"Day of Reckoning, Part I"
Writers: Cydne Clark and Steve Granat
Directors: Steven E. Gordon, Gary Graham, and Frank Paur
Original Air Date: May 11, 2002
Introducing: Gambit, Colossus, Pyro, and Dr. Trask
Synopsis/Review: This episode starts
with Wolverine tracking Sabretooth through the sewers of Bayville. Someone
else is following Wolverine, though- a bunch of operatives who are using
x-ray goggles to spot Logan through walls. They note that Logan somehow
senses that they're there (via his super-sensitive nose, of course), but
ignores them in favor of pursuing Sabretooth quietly. The operatives tell
this to their boss, who just tells them via comlink to keep tracking the
Mutant, while a metal ball hovers out of a distant sewer tube and continues
off in the same direction Wolverine and Sabretooth were heading...
Anyway, Sabretooth eventually
finds the ladder and climbs up it, Logan not far behind. However, Logan's
intercepted by a metal gate- obviously hovered there by an out-of-sight
Magneto- and stops him long enough for Sabretooth to get away. As Logan
slashes out of the metal gate, the metal ball now moves to intercept him,
and quickly fires a bunch of green glop all over Logan, which quickly hardens
and effectively freezes him in place completely. The metal ball opens,
and out steps a mustached man, as the operatives seen earlier gather around
him, one of them mentioning that they can't track the other Mutant any
more, due to magnetic interference. (...Magneto's goood...) They identify
the mustached man as Dr. Trask, and Trask tells them not to worry about
it- they got at least one Mutant, which should be enough.
Meanwhile, in Cerebro,
Jean suddenly exclaims to the Prof, sitting next to her, that she's lost
Logan. Jean is actually using Cerebro this time- apparently, Xavier is
training her to use it, or something. Xavier's pretty angry over this-
without Sabretooth, they'll never be able to find Magneto! He tells Jean
to keep searching for Logan, and he'll go and get Beast and Storm on the
job...
Later, Beast and Storm
are in said sewer drain where Logan's signature disappeared, but they can't
find anything. Beast mentions that there's BOUND to be something slashed
up, as a guy like Wolverine doesn't go easily. Storm agrees, and summons
a mini-cyclone, which sucks up the nearby sewer water, and, lo and behold-
a slashed up gate is there on the floor. Beast notes the unnaturally bent
shape of the gate- Magneto. An owl, listening in on the conversation through
a grate on the street above, silently takes off and heads off through the
city...
...The owl flies into
the Brotherhood household's upper floor, and into Mystique's recently-demolished-by-Tabitha
bedroom. Obviously, the owl's Mystique, and it morphs into her. Mystique
walks down the stairs, to where the Brotherhood are hanging out in the
living room- Todd's bored and watching TV he hates, Blob and Quicksilver
are playing cards (with Pietro cheating, of course), and Lance has a little
fun by avalanching a piece of pizza stuck on the ceiling onto Blob's head
(and then Blob eats it. Eeeewww...). Anyway, Mystique calls for the Brotherhood's
attention, and Todd complains that they're all getting bored, when are
they gonna DO anything? Mystique tells them about Magneto making his move...
she asks Pietro if he would know anything about this, but Pietro sincerely
insists that his alliance is with Mystique- he has no idea what his father
is doing, they haven't been in touch for quite some time. As Wanda enters
the room, Mystique wanders to the window, mentioning to the Brotherhood
that she's forced to make her move, too...
We then zip over to
the Danger Room- all of the X-Men are participating in a training exercise,
and that holo-thingy is being used to make a surreal landscape around them
as well. Their mission, apparently, is to take out Magneto- but it's really
hard, as all these little metal balls are flying around and keep paintballing
any X-Man who even has his attention preoccupied a little. Rogue's out,
as are all of the new Mutants except Magma. Anyway, the remaining X-Men
continue to struggle to fight the flying metal balls, and Spyke finally
manages to find "Magneto", and quietly sneaks up behind him- however, a
stray pebble bands into Magneto's helmet, and it falls to the ground, with
nothing under it... it's a trap! Spyke and the other advancing X-Men quickly
run away as "Magneto" explodes in a fiery ball, and they all barely manage
to avoid it. The flying balls quickly manage to paintball them out, though,
and Xavier's voice comes over the comlink, sternly telling the defeated
X-Men to meet him in the prep room.
In said prep room, Xavier
reprimands his students angrily on their performance. Scott interrupts
him, demanding to know what the heck is going on- Xavier has NEVER pushed
them this hard before. He's sorry, but this confirms his worse fears, Xavier
says- the X-Men are still not ready to take on Magneto, and he knows Magneto
is up to something. Scott blatantly disagrees. Xavier immediately counters
with the cold fact that the X-Men couldn't even take on the Brotherhood.
So, he says, he's left with few options- the New Mutants are still too
inexperienced to take part in this mission, as they'll only prove a liability.
So, he says to the "main" X-Men, he'd like them to welcome their new teamates-
and he turns towards the entrance elevator, as the teenage Brotherhood
members step out in their uniforms...
The X-Men are surprised
that Xavier would go to such lengths as letting them actually work WITH
the Brotherhood on this assignment. Toad and Quicksilver both snidely point
out that the "losers" need them, so just deal with it. Xavier tells the
X-Men that they'd better get used to it, as the two teams will be working
side by side for this one. Scott is the angriest of them all, though, and
walks out- he's done with this. Jean starts to go after him, but Xavier
stops her- it's Scott's choice...
Meanwhile, a vehicle
enters a top-secret facility, and the back of it opens- out come some of
the familiar operatives and Wolverine, who is handcuffed. Logan angrily
tries to break out of his cuffs and take out a couple of soldiers while
he's at it, but Trask angrily walks up and presses a button on a remote,
sending an electric surge from the cuffs through Wolverine, effectively
"calming" Logan down some as the operatives shove Logan along.
Later, Trask enters
an open-walled elevator, and Logan is pushed onto it by the operatives.
As the elevator goes down into the huge open factory-room in front of the
two, Wolverine mentions that, wait a minute, this isn't Magneto's tech...
it looks like.. S.H.I.E.L.D.? Trask laughs, telling Logan that he left
that organization long ago, after he found out about "Mutant scum" like
Wolverine. Logan sighs- great, a fanatic. What did Mutants ever do to him?
Trask tells him that Mutants are a menace- they poison humanity's gene
pool, and eventually will destroy the normal humans. Logan insists that
not ALL Mutants are bad, but Trask counters that that doesn't matter, as
humans get caught in the crossfire regardless- which is admittedly true.
Logan just asks what exactly Trask is going to DO about it, huh? Trask
smirks, and tells Logan that he won't be so skeptical once he's taken a
little test that Trask has set up for him...
Back in the Mansion,
in the main underground computer room, Mystique (how'd SHE get in here?)
enters and quickly types in some commands on the computer- the main monitor
tells her that Defcon 4 (hmm, sounds familiar...) will be activated shortly.
Mystique, satisfied that her work is done, quickly walks off.
Later, in the Blackbird
hangar, both the Blackbird and the Velocity are all set and ready to go-
all the Brotherhood and X-Men members are in, says Beast to Xavier as the
latter enters the Velocity. Alright, Xavier says, let's go! The Blackbird
and Velocity exit the hangar and head out towards their destination (where
Wolverine's Mutant signature has reappeared again, it's revealed). Magma
runs off towards the ever-retreating jets- hey, she wants to go, too- but,
of course, she's too late/ignored as the main hangar doors close up. Sadly,
she walks back to the main, "public" part of the Mansion.
As Magma enters the
main entrance room to the Mansion, where she encounters Cannonball and
Iceman, Defcon 4 activates itself. The Mutants have no idea what's going
on, but as the entryway doors and windows start to seal themselves off,
Magma hurriedly makes her way towards the doors and barely manages to jump
through them before they are completely covered by the steel plates. Cannonball,
flying towards the door, doesn't make it, though- BANG! Ooowww....
Magma's now trapped
outside the Mansion as the external defenses activate themselves. Boom
Boom drives up to the gates at just this time, though (in Lance's jeep,
heheh), and yells at Amara in warning as some nearby guns train themselves
on her...
...Boom Boom quickly
throws some of her booms at the main gate, knocking it down and racing
after Magma as the latter barely dodges some incoming blasts. Magma jumps
into Tabitha's jeep as it screeches into a halt, and Tabitha throws some
more booms at the defenses as she floors it and the jeep races off the
grounds.
We then switch over
to that cliff overlooking Bayville, where a brooding Scott is sitting in
his car, just... thinking. Suddenly, Tabitha and Magma screech up in Lance's
jeep, and they quickly jump out, telling Scott that they've been looking
all over for him... The Mansion's gone nuts, Tabitha exclaims- guns are
out and firing everywhere, and it's sealed up tight. Scott comes to the
dreaded realization that Defcon 4 has been activated again...
So we then see Scott,
Tabitha, and Magma in the former's car, as the three zoom back to the Mansion.
Tabitha tells Scott the sitch, and that she'd just come back from the Brotherhood-
Mystique's back. Wait, Scott says- this doesn't make any sense. If Mystique
is back, then why is the Brotherhood helping them? And why is the Mansion
now suddenly going into Defcon 4? Something is NOT right here...
Meanwhile, in the top-secret
facility, Wolverine's now in a pit at the bottom of the large factory-room.
Trask yells to Wolverine from a much-higher perch that he's developed a
guardian for the human race, to protect them from Mutants- the Sentinel!
The huge robot comes onto line behind Wolverine, and then the slag hits
the fan. Logan has a tough time as the Sentinel starts firing at Wolverine
and using all sorts of high-tech stuff to try to "get the Mutant"...
We then move to an bunch
of abandoned warehouses outside Bayville, and five familiar big metal pinballs
land. Out of them comes the familiar figure of Sabretooth, and then some
new Mutants that we recognize as X-M:E versions of Gambit, Pyro, and Colossus,
who show off their powers for us before they all line up as the central
metal pinball opens, and out steps Magneto...
Back in the Mansion,
Cannonball rubs his head- there's no way they're getting out of this place.
Iceman tells him that they need to find the others ASAP- just as the inside
guns come on and target the two, who quickly get outta there.
Outside the Mansion,
Scott, Tabitha, and Amara have made their way to the cliffside below the
waterfall. Scott says that this is the only way in, if Defcon 4 is active...
We then quickly cut
to the main computer room- Defcon is apparently overrided now, and the
system has upgraded to "Self-Destruct Sequence", with not much time left
on the clock...
Back at the top-secret
facility, the Sentinel robot has finally gotten Logan down and out by shooting
out a bunch of metal from under Wolverine, making him fall into unconsciousness
as he slams into the floor so many feet below. The robot picks up the identified
Mutant, as its prime directives tell it to finally terminate him...
To be continued...
Last Words: NEEEEED MORE EVOLUTION! Egads, the ending to this one certainly leaves you on the edge of your seat. Thank goodness that during the initial airing, Part 2 came on right after Part 1. Don't know if I could have waited a whole week for the next one... Anyway, stupendous writing and dialogue all around! Nice plot points put into development, and many questions left unanswered- as it should be in the first part of a two-parter. I have no complaints over the writing at all, but there are a noticeable animation flub in this ep- Blob's head is shaved like in "Shadow Dance", as if his hair hadn't grown back yet from Tabitha's shaving of it in "Walk on the Wild Side", even though he had his full mohawk back in the preceding episode. Still, certainly nothing to get your stomach in a twist about. One of the best!
Overall Rating: 10/10 ...Wow.