"Mutant Crush"
Writer: Katherine Laurence
Director: Frank Paur
Original Air Date: November 25, 2000
Synopsis/Review: This episode begins
at a Texas rodeo. Jean and Wolverine are there, watching the show (although
Jean doesn't really seem the type to go to rodeos, but it mentions a woman
named "Shirley Grey" as she leaves the rodeo in her monster truck, so perhaps
it's one of her relatives). The announcer introduces Fred "the Blob" Dukes,
"the World's Strongest Teenager". Fred then proceeds to use his enormous
strength to hold two "Bigfoot" trucks in place via chainlinks attached
to their rear bumpers, even with the trucks' engines on full throttle.
The audience hoots and hollers as we see Miss Darkholme showing particular
interest in Fred. Meanwhile, Blob, using all his strength, manages to pull
both trucks back into each other, jumping up in the process to get out
of the way. The audience cheers, and Fred bows- accidentally falling off
the truck as he does so. Obviously, the audience starts cracking up, and
Fred grows red with anger as he lifts himself up out of the mud.
Cut to Fred's dressing
room, where we see him throwing lockers into walls and punching stuff.
Miss Darkholme comes in, asking what's wrong. Fred says that he's had it
with getting laughed at, and is getting out of the whole rodeo business
for good. Miss Darkholme makes him an offer to join Bayville High (obviously
interested in his Mutant powers), closing the dressing room door right
in front of the approaching forms of Jean and Wolverine as she does so....
The next scene is at
Bayville High. Fred admits to Miss Darkholme that he doesn't know if can
go through with school again- he really didn't fit in at any previous one
he attended. Darkholme assures Fred that he won't have that problem here,
as she's the principal, and she'll make certain others get along with him.
(Heh, yeah right.) So, Fred walks out of the Principal's office, looking
at his class schedule, which is obviously confusing. He grabs a passing
guy by the shirt collar (Duncan, coincidentally) and asks him where his
next class is. Duncan makes a stupid joke about how fat Freddy is, and
of course, the guy gets mad. He throws Duncan several feet down the hallway
and easily rips a locker off the wall to throw at the stupid jock. (And
Duncan doesn't notice that this is practically superhuman?!) Jean comes
down the hallway during all this, and calmly gets Fred to put the locker
back down by distracting him with introductions (while Duncan runs off).
Fred, obviously entranced by her, exchanges greetings and names with Jean,
who looks at his schedule and tells him where his first class is. (Right
on the other side of the hall. Heh, what an idiot.) Then she leaves and
tells Fred that she'll see him later, leaving the big guy behind, still
distracted by her appearance.
Meanwhile, in a literature
class at the school, a teacher hands out assignments- parts of plays that
different teams of two in the class are assigned to act out. Cyclops and
Rogue gets stuck together, of course- and, of all things, it's a love scene.
Rogue reluctantly agrees to meet with Scott after school to rehearse the
play, after telling him "I'm not afraid of you" and pretty much telling
him to stay away from her as much as possible.
Later, in the lunch
room hall, Blob goes up to the lunch room counter and orders a TON of food,
whilst Jean tells the other X-Men at the table who he is. Blob goes over
to sit at a table by himself- only to break the chair because he's so heavy.
He falls to the floor, tipping the table (and therefore his food) up suddenly.
This launches the food across the room, which, of course, manages to land
on Duncan. He gets mad and grabs some food from a nearby tray and throws
it at Fred. Poor Fred now has food all over his clothes, and people start
to laugh at him. Again. Freddy gets fed up with all the laughing, and starts
going nuts and throwing food around at the laughers. (While grunting a
lot, of course.) A food fight is declared, and things quickly get hectic.
Shadowcat and Nightcrawler leave before things get too messy, whilst Jean
goes up to Fred to try to get him to stop. She slips on some goopy stuff
on the floor, falling right next to Fred- who's unfortunately about to
smash that area with a table, his eyes covered with some green food. Cyclops
blasts the table in half just in time to save Jean from getting bashed.
(Of course, by this time, everyone else has left the lunch room. How oddly
convenient. And where are the supervisors during all this?) Fred finally
finds out what he was about to do, and Scott says if the big guy wants
to fight, try him. Jean tells him to wait outside the lunch room, which
he reluctantly does. Rogue sees Cyclops waiting outside, watching Fred
closely, and starts thinking about how much the X-Men seem to watch out
for each other. She and Scott start to talk a little, but then Darkholme
comes in and ushers them off to class before they can talk TOO much.
Back in the lunch room,
Jean gets Fred to calm down a bit by showing that she has powers too (via
picking a chair up via telekinesis and smashing it into the wall. Gee,
awfully considerate of others' property, aren't we, Jean?). Fred is, of
course, surprised by this. Jean tells Fred about the Xavier Academy, a
place she thinks he'll really like. Fred says he'll think about it, and
Jean smiles and leaves the lunch room for her next class. Fred finds out
that Jean left behind her backpack, and finds a picture inside of it- of
her and Cyclops. He shows some obvious hate toward Scott, and rips the
picture in half, stomping on the half with Scott in it. Touchy, touchy...
After school, Fred goes
up to Jean again, who introduces him to her friend, Terran. She doesn't
really do much yet- she's just there- but she'll become an important plot
point in the future, so it's rather important to mention this. Terran goes
off while Jean stays behind to talk to Fred. Fred asks Jean is she wants
to go out and get something to drink, but Jean says she has stuff to do
(she was talking a little earlier with Terran about having a lot of homework
over the weekend). Fred doesn't think that this is a good enough excuse,
and keeps telling Jean that she's HIS friend. Clamping on to Jean's arm,
he drags her behind the school to talk to her more. (Obviously, none of
the other students leaving the school see this. Yeah. Obviously.) Jean
tries to convince Fred to let her go, that friends don't do this to each
other, but Fred will have none of it. Frustrated, Jean picks up some nearby
cement blocks from a construction platform on the back of the school and
hurls them at Fred. It doesn't hurt him at all, so she does it again- with
a buttload of blocks this time. He merely punches them all away, but in
the process, he knocks one into a vital point in the construction platform.
The whole thing topples on him and Jean, cement blocks and all. Fred soon
tosses the fallen stuff off of him and Jean, but finds out that she's been
knocked unconscious by the whole thing. Not really knowing what to do,
Fred carries Jean off somewhere, watching out to make sure he's not seen
by any others.
When Jean comes to,
she finds herself tied to a chair in a room in an abandoned warehouse,
several candles flickering around her. Fred, now obviously recovered from
the whole ordeal, welcomes Jean back, and shows her the table he set for
her. Jean, of course, is completely surprised/disgusted by the whole thing,
and manages to contact Professor Xavier telepathically. The Prof is with
Wolverine, watching Nightcrawler and Shadowcat do a little "Keep Away"
training exercise with a football. It's pretty fun to watch, but Shadowcat
wins and does this REALLY annoying laugh. Eeeyaugh... Anyway, Xavier gets
the message, and sends Wolverine out to scout for her, using his powerful,
super-sensitive nose. The Prof then gets the other X-Men together to search
for Jean.
Nightcrawler, obeying
Xavier's orders, goes to get Cyclops, who is practicing his literature
scene with Rogue. The two start to connect a little, but you can tell Rogue's
still very wary of him, despite his kindness. Anyway, Kurt teleports in
and messes the whole thing up, telling Cyclops the whole sitch, and they
both teleport back, after a little confrontation with Rogue (in which she
tells them that she knows nothing- in a very defensive way).
Meanwhile, Wolverine
finds Jean's scent at the warehouse they're in, and, despite Xavier's order
to wait for backup, he charges in. Stupid, stupid, stupid... Wolverine
finds Blob inside, who was getting a record player for the "date". The
two fight, and Blob basically suffocates Wolverine with all his fat. It's
actually rather funny. "Can't...breathe..." Heheh. Cyclops then busts in,
and, after a few words exchanged with Fred, opens a laser blast on Blob.
Although he's obviously stuggling, Fred manages to stand his ground, and
throws Wolverine's unconscious form at Scott, knocking the teenage X-Man
out for the count.
Satisfied, Fred goes
back to Jean, angry at her for contacting the other X-Men (and telekinetically
throwing a bookcase at him). Forgetting the date, he's about to throw a
large mechanical...thing at her (even though it's far too big to fit through
the door between him and Jean) when Rogue bursts in. She's absorbed a bit
of Cyclops' power, and, after fighting with Blob a bit, steals HIS power
and throws/blasts him far out of the warehouse, waay into the city dump.
Where a very frustrated Fred throws a tire at some seagulls that are "laughing"
at him. Riiiight.
Soon afterwards, the
rest of the X-Men show up at the scene. A still-recovering Cyclops asks
Rogue why she saved Jean. Rogue sort of blurts out that she doesn't..really..know...
and leaves before the X-Men can ask her anything else. Jean tries to go
after her, but Wolverine holds the red-head back, telling her "she ain't
ready". Kitty then pipes up that, even though Rogue is technically their
enemy, they now owe her big. And Cyclops agrees while putting his arm around
Jean. Awwwww...
Last Words: This episode wasn't really bad, but it could have been done better. For one, it passed Freddy off as being very stupid, with a very demented perspective of the world. It was done to such an extent where it's really hard to like the Blob as a character this early in the game. Granted, he does become a more likable (and less demented) character as time goes on, and especially in Season 2, but for an introductory episode, it doesn't really get you to like the main character much. Also, there were lots of scenes that some of the Mutant's powers SHOULD have been seen, but they weren't thanks to a lot of "convenient" happenings. And that gives you a bad feeling that the writers sluffed off a bit in that area. But still, some bits were pretty good, and it did get a bit funny occasionally.
Overall Rating: 6/10 Above Average