"Beast of Bayville"
Writer: William Forrest Cluverius
Director: Gary Graham
Original Air Date: October 27, 2001
Introducing: Beast (Mutant form)
Synopsis/Review: This episode starts
out with Spyke and Nightcrawler sitting in Mr. McCoy's class, listening
to him lecture to them all about chemistry. Kurt's apparently rather entralled
in the discussion, but Spyke's playing with his eraser, bored to death.
He faintly hears a voice calling his name outside, and looks out the window-
apparently, his skating buddies are waiting for him outside the school.
Spyke asks for a restroom pass and leaves the room. Hank McCoy continues
his lecture, glancing out the window for a split second during it and seeing
Spyke and his friends skateboard off, apparently deciding to skip school.
Hank McCoy frowns at this, but goes on with his lecture... until a pain
suddenly seems to grip his stomach. Sweating, Mr. McCoy suddenly hurries
out the door, quickly telling his class between grunts to read the next
chapter or something. Kurt and the other classmates stare after their teacher,
befuddled...
Hank bursts into the
Boys' Restroom, splashing water on his face and reciting Shakespeare (apparently
to try to keep him calm; this situation seems to have happened before...).
It doesn't seem to work, though, and Hank goes into a rage in his pain,
tearing out a sink from the wall and hurling it across the room...
Later, at the school,
Principal Kelly and Risty are staring at the destroyed Boys' Restroom,
with "Police Line- Do Not Cross" stretched across the entrance. Risty wonders
who did this, and Principal Kelly says that he doesn't know, but he's defintely
going to get to the bottom of it. Kurt and Kitty are nearby, talking about
it, and Kurt says that Mr. McCoy WAS acting weird earlier- could he have
had something to do with this? Kitty's surprised Kurt would even think
a teacher as nice as Mr. McCoy would do something like that, and dismisses
it, going to her next class- a very hard geometry class that she seems
to be having some trouble with...
Elsewhere, Evan and
his buds are skipping school, skateboarding, and having a great time. They
skate by the amphitheater in the park, but Evan hears a familiar voice-
Mr. McCoy! Curious, Evan tells his buddies to go on without him, and he
goes to check on his teacher. Hank's having the same kind of troubles he
was having earlier- sweating, reciting Shakespeare, trying to keep himself
from going into a fit of rage. Evan comes up to Hank, asking what's wrong,
and Hank turns on him in a fit of rage, and nearly injures Evan- Evan barely
manages to duck as Hank's fists come at him, cracking into the hard cement
of the amphitheater directly behind him. Evan's definitely scared/bewildered
right about now, and his mind desperately tries to come up with a reason
for why Hank's acting like this. Evan (wrongly) thinks that this must be
about him skipping school earlier, and he desperately apologizes to Mr.
McCoy- he won't do it again, he promises! Evan quickly leaves as Mr. McCoy
continues to try to control himself.
Later, at the X-Mansion,
the main X-Kids are having a battle simulation in the Danger Room. They're
having some troubles, though, and Rogue gets "hit" in the simulation. Cyclops
goes to try to help her, and this costs them the "mission", much to their
dissapointment. As soon as the simulation ends, Spyke walks in, apparently
late. The X-Men- especially Rogue, who shoves him- are mad at him missing
out on the scheduled simulation. They needed him back there. Storm berates
Spyke for missing yet another session- they can't count on him anymore.
(Apparently, this isn't the first time that this has happened.)
Shadowcat finds a package
waiting for her after walking out of the simulation- it turns out that
it's a... really... bulky... pyramid hat. Scott looks at her all funny
as she puts in on, asking how she looks. Kitty explains that it's supposed
to stimulate brain activity, and she needs all the brain activity she can
get to be able to pass her upcoming algebra test. Scott gets it, but he
doesn't confide to Kitty that she looks, well... goofy...
The next day at school,
Evan runs into Mr. McCoy in the hallway. He's at first understandably frightened
of his chemistry teacher, until Hank puts his hand on Evan's shoulder-
hey, it's alright, he says. He had been going through some... problems...
yesterday, and he didn't mean to take them out on Evan. Hank just usually
goes to the amphitheater to clear his head. Hank wholeheartedly apologizes
to Evan, and says that it wasn't about Evan playing hooky yesterday. However,
Hank tells Evan how much potential he has, and that Hank was actually a
bit like Evan as a kid (VERY hard to picture...). Hank politely asks Evan
to please not skip out on any more periods. Evan agrees not to do that
again, and Hank hands him a piece of paper- if Evan will just memorize
that passage for class, he'll forget the whole "skipping" thing. I suppose
this is both because of Evan's wholehearted apology and because Hank still
feels understandably guilty about his snapping at Evan the day before.
Later that day, Evan's
in his bedroom in the X-Mansion, trying in vain to memorize that Shakespeare
passage Mr. McCoy handed him. Kitty walks in, wearing her pyramid hat-
it looks like he needs some help! Evan looks up at her, cocking an eyebrow.
WHY does she believe that stuff will work? Kitty's like, come on, give
it a try- what do you have to lose? Evan reluctantly accepts, desperate
for any help on his homework at all. He puts on the pyramid hat and walks
around the Mansion, lost in thinking, and ends up in the front stairway
room. Jean's there, and she's just answering the door- and who else is
there but Mr. McCoy...
Later, we see Hank talking
to Xavier. We learn that Xavier had talked to Hank much earlier, during
the latter's teen years, about Hank's mutation, but Hank had turned him
down. He didn't want to join a school for Mutants. Now, though, Hank's
having second thoughts. He's managed to control his bestial side with a
serum he developed, but it's not working anymore. It's nagging at him day
after day, a dark Mutant bestial side that threatens to take him over completely.
He desperately asks Xavier for help, and Xavier responds that he'll try
to figure out what's going on. He mind-probes Hank, searching out the problem,
but all he gets is a feral "bestial" mind in the part he's probing. Xavier
immediately terminated the connection, and reluctantly tells Hank that
there's nothing he can do. Hank desperately asks again- there HAS to be
something!- but Xavier regettably responds that he simply can't do anything
this far into the game.
Later, at the school,
Hank's in the chemistry lab late at night, mixing chemicals in a frenzy,
hoping to find something that will keep the beast within him silent again.
After mixing what he hops will be a cure, Hank drinks it- but it apparently
just accelerates the process. Growling in pain/rage, Hank suddenly transforms
from his human form into a blue beast...
Principal Kelly is in
his office, working late at night as well, when he hears a crash from a
nearby room. He goes to investigate... only to turn into Hank McCoy trashing
his room. Hank notices him and runs after Mr. Kelly, the former in a mindless
rage. Mr. Kelly barely manages to get into a nearby hallway and close the
door, putting all his weight into it and locking it to keep the beast from
getting to him. Hank tries to claw his way through the door, but fails,
and runs off towards something else. Cautiously, Mr. Kelly reopens the
door and looks back into an empty hallway. He finds a bit of ripped shirt
on the ground, though, and picks it up- it's Mr. McCoy's lab coat...
Later, the X-Kids are
watching the news on TV, which is reporting the whole situation that happened
earlier at Bayville High. Spyke especially is horrified to find out what
happened to Mr. McCoy, and the X-Men promptly suit up and go out to find
him.
One team eventually
finds Mr. McCoy in a junkyard, and a lengthy fight/chase scene begins,
in which various X-Men try to attack/subdue the beast, who manages to escape
in a fit of rage each time (both in the junkyard and in a warehouse in
the city). When they are unable to track the beast the second time he escapes,
Spyke remembers that Mr. McCoy had told him earlier that he goes to the
amphitheater in order to clear his head- perhaps that's where he went!
The X-Men quickly go the amphitheater, and, sure enough, there's Mr. McCoy.
Jean manages to keep him still this time, and Mr. McCoy howls, struggling
to overcome Jean's telekinetic abilites. Jean tells him that they need
to subdue him NOW, she can't keep this up for long. Xavier tries to calm
down the beast telepathically while Evan recites the Shakespeare he had
memorizes earlier, trying to calm down his teacher, amidst all the howling...
Later, the next morning,
we see Hank, Xavier, and Spyke back at the Mansion. Hank's gotten over
his little fit of rage, but he still looks like an animal... Xavier responds
that Hank's now in the one place where that doesn't matter. Hank's extremely
depressed, and understandably so- he can't go out in public any more, looking
like this- which means he won't be able to teach any more... Spyke suggests
the idea of Hank wearing an image inducer, but Hank refuses to risk the
kids at school, in case he goes into another bout of rage again. Xavier
then adds that maybe Hank doesn't have to give up teaching after all. There
are kids here who need guidance, and, unlike the outside world, they can
see Hank for what he really is- a great teacher.
Back in the Kitchen,
the rest of the X-Kids are having breakfast. Kitty's pyramid hat is thrown
in the trash. When asked about it, she responds that she took it off because
she saw herself in the mirror- it looked ridiculous! Why didn't anyone
tell her that!? Besides, she aced the test anyway. Then Xavier, Hank, and
Evan come in, and Xavier introduces the X-Men to their new instructor,
Mr. McCoy. The various X-Men greet their new member, and Hank thanks them
for their warm welcome- but he's not just Mr. McCoy anymore- they can also
call him... Beast.
Last Words: This was a decent, if somewhat predictable episode. You could usually see the plot twists before they came, and Spyke's dialog wasn't really all that great, either. The idea that Beast wasn't technically a Mutant up until now is intriguing, but it falls short in a few key areas. For one, how could Hank, even being as intelligent as he is, come up with a serum that kept down his bestial instincts without any side effects? And how come it decided to surface again now, when he's presumably in his 30s? I also think that the whole "A Beast is on the loose, and he's a former teacher!" thing wasn't played up on the news enough. You'd think that there'd be an investigation into the whole thing, and that it would become national news, but they didn't really seem to get into that. Things are back to normal in Bayville after this whole thing was over, and that didn't seem quite as realistic as I'd like. However, there were some nice "BAM!" surprise fight scenes in this ep, and Beast's characterization couldn't have been better. Overall, a nice episode, but the series has had better.
Overall Rating: 7/10 Good