her that he really cares for
her, beyond just friendship. Logan isn't stupid though, and realizes what
Scott's insinuating (Scott insisted it was his "friend" who was having
this problem). Logan tells Scott to tell Jean that he loves her, or HE
WILL. Scott insists no, no, he'll tell her, right before a (familiar) crow
nearly smacks into him before continuing on its way...
Back down with Jean
and Storm, Jean's having the same problem. After Storm asks her, though,
she's a bit more forward with Ororo than Scott was with Logan. Storm tells
Jean that it's a "great day for new beginnings... and for telling people
how you feel", and Jean agrees with her.
Later, in the Mansion,
Jean runs into Scott as he's rounding a corner (it's much later, now, so
yes, he has his shirt on). They both want to tell each other what they're
feeling, but before they can, Kurt pops in with the phone- Scott's got
a call from his brother, Alex. Alex is in Mexico, and he was on a
surfing competition- however, some crook just made off with his wallet,
and he can't contact his parents, sooo... Scott agrees to come and get
Alex, and reluctantly tells Jean that they'll talk later.
Scott takes off in a
plane, and eventually arrives at the airport in Mexico where Alex is waiting.
They both greet each other, and Scott takes Alex for a quick bite to eat
before they head back to Hawaii. However, before they can get far, Alex
suddenly shoves Scott into a dead-end offshoot of the airport. Before Scott
can ask what the heck is going on, Alex morphs into Mystique and pulls
out a device which emits sleeping gas straight into Scott's face, knocking
him out.
When Scott wakes up, he finds that his
glasses are gone... and that he's in the middle of a desert!
Scott gets up, calling
out frantically to see if anyone is nearby. Hearing nothing, he dares to
open his eyes, demolishing a cactus and a couple of rocks in front of him...
no one's there...
Scott blindly stumbles through the desert
for a few hours, up until nightfall (he woke up when it was near dusk).
He's pretty darned tired by now, but he hears some howling- just his luck,
now some hungry coyotes are on his tail. He tries to outrun them, but of
course, it's no use. He uses his optic blasts on them sparingly, but it
doesn't seem to deter them much.
Meanwhile, at the Mansion,
Jean's having nightmares. She wakes up from her little couch-nap all scared
and yells out Scott's name. Xavier comes in, asking what's wrong, and Jean
tells him that she somehow -knows- Scott is in trouble. Xavier tells her
that Scott's too far out of psychic range, even for him (even though he
contacted Wolverine at the Hawaiian islands when he himself was at the
Arctic Circle in "The Cauldron"...). Xavier
tells Jean not to worry- her dream was just that, a dream. Jean isn't too
sure, though...
Back with Scott, he's
not doing to well. The coyotes have now ripped off part of his shirt (hmm,
sounds familiar...), and he's a little bloody. (Wow, blood? On a cartoon
show?) He's still firing away with his optic lasers, though, and the light
show attracts a couple of oil workers finishing up on a far-off drilling
center. Their curiousity piqued, they quickly get in their jeep and take
off towards the light show.
Scott, meanwhile, backs
away from the advancing coyotes and stumbles off a cliff behind him that
he didn't know was there (remember, he's effectively blind), and falls
several dozen feet, finally losing consciousness. Just as he's about to
be eaten alive by coyotes, a jeep carrying the two oil workers drives up,
and they scare off the coyotes and carry Scott into the jeep, hurrying
off towards town as fast as they can.
Mystique watches all
this from the top of the cliff, though, and grunts in anger (calling them
"meddling fools"), before morphing into an owl and flying off after the
jeep.
Back at the Mansion,
Jean's getting worried. She calls Alex's house, convinced that Scott has
to have had him back there by now. Alex picks up, and at first, Jean's
relieved that he's back safely- until she finds out that Alex has no idea
what she's talking about, he hasn't even seen Scott lately... Jean hangs
up the phone, near panic.
Later, in Cerebro, Xavier
takes off the helmet and tells an eager Jean that Cerebro has located the
red-eyed one in Mexico City- but Cerebro can't pinpoint him in an exact
location from this far away. Jean responds that she WILL find him, and
she and Xavier quickly leave Cerebro.
Back with Scott, he
wakes up (again, poor guy) in a hospital. A doctor comes in, who, luckily,
can speak English, and he tells Scott what had happened, with the oil workers
bring the Mutant here and such. Scott hurriedly asks for a phone, but the
doctor wants to check for a concussion first- which, of course, means Scott
has to open his eyes. Scott refuses, and after a couple more attempts,
the doctor gets a couple of assistants to restrain the guy. Of course,
havok ensures, and Scott blasts a hole in the ceiling of the building.
Scott stumbles out in the chaos, the nearby Mexicans being too surprised/frightened
to really try to do anything. Scott blindly runs off into the city. He
eventually stumbles into a remote city street, begging any passersby for
help, but they just ignore the dirty, worn-out blind Mutant...
The Blackbird touches
down on the outskirts of Mexico City, and Xavier, Logan, Storm, and Jean
fan out- Xavier tells them Scott's within a 5-mile radius.
Scott, meanwhile, wanders
down the alleyway, eventually coming across a phone. He tries to get the
operator on it, but after further examination, the line's been ripped out
of the phone for a loong time. Frustrated, Scott throws the phone down
on the ground. A couple of hispanic tough guys come up behind him, though,
and one of them asks/tells Scott angrily that HE was the Mutant that blew
the roof of their hospital, wasn't he. Scott insists he doesn't want any
trouble, but the thugs want to know who will pay for the damage. Scott
tells them that he'll pay for it- if they'll just call up his friends,
they will bring them money. The Mexicans say tough luck- they don't have
a phone. They advance on Scott and mess around with him a little bit. Eventually,
Scott grows tired of his "I won't fight you" schtick and grabs one of the
guys, slamming him against a wall and letting lose with his optic blasts
right next to the guy's head to display what he can do. The other two thugs
run off, scared out of their wits- but the one that Scott had grabbed just
smugly says "Bra-vo" in Mystique's voice before morphing into the aforementioned
blue lady. Scott yells at Mystique to leave him alone, she's had her fun.
But Mystique insists the fun's just begun. She takes out another device
like the one she used to put Scott to sleep the first time, telling Scott
snidely she guesses they'll try the North Pole next. Scott kicks it out
of her hand (it emitted a sound, which allowed him to pinpoint it). Mystique
angrily mutters that that's fine, they'll do this the hard way. She kicks
Scott into some empty crates, and a fight begins.
Meanwhile, Jean is walking
through the streets, looking for Scott, when suddenly she can see Scott's
vision in her mind's eye. She sees the couple of red-tined glimpses given
of him fighting Mystique and a large church in the background. As soon
as the vision began, it ends, and Jean contacts the Professor and tells
him what she just saw. Xavier identifies it as the Plaza of the Three Cultures,
and tells her to get there quickly- he, Logan and Storm will find them.
Jean hurries off.
Meanwhile, Mystique's
clearly winning the fight, and kicks him through a wall and into an abandoned
werehouse. Ooowwww... Now that he's inside, Scott can't let out an optic
blast- he tries once, but it only destroys a couple of cars outside the
door. Mystique attacks Scott stealthily, but during one part of the fight
scene, the weak wooden floor gives out beneath them, and they fall into
the dark basement below. Now both Scott and Mystique are at equal terms-
now Mystique can't see, either! Scott initially has the upper hand, and
it seems that he eventually defeats Mystique.
However, Jean comes
down into the basement, yelling for Scott, and Scott gratefully answers
her, telling her to watch out for Mystique. Jean replies that Mystique
ran away, she saw her leave. Scott asks Jean how she found him, and Jean
replies (while picking up a sharp fence post) that Cerebro led her right
to this wearhouse. Scott realizes something is suspicious (as mentioned
earlier, Cerebro can't pinpoint something that well), and lets loose with
an eyeblast on "Jean" right before she impales him. This knocks Jean back
a bit, and she angrily morphs back into Mystique.
Scott is exhausted by
now, however, and simply can't fight anymore. Mystique is about to finish
him off when suddenly, a force stops her- it's the real Jean! An ANGRY
Jean telekinetically kicks Mystique's butt all over the place, eventually
taking her out. Jean hovers down to Scott, and he's extremely glad that
she's here, obviously. They say some lovey-dovey lines, and stuff. And
Jean mentions how she's somehow developed some kind of psychic connection
with Scott. Awww. Yep, they're officially boyfriend-girlfriend now.
In the next scene, Scott
is with Jean in the Blackbird, and they, along with Xavier, Logan, and
Storm, are all flying back to the Mansion. Jean gives Scott another pair
of his glasses (how many of those things do they have, anyway?), and he
comments on the "lovely view", i.e., Jean. They snuggle, and Storm mentions
to Logan that it's about time. Logan couldn't agree more, while Xavier
just smirks knowingly.
Last Words: This episode could have easily turned into another boring "Adrift"-style survival story. But it didn't. There was enough variety given throughout this episode that kept it from getting boring, and the Mystique/Scott fight scene near the end was pure gravy. And you really have to feel for Scott- he's been through how many survival-type gigs, now? There were a couple of minor plot holes, though, that bothered me. This has to do not only with the aforementioned "Why can't Xavier contact Scott telepathically in Mexico if he did so with Logan at a much greater distance in the Cauldron?", but also with the fact that Xavier couldn't/didn't contact Scott telepathically even AFTER they arrived in Mexico City. C'mon, Chuck should have EASILY been able to do that by then. And Jean's whole "mind-connection" thing going on with Scott I felt was kinda corny. Aaand some of the love-related dialogue was kinda cheesy. Still, for the most part, this was a great episode, with a nice story, excellent fight scenes, and superb animation.
Overall Rating: 8/10 Great