"Dark Horizon, Part I"
Writers: Chris Yost and Craig Kyle
Director: Frank Paur
Original Air Date: August 9, 2003
Synopsis/Review: After an absurdly
long "Last Time on X-Men: Evolution" (Did they REALLY need to tell us everything
of importance that has happened in the last season?!) with someone else
playing the voice of Magneto in the flashbacks for two lines for no conceivable
reason, this episode begins at the ol' Xavier Institute, at night. Rogue's
going around, stealing everyone's powers while they're sleeping. Kitty
manages to find Rogue doing it to Scott, but she gets touched by Rogue
too, and when she wakes up, she's back in her bed, and her memory's all
fuzzy, so she thinks it was just a dream.
Everyone's getting ready
for their last day of school, and the place is a little hectic. Rogue's
feeling a little sick, but she still manages to go to school with the others...
until, after everyone else is gone, a limo comes up and she steps into
it. The door closes, and the car drives off.
Apparently, this is
Scott and Jean's last day of school- forever. They're graduating the next
day, and Scott couldn't be happier. Principal Kelly is looking forward
to getting two Mutants off his school roster as well, and makes SURE he
lets Scott and Jean know it.
Back at the Brotherhood
House, Rogue manages to sneak in- she has, at the very least, Jean's, Kurt's,
Xavier's, Kitty's, and Scott's powers, by the way, so she can sneak in
pretty effectively- she takes down all of them one by one, absorbing each
of their powers, then gets back into the limo... that apparently, Mystique
is in, too...
Zoom forward to that
night, at the Xavier Mansion. Xavier is talking with Jean about what her
plans are after graduation. Jean's thinking about studying genetics, with
Prof. Xavier as her tutor. Unbeknownst to them, though, Rogue exits the
Mansion in the pouring rain, and leaves...
We then go next to Magneto's
hideout. Rogue comes in- with a little help from Mystique, who willingly
lets Rogue touch her so that the latter can morph into an owl and enter
the place- and, again, Rogue takes them out. This team puts up a bit more
of a fight, but since Rogue touched Colossus first, they are no match for
COLOSSUS ROGUE! (Which looks AWESOME, BTW.)
The next day, the graduation
ceremony at Bayville is about to begin. Storm is apparently keeping the
weather at bay, refusing to let there be any rain on Scott and Jean's parade.
Kelly starts the speech- which is obviously biased against Mutants- until
he's stopped by Magneto's team entering. Of course, the rest of the graduates
run away. (The school is apparently almost used to Mutant incursions by
now, heheh.) Kelly's getting really sick of those darn Mutants ruining
everything, but he can't really do anything, anyways. Xavier demands to
know what Magneto's doing here, and Magneto tells him that Rogue is under
the control of Mesmero- she has absorbed several Mutants' powers, and then
wiped their minds clean afterwards so they wouldn't remember it. In fact,
the only reason Magneto remembers is because he has security cameras everywhere
in his hideout. (This part of the plot I was especially impressed with-
I mean, I figgered Rogue was under the control of Mesmero, but... dang,
Mesmero, you did your homework.) Rogue, discovered, starts to take off,
but Magneto stops her- for about five seconds. Obviously, Rogue can get
around anything Magneto throws at her now, and quickly flies off.
Luckily, the X-Men and
the Brotherhood all knew that this would happen eventually- after all,
Mesmero wasn't going to let his task go unfinished. And they've prepared
for it. Beast, with Magneto's help (who tells Beast that Apocalypse's real
name is En Sabah Nur) finds out that ol' Sabah Nur was the ruler of Egypt
for a while a few thousand years ago. Where his tomb is is unknown, however.
Xavier was inside Mesmero's mind once, though (Remember "Under
Lock & Key"?), and, with the help of Cerebro to amplify his powers,
is able to reconstruct the jumbled thoughts he got from Mesmero when he
did that psychic probe a while ago. Bingo, found the tomb.
Wolverine and Sabretooth
(who REALLY don't like working together- luckily, they have Gambit working
as a mediator) manage to sniff out Mesmero's trail, which leads to an empty
abandoned limo- they find Rogue's scent there, too, and track them to an
airport. But Rogue, Mystique, and Mesmero have already been there, done
that, stolen a plane out of there. Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Gambit take
their own plane and follow.
Meanwhile, most of the
rest of the X-Men and the Acolytes are off to Egypt. After they set down
where the tomb site is, Beast gives Kitty an oxygen mask and sends her
down through the ground into the tomb entryway below. They apparently already
know what to do- Beast tells her to press this one stone, then get out
of the way. This opens up an entryway allowing the rest of the X-Men and
Brotherhood members to get into the tomb. Pyro lights the torches so they
can find their way around, but this apparently activates one of those "hidden
ancient temple triggers"- you know the kind. The stone Egyptian statues
actually START MOVING around them, the lights go out, and the entryway
closes up. Ruh-roh, Raggy...
To be continued.
Last Words: Flawless ep. I mean, you pretty much figured out the gist of it from the get-go- Rogue was being controlled by Mesmero- but the sheer depth the writers took to ensure that every single target of opportunity was taken by her was amazing. It was also cool to see the efficency in which the X-Men and Brotherhood got their acts together and went after Mesmero and Rogue. Quick and to the point. Well, except for the occasional verbal clashes between Logan and Sabretooth, but that's to be expected. The only complaint I have about this episode was that the animation was REALLY sub-par- even downright bad at times. Possibly the worst animated episode in the series, next to maybe "The Stuff of Villains". You'd think they'd have spent a bit more time on Part 1 of the Season finale. Oh, well. Oh, and a bit of an oddity- Toad and Blob were with Magneto's team when they came to interrupt the graduation ceremony. Which I guess means that the Brotherhood is officially part of Magneto's team now. (They weren't there when they all headed to Apocalypse's tomb, though, since only the "best team members" were to come along. Heheh.)
Overall Rating: 10/10 ...Wow.
(NOTE: Although "Dark Horizon, Part 1" was aired as the eleventh episode in Season 3, it is in actuality the twelfth.)