"Mindbender"
Writer: Bob Forward
Director: Steven E. Gordon
Original Air Date: January 26, 2002
Introducing: Mesmero
Synopsis/Review: This episode begins
at a rainy night at some muddy circus fairgrounds. It's abandoned, as it's
bound to be during the night time. For some odd reason, Jean's wandering
through the fairgrounds, in her jammies. She hears some evil laughter from
coming up again, and one of the clown statues on the fairground turns it
head at her! She's freaked out as the clown starts running after her. Another
clown figure comes to life, and she runs away from them, only to be stopped
by a freakin' huge clown that came out of the middle of nowhere. She runs
the other way, and runs into an even freakin' HUGER clown, which proceeds
to begin to eat her...
...And then she wakes
up. (Gee, we had no CLUE this was a dream...) She gathers her surroundings,
figures out it's all a dream, and calms down. But then she hears a jack-in-the-box
make a little sound on the dresser next to her. Scared/curious, she picks
it up and examines it... ANDTHENABIGSCARYFACEPOPSOUTANDSHESCREAMSAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!
If you didn't see that one coming, well... um... you're not me.
Next scene: The next
morning, at the Institute. Everyone's looking for Jean, as she's apparently
gone off somewhere without telling anyone. Xavier's in Jean's room, searching
for any clues- the only one of which is a jack-in-the-box on the middle
of Jean's bed. Hrmmm.... Beast comes in and tells Xavier that there's no
sign of the girl.
Beast checks the ol'
Mansion computer for any recent news articles that may tell of her whereabouts.
And Xavier can't pick Jean up unless she uses her powers. So, no luck so
far.
So, we go through several scenes of the
X-Men looking through the town for Jean- Scott phones Duncan and Terran,
Spyke checks the police station, Shadowcat checks the Brotherhood house
(and is turned away by an angry Lance, teehee), Rogue checks the music
store, 'Crawler checks the football field. Still no luck.
We then go to the Mansion,
where Jubilee, Iceman, Berzerker, and Cannonball are sneaking into the
Danger Room. Yet, they're neglecting looking for Jean, but hey- as Iceman
puts it, "they've got class", even if the adult X-Men are occupied with
looking for Mizz Grey. So they're gonna try out the Danger Room today,
unsupervised! Multiple catches up with them and begs to do some fightin'
with them, but they tell him to go away- he's not experienced enough yet.
Multiple starts to object, but they close the door on him, and he leaves
in a huff.
Back to the search for
Jean: Wolverine is showing her picture to the train station manager, and
the manager acknowledges seeing her- early that morning, she purchased
a ticket to Boston.
Later, at the Institute, Xavier says that
Cerebro has confirmed it- Jean's in Boston. Nobody knows what's wrong with
her, though...
Going to said Boston:
Jean breaks into this big Mansion, not afraid to use her powers doing so.
She also has a blank look on her face the whole time she's doing it. She
breaks into a jewelry display room no sweat, and steals a particular ring,
pocketing the ring and hovering on out of there, pushing any incoming cop
cars out of the way with her powers as she does so.
Back at the Institute,
Scott comes into the main computer room where Xavier and Beast are, telling
them that he's got the Blackbird prepped, let's go. Beast says that there's
no need to- after stealing that ring (which they presumably heard about
on the news or something) she obviously left. Scott's exasperated- he doesn't
know what's wrong with her. Xavier says that they WILL get to the bottom
of this- they just don't have a real lead yet.
Back in the Danger Room,
the four New Mutants are having trouble dealing with a bunch of metallic
tentacles. After combining their powers on each tentacle, they manage to
destroy them all, but it leaves Jubilee pretty frazzled. She wants to leave,
but the three guys wanna stay and "play" more. Jubilee presses the button
to open up the door out of the Danger Room- but instead, steel security
doors slam shut in front of it! Robots and blades start coming out of everywhere,
and Iceman says, with a sense of dread, that they've got a little extra
credit coming their way... and we move up to the Danger Room control center,
where none other than Multiple is at the controls, laughing. EVIL!!!
Finally, the four New
Mutants finish whatever the Danger Room threw at them, and they stumble
out of there, collapsing the adjoining hallway in a heap. Multiple smugly
walks up, asking them if it was as easy as they thought it was going to
be. Getting what Jamie's hinting at, the four bruised and broken New Mutants
get up, getting ready to beat him senseless- and he runs away. They don't
have the strength to go after him, though... they'll get him tomorrow...
Later that night, Jean
emotionlessly enters the Mansion. She encounters Scott in the hallways,
who got out of bed and went after her after he saw her. She does a little
"mind blast" thing on him before he can question her much, and levitates
him back to his bed. She makes her way to Kurt, and wakes him up telepathically.
Something is exchanged between them, and Kurt gets a blank look on his
face...
The next morning, Scott
busts into Xavier's bedroom- Jean came during the night, and now Kurt's
gone!
Soon, Shadowcat, Beast,
and Xavier are all typing away in the main computer room downstairs. Scott
comes in, asking if they've found anything, and Shadowcat responds that
she's found a face-recognition match, from a security cam at the Bayville
Airport. (They HACKED into those cameras for their own benefit? Heh, a
sneaky one you are, Professor Xavier...) Yep, there's Jean and Kurt, purchasing
a flight ticket to New York City, Beast says. Xavier tells Scott to get
Logan and go to NYC, and he immediately complies.
Later that night, we
see Jean and Kurt floating and 'porting their way into a bank in New York.
Jean floats them all above the security cameras after Kurt 'ports them
in, and they both 'port into the bank vault.
Meanwhile, Logan and
Scott are flying through the city when Xavier contacts them, telling them
that Cerebro is picking up Mutant activity at the Township Bank. Logan
and Scott settle the Blackbird down on the top of a nearby parking garage,
and then bust their way into the bank- ironic how they cause more destruction
getting in then the offending Jean and Kurt did. Anyway, the blast/slice
their way into the vault, where Jean has collected and pocketed another
ring from a safety deposit box. Upon seeing Scott and Logan blast in, she
promptly sends them right back out- telekinetically of course. Kurt then
teleports them both up into the Blackbird on top of the parking garage,
and they take off, leaving Scott and Logan behind. Logan admits that he
is SERIOUSLY ticked off now...
Later at the Mansion,
Kurt silently lands the Blackbird on the front lawn, and Jean issues telepathic
"orders" to the sleeping forms of Evan and Kitty, who abruptly awake, now
with blank stares on their faces as well, and suit up. Beast, down in the
computer room, tells Xavier that he's found out that the two rings that
Jean has stolen have something in common- they're part of a trio. The third
ring is a location he has yet to figure out yet. Suddenly, Xavier senses
Jean's mental probe, but there's someone else behind it- we see a brief
glimpse of a glyph-faced man, the same one that was on the jack-in-the-box
at the beginning of the episode. He tells Beast that Jean's here, and Beast
runs to the doorway- only the control panel on the outside has been spiked
through, and it won't open. They're sealed in. The Blackbird- now with
Jean, Kurt, Evan, and Kitty inside- takes off into the sky.
That morning, Beast
has finally busted him and Xavier out of the main computer room. Xavier
is at Cerebro, inputting into it the image of the man he saw in Jean's
head last night. Rogue comes up and asks him if that is indeed the guy,
and Xavier responds with an affirmative. He's going to run a search to
see if it matches any Mutant profiles, but Rogue says that he doesn't need
to bother, she knows that face. She takes him up to Jean's room and activates
the jack-in-the-box there. She shows the glyped-face in the box to Xavier,
telling him that he's Mesmero, and he was in Bayville last week with that
"Circus of Mystery". Ooooo... Xavier responds that they need to find out
where that circus is stationed now, and go there... Beast suddenly busts
in, saying that he's found out where the third key is.. it's at the Museum
of Eastern Antiquities, in Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, at said museum,
the Blackbird lands on the roof, and the four Mutants jump/'port out. The
guards come up, telling them that they can't land that thing here! They
ask for their names, but, of course, the four X-Men don't answer, and Spyke
pins all the guards to the wall of the roof exit with his spikes. The four
Mutants phase/port into one of the museum's rooms, dispatching any guards
and removing any nearby security cameras as they do so. Shadowcat takes
the last ring from its case, and they all port out, flying off in the Blackbird
again.
Back at New York, Logan
and Scott and waiting around on top of the parking garage in broad daylight
as the Velocity jet pulls up and Beast helps them both aboard. Logan says
that it's about time- they aren't exactly dressed for public appearance.
Beast says with a smirk that that's okay- they'll all fit in at the circus...
At said circus, we see
the Blackbird land amid a windy environment. A storm's definitely brewing,
and lightning flashes as Jean and the other three possessed Mutants make
their way over to a certain tent. The Velocity jet flies in, though, distracting
the four Mutants as it lands and the non-possessed X-Men jump out. Xavier
responds that Rogue, Beast, Logan, and Scott can "deal" with the four possessed
X-Men- he's going to find Mesmero. They face off against the possessed
Mutants, being careful not to hurt them. It doesn't work very well, though-
you can't subdue an enemy without hurting them! Xavier finally manages
to wheel up to Jean, who's about to hand the bag with the rings to a cloaked
figure in the tent, obviously Mesmero. He tells her to stop, and fight
whatever control Mesmero has over her. She responds by levitating his wheelchair
up into the air, obviously getting ready to drop it from a tremendous height.
Rogue, seeing what's about to happen, runs over and absorbs Jean's powers
before she can do the deed. Xavier falls not-so-far to the ground, but
Jean, with her last ounce of possessed strength, manages to throw the ring
bag to Mesmero before she passes out. Mesmero laughs evily, and Xavier
angrily challenges Mesmero to see if he can stand up to HIS mind. Xavier
sends a bunch of telepathic blasts to Mesmero, who screams under the pain-
under some...thing... seems to help Mesmero regain control. A voice...
NOT Mesmero's... enters Xavier's mind, telling him that "he has no idea
who he's messing with"... right before Xavier suddenly gets SLAPPED telekinetically
to the ground. Mesmero quickly retreats back into the tent as Beast helps
Xavier back into his wheelchair, and his mental hold on the four possessed
X-Men is released. Scott helps a confused and barely conscious Jean up
as Rogue uses the powers she sucked from Jean to rip open Mesmero's tent,
but... he's not there! Wha?
Beast asks Xavier if
Mesmero hurt him badly, but Xavier responds that it wasn't Mesmero... there
was someone behind even Mesmero, pulling the strings... a mind more powerful
than anything he's every encountered. Logan asks what whoever-it-is could
want with those rings, and Xavier answers that he has no idea... but he
doubts they'll like the answer.
We then move over to
some remote city in (presumably) Asia or the Middle East. Way out in the
mountains surrounding the town, we see Mesmero enter a small cavern in
one of the mountains. He makes his way through a bunch of old ruins and
statues to a door. He reaches into a small compartment in the wall and
removes a rod, sliding the three rings onto the rod... forming a key! He
inserts the key into a small hole in the door, and immediately the a light
comes from within the keyhole, and the door "eats" the key, emitting large
energy cracks all around the area as Mesmero steps back, covering his eyes
from the light. Finally, the door opens, and the light subsides, revealing....
another door. With some kind of spider glyph on it. Mesmero then talks
to...no one... telling them that he has opened the first door, and he awaits
their instructions on the location of the other two keys. He cringes as
the "evil presence" apparently tells him where they are telepathically
and he nods. He'll find them, "and the world will once again tremble at
the presence of... *dramatic pause*... Apocalypse". He leaves the ruin,
fin.
Last Words: This episode was very cool, with a definite foreboding sense at the end that left you wanting more. Of course, the big surprise was the revealing of Apocalypse at the end, which was cool. It remains to be seen if it's going to be done well, as a guy like Apocalypse could easily be done the wrong way. But regardless, this was an excellent written ep, and the way the possessed X-Men worked together was SO frickin' cool. Like they all shared the same mind or something. Which, I guess... they kinda did. And they also used their powers more effectively than they ever have before- especially Jean, who shows off her powers to a great extent in this ep. The beginning segment was extremely lame (Run from the scaaary clowns, Jean! Run!), but the rest of the episode was practically flawless. The animation was also the best in the entire series, in my opinion- especially at the end fight scene, where you'd swear you were looking at a moving painting, and not a series of animation cells. Definitely one you don't want to miss.
Overall Rating: 9/10 Excellent
(NOTE: This episode was aired as the tenth episode of Season 2, even though, in actuality, it is the twelfth.)