The illusions are slowly being pulled away and the reality is revealed. What They Say:
Revelations – The source of the mutations is revealed; Emma confronts Jun and reveals his true identity.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the discovery of all the medicines and other aspects in the previous episode, the truth has started to come out about Sasaki’s true motivations. While she’s been seen as a friend of mutants, she’s been working all this time in secret with her small group of researchers to come up with a way to eliminate the side effects of the mutant DNA out there. The goal of stripping away the powers is noble in its own way, helping to ease the prejudices that are out there and making life easier and normal for many of them, but it’s also something that can hurt a whole lot more as well as we’ve seen from the various cases that we’ve come across to date. It’s an intense little conversation that they have where each side has its valid beliefs to it, but her goal itself is still one that has turned deadly in the end and is causing more problems now.
While this is a big part of the beginning, there are other things that happen pretty quickly afterwards as the group splits up to explore the place a bit more. Having Emma discover that one of the researchers is actually Mastermind himself is a bit of a surprise, since there’s a rather casual approach to it on his part as he’s more interested in talking about how sad he was over losing her as part of the Inner Circle. Mastermind’s interest in the area is certainly obvious as he wants the power that resides in the area and his use of illusions made it easy for him to worm his way in, manipulate the U-Men to his advantage and get deep into the facility so he can acquire what he needs to take him and his plans to the next level. Add in some fun little dialogue about how he manipulated Emma when it came to Cyclops as well and it tidies up a few plot points to be sure.
One of the fun things about Mastermind is the way he can obviously bring about the reality he wants through his powers. And what better way to sow dissent than to show Wolverine the image of Jean, asking him for help, and then making the X-Men look like the U-Men. With his intense passion for Jean, it turns him against everyone quickly and hard, leading to some good material with him getting into berserker mode very easily. It’s a decent bit of action overall as it also brings in Hisako and Emma along with a good nod for Beast, but mostly it serves as distraction and then setup for what’s to come as the big mystery, the big danger, is just behind the massive door that’s at the bottom of the facility. With Mastermind’s truth revealed to all, it’s the kind of moment that’s ready to set off several people now since it all goes back to Jean’s death.
In Summary:
While not quite as strong as some of the recent episodes, there’s a whole lot of good stuff here going on. The dialogue side of the series continues to be fantastic across the board in how people are pretty consistent and interested in talking through things a bit and going into action mode only when necessary. They’re not all rashly running off to throw themselves into danger and so forth. That’s a big positive in my book and it makes the action seem worthwhile, even when it’s just a series of manipulations like we get here this time from Mastermind. Everything is now focused on those directly involved in what’s going on and the big mystery is just behind the door, leaving you wanting more right away, which continues to be one of the best signs of a thoroughly engaging series.
Grade: B+
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