"Shadowed Past"
Writer: Bob Forward
Director: Steven E. Gordon
Original Air Date: March 31, 2001
Synopsis/Review: This episode starts
out with Rogue having a very strange and vivid dream. In it, a cloaked
lady (who is obviously Mystique, because of her voice) grabs her sun from
another man- Magneto- and quickly runs away after seeing what Magneto "did
to her son", which she obviously isn't very crazy about. The cloaked woman,
clutching her son, runs out of the castle, Magneto hovering after her and
yelling after her to come back. The woman runs into some wolves, who chase
her onto a nearby creaky-bridge-over-a-ravine scene. Unable to outrun the
wolves any longer, the wolves attack the woman, and she accidentally drops
her baby into the river far below...
..And then Rogue wakes
up, screaming. She wakes up the rest of the X-Kids, who come in, asking
her what's wrong. Rogue explains the dream to them, and then comes to a
realization- she KNOWS who that baby was in the dream- it's Kurt! And this
isn't the only time she's had this dream, either- she's been having them
regularly ever since she came to the Institute. Xavier butts in via his
mind-telepathy, and tells all of the X-Men, minus Rogue, Jean, and Kurt,
to go back to bed- they all have finals tomorrow. He tells the other three
to come downstairs so that he can find out what this is all about, as it
seems important.
Downstairs, Kurt admits
that his "parents" never really mentioned his origins very specifically,
and always tried to avoid the subject. The Prof decides to prove Rogue's
mind to find out the answers. While re-living Rogue's earlier dream, the
Professor discovers that Kurt's mother is indeed Mystique (although Rogue
apparently does not relive the dream this way, as she remembers nothing
of what Prof. X unlocks during his mind probe). The Professor also probes
farther into the dream, and the baby- now positively identified as Nightcrawler-
is apparently not hurt very badly from the fall into the river, and is
picked up the next day by a family down the river someways (Nightcrawler's
foster parents). Mystique, hiding behind a rock, manages to see all this,
and leaves her son to his new foster parents.
Xavier then ends his
mind probe, overcoming his surprise very quickly. Kurt's anxious to find
out what the Prof found, but Xavier (obviously avoiding the subject) says
that they'll find out tomorrow, as it's getting late now, much to Kurt's
dismay.
The next day, at Bayville
High, Xavier confronts Miss Darkholme in her office, asking Mystique what
exactly happened all those years ago, and why she subjected her son to
Magneto. Mystique refuses to answer Xavier's questions, and dismisses his
accusations as lies...until Xavier jogs back a memory in her that causes
her a bit of distress. Xavier quickly runs his mind prove through Mystique
before she can recover. Angry at Xavier's persistence, Miss Darkholme orders
Xavier out, and he does leave. As soon as he's out of the school, though,
he contacts Logan via his mind, who already has the Blackbird prepped.
Xavier gives Logan the coordinates of the castle he got from Mystique,
and Logan blasts off towards there.
At the end of the school
day, Kurt walks out of class, his mind obviously on something else besides
school. Rogue comes up and asks him what's up- why is he so anxious to
find out who his mother is? Rogue was never really that interested in finding
out who her real mom was, since Irene (Destiny) was always a good mother
to her. Kurt replies that that may be Rogue's view, but he needs to know
the truth about his life. Across the hall, Jean and Scott, seeing Kurt
getting a bit angsty, come over to ask what's going on, leaving the friend
they're talking to at his locker. Before they can get all the way over
there, Kurt deactivates his image inducer and teleports out of the school.
Luckily, no body seemingly saw it, since the kid Jean and Scott were talking
to was busy getting stuff out of his locker... The kid WAS watching the
whole ordeal, though, since after Rogue, Jean, and Scott leave, the kid
closes the locker and ducks behind a corner, morphing into a very distressed
Miss Darkholme...
We then see Principal
Darkholme giving Pietro a note, which he is to discreetly deliver to Kurt
in the X-Mansion. And he is NOT to open it under any circumstances, as
it's not his business. Pietro reluctantly agrees and speeds to the X-Mansion,
managing to get unnoticed into the estate, due to his speediness. Pietro
places the note outside Kurt's door and leaves (again, unnoticed), and
Kurt soon discovers the note. He opens it and reads it- it's from an anonymous
source, telling him that if he wants to know the truth about his past,
he should come to the mall construction site at sundown, alone. Kurt mulls
it over in his mind for a bit, but eventually says "Why not?" and teleports
out. Scott soon comes in the room and finds Kurt gone. He apparently talks
to the Professor (who had detected Quicksilver earlier in the Mansion,
albeit briefly), and he gets Jean, saying that they both need to search
Kurt's room to any clues as to his whereabouts. Jean soon finds the anonymous
note, and shows it to Scott, who tells Jean to get the others- they need
to get there, and fast!
We then see Quicksilver
somewhere outside Bayville, talking to Magneto via a cell phone. Quicksilver
tells Magneto what was on the note he delivered- Pietro obviously glanced
at it- and we pretty much learn that Magneto had suspected Mystique was
going to do this for some time. He tells Quicksilver to stop Mystique from
telling Nightcrawler what he wants to know. Magneto, meanwhile, has to
get ready for a visitor to his castle- Wolverine...
There's then a bit of
an action scene in which Wolverine, landing the Blackbird, enters the castle
seen in Rogue's dream and bypasses some of the defense systems. He soon
finds a DNA lab, but it's rigged with explosives, obviously planted a little
while ago by Magneto- Wolverine barely manages to escape before the whole
castle blows.
Back at the mall construction
site, Nightcrawler relucantly enters the now-closed site, looking for whoever
he was supposed to meet here. Mystique shows up, and reveals to Kurt that
she is his mother. Kurt's completely stricken by this, and is about to
ask her more questions when the Brotherhood teens butt in. Mystique tells
them all to go away, that this is none of their business, but Pietro replies
that they've got higher orders this time- nothing personal. They chase
Nightcrawler around a bit and manage to knock him out. They're about to
take him out permanently, it seems, when the rest of the X-Men show up,
and a rather pathetic fight scene follows in which the Brotherhood pretty
much use their powers pretty ineffectively. (Blob charges at SHADOWCAT,
of all people. Please, he's
not that stupid.) Of course, the X-Men
manage to kick their butts, and Rogue manages to absorb Lance's powers
during the fight. She spots Mystique leaving, and tries to get the blue
woman to say put, using the powers she stole from Lance. They need some
answers, and now! Mystique replies that it's far too late for answers,
before morphing into a crow and flying off...
Back at the X-Mansion,
Xavier, Logan, Jean, and Scott are all having a private chat. Wolverine
replies that he didn't really find out anything at the castle, due to the
charges Magneto set. Xavier responds that they may never know for sure
now, if Mystique is really Kurt's mother, or what exactly Magneto did to
Kurt. He's still fairly certain that Mystique is Kurt's mother, though,
even if it's not proven.
There's also a brief
scene with Nightcrawler, out on the balcony, thinking. Rogue is with him.
Kurt still can't believe that Mystique, of all people is his mother. Rogue
responds that they still aren't 100% sure, and that Mystique, being the
twisted person that she is, could have just been messing with him. Kurt
still has his doubts, though. Rogue tries to reassure him, but it doesn't
entirely work.
The end scene is a very
brief one, in which we see Mystique/Miss Darkholme in her office at school,
obviously still grieving over those past events that happened all those
years ago, and how her only son hates her...
Last Words: This was a very well-written and well-thought-out episode, and really explores Nightcrawler, possibly better than any other episode in the entire series. It shows his quiet, hurting side, rather than the "cover up my sorrow with humor" side that he usually shows. It also manages to get very emotional at times without getting corny. In fact, after I saw this episode for the first time, I almost cried at the end. It is one of the few episodes that really doesn't resolve the main problem at all, and in fact has a sad ending. The animation in this episode was also very superb, and smooth. The Brotherhood/X-Men fight scene near the end WAS pretty lame, though, and the castle/experiment thing seemed a bit cliche. Still, those are rather minor points, and don't subtract very much from the overall greatness of this episode.
Overall Rating: 9/10 Excellent