Hand of God, The
Mutant X Episode Synopses
The Hand of God: Episode #307
Tag: The Mutant X team embarks on a mission to locate and capture a powerful super-mutant who possesses god-like powers. [ Transcript]
Cast & Crew: Written by Rick Drew; Directed by Terry Ingram
James Bulliard.... Burke
Shane Daly.... Cody
Johnny Goltz....Wayne
John Ralston.... Carl
Jeanette Roxborough.... Terra
Peter Stebbings.... Kristoff
Official Synopsis: Onboard the Helix, Lexa (Karen Cliche) tells the Mutant X team that her contacts insist they apprehend their target quickly and carefully. When the team presses her for more information, Lexa reveals that the people she's referring to are known as The Dominion -- a covert group who have been policing the abuses of science for the last few hundred years, and have successfully prevented countless disasters that would have destroyed the world. She says the man they've been sent to capture is a dangerous super-mutant who lives in the woods with his faithful followers. Jesse (Forbes March) gets a thermal reading on the scanner and as Brennan (Victor Webster) begins to take the Helix down to investigate, a series of alarms go off and a streak of white light hits the ship. Suddenly, the ship's temperature rises to a critical level and an instrument panel bursts into flames. When Shalimar (Victoria Pratt) gets up to put it out, the rear hatch flies open and sucks her out of the Helix. Watching from the forest below, Terra (Jeanette Roxborough), a lupine feral, exchanges a smile of satisfaction with Cody (Shane Daly), the one who unleashed the blast on the Helix. Brennan manages to slam the Helix onto a beach and Jesse locates Shalimar's signal on the monitor. He tells Brennan and Lexa that some of the electronics are fried and they're stuck until he can fix it. In the woods, Shalimar is impaled on a tree branch and her face is covered with scratches and bruises. Meanwhile, Terra tells Cody to kill any survivors of the crash while she goes to find the man they're after. Shalimar comes to and comlinks the team, but only manages to tell them she's badly hurt before passing out. Brennan and Lexa set out to find their teammate while Jesse works on the Helix. Moments later, Shalimar awakens long enough to see a man named Burke (James Bulliard) approaching. Meanwhile, Jesse notices Shalimar's signal is moving, and tells Brennan and Lexa that she's heading northward. A short time later, Burke carries Shalimar into a hidden cave where a small community has settled. He lays her on a stone ledge and is joined by Carl (John Ralston), Wayne (Johnny Goltz) and a group of other men. Their leader, Kristoff (Peter Stebbings) arrives and when he sees Shalimar's eyes glow a feral gold, he realizes she's a mutant. As he embraces Shalimar, her wounds mysteriously heal and reappear on Kristoff's body. Seeing Kristoff weakening, Carl has two of the followers carry him away and orders Burke to take Shalimar somewhere to rest. A short time later, Shalimar awakens and comlinks Mutant X to tell them Kristoff healed her and that she thinks he's the man they're looking for. Believing the people who shot them down are also looking for Kristoff, Shalimar decides to offer to take him to Sanctuary. When Burke enters, Shalimar asks about Kristoff and learns that he can take a person's pain and wounds into his body. Back at the Helix, Jesse comlinks Brennan and Lexa to warn them that someone's close by. Meanwhile, Terra is making her way through the woods when Cody calls to tell her that Carl, their contact in Kristoff's camp, isn't cooperating. She gets patched through to Carl who vows that they'll get Kristoff as soon as he gets the money. When Carl hangs up, he and Wayne turn to see Burke, who's heard everything. Wayne quickly hits him over the head and knocks him out. Inside the cave, Shalimar finds Kristoff lying on a cot in obvious pain. He tells her that he's never healed a mutant before and misjudged the extent of her wounds. As she begins to warn him that people are looking for him, Carl and Wayne interrupt and Shalimar is escorted out. When Carl brings in Burke and insists he's a traitor, Burke denies the allegations and tries to convince Kristoff that it's really Carl, but his plea falls on deaf ears. Hearing a crowd chanting ?Guilty,? Shalimar rushes back to the chamber and is shocked to see Kristoff transferring the deadly wounds he had taken from her earlier to an innocent Burke. Kristoff then takes Shalimar to a private room where she reprimands him for killing Burke. Revealing that people have been using his powers his whole life, Kristoff explains that three years earlier, he escaped from a clinic where he was being tested. Since then, he has vowed to be the only one to use his powers to decide who lives and who dies. He kindly refuses Shalimar's help fearing that one day she too would ask him to use his powers. Meanwhile, as Brennan and Lexa search for Shalimar, they are ambushed by Terra, who kicks Lexa to the ground, dodges Brennan's tesla coil, pulls out a gun and shoots him before running into the woods. When Lexa comlinks for help, Shalimar starts to leave, but is stopped by Carl and Wayne, who she quickly takes out with a series of blows. Inside the cave, Kristoff is warning his followers that their enemies are coming and they must leave when Carl and his men enter the room. Aiming their guns at the group, Carl tells Kristoff that he's going to sell him. Suddenly, Terra bursts in and stabs Wayne in the chest before knocking Carl out and dragging Kristoff outside. In the woods, Shalimar reaches Lexa and insists they take Brennan to Kristoff to heal his fatal wounds. Meanwhile, Jesse finishes the repairs on the Helix and lifts it off the ground just as Cody arrives and begins shooting his weapon. A short time later, Shalimar and Lexa arrive at the camp with Brennan. When Terra sees them, she raises her gun, but Lexa hits her with a laser and she takes off into the woods. Shalimar then begs Kristoff to save Brennan, offering to have him transfer his wounds to her. Stunned that she would to die for her friend, Kristoff decides to help and embraces Brennan just as Terra bursts out of the trees and kicks Lexa to the ground. When she turns her sights on Shalimar, the two ferals face off. Meanwhile, Lexa sees Carl and his men exiting the cave and shoots a laser at them forcing them into the woods. Shalimar kicks Terra down and Lexa, seeing her reaching for her gun, fries her with a powerful laser beam. Letting go of Brennan, Kristoff falls to the ground and a hopeful Shalimar becomes distraught when she doesn't find his pulse. Just then, the Helix appears overhead and Brennan, who is now healed, tells a guilt-ridden Shalimar that they must leave. As the ship flies off, Carl walks back into camp, his gun aimed at the men surrounding Kristoff's lifeless body. Kneeling down next to the body, Kristoff's hand suddenly latches onto Carl's wrist, killing him within seconds.
Quotes: Brennan: I thought that thermal scanner of yours could pick up heartburn in a chipmunk.
Jesse: It can. Maybe the guy we're looking for has been laying off the chili peppers.
Lexa: My contacts tell me our target is vital.
Shalimar: Well, maybe if your contacts had told us a little bit more about this guy, maybe we'd be able to make that decision ourselves.
Lexa: And guess why they didn't tell you?
Jesse: Well now, while we're on the subject, who are they?
Lexa: Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny. What difference does it make? [Brennan turns the Helix around] What are you doing?!
Brennan: Let's try that again, Lex.
Lexa: For the past few hundred years, they've been working behind the scenes, policing abuses of science. They call themselves The Dominion.
Jesse: The same guys who sent Galileo to the guillotine?
Lexa: No, they don't hate science. Just its misuse. I mean, they've stopped disasters that could've killed the world 20 times over.
Shalimar: Like what?
Lexa: Threats from science you've never even heard of. See, Adam and Genomex, they're just one of their interests.
Jesse: Like this guy we're chasing today, huh?
Lexa: Exactly. So we bag him and leave him in the delivery slot.
Shalimar: Without knowing why?
Lexa: Look, you know what I know. He's a supermutant who's got apocalypse now in the woods with his own cult. The point is, he's dangerous, and he has to be stopped.
Brennan: Dammit! My stick is locked!
Lexa: Brennan, no one could have survived that fall.
Brennan: You don't know that. She's one of the toughest people I know.
Lexa: That may be so, but she can't fly.
Brennan: We should go this way.
Lexa: Hey, where's the GPS?
Brennan: It's gone.
Lexa: How gone?
Brennan: Very gone.
Lexa: Let's go. We've got to catch up.
Brennan: Why the sudden change in attitude? Excited about finding Shalimar or just about your mission?
Lexa: Maybe they're one and the same.
Lexa: Brennan, you're going to have to make a choice when we get there.
Brennan: What choice?
Lexa: Shalimar's not focused.
Brennan: You know, maybe you should have fallen out of the plane.
Kristoff: Burke was a traitor.
Shalimar: I don't believe that. He saved my life and you murdered him.
Kristoff: I saved your life.
Shalimar: You killed him with what you took from me. That's on my head.
Kristoff: Who are you to question my decisions?
Shalimar: Whe you healed me, I thought we had a connection.
Kristoff: We do.
Shalimar: What you did makes me sick.
Kristoff: Should I have let you die?
Shalimar: I would never have chosen to kill Burke so that I could live.
Kristoff: You didn't have to choose. But I did. I can give the gift of life. If I decide to withold it, that's killing too. Because I can choose, I must choose. You think that's easy? My whole life, people have been trying to use my power. My parents tried to use my gift in a side show ministry; doctors tried to exploit me to make fortunes. Unitl I escaped, I spent three years trapped in a private clinic. To test the limits of my abilities, they would torture subjects to the point of death and make me save them. To save one is to condemn another. They'd make me pass it on so I could do it all over again the next day.
Shalimar: I'm sorry. I didn't know.
Kristoff: When I escaped, I swore that I would never let anybody use my power ever again. If I'm to be cursed with this gift, I'll be the one who decides who lives and who dies.
Shalimar: It's not safe for you here. I want you to come with me.
Kristoff: Why? So your side can use me instead of someone else's?
Shalimar: We wouldn't do that to you.
Kristoff: You wouldn't mean to. But you would.
Carl: I just knew you were trouble.
Shalimar: Only you didn't know how much.
Kristoff: Burke was telling the truth. You murdered him!
Carl: No. You murdered him. Just because you've got this damn trick you can do does not give you the right to decide who lives and who dies. No matter what you might think, you are not a god.
Shalimar: Kristoff, my friend's dying.
Kristoff: Yeah? What do you want me to do about it?
Shalimar: Can you save him?
Kristoff: See? You're just like the others. Take the pain from me and mine and give it to someone else.
Shalimar: Save him and give it to me.
Kristoff: You're ready to die for him?
Shalimar: Yeah.
Shalimar: Kristoff. Now give it to me.
Kristoff: It ends here.
Lexa: For a minute there, it looked like I'd gotten rid of you for good.
Brennan: Better luck next time.
Jesse: Your people won't be pleased.
Lexa: Well, at least the competition didn't get him. That's enough for them.
Jesse: And for you?
Lexa: He's a commodity. Always was.
Jesse: At the Dominion, what would he have been?
Lexa: Let's just say he's probably better off this way.
Brennan: Shal, it was his decision. There was nothing we could do.
Shalimar: He was just trying to find a way to live with his power.
Brennan: Like all of us. You were ready to die for me today.
Shalimar: We risk our lives for each other all the time.
Brennan: No, that was more than risk. You were going to sacrifice yourself for me.
Shalimar: Seemed like a good idea at the time...
Trivia & Nitpicks: 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 to avoid being murdered by Cody.
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.
Once again, no one from Mutant X checks Kristoff's pulse to figure out whether he's really dead, and as Carl bends over Kristoff to grab him, Kristoff is visibly breathing. He should've seen it coming...
Return to The Mutant X Warehouse
The Hand of God: Episode #307
Tag: The Mutant X team embarks on a mission to locate and capture a powerful super-mutant who possesses god-like powers. [ Transcript]
Cast & Crew: Written by Rick Drew; Directed by Terry Ingram
James Bulliard.... Burke
Shane Daly.... Cody
Johnny Goltz....Wayne
John Ralston.... Carl
Jeanette Roxborough.... Terra
Peter Stebbings.... Kristoff
Official Synopsis: Onboard the Helix, Lexa (Karen Cliche) tells the Mutant X team that her contacts insist they apprehend their target quickly and carefully. When the team presses her for more information, Lexa reveals that the people she's referring to are known as The Dominion -- a covert group who have been policing the abuses of science for the last few hundred years, and have successfully prevented countless disasters that would have destroyed the world. She says the man they've been sent to capture is a dangerous super-mutant who lives in the woods with his faithful followers. Jesse (Forbes March) gets a thermal reading on the scanner and as Brennan (Victor Webster) begins to take the Helix down to investigate, a series of alarms go off and a streak of white light hits the ship. Suddenly, the ship's temperature rises to a critical level and an instrument panel bursts into flames. When Shalimar (Victoria Pratt) gets up to put it out, the rear hatch flies open and sucks her out of the Helix. Watching from the forest below, Terra (Jeanette Roxborough), a lupine feral, exchanges a smile of satisfaction with Cody (Shane Daly), the one who unleashed the blast on the Helix. Brennan manages to slam the Helix onto a beach and Jesse locates Shalimar's signal on the monitor. He tells Brennan and Lexa that some of the electronics are fried and they're stuck until he can fix it. In the woods, Shalimar is impaled on a tree branch and her face is covered with scratches and bruises. Meanwhile, Terra tells Cody to kill any survivors of the crash while she goes to find the man they're after. Shalimar comes to and comlinks the team, but only manages to tell them she's badly hurt before passing out. Brennan and Lexa set out to find their teammate while Jesse works on the Helix. Moments later, Shalimar awakens long enough to see a man named Burke (James Bulliard) approaching. Meanwhile, Jesse notices Shalimar's signal is moving, and tells Brennan and Lexa that she's heading northward. A short time later, Burke carries Shalimar into a hidden cave where a small community has settled. He lays her on a stone ledge and is joined by Carl (John Ralston), Wayne (Johnny Goltz) and a group of other men. Their leader, Kristoff (Peter Stebbings) arrives and when he sees Shalimar's eyes glow a feral gold, he realizes she's a mutant. As he embraces Shalimar, her wounds mysteriously heal and reappear on Kristoff's body. Seeing Kristoff weakening, Carl has two of the followers carry him away and orders Burke to take Shalimar somewhere to rest. A short time later, Shalimar awakens and comlinks Mutant X to tell them Kristoff healed her and that she thinks he's the man they're looking for. Believing the people who shot them down are also looking for Kristoff, Shalimar decides to offer to take him to Sanctuary. When Burke enters, Shalimar asks about Kristoff and learns that he can take a person's pain and wounds into his body. Back at the Helix, Jesse comlinks Brennan and Lexa to warn them that someone's close by. Meanwhile, Terra is making her way through the woods when Cody calls to tell her that Carl, their contact in Kristoff's camp, isn't cooperating. She gets patched through to Carl who vows that they'll get Kristoff as soon as he gets the money. When Carl hangs up, he and Wayne turn to see Burke, who's heard everything. Wayne quickly hits him over the head and knocks him out. Inside the cave, Shalimar finds Kristoff lying on a cot in obvious pain. He tells her that he's never healed a mutant before and misjudged the extent of her wounds. As she begins to warn him that people are looking for him, Carl and Wayne interrupt and Shalimar is escorted out. When Carl brings in Burke and insists he's a traitor, Burke denies the allegations and tries to convince Kristoff that it's really Carl, but his plea falls on deaf ears. Hearing a crowd chanting ?Guilty,? Shalimar rushes back to the chamber and is shocked to see Kristoff transferring the deadly wounds he had taken from her earlier to an innocent Burke. Kristoff then takes Shalimar to a private room where she reprimands him for killing Burke. Revealing that people have been using his powers his whole life, Kristoff explains that three years earlier, he escaped from a clinic where he was being tested. Since then, he has vowed to be the only one to use his powers to decide who lives and who dies. He kindly refuses Shalimar's help fearing that one day she too would ask him to use his powers. Meanwhile, as Brennan and Lexa search for Shalimar, they are ambushed by Terra, who kicks Lexa to the ground, dodges Brennan's tesla coil, pulls out a gun and shoots him before running into the woods. When Lexa comlinks for help, Shalimar starts to leave, but is stopped by Carl and Wayne, who she quickly takes out with a series of blows. Inside the cave, Kristoff is warning his followers that their enemies are coming and they must leave when Carl and his men enter the room. Aiming their guns at the group, Carl tells Kristoff that he's going to sell him. Suddenly, Terra bursts in and stabs Wayne in the chest before knocking Carl out and dragging Kristoff outside. In the woods, Shalimar reaches Lexa and insists they take Brennan to Kristoff to heal his fatal wounds. Meanwhile, Jesse finishes the repairs on the Helix and lifts it off the ground just as Cody arrives and begins shooting his weapon. A short time later, Shalimar and Lexa arrive at the camp with Brennan. When Terra sees them, she raises her gun, but Lexa hits her with a laser and she takes off into the woods. Shalimar then begs Kristoff to save Brennan, offering to have him transfer his wounds to her. Stunned that she would to die for her friend, Kristoff decides to help and embraces Brennan just as Terra bursts out of the trees and kicks Lexa to the ground. When she turns her sights on Shalimar, the two ferals face off. Meanwhile, Lexa sees Carl and his men exiting the cave and shoots a laser at them forcing them into the woods. Shalimar kicks Terra down and Lexa, seeing her reaching for her gun, fries her with a powerful laser beam. Letting go of Brennan, Kristoff falls to the ground and a hopeful Shalimar becomes distraught when she doesn't find his pulse. Just then, the Helix appears overhead and Brennan, who is now healed, tells a guilt-ridden Shalimar that they must leave. As the ship flies off, Carl walks back into camp, his gun aimed at the men surrounding Kristoff's lifeless body. Kneeling down next to the body, Kristoff's hand suddenly latches onto Carl's wrist, killing him within seconds.
Quotes: Brennan: I thought that thermal scanner of yours could pick up heartburn in a chipmunk.
Jesse: It can. Maybe the guy we're looking for has been laying off the chili peppers.
Lexa: My contacts tell me our target is vital.
Shalimar: Well, maybe if your contacts had told us a little bit more about this guy, maybe we'd be able to make that decision ourselves.
Lexa: And guess why they didn't tell you?
Jesse: Well now, while we're on the subject, who are they?
Lexa: Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny. What difference does it make? [Brennan turns the Helix around] What are you doing?!
Brennan: Let's try that again, Lex.
Lexa: For the past few hundred years, they've been working behind the scenes, policing abuses of science. They call themselves The Dominion.
Jesse: The same guys who sent Galileo to the guillotine?
Lexa: No, they don't hate science. Just its misuse. I mean, they've stopped disasters that could've killed the world 20 times over.
Shalimar: Like what?
Lexa: Threats from science you've never even heard of. See, Adam and Genomex, they're just one of their interests.
Jesse: Like this guy we're chasing today, huh?
Lexa: Exactly. So we bag him and leave him in the delivery slot.
Shalimar: Without knowing why?
Lexa: Look, you know what I know. He's a supermutant who's got apocalypse now in the woods with his own cult. The point is, he's dangerous, and he has to be stopped.
Brennan: Dammit! My stick is locked!
Lexa: Brennan, no one could have survived that fall.
Brennan: You don't know that. She's one of the toughest people I know.
Lexa: That may be so, but she can't fly.
Brennan: We should go this way.
Lexa: Hey, where's the GPS?
Brennan: It's gone.
Lexa: How gone?
Brennan: Very gone.
Lexa: Let's go. We've got to catch up.
Brennan: Why the sudden change in attitude? Excited about finding Shalimar or just about your mission?
Lexa: Maybe they're one and the same.
Lexa: Brennan, you're going to have to make a choice when we get there.
Brennan: What choice?
Lexa: Shalimar's not focused.
Brennan: You know, maybe you should have fallen out of the plane.
Kristoff: Burke was a traitor.
Shalimar: I don't believe that. He saved my life and you murdered him.
Kristoff: I saved your life.
Shalimar: You killed him with what you took from me. That's on my head.
Kristoff: Who are you to question my decisions?
Shalimar: Whe you healed me, I thought we had a connection.
Kristoff: We do.
Shalimar: What you did makes me sick.
Kristoff: Should I have let you die?
Shalimar: I would never have chosen to kill Burke so that I could live.
Kristoff: You didn't have to choose. But I did. I can give the gift of life. If I decide to withold it, that's killing too. Because I can choose, I must choose. You think that's easy? My whole life, people have been trying to use my power. My parents tried to use my gift in a side show ministry; doctors tried to exploit me to make fortunes. Unitl I escaped, I spent three years trapped in a private clinic. To test the limits of my abilities, they would torture subjects to the point of death and make me save them. To save one is to condemn another. They'd make me pass it on so I could do it all over again the next day.
Shalimar: I'm sorry. I didn't know.
Kristoff: When I escaped, I swore that I would never let anybody use my power ever again. If I'm to be cursed with this gift, I'll be the one who decides who lives and who dies.
Shalimar: It's not safe for you here. I want you to come with me.
Kristoff: Why? So your side can use me instead of someone else's?
Shalimar: We wouldn't do that to you.
Kristoff: You wouldn't mean to. But you would.
Carl: I just knew you were trouble.
Shalimar: Only you didn't know how much.
Kristoff: Burke was telling the truth. You murdered him!
Carl: No. You murdered him. Just because you've got this damn trick you can do does not give you the right to decide who lives and who dies. No matter what you might think, you are not a god.
Shalimar: Kristoff, my friend's dying.
Kristoff: Yeah? What do you want me to do about it?
Shalimar: Can you save him?
Kristoff: See? You're just like the others. Take the pain from me and mine and give it to someone else.
Shalimar: Save him and give it to me.
Kristoff: You're ready to die for him?
Shalimar: Yeah.
Shalimar: Kristoff. Now give it to me.
Kristoff: It ends here.
Lexa: For a minute there, it looked like I'd gotten rid of you for good.
Brennan: Better luck next time.
Jesse: Your people won't be pleased.
Lexa: Well, at least the competition didn't get him. That's enough for them.
Jesse: And for you?
Lexa: He's a commodity. Always was.
Jesse: At the Dominion, what would he have been?
Lexa: Let's just say he's probably better off this way.
Brennan: Shal, it was his decision. There was nothing we could do.
Shalimar: He was just trying to find a way to live with his power.
Brennan: Like all of us. You were ready to die for me today.
Shalimar: We risk our lives for each other all the time.
Brennan: No, that was more than risk. You were going to sacrifice yourself for me.
Shalimar: Seemed like a good idea at the time...
Trivia & Nitpicks: 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 to avoid being murdered by Cody.
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.
Once again, no one from Mutant X checks Kristoff's pulse to figure out whether he's really dead, and as Carl bends over Kristoff to grab him, Kristoff is visibly breathing. He should've seen it coming...
Return to The Mutant X Warehouse