"No Good Deed"
Writer: William Forest Cluverius
Director: Doug Murphy
Original Air Date: September 6, 2003
Synopsis/Review: The Brotherhood
are riding along in the subway. Wanda’s a bit angry over the fact that
her father has died. She actually blames the X-Men, since they “didn’t
lift a finger to save him”. Pietro tell her that he wasn’t the wonderful
father she remembers, so what’s she complaining about. (Remember, Wanda
had her mind wiped in “The Toad, the Witch,
and the Wardrobe”.) Wanda gets angry, insisting that Pietro is lying,
and in her anger, hexes the subway off the tracks. The thing crashes, and
everyone’s trapped inside.
Meanwhile, some of the
X-Men spot the subway disaster (smoke is rising in large amounts from the
subway entry way) and head towards it.
Back in the subway,
Toad starts to panic, and Blob crashes his way through the subway doors
to get them all out. People start rushing out, but a few old people are
left behind. On his way out, Toad spots a wallet, and picks it up, only
to have a desperate old man cling to his back, wanting to be rescued. Toad
tries to shake him off, but it doesn’t work, so he just takes the guy out
with him. Additionally, Lance is on his way out when an old woman begs
to be taken with him (she’s handicapped, and her wheelchair is ruined),
and he picks her up and takes her out. He also directs other confused and
scared people out of the subway.
The X-Men arrive just
to see the people of the subway run out, in addition to… the Brotherhood,
saving people? That’s what it looks like, anyways, and the news reporters
are all over them. The Brotherhood members (minus Wanda) quickly realize
what’s going on, and play up their good fortune, saying that yeah, they
rescued all these people, etc., etc. The X-Men can’t believe their ears.
Meanwhile, Principal
Kelly is running for mayor of the city- and he's using his anti-Mutant
policy as a platform and demanding Mutant registration. Kelly and his assistant
are viewing his campaign commercial, satisfied, when suddenly the news
breaks in that the Brotherhood just saved a bunch of people’s lives. Whoops.
Later, the Brotherhood
gang is back in their house, with a bunch of cameras and newspeople still
outside, wanting to talk to them. Wanda is bothered because she caused
the subway crash, after all, and doesn’t want to face the cameras. Pietro
tries to tell her that it got them fame, man, don’t fret. It doesn’t work.
Anyways, the Brotherhood go outside to talk to the newspeople again and
bask in the glory, and the woman that Lance saved earlier presents them
with a check for $10,000 and remodifications to their home in return for
saving her. So, the Brotherhood place gets spruced up quite a bit. Quicksilver
spearheads the idea that they could really cash in on this stuff- provided
they unknowingly cause the disasters, of course. So that’s exactly what
happens- the Brotherhood members (minus Wanda) go around, causing disasters
behind the scenes, and then publicly save people. Their fame grows, and
so does the X-Men’s frustration.
Principal Kelly, though,
continues his campaign for mayor, insisting that the Brotherhood couldn’t
possibly be such good guys- for all they know, the Brotherhood might actually
be CAUSING the disasters in the first place. Since he’s right, the Brotherhood
decide to pay a little visit to Principal Kelly before this idea gains
popularity. They wreck Kelly's office and tell him to back down on his
anti-Mutant stance, NOW, or else. Kelly refuses, and the Brotherhood is
just about to maim him when the X-Men, who have been tracking them down,
show up- ALL the X-Men. Avalanche is about to start attacking them, when
Pietro tells him that that’s insane, they’d get their butts kicked. So
the Brotherhood reluctantly leaves Kelly alone. In thanks, Kelly vows to
kick the X-Men out of town. Nice guy.
The Brotherhood are
getting worried that their fame is waning, however- all they’re in the
paper for doing now is cutting the ribbon at the new zoo tomorrow! However,
Pietro gets an idea on how to get them back on top. He tells Wanda about
their encounter with the X-Men last night. Apparently, he tells Wanda,
seeing their father die wasn't enough for the X-Geeks- they're next on
the list! That convinces her to help them the next day at the zoo. So,
while the Brotherhood members are cutting the ribbon (and the X-Men are
there, too, to keep an eye on the Brotherhood), Wanda starts hexing the
X-Men’s powers. Now it seems that the X-Men themselves cause the disaster
(setting animals free, etc.), and the Brotherhood are the ones who save
people. I cracked up completely during this part- excellent idea!
So, the X-Men who were
there are put in jail. Of course, they could just get out themselves, but
Xavier tells them to wait, that would send out the wrong message. He’ll
try to straighten out this with the authorities.
The Brotherhood’s fame
continues to grow, but they eventually get tired of all the busy-ness and
work involved, so Pietro decides that he’s going to end their career with
a bang! He sabotages a train so that the brakes won’t stop. Then, their
plan is to stop the train and save the passengers. But, just as they’re
about to, a guy tells them that, hey, what about the other train? As it
turns out, the train missed its turnoff, and is headed for another oncoming
train filled with gasoline, and it can’t slow down in time or switch tracks.
Oh, well, says Pietro, shrugging. Can’t win them all. The Brotherhood leaves,
but Avalanche stays behind…
Meanwhile, the X-Men
are let out of prison to help stop the train wreck, since the people are
desperate. Kurt ports them onto the first train, and Cyclops cuts the bars
holding the first car to the other cars. Jean stops the gasoline tanker-train,
but can't stop the first train in time. Then Kitty prepares to phase the
car through the upcoming tankers filled with gasoline, but she can’t manage
to do it all the way, and Kurt quickly teleports her out of there before
everything explodes- which it does. Jean tries to contain the resulting
blast, and she does, for a while, but it’s too much. Avalanche unexpectedly
comes up and helps, though, and creates a rock dome around the tankers,
shutting off the source of the explosion. Avalanche tells the X-Men not
to worry, though, because the Brotherhood are done saving people, and he
leaves.
So, now things are back
to square one again. It’s revealed that the Brotherhood members ran away
from an accident instead of helping out, while the X-Men are brought back
into society, but warily, seeing as how the public still isn’t entirely
sure of their innocence in the matter anyway.
Back at the Brotherhood
house, all their
free stuff is being taken away, and Toad’s taking it the
hardest. So, what now? Pietro jokingly asks if they want to go and take
the subway to the city, and Wanda hexes him to hell and back. End.
Last Words: Although the ep sounds only moderately funny from the description above, it really was absolutely hilarious almost from beginning to end. Much of the dialogue- especially in regards to Pietro and Toad- was golden, as was the X-Men’s frustration and the involvement of Principal Kelly. The only real problem I had with the episode was that I can't figure out why the public would have reacted so positively to the Brotherhood supposedly saving the people in the subway, while they still reacted rather negatively to the X-Men saving an entire city from being flooded in "The Stuff of Heroes". It seemed to stink of BWSS (Because We Said So) syndrone. Also, the animation was a bit mediocre at times. Still, a really great ep. Can’t go wrong with the Brotherhood, I always say! (Oh, and check out several of the people that are trapped in the subway with the Brotherhood and during the breakout soon afterwards- several of them you should recognize, such as Paul, and Evan's mother, just to name a few.)
Overall Rating: 9/10 Excellent