Mutant X Episode Nitpicks (Season 3)
THE NITPICKER'S GUIDE TO MUTANT X
Nitpicking Sections: General ~ Season One ~ Season One cont'd. ~ Season Two ~ Season Two, cont'd. ~ Season Three ~ Season Three, cont'd.
SEASON THREE
by firstmutant
Beta aid by belle-marie
Into the Moonless Night
Continuity points: Adam's locater device is a MX pin.
The password to Adam's files is LEXA.
Lexa was part of Mutant X 1.0, and lived in Sanctuary for two years before Adam found Shalimar. Lexa says that she and Adam have a "Special Relationship." We'll never find out what that is.
Brennan's drink is dirty vodka martini straight up.
Brennan can be "grounded" by wrapping his arms in metal chains. Bwaha.
Sanctuary's access code is 730924; Mason states it's located in a place that "meant so much" to both Mason and Adam (the slash writers could have a field day with that one). We'll never find out why that was.
Adam, whom Mason held responsible for the loss of his immune system, was working on a solution for Mason's immunological compromise for several years. Even though later experiments were successful, he kept this information from Mason.
Though Lexa doesn't specify who "the people" are this early on, the money for Sanctuary and Adam's escape from Genomex may have come from The Dominion.
Mason claims to know what experiments Adam was doing with the Mutant X team members. He may have simply been stalling for time, but this was a wasted opportunity. We'll never find out what he meant.
Why won't the emergency workers allow Shalimar to see her father? Why won't Brennan and Jesse allow her to see Emma? Why doesn't anyone at least check a pulse to make sure she's really dead? There isn't an EKG or EEG monitor around, for heaven's sake.
Shalimar says that Sanctuary's main computer system has better search capabilities than the one in the Helix. But aren't they connected?
When Lexa tells the team that there were people Adam answered to, Shalimar confusedly asks, "Adam worked for people?" Apparently Shalimar has lost her memories of Adam's government connections revealed in "Power Play."
If Mason's dermal casing was compromised in the explosion, and he has no immune system at all, why is he walking around, exposing himself to countless infections? The lot behind the chemical plant where he himself meets Mutant X for the second time doesn't look like a particularly sterile environment.
Mason states that he found Adam's comlink ring on his charred body. Since we see later that Mason does have an ad hoc genetic laboratory with scientists at his disposal, it seems a bit odd that the otherwise detail-oriented Mason wouldn't have checked a DNA sample to verify that corpse was really Adam.
It's rather difficult to believe that Adam, who trusts no one, should not have changed his computer password in the ten years since Lexa's been at Sanctuary. Especially after having been hacked by Toni in "In the Presence of Mine Enemies," and knowing that telecybers like Barry Sterling and Michelle Bigelow exist.
How does Lexa get into Sanctuary? Surely, her lasers would have triggered an alarm. The Dominion seems to be ignorant of Sanctuary's access codes (they're still asking for them in The Assault), and surely Adam has changed them since she was there last.
Brennan taunts Lexa, "Don't tell me people in your world actually care about someone else." Typical Brennan quip, but it's oddly placed here, given the fact that Brennan knows nothing about Lexa or who she works for at the time he says it.
As will occur again in "Brother's Keeper," Jesse and Brennan gossip about Lexa in the front of the Helix as though she's not listening in the back. Perhaps there's a sound barrier between the front and back seats.
Brennan says, "I may not have been such a good guy before I joined Mutant X, but at least I always picked a mark who probably deserved it." Uh-huh, sure. Two minutes later, he picks the pocket of some poor bloke walking out of a bar.
Fashion Victim: Lexa. In the DVD extras, actress Karen Cliche remarks that she too regrets the choice of that shiny red top.
Notes: In the wake of Emma's death and Adam's disappearance, Shalimar and Brennan go a little mad. Shalimar, who usually contents herself with knocking people around, rips Silva's stomach and murders the lizard feral. Brennan electrocutes the helpless wheelchair-bound psionic Marika, and then shocks Mason until he falls to his death.
Wages of Sin
Special guest star: Joshua Valentine's mother from "Crime of the New Century" pops up as casino owner Kristen Greg here.
The Dominion is paying the bills for Mutant X in Adam's absence.
The Dominion has access to Sanctuary's computer system. Remember this tidbit when we get to "The Assault."
The episode's title, "The Wages of Sin," comes from the Bible, Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Dominique has stabilized the DNA of the new mutants she employs. Yet, in "The Assault," The Dominion asks that Lexa hand over Jesse so that they can determine how Adam fixed his genetic structure so that he was able to pass his expiry date. Since Dominique is part of The Dominion Council, they should already have this information.
Non-Americans in Mutant X never seem to be on the side of good. Here, Jesse discovers that every Chilean in the casino is a terrorist with expertise in biological weapons.
Brennan cheats at the roulette wheel by shocking the turning mechanism. Something tells me he's done that before...
Why is it that whenever Lexa or another member of Mutant X calls her Dominion contact, he's always sitting right by the computer? Doesn't he ever need a potty break?
For someone who is as suspicious as Kristen Greg appears to be, it's odd that there are no cameras in her outer office to catch the fight between Shalimar and the psionic mutant. It's even odder that, after all the commotion, including Shalimar's throwing the psionic across the table, the only thing disturbed in the room are two chairs.
Shouldn't Lexa be able to move again once the psionic is knocked unconscious, thus rendering his mind unable to maintain her immobility?
Damn. If Brennan would just follow simple instructions, we might have found out about the depths of Dominique's knowledge base. It's funny to watch him, after Lexa has blown his cover and Kristen's already suspicious, walking down the hall apparently talking loudly to himself (in reality, to Jesse via his comlink). Nope, that wouldn't draw unwanted attention.
As demonstrated at the beginning of the episode, the prion weapon causes skin breakdown before death. Brennan, Lexa, and Shalimar clearly don't have these symptoms before they collapse, so why does Kristen believe they are truly dead?
Dominique tells her henchman to find out as much as he can about who stole the prion weapon. Once again, since Dominique is actually a member of The Dominion Council, she should already have inside knowledge about Mutant X's mission.
We never do find out how The Tiger survived his fall from the hotel balcony. Maybe he's a feral. Would explain the name.
The Breed
This episode marks the first guest appearance of the mysterious growth on Brennan's chin. Frightening for the little kiddies.
More evidence of Adam's military connections: Adam pulled strings to get Dr. Vincent Arrigo into the army's bioresearch division.
Another use of Brennan's electricity is revealed: he can cure malaria.
The emergency signal that Dr. Arrigo sends into Sanctuary comes through on Adam's private line. I don't know what's so private about it, given that the alarm is loud enough to wake everyone in Sanctuary. Perhaps the public Sanctuary line that Charlotte used in "Altered Ego" would do just as well.
The Dominion claims not to know the details of what Dr. Arrigo's been up to in the military facility, though we know they have access to secret military files and have been behind Genomex's research projects for decades. In fact, Lexa's magical cell phone contacts grant them access to said military facility. This must be yet another case of their counterproductive habit of letting information out on a never-to-know basis.
Mutant X enters the quarantine barrier through "Section 9," the same name as the section of Genomex for podded mutants. Coincidence?
Major General Kline says that he's diverted every ounce of power from the base to the fence, which is why the lights keep flickering on and off. Yet Dr. Arrigo's lab equipment and computers still function, as though his office had its own generator.
Okay, so it's a little freaky that Jesse bookmarks the diagrams for the military laser cannon for later...
The scene where Lexa makes the car outside the facility explode is in the opening credits, but the exact moment shown in the credits has been cut from the episode itself.
Isn't it suspicious that Dr. Arrigo didn't test the serum against the parasite in the petri dish to ensure safety BEFORE testing it in Peter?
Where Evil Dwells
This episode is a cross between Silence of the Lambs and S2's "Inferno," where Emma's psionic connection with a non-mutant is strong enough to make her take on some of his characteristics, even after death.
More evidence of Adam's connections: he was the one who introduced Shalimar to Andrea, a profiler with the Justice Department.
Apparently, in the Mutant X universe, psychiatric facilities allow murderers writing instruments. They must have missed that all-important scene in Silence of the Lambs.
Appropriately, the Puzzle Killer's name is Marker, and Andrea-the-cop's last name is Marshall.
Shalimar sheds her revealing top for one even more revealing for her first visit to the prison. Which is certainly what I would choose to wear were I an attractive woman going to visit a psycho woman-killer.
Andrea rules out a copycat killer because the details of Marker's crimes weren't in the news, but Lexa's contacts easily access the information. Who says the copycat has to be a member of the general public?
Jesse's search of the new mutant database didn't turn up any psionics who "fit the profile" to be potential partners with Marker. Really? It's pretty hard to believe that Ashlocke was the last mentally unstable psionic in the country.
It doesn't speak well for law enforcement that whenever someone suggests calling the police, it's universally regarded as a bad decision. The murders have all occurred within a 4 mile radius, and even though the killer turns out to be one of their own, it seems that's well within the scope of something the police could handle. It's probably significant that as Mutant X searches for the next victims, they don't come across any other police in the area.
The prison guards really should have some inkling that Andrea's not your usual profiler. There are cameras watching her sessions with Marker, and silver glow coming from her forehead each time she interviews him should be a big clue.
When Jesse discovers that the "Stitch in Time" probably refers to Brennan's quadrant, why don't Lexa and Shalimar join him there?
Remember the ground car from S1? Now that Mutant X is on The Dominion's payroll, they can afford a shiny pretty new car with every scene. The car Brennan and Lexa drive to the medical supply warehouse is different from the one Shalimar drives to the Abbatoir, and also different from the one Brennan and Shalimar drove in "Wages of Sin." The garage must be full.
When Shal suggests that she question Marker alone, Brennan and Jesse immediately act all overprotective because he's a psychopath. Hello? Last I checked, Shalimar is still a feral, and perfectly capable of kicking ass.
Shalimar's ring falls off after she lands on the grating, and she's unable to contact Mutant X. That makes sense. But why can't they track her location anyway? The comlink doesn't need to be on in order to track it; Jesse got a location signal from Shalimar's comlink after it was taken off in "Reality Check."
Andrea's voice becomes a slow southern drawl when she switches to Marker!Andrea, which is extremely helpful in following her personality changes back and forth. Unfortunately, Marker didn't actually have a southern drawl.
The Taking of Crows
This plot is brought to you on 90% recycled paper from "Hard Time," with Lexa taking Brennan's role as the mutant drugged and behind bars.
We learn all kinds of things in this episode. Our deadly serious Lexa used to be a party girl? Jesse speaks Italian? Brennan knows how to work a computer? Wonders never cease.
More evidence of Adam's deep pockets: Lexa informs Jesse about Dr. Marcus's underground advanced genetics lab, which Adam's been secretly funding for years. And the list of side projects goes on and on... Too bad Jesse doesn't think to ask exactly what the purpose of Dr. Marcus's lab is.
Dr. Sara Stanton's DXL, like Deklin Charvet's circus in "Cirque des Merveilles," was created to destroy all new mutants in case Genomex failed to control them. Stanton claims that Adam was well aware of this project.
The story that Lexa gives the prison matron about her implant is actually true, though that information won't be revealed until "She's Come Undone." Evidence of forethought!
Lexa tells bar owner Milo she's looking for her brother Luke, but as we learn in "Brother's Keeper," her brother's name is actually Leo. The man shown in her photograph isn't the Leo we meet in "Brother's Keeper" either. So either Luke is one of Leo's unidentified alters, or there are Pierce triplets instead of twins.
Apparently ignorant of the axiom that nothing blue in Mutant X is good, Lexa innocently accepts the blue drink that Milo gives her....and quickly learns her lesson. Never, never take the blue pill here.
It is interesting that when a doctor is needed for anyone else on the team ("In Between," "Age of Innocence"), Lexa calls The Dominion, but for herself, she heads to Dr. Marcus. This could be because he happened to be the closest at the time, or evidence of Lexa's early distrust of the Dominion.
Dr. Marcus claims that he's of good mind. He must be, given that he blithely pronounces Lexa stable after laying a hand on her forehead and checking her pupils with a penlight. C'mon, the girl just ingested an unknown substance strong enough to cause unconsciousness. At least check out some other vitals first.
Shalimar's accounting of Dr. Stanton's "sloppiness" post-DXL addiction includes a romantic relationship with one of her new mutant subjects (not unlike Adam's relationship with Danielle Hartman, hm?), and the death of a mutant under her care (which was actually the purpose of the drug in the first place).
Hector is a thermal molecular mutant whose specialty is explosions (it's odd that he's a molecular, since all the thermal mutants we've met up to this point have been elementals). Whose bright idea was it to allow him to walk around the lab? The chemical used to purify DXL is highly explosive, and any contact with DXL itself causes mutant powers to go beserk.
Someone should really explain to TPTB that nerve paralysis does not cause seizures.
At the beginning of the scene where Lexa informs Jesse and Brennan that she's ditching them, there's a brief shot of Lexa running away from the guards with Sara--except that the blonde woman who is walking with her is clearly not Sara. By the next scene, however, Sara has returned.
When Jesse calls Dr. Marcus (who just happens to be sitting by his computer) via vidlink to ask him about DXL's processing, he says: "Dr. Marcus, you said you couldn't determine how DXL had been genetically modified because of the processing procedure, right?" It's a strange thing to say, since DXL is a chemical drug, and therefore, has no genes to modify.
Jesse miraculously restarts Lexa's heart simply by breathing into her mouth. This is a reversal of the habitual Mutant X version of CPR (also incorrect), which usually consists of chest compressions without the breaths.
The name of Shalimar and Lexa's prison is Crowter's Prison. Maybe that's where the episode's title "The Taking of Crows" comes from? Otherwise, I'm stumped.
Shadows of Darkness
It's very apparent how small the interior of the Helix is at the beginning of this episode. Brennan has to stoop in order to get inside. We also see that the camouflage mechanism for the hanger doors in the side of Stormking Mountain is only one-way. From the inside, you can see bright sunlight.
In high school, Brennan had a choice between juvenile detention and court-ordered psychotherapy. Dr. Palance was the first person Brennan told about his mutant abilities...something he kept Emma in "Shock of the New" when he told her that he hadn't told anyone before.
It really doesn't make sense that Dr. Palance chooses to contact Brennan for help with his hospital’s haunting, long before anyone knows that the cause is a psionic mutant. Mutant X is not Ghostbusters, after all.
Lexa's brother, Leo Pierce, spent some time at St. Pastor's. This must have occurred while Lexa and Leo were in the military facility or earlier, since the hospital has been closed for 15 years since the fire.
At the beginning of the episode, Brennan and Lexa take the Helix to the hospital. Several hours later, Shalimar and Jesse take the Helix to visit Sandy’s apartment. Either the Helix returns to Sanctuary on autopilot, or there are two Double Helices.
Dr. Palance introduces Brennan and Lexa to Dr. Willett as investigators from "the State Board." The State Board of what? Medicine? Health? Psychiatry? The Paranormal? Given that they are not wearing name tags (and Brennan's not even wearing a suit or tie), Dr. Willett must be psychic, for she knows which State Board to call in order to find out more about them.
In a flare-up of early Alzheimer's, Jesse asks Shalimar what her problem is with mental institutions. Of all people, Jesse should already know about Shalimar's past with her father. Better to have had Lexa ask that question to clarify things for the viewers who hadn't seen S2.
More on the Pierce Triplets... Remember how Lexa called her brother Luke instead of Leo in "The Taking of Crows"? Just after Lexa types 'LEO PIERCE' into the computer at St. Pastor's hospital, the camera pans to her face and then back to the computer screen...where the name has magically changed to "LUKE PIERCE."
The scene where Shalimar and Jesse dig up Johnny's grave is a little campy, with lightning and wind effects. This will come up again in "Cirque des Merveilles" when Lexa and Jesse go to visit the *cough* werewolf *cough* dog feral.
While we're on the subject, Brennan saw the "ghost" of Nurse Campbell, who tried to lure him into the elevator shaft, and Lexa and Dr. Palance saw little Johnny. Though both were listed as deceased in the fire, it's a good thing that Shalimar and Jesse decided to look for Johnny's grave, not Nurse Campbell's, hm? That wouldn't have been pretty, and would have led them down the wrong path--that episode would've been longer than the allotted hour, I'd say.
We are somehow supposed to believe that a smart, resourceful woman like Dr. Willett did not destroy all the evidence of Project I.E.T. after the fire. She's had 15 years to cover her tracks, but leaves trails of her misdeeds neatly boxed up in the basement. Sure.
As psionics go, Johnny is almost unbelievably powerful. During the fire, the little boy must have been terrified to be caught in a fiery hell of his own creation, but he preserved enough mental control to create an image of Nurse Campbell to lead his friend Sandy to safety. Consider the amount of mental concentration it would take a psionic to “haunt” an entire hospital for 15 years. While constantly maintaining the bloody words “Get Out” on the wall of one room, he is simultaneously able to send separate visual, tactile, and auditory images into the minds of others: the song “Hush Little Baby,” the little boy, cockroaches, the young janitor, and Nurse Campbell for the orderly, Lexa, Brennan, Palance, and the other hospital employees. The full scope of Johnny’s abilities is especially revealed at the end of the episode, as he sits, doused in gasoline in the basement of St. Pastor’s hospital, while projecting a convincingly solid image of himself to the minds of dozens of people in the police station miles away.
Hand of God
Excerpt from an early Mutant X article: Want to watch producer Rock’s mood turn cool? Ask him about an early rumour that the feral Shalimar was going to have a tail. She doesn’t, and her animal side has other limits, Victoria Pratt says. Like a cat, she can jump several times her own height but she couldn’t fall out of a plane and survive, for instance.
Well, I'll say this for the man. Peter Mohan loves a challenge. As if in direct mockery of the common sense in Victoria's above statement, the "Hand of God" plotline defies the laws of physics and anatomy by having Shalimar fall thousands of feet from the Double Helix, landing impaled on a tree limb through her lower left abdomen...and survive.
Not only that, but her comlink remains on, though that relatively insignificant one-story fall in "Where Evil Dwells" knocked it right off. Jesse must have learned his lesson after that episode and soldered the thing to her skin.
This episode should have been placed earlier in the season for two reasons. First of all, it doesn't make sense that Mutant X should wait seven episodes to really grill Lexa about exactly who they are working for. Yes, they've unquestioningly followed Adam in the past, but Lexa is certainly not Adam. In fact, she's the one who has been telling them how silly they've been for trusting him, and how everyone has a hidden agenda, so the interrogation that occcurs in this episode should have taken place much earlier.
Second, Lexa, who had begun to reveal a bit of her human side in the past three episodes, reverts back to bitchiness of "Wages of Sin" proportions in this episode. The point here was to prove to Lexa that teammates can be as important as the mission, but since some of that headway had already been established in the past several episodes, it's counterproductive to have this relatively new character bounce back and forth from quasi-human to superbitch for the sake of achieving a minor plot goal.
Jesse states that the Helix must be fueled at Sanctuary. Not sure whether this is because the special fuel can only be found at Sanctuary, or simply because the local gas station isn't the best place to drop stealth shields on a top-secret aircraft.
Shalimar falls out of the Helix as it is falling toward a lake. It crosses the lake, and lands on the other side, almost hitting a mountain. When Lexa and Brennan emerge from the Helix to find Shalimar, Brennan says they'll make better time by heading up the mountain. Which is exactly in the opposite direction from where Shalimar fell out.
Shalimar's flashbacks as she's lying in bed at Kristoff's camp should be from her perspective instead of the camera's.
Ferals are able to identify other ferals by the smell of their blood. It's quite amusing the way everyone throughout the episode is able to find that one stick that Shalimar bled on in the woods.
Plot recycling: Kristoff's mutant sob story is nearly identical to Samantha's from "Possibilities," and Leo's from "Brother's Keeper": I'm really messed up now, but it isn't my fault, since in order to test the limits of my abilities, W evil people tortured X innocents nearly to death so that I could use my Y abilities over and over again. Because of that I've decided upon Z crazy action.
Poor Jesse should get some kind of award for most unappreciated work done in this episode, for babysitting everyone. While continually feeding coordinates to Brennan and Lexa and playing shoulder-to-cry-on for Shalimar, he still manages to nurse the Helix back to health just in time.
Kristoff, as he's about to heal Brennan, seems rather distracted by the ongoing sexy cat fight in the background. He's still a man, after all.
Carl is a moron. As he bends over Kristoff's body to grab him, Kristoff is visibly breathing.
Wasteland
Jesse's new mutant abilities began in high school, making him the latest bloomer of the Mutant X team.
Jesse and Alisha were high school sweethearts who were once engaged to be married.
Jesse's drink is gin and tonic.
Jesse keeps a Bible in his room. The Sunday school quote Jesse tries to impress Lexa with is a description of the apocalypse from The Bible, Revelation 9:2-3: "And he opened the bottomless pit: and the smoke of the pit arose, as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke of the pit. And from the smoke of the pit there came out locusts upon the earth. And power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power."
Jesse then loses all his cool points with Lexa when he automatically assumes the entymologist is a male. Ah well.
The vapid looks Brennan and Shalimar's faces acquire whenever Dr. Bellows speaks are proof of why Adam had to dumb down his technobabble at times. Brennan is even more silent then usual in this episode.
Lexa, looking around ZDT headquarters, remarks that their security is "pretty tight." Given that they just walked in the door without encountering any cameras, guards, metal detectors, gates, identification cards, or door locks, what's she talking about?
Just as Jesse was sensitive about the "freak" crack Emma made in "Shock of the New," he's also uncomfortable with Lexa's teasing him about his wealthy background. For a new mutant on a crime-fighting team, Jesse acts awfully sheltered at times. And for someone who's been betrayed by his father in the past, he's awfully trusting of his ex-fiancée, even after Lexa's turned up what looks like evidence of her misdeeds--not once, not twice, but three times.
Strange that Alisha, who claims to be such a micro-manager, hasn't seen any of the R & D files before Jesse told her about Project Redstock. Even though Nate said he kept the information from her, she is able to find it quickly enough when she actually looks at the R & D documents, and Lexa's already said that they aren't in the database under "Project Redstock." Where did she think all that money was going?
Even stranger, Nick claims to be erasing all relevant memos and messages, but somehow the all-important one from Michael Porter stayed in place just long enough for Lexa to find it. Hm...
Dr. Bellows tells the team that the locusts are being fed with Fer-lomant, which Lexa promptly searches in the ZDT database. Though she's never heard of it before, she types the name in exactly correctly, even with hyphen in place.
The curse of the high heels in Mutant X continues when Alisha trips while trying to run through a corn field in a pair of them, and almost gets shot by Nate.
No Exit
Brennan and Jesse play basketball again in this episode, but amazingly, Brennan does NOT cheat.
No one should be at all surprised that the TunnelQuest game Jesse downloads causes Sanctuary's computer systems to fail. After all, it was his downloading Toni's pictures that allowed her to hack into Sanctuary's system in "In the Presence of Mine Enemies." Adam should have established some ground rules about Jesse's pleasure downloads back then.
Jesse tells Lexa that Sanctuary protects them from even the most hi-tech viruses. Once again, Jesse's amnesia has kicked in, allowing him to forget about the existence of telecybers.
Santuary goes into lockdown mode once it senses intruders, locking them in on the second floor before closing the first floor doors. This, of course, would only work if the enemy was located on the second floor. And missed the flashing lights and blaring alarms that indicated that their presence had been noted.
The cage that barely misses Lexa and Shalimar is the same one that Jesse will use to capture Lexa in "She's Come Undone." The rooftop Dennett falls from in the flashback is the same one Andrea Marshall leaps from in "Where Evil Dwells."
Every time the girls try to contact the boys in this episode, they unfailingly call Brennan's line, even when it's Jesse who actually knows the information. How very convenient for William Dennett.
How can Brennan be clueless about Sanctuary's heat sensors? He was standing right there when Jesse was showing them to Shalimar at the beginning of the episode. Come to think of it, why doesn't Brennan seem to know much of anything about Sanctuary's security systems? I know that Jesse's the techie of the group, but what would happen if he wasn't around? Wouldn't it make sense to make the other members of Mutant X aware of the basics of how their home base works?
Shalimar instantly recognizes William Dennett from his catchphrase, "I say when the game is over." This is admirable, given the number of stock phrases she's heard during her time with Mutant X. Indeed, this sentence could just as easily have come from "The Hand of God" Kristoff, the other presumably deceased mutant who often used one of Dennett's other catchphrases, "I decide who lives and who dies."
William Dennett's name doesn't ring a bell with Lexa, so the Mutant X team must have first met him before season 3. Yet, in the flashback, Brennan has his characteristic Season 3 goatee.
In the game, Lexa's weight is 109 pounds and Shalimar's is 108. In the FBI profiles (the pictures of which come from the Mutant X official site), both weigh 114.
Also, if you look closely at the computer screen when Shalimar's showing Lexa their FBI profiles, the next name down on the list is Jae Pak, Mutant X's assistant art director.
The FBI SWAT team that comes to surround the "armed and dangerous terrorists" Lexa and Shalimar, somehow neglects to first secure their getaway vehicle, The Double Helix, which is sitting perfectly visible on the roof.
How did Dennett get BZ into Sanctuary's air pumps?
Since Dennett kills Nurse Gamble before she can hang his fluids, he must be pretty dehydrated by the end of the day.
When Shalimar and Lexa enter Dennett's room, why doesn't he page for help on the overhead?
Poor Nurse Gamble lies dead in William Dennett's room all day, and no one comes to check on her or him until after Lexa and Shalimar have left. It seems being in a private hospital makes for a rather lousy bedcheck system. It would be interesting to see what the police made of that scene: a quadriplegic unplugged from his exploded monitor, electrocuted nurse at his bedside, a huge hole burned into his computer screen, and the fingerprints of two armed and dangerous terrorists everywhere.
Brother's Keeper
The episode's title, "Brother's Keeper," comes from the biblical story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:9: "And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?"
Lexa grabs 5 collars in this episode. Clearly, the director has decided that's the best way to show that she means business.
Bain is unbelievably fast with a scalpel. Shalimar and Lexa run to the motel because of Candace's screams. By the time they reach the top of the first flight of stairs, he's already cut her (Shal smells blood), and by the time they reach the third floor, he's had time to take out her liver and leave the room before Leo's come in and out--to pass Lexa and Shalimar on their way in the door. That's speedy, all right.
It's nighttime when Shalimar and Lexa find Candace's body (around 8 pm by the hotel's surveillance tape), but by the time Brennan and Lexa leave Sanctuary, it's somehow become the next day, though the events in between seem to occur within the space of maybe a couple of hours.
Leo returns to the motel in his cop persona to watch the tape before Lexa and Brennan get there. But then he leaves the tape there, so what was the point of his coming back, other than to alert his sister to the fact that he was there? Surely the real police would still be coming if they had been called?
Lexa knows what Leo's alters look like and is on the alert for Leo as she enters the motel. Yet she passed by the Asian man without even recognizing him. No wonder she's been searching for five years. It's surprising that she was able to find him at all, even with the help of The Dominion, given the fact that she's only showing a photograph of his main persona.
When Jesse pulls up Candace's autopsy results, the medical examiner's name is listed as Jae H. Pak M.D. (the assistant art director), with permission by John Blackie (the set designer.) Very cute.
When "Leo Pierce" pops up on the new mutant database, Shalimar somehow automatically guesses that he is Lexa's twin brother, though it isn't mentioned anywhere in the profile.
Leo's alters include Troy, Saka, Nancy, John, Ben, Joon, and Mary Kate. The mutant database information that Jesse pulls up on molecular multiple mutants is actually about multiple personality disorder.
Just as Jesse's clothes phase and mass when he does even before he's supposed to be able to phase and mass by touch, Leo's clothes change with his bodily appearance. It must be a molecular trait.
Despite Brennan's theory of "more efficient hearts, stronger lungs," mutant organ transplants would lead to instant organ rejection in normal humans because they are, by definition, genetically dissimilar. Therefore, even though Leo is indeed able to change his molecular structure to become alternate people, he would not be the universal donor because each of his personas still carries the same DNA--and so, being from a new mutant, his organs would still be incompatible with those of a normal human.
In the flashback, Lexa says that she's checked Eckhart out, and believes he can help Leo. This probably means that Lexa joined The GSA before she joined Mutant X 1.0, because it's difficult to believe that anyone who'd been with Adam for two years could have missed hearing about Mason Eckhart before.
It's funny that the admission form Lexa has Leo sign for the Genomex facility has a section for insurance information. Apparently, medical insurance in the Mutant Xverse covers secret government genetic testing.
Brennan assumes that since Lexa is ex-GSA, she must have known Carter. Why? Jesse gave him no time frame for his appointment with the GSA, and he doesn't know how long Lexa was with the GSA.
How does Leo know Lexa's cell phone number? He hasn't seen her in five years.
When Lexa and Brennan enter the sewers to search for Leo, Brennan suddenly has a flashlight. Where did he get that from? The backseat of the van he just stole?
When Leo enters the sewer, Jesse says that he can't track his signal because he's underground and surrounded by steel. Yet Lexa's cellphone works perfectly well...as do Brennan and Lexa's comlinks, despite the fact that Adam informed us in "Within These Walls" that comlinks don't work when surrounded by steel walls. Jesse must have upgraded them after that episode.
After Leo runs away, leaving the phone hanging in the sewer (why is there a phone in the sewer anyway?), Lexa hears the busy signal that one only hears when the other user has hung up.
Jesse identifies William Bain by magnifying the image of his tattoo from the video surveillance tape. How did Jesse get the tape in the first place? Did Brennan and Lexa steal that too?
Troy is the second man in the series who is able to withstand Brennan's usual voltage.
If only Lexa had just disabled Troy instead of murdering Leo! Or even just severed the blade from the sword with a laser to prevent his killing Brennan. So much missed potential.
Possibilities
Lexa has worked in South America, though she doesn't say with which organization. This is the episode where we learn about her revenge "list."
Brennan has a little black book, where the women each get a certain number of stars. Shalimar: How many girls you got in this thing? Brennan: Not enough. [Ugh. Every time you think Brennan has sunk to the lowest level, he finds a basement]
Time rewinds a total of seven times in this episode. It's interesting to note that though Samantha is only capable of going back short intervals at a time, she can piggy-back the jumps, so that it is possible for her to attain longer stretches through successive leaps. Therefore, all Samantha really had to do was take Brennan back to a couple of days before the day the bomb exploded so that they had more time explain matters to the team and come up with a plan, or weeks before the bomb had even been made/entered the building. But that would be too easy, now, wouldn't it?
Samantha says that she's only able to bring Brennan's consciousness and memories back with her, but since she's actually never tried to bring back any of the other team members, she doesn't know that for sure.
The first time Lexa comes down the stairs, she picks Brennan's black book out of Shalimar's hand and gives it to Brennan. But when time rewinds, it's Shalimar who gives Brennan his book.
Jesse may be in charge of stocking the safehouses, but he's certainly not the one in charge of stocking Sanctuary. And he has the bad-milk breath to prove it!
From Shalimar and Lexa's remarks in this episode, it seems as though The Double Helix needs time to warm up before it can be flown anywhere. Yet, in "No Exit," Shalimar and Lexa are able to run into into it and fly away immediately.
When Brennan first walks into Loire Industries, there are six people milling about in the lobby. They all conveniently vanish just in time for him to shock the guard at the front desk unseen.
When Samantha calls The Dominion for help, why doesn't she tell them that she's being held at Loire Industries, so that they can send someone to help her escape the first time instead of wasting time getting out herself?
When Brennan and Samantha try to explain the time travel concept to the team, Shalimar's first reaction is, "That's not possible." Of course it is, silly. You've traveled through time before yourself, in "Time Squared." Sheesh.
Honestly, of all the members of Mutant X, Brennan is the last one who should be distrustful of Lexa for heading off on her own mission. Or has he forgotten his abandoning his teammates in the midst of the deadliest civil war on the planet in "No Man Left Behind"?
Also, while Lexa and Shalimar are digging up dirt on Samantha's background with Bosch and Broder Biochem, why isn't anyone curious about what Samantha's connection with The Dominion is?
The props in this episode suck. The ferocious elemental mutant in the elevator manages to kill Brennan and Samantha with deadly cardboard wrapped in tin foil. The bomb that is powerful enough to bring down a building is a pink styrofoam ball. It's almost as bad as the Rafflesia Pricei in "Dark Star Rising."
When Brennan and Samantha bring Shalimar to Broder Biochem, the same female technician walks up to the window as did when they brought Jesse the time before--but this second time is supposed to be much earlier in the day.
As Bosch's car drives down the alley where Shalimar and Lexa are arguing, "Happy Birthday, N.Y." can be seen written on the wall in the background.
Jesse phases his hand through the wires so that when he masses, they are all cut in half. Yet in "Past as Prologue," people left in the wall after Jesse unphases are just stuck there. Perhaps he would have had to actually mass the wall for them to be cut in half as well.
At the end of the episode, Jesse talks to Lexa about her revenge list again. But since they had that conversation on the third repetition, and didn't tell the details to the other team members, he should have no memory of her telling him about it. Also, it's ironic that he's lecturing her about being caught up in revenge when it wasn't so long ago ("Power Play") that he was willing to risk his own safety to get revenge on Colonel Aaron Gaumont.
Conspiracy Theory
This episode was obviously written as an imitation of "The X-Files," right down to the "The Truth Is Out There" bumper sticker on Leon's car. Had Mulder and Scully shown up at the old folks home, I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised.
As sad as Leo's death was, it's telling that his loss receives more references in its aftermath than Emma's seems to warrant. After "Into the Moonless Night," Emma's death is mentioned indirectly by Jesse in "The Taking of Crows" and directly in a sentence by Adam in "A Normal Life." In contrast, Leo's death is discussed at length in "Conspiracy Theory," mentioned by Adam in "She's Come Undone," and given as Lexa's reason for risking her life for her teammates in "The Assault." That isn't much of a tribute to one who spent two years as an integral part of Mutant X.
In classic television fashion, all three men in black shooting directly at Brennan as he runs down the hill completely miss him.
Wouldn't Eddie plainly see Brennan shock the two men in black as Eddie runs toward him?
For a paranoid nut, Eddie certainly trusts Shalimar and Brennan easily. He even lets them take his alien to Jesse without too much resistance, though for all he knows, they could be part of the overall conspiracy. Shalimar certainly didn't do a good job of hiding the fact that she knew the name Adam Kane.
Why is Shalimar suddenly so skeptical of the existence of aliens? Doesn't she remember having a pint of spinal fluid sucked out by a group of them in "Sign from Above"?
Given what will be revealed of the widespread influence of The Dominion and The Creator in "The Assault," it's fun to wonder how much of the conspiracy Eddie actually got right. He was correct about all roads leading back to Adam Kane, and his connections with Genomex. The cast of Friends? Hm...
Eddie explains that he took the picture of Brennan while he was fighting company security at a gene research company four years prior. Since that's before season one, makes you wonder what Brennan was doing there.
Apparently, Jesse and Dr. Marcus have become friendly enough after "Taking of Crows" that Jesse's allowed to use the lab to examine potentially dangerous bodies there in Dr. Marcus's absence.
Shalimar and Eddie distract the man in black while Brennan grabs the body out of the ice-cream truck. That plan would almost work, except that the driver is still sitting in the truck as Brennan's stomping around in the back.
The information that Eddie reads to Brennan and Shalimar about Project Contact isn't on the screen of information he's reading from.
Since Shalimar and Brennan didn't have time to go back to Sanctuary before visiting the senator, the nice clothes they're suddenly wearing must have come from a closet in Dr. Marcus's lab or a quick pit stop at The Gap.
Art of Attraction
This is the first time we learn that there’s a limit to how long Lexa can remain invisible. It's also the first appearance of Adam since season 2.
Special Guest Star: Lyriq Bent, who played Harris in "Within These Walls," has returned with more independence and an improved vocabulary in as art thief Randall Blake.
In the opening scene, when Jesse asks Lexa out on a date via her comlink, doesn’t the bartender wonder who she’s talking to?
Since the man didn't really touch her, Shalimar probably got that poor art critic fired over nothing--all for the sake of creating a distraction for Lexa.
Note that while tracking their locations, the Helix’s computer alternately tags the Mutant X teammates by their first or last names. In this episode, it's first names.
Lexa and Randall Blake’s combined explosion pushes them back against the walls, which sets off the alarm. Too bad they didn't think to turn off the alarms around the paintings at the same time they turned off the motion detectors.
While Blake is attacking Lexa, Jesse phases the wall and pulls Lexa out. But how does he even know exactly where she is on the wall? And if he could phase into the room at any time, why is she even bothering with the codes for the door?
Randall Blake's bar, La Brasserie du Boheme, is the same set as the bar in which Brennan is captured in "Into the Moonless Night."
Once Blake has Lexa's painting, why does he still need her? Yes, she's fun in bed and handy while getting around the laser security system in Achekinov's house, but presumably Blake had already had a plan in mind for getting the third painting without her.
Lexa’s ability to bend light allows her to evade security lasers. This might have been helpful information for Shalimar to have while she was planning to go after the prion in “Wages of Sin.”
When Brennan and Shalimar find the door to Adam's apartment room locked, Brennan pushes Shalimar back so that he can break down the door with his head. Hello, feral? She's fully capable of knocking in doors...with style. See "The Meaning of Death."
Brennan and Shalimar meet Lexa's Dominion contact in our beloved alleyway, complete with red Chinese lettering on the doors.
In “Brother’s Keeper,” Lexa explains that she has to shoot Leo with a special tracking device created by Genomex to stick to moleculars through their changes. Randall Blake is clearly also a molecular, but in this episode, she sticks a tiny microchip on his earlobe, seemingly unconcerned that it might just fall off when he changes into a gas.
Shalimar tells Jesse Blake’s locker is the fourth from the right, but she doesn’t specify whether she means the fourth from her right or from his. Since he's behind the lockers while she is in front of them, this might be important to add.
A Normal Life
Adam has a scar on his left chest where Shalimar attacked him at their first meeting.
The title "A Normal Life," is part of Dr. Richard Saunders's query to Shalimar in "Fool for Love": "Don't you ever get tired of being special? Don't you ever long for a normal life?" She has a similar conversation with Keith Burstyn in this episode.
How does Adam know that touching Miranda Dennis will kill her? Was he watching the kidnapper as he set up the trap?
As a feral with enhanced hearing, shouldn’t Shalimar have heard the ball coming long before it dropped from the ceiling? Her reflexes are so advanced that she picked that knife out of the air before it hit Brennan in “Wages of Sin.”
The Dominion Council head states that he has the best tacticians in the world in his organization. Anthony Gervais clearly ain't one of them. It's pretty unwise to demand ransom money with a slightly blurred holographic image of...yourself. If you're going to send a hologram which you do not want identified, make it look like someone else.
Lexa: Huh. I guess big brother really is watching (reference: Proxy Blue in "Shock of the New").
In this episode, Santa tells Lexa that The Dominion traces all incoming calls to Sanctuary. Remember this in "The Assault."
When Jesse informs the team of Keith's highly academic background, Brennan says that he doesn’t sound like the kind of guy that gets off on murdering innocent people. That’s an odd thing to say, especially for Brennan, who made a point of warning Shalimar about Dr. Mark Kearney in "Body and Soul": "Just because his hands look clean, doesn't mean he's innocent. Remember that."
You can hear Hologram!Adam’s footsteps as he walks to Shalimar in her room; you can see his breath and his hair being blown by the wind as he talks to her on the rooftop. Now that's a pretty realistic hologram.
Adam says that his colleagues were being killed, and that his sources told him he was next; that he didn’t tell Mutant X he was still alive because it would have put them in the same danger as he was in. We know from "The Assault" that The Creator never intended to kill Adam. So who was killing scientists, and who told Adam that he was going to be killed?
Adam may have intended to test Shalimar's loyalty by telling her to keep his existence a secret from the others, but his decision only puts Mutant X directly in conflict with The Dominion's interests.
Anybody else curious about what Keith’s doing out on the roof with a paper cup and a plastic bucket in the first place?
Why would Adam choose Shalimar to help Keith find a counter-agent for the process rather than someone with a little more scientific background, like Jesse? Unless Adam's just setting Shalimar up on a date...
When Shalimar has to run back to Sactuary for the particle accelerator, Adam clears the alarms and opens the doors to get her in. Too bad he wasn't around in "No Exit," eh?
Shal locks Brennan in the supply room, throws Lexa against the wall, and takes the Helix. This is actually the only time Shalimar flies the Helix in season 3; the rest of the episodes, she's the co-pilot.
Wait, wait. There's a way to override The Helix's controls from Sanctuary, forcing it to dock in the landing bay? Why didn't Adam make use of that when Ash-nan stole the Helix in "Lit Fuse," or when Jesse took off after his father in "Blood Ties"?
Talk about losing focus. Shalimar’s off romancing the cute lonely scientist--they both seem to have forgotten all about the hostages until Adam tells them that Brennan has become one of them.
What are Jesse and Lexa doing that it takes them so long to reach Gervais? They split off from Shalimar to find Gervais even before Shalimar reanimates Brennan, yet Brennan manages to reach him first.
Divided Loyalties
We find out a new use for comlink rings in this episode: cloning cellphones.
It's amazing that The Dominion's entire genetic research program can fit on a single disk, especially considering the scope of The Dominion's projects and the fact that The Creator has been fiddling with DNA for over one hundred years. If Adam received all that information, why wouldn’t that give him all the information he could ever need? It would at the very least tell him how to stabilize the new mutant’s DNA.
What is that silver metal thing Brennan’s playing with while talking to Jesse at the beginning of the episode? It looks like a piece taken from a giant game of jacks.
Adam created a rap sheet for Brennan in case he didn’t work out with Mutant X. He supposedly made it the day Brennan joined Mutant X, but the hairstyle Brennan has in the photo isn’t the one he had in Season one. And why didn't Adam delete it after Brennan had been with the group for a good while?
Adam first appears to Brennan in our beloved S3 alleyway--you can see "The Prophecy"’s telephone booth in the background.
As they are fighting, Nick pushes Brennan back into the car behind them, but the car alarm doesn’t go off until Nick actually shatters the windshield. They just don't make car alarms the way they used to.
Ethan’s not a bit surprised to see Brennan’s electricity. “So you’re the real McCoy, huh?” I guess he's heard of mutants before.
When Jesse goes to his computer to pull up the names of the two inmates Ethan quizzes Brennan about the list of inmates on his screen includes the real-life Mutant X production crew members Johnathan Hackett, Karen Wookey, Rick Ungar, and Avi Arad.
Adam to Brennan: "Your allegiance should be to one thing and one thing only: Mutant X." Yeah, you’re one to talk, buddy.
It's a shame that there is barely any food for the kids to eat in the third season. Lexa’s so hungry in this episode that she swipes a fortune cookie from the Chinese delivery guy after they discover that he took Adam's cellphone.
Speaking of which, why can’t they get a DNA trace from the cellphone the buyer used in order to find out who he is? Jesse was able to do that with Leo’s necklace in "Brother's Keeper."
Nitpicking Sections: General ~ Season One ~ Season One cont'd. ~ Season Two ~ Season Two, cont'd. ~ Season Three ~ Season Three, cont'd.
SEASON THREE
by firstmutant
Beta aid by belle-marie
Into the Moonless Night
Continuity points: Adam's locater device is a MX pin.
The password to Adam's files is LEXA.
Lexa was part of Mutant X 1.0, and lived in Sanctuary for two years before Adam found Shalimar. Lexa says that she and Adam have a "Special Relationship." We'll never find out what that is.
Brennan's drink is dirty vodka martini straight up.
Brennan can be "grounded" by wrapping his arms in metal chains. Bwaha.
Sanctuary's access code is 730924; Mason states it's located in a place that "meant so much" to both Mason and Adam (the slash writers could have a field day with that one). We'll never find out why that was.
Adam, whom Mason held responsible for the loss of his immune system, was working on a solution for Mason's immunological compromise for several years. Even though later experiments were successful, he kept this information from Mason.
Though Lexa doesn't specify who "the people" are this early on, the money for Sanctuary and Adam's escape from Genomex may have come from The Dominion.
Mason claims to know what experiments Adam was doing with the Mutant X team members. He may have simply been stalling for time, but this was a wasted opportunity. We'll never find out what he meant.
Why won't the emergency workers allow Shalimar to see her father? Why won't Brennan and Jesse allow her to see Emma? Why doesn't anyone at least check a pulse to make sure she's really dead? There isn't an EKG or EEG monitor around, for heaven's sake.
Shalimar says that Sanctuary's main computer system has better search capabilities than the one in the Helix. But aren't they connected?
When Lexa tells the team that there were people Adam answered to, Shalimar confusedly asks, "Adam worked for people?" Apparently Shalimar has lost her memories of Adam's government connections revealed in "Power Play."
If Mason's dermal casing was compromised in the explosion, and he has no immune system at all, why is he walking around, exposing himself to countless infections? The lot behind the chemical plant where he himself meets Mutant X for the second time doesn't look like a particularly sterile environment.
Mason states that he found Adam's comlink ring on his charred body. Since we see later that Mason does have an ad hoc genetic laboratory with scientists at his disposal, it seems a bit odd that the otherwise detail-oriented Mason wouldn't have checked a DNA sample to verify that corpse was really Adam.
It's rather difficult to believe that Adam, who trusts no one, should not have changed his computer password in the ten years since Lexa's been at Sanctuary. Especially after having been hacked by Toni in "In the Presence of Mine Enemies," and knowing that telecybers like Barry Sterling and Michelle Bigelow exist.
How does Lexa get into Sanctuary? Surely, her lasers would have triggered an alarm. The Dominion seems to be ignorant of Sanctuary's access codes (they're still asking for them in The Assault), and surely Adam has changed them since she was there last.
Brennan taunts Lexa, "Don't tell me people in your world actually care about someone else." Typical Brennan quip, but it's oddly placed here, given the fact that Brennan knows nothing about Lexa or who she works for at the time he says it.
As will occur again in "Brother's Keeper," Jesse and Brennan gossip about Lexa in the front of the Helix as though she's not listening in the back. Perhaps there's a sound barrier between the front and back seats.
Brennan says, "I may not have been such a good guy before I joined Mutant X, but at least I always picked a mark who probably deserved it." Uh-huh, sure. Two minutes later, he picks the pocket of some poor bloke walking out of a bar.
Fashion Victim: Lexa. In the DVD extras, actress Karen Cliche remarks that she too regrets the choice of that shiny red top.
Notes: In the wake of Emma's death and Adam's disappearance, Shalimar and Brennan go a little mad. Shalimar, who usually contents herself with knocking people around, rips Silva's stomach and murders the lizard feral. Brennan electrocutes the helpless wheelchair-bound psionic Marika, and then shocks Mason until he falls to his death.
Wages of Sin
Special guest star: Joshua Valentine's mother from "Crime of the New Century" pops up as casino owner Kristen Greg here.
The Dominion is paying the bills for Mutant X in Adam's absence.
The Dominion has access to Sanctuary's computer system. Remember this tidbit when we get to "The Assault."
The episode's title, "The Wages of Sin," comes from the Bible, Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Dominique has stabilized the DNA of the new mutants she employs. Yet, in "The Assault," The Dominion asks that Lexa hand over Jesse so that they can determine how Adam fixed his genetic structure so that he was able to pass his expiry date. Since Dominique is part of The Dominion Council, they should already have this information.
Non-Americans in Mutant X never seem to be on the side of good. Here, Jesse discovers that every Chilean in the casino is a terrorist with expertise in biological weapons.
Brennan cheats at the roulette wheel by shocking the turning mechanism. Something tells me he's done that before...
Why is it that whenever Lexa or another member of Mutant X calls her Dominion contact, he's always sitting right by the computer? Doesn't he ever need a potty break?
For someone who is as suspicious as Kristen Greg appears to be, it's odd that there are no cameras in her outer office to catch the fight between Shalimar and the psionic mutant. It's even odder that, after all the commotion, including Shalimar's throwing the psionic across the table, the only thing disturbed in the room are two chairs.
Shouldn't Lexa be able to move again once the psionic is knocked unconscious, thus rendering his mind unable to maintain her immobility?
Damn. If Brennan would just follow simple instructions, we might have found out about the depths of Dominique's knowledge base. It's funny to watch him, after Lexa has blown his cover and Kristen's already suspicious, walking down the hall apparently talking loudly to himself (in reality, to Jesse via his comlink). Nope, that wouldn't draw unwanted attention.
As demonstrated at the beginning of the episode, the prion weapon causes skin breakdown before death. Brennan, Lexa, and Shalimar clearly don't have these symptoms before they collapse, so why does Kristen believe they are truly dead?
Dominique tells her henchman to find out as much as he can about who stole the prion weapon. Once again, since Dominique is actually a member of The Dominion Council, she should already have inside knowledge about Mutant X's mission.
We never do find out how The Tiger survived his fall from the hotel balcony. Maybe he's a feral. Would explain the name.
The Breed
This episode marks the first guest appearance of the mysterious growth on Brennan's chin. Frightening for the little kiddies.
More evidence of Adam's military connections: Adam pulled strings to get Dr. Vincent Arrigo into the army's bioresearch division.
Another use of Brennan's electricity is revealed: he can cure malaria.
The emergency signal that Dr. Arrigo sends into Sanctuary comes through on Adam's private line. I don't know what's so private about it, given that the alarm is loud enough to wake everyone in Sanctuary. Perhaps the public Sanctuary line that Charlotte used in "Altered Ego" would do just as well.
The Dominion claims not to know the details of what Dr. Arrigo's been up to in the military facility, though we know they have access to secret military files and have been behind Genomex's research projects for decades. In fact, Lexa's magical cell phone contacts grant them access to said military facility. This must be yet another case of their counterproductive habit of letting information out on a never-to-know basis.
Mutant X enters the quarantine barrier through "Section 9," the same name as the section of Genomex for podded mutants. Coincidence?
Major General Kline says that he's diverted every ounce of power from the base to the fence, which is why the lights keep flickering on and off. Yet Dr. Arrigo's lab equipment and computers still function, as though his office had its own generator.
Okay, so it's a little freaky that Jesse bookmarks the diagrams for the military laser cannon for later...
The scene where Lexa makes the car outside the facility explode is in the opening credits, but the exact moment shown in the credits has been cut from the episode itself.
Isn't it suspicious that Dr. Arrigo didn't test the serum against the parasite in the petri dish to ensure safety BEFORE testing it in Peter?
Where Evil Dwells
This episode is a cross between Silence of the Lambs and S2's "Inferno," where Emma's psionic connection with a non-mutant is strong enough to make her take on some of his characteristics, even after death.
More evidence of Adam's connections: he was the one who introduced Shalimar to Andrea, a profiler with the Justice Department.
Apparently, in the Mutant X universe, psychiatric facilities allow murderers writing instruments. They must have missed that all-important scene in Silence of the Lambs.
Appropriately, the Puzzle Killer's name is Marker, and Andrea-the-cop's last name is Marshall.
Shalimar sheds her revealing top for one even more revealing for her first visit to the prison. Which is certainly what I would choose to wear were I an attractive woman going to visit a psycho woman-killer.
Andrea rules out a copycat killer because the details of Marker's crimes weren't in the news, but Lexa's contacts easily access the information. Who says the copycat has to be a member of the general public?
Jesse's search of the new mutant database didn't turn up any psionics who "fit the profile" to be potential partners with Marker. Really? It's pretty hard to believe that Ashlocke was the last mentally unstable psionic in the country.
It doesn't speak well for law enforcement that whenever someone suggests calling the police, it's universally regarded as a bad decision. The murders have all occurred within a 4 mile radius, and even though the killer turns out to be one of their own, it seems that's well within the scope of something the police could handle. It's probably significant that as Mutant X searches for the next victims, they don't come across any other police in the area.
The prison guards really should have some inkling that Andrea's not your usual profiler. There are cameras watching her sessions with Marker, and silver glow coming from her forehead each time she interviews him should be a big clue.
When Jesse discovers that the "Stitch in Time" probably refers to Brennan's quadrant, why don't Lexa and Shalimar join him there?
Remember the ground car from S1? Now that Mutant X is on The Dominion's payroll, they can afford a shiny pretty new car with every scene. The car Brennan and Lexa drive to the medical supply warehouse is different from the one Shalimar drives to the Abbatoir, and also different from the one Brennan and Shalimar drove in "Wages of Sin." The garage must be full.
When Shal suggests that she question Marker alone, Brennan and Jesse immediately act all overprotective because he's a psychopath. Hello? Last I checked, Shalimar is still a feral, and perfectly capable of kicking ass.
Shalimar's ring falls off after she lands on the grating, and she's unable to contact Mutant X. That makes sense. But why can't they track her location anyway? The comlink doesn't need to be on in order to track it; Jesse got a location signal from Shalimar's comlink after it was taken off in "Reality Check."
Andrea's voice becomes a slow southern drawl when she switches to Marker!Andrea, which is extremely helpful in following her personality changes back and forth. Unfortunately, Marker didn't actually have a southern drawl.
The Taking of Crows
This plot is brought to you on 90% recycled paper from "Hard Time," with Lexa taking Brennan's role as the mutant drugged and behind bars.
We learn all kinds of things in this episode. Our deadly serious Lexa used to be a party girl? Jesse speaks Italian? Brennan knows how to work a computer? Wonders never cease.
More evidence of Adam's deep pockets: Lexa informs Jesse about Dr. Marcus's underground advanced genetics lab, which Adam's been secretly funding for years. And the list of side projects goes on and on... Too bad Jesse doesn't think to ask exactly what the purpose of Dr. Marcus's lab is.
Dr. Sara Stanton's DXL, like Deklin Charvet's circus in "Cirque des Merveilles," was created to destroy all new mutants in case Genomex failed to control them. Stanton claims that Adam was well aware of this project.
The story that Lexa gives the prison matron about her implant is actually true, though that information won't be revealed until "She's Come Undone." Evidence of forethought!
Lexa tells bar owner Milo she's looking for her brother Luke, but as we learn in "Brother's Keeper," her brother's name is actually Leo. The man shown in her photograph isn't the Leo we meet in "Brother's Keeper" either. So either Luke is one of Leo's unidentified alters, or there are Pierce triplets instead of twins.
Apparently ignorant of the axiom that nothing blue in Mutant X is good, Lexa innocently accepts the blue drink that Milo gives her....and quickly learns her lesson. Never, never take the blue pill here.
It is interesting that when a doctor is needed for anyone else on the team ("In Between," "Age of Innocence"), Lexa calls The Dominion, but for herself, she heads to Dr. Marcus. This could be because he happened to be the closest at the time, or evidence of Lexa's early distrust of the Dominion.
Dr. Marcus claims that he's of good mind. He must be, given that he blithely pronounces Lexa stable after laying a hand on her forehead and checking her pupils with a penlight. C'mon, the girl just ingested an unknown substance strong enough to cause unconsciousness. At least check out some other vitals first.
Shalimar's accounting of Dr. Stanton's "sloppiness" post-DXL addiction includes a romantic relationship with one of her new mutant subjects (not unlike Adam's relationship with Danielle Hartman, hm?), and the death of a mutant under her care (which was actually the purpose of the drug in the first place).
Hector is a thermal molecular mutant whose specialty is explosions (it's odd that he's a molecular, since all the thermal mutants we've met up to this point have been elementals). Whose bright idea was it to allow him to walk around the lab? The chemical used to purify DXL is highly explosive, and any contact with DXL itself causes mutant powers to go beserk.
Someone should really explain to TPTB that nerve paralysis does not cause seizures.
At the beginning of the scene where Lexa informs Jesse and Brennan that she's ditching them, there's a brief shot of Lexa running away from the guards with Sara--except that the blonde woman who is walking with her is clearly not Sara. By the next scene, however, Sara has returned.
When Jesse calls Dr. Marcus (who just happens to be sitting by his computer) via vidlink to ask him about DXL's processing, he says: "Dr. Marcus, you said you couldn't determine how DXL had been genetically modified because of the processing procedure, right?" It's a strange thing to say, since DXL is a chemical drug, and therefore, has no genes to modify.
Jesse miraculously restarts Lexa's heart simply by breathing into her mouth. This is a reversal of the habitual Mutant X version of CPR (also incorrect), which usually consists of chest compressions without the breaths.
The name of Shalimar and Lexa's prison is Crowter's Prison. Maybe that's where the episode's title "The Taking of Crows" comes from? Otherwise, I'm stumped.
Shadows of Darkness
It's very apparent how small the interior of the Helix is at the beginning of this episode. Brennan has to stoop in order to get inside. We also see that the camouflage mechanism for the hanger doors in the side of Stormking Mountain is only one-way. From the inside, you can see bright sunlight.
In high school, Brennan had a choice between juvenile detention and court-ordered psychotherapy. Dr. Palance was the first person Brennan told about his mutant abilities...something he kept Emma in "Shock of the New" when he told her that he hadn't told anyone before.
It really doesn't make sense that Dr. Palance chooses to contact Brennan for help with his hospital’s haunting, long before anyone knows that the cause is a psionic mutant. Mutant X is not Ghostbusters, after all.
Lexa's brother, Leo Pierce, spent some time at St. Pastor's. This must have occurred while Lexa and Leo were in the military facility or earlier, since the hospital has been closed for 15 years since the fire.
At the beginning of the episode, Brennan and Lexa take the Helix to the hospital. Several hours later, Shalimar and Jesse take the Helix to visit Sandy’s apartment. Either the Helix returns to Sanctuary on autopilot, or there are two Double Helices.
Dr. Palance introduces Brennan and Lexa to Dr. Willett as investigators from "the State Board." The State Board of what? Medicine? Health? Psychiatry? The Paranormal? Given that they are not wearing name tags (and Brennan's not even wearing a suit or tie), Dr. Willett must be psychic, for she knows which State Board to call in order to find out more about them.
In a flare-up of early Alzheimer's, Jesse asks Shalimar what her problem is with mental institutions. Of all people, Jesse should already know about Shalimar's past with her father. Better to have had Lexa ask that question to clarify things for the viewers who hadn't seen S2.
More on the Pierce Triplets... Remember how Lexa called her brother Luke instead of Leo in "The Taking of Crows"? Just after Lexa types 'LEO PIERCE' into the computer at St. Pastor's hospital, the camera pans to her face and then back to the computer screen...where the name has magically changed to "LUKE PIERCE."
The scene where Shalimar and Jesse dig up Johnny's grave is a little campy, with lightning and wind effects. This will come up again in "Cirque des Merveilles" when Lexa and Jesse go to visit the *cough* werewolf *cough* dog feral.
While we're on the subject, Brennan saw the "ghost" of Nurse Campbell, who tried to lure him into the elevator shaft, and Lexa and Dr. Palance saw little Johnny. Though both were listed as deceased in the fire, it's a good thing that Shalimar and Jesse decided to look for Johnny's grave, not Nurse Campbell's, hm? That wouldn't have been pretty, and would have led them down the wrong path--that episode would've been longer than the allotted hour, I'd say.
We are somehow supposed to believe that a smart, resourceful woman like Dr. Willett did not destroy all the evidence of Project I.E.T. after the fire. She's had 15 years to cover her tracks, but leaves trails of her misdeeds neatly boxed up in the basement. Sure.
As psionics go, Johnny is almost unbelievably powerful. During the fire, the little boy must have been terrified to be caught in a fiery hell of his own creation, but he preserved enough mental control to create an image of Nurse Campbell to lead his friend Sandy to safety. Consider the amount of mental concentration it would take a psionic to “haunt” an entire hospital for 15 years. While constantly maintaining the bloody words “Get Out” on the wall of one room, he is simultaneously able to send separate visual, tactile, and auditory images into the minds of others: the song “Hush Little Baby,” the little boy, cockroaches, the young janitor, and Nurse Campbell for the orderly, Lexa, Brennan, Palance, and the other hospital employees. The full scope of Johnny’s abilities is especially revealed at the end of the episode, as he sits, doused in gasoline in the basement of St. Pastor’s hospital, while projecting a convincingly solid image of himself to the minds of dozens of people in the police station miles away.
Hand of God
Excerpt from an early Mutant X article: Want to watch producer Rock’s mood turn cool? Ask him about an early rumour that the feral Shalimar was going to have a tail. She doesn’t, and her animal side has other limits, Victoria Pratt says. Like a cat, she can jump several times her own height but she couldn’t fall out of a plane and survive, for instance.
Well, I'll say this for the man. Peter Mohan loves a challenge. As if in direct mockery of the common sense in Victoria's above statement, the "Hand of God" plotline defies the laws of physics and anatomy by having Shalimar fall thousands of feet from the Double Helix, landing impaled on a tree limb through her lower left abdomen...and survive.
Not only that, but her comlink remains on, though that relatively insignificant one-story fall in "Where Evil Dwells" knocked it right off. Jesse must have learned his lesson after that episode and soldered the thing to her skin.
This episode should have been placed earlier in the season for two reasons. First of all, it doesn't make sense that Mutant X should wait seven episodes to really grill Lexa about exactly who they are working for. Yes, they've unquestioningly followed Adam in the past, but Lexa is certainly not Adam. In fact, she's the one who has been telling them how silly they've been for trusting him, and how everyone has a hidden agenda, so the interrogation that occcurs in this episode should have taken place much earlier.
Second, Lexa, who had begun to reveal a bit of her human side in the past three episodes, reverts back to bitchiness of "Wages of Sin" proportions in this episode. The point here was to prove to Lexa that teammates can be as important as the mission, but since some of that headway had already been established in the past several episodes, it's counterproductive to have this relatively new character bounce back and forth from quasi-human to superbitch for the sake of achieving a minor plot goal.
Jesse states that the Helix must be fueled at Sanctuary. Not sure whether this is because the special fuel can only be found at Sanctuary, or simply because the local gas station isn't the best place to drop stealth shields on a top-secret aircraft.
Shalimar falls out of the Helix as it is falling toward a lake. It crosses the lake, and lands on the other side, almost hitting a mountain. When Lexa and Brennan emerge from the Helix to find Shalimar, Brennan says they'll make better time by heading up the mountain. Which is exactly in the opposite direction from where Shalimar fell out.
Shalimar's flashbacks as she's lying in bed at Kristoff's camp should be from her perspective instead of the camera's.
Ferals are able to identify other ferals by the smell of their blood. It's quite amusing the way everyone throughout the episode is able to find that one stick that Shalimar bled on in the woods.
Plot recycling: Kristoff's mutant sob story is nearly identical to Samantha's from "Possibilities," and Leo's from "Brother's Keeper": I'm really messed up now, but it isn't my fault, since in order to test the limits of my abilities, W evil people tortured X innocents nearly to death so that I could use my Y abilities over and over again. Because of that I've decided upon Z crazy action.
Poor Jesse should get some kind of award for most unappreciated work done in this episode, for babysitting everyone. While continually feeding coordinates to Brennan and Lexa and playing shoulder-to-cry-on for Shalimar, he still manages to nurse the Helix back to health just in time.
Kristoff, as he's about to heal Brennan, seems rather distracted by the ongoing sexy cat fight in the background. He's still a man, after all.
Carl is a moron. As he bends over Kristoff's body to grab him, Kristoff is visibly breathing.
Wasteland
Jesse's new mutant abilities began in high school, making him the latest bloomer of the Mutant X team.
Jesse and Alisha were high school sweethearts who were once engaged to be married.
Jesse's drink is gin and tonic.
Jesse keeps a Bible in his room. The Sunday school quote Jesse tries to impress Lexa with is a description of the apocalypse from The Bible, Revelation 9:2-3: "And he opened the bottomless pit: and the smoke of the pit arose, as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke of the pit. And from the smoke of the pit there came out locusts upon the earth. And power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power."
Jesse then loses all his cool points with Lexa when he automatically assumes the entymologist is a male. Ah well.
The vapid looks Brennan and Shalimar's faces acquire whenever Dr. Bellows speaks are proof of why Adam had to dumb down his technobabble at times. Brennan is even more silent then usual in this episode.
Lexa, looking around ZDT headquarters, remarks that their security is "pretty tight." Given that they just walked in the door without encountering any cameras, guards, metal detectors, gates, identification cards, or door locks, what's she talking about?
Just as Jesse was sensitive about the "freak" crack Emma made in "Shock of the New," he's also uncomfortable with Lexa's teasing him about his wealthy background. For a new mutant on a crime-fighting team, Jesse acts awfully sheltered at times. And for someone who's been betrayed by his father in the past, he's awfully trusting of his ex-fiancée, even after Lexa's turned up what looks like evidence of her misdeeds--not once, not twice, but three times.
Strange that Alisha, who claims to be such a micro-manager, hasn't seen any of the R & D files before Jesse told her about Project Redstock. Even though Nate said he kept the information from her, she is able to find it quickly enough when she actually looks at the R & D documents, and Lexa's already said that they aren't in the database under "Project Redstock." Where did she think all that money was going?
Even stranger, Nick claims to be erasing all relevant memos and messages, but somehow the all-important one from Michael Porter stayed in place just long enough for Lexa to find it. Hm...
Dr. Bellows tells the team that the locusts are being fed with Fer-lomant, which Lexa promptly searches in the ZDT database. Though she's never heard of it before, she types the name in exactly correctly, even with hyphen in place.
The curse of the high heels in Mutant X continues when Alisha trips while trying to run through a corn field in a pair of them, and almost gets shot by Nate.
No Exit
Brennan and Jesse play basketball again in this episode, but amazingly, Brennan does NOT cheat.
No one should be at all surprised that the TunnelQuest game Jesse downloads causes Sanctuary's computer systems to fail. After all, it was his downloading Toni's pictures that allowed her to hack into Sanctuary's system in "In the Presence of Mine Enemies." Adam should have established some ground rules about Jesse's pleasure downloads back then.
Jesse tells Lexa that Sanctuary protects them from even the most hi-tech viruses. Once again, Jesse's amnesia has kicked in, allowing him to forget about the existence of telecybers.
Santuary goes into lockdown mode once it senses intruders, locking them in on the second floor before closing the first floor doors. This, of course, would only work if the enemy was located on the second floor. And missed the flashing lights and blaring alarms that indicated that their presence had been noted.
The cage that barely misses Lexa and Shalimar is the same one that Jesse will use to capture Lexa in "She's Come Undone." The rooftop Dennett falls from in the flashback is the same one Andrea Marshall leaps from in "Where Evil Dwells."
Every time the girls try to contact the boys in this episode, they unfailingly call Brennan's line, even when it's Jesse who actually knows the information. How very convenient for William Dennett.
How can Brennan be clueless about Sanctuary's heat sensors? He was standing right there when Jesse was showing them to Shalimar at the beginning of the episode. Come to think of it, why doesn't Brennan seem to know much of anything about Sanctuary's security systems? I know that Jesse's the techie of the group, but what would happen if he wasn't around? Wouldn't it make sense to make the other members of Mutant X aware of the basics of how their home base works?
Shalimar instantly recognizes William Dennett from his catchphrase, "I say when the game is over." This is admirable, given the number of stock phrases she's heard during her time with Mutant X. Indeed, this sentence could just as easily have come from "The Hand of God" Kristoff, the other presumably deceased mutant who often used one of Dennett's other catchphrases, "I decide who lives and who dies."
William Dennett's name doesn't ring a bell with Lexa, so the Mutant X team must have first met him before season 3. Yet, in the flashback, Brennan has his characteristic Season 3 goatee.
In the game, Lexa's weight is 109 pounds and Shalimar's is 108. In the FBI profiles (the pictures of which come from the Mutant X official site), both weigh 114.
Also, if you look closely at the computer screen when Shalimar's showing Lexa their FBI profiles, the next name down on the list is Jae Pak, Mutant X's assistant art director.
The FBI SWAT team that comes to surround the "armed and dangerous terrorists" Lexa and Shalimar, somehow neglects to first secure their getaway vehicle, The Double Helix, which is sitting perfectly visible on the roof.
How did Dennett get BZ into Sanctuary's air pumps?
Since Dennett kills Nurse Gamble before she can hang his fluids, he must be pretty dehydrated by the end of the day.
When Shalimar and Lexa enter Dennett's room, why doesn't he page for help on the overhead?
Poor Nurse Gamble lies dead in William Dennett's room all day, and no one comes to check on her or him until after Lexa and Shalimar have left. It seems being in a private hospital makes for a rather lousy bedcheck system. It would be interesting to see what the police made of that scene: a quadriplegic unplugged from his exploded monitor, electrocuted nurse at his bedside, a huge hole burned into his computer screen, and the fingerprints of two armed and dangerous terrorists everywhere.
Brother's Keeper
The episode's title, "Brother's Keeper," comes from the biblical story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:9: "And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?"
Lexa grabs 5 collars in this episode. Clearly, the director has decided that's the best way to show that she means business.
Bain is unbelievably fast with a scalpel. Shalimar and Lexa run to the motel because of Candace's screams. By the time they reach the top of the first flight of stairs, he's already cut her (Shal smells blood), and by the time they reach the third floor, he's had time to take out her liver and leave the room before Leo's come in and out--to pass Lexa and Shalimar on their way in the door. That's speedy, all right.
It's nighttime when Shalimar and Lexa find Candace's body (around 8 pm by the hotel's surveillance tape), but by the time Brennan and Lexa leave Sanctuary, it's somehow become the next day, though the events in between seem to occur within the space of maybe a couple of hours.
Leo returns to the motel in his cop persona to watch the tape before Lexa and Brennan get there. But then he leaves the tape there, so what was the point of his coming back, other than to alert his sister to the fact that he was there? Surely the real police would still be coming if they had been called?
Lexa knows what Leo's alters look like and is on the alert for Leo as she enters the motel. Yet she passed by the Asian man without even recognizing him. No wonder she's been searching for five years. It's surprising that she was able to find him at all, even with the help of The Dominion, given the fact that she's only showing a photograph of his main persona.
When Jesse pulls up Candace's autopsy results, the medical examiner's name is listed as Jae H. Pak M.D. (the assistant art director), with permission by John Blackie (the set designer.) Very cute.
When "Leo Pierce" pops up on the new mutant database, Shalimar somehow automatically guesses that he is Lexa's twin brother, though it isn't mentioned anywhere in the profile.
Leo's alters include Troy, Saka, Nancy, John, Ben, Joon, and Mary Kate. The mutant database information that Jesse pulls up on molecular multiple mutants is actually about multiple personality disorder.
Just as Jesse's clothes phase and mass when he does even before he's supposed to be able to phase and mass by touch, Leo's clothes change with his bodily appearance. It must be a molecular trait.
Despite Brennan's theory of "more efficient hearts, stronger lungs," mutant organ transplants would lead to instant organ rejection in normal humans because they are, by definition, genetically dissimilar. Therefore, even though Leo is indeed able to change his molecular structure to become alternate people, he would not be the universal donor because each of his personas still carries the same DNA--and so, being from a new mutant, his organs would still be incompatible with those of a normal human.
In the flashback, Lexa says that she's checked Eckhart out, and believes he can help Leo. This probably means that Lexa joined The GSA before she joined Mutant X 1.0, because it's difficult to believe that anyone who'd been with Adam for two years could have missed hearing about Mason Eckhart before.
It's funny that the admission form Lexa has Leo sign for the Genomex facility has a section for insurance information. Apparently, medical insurance in the Mutant Xverse covers secret government genetic testing.
Brennan assumes that since Lexa is ex-GSA, she must have known Carter. Why? Jesse gave him no time frame for his appointment with the GSA, and he doesn't know how long Lexa was with the GSA.
How does Leo know Lexa's cell phone number? He hasn't seen her in five years.
When Lexa and Brennan enter the sewers to search for Leo, Brennan suddenly has a flashlight. Where did he get that from? The backseat of the van he just stole?
When Leo enters the sewer, Jesse says that he can't track his signal because he's underground and surrounded by steel. Yet Lexa's cellphone works perfectly well...as do Brennan and Lexa's comlinks, despite the fact that Adam informed us in "Within These Walls" that comlinks don't work when surrounded by steel walls. Jesse must have upgraded them after that episode.
After Leo runs away, leaving the phone hanging in the sewer (why is there a phone in the sewer anyway?), Lexa hears the busy signal that one only hears when the other user has hung up.
Jesse identifies William Bain by magnifying the image of his tattoo from the video surveillance tape. How did Jesse get the tape in the first place? Did Brennan and Lexa steal that too?
Troy is the second man in the series who is able to withstand Brennan's usual voltage.
If only Lexa had just disabled Troy instead of murdering Leo! Or even just severed the blade from the sword with a laser to prevent his killing Brennan. So much missed potential.
Possibilities
Lexa has worked in South America, though she doesn't say with which organization. This is the episode where we learn about her revenge "list."
Brennan has a little black book, where the women each get a certain number of stars. Shalimar: How many girls you got in this thing? Brennan: Not enough. [Ugh. Every time you think Brennan has sunk to the lowest level, he finds a basement]
Time rewinds a total of seven times in this episode. It's interesting to note that though Samantha is only capable of going back short intervals at a time, she can piggy-back the jumps, so that it is possible for her to attain longer stretches through successive leaps. Therefore, all Samantha really had to do was take Brennan back to a couple of days before the day the bomb exploded so that they had more time explain matters to the team and come up with a plan, or weeks before the bomb had even been made/entered the building. But that would be too easy, now, wouldn't it?
Samantha says that she's only able to bring Brennan's consciousness and memories back with her, but since she's actually never tried to bring back any of the other team members, she doesn't know that for sure.
The first time Lexa comes down the stairs, she picks Brennan's black book out of Shalimar's hand and gives it to Brennan. But when time rewinds, it's Shalimar who gives Brennan his book.
Jesse may be in charge of stocking the safehouses, but he's certainly not the one in charge of stocking Sanctuary. And he has the bad-milk breath to prove it!
From Shalimar and Lexa's remarks in this episode, it seems as though The Double Helix needs time to warm up before it can be flown anywhere. Yet, in "No Exit," Shalimar and Lexa are able to run into into it and fly away immediately.
When Brennan first walks into Loire Industries, there are six people milling about in the lobby. They all conveniently vanish just in time for him to shock the guard at the front desk unseen.
When Samantha calls The Dominion for help, why doesn't she tell them that she's being held at Loire Industries, so that they can send someone to help her escape the first time instead of wasting time getting out herself?
When Brennan and Samantha try to explain the time travel concept to the team, Shalimar's first reaction is, "That's not possible." Of course it is, silly. You've traveled through time before yourself, in "Time Squared." Sheesh.
Honestly, of all the members of Mutant X, Brennan is the last one who should be distrustful of Lexa for heading off on her own mission. Or has he forgotten his abandoning his teammates in the midst of the deadliest civil war on the planet in "No Man Left Behind"?
Also, while Lexa and Shalimar are digging up dirt on Samantha's background with Bosch and Broder Biochem, why isn't anyone curious about what Samantha's connection with The Dominion is?
The props in this episode suck. The ferocious elemental mutant in the elevator manages to kill Brennan and Samantha with deadly cardboard wrapped in tin foil. The bomb that is powerful enough to bring down a building is a pink styrofoam ball. It's almost as bad as the Rafflesia Pricei in "Dark Star Rising."
When Brennan and Samantha bring Shalimar to Broder Biochem, the same female technician walks up to the window as did when they brought Jesse the time before--but this second time is supposed to be much earlier in the day.
As Bosch's car drives down the alley where Shalimar and Lexa are arguing, "Happy Birthday, N.Y." can be seen written on the wall in the background.
Jesse phases his hand through the wires so that when he masses, they are all cut in half. Yet in "Past as Prologue," people left in the wall after Jesse unphases are just stuck there. Perhaps he would have had to actually mass the wall for them to be cut in half as well.
At the end of the episode, Jesse talks to Lexa about her revenge list again. But since they had that conversation on the third repetition, and didn't tell the details to the other team members, he should have no memory of her telling him about it. Also, it's ironic that he's lecturing her about being caught up in revenge when it wasn't so long ago ("Power Play") that he was willing to risk his own safety to get revenge on Colonel Aaron Gaumont.
Conspiracy Theory
This episode was obviously written as an imitation of "The X-Files," right down to the "The Truth Is Out There" bumper sticker on Leon's car. Had Mulder and Scully shown up at the old folks home, I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised.
As sad as Leo's death was, it's telling that his loss receives more references in its aftermath than Emma's seems to warrant. After "Into the Moonless Night," Emma's death is mentioned indirectly by Jesse in "The Taking of Crows" and directly in a sentence by Adam in "A Normal Life." In contrast, Leo's death is discussed at length in "Conspiracy Theory," mentioned by Adam in "She's Come Undone," and given as Lexa's reason for risking her life for her teammates in "The Assault." That isn't much of a tribute to one who spent two years as an integral part of Mutant X.
In classic television fashion, all three men in black shooting directly at Brennan as he runs down the hill completely miss him.
Wouldn't Eddie plainly see Brennan shock the two men in black as Eddie runs toward him?
For a paranoid nut, Eddie certainly trusts Shalimar and Brennan easily. He even lets them take his alien to Jesse without too much resistance, though for all he knows, they could be part of the overall conspiracy. Shalimar certainly didn't do a good job of hiding the fact that she knew the name Adam Kane.
Why is Shalimar suddenly so skeptical of the existence of aliens? Doesn't she remember having a pint of spinal fluid sucked out by a group of them in "Sign from Above"?
Given what will be revealed of the widespread influence of The Dominion and The Creator in "The Assault," it's fun to wonder how much of the conspiracy Eddie actually got right. He was correct about all roads leading back to Adam Kane, and his connections with Genomex. The cast of Friends? Hm...
Eddie explains that he took the picture of Brennan while he was fighting company security at a gene research company four years prior. Since that's before season one, makes you wonder what Brennan was doing there.
Apparently, Jesse and Dr. Marcus have become friendly enough after "Taking of Crows" that Jesse's allowed to use the lab to examine potentially dangerous bodies there in Dr. Marcus's absence.
Shalimar and Eddie distract the man in black while Brennan grabs the body out of the ice-cream truck. That plan would almost work, except that the driver is still sitting in the truck as Brennan's stomping around in the back.
The information that Eddie reads to Brennan and Shalimar about Project Contact isn't on the screen of information he's reading from.
Since Shalimar and Brennan didn't have time to go back to Sanctuary before visiting the senator, the nice clothes they're suddenly wearing must have come from a closet in Dr. Marcus's lab or a quick pit stop at The Gap.
Art of Attraction
This is the first time we learn that there’s a limit to how long Lexa can remain invisible. It's also the first appearance of Adam since season 2.
Special Guest Star: Lyriq Bent, who played Harris in "Within These Walls," has returned with more independence and an improved vocabulary in as art thief Randall Blake.
In the opening scene, when Jesse asks Lexa out on a date via her comlink, doesn’t the bartender wonder who she’s talking to?
Since the man didn't really touch her, Shalimar probably got that poor art critic fired over nothing--all for the sake of creating a distraction for Lexa.
Note that while tracking their locations, the Helix’s computer alternately tags the Mutant X teammates by their first or last names. In this episode, it's first names.
Lexa and Randall Blake’s combined explosion pushes them back against the walls, which sets off the alarm. Too bad they didn't think to turn off the alarms around the paintings at the same time they turned off the motion detectors.
While Blake is attacking Lexa, Jesse phases the wall and pulls Lexa out. But how does he even know exactly where she is on the wall? And if he could phase into the room at any time, why is she even bothering with the codes for the door?
Randall Blake's bar, La Brasserie du Boheme, is the same set as the bar in which Brennan is captured in "Into the Moonless Night."
Once Blake has Lexa's painting, why does he still need her? Yes, she's fun in bed and handy while getting around the laser security system in Achekinov's house, but presumably Blake had already had a plan in mind for getting the third painting without her.
Lexa’s ability to bend light allows her to evade security lasers. This might have been helpful information for Shalimar to have while she was planning to go after the prion in “Wages of Sin.”
When Brennan and Shalimar find the door to Adam's apartment room locked, Brennan pushes Shalimar back so that he can break down the door with his head. Hello, feral? She's fully capable of knocking in doors...with style. See "The Meaning of Death."
Brennan and Shalimar meet Lexa's Dominion contact in our beloved alleyway, complete with red Chinese lettering on the doors.
In “Brother’s Keeper,” Lexa explains that she has to shoot Leo with a special tracking device created by Genomex to stick to moleculars through their changes. Randall Blake is clearly also a molecular, but in this episode, she sticks a tiny microchip on his earlobe, seemingly unconcerned that it might just fall off when he changes into a gas.
Shalimar tells Jesse Blake’s locker is the fourth from the right, but she doesn’t specify whether she means the fourth from her right or from his. Since he's behind the lockers while she is in front of them, this might be important to add.
A Normal Life
Adam has a scar on his left chest where Shalimar attacked him at their first meeting.
The title "A Normal Life," is part of Dr. Richard Saunders's query to Shalimar in "Fool for Love": "Don't you ever get tired of being special? Don't you ever long for a normal life?" She has a similar conversation with Keith Burstyn in this episode.
How does Adam know that touching Miranda Dennis will kill her? Was he watching the kidnapper as he set up the trap?
As a feral with enhanced hearing, shouldn’t Shalimar have heard the ball coming long before it dropped from the ceiling? Her reflexes are so advanced that she picked that knife out of the air before it hit Brennan in “Wages of Sin.”
The Dominion Council head states that he has the best tacticians in the world in his organization. Anthony Gervais clearly ain't one of them. It's pretty unwise to demand ransom money with a slightly blurred holographic image of...yourself. If you're going to send a hologram which you do not want identified, make it look like someone else.
Lexa: Huh. I guess big brother really is watching (reference: Proxy Blue in "Shock of the New").
In this episode, Santa tells Lexa that The Dominion traces all incoming calls to Sanctuary. Remember this in "The Assault."
When Jesse informs the team of Keith's highly academic background, Brennan says that he doesn’t sound like the kind of guy that gets off on murdering innocent people. That’s an odd thing to say, especially for Brennan, who made a point of warning Shalimar about Dr. Mark Kearney in "Body and Soul": "Just because his hands look clean, doesn't mean he's innocent. Remember that."
You can hear Hologram!Adam’s footsteps as he walks to Shalimar in her room; you can see his breath and his hair being blown by the wind as he talks to her on the rooftop. Now that's a pretty realistic hologram.
Adam says that his colleagues were being killed, and that his sources told him he was next; that he didn’t tell Mutant X he was still alive because it would have put them in the same danger as he was in. We know from "The Assault" that The Creator never intended to kill Adam. So who was killing scientists, and who told Adam that he was going to be killed?
Adam may have intended to test Shalimar's loyalty by telling her to keep his existence a secret from the others, but his decision only puts Mutant X directly in conflict with The Dominion's interests.
Anybody else curious about what Keith’s doing out on the roof with a paper cup and a plastic bucket in the first place?
Why would Adam choose Shalimar to help Keith find a counter-agent for the process rather than someone with a little more scientific background, like Jesse? Unless Adam's just setting Shalimar up on a date...
When Shalimar has to run back to Sactuary for the particle accelerator, Adam clears the alarms and opens the doors to get her in. Too bad he wasn't around in "No Exit," eh?
Shal locks Brennan in the supply room, throws Lexa against the wall, and takes the Helix. This is actually the only time Shalimar flies the Helix in season 3; the rest of the episodes, she's the co-pilot.
Wait, wait. There's a way to override The Helix's controls from Sanctuary, forcing it to dock in the landing bay? Why didn't Adam make use of that when Ash-nan stole the Helix in "Lit Fuse," or when Jesse took off after his father in "Blood Ties"?
Talk about losing focus. Shalimar’s off romancing the cute lonely scientist--they both seem to have forgotten all about the hostages until Adam tells them that Brennan has become one of them.
What are Jesse and Lexa doing that it takes them so long to reach Gervais? They split off from Shalimar to find Gervais even before Shalimar reanimates Brennan, yet Brennan manages to reach him first.
Divided Loyalties
We find out a new use for comlink rings in this episode: cloning cellphones.
It's amazing that The Dominion's entire genetic research program can fit on a single disk, especially considering the scope of The Dominion's projects and the fact that The Creator has been fiddling with DNA for over one hundred years. If Adam received all that information, why wouldn’t that give him all the information he could ever need? It would at the very least tell him how to stabilize the new mutant’s DNA.
What is that silver metal thing Brennan’s playing with while talking to Jesse at the beginning of the episode? It looks like a piece taken from a giant game of jacks.
Adam created a rap sheet for Brennan in case he didn’t work out with Mutant X. He supposedly made it the day Brennan joined Mutant X, but the hairstyle Brennan has in the photo isn’t the one he had in Season one. And why didn't Adam delete it after Brennan had been with the group for a good while?
Adam first appears to Brennan in our beloved S3 alleyway--you can see "The Prophecy"’s telephone booth in the background.
As they are fighting, Nick pushes Brennan back into the car behind them, but the car alarm doesn’t go off until Nick actually shatters the windshield. They just don't make car alarms the way they used to.
Ethan’s not a bit surprised to see Brennan’s electricity. “So you’re the real McCoy, huh?” I guess he's heard of mutants before.
When Jesse goes to his computer to pull up the names of the two inmates Ethan quizzes Brennan about the list of inmates on his screen includes the real-life Mutant X production crew members Johnathan Hackett, Karen Wookey, Rick Ungar, and Avi Arad.
Adam to Brennan: "Your allegiance should be to one thing and one thing only: Mutant X." Yeah, you’re one to talk, buddy.
It's a shame that there is barely any food for the kids to eat in the third season. Lexa’s so hungry in this episode that she swipes a fortune cookie from the Chinese delivery guy after they discover that he took Adam's cellphone.
Speaking of which, why can’t they get a DNA trace from the cellphone the buyer used in order to find out who he is? Jesse was able to do that with Leo’s necklace in "Brother's Keeper."