"Cruise Control"
Writers: Steve Granat and Cydne Clark
Director: Gary Graham
Original Air Date: August 23, 2003
Synopsis/Review: Nothing much story-wise
happens for the first ten minutes or so of the show, really. Just a lot
of X-Men cruise ship fun. See, the X-Men are taking a cruise during spring
break to "get away from it all" back in Bayville. No one on the ship knows
they're Mutants, so they can just sit back, relax, and have some fun. A
few have stayed back, though, and it's important to note who, since none
of them are seen at ALL in this episode- Rogue (she's still sick from "Self
Possessed"), Xavier, Wolverine, and Beast (probably to take care of
her), and Berzerker (er... because.... well, maybe he was on the cruise
ship, but not seen at all during the ep. Whatever). All the other X-Men
are there. Some of the highlights of good ol' X-Men antics:
- Iceman playing "guess that movie" as
he shoots a big iceberg in front of the ship. Of course, this was an incredibly
stupid move by ol' Bobby, and Cyclops has to shoot the iceberg down before
the ship can collide with it. It's at night, though, and only one other
guy sees it.
- Kitty and Kurt "peeking in" on Scott
and Jean about to kiss. Teeheehee.
Anyways, Amara's not
feeling all that well- she's not seasick, but she says she always gets
this way when she's disconnected from the Earth for a while. Has to do
with her whole "Magma" thing.
Eventually though, the
Mutants are discovered on board when a chain reaction started by Boom Boom
(of course) ends up in the whole room being flooded with water from the
lobster tank to douse a fire. Aaaand the people on board find out that
the X-Men are Mutants. Aaaand the predictable "stay away from us, you freaks"
behavior starts to happen on the ship.
The next day, the ship
docks near a volcanic island called St. Sebastian. They were originally
going to go to the Bahamas, but bad weather ahead has prevented them from
getting there, so the ship is just going to wait it out here. Jean and
Scott, wanting to get away from the ship passengers, float to land. Kurt
and Kitty follow, just because that's the way they are. Amara's getting
really sick, so Boom Boom gets Iceman to make an ice canoe to take them
ashore as well. (Ice canoe. Teeheehee. Yes, I laughed a lot during this
ep.)
Anyway, they find each
other on the island, and soon go to a hot spring to relax. Amara, predictably,
is starting to feel better now, and dives down into the hot spring to get
closer to the fissure- to, I'm assuming, feel better by getting closer
to the Earth. Or something. Anyway, once she gets near it, she flames up
again- but this causes the water in the spring to get too hot, and the
X-Men get out and go back to town. Problem is, Amara inadvertently set
off the volcano's rumbling by being near that fissure, and an earthquake
ensues. The X-Men do their fair share of saving people until the earthquake
dies down. The thing is... they're actually treated like heroes by the
people of the island once it's over! They get to live it up then, finally
getting the respect they deserve after all this time. Jean helps some fisherman
catch a fish, Iceman creates a skating rink for some of the ladies, they
get some (assumingly) free food, lots of good stuff.
But then Storm, on the
ship, notices that the kids are gone. Bum-bum-buuummm. She's sent Multiple
to search all over the ship, and they ain't anywhere. She quickly figures
out where they've gone, and creates a small storm cloud over the ship-
signaling to the X-Men that fun's over, now get back here, you varmints.
Problem is, just as she does that, another rumble spreads through the island,
and the volcano erupts!
The X-Men, again, do
their fair share of saving people. Scott creates a long ditch in the ground
to divert the lava away from the village while Jean and Bobby hold it back
in various places. Amara, though, is drawn to the volcano crater in an
almost zombie-like state. Only Boom Boom notices she's gone in the chaos,
but by then, it's too late- Amara is too far up on the volcano for anyone
to safely follow. Except Storm, though! She flies after Amara, and witnesses
her actually come up to the crater and DIVE IN to the volcano. Amara swims
through the lava, then starts exerting her control over it. The volcano
stops erupting suddenly, and the lava that is already flowing everywhere
almost immediately cools down. The rest of the X-Men run up to the crater
as Amara bursts out of it and comes up to the ridge via a plume of lava.
She explains to them how she actually seemed to... merge... with the volcano
for a short while, and was able to stop the eruption. After all, she inadvertently
caused it. So, the X-Men say goodbye to the loving natives reluctantly,
and head back to the ship. Boom Boom and Amara joke a little, 'cause they're
good friends. End.
Last Words: I really liked this ep, especially since it's a break from the epic saga we've been getting lately. Don't get me wrong- epic sagas are great- but every once and while, you just need a good standalone ep that's fun. And "Cruise Control" delivered. I thought the fact that Magma actually MERGED with the volcano consciously was borderline corny, and Jean, I think, is a bit too level-headed to do something stupid like dump a whole lobster tank on a fire, when doing something like GETTING THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER would put it out without revealing that they're Mutants. But other than that, this was a flawless and fun ep. Plus, you get more of Boom Boom than we've seen all season. Can't go wrong with that. Woooo!
Overall Rating: 9/10 Excellent
(NOTE: Although "Cruise Control" was aired as the thirteenth episode in Season 3, it is in actuality the tenth.)
(Picture courtesy of Matt.)