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Plot Summary:
When Brennan and Shalimar attempt to rescue a New Mutant named Kelly Rice from the “GSA” (really the Strand), Brennan’s powers all of the sudden go out of control and jet propel him across the room. Not knowing what was wrong with Brennan, Shalimar makes him return to Sanctuary instead of going after Kelly. When they return to Sanctuary Adam tells them that they did the right thing by not trying to confront the “GSA” when there is something wrong with one of their powers, then he proceeds to run scans on Brennan.
Meanwhile, at Genomex, Strand members including Morgan Fortier (Eckhart’s mutant right hand women of the week), break into Genomex and release someone from status. When Mason Eckhart finds out about the break-in the audience learns that the individual that was taken out of the pod was Gabriel Ashlocke, Patient 0.0. Gabriel was the first New Mutant and the most powerful since he had powers that ranged over all four of the major classifications.
At a random Safehouse Jesse was handing out new ids for a bunch of New Mutants that were going into the Underground. As the group was leaving Kelly walking into the room handing out a pamphlet for the Strand; an organization that she called “an alternative to Mutant X”. When Jesse returned to Sanctuary he started to explain to Emma his encounter with Kelly, but as he was doing so Emma’s powers mutated. When Jesse went to find Adam for help, Adam was already with Brennan and Shalimar because Shalimar’s powers had mutated too. Brennan was lying across the stairs to the Dojo because Shalimar had knocked him out. Emma came into the room and a psionic blast went off and Jesse phased to avoid being hit by it. However, Jesse was holding on to the stairs when he did so and he phased the Dojo stairs along with himself. This resulted in Brennan falling to the ground.
Later that day Jesse tells Adam about what he learned from Kelly in the Safehouse. When Adam reads the material he immediately knows that Gabriel Ashlocke was involved. After telling the team a little bit about Gabriel, Adam told them that he had created the Status pods and the Subdermal Governors as a way to control Ashlocke and his out of control powers. He tells the team to beware of Ashlocke and his powers and tells the team to practice their new power advancements because with Ashlock on the loose they may need them soon.
At Strand Central, Gabriel rallies his follows against Mutant X and the GSA. He shares sexual relations with Morgan as a reward for her good work in getting him out of status. A little while later Kelly approaches Gabriel and tells him that she knows a way to get access to the New Mutant database. Kelly and Gabriel break into the Safehouse that Shalimar and Brennan were practicing their new powers in. As Gabriel kept Shalimar and Brennan busy, Kelly made a copy of the New Mutant Database. When they go to leave the Safehouse, Gabriel grabs an unconscious Shalimar with him leaving an unconscious Brennan to tell the team what happened.
Back at Strand headquarters Gabriel uses mind control powers to get Shalimar to do what he pleases. They infiltrate Genomex and overthrow Mason Eckhart by putting him in a pod. Dr. Harrison (who was working for the Strand) tries to break the encryption that was put on the New Mutant Database, however, as he was trying to do so Jesse and Emma break into the room he was in and take the copy of the Database from him. Meanwhile, Brennan went after Gabriel and Shalimar. Shalimar and Brennan started fighting and it almost looked as though Shalimar had the upper hand until Emma came in and used her new psionic blast on Shalimar to break Gabriel’s mind control over her.
The team leaves Gabriel at Genomex and returns to Sanctuary to fight him another day. Back at Sanctuary Shalimar and Brennan talk about what happened when Ashlocke grabbed Shalimar. As they were talking Brennan leaned into kiss her, but Emma called them to come see her. Later the whole team got together to change their mission statement. Instead of just protecting New Mutants from Eckhart and Genomex, they were preparing to face whatever may come their way in this new chapter to their quest.
Themes in the episode:
Evolution. With the teams’ powers and with their mission.
Plot Holes:
~ What happened to Genomex? This is the last time that we see it! Ashlocke’s last line in the episode was “What better place to start conquering the world from than Genomex?” Yet, we never see Genomex again in the Second and Third Seasons (except as part of the Sanctuary set).
~ Where did Doctor Harrison, Kelly, and Morgan go after the episode? At the end of the episode they stand around Gabriel, but like Genomex, we never see them again.
Creepy Moment of the Episode:
The creepy moment of this episode was more like the creepy element of this episode. That element would be how cult like the Strand was. It was very weird to see all these new mutants follow some insane man who was the oldest of them all. Also, it was very creepy to see that Gabriel was such a womanizer. His cult was the tryouts for his harem. It’s very unsettling…
The Best Character Award:
The best character award for this episode goes to Dr. Harrison. He finally developed a backbone and did something against Eckhart. The snake traded in Eckhart for a position at the new régime at Genomex. At least he was putting himself and his needs first. He finally grew a backbone!
Was it centric?:
It wasn’t really centric on a particular person as it was centric on the Mutant X team. This is the episode in that the Mutant X team loses it’s main rival, Mason Eckhart, but for his last episode on the series there was a complete lack of Mason in the episode. The writers were concentrating on introducing the newest bad guy that they didn’t give Mason the exit he deserved. I’m not referring to the fact that he was podded, I’m referring to the lack of scenes with his character in it. It was a major disappointment to the people who really liked Eckhart.
Unexplained Events /Things We Noticed:
~ Why would the first new mutant created have the most powers?
~ Why was the first new mutant YOUNGER than some of the other mutants that we saw throughout the series?
~ How did Kelly know where the safe house was when she was never rescued by Mutant X?
~ If Mutant X has a lot of connections, why were they unaware of The Strand until they crashed one of their safe houses?
~ Why did all of the members of the Mutant X team experience this new mutant “growth spurt” at the same time? Aren’t they all different ages and mutant types? Why would they all have the same growth period?
~ How did Jesse know Kelly’s name when she came to the Safehouse? There was no indication that he ever knew of her or had seen her prior to their Safehouse encounter.
~ What happened to the two people that Jesse phased through the wall? Did they live? Did they die? How could they live? They were a preeminent fixture in the wall.
~ What does Brennan’s current powers have to do with controlling his new powers? His old powers were controlling and throwing electricity, while his new powers were to be jet propelled by electricity. I see the electricity connection but not how controlling these powers would be similar.
~ Why was Jesse forced to practice his new power (phasing objects) in a safehouse, while Emma, whose powers were more dangerous (psionic blast) was allowed to practice in Sanctuary?
~ After Shalimar knocks out Gabriel at Genomex, why did they leave him there? They could have repodded him or at least brought him (unconscious) back to Sanctuary so Adam can decide what to do with him. It just doesn’t make logical sense to leave the big bad guy so he can terrorize the world.
~ Gabriel Ashlocke said at the end of this episode “What better place to start conquering the world than from Genomex?” Again, I must note that we never see Genomex again after this episode.
First Appearance of
~ Gabriel Ashlocke/Patient 0.0
~ The Strand
~ Power Advancements ** Scroll down to Power Advancements Section for more Information.
~ Open Display of Bren/Shal Ship ** Scroll Down to Bren/Shal Section for more Information.
~ The information that Adam created the Pods and the Governors. For me, this was the first sign that Adam wasn’t all that he appeared to be. If he was a good man he would have told the rest of the team sooner.
Last Appearance of
~ Genomex
~ The GSA
~ Dr. Harrison
~ The Dojo
~ The Zen Garden Sanctuary
~ New Mutant Safehouses
~ The Underground
~ Storm King Mountain’s Ocean Location
Best Line:
Jesse: “I’ve met this girl.”
Emma: “Why do all your stories start like that?”
Jesse: “It’s not that type of story.”
Jesse: “Is it just me or is there a lot of spacey women among the children of Genomex, Adam?”
Shalimar: “Oh yeah. I know that look. That’s your ‘I hate what I’ve done to these poor New Mutants’ look.”
Worst Line:
Shalimar: “Something tells me you’re Gabriel Ashlocke.”
Gabriel: “Something tells me my reputation precedes me.”
Mutations:
~ Brennan: Brennan’s power advancement is that he can jet propel himself places. In theory this power seems pretty cool, however, it proved to be too expensive of a special effect. It was only seen in two episodes after A Breed Apart (205. The Future Revealed and 207. Crossroads of the Soul). If not for the budget problems, this mutation could have been very useful in the series. Therefore, due to its lack of use, this was a wasted mutation.
~ Emma: Emma’s mutation was the psionic blast that came in the form of a shinny ball of light from her forehead. This mutation was largely used in season two and was very useful for Emma when the team was in a life-threatening situation. However, all though out season one Emma concentrated on not just developing her telempathic powers, but also her physical fighting abilities. The overuse of her psionic blast resulted in her never using her fighting abilities in season two. Therefore, its almost as the psionic blast destroyed a little bit of Emma’s character in taking away her fighting skills on the show.
~ Shalimar: Shalimar’s powers mutated by advancing her current feral abilities. This power advancement made her sense so heightened that it seemed like she almost had eyes in the back of her head. It’s hard to judge the extent of the use of this power advancement throughout the second season, considering that it was mainly a heightened version of her current powers. Yet, it was obvious on some level that Shalimar at times was more “in touch” with her feral senses than she was during the first season. Was her power advancement used very much in the series? Yes, if you consider her power advancement to be a general increase in her feral senses. No, if you feel that her mutation was simply her ability to sense things enough for her to almost have eyes in the back of her head.
~ Jesse: Out of all of the team members Jesse’s power advancement was the must useful and practical. His ability to phase things and people gave the perfect cover for breaking into and out of secure places. There were many times in which Jesse’s powers saved the day. It’s almost hard to imagine Jesse without having this power advancement. If I had to pick one team member whose power advancement had the most positive effect on the team and the missions of Mutant X it would have to be Jesse’s. Without his advancement things would have been a lot harder on the team in season two.
Lost Potential
~ Gabriel Ashlock as the bad guy. At the end of season one Gabriel Ashlocke seemed like a formative adversary for the Mutant X team. However, when he returned in season two he was a glorified playboy. Since he became solely focused on his own survival he didn’t seem so threatening anymore.
~ The Strand as an alternative to Mutant X. This alone could have been the plot of an entire season. The powers that be didn’t need to make the Strand a cult like group, instead they could have pretended to be a group like Mutant X on the outside (to New Mutants) and the audience and the Mutant X team could have been the only ones to know the truth behind their actions. This could have changed the dynamics of the series without getting rid of some of the important elements (i.e. Safehouses, the Underground, etc.)
~ The Strand and Gabriel Ashlocke in charge of Genomex. Since we knew that Tom McCamus (the actor who plays Mason Eckhart) wanted to leave the series, it was obvious that Mason Eckhart would be gone during the second season. However, even though Eckhart is gone it doesn’t mean that Genomex had to go either. They could have had Gabriel and the Strand run Genomex like they hinted in the last few lines of the finally. It was almost as if the powers that be had completely forgotten that Gabriel said “What better place to start conquering the world than from Genomex?” It is truly a shame.
ShalBrenThing:
This is the episode that the Shal/Bren romantic relationship was dumped on the fans of the series. As a huge Shalimar fan I actually never saw this coming. I knew about the existence of it on the Internet and in fan fiction, but I never ever thought that it would be in an actual episode. No, the two never actually kissed, but they both leaned into kiss and were only stopped when Emma called them to come see something. Brennan apologized and it was dropped for the next season to deal with and to hang in the air over the two characters. It’s really a shame; I feel that in the long run this “open ‘ship” hurt the progression of the characters.
Purist Reactions:
2 1/2 out of 5 Wadjets
 
This episode can only receive 2 1/2 out of 5 Wadjets due to all the lose ends and plot holes left unresolved in the second season. This episode can be seen as the beginning of the end of what made season one so special. Unfortunately, the elements of season one that were amazing and drew people to the series would never be recreated again.
Shalgal
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The Sun Never Sets on PureMX.net
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