"Power Surge"
Writer: Doug Molitor
Director: Gary Graham
Original Air Date: October 13, 2001
Introducing: Beast (Human form)
Synopsis/Review: This episode begins
during a school assembly at Bayville. Principal Kelly's presenting the
Soccer MVP trophy, and it goes to... Jean Grey! (Big surprise...) Jean
goes up to accept the award, and all of the X-Kids are clapping away...
except for Rogue, who's sitting far away from the others, next to Riley.
Riley asks Rogue why she isn't clapping for her friend, and Rogue responds
with a sneer that Jean gets enough lovey-dovey attention from the others
at the school, she doesn't need anymore.
Anyway, Jean goes up
to accept the award, and is all happy and stuff, and starts to say a little
speech of thanks... when suddenly, she hears Rogue's callous thoughts,
for no apparent reason. Jean stares for a bit at Rogue- she hadn't purposely
read her mind- but then continues on with her speech, at least for a little.
However, soon other students thoughts in the auditorium start to be heard
inside her head, and soon she can hear all of the students thoughts at
once- it's understandably deafening. Jean suddenly yells out, "Stop it!
I can't hear myself think!", and nearly collapses, dropping and breaking
her trophy.
As soon as it started,
though, it's all over, and everything's fine again. Jean looks up, completely
confused, and picks up her smashed trophy. She makes a half-way funny joke
to lighten up the confused masses, albeit it doesn't really work much...
She continues on with her speech (still a bit thrown by the whole experience),
and Scott, out in the audience, seems very worried about what just happened...
After the assembly,
Avalanche meets Kitty, and asks Kitty if he can walk her to her next class-
in an oddly nice way. Kitty, even more uncharacteristically, accepts politely.
I guess it had to do with that cut scene in "Growing Pains" of Lance saving
her, or something. But he's tried to kill her several MORE times....
Anyway, Scott goes up
to Jean, asking her if everything's okay. Jean responds (unconvincingly)
that she's fine, she just got a bit of stage fright. Scott isn't entirely
convinced, but Jean insists her alibi is true. Getting ready to leave,
Jean asks Scott if he'll meet her at Duncan's tonight. Scott doesn't know
what Jean's talking about- apparently, Duncan didn't invite him to the
party (again, big surprise). Jean then invites Scott along- be there for
her, okay? It'll be fun. Scott's still a bit wary of the whole situation,
but accepts anyway.
Back with Lance and
Kitty, they're in their next class- Chemistry, as it turns out. Lance and
Kitty are chatting it up like they're old friends (very odd...) when the
new teacher comes in. He introduces himself as Mr. McCoy- he'll also be
a phys ed teacher, too, as the school's apparently a little short of staff
right now. He also says that today... they're going to make a stinkbomb!
Lance and Kitty glance at each other mischieviously, heh.
Later the night, Scott's
getting ready to go to Duncan's party and heads out, only to accidentally
bump into Kitty, who's trying to get rid of the stinkbomb smell on her
clothes... Teehee. He also passes by Cannonball, Wolfsbane, Jubilee, and
Iceman, who are each doing their own, slightly funny thing. After slipping
on Iceman's ice, Scott finally manages to make it to his car, and drives
off to Duncan's party.
He arrives at Duncan's
house (after getting bonked on the head by a football coming in), and goes
to "mingle". Rogue and Riley are already at the party, and as soon as Scott
comes in, Rogue decides it's time to leave. She's spent enough time "celebrating
Jean", anyway. Makes you wonder why she was there in the first place, but
meh. Riley catches on that Rogue definitely has a thing for Scott, but
Rogue, of course, denies it, even though it's fairly obvious that she does.
But, after all, what chances does she have with Scott, since she can't
even touch him?
Meanwhile, Scott and
Duncan are engaged in a little game of ping-pong, with Jean and Terran
watching them. It's obvious Scott and Duncan are competing in more than
just a game, though- Duncan's trying to show off to Jean, and Scott's trying
to show that he can do better than Duncan. Jean finally realizes what's
going on, and stops the game, taking aside Duncan. She starts to explain
to Duncan that Scott is her friend, and if Duncan's going to like her,
then he'd better get along with Scott, too. Duncan just shrugs it off in
his usual jerkish manner, and tries to dance with Jean. Jean at first tells
him to stop it, until her telepathic powers suddenly start to go crazy
again- she starts to hear everybody's thoughts at the party, and she clutches
her head in pain from all the voices, pushing the clueless Duncan away
as she heads out to the house's balcony, trying to get away from all the
"voices". It doesn't seem to work, though. Scott sees Jean's odd behavior
and goes out to ask her what's wrong. He startles Jean, though, and she
throws Scott off of the balcony via her psychic powers before she suddenly
realizes what she's done. Her little "psychic outburst" suddenly stops,
though, and she realizes what she's done and stops Scott right before he
falls into the pool below.
Duncan comes out, though,
and asks what's wrong, startling Jean into dropping Scott (rather hilariously)
in the pool. Duncan hears the splash, and asks Summers what the heck he's
doing. "Um... checking your chlorine level!" Heheh.
Later, after the party,
Scott and Jean enter the main room of the Institute, Scott still squeezing
the extra water out of the shirt. He's understandably a little miffed at
Jean, who was the one who asked him to come to the party in the first place.
Jean retorts that he startled her- that was why it happened. Suddenly,
Rogue and Riley come out of another hallway, Rogue apparently having shown
the more public places of the Institute to her friend. Xavier (who was
there the whole time, by the way) and the others are a bit surprised at
the unexpected visit. Shadowcat phases from behind Riley and Rogue, asking
the other X-Men how she smells now. Riley turns around in surprise, wondering
where Kitty came from...
In the next scene, we
see Riley taking off, after an apology from Rogue. Xavier reprimands Rogue-
she knows that no one is suppposed to visit the Institute unscheduled,
for obvious reasons. Rogue's still miffed, though, and starts to go up
the steps to her room. Jean accidentally reads her mind on the way up,
and, not realizing that she did it and thinking Rogue actually said something,
responds that "That's not true, Xavier treats all of us the same!" Rogue's
taken aback that Jean would actually have the nerve to probe her mind without
asking, and definitely lets Jean know that. Jean realizes that it was Rogue's
thoughts she "heard", and responds that she didn't mean to, but Rogue doesn't
believe her, of course, and continues up the stairs.
Later on, in the Institute's
"living room" of sorts, Xavier comes up to Jean, asking her what's going
on. Jean responds that she's just had a rough week- first soccer, than
Scott and Duncan going at it, and there's team tryouts tomorrow... Xavier
says that that COULD be it, but he suspects that Jean's powers are growing.
He wants to help her deal with it, but Jean responds that it really is
just fatigue- she'll be better tomorrow. Xavier accepts Jean's explanation
(albeit he doesn't look completely convinced), and lets Jean go to bed.
The next day, Jean,
Scott, and Kitty are at the school tryouts (among others, of course), trying
out for the various school sports team. Duncan and Scott are really intent
on beating each other- although Duncan cheats eventually during a race
and pushes Scott off of the track, Scott's glasses falling off as he stumbles
off. Mr. McCoy (also a phys ed teacher, remember?) sees this, and immediately
tells Duncan that he's off the team. Duncan protests, but Mr. McCoy's firm
in his standing. After all, cheaters aren't wanted on a school track team.
He then goes and gives Scott his glasses- it's hinted that he apparently
knows about Scott's "problem"...
Jean, however, soon
has another "psychic attack" at the tryouts, this one worse than the previous
ones. Not only does she read everyone's thoughts unintentionally, but her
telekinetic powers start to go crazy, too! A nearby javelin suddenly levitates
itself and zooms towards Kitty and the other team members who are getting
ready for a track tryout. Lance, seeing this, manages to "rumble" the ground
enough to send Kitty and the others tumbling, saving them from the javelin.
Kitty notices this, and looks at Lance, who merely shrugs and smiles.
Two more shotputs are
levitated and go off in various directions. (Odd no one else notices this..
Granted, the tryout stadium IS nearly empty, but still...) Mr. McCoy manages
to catch one, and Scott secretly shoots the other shotput from striking
Duncan in the back of the head (awww....) sending it crashing into Principal
Kelly's office. Poor Kelly...
Scott immediately comes
up to Jean- he KNOWS something is wrong this time. Jean, amid sobs, says
that she can't control her powers anymore, and faints.
Scott and Kitty immediately
take Jean back to the Institute. They tell Xavier the sitch, and Xavier,
Scott, and Logan take Jean up to the medlab. Things immediately start to
hover around via Jean's uncontrollable telekinesis, and Scott and Logan
get out of the medlab as Xavier reaches out telepathically to Jean. He
tries to get her to stay calm and control her palm, but Jean is pretty
panicky, and can't manage to retain her self-control. A huge psychic wave
suddenly emits from her mind, blasting Xavier out of the medlab, and collapsing
an entire wall of it! Scott and Logan, outside in the hallway, help Xavier
out of the wall wreckage, as Jean's uncontrollable powers suddenly lift
her up into the middle of the room, all kinds of stuff starting to swirl
around her in a psychic whirlwind. Logan, Scott, and Xavier relucantly
retreat downstairs.
They come out of the
elevator, and Kitty, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Spyke are waiting for them.
Kitty asks if everything's all right, and Xavier replies that it isn't,
right as a huge tremble comes from upstairs. He relates to them what happened,
and Rogue then comes up with an idea- if Jean's having a problem controlling
her powers, maybe she can help drain some off by touching Jean. It's risky,
but Xavier accepts, and they all head back up to the med lab again.
What follows is a pretty
cool "fight scene" in which the X-Men use their various powers to deflect/dodge
all the stuff thrown out by Jean's psychic whirlwind. This includes a funny
bit in which Kitty phases through various stuff, only to have it bonk Kurt
in the head, heh. Rogue eventually manages to get into the psychic whirlwind,
grabbing onto a hanging wire and edging her way towards Jean, she eventually
makes contact, draining some of Jean's power off, and then is throw by
the slightly-weakening whirlwind into Scott, who catches Rogue and asks
Jean what's wrong. Oddly, Jean's voice comes out of Rogue. Jean's scared,
as she can't control her powers. She's trying hard to even make out Scott's
voice as is. Scott tells Jean that he believes in her, etc., focus on his
voice, she can do it. Very earnestly, too- just a bit cliche, is all. Jean
eventually manages to control her powers to the point where the whirlwind
stops, and Jean collapses back onto the medical bench. Scott runs up to
her, leaving behind Rogue, who's obviously a bit jealous of Scott's affection
for Jean.
Later on, Rogue is staring
out at the Institute's yard when Scott comes up to her. Scott asks Rogue
(not in an accusing tone, mind you) why she risked her life to help Jean-
after all, it's well known that Rogue and Jean aren't the best of friends.
Rogue responds meekly that... you know, they're all here for each other.
Scott smiles at Rogue's answer, and reaffirms it- it goes both ways, and
they're all here for Rogue, too. Rogue just smiles at this, an emotion
very rarely seen on her face, heh....
Later, Jean's sitting
out in the lawn when Scott comes up to her. Jean's doing better- the Professor's
helped get her powers a bit more under control. Scott hands Jean some roses-
unfortunately, they were sent by Duncan. Jean just smirks a bit, and she
and Scott talk for a while. Scott knows just how Jean is feeling after
the whole ordeal- she'd rather not just talk about it. Jean responds that
that is exactly how she feels, and that's what she likes about Scott- he
knows her better than anyone ever has, or ever will. And she takes the
roses, smiles, and walks back to the Institute, Scott staring after her.
Fin.
Last Words: This was a very good episode, and rather well-written for the most part. We get a much more in-depth look at the teenage X-Men's social lives, and their interaction with the "normal" kids at Bayville. The relationship between Scott and Jean, Jean and Rogue, and Rogue and Riley is also fleshed out quite a bit, too. We learn that Jean and Rogue really are not fond of each other at ALL, which is understandable, as they're complete opposites. Also, we learn that Rogue really has a thing for Scott. It was hinted at in "Turn of the Rogue", but it was never really confirmed until now. This gives her another reason to not like Jean. The appearance of Hank McCoy (Beast) in human form was rather intriguing, and leaves a good opening for the future on why, exactly, he looks like a human, as opposed to his more well-known blue and hairy form. The romance-related lines in this episode were rather cliche and corny, though, and one has to wonder why no one noticed Jean's powers at the team tryouts, and where Storm and the New Mutants were during Jean's psychic outburst at the Mansion. Still, the episode was pretty well-written overall, and definitely worth watching, especially if you like that lovey-dovey stuff, heh.
(Note: "Power Surge" aired after the episode "Badda Bing, Badda Boom". However, according to the official production schedule, this episode actually takes place before "Badda Bing, Badda Boom", which is why it is ordered first.)
Overall Rating: 8/10 Great