We kick this party off with baby mama Jean (let’s call her BM Jean) tapping into the mind of the other Jean Grey that randomly appeared at the mansion. The X-Men threw her on the couch all hooked up to a vitals machine. I mean you guys couldn’t have moved her over to the lab?
Anyhoo, BM Jean comes across shared memories with couch Jean, until she sees a moment where couch Jean stumbled out of a lab and made her way to the X-Mansion. An image flashes in her mind of some sinister fangs and laughs, which makes BM Jean scream and stop the psychic scanning. However, notice she doesn’t faint.
Beast decides it’s the perfect moment to tell everyone that couch Jean is the real Jean Grey and that BM Jean is a clone. Gotta love Beast for doing this in front of everyone instead of taking Cyclops and BM Jean aside for a private discussion. BM Jean is not happy about this discovery, especially after Cyclops doesn’t seem to side with her after she makes a case for her being the real Jean. BM Jean decides to walk out and takes baby Nathan with her, before letting Cyclops know that Storm would have believed her.
BM Jean and Cyclops have a private conversation in their room as she shares her feelings with him. She makes a good point that the one thing they can’t change is that Nathan is her son and it’s a fact. BM Jean wants Cyclops to trust her, but she can tell that he doesn’t. He shares with her that with so many things happening lately, that it’s a lot and he doesn’t know what to believe. He has a very valid point. Cyclops exits, while BM Jean tells Nathan she will get them out of there, until a creepy voice starts talking to her on the baby monitor asking if she is the real Jean.
Back at the lab we find Bishop has been around solely because his time traveling wristband broke and Beast is fixing it. He really wants to get back to his time in the future and I don’t blame him. With all the crazy drama happening around the X-Mansion I’d be over it too. However, Beast makes another discovery: BM Jean’s samples reveal that Mister Sinister is behind the cloning. Beast tells Cyclops that they need to get to Nathan right away.
Elsewhere in the mansion BM Jean is still talking to the baby monitor and Sinister appears in the corner before disappearing. BM Jean realizes that Sinister wants her son, which he confirms, but he also reveals she indeed is a clone. Sinister beckons her and Nathan to join them mentioning that he has control of her mind. She tries to fight him, but it’s too late. Sinister activates his control over her. BM Jean starts to tear the room apart revealing new telekinetic powers that are green and purple, as a dark evil side emerges from her. Before unleashing all her power she Sailor Moons into a hot sexy black getup, screaming that everyone will feel her inferno. Well, that escalated quickly.
Elsewhere in the mansion Gambit, Wolverine and Morph finish a Danger Room session, where it is revealed Magneto and Rogue have it booked every day for some one-on-one time. As Morph notes, Rogue is really testing out her stamina, wink wink. Gambit doesn’t like what he is hearing so he departs while Wolverine decides to go see the BM Jean and couch Jean. Morph goes to the showers. Things get steamy as Morph walks into the shower, where Wolverine is getting cleaned up, until a strange creepy voice emerges, confusing him.
Apparently, Roberto is back from a crazy weekend at Ultra and watching a movie with Jubilee.
Jubilee and Roberto start living through a scene of The Ring, as a creepy multi-legged monster emerges from the TV screen. Jubilee quickly kills it with her powers, splitting its head in two, before it ranimates itself with Roberto’s mom’s head.
Elsewhere Gambit is intrigued by an open door in one of the rooms, where a creepy green light is shining out of it. Gambit walks into the room where he finds Rogue and Magneto getting intimate, as their flesh starts to melt together. Gross.
Cyclops and Bishop go to the room where BM Jean and Nathan were in to find it empty. All of a sudden they are attacked by an octopus monster and a teddy bear that turns into a demonic version of Professor X. Morph is attacked by a nightmare version of Sinister in the showers. Back in the movie room, Roberto’s freakish mommy monster has another head come out from her mouth which is probably the most disturbing image out of all the nightmarish visions in this episode. Beast comes across a monster of his own at the elevator, which in retrospect doesn’t seem as bad compared to everyone else’s. All of them reconvene in another part of the mansion, wondering what the heck is going on. That is until the floor below them collapses and they fall into hell and are attacked by demonic goblins.
In this hellish landscape they do what the X-Men do best and team up. Beast and Wolverine roll together in the air like some kind of ball, while Cyclops charges up Bishop with his beams, giving him some pretty potent power. Bishop uses that energy to shoot down all the demons. As this is all happening I can’t help but wonder how much damage they are causing to the mansion. Everything they are seeing are hallucinations, but they are using their powers in reality. But I digress. After they destroy all the hellish creatures a demon Mastermold emerges from the flames. Celestial music plays as someone from the heavens is coming down like a holy spirit. It’s couch Jean Grey, or well the real Jean Grey and she has come to end this nightmare. She gets everyone back into reality, making the hell landscape they were in disappear and then faints into Cyclops’ arms. Okay, if you didn’t believe that this was the real Jean before, now you definitely know this is the real Jean, because fainting is what Jean Grey is all about.
None too happy that her hellscape scenario has been destroyed, BM Jean walks into the room all cocky and evil. BM Jean calls the real Jean pathetic, which when you look at it, you kind of have to agree. The real Jean Grey wouldn’t have been able to do what BM did. BM Jean gives a pretty dramatic speech revealing who she is and that she shall be known as the Goblin Queen. She uses her power to knock everyone out so she can leave with baby Nathan.
After some time, everyone in the lab is recovering from the Goblin’s Queen’s attack. Magneto and Rogue walk in after doing their thang in private, wondering what the heck happened. Cyclops reveals to them that Sinister is behind what happened. In a moment of vulnerability Morph talks about how evil Sinister is and how he once had control over him. All the while, Jean is unconscious in the lab bed, crying, moaning, and whining as usual. Can we just swap the Goblin Queen for Jean? Magneto has had it with Sinister and plans to go on the offensive. Morph tells everyone he knows his Sinister’s secret hideout location. You do have to ask yourself, for being such a smart man, why would Sinister make it so easy to be found?
We go to Sinister’s lab where he sings Nathan a lullaby and puts him into a large tube full of green liquid. Sinister reveals that this will make him invincible. Oh, you so bad Essex. Morph, Bishop, Magneto and Cyclops show up at Sinister’s lab that is in some type of gothic building that appears to be possibly a church. As they walk in, the Goblin Queen sits on her throne looking quite fabulous and gets snarky. Cyclops tries to reason with her, but she is not having it and uses her power to knock him out. Morph shape shifts into Magik, but the Goblin Queen mind controls him, so that he fights for her. Now in the Dark Child form, Morph goes after Bishop and they duke it out. Magneto decides to take her down, but in what no one saw coming, he gets his ass handed to him in one really cool battle. This fight scene alone really leaves you wanting more from the Goblin Queen. After defeating Magneto and leaving him a bloody sexy mess on the floor, Cyclops blasts her in the face, causing her to bleed from her mouth. The Goblin Queen spreads the blood across her lips like lipstick with a big ol’ smile on her face. Deliciously wicked and kinky, she floats over to Cyclops and starts to mind control him, kissing her with her bloody lips, ready to take him down.
The real Jean, still asleep in the lab bed, is still doing her thing, whining and moaning, until she awakens. She is confused and disoriented, but Wolverine is there to help her remember who she is and he hopes to seduce her. He tells her to probe deeper into his mind, making her realize how much he loves her and just as it looks like they are about to have an intimate moment, Scott telepages Jean that he is in trouble. Jean pushes Wolverine away because she has to attend to her man and the only way to do this is in a psychic battle with the Goblin Queen.
Jean taps into the Goblin Queen’s mind which stops her from her attack on Cyclops. They get into a fight (telepathically speaking) where the Goblin Queen cries out that Jean has taken everything away from her. Jean then takes her to a flashback memory of when Professor X first appeared at her house as a little girl.
They then move forward in time to when Jean’s best friend Annie was killed. The shared memories between the two of them are fraught with emotion and pain, something they now share. But that’s not good enough for the Goblin Queen as she wants to take control.
In a weird turn of events, they battle in the astral plane and all of a sudden Jean Grey swallows the Goblin Queen, which sends her down to her belly where a baby Nathan is waiting to be born. This then reminds the Goblin Queen of when she gave birth to Nathan and how it was a display of the purest love between a child and mother. This breaks the hold that Sinister has over the Goblin Queen. Now free of her control, she works with Cyclops to rescue Nathan. They confront Sinister, where Cyclops blasts him with his optic beams damaging the villain. Sinister dukes it out with them, with Cyke and Goblin Queen getting the upper hand. He scurries away, as they save Nathan, but not before they notice that Nathan has been infected with some type of virus.
Back at the X-Mansion, Beast reveals that the virus Nathan has will take too long to find a cure for. However, the Goblin Queen remembers that Bishop is going into the future and asks if there is someone that could help Nathan in his time. Bishop confirms this. Cyclops is angry as he doesn’t want to abandon Nathan as he was once abandoned too, so he decides to walk away…which is kind of abandoning Nathan if you think about it.
Outside the Goblin Queen is implanting in baby Nathan’s mind messages of love so that he has some sense of his parents loving him. It’s a sad moment, but you realize this needs to be done to save him. Bishop opens the portal and is ready to take Nathan with him. You would think Bishop would be a little peeved. The man is just trying to get back to his time, and finally he is about to, but now has a newborn that he is in charge of. It speaks to what kind of man Bishop is.
Later on, the Goblin Queen is leaving the X-Mansion, but the real Jean Grey chases her down, telling her she shouldn’t leave. They have a heart to heart, noting they are both unsure when the switch happened, and that the Goblin Queen needs to do this for herself. They handshake, and the Goblin Queen tells the real Jean to call her Madelyne Pryor. Madelyne walks away to start a new life. Jean goes back to the mansion and in an awkward moment, she walks into her room that she shares with Cyclops and they stare at each other in silence.
Traveling halfway across the country we end up at the Tequila Mockingbird bar where Storm is guzzling down some booze. A man walks in and it’s revealed it’s Forge. He tells her he is a friend of Charles Xavier and can help her get her powers back.
OUR REVIEW
Our Rating: 4.5
The Goblin Queen is the definite standout in this episode. One almost wishes that she could replace the real Jean Grey as there is a complexity to her. Questioning her identity as a clone, feeling abandoned by the team, being controlled by a mad scientist and then having having to give up her newborn son adds a lot of layers to the character. Her dark side under the Goblin Queen persona makes her an enjoyable villain as well, which makes you hope that she reappears again.
The visuals were also a strong point in this episode. From the house of horrors and demon monsters, to the battle with the Goblin Queen in the abandoned church, the animation is next level and really adds dimension to the episode.
The one negative from this episode it feels a bit rushed. This story arc should have been two episodes long. However, this is a recurring theme throughout the series thus far.
OUR TOP 3 VISUALS FROM THE EPISODE
- The final battle with the Goblin Queen
2. Madelyn Pryor and Nathan say goodbye
3. Goblin monsters haunt the mansion
