First Things First…
This originally aired as Episode 4.14.
Alrighty, it’s the end of Season 3. This looks like a standalone, and based on the description, it’s a Wolverine episode. It involves a spacecraft, so I guess we’re sticking with the season-long intergalactic theme.
1 Thing I Like
1. No Vitamin C Deficiency for Wolverine
When Wolverine calls Professor X from the phone booth, clearly still infected by the roaches’ spores, sweating his balls off, I thought back to when he was infected by Apocalypse’s virus, and his healing factor kicked in and cured him.
Sure enough, his superhuman immune system saves him again. Yay for consistency!
The spores go far enough to cause Wolverine to transform into one of the roach aliens. But he’s able to eventually force them out of his body and return to his normal form, which is exactly what I thought should happen.
0 Things I’m Mixed On
3 Things I Don’t Like
3. What’s My Power, Again?
After Professor X hangs up with Wolverine, he implores Beast, Gambit, and Storm to find him.
Uhhh… isn’t finding mutants what YOU do? Aren’t you the strongest telepath in the world? And don’t you have Cerebro to enhance your ability???
Is the Professor getting lazy? Or is this just a brain fart?
Eithe way, it drove me crazy—especially because he uses Cerebro later in the episode.
2. Not Introducing the Ship Earlier
The roaches’ ship—a creature called the Acanti—is obviously alive. Wolverine even points that out while he’s inside it. But when Professor X uses Cerebro to help it break its mental shackles so it returns the X-Men to Earth, it still feels like a copout.
I really wish the aliens would’ve mentioned early in the episode that they were controlling the Acanti and turned it into a living ship. It would’ve made the Professor’s discovery and plan much more satisfying.
1. Gaslighter Doesn’t Deserve Rogue’s Apologies
“Cody, it’s me who should be sorry. I’ve done it again, haven’t I? If it weren’t for me, you’d be home, safe and sound.”
Rogue
When Rogue reacts emotionally after seeing Scott and Jean kiss, I thought we might get something poignant from her about how she can never experience that kind of affection and intimacy.
Instead, we meet her old boyfriend Cody—the one she put in a coma when her powers manifested, that caused her to leave home.
And he sucks.
Now, in his defense—and I’ll only give him the lightest possible defense—the roaches’ clan mother tells Rogue…
“Do not be hard on your friend, Rogue, he never chose to be one of us.”
This is what causes Rogue to start bending over backward to apologize to Cody, knowing he was manipulated by the roaches. She thinks she put him in harm’s way, simply because he loves her and the roaches used him to get to her.
But here’s why that’s a bunch of bullshit…
As best as I can tell, it seems like they promised Cody the chance to be with Rogue—with the ability to touch freely. In return—without asking for Rogue’s consent—he leads her down a dark alleyway, where one of the roaches sneaks up behind her and zaps them with spores that eventually transform them into the roaches.
This is no better than if he had let someone drug her drink.
He’s the one who puts Rogue in harm’s way. And it seems like they’re trying to tell us he didn’t understand what was going to happen to them—certainly, he didn’t know they were also targeting the rest of the X-Men—but when he says, “They need us, Rogue. Just like I need you,” it sure seems like he understood they’d be transformed.
Cody acts like Rogue should be okay with turning into one of these roaches, as if that’s an acceptable sacrifice as long as they’re together. And, y’know, if she really loves him, she’ll do this for him.
All this would be fine if they were painting Cody as a villain here. But they’re not. He gaslights the hell out of Rogue, and she just keeps apologizing to him.
Thankfully, she fights back against the roaches and absorbs Wolverine’s healing powers to transform back to herself. But she apologizes to Cody again for doing that. It’s maddening.
Tim Matassa
