"The Cauldron, Part II"
Writer: Greg Johnson
Director: Steven E. Gordon
Original Air Date: May 12, 2001
Synopsis/Review: After the mandatory
recap of the last ep, this episode begins with Toad, God bless 'im, slumped
on a rock on the beach, moaning about how he can't believe he lost- twice.
He then decides to eat a fly in his misery, but his tongue is caught in
mid-strike, as Nightcrawler grabs it, telling Toad that he's not going
to let the tongue go until Toad promises to tell them what's going on.
Toad agrees, and rolls his tongue back in his mouth. Then he proceeds to
tell them about Magneto, and how he was weeding out the best from the worst-
and they lost, boo-hoo. Nightcrawler's tired of Toad's vague answers, and
grabs the green-tongued Mutant by the shirt, asking him what happens to
the winners...
...We then go back to
Asteroid M, where Scott tells the Prof that he's got it all wrong- Scott
and Alex are just here to listen, they aren't joining Magneto's team or
anything. Xavier responds, via telepathy, that he knows Magneto- the man's
motives cannot be trusted, despite him seeming to be well-meaning. Magneto
notices Xavier communicating telepathically, and uses his powers to pull
Xavier's wheelchair into another of those nearby pipes with sleeping gas
in them. Quickly, before he fades asleep, Xavier quickly sends a message
to Logan (still fighting with Sabretooth) to lose the battle.
Scott, seeing the Prof
suddenly knocked out by the sleeping gas Magneto released in the tube,
gets ready to fire his laser eyes at the Brotherhood leader. Alex stops
Scott- Magneto's just doing what he feels is right so he can get the point
across, and Magneto confirms what Alex is saying. "Not everyone has the
maturity to handle change as you do, Scott." Scott reluctantly agrees to
see what Magneto has in store- for now. Magneto says that he'll show them
what he has planned for the winners as soon as the Wolverine vs. Sabretooth
battle is decided...
..Speaking of the battle,
we then shift back to that small island on which the two are fighting.
Wolverine's completely confused by what Xavier's short telepathic message
to him was- Lose the battle? Regardless, he reluctantly decides to follow
Xavier's advice, and "loses" the battle to Sabretooth, who laughs as he
"knocks Logan out" and the metal sphere descends, whisking him away in
it. As soon as Sabretooth is gone, Logan reopens his eyes- having faked
the whole "unconscious" schtick, of course. He then sees how Sabretooth
got on the island- a helicopter is sitting on a nearby rock outcropping...
Back at the X-Mansion,
Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Spyke, and Toad all arrive, stepping into the
ruined main hall (partially destroyed by the metal sphere that crashed
in after Storm won the earlier battle). Shadowcat starts calling for Storm,
wondering where she is, and what happened, when a nearby statue morphs
into Mystique, who "greets" them all. Toad's delighted that he's not the
only loser in the Brotherhood, and, of course, that just gets him pushed
around a bit by an angry Mystique. Mystique then explains to the others
that she's going to "pay a visit" to Magneto. She's not too happy that
Magneto rejected her, after all she did to him. She invites the others
to go with her, or she's going to go by herself. Logan then comes in through
the front door (having arrived in Sabretooth's helicopter), telling her
that she is NOT going alone. They're all coming with her, but Logan's certainly
not going to let Mystique run the show, especially after this whole fiasco.
Mystique at first refuses to come with them if she's not in charge, but
after seeing the X-Men just shrug their shoulders and head off towards
the hangar, she relucantly agrees to their terms and drags Toad along with
her.
We then see a new aircraft
rise out from the X-Mansion, a sort of jet/helicopter hybrid. Wolverine
welcomes them all to the first test flight of the new "XM Velocity".
Back on Asteroid M,
Scott's standing out on a kind of large balcony on Asteroid M, staring
out into the stars. Alex comes up and asks him what is it he's thinking
about. Scott just responds that he's just... "remembering". Alex says that,
yeah, it still wakes him up at night sometimes...
We then proceed to a flashback, in which
Scott and Alex are little kids. The small prop airplane they and their
family are riding on is suddenly struck by lightning during a storm, the
plane taking the hit directly to the engine. Knowing that the plane could
blow up any second, Scott and Alex's parents take the only two parachutes
in the plane and shove them into their kids' hands- you know the whole
"children first" thing. Scott and Alex relucantly hug their parents and
jump off the plane, right before it explodes. On the way down, some flaming
debris hits Scott's parachute, burning through part of it, and Scott starts
to fall faster...
..We then go back to
the present, and Scott mentions to Alex that the hospital told him that
he was the only one who made it. Scott apologizes to Alex that he wasn't
there for him all these years, but Alex shrugs it off- he mentions his
foster parents are still pretty nice, while rubbing his hands painfully.
Scott asks Alex what's wrong, and Alex explains that his hands had been
hurting for some time now- no one could tell him what it was, until today,
when he met Magneto. Alex is obviously really hoping that Magneto will
help him with the pain.
Magneto then enters
the balcony, telling Scott that it's not just Alex he's willing to help-
he's going to help all of them. He then leads them inside to the entrance
to a chamber, explaining what this chamber does. He then talks about how
he's sure they've heard of the legendary "Gems of Cyttorak"- well, they
do exist, and he pulls one out and inserts it into the machine. He talks
about how they were once believed to have magical properties, but they
actually evolve the person they come into contact with, if the person absorbs
enough of their emitted radiation. He'll expose all of the "winners" to
the radiation, and all of their problems with their powers will be gone-
no more pain for Alex, no more visor for Scott. Alex and Scott are still
rather nervous at the idea that they're going to be nuked, so Magneto provides
them with a demonstration (even though he says that he already went through
the machine himself), and Sabretooth goes into the machine. He comes out
a few moments later, "fully evolved"- i.e., he now looks like a cross between
a WWF wrestler and the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz. Bleh. Anyway,
Scott and Alex apparently like what they see, and, with the prodding by
Alex, both decide to go into the chamber. As they enter it, Magneto deactivates
the gas tubes (while still keeping the occupants inside enclosed in them),
so that they can have an "appreciative audience". Xavier, waking up, sees
in horror as Scott and Alex enter the chamber. He sends them a quick telepathic
message to get out of there, and now- this machine will probably alter
their mind! Scott and Alex turn around, but too late- the door shuts behind
them. "Too late, Charles- they're mine now," Magneto says. Touche. Or,
rather, cliche.
Scott and Alex are then
exposed to the radiation inside the device, and come out, looking like
ugly, white-haired, muscular men. Eeeeyuck, and I thought Sabretooth looked
bad. Anyway, Magneto explains the other thing that the chamber did to Scott
and Alex- it purged their minds of "useless emotion". Um, how, exactly?
Oh, whatever. Scott and Alex are now Magneto's mindless lackeys, now I
guess. But, as promised, Alex no longer has pain in his hands, and Scott
doesn't need his visor. Magneto then mentions that Alex's codename will
be "Havok".
Back in the Velocity,
the various X-Men and Brotherhood members speed toward Asteroid M. Wolverine
mentions that Magneto won't have a chance of controlling this rig- it doesn't
have any metal in it at all...
Back at Asteroid M,
Sabretooth tells Magneto that an incoming aircraft has been spotted. Magneto
tries to control the craft, but can't, as it's not made of metal. He then
tells Scott and Alex to defend them, and they gladly do. They both go out
onto the balcony/launchpad and fire at the Velocity. Logan, surprised by
the two boys (men?) firing on them, can't pull up in time, and the blasts
hit the Velocity dead on, sending it down... right towards Scott and Alex!
Scott and Alex start to run away, and Jean, not wanting anything to happen
to them, manages to use her telekinetic powers to give them a little "boost"
in the right direction. As the Velocity crashes into the main room, though,
part of it crashes into the ceiling and wall next to Scott and Alex, sending
a bunch of rocks and debris collapsing on top of them.
Once the Velocity comes
to a complete stop, all of the X-Men and Brotherhood members inside come
out, ready to kick butt. Mystique immediately launches herself at Magneto,
while Wolverine frees the captives from their tubes. Xavier tells Rogue
and Storm to go get the Blackbird ready for takeoff, and he and Jean will
go and try to help dig Scott and Alex out of the debris.
There then follows a
bunch of various fight scenes, ranging anywhere from pathetic (Blob vs.
Nightcrawler... gee, I wonder who has the advantage?) to downright awesome
(Mystique vs. Magneto, with Toad helping out- he actually manages to do
a pretty good job at defending his blue boss, too). Magneto accidentally
hits Mystique into the genetic enhancer, and Magneto dives in after her,
yelling at her to get out of there. In all the other fight scenes, the
X-Men win, of course- and, during the process, Rogue manages to absorb
Quicksilver's powers. Wolverine manages to run into a bit of trouble with
the new and improved Sabretooth, but Storm helps him in taking the big
furry guy out. Due to the various damage caused by the battles, though
the whole Asteroid begins to rumble precariously. It's going to start cracking
up soon! Avalanche, and Blob call a quick truce, due to Toad's persuasion,
and the three beat a hasty retreat to the Blackbird. Rogue, Storm, and
Spyke (carrying an unconscious Quicksilver) follow them.
Jean and the Professor
finally manage to dig Scott and Alex out, who are mad at the two. Scott
tells Jean that she and the other X-Men are ruining everything- this was
their chance to unite, under one banner. Jean just retorts that this is
NOT uniting- Scott and Alex even fired on their own friends! Alex says
that they ARE the future, but Jean comes back with a "If you're the future,
than I don't want any part of it". Xavier then responds that Magneto was
the one doing the dividing, not the X-Men. The two then leave the boys
to their decision, heading back towards the Blackbird, with Wolverine reluctantly
following them.
The Blackbird starts
to take off, but Scott and Alex run after it at the last minute, having
made their decision to leave with the others. The balcony/docking area
suddenly crumbles off the rest of the Asteroid then, however, and while
the Blackbird manages to pull up before it hits the group, Alex and Scott
still keep falling towards the ground. Working together, they fire their
force beams full-force at the ground, slowing their descent enough where
they land safely.
There's then a short
cutscene in which Mystique walks out of the crumbling enhancer, looking
very much like the movie version of her- only with clothes on, of course.
Scott and Alex then
decide to concentrate their blasts on Asteroid M, to blow it up before
it collapses on top of them all. They suceed, but not before two spheres
shoot out of the Asteroid right before the big boom. The big explosion
also seemingly reverses the enhancer's effects, and Scott and Alex get
returned back to normal. Jean comes up (the Blackbird has landed) and hands
Scott his glasses. There then follows the usual stuff about how they forgive
him, he was misinformed, etc. Toad, Avalanche, and Blob are still hanging
out back at the Blackbird, though. Toad wonders what happened to Mystique,
and Avalanche mentions the two spheres- Mystique is out there somewhere,
and "she'll be back". Dun dun dun!
Then we go back to the
X-Men, and Scott tells Alex that he's going to make sure that they never
get seperated again. Xavier says that, if Alex will allow, all of them
will be there to guide Alex along the way as his powers emerge on their
own. Because they are the X-MEN! TA-DAAAA! And then, since this is the
last episode of the season, all of them strike a corny pose that lasts
for about the last 5 seconds or so.
Last Words: Although it certainly had its good points, this episode didn't live up to the hype that Part 1 set for it. For one, the whole "Asteroid M" thing was rather cheesy- they never explained why it just hovered there, and why the technology on it was more advanced than anything on Earth. Come on, Magneto isn't THAT smart. The whole "genetic enhancer" thing was a bit corny, too, although the "Gems of Cyttorak" thing was a good reference to the original comics (The Gems of Cyttorak were what Juggernaut used in the original comics to gain his power). Not to mention that the "fully evolved" Mutants were uuu-gly. And, although I was happy that they got reverted back, the explanation there was kinda lame, too. So, just because the machine explodes, it automatically un-does the effects that it had done? Riiight. And Mystique's brief "uber-evolved" appearance was rather pointless, too, as she doesn't keep it in Season Two or anything. I'm guessing that the writers were originally going to, but didn't because of all the complaints of her ugliness or something, I don't know. And, of course, the obvious posing at the end was pretty lame, too. But, most of the fight scenes were pretty good, and most of less major plot points were pretty well-done, too. Still, not one of my favorites.
Overall Rating: 6/10 Above Average