"Under Lock & Key"
Writer: Sean Roche
Director: Frank Paur
Original Air Date: November 30, 2002
Synopsis/Review: Outside a Mansion
(although not the X-Mansion), a familiar figure creeps up in the night
to the gates... it's Gambit! Gambit, using a combination of his pole and
his powers, manages to slip inside the Mansion and bypass the security
systems. (Although the noise stirs a familiar winged figure who was sleeping...)
He enters a room full of valuables, and finds a particular stone sitting
on a pedestal. Gambit picks it up and pockets it, but Angel enters the
room, asking him if he's "seen anything he likes?". Gambit quickly throws
some exploding cards at Angel and makes a hasty exit, while Angel immediately
flies after him. Gambit jumps outside the Mansion grounds, and meets up
with none other than Mesmero, who's back from his extended vacation in
Bermuda! (Er... okay, I made that last part up..) Angel flies out, and
Mesmero quickly sends a psychic blast at Angel, who falls to the ground,
unconscious.
However, before Mesmero
can make off with the stone that Gambit hands him, in hovers Magneto, who's
pretty ticked that Mesmero's mind-controlled one of his own men. Mesmero
tries to do the same to Magneto, but it doesn't work (his helmet, remember?).
Magneto takes some some poles from the Mansion gates and pins Mesmero in,
then uses the gate poles to start to squeeze Mesmero into releasing his
mental hold on Gambit. Once Mesmero does, Magneto takes the whole chunk
of cement and bars that Mesmero's on and hovers off with it, telling his
prisoner that he's going to find out what is so important about that stone....
(Oh, and Gambit follows.)
The next day, at the
X-Mansion, the kids are playing a game of softball, and using their powers
in amusing ways, and Beast soon gives up at being the umpire after things
really get nutso. However, Angel lands in the middle of the game, interrupting
it, and says he has to speak with Xavier immediately.
Back at Magneto's Lair,
Mastermind is probing a tied-down Mesmero for answers. It's difficult,
though, as Mastermind comments to Magneto that Mesmero's mind powers are
formidable. Magneto speeds Mesmero around a bit, dizzying the guy and momentarily
distracting him while Mastermind probes him again to get the dilly-o on
what's going on. Once he's done, Mastermind tells Magneto all about it-
that the stone will unleash one of the most powerful Mutants ever, known
as Apocalypse. The other half of the stone- called the spider stone- resides
in London's Tynsdale Museum, and when the two halves are assembled, they
form a key to open the second of the three doors keeping Apocalypse in
place...
Back at the X-Mansion,
Angel has told all to Xavier, Beast, Cyclops, and Jean. Beast has managed
to pull up info on the spider stone, and comes to the same conclusion as
Mastermind- minus the whole Apocalypse thing, as they don't know about
that. All they know is where the second half does, and that it forms a
key to something. Iceman, who has been eavesdropping, butts in and tells
the assembled Mutants that they'd better go to London, then so let's go,
because I wanna go! Jean and Beast stop him, telling Iceman that there's
no place on the team for kids who don't follow the rules (like in the aforementioned
softball game, even though really ALL of the teenage Mutants didn't follow
the rules...). Iceman protests, but it falls on deaf ears.
Meanwhile, at Magneto's
Lair, Mastermind alerts Magneto that Mesmero has suddenly vanished- one
minute he was there, the next he was gone! Magneto figures out that Mesmero's
probably going to London, so they're going too- there's no way he's going
to just let Apocalypse get released...
Later, at the X-Mansion,
Rogue is lying in the medbay bed, wanting to be by herself. Kurt pops in,
though, and offers her some yucky food made by Shadowcat. Rogue just tells
Kurt to go away, but Kurt just asks Rogue "Is that anyway to treat your
little brother?" Rogue insists that they're not really related- Mystique
just adopted her, while she actually gave birth to Kurt. Kurt says that
either way, they're in this together, and he'll be there if she needs him.
He tells Rogue that he'll get her some more food (also yucky Kitty food),
and pops out. Rogue still has that frown on her face as he pops out, but
after he's gone, she can't help but smirk a little...
So, we then go to London
(that night), where the Velocity lands on the top of a parking garage...
but some noise is coming from the back compartment. When Cyclops opens
it up, therrre's Iceman, the little stowaway. Although frustrated, the
X-Men who have come on the mission (Jean, Cyclops, Beast, Xavier, and Angel)
eventually give in and let Iceman come along, since there's no sense in
flying him back now. So they head off to the Tynsdale Museum.
Magneto's Team has already
arrived at the museum, however (although Mastermind's absent from the team,
since he's not a good fighter), and they've begun to fan out and "secure"
the building. Which basically means taking care of the guards. (Pyro's
and Colossus' sequences are pretty cool, if I do say so myself...)
No sooner have they
"taken care of" the guards than the X-Men show up, and a battle scene then
plays out there. While the X-Men and Magneto's Team battle, however, Magneto
spots Mesmero making his way down a hallway, and follows the sneaky twerp.
Knowing what's coming, Magneto takes a nearby elevator with him.
Mesmero has found the
other half of the spider stone, but before he can get close enough, Magneto
uses the elevator's steel whip cords to pull Mesmero back into the elevator,
which shuts closed on the minion and collapses in on itself. However, it's
all in vain. Now that the two stone halves are in the same room, the two
halfs "magically" attract each other, and combine in a bright green spray
of light...
To Magneto's surprise,
a huge, translucent green spider forms from the combination, with the spider
stone tucked in its forehead. Instead of attacking Magneto, however, the
spider goes in the opposite direction. Magneto tries to stop if via his
powers, but the pull of the spider is simply too strong, and it breaks
out the window, crashing onto the cars in the parking lot below and continuing
off into London.
Magneto and his crew
run out of the museum, and Magneto orders his soldiers to stop and destroy
that spider, no matter what it takes! Xavier's opposed to this, though,
at least for the time being- he wants to find out what that spider's purpose
is. Magneto insists that it can't be anything good, and hovers off with
the rest of his minions. The X-Men run out of the museum, and Xavier tells
them to stop the spider, but not to destroy it- they need to find out what
it's all about. The X-Men agree and run after it.
Magneto's team reaches
it first, however. Colossus tries to subdue the spider, and fails. Sabretooth
tries, and fails. Pyro tries, and fails. And the spider continues past
them all and splashes into the Thames River, continuing on towards the
other side of London. Gambit sees this, and apparently has a plan forming
in his head.
The X-Men have caught
up by now, though, and Jean tries to levitate it out, but the spider somehow
just counters her powers and continues on. Cyclops tries to slow down the
spider in the water by using his optic blasts, but it doesn't even faze
the creature. Iceman creates a quick ice bridge over the Thames for the
X-Men to follow, while Angel flies ahead.
Back with Xavier, he
spots Mesmero making his way out of the museum, and immediately stops the
fiend and demands to know what's going on. Mesmero at first refuses, but
Xavier is tired of this, and probes Mesmero's mind. He finds out everything...
but before he can subdue Mesmero via psychic blasts, Mesmero abruptly vanishes...
Back with the spider,
it's on a rampage through downtown London as it continues doggedly toward
whatever its goal is. Gambit pulls up in a commandeered double-decker bus,
though, and flips in on its side, jumping out as it rolls over the creature.
Before the spider can push it off, Gambit uses his powers on the bus, which
explodes and creates a ring of fire and sunken ground around the spider.
The X-Men (minus Xavier) and the rest of Magneto's team catch up, and Magneto
immediately uses all of his powers to seperate the trapped spider's stone
inside of its head into its pieces. Xavier catches up at about this time,
and tells Magneto to stop, but Magneto doesn't listen, and the spider soon
disintegrates, and all that is left is a smoking remnant of the spider
stone.
Xavier wheels up to
Magneto and tells him sadly that Magnus did the very thing Mesmero wanted.
Magneto insists that the spider was destroyed. Xavier tells Magneto that
he found out that the spider was a guardian- and now, with its destruction,
the second door guarding the world from Apocalypse will now open. Magneto's
darn frustrated and exhausted (as he well should be) while Xavier tells
him how Mesmero tricked them all, and how he knew that only Magneto had
the power to really defeat the spider guardian. Angel tells them that the
spider was heading southeast, towards... somewhere. Xavier tells them all
that they'd better make their best effort to ensure that Mesmero does not
open the third door, because if he does, then the world will change forever.
At the very end, we see the second door to Apocalypse open under a bright
light...
Last Words: One step closer to Apocalypse, woo. This episode was pretty good, but it lacked that addictive "zing" that most of the rest of Season 3 has had, mainly because of a few minor plot holes. For one, when Magneto was ripping apart the spider, Xavier just told Magneto to "stop!" without really explaining why. It took Magneto long enough to split the spider, Xavier could have easily told Magnus what was going on, and that would have been that. Instead, Xavier restrained himself- for plot purposes, I suppose. Meh. Also, seeing the X-Men and the spider go largely ignored (until the very end) through DOWNTOWN LONDON seemed a bit suspicious to me. I mean, this is a huge city, with tons of people on the streets, even at night. I would have expected a bunch of police or something to at least TRY to stop them. And the whole giant-spider thing was borderline corny. Although we ARE dealing with an ancient evil power here, so I guess I can let that one slide. This episode was also veeery action-oriented, with tons of cool scenes. Of course, the side effect of this is that there's practically no new characterization, but as long as all of the episodes are not this way (which, obviously, they aren't), I'm fine with the occasional "all-action" ep. It leaves an excellent, suspense-filled ending as well...
Overall Rating: 8/10 Great