"The Toad, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"
Writers: Steve Granat and Cydne Clark
Director: Gary Graham
Original Air Date: November 9, 2002
Introducing: Mastermind
Synopsis/Review: Magneto recruits
a new guy named Mastermind from Italy. Not entirely by Mastermind's will,
though- apparently, Magneto is immune to Mastermind's illusions, and forces
him into compliance, saying that he has a job for him...
Meanwhile, Wanda's taking
a cab through Bayville's bridge (presumably still looking for her father,
as always) when she notices Pyro on top of the bridge (don't ask me how
he got there). He's producing fire everywhere and generally causing havoc.
The bridge starts falling apart- luckily, Scott and Jean have seen the
whole mess and raced to the scene, helping deflect debris and stuff from
citizens running away. As Pyro leaves, he accidentally drops a ski lift
tag right next to Wanda's feet. Wanda picks it up and pockets it just before
she is blown away by an exploding oil tanker. The force of the blow is
so hard she barely manages to hold on to the edge of the bridge. After
Storm arrives and puts out the fire, Jean helps Wanda up and asks her what
this was all about. It's a message, from Magneto, Wanda says- they want
her to stop searching for him. Yeah, like that'll work. But there's another
hidden motive behind this later... Wanda mentions how her brother, Pietro
is still hiding, and Jean's like, "Whoa, hold on- Pietro's back with the
Brotherhood." And Wanda's like, "WHAT!? $#*@#*!"
There's also a short
bit in which Amanda wants Kurt to meet her parents that night. Kurt's nervous
about the whole thing, his image inducer's on the fritz, etc. Toad overhears
this and hops away.
Back at the Brothahood
hangout, Pietro's got Lance, Fred, and Todd wrapped around his finger.
They're doing all this stuff for him, since they DO want to get into Magneto's
team, after all... Lance finally gets tired of it and attempts to throw
out Pietro, who dodges anything Lance throws at him. Pietro starts to give
a lecture to them all about how they need a brave leader to keep them in
shape- then he sees Wanda coming and, panicking, hides in a closet. Teehee.
Wanda comes in, pushing
Toad out of the way as he uses one of his "babycakes" lines on her, and
asks the Brotherhood where Pietro is. He's in the closet, of course. Wanda
tries to force Pietro to spill the beans on where Magneto is, but Pietro
honestly doesn't know- Magneto comes to him, not visa versa, as said before.
Wanda then shows him the thing she picked up from Pyro- still doesn't ring
a bell. Toad points out that it's a ski lift ticket from a nearby ski resort.
Wanda walks out to go after Magneto again, Toad still trying to win her
over. "What do I have to do to prove my love for ya?" "Be someone else."
*BAM!* Toad is thrown into the next room. "Someone else? Heh... I can do
that..."
Next scene, Amanda's
introducing a very nervous Kurt to her parents. Usual stuff plays out,
until Kurt's watch starts going on the fritz. He manages to avoid Amanda's
parents intially while he tries to jumpstart the holowatch again... until
Toad busts in suddenly and starts fighting Kurt for it. A really funny/destructive
fight scene follows. Toad manages to eventually snag the holowatch and
hops off, but Kurt's left with his "real" looks, and a wrecked house to
explain to Amanda's parents...
Later, Wanda's walking
around the ski resort, trying to see if she can spot Pyro. Meanwhile, various
people try to win her over, but they're all obviously Toad with Kurt's
holowatch activated, and Wanda tries to get rid of him again and again.
(VERY funny comedy bits, here.) He eventually gets it right, though, and
an unsuspecting Wanda falls for "Eric the ski instructor". She eventually
spots Pyro, though, and leaves a dissapointed Toad/Eric. Wanda follows
Pyro for a while... until he enters a large metal dome some distance out
from the ski resort. Yep, that's definitely Magneto's temp base. A metal
ball suddenly flies out of the dome and squirts some knockout gas on Wanda.
Toad sees all this, but can't get there fast enough before Wanda's taken
into the dome...
Later on, Kurt's mourning
over his loss of Amanda- no doubt her parents forced him out. Toad comes
hopping in through the balcony, and Kurt immediately launches into an attack
on Toad. Surprisingly, Toad eventually manages to subdue a struggling Kurt.
He doesn't have the image inducer, but he knows who does, and if Kurt helps
him out on something, he'll get it back for the 'Crawler. Kurt VERY reluctantly
agrees.
Back in Magneto's dome,
Magneto tries to get Wanda to understand his POV, but she doesn't, of course-
his POV is pretty out of whack, really. Magneto then tells Mastermind to
alter Wanda's memories, so she doesn't hate him so much. He does- successfully,
surprisingly- and Wanda now has only happy memories of her father and Pietro.
The process knocks her out, though.
Now that they're outside
the dome, Toad reveals to Kurt that he had the holowatch the whole time.
Kurt angrily takes the holowatch and starts to leave, until Toad convinces
him that the slimy guy really cares about Wanda, just like Kurt cares about
Amanda. It was a long shot, to be sure, but Kurt, being the nice guy he
is, isn't going to do to Toad what Toad did to him, so he groans and agrees.
Toad activates the holowatch on himself to become "Eric the Ski Instructor",
and then they teleport away amidst groans from Nightcrawler.
Toad and Kurt come bustin'
into the compound, and rescue Wanda, but it's too late, anyway. Magneto
and his cronies make a half-hearted attempt to stop them, but Magneto's
already accomplished what he wants.
Later on, Wanda wakes
up, and learns that Toad is her rescuer. She thanks Toad for rescuing her...
but Toad ruins the moment by eating a fly, and she walks off in disgust.
Mwahaha.
Later, Amanda and Kurt
are walking through the park. Amanda says to Kurt that she doesn't care
if her parents forbid her from meeting Kurt, they don't know him as well
as she does. Kurt just smiles mischeviousy in response.
Back at the Brotherhood
house, Toad's talking to Wanda. She doesn't remember anything Magneto did
to her, and doesn't even hate him or Pietro anymore. Toad begins to tell
her what really happened, when Pietro whisks him away. Pietro convinces
Toad not to spill the beans- he doesn't want her to start THAT all over
again, does he? Besides, she seems happier now, and now that she doesn't
have such an agenda against Magneto, she'll be around the house (and Toad)
more. Toad realizes what Pietro's letting on to, and agrees, hopping back
to "his love". End.
Last Words: Besides having a great story, this episode was HILARIOUS. Nearly every bit of it. We get to see Toad probably more in this episode than we do in any other. His comedy bits are, as always, top-notch, as is Wanda's interaction with him. About his new "jingle", though: I like it, as long as it's background music (i.e., the fight at Amanda's house), but when it's in the foreground, like at the end of the episode, it's very... corny. Toad's music doesn't need rappin' words, it's cool enough as is. (BTW, in case you're wondering, the new music came from an incredibly corny music video found on Kids' WB! X-M:E web site. I wouldn't be surprised in Kids' WB! insisted on inserting the new "Toad mix" in the show.) There was some very serious parts in this issue, though, and a definite gray area existed with Wanda's mind wipe. On one hand, she's a bit happier of an individual now that she doesn't remember what Magneto did to her, but on the other hand... she doesn't remember what Magneto did to her. The man's getting respect he doesn't deserve. A very great ep, all around. Nothing wrong with it except for the end "Toad jingle". You can never go wrong with the Brotherhood, I always say.
Overall Rating: 10/10 ...Wow.