MOTENDO
This week we get two mini-episodes in one. The first is a Dawson’s Creek meets 90’s video game with the second a spiritual journey for one of our favorite characters. Motendo is the first segment of this episode which opens with Gambit, Rogue and Magneto having a little morning snark session over some coffee and muffins. While Gambit looks like he just rolled out of bed, Rogue and Magneto are fully uniformed. Beast, Wolverine and Morph are at the other end of the table being secondary characters as they have all season thus far. Is it just me or is it weird that some of the X-Men are in uniform that early for breakfast and others are not? But I digress. We soon find out that it’s Jubilee’s 18th birthday as she pops in ready to celebrate. They offer her muffins, but Jubilee is a big girl now, she wants to go to the arcade instead. Magneto being a total grouch is like “Yeah…no.”
Up in Jubilee’s room she is venting to Roberto about Magneto’s so-not-cool attitude. Roberto tries to talk some sense into her but Jubilee isn’t having it. A video game console catches her eye called Motendo that mysteriously appeared on her dresser. Because Jubilee likes to act a fool, she just assumes it’s a birthday gift from the rest of the X-Men and decides to play it, no questions asked. The console comes alive with steel tentacles taking both Roberto and Jubilee’s minds hostage, transporting them into a version of her room that keeps glitching. Both are confused as to what happened, but are suddenly interrupted as a sentinel breaks into her room, and snatches Roberto with its big hand. Jubilee jumps on the sentinel to try to save him. As they come crashing down, they are suddenly and oddly now in a downtown where now the FOH start to hunt them down. Roberto and Jubilee escape in an alley still perplexed as to what is happening. A phone ringing in a booth beckons them to come to it. They pick it up and Matrix style they are teleported away. Yes, things are getting weird.
They now appear in an older version of Genosha, where Jubilee, Gambit and Storm were once held captive. Roberto and Jubilee stand on a bridge looking at everything around them. But Genosha itself is also starting to glitch. Genoshan security guards come at them, with guns blazing, but they also mysteriously start to glitch themselves. Then out of nowhere, a mysterious woman all decked out in a punk rock goth type uniform is standing there watching them, which Jubilee aptly calls Hot Topic, because she is dressed like she shops there. Jubilee goes after Hot Topic to get some answers but runs into a force field, leading Hot Topic to disappear. It then dawns on her that they are in the video game.
All of a sudden an irritatingly annoying voice pops up behind them and it’s a post-Weight Watchers Mojo who is talking to them through floating imagery. Roberto is wondering what in God’s name Mojo is, and we agree Roberto, Mojo is one fugly dude.
Mojo reveals that with his ratings down, he wants to make Jubilee the next big thing to boost ratings in his Mojoworld. He also tells her that each level of the video game is from a different moment in her life, making her revisit the past. Mojo tells her this will allow her to be young forever and she can live in the past, which Jubilee seems excited about.
The next level they are transported to a 90’s version arcade game of the X-Men where they fight sentinels, Savage Land folk and get all glitched out. As they advance in each level, the ratings go up and Mojo starts to get fatter as that happens. Yeah, I know it’s a really weird episode, just bear with us. All the weirdness is interrupted as Hot Topic reappears and disrupts the game.
The next level takes Jubilee and Roberto to Asteroid M, which is odd because Jubilee never went on Asteroid M, but maybe it’s just the memory of it existing. Roberto has a moment of vulnerability revealing shame that he carries as he once held prejudice against mutants in his past. Jubilee seems to not care too much and because she is now a full fledged adult at 18, gets all whiny and bratty of her potential life in this video game world. Suddenly, Roberto gets knocked clean across the room by the evil video game boss version of Magneto.
Jubilee fights him as Roberto lies unconscious dying from the fatal hit. Jubilee finally overtakes Magneto and mysteriously finds a video game version of an extra life that she gives to Roberto’s body, reviving him at full energy. Roberto says something in Portuguese, which kind of comes out of nowhere and isn’t even translated in the show, so yeah, that happens.
But much to their surprise, Magneto didn’t die and he attacks them. But a big ol’ hand scoops them out from a portal and pulls them into the video game server’s space, which looks like somewhere you would see in Tron. They realize that it was Hot Topic that pulled them out from there and saved them.
The nice moment is broken as Mojo pops up to fight them as the big bad boss of the game. Jubilee and Abscissa team up and Roberto uses his powers to help them out and they destroy Mojo. They wake up back in the room. Roberto and Jubilee makeout. It’s over. Good. Next story please.
LIFEDEATH PART I
Now for a total tonal shift we go to Lifedeath Part I. Storm and Forge are having a nice romantic dinner in his cabin that is located somewhere in the wilderness. Forge reveals that he owes Professor X, as he was a good friend to him. He explains to Storm that his mutant power essentially enables him to easily access a part of his brain that pretty much no one can, which gives him the power to build anything (technology) easily and effortlessly. Storm however, seems more in love with his chili. She then discusses the pain of missing when she could fly and soaring above in the sky. Forge told her that when he had his injuries he had to learn to adapt and be creative, which she might have to as well.
The next day they ride horses out in the wilderness, like out of some wild west movie. As they ride across the scenic landscape they banter and laugh. The horses speeding across the land also give Storm a feeling of flight again, bringing her some happiness. After almost falling to her death and Forge laughing it off (I mean how were they not freaked out) Storm points out an owl that she keeps seeing fly above them.
Later at the cabin, Forge reveals it was technology from the collars used to block mutant powers that the X-Cutioner shot Storm with. Forge walks her over to a pod he built and turns it on, hoping it can bring her powers back. They go outside to test it out and Storm does her thang but nothing happens. She tries once again, but still nothing. She breaks down and cries, and you really start to feel bad for our gal not having her powers anymore. And that dang owl keeps flying above them.
The next day, Forge is tinkering in his lab and she asks why fixing the mutant power blocking collars is so important to him. He becomes nervous and reveals that it was he who worked with the government to build the first prototypes of those collars. Storm is pissed, rightfully so, claiming that he lied to her this whole time. Forge reveals that he loves her and she then slaps him across the face, saying he made her look like a fool. Good on her.
She runs off riding a horse in a storm outside and then falls into a cliff but mysteriously reappears in Forge’s cabin. He goes to tend to her, but all of a sudden a scary creature appears from the hallway. It’s an owl demon that takes a nasty bite out of Forge, knocking him out. The owl kidnaps Storm, saying it wants to feed on misery. It also tells her that its name is Adversary and Storm is going to be one tasty meal.
OUR RATING: 2.5/5
This definitely feels like a filler episode. It’s not a bad episode, but it’s certainly not particularly good either. Unlike the previous episodes and the episodes to come, this one feels very forgettable. The first half with Roberto and Jubilee touches on some interesting themes, but in reality the message of the story was nothing special nor anything we haven’t heard before. Jubilee really is a tough character to write for. She gets a lot of hate but it’s not warranted. It’s just Jubilee isn’t that interesting of a character and her stories never seem to stick the landing. It was entertaining, but very forgettable.
Lifedeath Part I was quiet and the setting really adds to the story. While Jubilee’s story felt simple, this part of the episode felt more complex. Seeing how someone that once was like a goddess is now coping with not having powers is interesting. Mix that with some romance and you have a layered story. But similar to Jubilee’s story, it’s not that memorable. However, the ending does leave you on a cliffhanger. It does a very good job setting up the next chapter in Storm’s journey and leaves you wanting more.