"Shadow Dance"
Writer: Boyd Kirkland
Director: ...Also Boyd Kirkland!
Original Air Date: February 2, 2002
Introducing: Amanda
Synopsis/Review: This episode begins
at the ol' Xavier Mansion. Rogue's walking down the hallway towards the
elevator, all geared up in her uniform. Shadowcat joins her, yawning. Rogue
asks her why she's so tired, and Kitty responds that she was up late last
night talking to Lance on the phone. Rogue asks Kitty if she's taking Lance
to the school dance tomorrow night (Remember? The Sadie Hawkins Dance mentioned
in "Walk on the Wild Side"?), and
Kitty's unsure... after all, you know what the others would say if she
seriously dated one of the members of the Brotherhood. Rogue doesn't care,
she tells Kitty to go ahead and date who ever the frag she wants to. Kitty
asks if Rogue's going with anyone, but Rogue responds with a negative-
she can't even touch anyone without hurting them, no way she's getting
involved in a relationship like that. They go into the elevator at the
end of the hallway, and Jean catches up to them before they go down. Kitty
wonders why they're being called down to the Danger Room if it's only a
test being used on Kurt. Jean responds with the usual spiel of how they're
all a team and knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses is advantageous...
and Rogue finishes it for her before storming out of the elevator, now
down at the right floor. Jean and Kitty walk out of the elevator. Jean
asks what the heck Rogue's problem is, and Kitty says that it has to do
with her whole "no touching" rule. Changing the subject, Kitty asks if
Jean's going to the dance with Duncan. Jean says that HE certainly thinks
so, as he's already bought the tickets. But she may just have to dissapoint
him...
Anyway, they enter the
Danger Room, where Forge(!) is working on a little invention, with Kurt
looking on and some of the other X-Men apparently getting things properly
situated for a little experiment. From what Forge tells Kurt, the device
he's building (which Kurt wears like a backpack) will slow Kurt's teleportation
ability down. From what Forge believes, when Kurt teleports, he actually
passes through an alternate dimension (...). The device will slow him down
while he's in there, so that Forge and Xavier can gather data on this strange
new place. Kurt's understandably worried, but Forge and Xavier are apparently
both rather excited about this thing, so he agrees to go along with it.
He straps on the gear and puts on a breathing apparatus as well- according
to the sulfurous smoke Kurt leaves when he teleports, Xavier says, the
atmosphere in the other dimension may be toxic. Also, the device will allow
Kurt to teleport outside his normal range of 2 miles. Forge makes some
final adjustments, the X-Men wish Kurt well, and *BAMF!* away goes Nightcrawler.
He enters a weird fire-and-brimstone
dimension, all rocks and lava and sulfurous gas. Kurt's understandably
awed as he floats through the dimension on a preset path through the air.
He doesn't notice a pair of hungry reptilian eyes peer at him from in the
recesses of one of the rocks, though...
Kurt soon teleports
to his destination (Forge's old lab in the school basement). Yeah, he made
it, woo! He's coming back, and he teleports out... however, there's a small
dimensional crack he left behind... and a reptilian face peers out of it
before disappearing again...
Next we see Kurt, Jean,
and Scott walking down one of the hallways of Bayville High, Kurt talking
about the cool dimension he had teleported to earlier. Anyway, Jean has
to take off, but she tells Scott she wants to talk to him at lunch. As
Jean leaves, Kurt mentions to Scott that he thinks Jean's going to ask
him, finally. Scott says nah, she's going with Duncan. Scott asks Kurt
if he's going with that girl he's interested in. Kurt's a bit surprised-
who, Amanda? Well, she's kinda shy, but maybe. Then Kurt and Scott both
part and go to their classes.
Later, after a class
that both Kurt and Amanda have together, Amanda pops the question to Kurt,
and he accepts, both of them feeling very nervous and awkward.
Kitty also asks Lance
if he wants to go to the dance when she meets him in the hallway, and at
first he's like, "I dunno..", but he's just playing with her and being
a little shy himself, so he accepts a few seconds later. He's so happy
he accidentally sends a little earth shudder down the hallway... heh.
Later, at lunch, Kurt,
Evan, and Scott are all sitting together, talking about- what else?- the
dance. Evan points out the fact that Kurt's date will be able to feel his
fur during the dance- after all, that image inducer only projects a hologram.
Kurt immediately panics, wondering what the heck he was thinking, but Scott
tells him to chill out- just wear gloves, and she'll never know. Kurt think
that she'll think it's weird, but Scott says just tell her he has a condition,
or something. After all, Scott says, that's what he does whenever anyone
asks him why he never takes his sunglasses off.
Evan cuts in and tells
Scott that Jean's coming. Scott's like, "Umm...", and then, to make matters
worse, Terran comes up to him, quickly asking him if he'll go to the dance
with her. Scott glances at Jean, who sees him sitting with Terran, and
leaves, not wanting to interrupt whatever Scott and Terran were doing.
Scott turns around and smiles nervously at Terran... I guess that means
"yes".
Rogue and Risty are
watching all this from the next table over, and Risty mentions to Rogue
that it's too late, Scott's taken. Rogue insists that she wasn't going
to ask Scott anyway, she's not going to a stupid dance. Risty practically
begs Rogue to at least go with the dance with her, it'll be fun. Rogue
reluctantly accepts, and Risty's being her usual bubbly self with stuff
like "We're gonna have a blast!" We then go over to the school basement
while she's saying this, and we see a reptilian form try to force its way
through the dimensional sliver, not quite making it through and going back
into its own dimension...
Later on, we're now
at the Brotherhood House. Blob (with his hair just now starting to grow
back, heh heh), Toad, and Boom Boom are bugging Lance about his daaate.
Lance is taking it all well- if you consider "well" being "not beating
them". Blob mentions that he'd NEVER go to the dance in a million years-
until Tabitha plays with him by saying "Aww, that's too bad- I was thinkin'
of askin' you." Blob's understandably surprised, and Todd suddenly raises
his hand- oooo, he'll go! Quicksilver just rolls his eyes and mutters,
"Pathetic". Tabitha comes over and playfully asks Pietro if he thinks he's
too good for her. Pietro says nah, it's nothing personal, but he can dance
with four girls at one time- he ain't going to the dance with her. Boom
Boom loudly proclaims that it's settled, then- they'll ALL GO and SHOW
the school how to PAR-TAAAY! Toad and Blob, being the puppets of Tabitha
that they are, cheer while Lance just smirks.
Later at the X-Mansion,
Kurt has just found out from Forge and Xavier that they're going to send
him through that dimension again. See, they found out a lot of info the
first time around, but the camera also picked up a brief glimpse of that
reptilian creature. It MAY be hostile, so Wolverine is coming along this
time. And Forge is going to set the device to make Kurt go through the
dimension a little slower this time so that they can collect more data.
Kurt's understandably nervous, what with seeing those reptile things in
the video feedback now, but Forge insists that it'll be alright.
So, off Logan and Kurt
go, with a line tied between them to keep them from getting separated.
This time around, though, there's a lot more of those reptile tyrannosaurus
thingies around, and they're more assertive. One of them manages to pull
down Logan and Kurt via the line, and all slag breaks loose from there.
Many of the things manage to go after Logan and Kurt. Logan barely manages
to fight them off, while Kurt, being the awesome fighter that he is, runs
away from the things. Kurt's timer goes off just at the right time, though,
and Logan and Kurt are teleported out of there right before the reptile
things pounce on them.
They reappear in the
school gymnasium, as scheduled (Kurt had wanted to check out the decorations
before the dance). Of course, no one's there yet. Kurt and Logan are both
out of breath, though, Kurt scared so much that he refuses to teleport
anymore, ESPECIALLY not with that device attached to him. Logan sighs and
radios to Xavier that he'd better come and pick them up- doesn't look like
Kurt's going to be teleporting them back home. They don't notice the small
dimensional crack left behind by them as they leave, though...
Later on, in the X-Van
on the way back to the Mansion, Forge apologizes to Kurt about the whole
situation- he never intended for Kurt to get hurt or anything. Kurt says
that it's okay- but he doesn't know if he's going to teleport ever again...
Xavier reassures Kurt that when he teleports normally, he passes through
the dimension far too fast for the creatures to even be aware of his presence.
Logan asks if Forge is sure that there's no way those creatures can follow
them back here, as they were definitely hostile. Forge replies that the
only way that would happen is if the dimension gateways didn't close fully-
but there's a very small chance of that actually happening. (Well, gee,
NOW you tell us...) Xavier just responds that he just hopes it never does.
(And could I detect a bit of annoyance at Forge for his late admittance
of that fact? Why, yeeessss...)
Next, we go to the dance.
Everyone's dancing- Kurt with Amanda, Kitty with Lance, a somewhat dissapointed
Scott with Terran, and Evan with... some girl. Jean's standing around,
though, a bit angry with Duncan, who's standing around with his football
buds at the punch bowl, refusing to something as "stooopid" as dancing.
And Jean tells Risty this, who mentions that it looks like Jean would rather
be out there with Scott... until she sees Rogue, and takes off with her
"best bud" to "prowl for boys", much to Rogue's protests.
Boom Boom, Toad, and
Blob come in, dressed up in formal attire- which they look hilarious in,
by the way. And that suit is oddly fitting for Toad... anyway, Tabitha
motions for the two to dance with her. And then they see Quicksilver, who
enters with four dates, all at once... Gol-ly. Tabitha remarks that THAT
boy KNOWS how to dance.
Meanwhile, in the school
basement, one of the reptilian creatures finally manages to force its way
through the dimensional gateway, and wanders out the door...
Back at the school dance
above, Kurt tells Amanda that he's sorry about the gloves, but Amanda replies
that that's okay, it makes him look very sophisticated. Kurt makes some
remark about looking like a butler, and Amanda giggles a bit, but gets
serious soon afterwards, telling Kurt that she has to confess something.
She knows that he... doesn't always... look like he does now. Kurt gets
a little nervous, and tries to downplay it with a remark like "Yea, I know!
You should see me in the mornings!", but Amanda dismisses it, telling Kurt
that he knows what she means. But that's okay, she says... she's ready
to meet the "other him" whenever he's ready. Kurt looks admittedly panicked
with Amanda as they slow-dance...
Meanwhile, at the X-Mansion,
in the Danger Room control center, Forge is still tinkering with stuff
and moving it around a little, telling Xavier and Logan that he's not giving
up yet, there's got to be SOME way to get Kurt to go in there again while
still keeping him safe. Xavier says that he thinks Kurt has had enough
for now, but he's glad for Forge's help. And then they both notice a pink
dimensional portal open up in the Danger Room and out comes one of the
tyrannosaurus thingies! Gah!
Out in the hallway,
Toad and Blob are complaining about their feet being sore- apparently Tabitha's
put them through some quite intense dancing. Suddenly, they spot one of
those tyrannosaurus things sniffing its way down the hallway! They back
away slooowly, and Tabitha comes out, oblivious to the thing behind her,
until they point her to it. And then it pounces on them!
Back in the dancing
gymnasium, Lance says to Kitty that he's not all that bad, now, is he?
Kitty just smirks... and then a huge glowing portal suddenly grows into
being right between the both of them! Everybody at the dance starts freaking
out as a couple of those tyrannosaurus things hop through, effectively
ruining the dance. The masses, of course, start screaming and they immediately
all start evacuating the gymnasium amidst the tyrannosaurus demon thingies.
The various X-Men manage to stave off the various reptiles using their
powers in a not-so-subtle manner. It's amazing Terran or Duncan don't notice
Jean and Scott's use of their powers. I mean, it's right... THERE. I'm
sure they're panicked and everything, but still... Meanwhile, a tyrannosaurus
demon is closing in on Kurt and Amanda, who are backed against a wall.
Amanda begs Kurt to make them "dissappear". Kurt insists that he doesn't
know what she's talking about. As the reptile thingie lunges at them, Kurt
finally gives up and teleports them both out into the hallway. Amanda's
overwhelmed, and Kurt tells her that they've obviously got a lot to talk
about, but they'd better high-tail it first! So they do.
Meanwhile, out in the
school "front yard", all the dance attendees are leaving as quickly as
they can- while Forge and Logan quickly get out of the X-Van Xavier has
driven there and race into the school. Forge hurriedly mentions to Logan
that he's got to use the gizmo in his hands to close down any portals Kurt
has left here in the school.
Back inside the school,
Rogue and Risty distract one tyrannosaurus demon long enough for the person
it was initially after to get away. Enraged, the lizard chases them, and
they run away until they run into Forge, who zaps the thing back to its
own dimension. Scott, Kitty, Avalanche, Jean, and Spyke are also with Forge.
Forge tells the X-Men what happened, and what he has to do. So they run
off to zap the things away, while Rogue stays behind and admits to Risty
that the guy with the "raygun" is Forge, and it's a looong story. The X-Men
run into the other Brotherhood members- and Blob has subdued the reptile
by... yes.... sitting on it. They zap the thing back and continue on, Lance
staying back with the other Brotherhood members, who understandably shake
their heads at what the X-Men have done.
Meanwhile, back out
on some neighborhood street, Amanda and Kurt are strolling down it. Kurt
asks Amanda how she knew, and Amanda mentions a time- waaay back in the
episode "Shadowed Past"- where she saw
Kurt deactivate his image inducer in the school hallway and teleport out
when he thought nobody was looking. Amanda says that she didn't tell anybody-
after all, who would believe her? But she says that she just had to get
to know Kurt, after seeing his "other" self. She shyly asks Kurt if he'll
show her his real self, and Kurt does, after some mental prodding. He expects
Amanda to shriek and run away, but she doesn't- "blue is my favorite color,"
she says. Kurt smiles and asks Amanda if she's up for ice cream. Sure,
she cheerfully says, but she's buying! Kurt says that she may come to regret
that, as they both teleport away...
Um... the end?
Last Words: This episode was, in my opinion, the worst out of the entire series. Not only was the plot far-fetched (Creatures from another dimension attacking a school? Puh-leeze), but it was played out all wrong. There were so many things left unexplained- they never showed Forge and the others finishing securing the area around the school, and I still don't know why Terran, Duncan, and some of the other kids at the dance didn't notice the use of some of the Mutant's powers. Not to mention that something as major as, say, a invasion of a school by creatures from another dimension would have EASILY made national headlines. The school board would have panicked, and shut the school and the surrounding area down for weeks, if not months, while they tried to figure out what the problem was. As it is, you can't tell the school even had such a problem in the next episode it appears in, "The HeX Factor". It's like the whole episode never happened, minus the Amanda-becoming-Kurt's-girlfriend thing. And, to top it all off, Kurt and Amanda just RUN AWAY from the whole fiasco, not even bothering to check to see if they can help other people and whatnot. I mean, Amanda I can understand, but Kurt? His job IS to save people. That's WHY he's an X-Man. A shame that both of Forge's episodes have to be so bad, as I really do like the character- he's wonderfully obsessive when it comes to his experiments. And some of the Brotherhood bits were pretty funny/cool, too. Still, the whole thing played out like a bad '60s teen horror flick. And the animation is also tied with "Joyride" for worst animation of the series, if you ask me. There's just not a whole lot redeemable about this ep, ignoring sometimes-witty dialogue and the use of cool powers, which is the staple for X-Men: Evolution by now. If you skip just one episode of the series, make it this one. I guarantee you that if the entire series was like this ep, I wouldn't like it one bit.
Overall Rating: 4/10 Below Average
(NOTE: This episode was aired as the eleventh episode of Season 2, even though, in actuality, it is the thirteenth.)