Into the Moonless Night
Mutant X Episode Synopses
Into the Moonless Night: Episode #301
Tag: In the exciting season opener, the surviving members of Mutant X emerge from a deadly explosion to meet the beautiful and mysterious Lexa, who makes them begin to question fundamental assumptions about their world. [ Transcript]
Cast & Crew: Written by Peter Mohan; Directed by Philip David Segal
Araxi Arslanian.... Marika
George Buza.... Lexa's Dominion Contact
Carmen Noseworthy....Doctor
Tracy Shreve.... Oblivion
Jeffrey R. Smith....Mason's Scientist
Richard Stroh.... Silva
Sean Sullivan....Bartender
Episode Synopsis: FLASHBACK: In last season’s cliffhanger finale, "Lest He Become," the Mutant X team learned that Shalimar’s (Victoria Pratt) estranged father and his company, Naxcon, were involved in genetic testing with the nefarious Mason Eckhart (Tom McCamus). The team raced to Naxcon to stop Eckhart’s plans, but as they battled Eckhart’s men they were inadvertently trapped inside the building when it suddenly exploded. Following the explosion, Jesse (Forbes March) searches for the other members of Mutant X in one of the triage tents outside of Naxcon. He soon finds Brennan (Victor Webster), who is shaken but unharmed and the two go in search of their teammates. They hear the anguished voice of Shalimar, who is watching her father being loaded into an ambulance. Brennan comforts her while Jesse watches a group of paramedics working on another victim. After a few moments, the paramedics realize it’s hopeless and place the victim into a body bag. Brennan, Shalimar and Jesse are horrified to see that it’s Emma. Distraught, the group realizes there’s been no sign of Adam. After searching the city and finding no trace of Adam, Jesse uses satellites to locate Adam’s comlink signal. Brennan and Shalimar race to the location of the signal only to find a homeless man wearing Adam’s "MX" pin. Suddenly, Eckhart’s voice comes across the comlink and Brennan and Shalimar turn to find Eckhart and his cohort Silva (Richard Stroh) standing in the shadows with Adam’s comlink ring. Eckhart steps forward, revealing his horribly diseased skin and tells them that Adam’s technology destroyed his immune system and the synthetic dermal casing that’s been protecting his fragile body was breached in the explosion. He insists that the key to saving his own life is contained in Adam’s research and demands the files in exchange for Adam’s safe return. Brennan and Shalimar return to Sanctuary where Jesse is frantically trying to access Adam’s computer files. To the team’s surprise, a beautiful woman (Karen Cliche) suddenly emerges from a prism of light. When the mysterious woman refuses to say who she is, Jesse tries to grab her, but she suddenly disappears and forcefully pushes him into the computer station. Jesse quickly realizes she is able to control light and is bending it in order to make herself invisible. The woman reappears and emits a bright flash from her hands that blinds the team momentarily. When they recover, she tells them she’s been sent by powerful people to find Adam. She approaches the computer and types in her name, LEXA, as the password, giving Jesse access to Adam’s top-secret files. Stunned by Lexa’s knowledge of Adam, Brennan and Shalimar follow her into the lab where she reveals that she used to be part of Mutant X and lived at Sanctuary for two years. Frustrated by the secrets Adam kept from her, she left. Now with Adam missing, she’s been sent back by the people Adam works for because they’re afraid he’s betrayed them by making a pact with Eckhart. Shocked, Brennan and Shalimar insist Adam didn’t work for anyone, but a moment later Jesse confirms that Adam’s files prove he was trying to help Eckhart. Knowing Eckhart won’t simply release Adam to them, Lexa devises a plan to bluff him and still save Adam’s life. The team arranges to meet Eckhart and when they arrive at the designated location, they find Eckhart, Silva, a lizard feral and a telekinetic mutant. After Brennan shows them the disk containing Adam’s files, Eckhart confesses that he’s not holding Adam and that Adam’s comlink ring was retrieved from a charred body that had washed up on shore. Brennan is just about to destroy the disk when the telekinetic mutant telepathically rips the disk from his hand and places it in a high-tech box. Brennan hits the mutant with an electrical blast and it drops the box, but the lizard feral grabs it and races off with Shalimar close behind. Meanwhile, the others go after Eckhart, but Silva stops them with a wave of concentrated pain. Lexa goes after Eckhart, but the telekinetic mutant stops her with an invisible force field. Brennan hits the mutant with another blast, knocking him down. Shalimar catches up to the lizard feral, but he suddenly vanishes into thin air. Back at Sanctuary, Lexa insists they do everything in their power to keep Eckhart from regenerating his body. To stress this, she shows them a metal plate on her neck, which was implanted by Eckhart’s people. Frustrated, Brennan storms out. Meanwhile, at an abandoned power plant, Eckhart’s men gather and assemble the equipment needed to build the regeneration chamber based on Adam’s research files. Jesse, however, has already tracked the equipment from Adam’s files and is working to find out exactly where it is. Across town, Brennan enters a bar he used to frequent. The bartender (Sean Sullivan) remembers him and hands him a drink before heading to the payphone where he calls Silva to tell him Brennan’s there. Just as Eckhart climbs into the regenerative chamber, Silva informs him that Brennan’s alone and they’re going to pick him up. As the chamber fills with mist, Eckhart begins to scream and the glass suddenly explodes. Back at the bar, an attractive woman sits next to Brennan and says his name. Intrigued, Brennan asks her name, but soon finds that he can’t breathe and passes out. At Sanctuary, Lexa talks to a mysterious man on the computer screen who tells her she must rescue Brennan, who’s been captured by Eckhart’s men, and stop Eckhart from regenerating. Having thought her mission was over now that Adam is presumably dead, the man informs her that she is to remain with Mutant X until he tells her otherwise if she wants his help in finding the people she’s personally seeking. When Lexa breaks the connection, she realizes Jesse is standing behind her and has heard everything. At the power plant, Brennan awakens only to find himself strapped down and hooked up to a series of wires. Eckhart, fully regenerated, approaches Brennan and tells him he wants everything that belonged to Adam, including Sanctuary. When Brennan doesn’t volunteer any information, Silva zaps him with a beam of concentrated pain, but Brennan resists talking. Meanwhile, Shalimar arrives at the bar where Brennan was kidnapped and forces the bartender to tell her what he knows. Determined to break Brennan, Eckhart brings in a wheelchair-bound woman (Araxi Arslanian) who is a psychic interrogator. As she touches Brennan’s face, a holographic image of Brennan screaming appears. Back at Sanctuary, Lexa informs Jesse and Shalimar that the phone number the bartender dialed to report on Brennan was an old GSA front company. She goes on to explain that she used to work for the GSA. When Jesse traces the call further, he discovers that it was forwarded to the power plant. He pulls up a live aerial image of the building and based on the electrical activity detected, they decide to check it out. Inside the power plant, the psychic is locked into Brennan’s mind, searching for Sanctuary’s location. An image of a mountain range appears, revealing Stormking Mountain and a series of letters and numbers. Having gotten the information he was seeking, Eckhart leaves Silva to kill Brennan. Before Silva can muster up enough energy, however, Shalimar drops down in front of him and slashes his abdomen with her clawed fingers. She then frees Brennan and he races after the escaping psychic interrogator. He pushes her into the regeneration machine and electrocutes her. When Lexa and Jesse enter the room, the lizard feral pounces on them. Shalimar catches the lizard, but he manages to gain the upper hand and begins to strangle her. Suddenly, Jesse appears behind the lizard and peels him off Shalimar before massing out and knocking the creature unconscious. Meanwhile, Brennan traps Eckhart on a catwalk, high above the ground, and creates a huge tesla coil. Though Eckhart tries to convince Brennan he can help Mutant X, Brennan blasts him repeatedly until he is thrown over the railing and falls dead to the ground. Later at Sanctuary, Brennan, Shalimar, Jesse and Lexa hold a somber memorial for Emma and Adam, unaware that they are being watched.
Quotes:
Shalimar: I remember when we took this one. Emma had only been here a couple of months. We were picnicking on the mountain. Said it was the best day of her life. She touched my mind, shared it with me. She only shared the good stuff; kept the pain to herself....sorry.
Brennan: Sorry for what? For feeling? Shal, we just lost one of our best friends. If you weren’t ready to break down right now, I would think there was something wrong with you.
Shalimar: What are we going to do without her?
Brennan: I don’t know. It’ll just take time to get past this, you know? And then we’ll figure out where to go from there.
Shalimar: I miss her so much.
Brennan: I know.
Brennan: Who could have done something like this?
Mason: How soon I’m forgotten.
Mason: My immune system was destroyed years ago, my entire body melting down at the genetic rate. This synthetic dermal casing that I’ve worn is all that’s kept me alive. And unfortunately, it was breached in the escape from Naxcon.
Brennan: What do you want from us?
Mason: All of Adam’s research on how to treat my condition. And you’ll get your friend back, hopefully still alive.
Shalimar: If you harm Adam in any way, I am gonna rip you limb for limb.
Mason: That’s what I like to hear. The opening salvo in a negotiation.
Lexa: Wow, you guys give up easy, don't you?
Shalimar: Jess, what's going on?
Jesse: She can control light. She's bending it around her.
Shalimar: She still gives off heat. You may be able to fool my friends, but I can still see you, day or night.
Lexa: Then here's a little day for ya.
Lexa: Can we consider the introductions made and just get on with it?
Jesse: What is the 'it' that you want?
Lexa: What is the 'it' that I want? I want to be back having dinner with a delectable painter named Marco on the Italian Riviera. But unfortunately, I was called back here. See, Adam Kane’s disappearance has worried a number of powerful people, and they asked me to become involved in his return.
Shalimar: Why you?
Lexa: Because I have a unique understanding of the situation. Also Adam and I have a special relationship.
Brennan: Bull. We’ve never even heard of you.
Lexa: And that means?
Shalimar: We’d know.
Lexa: If you knew Adam as well as you say you do, you’d know he doesn’t share all the information with only one person.
Jesse: Why should we believe any of this?
Lexa: You want to get into Adam’s files? You’d have a better chance if you knew his password. My name: LEXA.
Lexa: Adam always kept stuff around for a late night snack.
Brennan: Well, you sure made yourself at home pretty quickly.
Lexa: This was my home. For 2 years.
Shalimar: You lived here?
Lexa: Yep. I was Mutant X 1.0. Or I was supposed to be. I figured somewhere along the way that I wasn’t a joiner. Look, guys. I don’t know how much Adam told you about what he was doing, why he was doing it. But there are people out there that Adam answered to.
Shalimar: Adam worked for people?
Lexa: In a way. See, Adam was the fuse to a genetic time bomb, and there were some powerful people out there who decided it had to be put out. They realized the only one who could do that was Adam himself. So they gave him funds, access to information, and Home Sweet Home.
Brennan: Yeah. Don’t try to tell me that some people in your world actually care about somebody else.
Lexa: Adam made a deal. He wanted to escape Genomex and the GSA. You know, certain parties actually believe that he may have made a deal to slip their tether as well.
Brennan: Yeah, and you still work for these people?
Lexa: I work for myself, Stud Muffin. But you see, sometimes my goals and theirs coincide.
Shalimar: And what are your goals?
Lexa: I said I’m on your side. That’s all you need to know.
Shalimar: Why should we believe you?
Lexa: Because if I wasn’t, you wouldn’t still be alive.
Jesse: According to this, Eckhart might have been telling the truth. I mean, the later experiments were actually successful. They reversed the damage to his immune system.
Shalimar: Why didn’t we know about this?
Jesse: There’s more. Adam was working on this all along.
Shalimar: You’re saying he was actually trying to help Eckhart?!
Jesse: Well, I mean that’s the way it looks, but I don’t know. Maybe he was trying to save it as a bargaining chip for the future. Who knows?
Brennan: Yeah, a future they’d be dividing up in some way.
Jesse: What’s going on with you?
Brennan: Dominant selection, okay? Who lives and who dies. That's the only power these people are interested in. I say we sit on this information.
Jesse: What about Adam?
Brennan: There’s no guarantee that Eckhart even has Adam, okay? And if he does, who’s to say that he’s going to turn Adam over once we hand him that research? The more that we learn about Adam and Eckhart’s relationship the more it stinks. It used to seem like they were so different, right? They weren’t. One way or another they have the same agenda.
Shalimar: We know Adam’s agenda. Better living through controlling disease. Is that so bad?
Brennan: Shal, where have you been the last two years? Any time you mess with human genes, you open Pandora’s Box. If Eckhart manages to save himself, he is going to be harder to stop than ever. The whole world will suffer.
Shalimar: Stare at me any harder, you’re gonna burn a hole in my head.
Brennan: Where’s Adam?
Mason: Where is Adam? Belief is a fascinating thing, isn’t it? Belief that I would live to crush Adam Kane is all that sustained me, imprisoned in my pod all those months. And belief that your mentor is still alive has convinced you to bring me my salvation. But in this case, neither of these two conflicting beliefs can be borne out as truth.
Brennan: I won’t ask you again.
Mason: Alas, I was denied the pleasure of destroying Adam with my own hands.
Shalimar: You’re lying.
Mason: Adam’s comlink was retrieved from his lifeless body. He was lying on the shore charred beyond all recognition.
Mason: When are you going to learn there's nothing you have I can't possess?
Shalimar: Eckhart got what he wanted. Adam’s dead, he doesn’t need us anymore. Maybe that’s the end of it.
Lexa: Don’t believe it. You guys better fasten your seat belts. 'Cause once Eckhart’s back in business, Genomex, the GSA, all of it will seem like summer camp in comparison.
Shalimar: Yeah? What’s changed?
Lexa: You’ve been lucky. There are others who weren’t so lucky. Little party favor from Eckhart’s people.
Brennan: Yeah, I’m done. It’s high time that I stop making Eckhart my problem.
Jesse: What is that supposed to mean, Brennan?
Brennan: I didn’t sign up for this crap, Jess. And I’m damn sure not gonna stick around and end up being somebody’s lab rat.
Lexa: Really? And what do you think Adam was doing with you all these years, huh? Layers and layers, Brennan. You’re still just scratching the surface of what’s really going on.
Brennan: I don’t want to hear about, and I don’t want to be a part of it.
Lexa: There is no option.
Brennan: You know, I spent a lot of years living on the street before I knew anything about Adam and this whole mess he created. I can easily do it again.
Jesse: Okay, lets not get spun out here. We still have a mission.
Brennan: What mission? Living like fugitives in this hunk of rock? Running around risking our lives every single day for a world full of people that want us dead if they knew we existed?
Lexa: Well, you can’t walk away from this Brennan.
Brennan: Watch me. To hell with you, and those people who you work for.
Shalimar: Look, we need to stick together.
Brennan: Why? Shal, I may not have been such a good guy before I joined Mutant X, but at least I always picked a mark who probably deserved it. Right now we have no idea what we’ve been fighting for, or for who.
Shalimar: We know who. It was for Adam.
Brennan: Oh, Adam? Yeah, the guy who messed around with our DNA and lied to us all these years? We have no clue who he really was or what he was really trying to do. Look, I just need to think, okay?
Shalimar: Look, I understand you giving up on Adam. But don’t give up on me and Jess.
Brennan: Never.
Lexa: You worry me.
Jesse: Why? 'Cause I’m not in your face like the others?
Lexa: Something like that.
Jesse: You’re gonna join Mutant X, huh? We could use someone like you.
Lexa: Little word of advice. Don’t let people in too easy. It’s a good way to get yourself killed.
Jesse: So Adam was a mad scientist, huh?
Lexa: Sometimes people let their obsessions drive them to do more harm than good.
Jesse: Is that why you left him? Didn’t trust him anymore?
Lexa: Maybe.
Jesse: Whatever Adam is, he taught me good ideas. Ideas that I’m still gonna fight for.
Lexa: Another idealist.
Mason: Silva, if this procedure is not successful, kill them all.
Silva: And if it is successful?
Mason: Kill them anyway.
The Voice: Miss Pierce, you were supposed to draw Mutant X together, not tear them apart.
Lexa: Look, I didn’t sign on to run a group therapy session in a mutant halfway house, okay?
The Voice: You signed on to achieve our goals, however they may be achieved.
Lexa: They’ll come back.
The Voice: There will be nothing left for them to come back to. If Eckhart manages to heal himself, he will come after the rest of Adam Kane’s research. That cannot be permitted.
Lexa: Well, as they say around here, you open Pandora’s Box, you deal with the consequences.
The Voice: You consider this our problem?
Lexa: You ran Adam. You used his results.
The Voice: We were partners.
Lexa: Don’t play games. I know too much. I’ll make preparations to shut Sanctuary down. I can sterilize the facility. When Eckhart arrives it’ll be useless to him.
The Voice: Our strategy calls for you to ensure that Sanctuary and its information remain active. Also that Mutant X remains a viable force.
Lexa: Meaning?
The Voice: We’ve learned that Eckhart’s people kidnapped Brennan Mulwray from a downtown bar twenty minutes ago. Making him talk won’t be easy, but Eckhart will make him talk.
Lexa: You want me to stage a rescue. Look, Adam Kane is probably dead, and this was a temporary assignment.
The Voice: We’ve decided you should remain.
Lexa: That wasn’t the deal.
The Voice: This is an opportunity for you Miss Pierce. Remember, we can help you locate the people you’re seeking, or we can just as easily obstruct your search forever. Think about it.
Jesse: Well, well, well. What’s it gonna be? Not so easy being a tourist sometimes, is it? You could end up native.
Lexa: Do you always listen in on people’s private calls?
Jesse: When my friend’s fate is at stake, oh yeah.
Mason: Fully grounded, Mr. Mulwray. When we have guests, we do think of everything.
Brennan: What the hell do you want from me?
Mason: Everything I want includes everything Adam had, and that includes everything he cheated me out of. I want Sanctuary and its information.
Brennan: You’re insane. You want Sanctuary? Start looking.
Mason: Why, when I have you to help? Mr. Mulwray, Mutant X is dead. Sanctuary is just where you say now. Now that’s the frustrating thing about Mutant X. It’s not really dead until it’s really dead. Mr. Silva, I want the location of Sanctuary, access codes, entry points, everything.
Brennan: Let me guess. We can do this fast or we can do this slow.
Silva: No. I only do slow.
Brennan: You expect me to talk?
Eckhart: No, Mr. Mulwray. I expect you to die.
Jesse: The bartender called Trade Broker Bruce International. There’s no address. Out of business two years.
Lexa: They were an old GSA front company. The only thing they broker is information on mutant activity.
Shalimar: And how do you know that?
Lexa: I used worked for the GSA. Oh, don’t worry, it was another life. I’ve had a few of them.
Mason: Listen, Mulwray. Without Adam, you’re like lost children. I can give you purpose. I know what he was doing to you. I can help. Brennan, Adam wouldn’t have wanted this.
Brennan: Adam’s dead!
Mason: Come on Brennan. You will not defeat me!
Brennan: He had to be stopped.
Shalimar: We’re having the dedication now for Adam and Emma, are you coming?
Lexa: Oh, I don’t think so. This is your time.
Shalimar: I thought you and Adam had a relationship.
Lexa: I know you don’t like me being here. You’re a feral, you want to protect your turf.
Shalimar: I’d sense if you were a threat. I don’t fear you. I just don’t think I like you in my home.
Lexa: Look, whether we like it or not, we’re in this together.
Trivia & Nitpicks: Adam's locator device is a MX pin.
The password to Adam's files is LEXA.
Lexa was part of Mutant X 1.0, and lived in Sanctuary for two years before Adam found Shalimar. Lexa says that she and Adam have a "Special Relationship." We'll never find out what that is.
Brennan's drink is dirty vodka martini straight up.
Brennan can be "grounded" by wrapping his arms in metal chains. Bwaha.
Sanctuary's access code is 730924; it's located in a place that was important to both Mason and Adam. The slash writers could have a field day with that one.
Adam, whom Mason held responsible for the loss of his immune system, was working on a solution for Mason's immunological compromise for several years. Even though later experiments were successful, he kept this information from Mason.
Though Lexa doesn't specify who "the people" are this early on, the money for Sanctuary and Adam's escape from Genomex may have come from The Dominion.
Mason claims to know what experiments Adam was doing with the Mutant X team members. He may have simply been stalling for time, but this was a wasted opportunity.
Why won't the emergency workers allow Shalimar to see her father? Why won't Brennan and Jesse allow her to see Emma? Why doesn't anyone at least check a pulse to make sure she's really dead? There isn't an EKG or EEG monitor around, for heaven's sake.
Shalimar says that Sanctuary's main computer system has better search capabilities than the one in the Helix. But aren't they connected?
When Lexa tells the team that there were people Adam answered to, Shalimar confusedly asks, "Adam worked for people?" Apparently Shalimar has lost her memories of Adam's government connections revealed in "Power Play."
If Mason's dermal casing was compromised in the explosion, and he has no immune system at all, why is he walking around, exposing himself to countless infections? The lot behind the chemical plant where he himself meets Mutant X for the second time doesn't look like a particularly sterile environment.
Mason states that he found Adam's comlink ring on his charred body. Since we see later that Mason does have an ad hoc genetic laboratory with scientists at his disposal, it seems a bit odd that the otherwise detail-oriented Mason wouldn't have checked a DNA sample to verify that corpse was really Adam.
It's rather difficult to believe that Adam, who trusts no one, should not have changed his computer password in the ten years since Lexa's been at Sanctuary. Especially after having been hacked by Toni in "In the Presence of Mine Enemies," and knowing that telecybers like Barry Sterling and Michelle Bigelow exist.
How does Lexa get into Sanctuary? Surely, her lasers would have triggered an alarm. The Dominion seems to be ignorant of Sanctuary's access codes (they're still asking for them in The Assault), and surely Adam has changed them since she was there last.
Brennan taunts Lexa, "Don't tell me people in your world actually care about someone else." Typical Brennan quip, but it's oddly placed here, given the fact that Brennan knows nothing about Lexa or who she works for at the time he says it.
As will occur again in "Brother's Keeper," Jesse and Brennan gossip about Lexa in the front of the Helix as though she's not listening in the back. Perhaps there's a sound barrier between the front and back seats.
Brennan says, "I may not have been such a good guy before I joined Mutant X, but at least I always picked a mark who probably deserved it." Uh-huh, sure. Two minutes later, he picks the pocket of a poor man walking out of a bar.
Fashion Victim: Lexa. In the DVD extras, actress Karen Cliche remarks that she too regrets the choice of that shiny red top.
Notes: In the wake of Emma's death and Adam's disappearance, Shalimar and Brennan go a little mad. Shalimar, who usually contents herself with knocking people around, rips Silva's stomach and murders the lizard feral. Brennan electrocutes the helpless wheelchair-bound psionic Marika, and then shocks Mason until he falls to his death.
Return to The Mutant X Warehouse
Into the Moonless Night: Episode #301
Tag: In the exciting season opener, the surviving members of Mutant X emerge from a deadly explosion to meet the beautiful and mysterious Lexa, who makes them begin to question fundamental assumptions about their world. [ Transcript]
Cast & Crew: Written by Peter Mohan; Directed by Philip David Segal
Araxi Arslanian.... Marika
George Buza.... Lexa's Dominion Contact
Carmen Noseworthy....Doctor
Tracy Shreve.... Oblivion
Jeffrey R. Smith....Mason's Scientist
Richard Stroh.... Silva
Sean Sullivan....Bartender
Episode Synopsis: FLASHBACK: In last season’s cliffhanger finale, "Lest He Become," the Mutant X team learned that Shalimar’s (Victoria Pratt) estranged father and his company, Naxcon, were involved in genetic testing with the nefarious Mason Eckhart (Tom McCamus). The team raced to Naxcon to stop Eckhart’s plans, but as they battled Eckhart’s men they were inadvertently trapped inside the building when it suddenly exploded. Following the explosion, Jesse (Forbes March) searches for the other members of Mutant X in one of the triage tents outside of Naxcon. He soon finds Brennan (Victor Webster), who is shaken but unharmed and the two go in search of their teammates. They hear the anguished voice of Shalimar, who is watching her father being loaded into an ambulance. Brennan comforts her while Jesse watches a group of paramedics working on another victim. After a few moments, the paramedics realize it’s hopeless and place the victim into a body bag. Brennan, Shalimar and Jesse are horrified to see that it’s Emma. Distraught, the group realizes there’s been no sign of Adam. After searching the city and finding no trace of Adam, Jesse uses satellites to locate Adam’s comlink signal. Brennan and Shalimar race to the location of the signal only to find a homeless man wearing Adam’s "MX" pin. Suddenly, Eckhart’s voice comes across the comlink and Brennan and Shalimar turn to find Eckhart and his cohort Silva (Richard Stroh) standing in the shadows with Adam’s comlink ring. Eckhart steps forward, revealing his horribly diseased skin and tells them that Adam’s technology destroyed his immune system and the synthetic dermal casing that’s been protecting his fragile body was breached in the explosion. He insists that the key to saving his own life is contained in Adam’s research and demands the files in exchange for Adam’s safe return. Brennan and Shalimar return to Sanctuary where Jesse is frantically trying to access Adam’s computer files. To the team’s surprise, a beautiful woman (Karen Cliche) suddenly emerges from a prism of light. When the mysterious woman refuses to say who she is, Jesse tries to grab her, but she suddenly disappears and forcefully pushes him into the computer station. Jesse quickly realizes she is able to control light and is bending it in order to make herself invisible. The woman reappears and emits a bright flash from her hands that blinds the team momentarily. When they recover, she tells them she’s been sent by powerful people to find Adam. She approaches the computer and types in her name, LEXA, as the password, giving Jesse access to Adam’s top-secret files. Stunned by Lexa’s knowledge of Adam, Brennan and Shalimar follow her into the lab where she reveals that she used to be part of Mutant X and lived at Sanctuary for two years. Frustrated by the secrets Adam kept from her, she left. Now with Adam missing, she’s been sent back by the people Adam works for because they’re afraid he’s betrayed them by making a pact with Eckhart. Shocked, Brennan and Shalimar insist Adam didn’t work for anyone, but a moment later Jesse confirms that Adam’s files prove he was trying to help Eckhart. Knowing Eckhart won’t simply release Adam to them, Lexa devises a plan to bluff him and still save Adam’s life. The team arranges to meet Eckhart and when they arrive at the designated location, they find Eckhart, Silva, a lizard feral and a telekinetic mutant. After Brennan shows them the disk containing Adam’s files, Eckhart confesses that he’s not holding Adam and that Adam’s comlink ring was retrieved from a charred body that had washed up on shore. Brennan is just about to destroy the disk when the telekinetic mutant telepathically rips the disk from his hand and places it in a high-tech box. Brennan hits the mutant with an electrical blast and it drops the box, but the lizard feral grabs it and races off with Shalimar close behind. Meanwhile, the others go after Eckhart, but Silva stops them with a wave of concentrated pain. Lexa goes after Eckhart, but the telekinetic mutant stops her with an invisible force field. Brennan hits the mutant with another blast, knocking him down. Shalimar catches up to the lizard feral, but he suddenly vanishes into thin air. Back at Sanctuary, Lexa insists they do everything in their power to keep Eckhart from regenerating his body. To stress this, she shows them a metal plate on her neck, which was implanted by Eckhart’s people. Frustrated, Brennan storms out. Meanwhile, at an abandoned power plant, Eckhart’s men gather and assemble the equipment needed to build the regeneration chamber based on Adam’s research files. Jesse, however, has already tracked the equipment from Adam’s files and is working to find out exactly where it is. Across town, Brennan enters a bar he used to frequent. The bartender (Sean Sullivan) remembers him and hands him a drink before heading to the payphone where he calls Silva to tell him Brennan’s there. Just as Eckhart climbs into the regenerative chamber, Silva informs him that Brennan’s alone and they’re going to pick him up. As the chamber fills with mist, Eckhart begins to scream and the glass suddenly explodes. Back at the bar, an attractive woman sits next to Brennan and says his name. Intrigued, Brennan asks her name, but soon finds that he can’t breathe and passes out. At Sanctuary, Lexa talks to a mysterious man on the computer screen who tells her she must rescue Brennan, who’s been captured by Eckhart’s men, and stop Eckhart from regenerating. Having thought her mission was over now that Adam is presumably dead, the man informs her that she is to remain with Mutant X until he tells her otherwise if she wants his help in finding the people she’s personally seeking. When Lexa breaks the connection, she realizes Jesse is standing behind her and has heard everything. At the power plant, Brennan awakens only to find himself strapped down and hooked up to a series of wires. Eckhart, fully regenerated, approaches Brennan and tells him he wants everything that belonged to Adam, including Sanctuary. When Brennan doesn’t volunteer any information, Silva zaps him with a beam of concentrated pain, but Brennan resists talking. Meanwhile, Shalimar arrives at the bar where Brennan was kidnapped and forces the bartender to tell her what he knows. Determined to break Brennan, Eckhart brings in a wheelchair-bound woman (Araxi Arslanian) who is a psychic interrogator. As she touches Brennan’s face, a holographic image of Brennan screaming appears. Back at Sanctuary, Lexa informs Jesse and Shalimar that the phone number the bartender dialed to report on Brennan was an old GSA front company. She goes on to explain that she used to work for the GSA. When Jesse traces the call further, he discovers that it was forwarded to the power plant. He pulls up a live aerial image of the building and based on the electrical activity detected, they decide to check it out. Inside the power plant, the psychic is locked into Brennan’s mind, searching for Sanctuary’s location. An image of a mountain range appears, revealing Stormking Mountain and a series of letters and numbers. Having gotten the information he was seeking, Eckhart leaves Silva to kill Brennan. Before Silva can muster up enough energy, however, Shalimar drops down in front of him and slashes his abdomen with her clawed fingers. She then frees Brennan and he races after the escaping psychic interrogator. He pushes her into the regeneration machine and electrocutes her. When Lexa and Jesse enter the room, the lizard feral pounces on them. Shalimar catches the lizard, but he manages to gain the upper hand and begins to strangle her. Suddenly, Jesse appears behind the lizard and peels him off Shalimar before massing out and knocking the creature unconscious. Meanwhile, Brennan traps Eckhart on a catwalk, high above the ground, and creates a huge tesla coil. Though Eckhart tries to convince Brennan he can help Mutant X, Brennan blasts him repeatedly until he is thrown over the railing and falls dead to the ground. Later at Sanctuary, Brennan, Shalimar, Jesse and Lexa hold a somber memorial for Emma and Adam, unaware that they are being watched.
Quotes:
Shalimar: I remember when we took this one. Emma had only been here a couple of months. We were picnicking on the mountain. Said it was the best day of her life. She touched my mind, shared it with me. She only shared the good stuff; kept the pain to herself....sorry.
Brennan: Sorry for what? For feeling? Shal, we just lost one of our best friends. If you weren’t ready to break down right now, I would think there was something wrong with you.
Shalimar: What are we going to do without her?
Brennan: I don’t know. It’ll just take time to get past this, you know? And then we’ll figure out where to go from there.
Shalimar: I miss her so much.
Brennan: I know.
Brennan: Who could have done something like this?
Mason: How soon I’m forgotten.
Mason: My immune system was destroyed years ago, my entire body melting down at the genetic rate. This synthetic dermal casing that I’ve worn is all that’s kept me alive. And unfortunately, it was breached in the escape from Naxcon.
Brennan: What do you want from us?
Mason: All of Adam’s research on how to treat my condition. And you’ll get your friend back, hopefully still alive.
Shalimar: If you harm Adam in any way, I am gonna rip you limb for limb.
Mason: That’s what I like to hear. The opening salvo in a negotiation.
Lexa: Wow, you guys give up easy, don't you?
Shalimar: Jess, what's going on?
Jesse: She can control light. She's bending it around her.
Shalimar: She still gives off heat. You may be able to fool my friends, but I can still see you, day or night.
Lexa: Then here's a little day for ya.
Lexa: Can we consider the introductions made and just get on with it?
Jesse: What is the 'it' that you want?
Lexa: What is the 'it' that I want? I want to be back having dinner with a delectable painter named Marco on the Italian Riviera. But unfortunately, I was called back here. See, Adam Kane’s disappearance has worried a number of powerful people, and they asked me to become involved in his return.
Shalimar: Why you?
Lexa: Because I have a unique understanding of the situation. Also Adam and I have a special relationship.
Brennan: Bull. We’ve never even heard of you.
Lexa: And that means?
Shalimar: We’d know.
Lexa: If you knew Adam as well as you say you do, you’d know he doesn’t share all the information with only one person.
Jesse: Why should we believe any of this?
Lexa: You want to get into Adam’s files? You’d have a better chance if you knew his password. My name: LEXA.
Lexa: Adam always kept stuff around for a late night snack.
Brennan: Well, you sure made yourself at home pretty quickly.
Lexa: This was my home. For 2 years.
Shalimar: You lived here?
Lexa: Yep. I was Mutant X 1.0. Or I was supposed to be. I figured somewhere along the way that I wasn’t a joiner. Look, guys. I don’t know how much Adam told you about what he was doing, why he was doing it. But there are people out there that Adam answered to.
Shalimar: Adam worked for people?
Lexa: In a way. See, Adam was the fuse to a genetic time bomb, and there were some powerful people out there who decided it had to be put out. They realized the only one who could do that was Adam himself. So they gave him funds, access to information, and Home Sweet Home.
Brennan: Yeah. Don’t try to tell me that some people in your world actually care about somebody else.
Lexa: Adam made a deal. He wanted to escape Genomex and the GSA. You know, certain parties actually believe that he may have made a deal to slip their tether as well.
Brennan: Yeah, and you still work for these people?
Lexa: I work for myself, Stud Muffin. But you see, sometimes my goals and theirs coincide.
Shalimar: And what are your goals?
Lexa: I said I’m on your side. That’s all you need to know.
Shalimar: Why should we believe you?
Lexa: Because if I wasn’t, you wouldn’t still be alive.
Jesse: According to this, Eckhart might have been telling the truth. I mean, the later experiments were actually successful. They reversed the damage to his immune system.
Shalimar: Why didn’t we know about this?
Jesse: There’s more. Adam was working on this all along.
Shalimar: You’re saying he was actually trying to help Eckhart?!
Jesse: Well, I mean that’s the way it looks, but I don’t know. Maybe he was trying to save it as a bargaining chip for the future. Who knows?
Brennan: Yeah, a future they’d be dividing up in some way.
Jesse: What’s going on with you?
Brennan: Dominant selection, okay? Who lives and who dies. That's the only power these people are interested in. I say we sit on this information.
Jesse: What about Adam?
Brennan: There’s no guarantee that Eckhart even has Adam, okay? And if he does, who’s to say that he’s going to turn Adam over once we hand him that research? The more that we learn about Adam and Eckhart’s relationship the more it stinks. It used to seem like they were so different, right? They weren’t. One way or another they have the same agenda.
Shalimar: We know Adam’s agenda. Better living through controlling disease. Is that so bad?
Brennan: Shal, where have you been the last two years? Any time you mess with human genes, you open Pandora’s Box. If Eckhart manages to save himself, he is going to be harder to stop than ever. The whole world will suffer.
Shalimar: Stare at me any harder, you’re gonna burn a hole in my head.
Brennan: Where’s Adam?
Mason: Where is Adam? Belief is a fascinating thing, isn’t it? Belief that I would live to crush Adam Kane is all that sustained me, imprisoned in my pod all those months. And belief that your mentor is still alive has convinced you to bring me my salvation. But in this case, neither of these two conflicting beliefs can be borne out as truth.
Brennan: I won’t ask you again.
Mason: Alas, I was denied the pleasure of destroying Adam with my own hands.
Shalimar: You’re lying.
Mason: Adam’s comlink was retrieved from his lifeless body. He was lying on the shore charred beyond all recognition.
Mason: When are you going to learn there's nothing you have I can't possess?
Shalimar: Eckhart got what he wanted. Adam’s dead, he doesn’t need us anymore. Maybe that’s the end of it.
Lexa: Don’t believe it. You guys better fasten your seat belts. 'Cause once Eckhart’s back in business, Genomex, the GSA, all of it will seem like summer camp in comparison.
Shalimar: Yeah? What’s changed?
Lexa: You’ve been lucky. There are others who weren’t so lucky. Little party favor from Eckhart’s people.
Brennan: Yeah, I’m done. It’s high time that I stop making Eckhart my problem.
Jesse: What is that supposed to mean, Brennan?
Brennan: I didn’t sign up for this crap, Jess. And I’m damn sure not gonna stick around and end up being somebody’s lab rat.
Lexa: Really? And what do you think Adam was doing with you all these years, huh? Layers and layers, Brennan. You’re still just scratching the surface of what’s really going on.
Brennan: I don’t want to hear about, and I don’t want to be a part of it.
Lexa: There is no option.
Brennan: You know, I spent a lot of years living on the street before I knew anything about Adam and this whole mess he created. I can easily do it again.
Jesse: Okay, lets not get spun out here. We still have a mission.
Brennan: What mission? Living like fugitives in this hunk of rock? Running around risking our lives every single day for a world full of people that want us dead if they knew we existed?
Lexa: Well, you can’t walk away from this Brennan.
Brennan: Watch me. To hell with you, and those people who you work for.
Shalimar: Look, we need to stick together.
Brennan: Why? Shal, I may not have been such a good guy before I joined Mutant X, but at least I always picked a mark who probably deserved it. Right now we have no idea what we’ve been fighting for, or for who.
Shalimar: We know who. It was for Adam.
Brennan: Oh, Adam? Yeah, the guy who messed around with our DNA and lied to us all these years? We have no clue who he really was or what he was really trying to do. Look, I just need to think, okay?
Shalimar: Look, I understand you giving up on Adam. But don’t give up on me and Jess.
Brennan: Never.
Lexa: You worry me.
Jesse: Why? 'Cause I’m not in your face like the others?
Lexa: Something like that.
Jesse: You’re gonna join Mutant X, huh? We could use someone like you.
Lexa: Little word of advice. Don’t let people in too easy. It’s a good way to get yourself killed.
Jesse: So Adam was a mad scientist, huh?
Lexa: Sometimes people let their obsessions drive them to do more harm than good.
Jesse: Is that why you left him? Didn’t trust him anymore?
Lexa: Maybe.
Jesse: Whatever Adam is, he taught me good ideas. Ideas that I’m still gonna fight for.
Lexa: Another idealist.
Mason: Silva, if this procedure is not successful, kill them all.
Silva: And if it is successful?
Mason: Kill them anyway.
The Voice: Miss Pierce, you were supposed to draw Mutant X together, not tear them apart.
Lexa: Look, I didn’t sign on to run a group therapy session in a mutant halfway house, okay?
The Voice: You signed on to achieve our goals, however they may be achieved.
Lexa: They’ll come back.
The Voice: There will be nothing left for them to come back to. If Eckhart manages to heal himself, he will come after the rest of Adam Kane’s research. That cannot be permitted.
Lexa: Well, as they say around here, you open Pandora’s Box, you deal with the consequences.
The Voice: You consider this our problem?
Lexa: You ran Adam. You used his results.
The Voice: We were partners.
Lexa: Don’t play games. I know too much. I’ll make preparations to shut Sanctuary down. I can sterilize the facility. When Eckhart arrives it’ll be useless to him.
The Voice: Our strategy calls for you to ensure that Sanctuary and its information remain active. Also that Mutant X remains a viable force.
Lexa: Meaning?
The Voice: We’ve learned that Eckhart’s people kidnapped Brennan Mulwray from a downtown bar twenty minutes ago. Making him talk won’t be easy, but Eckhart will make him talk.
Lexa: You want me to stage a rescue. Look, Adam Kane is probably dead, and this was a temporary assignment.
The Voice: We’ve decided you should remain.
Lexa: That wasn’t the deal.
The Voice: This is an opportunity for you Miss Pierce. Remember, we can help you locate the people you’re seeking, or we can just as easily obstruct your search forever. Think about it.
Jesse: Well, well, well. What’s it gonna be? Not so easy being a tourist sometimes, is it? You could end up native.
Lexa: Do you always listen in on people’s private calls?
Jesse: When my friend’s fate is at stake, oh yeah.
Mason: Fully grounded, Mr. Mulwray. When we have guests, we do think of everything.
Brennan: What the hell do you want from me?
Mason: Everything I want includes everything Adam had, and that includes everything he cheated me out of. I want Sanctuary and its information.
Brennan: You’re insane. You want Sanctuary? Start looking.
Mason: Why, when I have you to help? Mr. Mulwray, Mutant X is dead. Sanctuary is just where you say now. Now that’s the frustrating thing about Mutant X. It’s not really dead until it’s really dead. Mr. Silva, I want the location of Sanctuary, access codes, entry points, everything.
Brennan: Let me guess. We can do this fast or we can do this slow.
Silva: No. I only do slow.
Brennan: You expect me to talk?
Eckhart: No, Mr. Mulwray. I expect you to die.
Jesse: The bartender called Trade Broker Bruce International. There’s no address. Out of business two years.
Lexa: They were an old GSA front company. The only thing they broker is information on mutant activity.
Shalimar: And how do you know that?
Lexa: I used worked for the GSA. Oh, don’t worry, it was another life. I’ve had a few of them.
Mason: Listen, Mulwray. Without Adam, you’re like lost children. I can give you purpose. I know what he was doing to you. I can help. Brennan, Adam wouldn’t have wanted this.
Brennan: Adam’s dead!
Mason: Come on Brennan. You will not defeat me!
Brennan: He had to be stopped.
Shalimar: We’re having the dedication now for Adam and Emma, are you coming?
Lexa: Oh, I don’t think so. This is your time.
Shalimar: I thought you and Adam had a relationship.
Lexa: I know you don’t like me being here. You’re a feral, you want to protect your turf.
Shalimar: I’d sense if you were a threat. I don’t fear you. I just don’t think I like you in my home.
Lexa: Look, whether we like it or not, we’re in this together.
Trivia & Nitpicks: Adam's locator device is a MX pin.
The password to Adam's files is LEXA.
Lexa was part of Mutant X 1.0, and lived in Sanctuary for two years before Adam found Shalimar. Lexa says that she and Adam have a "Special Relationship." We'll never find out what that is.
Brennan's drink is dirty vodka martini straight up.
Brennan can be "grounded" by wrapping his arms in metal chains. Bwaha.
Sanctuary's access code is 730924; it's located in a place that was important to both Mason and Adam. The slash writers could have a field day with that one.
Adam, whom Mason held responsible for the loss of his immune system, was working on a solution for Mason's immunological compromise for several years. Even though later experiments were successful, he kept this information from Mason.
Though Lexa doesn't specify who "the people" are this early on, the money for Sanctuary and Adam's escape from Genomex may have come from The Dominion.
Mason claims to know what experiments Adam was doing with the Mutant X team members. He may have simply been stalling for time, but this was a wasted opportunity.
Why won't the emergency workers allow Shalimar to see her father? Why won't Brennan and Jesse allow her to see Emma? Why doesn't anyone at least check a pulse to make sure she's really dead? There isn't an EKG or EEG monitor around, for heaven's sake.
Shalimar says that Sanctuary's main computer system has better search capabilities than the one in the Helix. But aren't they connected?
When Lexa tells the team that there were people Adam answered to, Shalimar confusedly asks, "Adam worked for people?" Apparently Shalimar has lost her memories of Adam's government connections revealed in "Power Play."
If Mason's dermal casing was compromised in the explosion, and he has no immune system at all, why is he walking around, exposing himself to countless infections? The lot behind the chemical plant where he himself meets Mutant X for the second time doesn't look like a particularly sterile environment.
Mason states that he found Adam's comlink ring on his charred body. Since we see later that Mason does have an ad hoc genetic laboratory with scientists at his disposal, it seems a bit odd that the otherwise detail-oriented Mason wouldn't have checked a DNA sample to verify that corpse was really Adam.
It's rather difficult to believe that Adam, who trusts no one, should not have changed his computer password in the ten years since Lexa's been at Sanctuary. Especially after having been hacked by Toni in "In the Presence of Mine Enemies," and knowing that telecybers like Barry Sterling and Michelle Bigelow exist.
How does Lexa get into Sanctuary? Surely, her lasers would have triggered an alarm. The Dominion seems to be ignorant of Sanctuary's access codes (they're still asking for them in The Assault), and surely Adam has changed them since she was there last.
Brennan taunts Lexa, "Don't tell me people in your world actually care about someone else." Typical Brennan quip, but it's oddly placed here, given the fact that Brennan knows nothing about Lexa or who she works for at the time he says it.
As will occur again in "Brother's Keeper," Jesse and Brennan gossip about Lexa in the front of the Helix as though she's not listening in the back. Perhaps there's a sound barrier between the front and back seats.
Brennan says, "I may not have been such a good guy before I joined Mutant X, but at least I always picked a mark who probably deserved it." Uh-huh, sure. Two minutes later, he picks the pocket of a poor man walking out of a bar.
Fashion Victim: Lexa. In the DVD extras, actress Karen Cliche remarks that she too regrets the choice of that shiny red top.
Notes: In the wake of Emma's death and Adam's disappearance, Shalimar and Brennan go a little mad. Shalimar, who usually contents herself with knocking people around, rips Silva's stomach and murders the lizard feral. Brennan electrocutes the helpless wheelchair-bound psionic Marika, and then shocks Mason until he falls to his death.
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