"Impact"
Writer: Greg Johnson
Director: Gary Graham
Original Air Date: August 30, 2003
Synopsis/Review: That transporter
pyramid thingie finishes teleporting onto the top of a Mayan pyramid. It
actually merges with the top of the pyramid as the structure sheds its
ancient stone shell, revealing a futuristic sleek pyramid under it with
alien writing on it. Out of it comes Apocalypse, hovering over the Eye
of Ages. His hands are now blue with circuit-like patterns on them, most
likely meaning that he's interfaced with the object. He summons up his
power, and from the device sprouts a huge purple energy dome, engulfing
the Mayan pyramid...
Back in Egypt, Magneto
and his team are scouring the tombs they were in earlier, looking for some
clue as to what Apocalypse is up to. They've tried mind-probing the locals
and everything, but they aren't finding anything, and Magneto's getting
mighty ticked.
At the Xavier Institute,
Xavier is going through Cerebro, looking for any sign of Apocalypse on
his Mutant scanner. Nothing. Beast has also been looking through reports
of unexplained phenomena. Also nothing. They pretty much resolve themselves
to "Well, he'll have to reveal where he is, because we sure as heck can't
find him, or the Eye of Ages". For it being just two weeks after the release
of Apocalypse, though, the New Mutants sure are in a good mood- they're
all playing a game of Mutant Basketball. Rogue is sitting by herself over
by the fountain, though. Logan comes up to her and they start talking.
Rogue's pretty bummed about, y'know, releasing the doom of the world and
all, but it's not her fault. Apparently, they've also given the statue
of Mystique to the Brotherhood- they can't figure out any way to release
her from her current state, and it was affecting Rogue a little having
her around. Good riddance, Rogue says.
Switch over to the Brotherhood
house. They're having tons of fun with the Mystique statue, much to Wanda's
disapproval. Toad's dancing with it, Blob wants to strap it to the roof
like a gargoyle, and Pietro uses it to play a trick on Lance. Mwahah.
Back with the X-Men,
Rogue is sitting by herself on a small bench near a cliff next to the bay
when Kurt pops in front of her, annoying her. Kurt can't believe that Xavier
gave away the statue to the Brotherhood- even though Mystique was an evil
lady, she was their mother, and it made him feel a little better just having
the statue around. Rogue can't believe that Kurt feels this way, and leaves,
frustrated.
Kurt pops over to the
Brotherhood house, and when Toad and Blob finally leave the statue alone
for a moment, Kurt runs over to the statue and is about to pop it out of
there when he's stopped by Wanda (who suggested to Toad and Blob that they
should take the statue to Agatha Harkness, to see if she could do anything-
unfortunately, they ignored her). She's about to attack him, when he tells
her that please, stop- she's his mother... Wanda takes pity on poor Kurt
and lets him pop out with the statue unharmed.
Back in Egypt, Colossus
is a little late reporting into Magneto with the results of his search
(still niothing), and a frustrated Magneto gets on his case about it. Colossus
is tired of being pushed around, and he tells Magneto that this search
is driving the magnetic mutant insane. Magneto will hear no more, and pins
Colossus against a wall via his magnetic powers. Colossus disengages his
metal skin, and gets ready to fight Magneto man-to-man, even after Magneto
threatens that Colossus will never see his family again if he doesn't cooperate.
Gambit breaks up the fight, convincing Colossus that Magneto is their best
chance to stop Apocalypse, and fighting right now won't solve anything.
Still, the line has been crossed, and both Colossus and Magneto are ticked
at each other...
Meanwhile, at the Xavier
Mansion, Rogue discovers that Kurt has the Mystique statue in his bedroom
while she's walking by in the hallway. She immediately barges in, telling
Kurt how DARE he bring that thing back here! Kurt insists that Mystique
can't hurt them anymore, and please Rogue, anger and hatred destroyed Mystique-
don't let it destroy you, too. Rogue angrily responds that it's already
destroyed her, then storms out of the room. Kurt turns back to the statue,
to see it... crying...
Kurt immediately takes
the statue down to the Professor and Beast, who run a diagnostic on the
statue. They find... nothing. Beast tells Kurt that it was probably condensation.
Xavier still can't detect any spark of life inside the thing, but Kurt
says that he's not giving up- after all, Xavier can't read Mystique's mind
since she got her advanced shapechanging abilities in "The
Cauldron", so just because he doesn't detect anything doesn't mean
she's still not somewhere in there. Jean interrupts them, saying that Apocalypse
has made his first move.
Both the X-Men and Magneto's
team watch the news broadcast from their respective areas on the globe-
two archaeologists have found that the oldest Mayan pyramid is engulfed
in a purple dome of some sort. The Mexican military is there, but apparently
nothing can penetrate said dome. The X-Men take off, with only a skeleton
team of Xavier, Beast, Wolverine, Jean, Cyclops, and Shadowcat- this is
an info-gathering mission only, says Xavier. They figured out two weeks
ago that they're no match for Apocalypse.
Magneto, on the other
hand, goes by himself in one of his cobbled-together metal pinballs, telling
his team that this is a battle "for higher evolutionaries... and I guarantee
you, only one of us will survive". Dun dun dunnnnn...
Later, at the Mayan
site, the X-Men are given a short amount of time to gather info by the
Mexican authorities. They set up particle beam emitters around the perimeter
of the purple dome and turn them on to see if they can get any readings.
Unfortunately, the things overload after penetrating the globe and blow
up. On to Plan B...
Meanwhile, at the Brotherhood
house, Kurt pops in, surprising Wanda in her room. She hexes him out the
window, and he apologizes for the interruption, but he needs a favor...
could she arrange a meeting with Agatha Harkness?
Back at the Mayan site,
Beast puts some gloves on Kitty that he says will protect her from any
energy discharge the dome gives out. She's supposed to phase a certain
probe through the dome for any readings, but only the probe, and that's
it. She does, and it still overloads and blows up. Owww. At about this
time, Magneto shows up, and, direct as always, just takes everything metal
he can find (including some satellites out of orbit- geez!) and throws
it at the dome. It still doesn't penetrate it. Apocalypse comes out after
all the commotion, and calmly creates an energy orb around Magneto. It
collapses, and he is gone... Apocalypse then re-enters the dome, while
the X-Men stare in awe at his power.
Meanwhile, at the same
bench near the sea cliff Rogue had been at earlier, Kurt is waiting there
with the Mystique statue as Agatha Harkness finally shows up. Kurt asks
her if there's anything she can do, and Agatha responds with a negative-
but she mentions that Rogue can, who is approaching from behind her. Apparently,
all Rogue has to do is touch the stone for a split second with her bare
hands and absorb the mutation, which will give Mystique enough control
over her own powers to become her old self again. Rogue at first won't
do it, but Kurt seems to convince her finally with a guilt trip. Rogue
walks up to it... and, yelling in rage, pushes the statue off the cliff!
Kurt is too overcome by shock to 'port to the bottom of the cliff to save
the statue, and it breaks into many, many pieces. Kurt is overcome with
despair as Rogue starts weeping, turns around, and leaves. End.
Last Words: Awesome episode! A great set-up for Season 4! LOVED the parts where the Brotherhood was having fun with Mystique's statue. In fact, the majority of the episode revolved around that, which I was rather surprised at- Apocalypse only makes a few cursory appearances in this episode- at the very beginning, and again to seemingly kill Magneto at the end. I expected a bit more of... well.. Apocalypse, but it seems that they're going to be building up to Poccy's plan for a while yet. I have to say, though, that the whole Kurt/Rogue/Mystique statue interaction could not POSSIBLY have been better done. Rogue's bitter, and heck, why shouldn't she be? Kurt still has some emotional attachment with Mystique, even after all the wrong she's done to them. And then Rogue, given the chance to bring back Mystique with only her powers, destroys the statue in the end. VERY unexpected, and a cool twist. Also surprising was the return of Agatha Harkness, even if only for a few lines. As it is, this episode is a serious contender with "Day of Recovery" for my favorite X-M:E episode yet. Simply awesome. Personally, I don't mind the fact that Apocalypse hasn't done much yet, as long as they keep him in the background for now, plotting or whatever. I imagine that we'll see his plan come to fruition at the end of the season.
Overall Rating: 10/10 ...Wow.