"Turn of the Rogue"
Writer: Greg Johnson
Director: Boyd Kirkland
Original Air Date: February 3, 2001
Synopsis/Review: This episode begins
during one of the X-Men's training sessions. They're apparently supposed
to break into a guarded warehouse or something, to rescue Storm or something.
(BTW, this is all taking place in the Danger Room- this is the first use
of its holographic system.) Shadowcat and Spyke "gas" Wolverine and Storm,
who are posing as security guards. Oh, and should the X-Men have noticed
something was going wrong when STORM, who they were supposed to rescue,
is posing as one of the guards? Riiight. Now that the "guards" are dispatched,
Nightcrawler teleports Cyclops and himself inside the "warehouse", where
Storm is supposedly being held, unconscious and chained to a pole in the
middle of the warehouse. (Again, you think they'd notice something wrong-
the person who is supposedly Storm, whose face you can't see because they're
mostly covered by their clothes, is WHITE.) Jean levitates the two guys
over the motion sensors, and Scott shoots Storm's chains off. He's about
to grab her, when- *gasp!*- it turns out that "Storm" is really Rogue.
Catching Scott in his surprise, Rogue absorbs his powers and fires a beam
at Nightcrawler. Things start to go hectic from there, and Scott yells
out to stop the simulation. It does, and the background fizzles and fades
out into the Danger Room. "Rogue" was apparently a very life-like robot,
and deactivates, collapsing onto the floor. (Gee, it's so wonderful that
Xavier has all this technology that is years beyond what even the smartest
scientists of today have discovered...) Xavier comes in to the Danger Room,
backed by Shadowcat, Spyke, Storm, and Wolverine. He reprimands Scott at
stopping the simulation- he's never supposed to unless he's hurt. (Nightcrawler
responds that he was hurt by that beam, but I guess nobody cares, or something.
Yeah.) Scott responds that he doesn't understand why Xavier stuck Rogue
in the simulation- after all, she wasn't part of the briefing. Xavier answers
that surprise is a part of life, and he should learn to expect it. Oh,
and it's time to get ready for school. Scott and Jean are apparently going
on a geology field trip today.
Later, we see Scott
and Jean heading for the field trip bus, getting ready for their field
trip (a look at some caves in a bunch of somewhat-nearby mountains). They're
still talking about that morning's simulation. Scott's bummed, but it's
not because he failed the mission- it's because Rogue was used as the enemy.
If they're trying to recruit Rogue on their side, they need to treat her
as a friend, not an enemy. Jean reassures him that it's just a simulation,
but Scott doesn't buy into it that well. Meanwhile, Principal Darkholme
overhears them talking nearby...
The next scene shows
Rogue working out (by herself, of course) in the school's exercise room,
doing karate kicks and all that schtuff. She then takes a break for a bit
after she hears Scott and Jean talking outside, and opens up the blinds
for a bit to watch them. Darkholme comes in, surprising Rogue a bit. Darkholme
notices that Rogue was looking out the window with a hint of jealousy,
but Rogue denies that she's interested in Scott. Darkholme just smirks
and changes the subject, informing Rogue about the X-Men's simulated battle
exercise this morning. Rogue's taken aback by the fact the X-Men would
do such a thing (even though she IS the enemy, really), and Darkholme informs
her that she's arranged for Rogue to go on the geology field trip- so that
Rogue can find out who her TRUE friends are...
We then see the geology
teacher (Mr. Rodetsky) coming up to Jean and Scott outside the school bus,
who are packing up their stuff. Apparently, Jean's time off for the field
trip wasn't cleared because of too many absentee days in her file. Scott
replies that those were all approved, and Mr. Rodetsky agrees, but unfortunately,
they don't have enough time to clear the whole thing up before they leave.
And besides, another student's already filled her spot. Mr. Rodetsky apologizes
to Jean again, who reluctantly takes her stuff out of the bus and leaves.
Scott asks who took Jean's place, and Mr. Rodetsky points to a "new student"-
Rogue.
Back at the Mansion,
Xavier's just minding his own business when his wheelchair suddenly becomes
magnetized in place. He then finds Magneto hovering outside the window.
Magneto complements Xavier on how well his students are doing. Xavier says
that he's proud of them, yes, but then Magneto retorts that Xavier's so
proud of them that he's not even willing to tell his students "the truth".
To take out his "frustration", Magneto then magnetizes Xavier's wheelchair
towards the window, shattering the window as Magneto hovers away, leaving
a bewildered Xavier. (I don't know why Magneto, of all people, would be
frustrated over Xavier's not telling his students "the truth", but, oh
well. I suppose they had to bring it up somehow, although someone else
would have been better suited for that...)
Meanwhile, back at the
field trip, the school bus is moving its way up the mountains, when it
starts to snow. The students start clapping, but Rodetsky informs them
that this is now a snowmobile trip- too much of it means that they turn
around. A bit later on, the snow's gotten a bit worse, and the bus starts
skidding, heading towards a cliff. Scott, who is near the back of the bus
(therefore, no one can seeeeee him!) quickly opens the window next to his
seat, takes off his visor, and uses his blasts to blow a bit of a snow
barrier between the bus and the cliff, effectively saving them all. Rogue
notices this, yet none of the other students do, which is kind of unbelievable.
Mr. Rodetsky, coming over the shock of the incident, informs the students
that they're definitely turning around. Rogue comes up with a suggestion
that instead of going back down the now-dangerous mountain, how about they
just take snowmobiles they brought with them to the nearby caves, and wait
out the weather there? With the support of the rest of the students, Mr.
Rodetsky relucantly agrees.
Later, while on the
students are speeding towards their destinations, Rogue challenges Scott
to a race. Scott agrees (hoping to get Rogue to see that's he's not that
bad of a guy), and they start racing. Most of the way through it, however,
Rogue, seemingly on impulse, rams her snowmobile into the side of Scott's,
almost tipping him over. Scott stops after the scare, watching Rogue take
off ahead of him. Where'd that come from?
Meanwhile, at the Institute,
we see Wolverine talking with Xavier next to the fireplace. Wolverine asks
Xavier that he doesn't see why the Prof won't tell his kids the truth.
Xavier responds with "How can you tell your students that their principal,
whom they're supposed to respect, and their enemy are one and the same?"
Wolverine says that the kids are used to dealing with keeping their cool,
after all they've been through. He's interrupted as Jean and Storm come
in, bearing news that a bad blizzard's going on in the mountains where
Scott went on his field trip. Xavier asks Jean why she didn't go on the
trip with Scott, and Jean tells him what happened and who replaced her.
Xavier mourns a bit over his "lost student", and then admits that trouble
is brewing- something isn't right about all this...
Back in the mountains,
Scott, the other students, and Mr. Rodetsky have finally caught up with
Rogue in the caves. Mr. Rodetsky then proceeds to show his students examples
of gelology, and he and the students walk off. Rogue slips out for some
reason, heading off towards another part of the cave with her flashlight.
Scott, bewildered why she's doing this, follows her, also with his own
flashlight.
He eventually loses
sight of her, almost stumbling into a deep crevice in the cave's floor
in his haste to find her and get back to the group. He turns around to
find Rogue there, who immediately begins to question what Scott wants from
her. Scott replies that he doesn't want anything, except her friendship.
Rogue retorts that she knows about the battle simulation that the X-Men
did that morning, but Scott says that it's rather complicated- Rogue's
been lied to, the X-Men are the good guys. Rogue just sort of shrugs it
off and starts to back to the group, only to bump into Paul (who had been
on the field trip the whole time, by the way). Paul asks where they've
been- Mr. Rodetsky's looking for them. Rogue then retorts to Scott that
"Paul's your FRIEND, but I bet you never practiced fighting HIM". In a
very cool and surprising change of pace, Paul responds "I'm afraid you'd
lose that bet, Rogue", before morphing into Principal Darkholme. Both Rogue
and Scott are obviously surprised at this, but Miss Darkholme decides to
only address Scott, asking if he's surprised to see her... or Mystique,
who she morphs into. Scott is pretty much at a loss of words, not believing
that his principal is Mystique. Mystique just carries on with how "nice"
Xavier is about not telling his students about their principal, and how
Xavier is just using the X-Men as puppets. She's gotten up pretty close
to Scott at this point, and pushes Scott off of the ledge he's on, into
the crevice behind him...
Rogue tries to stop
Mystique and save Scott, but its too late, as Scott falls down into the
darkness. Rogue, furious at Mystique, asks her why she did that, and Mystique
just responds with some vague answer about protecting Rogue from the X-Men's
lies. Rogue, not convinced, suddenly grabs Mystique, absoring the blue
lady's memories (and abilities). As Mystique collapses, Rogue suddenly
sees all that Mystique went through to get her (in "Rogue
Recruit"). Shocked, Rogue forgets about Mystique and goes over to the
edge of the crevice, finding Scott hanging off another, smaller, ledge
about a dozen feet below or so. (Odd, that ledge wasn't there before...)
She jumps down and helps Scott up, who thanks her for saving him. Rogue
responds that he shouldn't thank her yet- they both look up to see a recovered
Mystique pushing a large boulder off the crevice above them! (Again, odd...
that boulder wasn't there before...) Both Rogue and Scott jump off just
in time, and plunge into the icy cold river below. As the river rages around
them, they find a rock overhang blocking their back, with Scott promptly
destroys. They keep flowing down the ice cold river until they come to
an upcoming waterfall that flows off the side of the mountain. Rogue grabs
onto Scott, who manages to jump onto a nearby rock overhang. The overhang
soon collapses under them, however, and they're plunged about 20-30 feet
or so onto a larger, steadier rock overhang. Rogue's okay (relatively,
that is), but Scott got hit on the head pretty bad from the fall, and has
a welt on his head. Rogue says the typical "Don't worry, we're gonna
be okay" before looking down at the drop below them and then saying that
they're all gonna die. Heheh. Oh, and she now realizes that Scott isn't
her enemy. She just couldn't believe what Mystique had done to her. Then
Scott spouts off a REALLY corny line about "maybe Mystique was acting in
her best interests...but it's sometimes hard to understand adults, they
never seem to trust us..." and then he faints. Oh, come ON. Yeah, adults
have never trusted them with anything before. Right.
Anyway, Rogue then looks
up to see a determinted Mystique coming after them, after the blue lady
morphs into a wolf form to navigate the small ledges better. Rogue pulls
Scott back against the other side of the ledge, but it only buys them a
little bit of time as Mystique advances on them (very slooowly...).
Meanwhile, Xavier, Storm,
and Wolverine are traveling towards the mountains in the Blackbird, Storm
helping to clear the snow out of the way a bit as they advance on the mountains.
Xavier tells Scott telepathically that they're coming, but he finds out
that Scott's hurt, as he's not answering. Xavier tells Wolverine as much,
who groans- how are they going to find Scott in this blizzard?
Back on the ledge, Scott
wakes up for a second after getting Xavier's message, and weakly manages
to tell Rogue about it. Rogue, getting an idea, takes off Scott's glasses
and tells him to open his eyes. Scott does, emitting one of his optic blasts
as a signal before falling back into unconsciousness. Xavier and the others
spot the obvious signal, of course, and head towards it. Rogue then absorbs
Scott's powers (he's unconsconscious, anyway) and uses them to blast the
still-advancing Mystique off the ledge. Mystique yelps, morphing from a
wolf into an eagle and swooping back up to the ledge. At just that time,
the Blackbird flies up. Wolverine tells Mystique to give it up before he
whips her butt, and Mystique just screeches and flies away. Meanwhile,
the icy ledge starts to crack up from the force of the outward thrust that
the Blackbird is using to keep itself level. Wolverine jumps onto the ledge
and hauls both Rogue and Cyclops back into the Blackbird right before the
ledge collapses, and they all take off.
As Storm tends to Cyclops,
Wolverine asks Rogue what side she's on. Rogue responds with a nice one:
"If I don't say you, will I get thrown out of this ship?" Wolverine responds
no, that's not their way- they've either earned her trust by now or they
haven't. Rogue says that her allegiance is with them, then, and Wolverine
welcomes her to the X-Men.
Later, at the Mansion,
all the students (including a now-bandaged Scott) are in the "living room"
asking Xavier why he didn't tell them before that their principal was really
Mystique. They know better than to go after her- if she wants to pretend
that nothing's wrong at school, then so can they. Rogue is silent during
all this, and Xavier asks her what she thinks. After some persuading for
her peers, Rogue responds with some corny stuff about honestly being important
between people you care about. Xavier apologizes for his error, and says
that he'll try to do better in deciding what things they're ready to be
told in the future. Cyclops thanks his mentor, and then says some corny
stuff about how it's nice to know that they've all got something to learn-
that's why makes them X-Men. (What would being X-MEN have to do with that!?)
Then all the teenage X-Men all do a nice pose as the camera fades out.
Last Words: This episode was, overall, a very excellently-written one, with a very nice plot, and some cool surprises here and there. It did have a few flaws, however, which kept it from being perfect. For one, some things just "appeared" whenever it suited plot purposes, such as the ledge on the side of the crevice. There were also some corny parts, like at the end, although most of the time this ep managed to stay emotional without resorting to that. And I also didn't like the use of the "real-hologram-projecting Danger Room" from the old comics. I don't buy how Xavier can have all this wonderful technology that not even the top government officials have come up with yet. Still, once you ignore these small flaws, this becomes a very enjoyable episode.
Overall Rating: 8/10 Great