"Cajun Spice"
Writers: Michael Merton and Greg Johnson
Director: Frank Paur
Original Air Date: October 4, 2003
Synopsis/Review: Rogue is going through
a bunch of creepy nightmares involving the killing of her mother. Suddenly,
she “wakes up”, and we find her standing in that same kiosk that she pushed
Mystique off of in “Impact”. Xavier is there,
too, and apparently they’ve been having a session in which Xavier has her
confront certain issues about her mother via his powers. Rogue’s getting
tired of all that, though, and tells the Professor that it’s not working.
Xavier tells her that it will take time, but she just says that maybe staying
away from it is the best thing. She picks up her backpack and heads off
to school.
In an alleyway in front
of the school, though, Rogue runs into Kurt, who semi-angrily tells her
that he’s late for class. Rogue stops him, though, and apologizes for pushing
Mystique off the cliff. She doesn’t know what it was that made her do it.
Kurt just says that it’s pretty clear- there’s only one reason someone
pushes someone else off a cliff. He asks her if the rumors are true- is
she going to be leaving the X-Men? Rogue responds with a maybe- she’s not
sure yet. Kurt leaves, and suddenly, Rogue gets yanked into an adjacent
building by Gambit. Before Rogue can do anything, Gambit gives her a blast
of knock-out gas from his staff, and she’s out cold.
When Rogue comes to,
she’s on a train boxcar, with Gambit. He’s apparently hitching a ride somewhere.
Rogue launches herself at Gambit, but to no avail- her hands and feet are
bound. Rogue asks why she’s here, and Gambit responds coolly that he’s
been watching Rogue for weeks- he’s giving her a way out of the X-Men,
that’s all. But he says he knows from experience that the first step is
always the hardest, so he’s just giving her a little push. Rogue demands
that Gambit untie her, and he says that he will- when she realizes that
he’s doing her a favor…
Back with the X-Men,
Kurt’s been popping throughout the Mansion, asking all of the New Mutants
if they’ve seen Rogue lately. Everyone responds with a negative. Finally,
he pops over to Logan, and when Logan asks why Kurt is looking for Rogue,
he responds that she never showed up to school today. Logan immediately
gets on his motorcycle and goes to the school to search for her. He picks
up a familiar scent in a nearby alleyway- Gambit’s.
So, Wolvie decides to
pay a visit to Magneto’s lair. Pyro’s the only one there, watching a video
tape of Magneto’s death by Apocalypse again and again. He loves it, and
can’t stop laughing. Logan takes him by surprise, but Pyro quickly manages
to gather himself and creates a huge fire-creature to deal with Logan.
He manages to dodge around it, though, and cuts off Pyro’s flame tubes
on his shoulders from the tank on his back, and his fire-creature dissipates.
Logan than “asks” Pyro at claw-point to tell him where the other members
are. Pyro tells him that “Colossus went back home to his family in Russia,
Sabretooth’s off playin’ with a ball of yarn somewhere, and Gambit forgot
to leave a note on the fridge”. (Apparently, Mastermind wasn’t important
enough to mention.) In other words, he doesn’t know. Logan throws Pyro
down and leaves. Pyro shrugs and goes back to watching Magneto’s death
again and laughing.
Back with Rogue and
Gambit, Gambit’s playing solitaire and Rogue asks him what’s his deal with
cards. Gambit replies that it’s like having 52 explosives tucked away in
one pocket. He always saves “his girl”- the Queen of Hearts- for last,
though. Gambit then replies that if Rogue’s ready to accept his help, he’ll
let her out of her bonds. Rogue replies that sure, she’s ready. As suspected,
once Gambit gets her free, she throws him to the doorway of the boxcar,
and is about to push him off when Gambit charges up the whole boxcar, threatening
to blow the thing off the tracks if she doesn’t take him back in. Groaning,
Rogue, tugs him back in. Gambit says that, hey, if she wants to touch him
to prove that he’s not wanting to harm her by absorbing his memories, go
right ahead. Rogue replies that she refuses to have his thoughts in her
head, though.
Back with the X-Men,
Logan meets up with Charles in Cerebro and tells him that he’s tracked
Rogue and Gambit to the train tracks- they’re heading south. Xavier responds
that he’s also picked up the use of Gambit’s powers, and has figured out
where they’re heading. Off go Logan, Storm, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler in
the Blackbird to rescue Rogue.
Meanwhile, with Rogue
and Gambit, it’s now nighttime. Rogue asks Gambit where they’re going,
and Gambit responds Louisiana- and he does believe that that’s Rogue’s
general neck of the woods, as well.
So, in the next scene,
it’s later, and Rogue and Gambit are walking the streets of New Orleans
during Mardi Gras. Rogue responds that she’s always loved Mardi Gras, since
no matter who you are, you fit in. Gambit then takes her to a restaurant
that he says has the best jumbalaya (sp? I’m not familiar with Cajun foods).
Rogue is apparently loving it, as she’s really missed the South and Cajun
cooking. However, their dinner is interrupted when a bunch of thugs suddenly
come up and restrain Gambit and Rogue. Their leader comes up, saying that
“Well, if it ain’t the famous Remy LeBeau. This jus’ saves me da trouble
of having to track you down.”
So, a short fight scene
follows, in which Rogue manages to absorb the gang leader’s memories and
Gambit blows up a bunch of other small contraptions to delay the thugs
while they make their getaway. Once they’re safe on the streets again,
Rogue tells Gambit that she needs to talk to him, NOW. According to the
memories she absorbed, Gambit was the member of an organization of the
Thieves’ Guild. He was, Remy responds, but he’s not anymore. Rogue also
tells him that the people that attacked her were of a rival gang called
the Rippers. Gambit responds that yes, and in fact, they’ve kidnapped his
father. But he insists that she not come along, since she’s already got
enough problems of her own to worry about. Gambit walks off, and rounds
a corner- however, he peeks back around, making sure that Rogue follows
him before continuing on his way. He stops short when he sees the X-Men
looking through the crowd (the other Mardi Gras participants think that
the Mutants are just wearing elaborate costumes), and takes his follower
Rogue into an alleyway, lying that he doesn’t want her out in the open
with him, what with the Rippers around and all. He thinks that she should
go home. Rogue responds that she knows where the Rippers are holding Remy’s
dad- in Bloodmoon Bayou. But there’s several motion sensors and water mines
surrounding the place, and only Rogue knows where they are, so she’ll have
to come with him. Gambit responds that thanks, but he’d better deal with
this alone. Rogue stops him and tells him that she had a chance to do something
like this before, but she didn’t- she needs to make it up to herself.
So, off the two go to
Bloodmoon Bayou on a wooden rowboat. Rogue helps Gambit evade the motion
sensors and mines, and while they’re paddling down the bayou we learn that
Gambit’s “dad” wasn’t really his dad, but adopted him- just like Mystique
adopted Rogue. And, Gambit’s dad also just basically used him for his powers-
just like Mystique used Rogue. They’re essentially two sides of the same
coin.
As they near the Ripper’s
stronghold, though, the gang leader we saw in the earlier fight reports
to his dad, telling him that Gambit is coming up to their base in a rowboat,
along with some other girl. His father spots Gambit and Rogue out in the
bayou via a pair of binoculars, and the son gets ready a laser-bazooka
thingie and fires it at the boat as it rounds a tree, blowing it up.
Turns out that Gambit
and Rogue had hopped onto a raft before it rounded the bend, though, and
after the Ripper leaders leave, they continue to paddle up to the docks
outside the base, and sneak up onto the grounds. However, as they’re doing
so, a flash of “memory” occurs to Rogue, and she realizes that there’s
a security camera on a nearby tree branch about to turn their way. Quickly,
she pushes Gambit down, but when they land, they accidentally touch, and
Gambit is knocked out.
Gambit comes to a few
minutes later, and Rogue is very mad at him. She absorbed his memories
and she knows that he played her- that Gambit knew that the Rippers would
come looking for him at the restaurant, and he knew that she’d use her
powers to help him. Gambit responds that he’s sorry, but his father’s life
was at stake! Rogue will have none of it, though, and walks away into the
fog.
Gambit sighs and enters
the Ripper estate. He quickly takes out the couple of unaware guards with
a charged soda can, and finds his father, untying him from the chair he
was bound to. His father, Jean-Luc, can’t believe that Gambit actually
came back for him- he thought Remy had walked away from this life. Gambit
says that he has- he’s just come back to rescue Jean-Luc, that’s all. Jean-Luc
wants to take advantage of this opportunity to get rid of the Rippers,
since they’re in their main stronghold and all. But Gambit will have none
of that, he just wants to get out of here. They’re stopped, though, by
the Rippers leader and his son, who aim their bazookas at Gambit and his
dad and tell them to get back in that room. Rogue is behind them, though,
and touches both of them, knocking them out. Gambit and his dad follow
her, but they’re stopped in a nearby room by a couple of Rippers, who have
found out about the break-in and start shooting at the three. Rogue searches
through her absorbed memories and finds a way out of the Mansion, however,
and Gambit and his dad follow her.
Meanwhile, outside the
Mansion, a waterspout suddenly appears in the nearby bayou- it’s Storm.
The X-Men have tracked Rogue and Gambit here. She uses the waterspout to
dispose of many of the Ripper gang members, and rips off the front wall
of the Mansion. Rogue and her two followers come out at about this time,
and as they make their hurried way to the docks, Cyclops, Wolverine, and
Nightcrawler use their powers to stave off other attacking gang members.
Rogue, Gambit, and Jean-Luc get into a motorboat and speed off, along with
the X-Men. There’s still many gang members left, though, and they follow.
A somewhat lengthy boat
chase-scene ensues, but the X-Men and Gambit finally manage to get the
better of their pursuers and blow up or crash most of the boats following
them one way or another.
Once they’re finally in the clear and have
stopped (namely because Gambit’s boat got overturned near the end of the
chase scene), Logan yanks Gambit out of the water and pins him against
a tree, telling him that this is the end of the road. Rogue tells Logan
to stop, though- it’s alright. Logan angrily says to Rogue that he’s going
to want some answers, and Rogue tells him that don’t worry, he’ll get them
soon. Gambit asks her what she’s going to do, and she says that she’s going
back with the X-Men- she doesn’t care what Gambit does. Gambit smirks,
not believing her, but tells her that she doesn’t need to worry- she has
her own “family” watching over her. Gambit gives her a card from his deck
and leaves. Kurt- now with his arm around Rogue- obviously meaning that
she’s been forgiven- asks Rogue is she’s alright. Rogue turns over the
card that Gambit gave her, and it’s the Queen of Hearts. Rogue smiles and
says that yeah, she is. End.
Last Words: Nice ep. I think they handled the Gambit/Rogue interactions very well- and here I was expecting Rogue to unexpectedly warm up to Gambit quickly. Silly Beastbot, this is X-Men: Evolution! When will you learn? They actually have a kind of semi-relationship at the end, but it doesn't lead to anything more than that considering this is the last ep of the series that has Gambit in anything more than a brief cameo role. My favorite part of the ep, though, HAD to be when Wolverine busted in on Pyro. Viewing Magneto's death over and over again, you stooge! Heheh. He also had more lines in this ep than he's ever had in the entire series, even though it still was a rather small part. Also interesting is that Magneto's team has completely and utterly dissolved without his leadership. Well, so much for their supposed loyalty to Magneto... My only complaint is that even though we could gather how Nightcrawler forgave Rogue at the end- it wasn't really explained. During Rogue's disappearance, Kurt obviously realized that holding such issues against her paled in comparison to Rogue herself being around the Institute, and he realized how much he missed her. But it wasn't really even alluded to on the show, we just see Kurt put his arm around Rogue at the end and we have to assume that's the way it is. That kinda bothered me. Still, excellent ep.
Overall Rating: 9/10 Excellent