"Grim Reminder"
Writer: Len Uhley
Director: Frank Paur
Original Air Date: April 14, 2001
Synopsis/Review: The very beginning
of this episode deals with a bunch of cobbled-together flashbacks. You
only have a vague idea of what's going on, although it's clear that the
writer wants it that way, at least for now. The different images show Logan
in some kind of tank, with a bunch of tubes and stuff hooked up to him.
There's a bunch of scientists standing around him. We then see Logan unsheathing
his claws and cutting through the tank, escaping from the labs where he
was held, and running into Sabretooth. The two attack each other, and then
Logan wakes up with a start. It was all a dream... or was it?...(Bum bum
bum!)
After the opening sequence
and commercial break, there's a nice bit with Shadowcat. It shows her waking
up, etc., and this morning she starts doing something a bit different-
she uses her laptop to write a letter to her mom and dad back home. It's
done by a voiceover, of course, so we know what's happening. Basically,
she goes through what it feels like to live in a place with so many other
kids, and how she sometimes feels crowded. She eventually resorts to going
into the breakfast room early to get some piece and quiet. The only other
person there is Logan, but Shadowcat responds (via voiceover, of course)
that Logan doesn't really want to talk to anybody anyway, so it's all good.
She's soon interrupted from writing her letter, though, as- of course-
the rest of the X-Kids come in and start having breakfast, managing to
be extremely noisy doing so. Shadowcat sighs again as a news report comes
on the television that was just turned on- it was something about an attack
on a trailer park near Mount McKenna somewhere up in Canada. For some odd
reason, Logan suddenly acts like the report gave him a huge migraine, and
stumbles from the room, clutching his head. Oddly, most of the X-Kids just
stare at him as he leaves, sort've like "Huh. Oh, well," and go back to
being noisy. Shadowcat follows Logan to see what's going on, only to discover
that Logan's trashing his room for apparently no reason, clutching his
head and groaning as he's doing so. Kitty asks what's wrong, and Logan
just comes off with unconvincing response "I'm fine, just...redecorating..."
and leaves. Kitty is, of course, completely confused, but shrugs it off
and continues to get ready for school while writing her letter to her parents.
A bit more of Kitty's
"voiceover letter" business continues, focusing a bit on descriptions of
the various X-Kids from her point of view. Very nice, really, it gives
us an insight into her POV. Then we move on over again to Logan's problem.
He's talking to Xavier about his headaches- he feels like something's buried
inside of his head, trying to get out. Xavier decides to mind-probe Logan
to find out what's going on, and unlock's Logan's memories/images that
he had in that "nightmare" at the beginning of the episode. After the experience,
Xavier tells Logan that those images were not a dream, but some kind of
oddly repressed memory. Logan then leaves, telling Xavier that he's going
to go to Mount McKenna to sort out this mess. Xavier askes if Logan wants
company, but Logan responds with a cold "...Do I ever?".
Then we focus on Kitty,
still typing her letter to her parents, but this time, hiding out in the
Blackbird, as this seems to be the only place where it's quiet... Suddenly,
Kurt pops in, scaring Kitty half to death as he announces that they've
got to leave for school now. Kitty shuts her computer down in a huff, when
the engine of the Blackbird starts up and takes off, pushing Kitty and
Kurt around in the cargo area until it levels out at a high altitude. Kitty
and Kurt are curious to find out what's going on- why is someone taking
the Blackbird without them knowing about it? They enter the cockpit and
find Wolverine, his back turned to them. Despite Kitty's protests (due
to Logan's odd behavior all morning), Kurt goes up to Logan, asking him
what's going on. Logan suddenly unsheathes his claws and slashes at Kurt,
narrowly missing him. Kurt and Kitty immediately back away from the advancing
form of Wolverine. Logan, struggling to get out words through his anger,
growls out something about there being some kind of device in his head
that seems to be controlling his actions. Through a last act of desperation,
Logan activates the security door between the cockpit and the cargo area,
keeping Kurt and Kitty save from his now-uncontrollable rage. Obviously,
the two X-Kids are a bit worried about all this- an uncontrollable Wolverine's
still flying the plane! Kitty asks Kurt is he can teleport them both down
to the ground, to which Kurt responds with a negative. They're way too
high up, and traveling way too fast. So they're stuck in the Blackbird,
traveling along with Wolverine...
A while later, the Blackbird
lands in a snow-covered pine forest in Canada, and Wolverine exits, heading
towards some unknown destination. Kitty and Kurt phase/teleport out of
the Blackbird cargo hold, now suited up. Kurt mentions that he tried the
com system, and they're too far away from the X-Mansion to make contact.
They then decide to follow Logan, albeit at a distance, wanting to know
what's going on.
Then we switch scenes
to a nearby bunker/laboratory, partially hidden in the snow. Inside, we
see some creepy scientist guy watching Logan, Sabretooth standing behind
him. We learn that Sabretooth was the one who attacked the trailer park-
in order to get the news coverage, to get Logan's attention. Apparently,
the scientist implanted a chip in Logan's brain all those years ago, during
the experiments in which they installed Logan's adamantium skeleton onto
his body. Logan had suppressed the chip's power up until now, when the
news coverage sort of triggered something in his brain, reactivating the
chip. Once the chip managed to suppress Logan's willpower, the scientist
was able to somehow "lead" Wolverine here subconsciously, causing pain
to Wolverine's cerebral area if the guy didn't obey. The scientist sends
out Sabretooth to "greet" Logan.
Back out in the wilderness,
we see Wolverine come across the advancing form of Sabretooth. Wolverine
manages to initially kick Sabretooth's butt, until the scientist, remote
in hand, walks out from a nearby tree and increases the pain amplifiers
on the chip, stunning Wolverine long enough for Sabretooth to deliver the
knock out punch...
In the next scene, we
see Wolverine back inside the scientist's lab. The scientist mentions something
about "Weapon X", a secret government project to develop the "ultimate
Mutant slayers", of which Wolverine and Sabretooth were participants, willing
or not. Despite Logan's protests, the scientists forces him to do a "test
run", and take out the kids that were trailing Logan. Sabretooth goes along,
too.
Back out in the forest,
Kitty and Kurt continue to look for Logan, and eventually spot him- along
with Sabretooth!? Surprised as the Logan and his seemingly-mortal enemy
advance on them, Kitty and Kurt start to run seconds before the two are
upon them, splitting up so they can handle the two better. Kurt manages
to evade Sabretooth for quite sometime, as Sabretooth is no match for Kurt's
teleporting abilities. Eventually, when the 'Crawler gets Sabretooth far
enough away from the others, he teleports out of sight, leaving behind
an enraged Sabretooth.
Meanwhile, Kitty manages
to evade Logan, but barely. One wonders why she doesn't just phase through
his slashes, but, whatever. She keeps trying to get Logan to realize that
it's her, that he doesn't know what he's doing, etc. It doesn't really
work, though, and Logan eventually corners Kitty next to a mountainside.
Kitty phases through it in a desperate attempt to get away, narrowly missing
a deep ravine on the other side. Logan, finally managed to suppress his
mind-control chip a little, desperately climbs up the mountain, realizing
the worst when he finds the deep ravine on the other side- Kitty probably
phased right into the ravine. Logan howls in rage, just as Kitty phases
up through the ground, alright. Logan turns around, the sight of Kitty
activating the chip again. Although obviously struggling, he starts to
attack Kitty, his claws stopping a few inches from her face as Kitty earnestly
tries to talk him out of whatever problem he's having. She eventually succeeds
slightly, calming down Logan enough for him to regain control. Sabretooth
suddenly enters the arena, attacking Logan again. Logan throws Sabretooth
off him and charges back up the slope, towards the labs where the scientist
is. Kitty and Kurt (who just popped in) are happy that Logan's finally
taking control, and follow the two back to the lab/bunker.
Back at the base, we
see the scientist contacting Sabretooth, and he finds out that Logan's
coming down into the lab. The scientist orders Sabretooth to come down
and protect him, just as Logan slices through the lab's entryway door.
The scientist turns up the pain-chip all the way, but Logan is still determined
to attack him, so he then activates some security drones. Logan slashes
through some of them, but they eventually tie him up in their tentacles...
We then see Sabretooth
coming up to the lab entryway to finish Logan, only to have Kurt and Kitty
pop in front of him. Kitty goes into the lab, while Kurt stays behind and
annoys Sabretooth.
Kitty phases into the lab, and, seeing
the security drones, immediately knows what to do. She dives into the control
panels, short-circuiting the whole lab system, and causing small explosions
aplenty. Logan now easily pushes aside the deactivated drones. The scientist,
panicking, tells Logan that they both have to get out of here, now- Kitty's
short-circuited the systems to the point that they're all going to blow
any second. Kurt then pops in, taking Kitty with him, much to the latter's
protesting. Logan wants to stay behind to deal with scientist himself.
"Project Weapon X has been terminated!"
Shadowcat and Nightcrawler
pop out of the labs, a safe distance away, as they abruptly explode. At
first, they can't see anything, but we eventually see Logan stumble up
to them, collapsing. With his regeneration abilities, he was able to survive
the explosion. Kurt and Kitty quickly pick him up and carry him back to
the Blackbird...
Later, back at the Mansion,
Logan wakes up in the "med-room" of the Mansion. Xavier tells Logan to
relax, that he's safe now, and that Kitty's been in here every hour, checking
up on him. Xavier also removed the chip in Logan's head, via surgery- I
suppose he's also a surgeon, too... Anyway, Logan admits that he's going
to find out who ordered the scientist to put in his adamantium bones someday...
and that's a promise.
In the closing scene,
we see Kurt blocking the other protesting X-Kids from entering the dining
area, saying that nobody's going to starve to death- Kitty just needs a
few more minutes of quiet time to finish her letter. Kitty, of course,
is in the dining room, typing away, finishing up her letter. She admits
(via voiceover) that she now takes back her former statement about hating
how it was so crowded here all the time- it's just part of the deal, when
you're a part of a family...
Last Words: Despite this really being Wolverine's episode, I remember (and like) this episode for Kitty's involvement in it. This is where Shadowcat takes the step from being a slightly annoying, shallow character to a deep, multi-faceted, neat character. She shows how she seems to care more for the others than any of the other X-Kids, despite her being annoyed at their "loudness" much of the time. And I can definitely relate to that, when it comes to others, heh. She also starts to lighten up on the "like"s and "totally"s a bit, although it doesn't go away completely until the second season. It also starts a kind of odd bond between Kitty and Logan, despite both of them being complete opposites. This episode was also full of great dialogue, and showed Logan's "soft" side for the first time, as well. Logan starts to take a bit more of an active role with the X-Kids after this episode. However, this ep did have a few problems that kept it from being perfect. The "Weapon X" project was simplified too much from the comics, the simple "Mutant slayers" thing just being kinda corny. It also wasn't explained as much as I'd like, as well. There were also several "Why didn't they..?" moments in this episode as well. Kitty runs away from Logan, not just phasing through him. Kurt also does the same thing to Sabretooth, even though he could have just teleported both him and Kitty away. In hindsight, I suppose that they could have just been leading the two "Weapon X" Mutants away from each other to get answers, but it still seemed rather iffy. And the entire idea that Logan suppressed that chip all these years, only to have vague news coverage of an area near Mount McKenna trigger it, was kind of iffy as well.
Overall Rating: 8/10 Great