Mutant X Episode Nitpicks (Season 3 cont'd)
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 CONT'D.
by firstmutant
Beta aid by belle-marie
Age of Innocence
Continuity: This is the first time a bullet has ricocheted off Jesse to hit the shooter; usually they’re just smashed flat and drop to his feet.
Jesse’s grandfather, William “Blue Eyes” Kilmartin, is the last of the Tomcats unit and a decorated war hero like Jesse's father. Jesse's mother took him to see his grandfather when he was ten to do a history report, but Jesse's father cut off the relationship.
Adam only tells Shalimar about Burns’s intentions to revive Operation Immortalis once it’s clear that they are after Jesse’s grandfather. Wonder how long Adam knew about the project before then?
Though a chain link fence has been added and the garbage cans are strewn in a different location, the alleyway Peter Hansen’s running through is clearly the same we’ve come to know and love throughout S3.
Jesse should be commended on his eyesight as well as his memory, for being able to recognize the Tomcats tattoo from the indistinct smudge on Hansen’s left arm in the dark...especially since he hasn't seen his grandfather since he was 10.
Jesse tells Lexa that he doesn't know where to start looking for his grandfather. Since when does Jesse not know how to find someone?
Santa lies to Lexa, saying that Burns’s research was destroyed during the atomic bomb testing over the Bikini atoll. Isn’t he at all curious about why Jesse and Shalimar were in the alley with Hansen in the first place?
Following a Mutant Xverse tradition, the de-aging serum is blue. Nothing blue in Mutant X is good.
Dr. Gallant isn't very smart. An hour after being reamed out by Burns for allowing Hansen to escape because he didn’t anticipate how quickly Hansen would regain his strength, he injects William with a newly improved serum and walks off, leaving him alone to be rescued by Jesse.
Like Shalimar in "A Normal Life" and Brennan in "Divided Loyalties," Jesse doesn’t turn off his comlink ring while talking to Adam. His conversation should therefore be plainly heard by his fellow team members. Also, it’s silly that Adam tells Jesse to keep his existence a secret; Jesse’s already determined that the person who contacted him about his grandfather’s location on Sanctuary’s computer is the same person who tipped off Shalimar about the reopening of Operation Immortalis at the beginning of the episode. Unless Jesse’s lost a few brain cells, he’s already figured out that Shalimar knows Adam’s alive too. And Adam should know that Jesse knows that Shalimar knows. See how unnecessarily complicated this is getting?
While young, Jesse’s grandfather has a southern accent, which he mysteriously loses as he ages.
Brennan doesn’t ask Jesse how he knows the files on Operation Immortalis were not destroyed, or even how Jesse found his grandfather at the hospital. This is uncharacteristic behavior for Brennan, who used to get into screaming matches with Adam in S2 about withholding information.
Dr. Saunders has her own private office; it's strikingly similar to the one we saw in "Taking of Crows."
Dr. Saunders has devised a rather strange placement of chest leads for William’s stress test.
The good doctor tells William that his tumors have completely vanished as a result of the serum. But the serum should not have cured William’s advanced lymphatic cancer. If anything, since cancer is cells growing out of control, the serum's reversal of cell aging should have made his cancer much, much worse.
As large an organization as the Dominion is, why don’t they have inside access to the Immortalis files in McClarin Airforce Base’s warehouse? It’s great the way Lexa just walks into the base. The ‘top secret files’ are kept in an unguarded room without a lock on the outside-she didn’t even need Brennan to electify the doors--and she makes herself visible once inside, so there aren’t any security cameras or even an alarm triggered by the doors opening without authorization. "Guarded like the Arc of the Covenant," my ass.
Jesse and Lexa talk about their plan to grab the files right in front of Dr. Saunders. How is that a good idea? She is a Dominion doctor, after all.
Jesse and his grandfather fly the visible Helix in broad daylight past a busy highway.
Hologram!Adam really shouldn’t be able to lean on the wall in Jesse's room.
Dr. Gallant: I’ve discovered the key to preventing cellular regression. The sirtuan levels must be consistently regulated.
Burns: In other words, booster shots must be administered on a regular basis.
Dr. Gallant: Exactly. The same way a diabetic uses insulin.
*Hold onto this information; it will come back to haunt us in "The Assault."
Adam tries to convince Jesse that the only way to keep Burns or others from using William to replay the tragedy of Operation Immortalis is to let him die. But we know that he was able to hide Keith Burstyn in the new mutant underground. Why couldn't he have done the same with William?
Mutant X tracks the ambulance by tapping into the department of transportation’s security traffic cameras; Brennan says they can continue to do so as long as they stay off the interstate. Are there no cameras on the highway?
Also, while Brennan's looking up the ambulance footage, the name on top of his screen is "Westland Casion." The Westland Casino was the name of Kristen Greg's casino in "Wages of Sin."
Burns drains the vitality from the body in the tank in order to make himself younger. Apparently, genetic vitality looks a lot like cherry Koolaid.
When Jesse enters Burns's lab to rescue his grandfather, Burns tells him to back off lest his grandfather die full of bullet holes. How does Burns know who Jesse is?
Why does Burns age after he’s shot?
Though the two are clearly romantically involved, it isn't so clear exactly what the relationship is between Patty Paxton and William Kilmartin is. She doesn't recognize Jesse when he comes to rescue William, so she's probably not his grandmother. And her last name is different from William's so they're either not married or divorced. She seems to recognize him when he appears in front of her 60 years younger, so they've either known one another a long time or she's seen photos of him from his war days.
In the closing credits, William's surname is given as the lesser known 'Kilmarten' spelling. Hee.
She's Come Undone
For those who are keeping score, this episode is fun for Lexa's ever-diminishing body count. In the opening sequence, Lexa kills 7 people. When she returns to Maxxlon with Shalimar and Brennan, however, Shalimar counts 6 bodies. Back at Sanctuary, Lexa tells her Dominion contact that she butchered 5. In all, Lexa kills around 9 people in this episode: 7 at Maxxlon and two other Project Nine doctors.
In the opening sequence, Lexa shatters the glass of Dr. Arnot's office when he attempts to shut her out. Yet there is no glass on the floor when Lexa, Shalimar, and Brennan enter the room.
It's already been established in previous episodes that Shalimar (and ferals in general) can identify individuals by the scent of their blood. So when Shalimar steps into Lexa's room, shouldn't she already know that the blood on Lexa isn't her own?
The Mutant X'ers have been known to change outfits just to walk up and down the stairs at Sanctuary. But when Lexa wakes up covered in someone else's blood, she goes through the rest of the episode in the same clothes. Ewww.
As in "Brother's Keeper," Shalimar and Brennan talk about Lexa as though she's not sitting right behind them in the Helix, plainly within earshot.
At Maxxlon, Shalimar discovers the dead doctor's name by picking up his nametag, which says 'R. Arnot.' Though the R. could stand for any number of names, she tells Jesse to look up Remy Arnot in the database.
Once Lexa hears that Dr. Arnot worked on Project Nine, she immediately looks for his Dominion tattoo, and warns Brennan and Shalimar that they are in a Dominion facility. This reaction doesn’t really make sense, since her neural implant was supposed to have been installed at Genomex. Is this an early hint that Lexa already knew about the connections between the two organizations?
It's interesting that when The Dominion's recon team arrives at Maxxlon, they (like Tony LaPorta in "Cirque des Merveilles") don't seem to recognize Lexa or Mutant X. The ignorance of individual Dominion groups of one another could be an indication of the large scope of The Dominion's operation, or of its secretiveness.
Lexa tells her Dominion contact that she was the one who killed the men at Maxxlon when he calls her. Once again, if The Dominion Council is truly monitoring Sanctuary's incoming and outgoing calls as closely as they say they are "A Normal Life," they should have discovered the truth about Lexa far earlier in the game.
Adam must know that the Dominion can track his untraceable communications into Sanctuary--after the fiasco in “A Normal Life.” Therefore, every time he appears in Sanctuary, he must know that he's not just putting himself in danger, but risking Mutant X's safety as well.
When Jesse discovers that Adam had attempted a program to remove Lexa’s implant, why doesn’t he try to contact Adam?
Adam tells Lexa that Jesse has feelings for her. Does this strike anyone else as slightly creepy? Does Adam have hidden cameras in Jesse's room or something?
We've seen the cage Jesse traps Lexa in before, in "No Exit." Since the cage was created to be mutant-safe, it's weird that the floor isn't molecular-proof, isn't it? Also, when Jesse phases through the floor, he fortunately falls close enough to the second floor catwalk to grab the railing. In actuality, the end of the cage is further away from the catwalk, and Jesse should have missed the railing and fallen straight down to the first floor instead...which isn't really a problem for him, given that he does exactly that in "Dream Lover" without suffering any damage.
The Fixers, the dreaded assassins sent by The Dominion to terminate Lexa, turn out to be just two regular people who aren't even wearing power-resistant suits. Ooo, scary. Had Lexa been at her best, she could have taken them herself.
REM sleep comes with paralysis, Jesse. Since Lexa's going around murdering people, she's clearly not in the REM stage of sleep.
A short lesson in neuroanatomy for ya, Adam. The occipital lobe is actually in the back of the head. And if you activate the right motor cortex, only the left hand should move.
Adam’s reasoning at the end of this episode makes absolutely no sense. His remaining on the run may make him a hidden target, but it also makes Mutant X a target--in plain sight.
In Between
One fan, lonelywalker, once described this as “The One Where Jesse Trips and Falls into a Big Hole for an Entire Episode.” Add in some flashbacks, and that pretty much sums it up.
This is the only time we catch a glimpse of Emma after the second season, and the only time we see Dr. Ken Harrison after the first season.
We all worry about Emma around Brennan, but while she’d only been zapped four times (“Shock of the New,” “Deadly Desire,” “A Breed Apart,” and “One Step Closer”), this will be the sixth time Brennan shocks Jesse-he’s already been shocked in “I Scream the Body Electric” (Jesse was phased at the time), “Crime of the New Century” (in the teaser as a joke), “A Whiter Shade of Pale” (by accident), “Power Play” (to unphase him), “Hard Time” (under the influence of steroids), and “One Step Closer” (by accident).
We learn that all pods were destroyed (with or without the new mutants in them, I wonder?) after the downfall of Genomex, with the sole exception of Dr. Harrison’s lover.
Has Dr. Robinson just come from a party? Why is she wearing go-go boots to perform surgery?
Jesse says that Dr. Harrison must have become familiar with his genetic structure during his time at Genomex. But as far as we know, Jesse was never imprisoned at Genomex. He’s been there while rescuing new mutants in “I Scream the Body Electric,” “In the Presence of Mine Enemies,” “Crime of the New Century,” and “A Breed Apart,” but the closest he’s come to a pod was in his nightmare in “Nothing to Fear.”
Dream Lover
Shalimar and Gia lived on the streets together before Shalimar joined Mutant X. Gia is the first of two feral drug addicts we meet in S3.
A cross between a hobo spider and a whip scorpion, The Guardian is the second arachnid feral in the series. He's much less human than Lorna Templeton.
Jesse kills synthetic Lexa with the same paddles which saved his life in the previous episode.
Shalimar’s hair has grown like 5 inches since the previous episode! Must be a feral thing.
Taser construction has improved considerably since the days of Genomex. In "Dark Star Rising," many taser blasts were required to take down ferals Shalimar and Bo Longstreet; in this episode, however, one taser blast and bam! Shalimar and Gia are down for the count.
David Kelly Fiddick, who plays the cabdriver that synthetic Gia falls on, played a character named Frank Thorn in 'La Femme Nikita.' Coincidence?
Nolan has created a fairly flexible machine for creating synthetic clones; the real Shalimar and the real Gia are on opposite tables when they are being copied.
The ‘science’ of this episode is so questionable that the writers didn’t even bother to write technobabble to back it up. Notice that every time Jesse’s about to explain the inner workings of cybernetic clones, he is conveniently interrupted, and is unable to finish his thought:
Technobabble avoidance #1: Jesse: He’s figured out how to create synthetic clones by combining genetics with nanotechnology. These synthetic clones are virtually indistinguishable from their human counterparts-- *sees Lexa staring at him* What?
Technobabble avoidance #2: Jesse: Brennan, they’re onto us! Sebastian’s been popping off clones of the girls. Gia, Lexa, they’re all synthetics. I have no idea how to pull the plug on them. Wait, nanotechnology’s based on bioelectronics. Which means that-- *Lexa backhands him*
Technobabble avoidance #3: Jesse: I finally figured out the off switch. Since these guys are based in nanotechnology, the only way to dis--
Brennan: Just cut to it!
The plan to allow Brennan to infiltrate Narrow's Wake seems pretty dumb. If Sebastian Conway and Nolan Ryan weren’t already suspicious when Shalimar kept popping up, wouldn't they catch on when this previously unheard of billionaire captain of industry suddenly shows up on the same night, looking for an ‘exotic’ girl?
Shalimar: "Brennan, I am not the enemy here!" Took the words right out of Lexa’s mouth, in the episode "A Normal Life."
Shalimar, Gia, and Lexa are under the influence of a very strong sedative. But whispering their names wakes them up immediately.
Brennan is still damp while electrocuting synthetic Shal. Why is Brennan in the hot tub, anyway? He is supposed to be playing along with the seduction, but it seems a pretty bad idea for him to voluntarily get wet in any situation where he might need to fight.
So, how did Brennan know which Shalimar was which? Well, the evil Shalimar had just attempted to drown him in the hot tub. He just electrocuted the one with the wet arm, of course.
Lexa has a tattoo in an interesting location. Since we learned in "She's Come Undone" that Dominion employees are supposed to have pyramid tattoos, perhaps this is where hers is?
The Prophecy
This is the last of several Mutant X episodes which feature a creepy mental hospital; in the opening scene doctors and nurses walk blithely by patients in obvious distress. Somebody call the APA.
New toy in Sanctuary: Shalimar’s boxing bag. Second appearance of Brennan’s barbells. Third and last appearance of the glass chess set.
The different team members get incoming calls differently, apparently. Jesse talks to his computer when Alisha contacts him (his computer is the only one which seems to have caller ID on it), Shalimar answers Gia’s call in the main hall (why doesn’t Gia have her private number?), and Brennan picks up a cellphone to talk to Nathan Reynolds. How Nathan got a hold of Brennan’s private number when Brennan’s not even aware that he was part of Gabriel Ashlocke's plans is anybody’s guess. Shalimar and Bren joke about too many incoming calls to Sanctuary of late, but they never answer the question of how Nathan got Brennan's number.
As Shalimar and Brennan walk to find Nathan’s phone booth, you see the rather hokey-looking solar eclipse occurring in the background.
Let’s talk about The Guardian’s sporadically deadly mucus for a minute. The mucus is supposedly caustic enough to destroy the metal of Nathan's phone booth and melt Nathan's body. But as Shalimar kicks Brennan to the ground to protect him from being sprayed, his right foot is clearly soaked in mucus, though it seems to be none the worse for it. It's also weird that Shalimar's able to collect samples of something that acidic with a simple plastic pipette.
By the by, why does Shalimar have a pipette on her in the first place? Does she carry a chemistry kit hidden in her skin-tight leather pants, ready to whip out in case there should be some mucus to collect?
It is kinda sad that nobody really feels sorry for Nathan’s death. Shalimar’s too busy steaming about Brennan’s running off with Riley, and Jesse frankly thinks that it’s cool that he was slimed. Whatever happened to their compassion for their fellow mutants?
The photo of the Guardian which Jesse pulls up in the mutant database is actually taken from the previous scene where The Guardian attacked Shalimar and Brennan; you can plainly see Brennan’s tesla-coil-holding hand in the picture.
Kara is the second feral druggie we've seen. I guess the message is, "Don't do drugs, kids. You could end up being cloned and used for the pleasure of wealthy men, or slimed to death by a spider/scorpion man after your DNA has been stolen by a power-hungry psychopath."
Gabriel Ashlocke was the reason Genomex shut down. Lexa used to work at Genomex; she even knows what became of the pods after Genomex's demise. How can she not have heard about The Links before this episode?
Why did Gabriel choose Brennan, of all people, to add to his successor's DNA? He didn't seem to be terribly impressed with Brennan during his lifetime.
Riley is the first psionic in the series to use finger telepathy, though she does have a psionic blast like Emma’s. When Riley mind-blasts Brennnan, can't you just imagine Emma's ghost laughing at the payback for the times he electrocuted her?
While giving a prophecy, John Bishop’s eyes turn black like Marc Griffin’s while memory absorbing. This process seems to be automatically triggered by touch, though he can tell riddles at any time. The main difference seems to be that when his eyes are black, he rhymes. For example...
Bishop's riddle: Tell the last of the bloods that they will find The Guardian where tracks meet water under destiny. (Man, didn't that boat look fake?)
Bishop’s prophecies: From the blood of four will come our son / Once all signs pass / If the Links remain / The Heart of Ashlocke will live again.
The Child will be born / But for our hold to last / All four signs must come to pass / The moon will fall / Two bloods will be dashed / The Child will choose / And the mountain will crash.
Four will begin / True love will call / One will betray / And one will fall.
I am still confused about why Bishop occasionally speaks in reverse. Shalimar says it's because he is "unstuck in time. Backwards, forwards, they're the same to him." Since his body is still clearly in the present at all times, isn't he time-traveling in his mind only? And if so, why would he be speaking backwards?
As Riley and Brennan wait for Kara in The Red Sky Bar, she teases him about the fact that none of the women in the bar are interested in him. This may be a reference to season one's "Lazarus Syndrome," where Emma (another psionic) and Brennan have a similar conversation in Caleb Mathias's bar, called The Red Bar.
Brennan tells Riley to read his mind when he knows Jesse’s waiting to talk to him about her. Isn't that a bit risky?
Riley tells Brennan that most of The Links were Genomex’s.
Bishop says that The Child was born two years ago...but the kid looks to be about 7 or 8.
The Child has input from 4 bloods, therefore, his abilities include creating force-fields and teleportation. If he received those abilities from his "father," the molecular Nathan, then Nathan should have had no difficulty stopping The Guardian from killing him.
Jesse tells Shalimar to aim for the part of the Guardian’s back where the plates overlap. Shal, of course, hits the exact spot on the first try, though it’s impossible to see through his coat and she has never seen Jesse’s computer image to guide her. X-ray vision must be her new growth spurt.
Does anyone besides Brennan and Riley really believe The Child is NOT evil?
Cirque des Merveilles
Mason Eckhart brainwashed sleeper agents to wipe out new mutants should his plans not be successful before his death.
The canine feral Lexa and Jesse interrogate in the dog park is named Mike Robson. Michael Robson is the script coordinator for this episode.
If you look closely at Deklin's Book of New Mutants he has captured, you'll pick out the names of several of the production crew for this episode: elemental Wanda Chaffey (Line Producer), feral Lori Pumputis (Production Coordinator), molecular Ainsling Clancy (Producer's Assistant), feral Marr Morgan (Production Accountant), Kristine Child (1st Assistant Accountant), elemental Ron Lightfoot (Construction Manager), elemental Anthony Ianni (Art Director), molecular Victoria Klein (Property Master), feral Marlene Puritt (Set Decorator), feral Susan Worts (Property Buyer), molecular John Stead (Stunt Coordinator), psionic Joe Doto (1st Property Master), Aine Furey (Location Manager), and Douglas Lunn (Boom Operator).
As Jesse points out, Lexa uncharacteristically wears blinders for the majority of this episode. In “Possibilities,” Lexa’s the one who advises finding out more background behind the mission in order to do it well; as a result, she always discovers Lawrence Bosch’s involvement no matter which alternate reality they are in or how many obstacles Brennan tries to throw in her way. This time, however, she’s so focused on getting information from Tony that she ignores every warning given until it's too late.
Shalimar is acting pretty out of character here too. Usually maternally overprotective of Brennan (note "Divided Loyalties"), she is so caught up in being the lady on the trapeze that she barely notices Brennan’s been gone for hours until Diane tells her he has been trapped in the Chamber of Souls. Brennan who?
Without knocking first, Jesse barges headfirst into where Lexa’s showering, and then has the gall to look surprised that she’s not decent. Not buying it, you Peeping Tom.
It's funny that when the ultimate computer geek Jesse reports that Brennan’s comlink is offline, Lexa pushes in front of him to show him he must have made a computer error. As if she knows what she’s doing. Remember "damsel in distress, aisle two"?
Only Brennan could look at himself in a distorted mirror and still be pleased with what he sees.
Note Deklin's strategic placement of the female contortionist directly in front of The Chamber of Souls. Both of our boys stride purposefully into the circus on a mission to expose evil, only find themselves rooted in place, gawking at the sight of her distracting moving limbs. Men will be men.
Deklin deceived Diane, cheated on her, physically and mentally abused her, sneered at her, and planned to kill her. Taking all of this into consideration, she chooses to spend the rest of her life floating in an alternate dimension with him. Diane! Go find a decent man!
The Assault
This episode was disappointing on many levels, most notably the Shalimar/Brennan quickie, the inexplicably out of context 'plot twist' in the form of The Creator, and the unexpected cliffhanger which would end the series.
Continuity:
This is the first time Jesse masses objects outside of himself.
This is the first time we see geneticist Dominique since "Wages of Sin."
Adam had calculations of the expiry dates for the new mutants to the day of their death.
Adam was raised by Mike and Kara, employees of The Creator.
The Creator directed all the events of Adam's life from behind-the-scenes.
As Lina has pointed out, the helicopter shot at the beginning of this episode is the same as the one in “No Exit.”
It really is too bad that the GSA never developed mutant-resistant suits like the invaders from The Dominion. That would have been smart.
We've known since "I Scream the Body Electric" that comlink rings are keyed to the user's particular DNA strand. In previous episodes, the ring's owner had to be wearing the ring (or, as in the case of Adam in "Presumed Guilty," at least the owner's blood) in order for it to turn on. Why, then, after Lexa abandons her ring in Sanctuary does it turn on when Jesse touches it?
Brennan: "Typical Lexa. Don't ask for help, don't tell anyone where you're going..." Brennan, it seems, has forgotten all about his own conduct in "The Grift" and "Divided Loyalties."
The room in which Shalimar and Brennan make love suspiciously resembles Mason's office from the first season.
In "I Scream the Body Electric," Mason Eckhart explains that subdermal governors connect to a new mutant's DNA, so that when he uses his abilities without the controller's permission, he experiences debilitating pain. Brennan demonstrates that he can form a tesla coil with his governor in place, but soon collapses with abdominal pain. Thorne later explains that the second feature of the subdermal governor is that the controller can turn it on and off at will. In Season 3's "The Assault," however, when Lexa Pierce attempts to produce a laser after being fitted with a subdermal governor, she is clearly not in any pain. She is simply blocked from using her abilities. Perhaps The Dominion has developed a newer version of the original Genomex governors created by Adam Kane.
The above might also explain the fact that although this represents the third frickin' time Jesse has received a subdermal governor (fourth if you count the Genomex abduction Jesse refers to in "In Between"), he is still unable to deactivate this one himself...though Adam clearly showed him which part to press to turn them off in "Russian Roulette."
It is so easy for Jesse to track Adam down that you would think The Dominion, with all of its resources, could have accomplished it much sooner. For all his high-tech knowledge, you would imagine that Adam would have developed a means of deflecting a simple thermal scanner. Thicker walls, for instance.
Adam claims that he did not know that his research in prolonging Jesse's lifespan had been successful until the moment Mutant X informed him of it. This can't possibly be true, since he was the one who had calculated Jesse's expiry date in the first place, and Mutant X did not contact him until two weeks later. Seeing that Jesse lived even the day afterwards should have been sufficient indication that something had worked.
In "Wages of Sin," Jesse found that Dominique had already discovered how to stabilize new mutant DNA. If she was indeed working for The Dominion, then why was it necessary that Lexa bring Jesse to The Dominion for study after he passed his expiry date?
Also, why does The Dominion need Lexa to give them Sanctuary's access codes? They have been closely monitoring Mutant X months, not to mention completely funding the maintenance of Sanctuary since the beginning of the season. Plus, they helped build the place (and thus should know about that underground cave Jesse discovered in "The Future Revealed"). How can they not know the access codes already?
Lexa: "You know, for an organization bent on world domination, you sure don't know the first thing about security." No kidding. Why does Lexa have only one guard, and why is he unskilled in martial arts? Lexa strolls in and downloads her virus with a keystroke; why aren't the main computers locked down when there is no one in the computer lab? Why are there no security cameras in Jesse and Lexa's holding cells to watch them, since they are indeed next to one another and capable of speaking? And why aren't the walls of their cells molecular-proof?
Thanks to the hair, the clothing, and the voice, The Creator looks like something from a really bad B horror film. Wouldn't someone who needed to give himself daily injections cut his nails once in a while, or at least wash his hands?
Speaking of which, now we know why The Dominion wasn't so keen on shutting down Burns's de-aging serum research in "The Age of Innocence."
The Dominion murdered Michael Hayes in "Divided Loyalties" and Tony LaPorta in "Cirque des Merveilles" in order to keep Adam from learning information about The Creator. But if The Creator was merely looking to find Adam so that he could continue his genetic research, what was the big secret they were killing to protect?
What is the logic behind Adam’s blowing up the Helix? Who plans to destroy the getaway car in the process of a rescue mission?
Jesse's DNA has supposedly been stabilized. Nonetheless, he appears to have experienced another growth spurt by the end of the episode, now having acquired the ability to mass other people by touch. Does that mean the fix on his DNA was only temporary?
The obscure prophecy John Bishop gives Shalimar in "The Prophecy" was: Four will begin / True love will call / One will betray / And one will fall. Perhaps this dreaded 'fall' was a reference to Shalimar's plummet from Sanctuary's catwalk at the beginning of the episode. Or her plummet from the circus's rafters in "Cirque des Merveilles." Let's face it, Shalimar plummets on a fairly regular basis; the prophecy could be referring to anything, really. The betrayer could be Lexa (betraying The Dominion), or Adam (betraying his team to fraternize with The Creator). And true love...well...this was probably supposed to be Brennan and Shalimar, but it could have meant Jesse and Lexa as well. In the end, we're really no closer to knowing what Bishop meant than we were to begin with.
Nitpicking Sections: General ~ Season One ~ Season One cont'd. ~ Season Two ~ Season Two, cont'd. ~ Season Three ~ Season Three, cont'd.
SEASON THREE CONT'D.
by firstmutant
Beta aid by belle-marie
Age of Innocence
Continuity: This is the first time a bullet has ricocheted off Jesse to hit the shooter; usually they’re just smashed flat and drop to his feet.
Jesse’s grandfather, William “Blue Eyes” Kilmartin, is the last of the Tomcats unit and a decorated war hero like Jesse's father. Jesse's mother took him to see his grandfather when he was ten to do a history report, but Jesse's father cut off the relationship.
Adam only tells Shalimar about Burns’s intentions to revive Operation Immortalis once it’s clear that they are after Jesse’s grandfather. Wonder how long Adam knew about the project before then?
Though a chain link fence has been added and the garbage cans are strewn in a different location, the alleyway Peter Hansen’s running through is clearly the same we’ve come to know and love throughout S3.
Jesse should be commended on his eyesight as well as his memory, for being able to recognize the Tomcats tattoo from the indistinct smudge on Hansen’s left arm in the dark...especially since he hasn't seen his grandfather since he was 10.
Jesse tells Lexa that he doesn't know where to start looking for his grandfather. Since when does Jesse not know how to find someone?
Santa lies to Lexa, saying that Burns’s research was destroyed during the atomic bomb testing over the Bikini atoll. Isn’t he at all curious about why Jesse and Shalimar were in the alley with Hansen in the first place?
Following a Mutant Xverse tradition, the de-aging serum is blue. Nothing blue in Mutant X is good.
Dr. Gallant isn't very smart. An hour after being reamed out by Burns for allowing Hansen to escape because he didn’t anticipate how quickly Hansen would regain his strength, he injects William with a newly improved serum and walks off, leaving him alone to be rescued by Jesse.
Like Shalimar in "A Normal Life" and Brennan in "Divided Loyalties," Jesse doesn’t turn off his comlink ring while talking to Adam. His conversation should therefore be plainly heard by his fellow team members. Also, it’s silly that Adam tells Jesse to keep his existence a secret; Jesse’s already determined that the person who contacted him about his grandfather’s location on Sanctuary’s computer is the same person who tipped off Shalimar about the reopening of Operation Immortalis at the beginning of the episode. Unless Jesse’s lost a few brain cells, he’s already figured out that Shalimar knows Adam’s alive too. And Adam should know that Jesse knows that Shalimar knows. See how unnecessarily complicated this is getting?
While young, Jesse’s grandfather has a southern accent, which he mysteriously loses as he ages.
Brennan doesn’t ask Jesse how he knows the files on Operation Immortalis were not destroyed, or even how Jesse found his grandfather at the hospital. This is uncharacteristic behavior for Brennan, who used to get into screaming matches with Adam in S2 about withholding information.
Dr. Saunders has her own private office; it's strikingly similar to the one we saw in "Taking of Crows."
Dr. Saunders has devised a rather strange placement of chest leads for William’s stress test.
The good doctor tells William that his tumors have completely vanished as a result of the serum. But the serum should not have cured William’s advanced lymphatic cancer. If anything, since cancer is cells growing out of control, the serum's reversal of cell aging should have made his cancer much, much worse.
As large an organization as the Dominion is, why don’t they have inside access to the Immortalis files in McClarin Airforce Base’s warehouse? It’s great the way Lexa just walks into the base. The ‘top secret files’ are kept in an unguarded room without a lock on the outside-she didn’t even need Brennan to electify the doors--and she makes herself visible once inside, so there aren’t any security cameras or even an alarm triggered by the doors opening without authorization. "Guarded like the Arc of the Covenant," my ass.
Jesse and Lexa talk about their plan to grab the files right in front of Dr. Saunders. How is that a good idea? She is a Dominion doctor, after all.
Jesse and his grandfather fly the visible Helix in broad daylight past a busy highway.
Hologram!Adam really shouldn’t be able to lean on the wall in Jesse's room.
Dr. Gallant: I’ve discovered the key to preventing cellular regression. The sirtuan levels must be consistently regulated.
Burns: In other words, booster shots must be administered on a regular basis.
Dr. Gallant: Exactly. The same way a diabetic uses insulin.
*Hold onto this information; it will come back to haunt us in "The Assault."
Adam tries to convince Jesse that the only way to keep Burns or others from using William to replay the tragedy of Operation Immortalis is to let him die. But we know that he was able to hide Keith Burstyn in the new mutant underground. Why couldn't he have done the same with William?
Mutant X tracks the ambulance by tapping into the department of transportation’s security traffic cameras; Brennan says they can continue to do so as long as they stay off the interstate. Are there no cameras on the highway?
Also, while Brennan's looking up the ambulance footage, the name on top of his screen is "Westland Casion." The Westland Casino was the name of Kristen Greg's casino in "Wages of Sin."
Burns drains the vitality from the body in the tank in order to make himself younger. Apparently, genetic vitality looks a lot like cherry Koolaid.
When Jesse enters Burns's lab to rescue his grandfather, Burns tells him to back off lest his grandfather die full of bullet holes. How does Burns know who Jesse is?
Why does Burns age after he’s shot?
Though the two are clearly romantically involved, it isn't so clear exactly what the relationship is between Patty Paxton and William Kilmartin is. She doesn't recognize Jesse when he comes to rescue William, so she's probably not his grandmother. And her last name is different from William's so they're either not married or divorced. She seems to recognize him when he appears in front of her 60 years younger, so they've either known one another a long time or she's seen photos of him from his war days.
In the closing credits, William's surname is given as the lesser known 'Kilmarten' spelling. Hee.
She's Come Undone
For those who are keeping score, this episode is fun for Lexa's ever-diminishing body count. In the opening sequence, Lexa kills 7 people. When she returns to Maxxlon with Shalimar and Brennan, however, Shalimar counts 6 bodies. Back at Sanctuary, Lexa tells her Dominion contact that she butchered 5. In all, Lexa kills around 9 people in this episode: 7 at Maxxlon and two other Project Nine doctors.
In the opening sequence, Lexa shatters the glass of Dr. Arnot's office when he attempts to shut her out. Yet there is no glass on the floor when Lexa, Shalimar, and Brennan enter the room.
It's already been established in previous episodes that Shalimar (and ferals in general) can identify individuals by the scent of their blood. So when Shalimar steps into Lexa's room, shouldn't she already know that the blood on Lexa isn't her own?
The Mutant X'ers have been known to change outfits just to walk up and down the stairs at Sanctuary. But when Lexa wakes up covered in someone else's blood, she goes through the rest of the episode in the same clothes. Ewww.
As in "Brother's Keeper," Shalimar and Brennan talk about Lexa as though she's not sitting right behind them in the Helix, plainly within earshot.
At Maxxlon, Shalimar discovers the dead doctor's name by picking up his nametag, which says 'R. Arnot.' Though the R. could stand for any number of names, she tells Jesse to look up Remy Arnot in the database.
Once Lexa hears that Dr. Arnot worked on Project Nine, she immediately looks for his Dominion tattoo, and warns Brennan and Shalimar that they are in a Dominion facility. This reaction doesn’t really make sense, since her neural implant was supposed to have been installed at Genomex. Is this an early hint that Lexa already knew about the connections between the two organizations?
It's interesting that when The Dominion's recon team arrives at Maxxlon, they (like Tony LaPorta in "Cirque des Merveilles") don't seem to recognize Lexa or Mutant X. The ignorance of individual Dominion groups of one another could be an indication of the large scope of The Dominion's operation, or of its secretiveness.
Lexa tells her Dominion contact that she was the one who killed the men at Maxxlon when he calls her. Once again, if The Dominion Council is truly monitoring Sanctuary's incoming and outgoing calls as closely as they say they are "A Normal Life," they should have discovered the truth about Lexa far earlier in the game.
Adam must know that the Dominion can track his untraceable communications into Sanctuary--after the fiasco in “A Normal Life.” Therefore, every time he appears in Sanctuary, he must know that he's not just putting himself in danger, but risking Mutant X's safety as well.
When Jesse discovers that Adam had attempted a program to remove Lexa’s implant, why doesn’t he try to contact Adam?
Adam tells Lexa that Jesse has feelings for her. Does this strike anyone else as slightly creepy? Does Adam have hidden cameras in Jesse's room or something?
We've seen the cage Jesse traps Lexa in before, in "No Exit." Since the cage was created to be mutant-safe, it's weird that the floor isn't molecular-proof, isn't it? Also, when Jesse phases through the floor, he fortunately falls close enough to the second floor catwalk to grab the railing. In actuality, the end of the cage is further away from the catwalk, and Jesse should have missed the railing and fallen straight down to the first floor instead...which isn't really a problem for him, given that he does exactly that in "Dream Lover" without suffering any damage.
The Fixers, the dreaded assassins sent by The Dominion to terminate Lexa, turn out to be just two regular people who aren't even wearing power-resistant suits. Ooo, scary. Had Lexa been at her best, she could have taken them herself.
REM sleep comes with paralysis, Jesse. Since Lexa's going around murdering people, she's clearly not in the REM stage of sleep.
A short lesson in neuroanatomy for ya, Adam. The occipital lobe is actually in the back of the head. And if you activate the right motor cortex, only the left hand should move.
Adam’s reasoning at the end of this episode makes absolutely no sense. His remaining on the run may make him a hidden target, but it also makes Mutant X a target--in plain sight.
In Between
One fan, lonelywalker, once described this as “The One Where Jesse Trips and Falls into a Big Hole for an Entire Episode.” Add in some flashbacks, and that pretty much sums it up.
This is the only time we catch a glimpse of Emma after the second season, and the only time we see Dr. Ken Harrison after the first season.
We all worry about Emma around Brennan, but while she’d only been zapped four times (“Shock of the New,” “Deadly Desire,” “A Breed Apart,” and “One Step Closer”), this will be the sixth time Brennan shocks Jesse-he’s already been shocked in “I Scream the Body Electric” (Jesse was phased at the time), “Crime of the New Century” (in the teaser as a joke), “A Whiter Shade of Pale” (by accident), “Power Play” (to unphase him), “Hard Time” (under the influence of steroids), and “One Step Closer” (by accident).
We learn that all pods were destroyed (with or without the new mutants in them, I wonder?) after the downfall of Genomex, with the sole exception of Dr. Harrison’s lover.
Has Dr. Robinson just come from a party? Why is she wearing go-go boots to perform surgery?
Jesse says that Dr. Harrison must have become familiar with his genetic structure during his time at Genomex. But as far as we know, Jesse was never imprisoned at Genomex. He’s been there while rescuing new mutants in “I Scream the Body Electric,” “In the Presence of Mine Enemies,” “Crime of the New Century,” and “A Breed Apart,” but the closest he’s come to a pod was in his nightmare in “Nothing to Fear.”
Dream Lover
Shalimar and Gia lived on the streets together before Shalimar joined Mutant X. Gia is the first of two feral drug addicts we meet in S3.
A cross between a hobo spider and a whip scorpion, The Guardian is the second arachnid feral in the series. He's much less human than Lorna Templeton.
Jesse kills synthetic Lexa with the same paddles which saved his life in the previous episode.
Shalimar’s hair has grown like 5 inches since the previous episode! Must be a feral thing.
Taser construction has improved considerably since the days of Genomex. In "Dark Star Rising," many taser blasts were required to take down ferals Shalimar and Bo Longstreet; in this episode, however, one taser blast and bam! Shalimar and Gia are down for the count.
David Kelly Fiddick, who plays the cabdriver that synthetic Gia falls on, played a character named Frank Thorn in 'La Femme Nikita.' Coincidence?
Nolan has created a fairly flexible machine for creating synthetic clones; the real Shalimar and the real Gia are on opposite tables when they are being copied.
The ‘science’ of this episode is so questionable that the writers didn’t even bother to write technobabble to back it up. Notice that every time Jesse’s about to explain the inner workings of cybernetic clones, he is conveniently interrupted, and is unable to finish his thought:
Technobabble avoidance #1: Jesse: He’s figured out how to create synthetic clones by combining genetics with nanotechnology. These synthetic clones are virtually indistinguishable from their human counterparts-- *sees Lexa staring at him* What?
Technobabble avoidance #2: Jesse: Brennan, they’re onto us! Sebastian’s been popping off clones of the girls. Gia, Lexa, they’re all synthetics. I have no idea how to pull the plug on them. Wait, nanotechnology’s based on bioelectronics. Which means that-- *Lexa backhands him*
Technobabble avoidance #3: Jesse: I finally figured out the off switch. Since these guys are based in nanotechnology, the only way to dis--
Brennan: Just cut to it!
The plan to allow Brennan to infiltrate Narrow's Wake seems pretty dumb. If Sebastian Conway and Nolan Ryan weren’t already suspicious when Shalimar kept popping up, wouldn't they catch on when this previously unheard of billionaire captain of industry suddenly shows up on the same night, looking for an ‘exotic’ girl?
Shalimar: "Brennan, I am not the enemy here!" Took the words right out of Lexa’s mouth, in the episode "A Normal Life."
Shalimar, Gia, and Lexa are under the influence of a very strong sedative. But whispering their names wakes them up immediately.
Brennan is still damp while electrocuting synthetic Shal. Why is Brennan in the hot tub, anyway? He is supposed to be playing along with the seduction, but it seems a pretty bad idea for him to voluntarily get wet in any situation where he might need to fight.
So, how did Brennan know which Shalimar was which? Well, the evil Shalimar had just attempted to drown him in the hot tub. He just electrocuted the one with the wet arm, of course.
Lexa has a tattoo in an interesting location. Since we learned in "She's Come Undone" that Dominion employees are supposed to have pyramid tattoos, perhaps this is where hers is?
The Prophecy
This is the last of several Mutant X episodes which feature a creepy mental hospital; in the opening scene doctors and nurses walk blithely by patients in obvious distress. Somebody call the APA.
New toy in Sanctuary: Shalimar’s boxing bag. Second appearance of Brennan’s barbells. Third and last appearance of the glass chess set.
The different team members get incoming calls differently, apparently. Jesse talks to his computer when Alisha contacts him (his computer is the only one which seems to have caller ID on it), Shalimar answers Gia’s call in the main hall (why doesn’t Gia have her private number?), and Brennan picks up a cellphone to talk to Nathan Reynolds. How Nathan got a hold of Brennan’s private number when Brennan’s not even aware that he was part of Gabriel Ashlocke's plans is anybody’s guess. Shalimar and Bren joke about too many incoming calls to Sanctuary of late, but they never answer the question of how Nathan got Brennan's number.
As Shalimar and Brennan walk to find Nathan’s phone booth, you see the rather hokey-looking solar eclipse occurring in the background.
Let’s talk about The Guardian’s sporadically deadly mucus for a minute. The mucus is supposedly caustic enough to destroy the metal of Nathan's phone booth and melt Nathan's body. But as Shalimar kicks Brennan to the ground to protect him from being sprayed, his right foot is clearly soaked in mucus, though it seems to be none the worse for it. It's also weird that Shalimar's able to collect samples of something that acidic with a simple plastic pipette.
By the by, why does Shalimar have a pipette on her in the first place? Does she carry a chemistry kit hidden in her skin-tight leather pants, ready to whip out in case there should be some mucus to collect?
It is kinda sad that nobody really feels sorry for Nathan’s death. Shalimar’s too busy steaming about Brennan’s running off with Riley, and Jesse frankly thinks that it’s cool that he was slimed. Whatever happened to their compassion for their fellow mutants?
The photo of the Guardian which Jesse pulls up in the mutant database is actually taken from the previous scene where The Guardian attacked Shalimar and Brennan; you can plainly see Brennan’s tesla-coil-holding hand in the picture.
Kara is the second feral druggie we've seen. I guess the message is, "Don't do drugs, kids. You could end up being cloned and used for the pleasure of wealthy men, or slimed to death by a spider/scorpion man after your DNA has been stolen by a power-hungry psychopath."
Gabriel Ashlocke was the reason Genomex shut down. Lexa used to work at Genomex; she even knows what became of the pods after Genomex's demise. How can she not have heard about The Links before this episode?
Why did Gabriel choose Brennan, of all people, to add to his successor's DNA? He didn't seem to be terribly impressed with Brennan during his lifetime.
Riley is the first psionic in the series to use finger telepathy, though she does have a psionic blast like Emma’s. When Riley mind-blasts Brennnan, can't you just imagine Emma's ghost laughing at the payback for the times he electrocuted her?
While giving a prophecy, John Bishop’s eyes turn black like Marc Griffin’s while memory absorbing. This process seems to be automatically triggered by touch, though he can tell riddles at any time. The main difference seems to be that when his eyes are black, he rhymes. For example...
Bishop's riddle: Tell the last of the bloods that they will find The Guardian where tracks meet water under destiny. (Man, didn't that boat look fake?)
Bishop’s prophecies: From the blood of four will come our son / Once all signs pass / If the Links remain / The Heart of Ashlocke will live again.
The Child will be born / But for our hold to last / All four signs must come to pass / The moon will fall / Two bloods will be dashed / The Child will choose / And the mountain will crash.
Four will begin / True love will call / One will betray / And one will fall.
I am still confused about why Bishop occasionally speaks in reverse. Shalimar says it's because he is "unstuck in time. Backwards, forwards, they're the same to him." Since his body is still clearly in the present at all times, isn't he time-traveling in his mind only? And if so, why would he be speaking backwards?
As Riley and Brennan wait for Kara in The Red Sky Bar, she teases him about the fact that none of the women in the bar are interested in him. This may be a reference to season one's "Lazarus Syndrome," where Emma (another psionic) and Brennan have a similar conversation in Caleb Mathias's bar, called The Red Bar.
Brennan tells Riley to read his mind when he knows Jesse’s waiting to talk to him about her. Isn't that a bit risky?
Riley tells Brennan that most of The Links were Genomex’s.
Bishop says that The Child was born two years ago...but the kid looks to be about 7 or 8.
The Child has input from 4 bloods, therefore, his abilities include creating force-fields and teleportation. If he received those abilities from his "father," the molecular Nathan, then Nathan should have had no difficulty stopping The Guardian from killing him.
Jesse tells Shalimar to aim for the part of the Guardian’s back where the plates overlap. Shal, of course, hits the exact spot on the first try, though it’s impossible to see through his coat and she has never seen Jesse’s computer image to guide her. X-ray vision must be her new growth spurt.
Does anyone besides Brennan and Riley really believe The Child is NOT evil?
Cirque des Merveilles
Mason Eckhart brainwashed sleeper agents to wipe out new mutants should his plans not be successful before his death.
The canine feral Lexa and Jesse interrogate in the dog park is named Mike Robson. Michael Robson is the script coordinator for this episode.
If you look closely at Deklin's Book of New Mutants he has captured, you'll pick out the names of several of the production crew for this episode: elemental Wanda Chaffey (Line Producer), feral Lori Pumputis (Production Coordinator), molecular Ainsling Clancy (Producer's Assistant), feral Marr Morgan (Production Accountant), Kristine Child (1st Assistant Accountant), elemental Ron Lightfoot (Construction Manager), elemental Anthony Ianni (Art Director), molecular Victoria Klein (Property Master), feral Marlene Puritt (Set Decorator), feral Susan Worts (Property Buyer), molecular John Stead (Stunt Coordinator), psionic Joe Doto (1st Property Master), Aine Furey (Location Manager), and Douglas Lunn (Boom Operator).
As Jesse points out, Lexa uncharacteristically wears blinders for the majority of this episode. In “Possibilities,” Lexa’s the one who advises finding out more background behind the mission in order to do it well; as a result, she always discovers Lawrence Bosch’s involvement no matter which alternate reality they are in or how many obstacles Brennan tries to throw in her way. This time, however, she’s so focused on getting information from Tony that she ignores every warning given until it's too late.
Shalimar is acting pretty out of character here too. Usually maternally overprotective of Brennan (note "Divided Loyalties"), she is so caught up in being the lady on the trapeze that she barely notices Brennan’s been gone for hours until Diane tells her he has been trapped in the Chamber of Souls. Brennan who?
Without knocking first, Jesse barges headfirst into where Lexa’s showering, and then has the gall to look surprised that she’s not decent. Not buying it, you Peeping Tom.
It's funny that when the ultimate computer geek Jesse reports that Brennan’s comlink is offline, Lexa pushes in front of him to show him he must have made a computer error. As if she knows what she’s doing. Remember "damsel in distress, aisle two"?
Only Brennan could look at himself in a distorted mirror and still be pleased with what he sees.
Note Deklin's strategic placement of the female contortionist directly in front of The Chamber of Souls. Both of our boys stride purposefully into the circus on a mission to expose evil, only find themselves rooted in place, gawking at the sight of her distracting moving limbs. Men will be men.
Deklin deceived Diane, cheated on her, physically and mentally abused her, sneered at her, and planned to kill her. Taking all of this into consideration, she chooses to spend the rest of her life floating in an alternate dimension with him. Diane! Go find a decent man!
The Assault
This episode was disappointing on many levels, most notably the Shalimar/Brennan quickie, the inexplicably out of context 'plot twist' in the form of The Creator, and the unexpected cliffhanger which would end the series.
Continuity:
This is the first time Jesse masses objects outside of himself.
This is the first time we see geneticist Dominique since "Wages of Sin."
Adam had calculations of the expiry dates for the new mutants to the day of their death.
Adam was raised by Mike and Kara, employees of The Creator.
The Creator directed all the events of Adam's life from behind-the-scenes.
As Lina has pointed out, the helicopter shot at the beginning of this episode is the same as the one in “No Exit.”
It really is too bad that the GSA never developed mutant-resistant suits like the invaders from The Dominion. That would have been smart.
We've known since "I Scream the Body Electric" that comlink rings are keyed to the user's particular DNA strand. In previous episodes, the ring's owner had to be wearing the ring (or, as in the case of Adam in "Presumed Guilty," at least the owner's blood) in order for it to turn on. Why, then, after Lexa abandons her ring in Sanctuary does it turn on when Jesse touches it?
Brennan: "Typical Lexa. Don't ask for help, don't tell anyone where you're going..." Brennan, it seems, has forgotten all about his own conduct in "The Grift" and "Divided Loyalties."
The room in which Shalimar and Brennan make love suspiciously resembles Mason's office from the first season.
In "I Scream the Body Electric," Mason Eckhart explains that subdermal governors connect to a new mutant's DNA, so that when he uses his abilities without the controller's permission, he experiences debilitating pain. Brennan demonstrates that he can form a tesla coil with his governor in place, but soon collapses with abdominal pain. Thorne later explains that the second feature of the subdermal governor is that the controller can turn it on and off at will. In Season 3's "The Assault," however, when Lexa Pierce attempts to produce a laser after being fitted with a subdermal governor, she is clearly not in any pain. She is simply blocked from using her abilities. Perhaps The Dominion has developed a newer version of the original Genomex governors created by Adam Kane.
The above might also explain the fact that although this represents the third frickin' time Jesse has received a subdermal governor (fourth if you count the Genomex abduction Jesse refers to in "In Between"), he is still unable to deactivate this one himself...though Adam clearly showed him which part to press to turn them off in "Russian Roulette."
It is so easy for Jesse to track Adam down that you would think The Dominion, with all of its resources, could have accomplished it much sooner. For all his high-tech knowledge, you would imagine that Adam would have developed a means of deflecting a simple thermal scanner. Thicker walls, for instance.
Adam claims that he did not know that his research in prolonging Jesse's lifespan had been successful until the moment Mutant X informed him of it. This can't possibly be true, since he was the one who had calculated Jesse's expiry date in the first place, and Mutant X did not contact him until two weeks later. Seeing that Jesse lived even the day afterwards should have been sufficient indication that something had worked.
In "Wages of Sin," Jesse found that Dominique had already discovered how to stabilize new mutant DNA. If she was indeed working for The Dominion, then why was it necessary that Lexa bring Jesse to The Dominion for study after he passed his expiry date?
Also, why does The Dominion need Lexa to give them Sanctuary's access codes? They have been closely monitoring Mutant X months, not to mention completely funding the maintenance of Sanctuary since the beginning of the season. Plus, they helped build the place (and thus should know about that underground cave Jesse discovered in "The Future Revealed"). How can they not know the access codes already?
Lexa: "You know, for an organization bent on world domination, you sure don't know the first thing about security." No kidding. Why does Lexa have only one guard, and why is he unskilled in martial arts? Lexa strolls in and downloads her virus with a keystroke; why aren't the main computers locked down when there is no one in the computer lab? Why are there no security cameras in Jesse and Lexa's holding cells to watch them, since they are indeed next to one another and capable of speaking? And why aren't the walls of their cells molecular-proof?
Thanks to the hair, the clothing, and the voice, The Creator looks like something from a really bad B horror film. Wouldn't someone who needed to give himself daily injections cut his nails once in a while, or at least wash his hands?
Speaking of which, now we know why The Dominion wasn't so keen on shutting down Burns's de-aging serum research in "The Age of Innocence."
The Dominion murdered Michael Hayes in "Divided Loyalties" and Tony LaPorta in "Cirque des Merveilles" in order to keep Adam from learning information about The Creator. But if The Creator was merely looking to find Adam so that he could continue his genetic research, what was the big secret they were killing to protect?
What is the logic behind Adam’s blowing up the Helix? Who plans to destroy the getaway car in the process of a rescue mission?
Jesse's DNA has supposedly been stabilized. Nonetheless, he appears to have experienced another growth spurt by the end of the episode, now having acquired the ability to mass other people by touch. Does that mean the fix on his DNA was only temporary?
The obscure prophecy John Bishop gives Shalimar in "The Prophecy" was: Four will begin / True love will call / One will betray / And one will fall. Perhaps this dreaded 'fall' was a reference to Shalimar's plummet from Sanctuary's catwalk at the beginning of the episode. Or her plummet from the circus's rafters in "Cirque des Merveilles." Let's face it, Shalimar plummets on a fairly regular basis; the prophecy could be referring to anything, really. The betrayer could be Lexa (betraying The Dominion), or Adam (betraying his team to fraternize with The Creator). And true love...well...this was probably supposed to be Brennan and Shalimar, but it could have meant Jesse and Lexa as well. In the end, we're really no closer to knowing what Bishop meant than we were to begin with.