First Things First…
This episode originally aired as Episode 5.7.
This is the last multi-episode story in the series, for better or worse. There have been some great ones, but there have also been ones like “Proteus” that I never would’ve chosen for the multipart treatment. Hopefully, this is more like the former than the latter. But Storm has never been one of my favorite character, and I’ve never heard of Arkon, an alien who’s mentioned in the Disney+ episode description and who, it seems, is also at the center of this story.
1 Thing I Like
1. Harrowing Flight
“Whoa! No offense, Cyke, but I’m about to lose my lunch.”
Jubilee
It’s interesting to see something that actually scares most of the team, like this flight from Hell.
While flying in the Blackbird, they get caught in a storm that’s so vicious and unnatural, not even Storm can calm it. In fact, it causes Storm such angst that she freaks out, shoves Jubilee away when Jubilee tries to help her, and flies out of the jet and away from her teammates.
If they were to crash—like, truly crash, with no reverse thrusters or any other mechanisms slowing their fall and at least preventing the worst—I think it’d probably kill everyone on the jet except Wolverine. Of course, that would never happen on the show. But I like seeing them in a predicament like this that I don’t think we’ve ever seen them face before.
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Into the Unknown
After losing Storm but finding her communicator and the gold “golf ball” she left behind that opens a portal to Arkon’s planet, I don’t blame any of Storm’s teammates for wanting to try to rescue her. But they have no plan. They don’t know where that portal opens to, or if it will help them find Storm. They have no idea how they’ll get back, or if they’ll even be able to. Yet they all go.
My first instinct is that Professor X would insist someone stay behind with him, just in case the worst happens and they can’t return. Instead, despite the Professor’s hesitation, Wolverine, Jubilee, Beast, and Cyclops go through the portal almost immediately.
Now, I won’t bash it too much because three other members of the team—Gambit, Rogue, and Jean—aren’t in the episode. So if this is a worst-case scenario, and they all get stuck in some other dimension or on another planet forever, the X-Men will live on. But it still seems reckless for four of them to go in after Storm blind, guns blazing, with no plan whatsoever.
1 Thing I Don’t Like
1. Who Does This Guy Think He Is?
“Storm, I don’t know how Earth celebrates your incredible deeds. But I tell you, Polemachus will love and worship you now and forever. And so will I. No one has ever done for me what you have.”
Arkon
This guy sucks. And there’s something shady about him.
He prevents Storm from contacting her teammates before grabbing her wrist and taking her through the portal.
But then he acts all “woe is me, I have so much responsibility, I’d never do this to you under any other circumstances, please forgive me.”
He asks for forgiveness three or four times throughout the episode, but always couches it in the fact that he’s desperate and will do anything to save his people because they’re all counting on him.
But when Storm says that the big device they can see from the window is causing all their weather problems, which are destroying his planet and killing his people, Arkon just blows her off and says…
“Surely your powers are strong enough to accommodate its presence.”
In other words, I desperately need your help, but I need it on my terms.
All the while, he’s acting like she’s his girlfriend. It’s like he’s trying to seduce her in the middle of his planetary crisis—though he doesn’t seem to care too much about the toll it takes on Storm to use her powers to alter their horrific weather.
Then at the end, he asks her to marry him—and she says yes!
There has to be something more going on here—right? I mean, he’s got to secretly be a villain…
Tim Matassa
