The mysteries deepen at Sasaki’s mountain research facility as the threats grow.
What They Say:
Betrayal – Hisako’s former teacher is attacked while the team checks the Blackbird.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the group back in Japan and having found their way somewhat surprisingly into the middle of the woods only to discover a former teacher of Hisako’s from the mutant academy their living out there, nothing really feels like it’s being as truthful as it could be. The team is definitely interested in her since they’re not used to normal humans helping mutants, but there’s mysteries as well because Hisako has a hard time remembering anyone from when she was at the academy and the good teacher is nicely evasive without giving much away. But there’s simply a lot of little mysteries about this place that’s getting to them, especially Logan as he senses there are more people in the place than have introduced themselves so far.
And Sasaki is definitely hiding something surprising, as there’s some back and forth amongst the others about it that again leads to a little accusation against Emma for a scan she didn’t do. But rather than draw it out, it actually turns to a conversation between Sasaki and Xavier as she pushes him to withdraw his team from there as she wants nothing to do with them and she isn’t involved in the larger problem of the psychic blackout that’s going on in this area where there are a lot of mutant manifestations. But it’s her revelation that the two of them actually had a son together that Xavier never knew about named Takeo that’s an eyebrow raiser, as it gives Sasaki and Moira McTaggert role and potentially changes Takeo into a substitute Legion, which would explain a lot of the things going on in the area and the difficulties that Xavier has with it.
The episode does have some action to it as the team finds that the Blackbird has been encased in an ice trap that’s more mineral than ice, but that’s just the start of it as a pair of members of the Inner Circle are there as well, causing some trouble so as to distract as an avalanche rumbles towards them all to cause even more trouble. It’s decent and adds to the episode, but there’s no real threat by these Inner Circle members and they’re not the most exciting of them. What sells the episode is all the dialogue and the way it moves deftly through the storyline. When you have Scott and Emma together alone for a bit and he agrees to let her scan him so as to try and help him with his problems related to Jean, it’s a surprise but a very well done sequence visually but also emotionally as we get to see more of the relationship those two have shared that has long defined him.
In Summary:
As the series progresses, each new episode just wins me over even more. While the episodes aren’t huge standouts, it’s proving to be the kind of series where it feels like a steady B+ throughout but when you view it as a whole work, it’s an A-level series because of how it operates and deals with its story. It may be a little more drawn out than some fans want, especially if all you’ve seen have been the domestically made X-Men series over the years, but this one is giving us a very good story that’s spending a whole lot of time on building the characters, their relationships and a whole lot of nuance while still making sure there are some engaging and fun action sequences as well. This series has definitely been the highlight of the Marvel animated series but also been one of the best anime series I’m watching this year due to it melding together two of my biggest loves of anime and superhero comics.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]