First Things First…
This series is off to such a great start, and now I’m dying to know what the deal is with the second Jean who showed up at the X-Men’s front door at the end of the last episode.
Plus, is Storm just out of the show, at least for now? And let’s see how Magneto continues to handle his role as the new team leader.
9 Things I Like
9. Doubts Linger
“Look at you, a villain playing dress-up as a hero.”
The Goblin Queen
Magneto took center stage in the last episode, and now he fades into the background a bit more. But I included this point solely for the line above.
To his credit, Magneto continues to do the right things in this episode. Of course, he’s always hated Sinister, so it probably isn’t hard for him. But I suspect his true motivations will remain an open question throughout the season, and I like seeing the Goblin Queen—who has strong telepathic powers—expressing serious doubts about him.
8. Gambit’s Worst Fear
“Hmm, looks like Magneto and Rogue have the Danger Room next. Oh, and all tomorrow, too. Wow. Rogue’s really training her stamina with the new boss.”
Morph
We don’t have any answers yet about Magneto and Rogue’s relationship. We know they have history, but we don’t know exactly what it is. Nor do we know where they stand now. But it’s one of the things I’m most fascinated about so far, and the show is leaning into the intrigue.
Part of the fun is that other team members suspect something might be up, too, and they needle Gambit about it. Morph’s barb about Rogue training her stamina with Magneto is hilarious. Wolverine thinks so, too. After Gambit walks away, Wolverine chuckles and says…
“Go easy on him, pal. Think you just sent his hush puppies up into his stomach.”
But it’s not just jokes and insinuations. When Clone Jean forces all the X-Men to face their greatest fears, Gambit sees Rogue and Magneto. Together. Literally melting into one another. And even though it isn’t real, his fears and jealousy are bound to push him over the edge eventually.
7. Morph’s Courage Grows
“No. Not you. Not again!”
Morph
Morph has faced down his PTSD before. In the original series, it was because of his near-death experience with the Sentinels. He returned in an episode called “Courage” and saved the day, only to realize afterward that he wasn’t ready to return to the team.
This time, his PTSD is because of Mister Sinister, who controlled his mind for an extended time in the original series. When he explains to Roberto who Sinister is, he mentions that Sinister can even take away a person’s will, which he knows all too well. As he says it, he transforms his new, blank face into the Morph face with the dark bags under his eyes, which was the symbol of the mind control he was under.
Despite his trauma, Morph steps up and leads part of the team to Sinister’s hideout. Scott knows enough to make sure he’s up to it, and he is, because he doesn’t want any of his friends to be hurt by this guy any more.
And Magneto, of all people, puts a reassuring hand on Morph’s shoulder when they arrive, a silent acknowledgment that he did good.
6. Two Lovers with a Galaxy Between Them
The last shot of Scott and the real Jean is devastating.
They’re finally alone together, in their bedroom, after Clone Jean has left with a new identity, to start a new life. The bed and the room are destroyed. And Scott and Jean face one another from opposite sides of the room, neither saying a word, as the scene fades to black.
If you’re Scott, what do you say to the woman you love when you couldn’t even recognize that she’d been replaced? Especially when you have no idea how long she’s been gone for?
And if you’re Jean, what do you say to the man you love when he failed to recognize it wasn’t really you? Do you blame him? Do you forgive him because of the impossible situation he was put in by Sinister?
They have so much to work through.
5. Abandonment Issues
“No, no, no, there has to be another way. I won’t be like my father. I won’t abandon my son.”
Cyclops
Jean being replaced by a clone would be hard enough for Scott to deal with if it only involved their marriage. But there’s also his new baby boy. The baby boy he had with the clone.
But that’s still not all…
The kicker is that Baby Nathan’s mom and dad might’ve inadvertently doomed him by rescuing him from Sinister while he’s chock-full of a techno-virus, before his inoculation is complete.
Sending him to the future with Bishop for a cure is the only way to save his life, and it’s ultimately what they do. But Scott wants no part of it. His abandonment issues, stemming from growing up as an orphan himself, cause him to walk away from the situation, saying…
“I can’t be a part of this. I’m sorry.”
4. The Two Jeans
“You took my face, my husband, my family. And now my mind. Enough violation!”
The Goblin Queen
Turns out none of my guesses about the end of the last episode were right. I guessed that either one of the Jeans was a shapeshifter, or the one who showed up at the end was a time traveler. But I never suspected clone.
I’m confused about one thing. They identify the Jean we’ve been with—Nathan’s mother—as a clone, but Clone Jean is the one with all the memories, while real Jean only has fragments, and it’s as if her awareness was just born yesterday.
It’s just another thing I have to chalk up to Mister Sinister’s manipulations. I love him as a character, but I’m often confused by his plans. Either way, it’s not enough for me to knock this part of the story.
Clone Jean’s metamorphosis into the Goblin Queen is both fun and scary. She has Jean’s immense power and, while under his control, Mister Sinister’s evil intent.
Once real Jean battles the Goblin Queen, we look back to their time as the Phoenix… then to Jean’s childhood, and the Professor meeting her for the first time… even learning her powers awakened when her best friend was killed by a car.
The most interesting part of this switcheroo is we don’t know when it happened, nor do they…
“It’s not fair. We don’t know when Sinister switched us. Who really was the Phoenix. Which of us married Scott. All we have now is the future.”
Once Clone Jean is free of Sinister’s control, I’m glad she goes back to being a good person. After all, Jean is a good person. So she should be, too.
But now she gets to finally be her own person. As she leaves, she takes on a new identity and says…
“My next life will be mine.”
3. Badass Bishop
“Time for an exorcism, punks!”
Bishop
I guess I was wrong in thinking that Bishop is a full-time member of the team. He’s now on his way back to his time with a critical mission…
Finding a cure for baby Nathan.
Hopefully he’s still in the series more than in the past. As we know from what he explains to Cyclops, the future can always change…
“Time isn’t some history book, man. It’s always writing. Flipping back a few pages, rewriting things, skipping forward, headed in…”
In other words, anything can happen.
But if Bishop isn’t around much, at least we got to see him put in a dominant performance as the team battles the Goblin Queen’s monsters.
First, when Beast calls for help in fighting off the demons, Bishop grabs Wolverine by the scruff of his neck and hurls him across a lava pit with Joe Burrow-like accuracy to save Beast from falling in.
Then, after yelling, “Yo, Cyclops. Hit me,” and getting powered up by Cyclops’ eye beams, he discharges all that power to atomize about two dozen demons in one fell swoop.
2. More Sinister Than Ever
“Scientists, like artists, have signatures to their work. I know who cloned Jean. A man so dark and twisted, he can be described as nothing other than ‘sinister.’”
Beast
Mister Sinister is back!
And little did we know, his handiwork has been present with the team for… well, who knows how long!
Cloning and replacing Jean is a terrible crime with serious repercussions. Scott sure is feeling them. He barely knows what to make of his life now.
But that psychological torture Sinister has inflicted is only part of how twisted he is. There’s also the fact that a clone is still a living, breathing, feeling person.
So when he forces his clone to do his bidding, telling her…
“Every cell in you belongs to me. Your mind, your body. You have no choice…”
It’s enslavement in the form of mind control. It’s horrific.
And it’s all so he can get his hands on “the spawn of Scott Summers and Jean Grey.”
Now, I still don’t quite understand why he’s so hellbent on getting their child. He tells baby Nathan…
“The combination of your parents’ unique genetics makes your potential unlimited. Your powers untold.”
But why?
Again, I’m a bit confused by his plan, but I’m thrilled he’s back!
1. House of Horror
“Cyclops, it’s like the worst horror movie ever. The whole mansion’s possessed.”
Jubilee
When the Goblin Queen gets to work, everyone starts seeing horrors.
Morph has a false version of Wolverine, in the shower, say…
“Always with the jokes, eh, Morph? As if I don’t know. As if we all don’t know.”
Is Morph gay? He’s in the original series so sparingly, it’s not something I ever considered. And I doubt they would’ve gone that direction on a kids’ show in 1992 anyway. But now, I can see it. And if he’s hiding a secret longing for Wolverine, that could make for a juicy and most likely devastating storyline.
Gambit sees Rogue and Magneto embracing… fully touching… even melting into one another. And the false Rogue tells him…
“Get on back to the swamp with the rest of them nasty, thieving critters, Remy. I found myself a real man. A hero.”
Meanwhile, Jubilee and Roberto deal with monsters coming out of the TV. One of them turns into Roberto’s mother and yells…
“Failure! This is not my son. Mutant freak.”
As the new kid who’s still in the closet, so to speak, Roberto’s reaction is the most heartbreaking of all. First he tells this false mother, “Don’t look at me like that,” as if he can’t bear her disappointment.
But his second statement is simply, “Don’t look.”
At first, I thought it was just him losing strength and heart, so his words trail off. But on second viewing, I think it’s more a sign of his self-loathing. His powers are showing, so his appearance is starting to change, and simply telling his mom “Don’t look” isn’t about her disappointment. It’s that he doesn’t want her to see how ugly and how much of a freak he is (in his own mind, of course).
Bishop sees a faux Shard, his sister, accusing him of abandoning her to stay in a different time.
Oh, and Cyclops—this guy can’t catch a break! On top of everything else he’s dealing with, he sees a false Professor X, who says…
“Demerits, my boy. Failed to sire a child with the proper wife. Failed to lead the team. Flunk and failure. Naughty, naughty.”
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Powers Returning Already?
“Name’s Forge, Storm. An old friend of Charles Xavier. I’d like to help you get back what you’ve lost.”
Forge
Is Storm about to get her powers back already?
I said last time that I didn’t expect her powerlessness to stick. I fully expect her to get her powers back. But her losing them in the first place was so emotional that I’d like to see her deal with life as a regular person for a while.
Tim Matassa
