"The Stuff of Villains"
Writer: Adam Beechen
Director: Gary Graham
Original Air Date: October 5, 2002
Synopsis/Review: This episode starts
off with a brief review of recent Brothahood happenings, and then off we
go to an alley in the bad part of time. Wanda's walking by, and some thugs
on a doorstep notice her, and tell her oh-so-snidely to give her money
or they'll give her trouble. Wanda just flicks her wrists and some streetlights
and broken-down cars take care of them.
She walks into an adjacent
alleyway, and finds Caliban (the sewer-dwelling Mutant we say briefly in
"Day of Recovery"). She had apparently
arranged beforehand for this meeting, and Caliban asks Wanda what she wants.
Wanda tells Caliban that she had heard that the zombie-like Mutant could
locate other Mutants with just his mind. Caliban tells her the affirmative,
and Wanda orders him to find Magneto. Caliban tells her he can't. At first,
Wanda's pretty angry, until Caliban explains that he's "too advanced" (as
we witnessed in "The Cauldron, Part 2").
Wanda gets another idea, though- she orders Caliban to locate Quicksilver
for her...
Back at the Institute-
which is slightly further along in construction than last time, but still
has a way to go- Kurt and Spyke emerge from the temporary underground bunkers.
Kurt and Spyke are complaining to each other about the recent conditions-
Spyke says that he's this close to leaving Bayville after none of his buddies
stood by him, and Kurt doesn't like the temporary bunkers. Spyke mentions
offhand that no one will even come near Kurt anymore, not meaning it to
be insulting, but it obviously puts Kurt in an even more depressing mood
than he already is. Kurt teleports away, leaving behind a frustrated Evan.
In the Mansion's ruined
Danger Room, we're treated to a short scene of the New Mutants helping
up clean the Danger Room. Beast collects the block of metal scrap that
all of the trash has been melted into for his convenience and carries it
out- that is, until Scott calls out to the others that he's leaving for
school now, so anyone who wants a ride better come with him now. Jean and
Magma hurry out, the latter nudging Beast unintentionally in the back,
forcing him to drop the metal block. Shadowcat, still brushing her teeth,
phases through the block in a hurry in order to catch up with Scott- only
to find that she accidentally phases her toothbrush into Beast. Eeewww...
Luckily, she gets it out, apologizes to Beast as he burps bubbles...
At the Brotherhood house,
Toad is having fun wearing Pietro's costume and pretending he's Quicksilver.
Lance tells him to knock it off, and tries to take the costume off, but
Todd evades him. Through the following conversation, we found out that
they need to clean up Pietro's room. Blob and Toad just don't want to bother
cleaning up the traitor's room, though, so Lance just avalanches all of
Pietro's stuff (and Blob) out the window. He tries to get Todd to relinquish
the costume, but Todd refuses in his comical manner telling Lance that
it makes him "feel fast"! Todd hops happily down the hallway, but he trips
on the costume (it's too big for him, obviously) and rolls down the hallway,
slamming into the door to Wanda's room and dislodging it from the wall.
He quickly covers his eyes, apologizing to his love for sneaking into the
room- "This time, it WAS an accident!"- but she's not there. Todd wonders
where his sweetums went, when all of sudden Lance sneaks up behind him,
yanking the costume off- only to find that Todd is butt-naked underneath.
(Of course, they only imply this, they don't show it.) Eewww...
Meanwhile, in some nearby
rural town, said Wanda gets off the bus, obviously on the search for Pietro.
She finds him in a diner, and uses her powers to hex him into place while
the rest of the customers bail out of the restaurant. She forcibly asks
Pietro where Magneto is, but a panicked Pietro insists he doesn't know-
Magneto comes to him, not visa versa. Wanda then angrily tells her brother
that he'll MAKE him come to her, then- and uses her powers to lock Pietro
inside of a refrigerator and then that refrigerator inside a vault, yanking
the whole kit 'n kaboodle out of the front door and right onto the road,
where a cop car slams to break before it hits the vault.
The bewildered cops get out of the car
with their handcuffs, hearing Pietro yell for help from inside the vault.
Wanda's no longer in the restaurant, however...
At school, we see Lance
in Principal Kelly's office. Mr. Kelly tells Lance that he's expelled from
school (presumably because of the stuff that happened last episode). Lance
protests, of course- Principal Kelly was the one that invited them back
here, and now he's just getting rid of them. It's like he wanted them here
just to bug the X-Men! Principal Kelly just ignores Lance and tells him
to get out of his office before he calls security. Lance leaves, but not
before rumbling the desk into Mr. Kelly, leaving him trapped in the small
place between the desk and the wall...
Lance walks out of the
school and sees Gambit standing by a tree, apparently waiting for him.
Lance is about to mix it up with Gambit, seeing as how he's really mad
and he needs someone to beat up, but Gambit, always cool, calmly tells
Lance that Magneto is interested in maybe incorporating the Brotherhood
into his team. But Magneto wants the Brotherhood to do a "real test", not
that they're out of school. Lance angrily refuses, saying that the Brotherhood
is sick of being used by others, and angrily stalks off.
Elsewhere on the school
grounds, Rogue is doing some homework when she hears Evan being picked
on by two bullies- because he's a Mutant, obviously Rogue comes up and
tells them to lay off, but they just push her away. Evan tells them that
that's ENOUGH, and spikes out, frightening the dung-heads away. The bullies
tell them that Kelly's going to expel them from school for this, though.
Rogue hurriedly tells Evan to retract his spikes, and Evan tries, but-
it's not working. After concentrating a lot more, he slowly manages to
suck them back in. Rogue tells him to keep a cool head, and she's going
to go head off the guys to keep them from telling Principal Kelly.
The bullies, however,
run into Gambit, who "politely" tells them to lay off the Mutants, demonstrating
his seriousness by taking a pencil and, using his powers, throws it into
a tree, the exploding pencil making a small hole in it. The bullies, scared
out of their wits, by now, promise to leave the Mutants alone and beat
a hasty retreat. Rogue has caught up by now, and asks Gambit what HE'S
doing here. He just responds that he's "passing by", and walks away after
bidding Rogue ado. Shadowcat walks up behind Rogue, remarking that heeey,
isn't that a guy from Magneto's new team? Rogue reponds with an affirmative,
and that he CAN'T be up to any good. She insists that they follow him,
grabbing a protesting Kitty (they still have another period of class...)
by the hand and leading her after Gambit...
Back at the Brotherhood
house, Toad is still fooling around in Quicksilver's suit, and Blob is
cramming all of the junk in the house into a closet when Lance comes in.
He's angry, so a minor tremor follows after him- and the closet bursts.
Whee. Lance tells them that they need to be ready, one of Magneto's new
recruits was following him. Todd asks which one- and a flaming card floats
through the window, landing amongst them. Oh, THAT one... They beat a hasty
retreat as the card explodes and Gambit jumps through the window, ripping
a curtain off from the windowsill in the process. A little brawl breaks
out, but it's VERY one-sided- Gambit beats the Brotherhood members easily,
and manages to take Toad "hostage", threatening to explode the little bugger
if they don't back off. Lance concedes and asks Gambit what he wants. Gambit
says that Magneto is offering them a job, and they do NOT want to turn
him down. They reluctantly agree to take whatever task Magneto's offering,
since if they pull this off, they'll be accepting into his new team. Lance
asks what it is, and Gambit responds that they just need to bust loose
an old friend... Pietro.
In the next scene, we
see Lance and his buddies move out in his jeep, while Shadowcat and Rogue
watch from behind a telephone pole. They remark about how the Brotherhood
can't even stay out of trouble for one day, and they go after the rapidly
retreating jeep, Shadowcat phasing them both through a bunch of passing
trucks and cars in order for them to do so. It's a pretty fun and inventive
series of scenes, actually. They jump from truck to car to truck, following
the jeep no matter what direction it takes.
Much later- it's actually
dark by now- Shadowcat and Rogue have followed the Brotherhood to a mountainside
road outside of town. There, Lance, Todd, and Freddy are waiting for the
approaching military convoy. In the center of the convoy is an armored
truck, and Pietro's being held in the truck's cell. Lance just wants to
get his hands on Pietro, but Fred and Todd are both doing this because
they really want to get on Magneto's team- seeing how Mystique isn't with
them AGAIN. As the convoy comes up to the road below them, Lance launches
a surprise attack, creating a huge rockslide which sends all of the convoy
except for the jail truck careening over the cliff to the valley floor
far below (the military troops manage to get out of the vehicles in time,
though). Toad and Lance distract the troops while Blob tries to wrench
the truck's doors free so they can get to Pietro. Rogue and Shadowcat come
in at about this time, though, and save a couple of people. Rogue also
manages to take out a surprised Avalanche by touching him. Blob's rescuing
of Pietro, however, falls short as the truck (already balancing on the
edge of the cliff as is) has its door handles pop off in Blob's grip. The
truck starts to fall, but Shadowcat quickly phases through it and rescues
Pietro from it, both of them clinging to the edge as the truck proceeds
on its way to oblivion. Pietro "thanks" Kitty for the rescue by telling
her that she still took too long, and climbs up the cliffside and runs
off before anyone can stop him. Wanda sees this (she's far above on the
top of the mountain), and mutters that this is NOT over... Todd and Fred,
seeing that the mission's now bungled, get Lance's unconscious form in
the jeep and take off. Rogue tries to stop them by using Lance's powers,
but it's too late.
The military troops
train their guns on Rogue and Shadowcat, but the captain calls them off,
thanking the girls for saving some of their lives. Rogue and Shadowcat
are at first taken aback at his... kindness... but he tells them that not
everyone hates Mutants- they're just peacekeepers. He says that he'd offer
them a ride home, but they're stranded, too, until backup gets here. Rogue
says that that's okay, they'll just "hitch a ride" home- RIGHT, Kitty?
Kitty angrily responds that no, they are finding a phone and calling Scott...
The next day, the three
male Brotherhood members are chillin' in their house when Gambit barges
in, telling them what losers they are. Blob asks him if they can still
join Magneto's team, but, of course, they can't. Gambit tells them that
there will be other chances, though. Someone needs to whip them into shape,
though. Lance snidely asks Gambit that, what, HE'S going to get them into
shape? No, Gambit replies, that's Pietro's job. And in comes Pietro. The
three Brotherhood members are about to attack the traitor, but he quickly
runs out of the way and tells him that if they mess with HIM, they mess
with his FATHER- and this pretty much stops the enraged Brotherhood in
their tracks. He tells them that no one in this house is going to rest
until they take down the X-Men for good- but first, get this place cleaned
up! Satisfied, a now-unnoticed Gambit makes his exit...
Back at the Mansion,
Rogue and Kitty are apologizing for their misbehavior earlier. Scott tells
them that their actions weren't right, but Xavier says that their motives
were. However, he tells them, they can't be everywhere at once, and they
can't handle every little thing that pops up. They've got lives to live,
and school to attend- speaking of which, they've got detention on Friday
for skipping out on the last period. Mr. Kelly, apparently, isn't cutting
them any slack. Shadowcat angrily stalks off, while Rogue just shrugs and
smirks at Cyclops and Xavier, who smile back.
Last Words: Another Brotherhood-oriented episode, another winner! This episode had many great parts (most of them involving Toad in Quicksilver's costume and Gambit), but all of it was entertaining. Most of the solely-Brotherhood parts were absolutely hilarious, and it's nice to see the X-Men relegated to the background sometimes to focus on the bad guys. Wanda makes SUCH a good villain, as does Pietro. And Gambit's part couldn't have possibly be done any better. It was also cool to see some behind-the-scenes action going on, like Magneto's catching on of Wanda's plan and sending the Brotherhood to get Pietro instead of going himself. In fact, the only complaint I have about this episode was that the animation was pretty sub-par - probably the 3rd- or 4th-worst of the entire series, in fact. Shadowcat especially looked "off" in many scenes involving her. Still, I grade on the storyline, not on animation, sooo...
Overall Rating: 10/10 ...Wow.
(NOTE: Also of interest is that Gambit now has the same "black-with-red pupils" eyes that he had in the old comics, as opposed to the regular eyes he had in "Day of Reckoning". The former was an animation flub, I suppose.)