Lest He Become
Mutant X Episode Synopses
Lest He Become: Episode #222.
Tag: A reluctant Shalimar must reconnect with her estranged father when the Mutant X team learns his company is involved in genetic testing and manipulation. [ Transcript]
Cast & Crew: Written by Peter Mohan; Directed by Jonathan Hackett
Rob Archer.... Rucker
Katie Bergin.... Elizabeth Burton
Eugene Robert Glazer.... Nicholas Fox
Darin Robert Inkster....Dazz
Tanya Low....Receptionist
Eddie Michael McGee.... Mal
James McGowan.... Dr. Richard Haines
Alexandra Schofield... Young Shalimar Fox
Richard Stroh.... Silva
Official Synopsis: Brennan (Victor Webster) and Jesse (Forbes March) meet with two mysterious men, Rucker (Rob Archer) and Silva (Richard Stroh), who are after highly confidential medical records. Demanding to know why they are there instead of Haines (James McGowen), Jesse reassures them that they have the information they want. Feeling set-up, Rucker lashes out at Brennan. Although his fist misses, Brennan goes flying across the room as if it was a direct hit. Silva then throws a ball of energy at Jesse, who masses out, but falls to the ground in pain when the energy hits him. Shalimar (Victoria Pratt) and Emma (Lauren Lee Smith), who have been watching on a monitor, rush in, but Rucker stops them with a telekinetic slap and he and Silva escape. Back at Sanctuary, the team tells Adam (John Shea) about the two powerful mutants they encountered. Watching the footage from Brennan’s flex cam, Adam realizes someone wants the records to crack the primal genetic code. A terrified Haines suddenly calls Adam and insists he’s going to the police for help. Having tracked Haines’ location, Adam sends Brennan and Shalimar to get him, but Silva and Rucker find him first. Brennan and Shalimar reach Haines’ car moments later only to find him dead. As Brennan relays the news to Adam, Shalimar spots a nearby security camera and informs Jesse, who taps into its records. Finding the killers’ license plate on the footage, he learns that the car is registered to Naxcon Corp., Shalimar’s father’s company. Adam informs the team that whoever killed Haines is looking for a list of specific people whose genetic material is needed to break the genetic code. Believing the source is at Naxcon, he tells Shalimar to go see her father and search for clues. She quickly refuses, painfully telling the team that she hasn’t spoken to her father since he put her in a psychiatric institution when she was 12 years old because he thought it would make her normal. She was given drugs and beaten until one night when she fought back with her feral powers and escaped. Since then, she never felt that she had a father until Adam came along. Realizing that she must help the team, she calls her father to arrange a meeting. At Naxcon, Nicholas Fox (Eugene Robert Glazer) greets Shalimar and begins giving her a tour of the facility. Meanwhile, Adam tells Emma he’s broken into Haines’ computer files and is waiting to confirm the names of the people on the list. Adam and Jesse watch Shalimar on a monitor as she and Fox come across a heavily secured elevator. When Shalimar asks her father where it leads to, he simply tells her it’s where they conduct sensitive tests. In Fox’s office, he tells her that he’s been researching Adam Kane and knows he’s up to no good, but refuses to elaborate. After Shalimar leaves, Mason Eckhart (Tom McCamus) enters and assures Fox that he’ll have his daughter back soon. Knowing they’ll have to move fast, Adam insists Shalimar and Jesse go back to Naxcon immediately. Emma then enters and tells the group she has the names from Haines’ computer. An edgy Adam tells Brennan and Emma to find the people and walks out. Emma follows Adam and lets him know that his name was on the list and she wants to know why, but he refuses to answer. In the Double Helix, Emma tells Brennan the first person on the list has disappeared. Arriving at a flower shop owned by Elizabeth Burton (Katie Bergin), the second name on the list, they find Rucker, Silva and two other mutants taking samples of her blood. One of the mutants, Mal (Eddie McGee), who has only one leg, forcefully attacks Brennan while Emma hits Rucker with a telempathic starburst that sends him flying. But Silva suddenly launches a wave of pain at Emma and as she collapses, they escape leaving a dead Rucker behind. As Brennan tends to a terrified Burton, Emma tells him that her starburst shouldn’t have killed Rucker. Shalimar and Jesse arrive at Naxcon and use a fake ID badge and a holographic eyeball to access the elevator. Entering a laboratory containing cages of animals and bottles holding unborn fetuses, Jesse finds the main computer and begins downloading the database. Hearing the elevator, Shalimar and Jesse hide just as Eckhart and a mutant enter. Shocked to see that Fox is involved with Eckhart, Jesse and Shalimar escape unnoticed. Later at Sanctuary, Adam tells the team that Eckhart desperately needs the blood samples in order to perfect the process of selective mutation. Knowing that Adam isn’t revealing all that he knows, Emma uses a starburst to force him to admit everything. He finally confesses that Eckhart got the information he needed from Adam’s research many years ago. Upset that Adam wasn’t truthful, Brennan and Shalimar rush to Naxcon to convince Fox that Eckhart is a murderer. As Shalimar confronts Fox, a force field suddenly freezes her and Brennan in place. After receiving a call from Eckhart, Adam, Jesse and Emma rush off to Naxcon, all knowing that Adam is the final link that Eckhart needs to take over the world. At Naxcon, Jesse breaks Brennan and Shalimar free from the force field while Adam distracts Eckhart. As a fight breaks out amongst Mutant X and Eckhart’s men, an alarm suddenly sounds and a guilt-stricken Fox informs everyone that he’s just opened the steam valves and that the building will soon explode. Eckhart and his men quickly rush out, but Mutant X is cut off from the main exit. Fox leads them to a corridor and, as they race down the hall, the structure suddenly breaks away from the rest of the building and sinks into the water below.
Quotes:
Brennan: No, we should have taken them, Shal.
Shalimar: Were you unconscious when he was beating the crap out of the rest of us?
Emma: Look, if you two are through with your macho posturing, let’s just think about this for a minute, okay? These were not just mutants. They were mutants with powers that we have never seen before.
Adam: Brennan, let me see the flex scan. Good, thanks.
Shalimar: It was pretty wild. See, the guy with the telekinetic punch, I mean, that’s similar to some of the other brain-based stuff we’ve seen. But the guy that ties people into his pain centers, I mean, that’s a whole other deal.
Adam: I agree.
Jesse: He said that when they made him, they made him with his pain centers permanently on. Adam, that’s just freakin’ sick.
Shalimar: Well, who knows how to do that?
Adam: All right, look, obviously I was not the only scientist out there dealing with genetic research. We’ve got someone out there playing around, trying to crack the genetic code. If he succeeds, then, you know, dealing with these made-to-order mutants will be the least of our problems.
Brennan: What are you saying?
Adam: I’m saying he could create a superplague. He could send a genetic ripple through an entire population as easy as choosing flavors of an ice cream cone.
Brennan: I got a bad feeling about this, Shal. You saw Adam’s face when you asked him who was behind it. He knows something.
Shalimar: Yeah, well, maybe he’s still trying to figure it out. You know Adam doesn’t throw around wild guesses.
Brennan: More like Adam not telling you you’re on fire until you can see the flames.
Shalimar: Hey, you know what? I don’t want to get into your issues with Adam, okay?
Brennan: Look, if someone is messing around with human genetics at this level, there can’t be more than a handful of people who could do it. He knows every one of them.
Shalimar: Yeah, and he’ll tell us when he figures it out.
Brennan: No, as usual, he’ll tell us when he feels like it. Shal, you’re way too supportive. I hope he deserves it.
Shalimar: Let me tell you a little story about a kid 10 years old. Different from her friends. Different from her parents. Stronger, faster, and a whole lot wilder. And because those parents didn’t see her fitting in, instead of loving her for what she was, they threw her into a psychiatric institution. Can you imagine being 10 years old and scared out of your mind in a place like that. They pumped me full of enough Thorazine to put ten kids under, but it didn’t work on me. So when they found they couldn’t sedate me, they turned to beatings to keep me down. Three or four grown men laying into a little kid.
Jesse: Your parents must have known something was wrong, Shal.
Shalimar: Yeah, my father knew. He told them to keep it up. Whatever it took to make me normal. But what they didn’t know, was that my powers were still growing. And then one night when the orderlies came for me, I was ready. I showed them what it was like to be really scared. That was the night I ran. So when you’re asking me to reconnect with my loving father, that’s what I’d be going back to.
Adam: Shalimar.
Shalimar: Adam, until you came and found me, I didn’t have a father. Please don’t make me do this.
Brennan: Hey, what you’re doing is brave.
Shalimar: Masochistic or stupid might be more to the point. Families are supposed to love each other. The only thing any of us ever felt was bitterness and hate. Not much like your typical sitcom family, huh?
Brennan: More like a real family. Nobody’s family is perfect. Look, I’m not making excuses for the guy, okay? But people change. Maybe he is interested in making things right.
Shalimar: Yeah, well if that were the case, he would already stopped breathing.
Nicholas Fox: Shalimar? I can hardly believe it.
Shalimar: I look different out of a straight jacket, don’t I?
Adam: Once I’ve reconstructed the search, I can confirm the names of the people that the killers are looking for.
Emma: Confirm? So you have some idea who they’re looking for.
Adam: No, I didn’t mean confirm.
Emma: Are you okay?
Adam: Yeah, I’m okay. I just, you know, I wanna find the people before the killers do.
Emma: What do you want me to do? Pretend that I believe you?
Adam: I want you to stay out of my head. You’re not invited.
Shalimar: Surprised you haven’t moved into genetic research. You know, modified grains, that sort of thing.
Nicholas: That’s a science that betrayed me once. I have no interest in giving it another chance.
Nicholas: But you’re okay? I mean after what that bastard did to you.
Shalimar: Who?
Nichloas: The doctor from Genomex. Adam Kane. You were too young to understand, but I found out a lot of things about him afterwards.
Shalimar: What are you talking about?
Nicholas: It’s not important now. He’s water under the bridge.
Shalimar: Look, I’ve told you guys before, I don’t think my father is involved.
Jesse: Shalimar, it’s a hell of a time to develop a set of family values.
Brennan: You know what, Jess? Why don’t you pour yourself a big glass of shut the hell up!
Emma: So what the hell is your name doing on a list of people needed by somebody manufacturing mutants?
Adam: My name is on a lot of lists.
Emma: That’s not the right answer, Adam.
Adam: It’s the only answer available right now.
Shalimar: I’ve hated him for so long, and then I see him again and it feels like none of that bad stuff ever happened.
Brennan: Well, we look at things differently when we get older.
Shalimar: You know what? It’s more than that. Okay, my father said something about Adam carrying out some kind of plan.
Brennan: Plan?
Shalimar: C’mon, you saw the way he’s acting. He’s hiding something.
Brennan: No, he was as shocked as the rest of us.
Shalimar: I don’t know anything anymore.
Brennan: Listen, Emma. Did you get any kind of a strange hit off Adam back there?
Emma: Look, if I sense something from someone, it’s like a priest hearing a confession. I can’t talk about it.
Brennan: Okay, Emma, it’s good to have morals, but you gotta know when to cut them loose.
Emma: She’s going through what we all go through. Adam is more of a father to me than my own father was. All of you guys are my family. But sometimes I wish that my mom had done the right thing, you know? That she had been there to worry about me instead of going off on whatever new age kick was popular at the time. But I mean sometimes, I still think about looking her up.
Brennan: So why haven’t you?
Emma: Because when you can see into someone’s soul, you don’t have the same illusions that other people do. You want to believe that people can change, but they don’t. Shalimar has to realize that.
Rucker: Nowhere to run?
Emma: Guess not.
Shalimar: Okay, Adam we’ve been patient. I wanna know what the hell Eckhart’s doing at my father’s company.
Adam: He’s tricked your father into providing him with the resources he needs to support his new project.
Brennan: Which is?
Adam: Well, according to the material on these hard drives, Eckhart is on the verge of controlling the keys to life. And what he plans to do with it, of course, we’ll have to ask him in person.
Shalimar: Okay, if he’s so close to having his hands on such big secrets, why are his mutants so messed up?
Jesse: The guy who died in the flower shop had the metabolism of an 80 year old, Adam.
Adam: Eckhart is attempting to do selective mutation from a specific blueprint, but he doesn’t have the required DNA to perfect the process. The samples that he’s collecting will allow him to do that.
Brennan: How do you know all this?
Adam: It’s not important how I know it. What’s important is that we get in there, we get him. We shut his operation down as quickly as possible. So I’m gonna ready the Helix for immediate takeoff, and then you four are going in.
Emma: No.
Brennan: Wait, Emma, what are you doing?
Emma: You were right, Brennan. There’s a point where you have to go past your usual moral code. Now I’ve understood what’s been going on for a long time, and I think the rest of you deserve to know too.
Adam: Emma. Stop it.
Emma: I could make you talk, Adam. But you’re gonna do it yourself. So tell them about the third name on the list. Tell them what it all means.
Adam: All right, so you want to know how Eckhart got the blueprint for making mutants? He got it from me.
Jesse: What?
Adam: After I realized the genetic mutations that my therapies were causing, I stopped using them to treat people. But I couldn’t just throw that information away, so I gathered specific genetic samples, including my own DNA, and
I experimented on selected mutations in secret.
Shalimar: Yours was the third name on the list?
Adam: He needs my DNA to complete my work. He wants to recreate it.
Shalimar: That’s what my dad was trying to tell me. You’re no better than Eckhart.
Adam: I was on the verge of cracking the genetic code. The possibilities for humanity? They were limitless.
Brennan: So you were just in it for the knowledge? Oh, must be hard to go back to being plain ol’ Adam Kane after playing God for so long.
Adam: All right, look, I knew nobody should have this information. It was too dangerous for anyone to have. So what did I do? I stopped my experiments. I encrypted information. I took it out of Genomex as quickly as I could.
Shalimar: You can’t hide anything from Eckhart. You should know that.
Brennan: For all we know, you wanted him to have it.
Adam: What does that mean?
Brennan: I don’t know, okay? All I know is we’re having a hard time believing anything that’s coming out of your mouth right now.
Adam: Wait, wait. Where’re you going?
Shalimar: To Naxcon. I’m gonna get my father away from Eckhart before he gets in too deep.
Adam: Shalimar, it’s too late for that.
Shalimar: I spent all these years hating him. Thinking you were my family. And now it turns out he might be the only one telling me the truth.
Brennan: You keep your eyes open.
Shalimar: I thought I had my eyes open. I was looking right at Adam and I didn’t see him at all.
Brennan: Yeah, I know. All I’m saying is just make sure. You know, before you go putting your faith in someone else.
Shalimar: Thanks. I can always count on you, can’t I?
Brennan: Always.
Nicholas: Eckhart came to me, yes. He offered me money for my business. But he offered me a chance to get you back.
Shalimar: What?
Nicholas: The way you were. Before Adam Kane changed you. He’s working on a cure.
Shalimar: There is no cure. It’s not a disease! I am what I am, and I like what I am. Can’t you understand that? And I would have liked myself a whole lot sooner if I thought for one moment that you and mom liked me too.
Nicholas: But we loved you! Do you know what it was like watching the pain you were in? Losing control of your anger, your fear. What did you want me to feel, Shalimar?
Shalimar: You were supposed to treat me like a daughter. Not like some kind of freak.
Brennan: You know, this man that you put your trust in is a murderer. You know that he’s killed hundreds of people?
Nicholas: He said you would say that. It’s for the best, Shalimar. You’ll see.
Mason: Hello, Adam. Have you missed me?
Adam: You’re looking more like your old self, Mason.
Mason: Feeling like a million bucks. It’s amazing what a new hairstyle can do for one.
Emma: Where do you think you’re going?
Adam: Well, you should know. You seem to know everything else.
Emma: Look, Adam, I didn’t want it to happen this way.
Adam: None of us did.
Jesse: It took me 28 years to find someone to believe in, Adam. I’m not just gonna throw that away.
Mason: Adam. It’s been a long time. Of course, being in the pod made it seem even longer.
Adam: How’d you get out?
Mason: You don’t think I’d devise a trap without a back door for me to wriggle out? Six months in, any pod that I hadn’t coded the locks on was automatically reopened.
Adam: I was hoping that you’d have used some of that time to think about all of the damage that you’d done.
Mason: Beautiful. As sanctimonious as ever. Actually, I did use my time for thinking. I thought a lot about you and what I planned to do when I got out.
Adam: How long have you had my files?
Mason: I had your files as soon as you saved them. But it took my people until just a few months ago to break the encryption. You always were the best. And now your brilliance and your DNA will change the world in a way you never had the courage to.
Adam: It wasn’t about courage. It was about the fact that there are some things that people shouldn’t try to control.
Mason: Adam, I thought you’d understood. Destroying disease. Creating a race of perfect humans. Turning on genes to make people live forever. These are dreams that people like you live for. Thanks to your research and your DNA, I’ll be father to a whole new race.
Nicholas: What’s going on? That’s not the agreement. You can’t do it. I won’t let you.
Mason: I’ll keep my end of the bargain. Your daughter will be returned to you cured, as soon as I get what I want.
Adam: What about your friends here? What have you given them besides a lot of pain? All he’s given you is a life that’s gonna end very soon.
Silva: What is he talking about?
Adam: Why do you think he needs my DNA? He needs it to perfect the process of mutation because you’re just rough drafts. I mean, that’s why your friend died. That’s why you’re gonna die. What, you forgot to tell them this, Eckhart?
Mason: That’s enough. I need the samples. Take him.
Adam: I don’t think so. This is an electromagnetic pulse generator. This is strong enough to fry every piece of electronic equipment in this building.
Mason: Really, Adam? It showed up on the sensors the moment you walked through the front door. And that’s when it was rendered unworkable. When are you going to learn that I really am a step ahead?
Silva: Lady, you are about to have the worst day of your life.
Emma: I don’t think so. It’s hard to share pain that you don’t feel, isn’t it?
Mason: You idiot! What did you do?
Nicholas: I opened up the steam valves. I released the pressure. It’s all about to go up.
Mason: You always have to screw things up, don’t you Adam?
Return to The Mutant X Warehouse
Lest He Become: Episode #222.
Tag: A reluctant Shalimar must reconnect with her estranged father when the Mutant X team learns his company is involved in genetic testing and manipulation. [ Transcript]
Cast & Crew: Written by Peter Mohan; Directed by Jonathan Hackett
Rob Archer.... Rucker
Katie Bergin.... Elizabeth Burton
Eugene Robert Glazer.... Nicholas Fox
Darin Robert Inkster....Dazz
Tanya Low....Receptionist
Eddie Michael McGee.... Mal
James McGowan.... Dr. Richard Haines
Alexandra Schofield... Young Shalimar Fox
Richard Stroh.... Silva
Official Synopsis: Brennan (Victor Webster) and Jesse (Forbes March) meet with two mysterious men, Rucker (Rob Archer) and Silva (Richard Stroh), who are after highly confidential medical records. Demanding to know why they are there instead of Haines (James McGowen), Jesse reassures them that they have the information they want. Feeling set-up, Rucker lashes out at Brennan. Although his fist misses, Brennan goes flying across the room as if it was a direct hit. Silva then throws a ball of energy at Jesse, who masses out, but falls to the ground in pain when the energy hits him. Shalimar (Victoria Pratt) and Emma (Lauren Lee Smith), who have been watching on a monitor, rush in, but Rucker stops them with a telekinetic slap and he and Silva escape. Back at Sanctuary, the team tells Adam (John Shea) about the two powerful mutants they encountered. Watching the footage from Brennan’s flex cam, Adam realizes someone wants the records to crack the primal genetic code. A terrified Haines suddenly calls Adam and insists he’s going to the police for help. Having tracked Haines’ location, Adam sends Brennan and Shalimar to get him, but Silva and Rucker find him first. Brennan and Shalimar reach Haines’ car moments later only to find him dead. As Brennan relays the news to Adam, Shalimar spots a nearby security camera and informs Jesse, who taps into its records. Finding the killers’ license plate on the footage, he learns that the car is registered to Naxcon Corp., Shalimar’s father’s company. Adam informs the team that whoever killed Haines is looking for a list of specific people whose genetic material is needed to break the genetic code. Believing the source is at Naxcon, he tells Shalimar to go see her father and search for clues. She quickly refuses, painfully telling the team that she hasn’t spoken to her father since he put her in a psychiatric institution when she was 12 years old because he thought it would make her normal. She was given drugs and beaten until one night when she fought back with her feral powers and escaped. Since then, she never felt that she had a father until Adam came along. Realizing that she must help the team, she calls her father to arrange a meeting. At Naxcon, Nicholas Fox (Eugene Robert Glazer) greets Shalimar and begins giving her a tour of the facility. Meanwhile, Adam tells Emma he’s broken into Haines’ computer files and is waiting to confirm the names of the people on the list. Adam and Jesse watch Shalimar on a monitor as she and Fox come across a heavily secured elevator. When Shalimar asks her father where it leads to, he simply tells her it’s where they conduct sensitive tests. In Fox’s office, he tells her that he’s been researching Adam Kane and knows he’s up to no good, but refuses to elaborate. After Shalimar leaves, Mason Eckhart (Tom McCamus) enters and assures Fox that he’ll have his daughter back soon. Knowing they’ll have to move fast, Adam insists Shalimar and Jesse go back to Naxcon immediately. Emma then enters and tells the group she has the names from Haines’ computer. An edgy Adam tells Brennan and Emma to find the people and walks out. Emma follows Adam and lets him know that his name was on the list and she wants to know why, but he refuses to answer. In the Double Helix, Emma tells Brennan the first person on the list has disappeared. Arriving at a flower shop owned by Elizabeth Burton (Katie Bergin), the second name on the list, they find Rucker, Silva and two other mutants taking samples of her blood. One of the mutants, Mal (Eddie McGee), who has only one leg, forcefully attacks Brennan while Emma hits Rucker with a telempathic starburst that sends him flying. But Silva suddenly launches a wave of pain at Emma and as she collapses, they escape leaving a dead Rucker behind. As Brennan tends to a terrified Burton, Emma tells him that her starburst shouldn’t have killed Rucker. Shalimar and Jesse arrive at Naxcon and use a fake ID badge and a holographic eyeball to access the elevator. Entering a laboratory containing cages of animals and bottles holding unborn fetuses, Jesse finds the main computer and begins downloading the database. Hearing the elevator, Shalimar and Jesse hide just as Eckhart and a mutant enter. Shocked to see that Fox is involved with Eckhart, Jesse and Shalimar escape unnoticed. Later at Sanctuary, Adam tells the team that Eckhart desperately needs the blood samples in order to perfect the process of selective mutation. Knowing that Adam isn’t revealing all that he knows, Emma uses a starburst to force him to admit everything. He finally confesses that Eckhart got the information he needed from Adam’s research many years ago. Upset that Adam wasn’t truthful, Brennan and Shalimar rush to Naxcon to convince Fox that Eckhart is a murderer. As Shalimar confronts Fox, a force field suddenly freezes her and Brennan in place. After receiving a call from Eckhart, Adam, Jesse and Emma rush off to Naxcon, all knowing that Adam is the final link that Eckhart needs to take over the world. At Naxcon, Jesse breaks Brennan and Shalimar free from the force field while Adam distracts Eckhart. As a fight breaks out amongst Mutant X and Eckhart’s men, an alarm suddenly sounds and a guilt-stricken Fox informs everyone that he’s just opened the steam valves and that the building will soon explode. Eckhart and his men quickly rush out, but Mutant X is cut off from the main exit. Fox leads them to a corridor and, as they race down the hall, the structure suddenly breaks away from the rest of the building and sinks into the water below.
Quotes:
Brennan: No, we should have taken them, Shal.
Shalimar: Were you unconscious when he was beating the crap out of the rest of us?
Emma: Look, if you two are through with your macho posturing, let’s just think about this for a minute, okay? These were not just mutants. They were mutants with powers that we have never seen before.
Adam: Brennan, let me see the flex scan. Good, thanks.
Shalimar: It was pretty wild. See, the guy with the telekinetic punch, I mean, that’s similar to some of the other brain-based stuff we’ve seen. But the guy that ties people into his pain centers, I mean, that’s a whole other deal.
Adam: I agree.
Jesse: He said that when they made him, they made him with his pain centers permanently on. Adam, that’s just freakin’ sick.
Shalimar: Well, who knows how to do that?
Adam: All right, look, obviously I was not the only scientist out there dealing with genetic research. We’ve got someone out there playing around, trying to crack the genetic code. If he succeeds, then, you know, dealing with these made-to-order mutants will be the least of our problems.
Brennan: What are you saying?
Adam: I’m saying he could create a superplague. He could send a genetic ripple through an entire population as easy as choosing flavors of an ice cream cone.
Brennan: I got a bad feeling about this, Shal. You saw Adam’s face when you asked him who was behind it. He knows something.
Shalimar: Yeah, well, maybe he’s still trying to figure it out. You know Adam doesn’t throw around wild guesses.
Brennan: More like Adam not telling you you’re on fire until you can see the flames.
Shalimar: Hey, you know what? I don’t want to get into your issues with Adam, okay?
Brennan: Look, if someone is messing around with human genetics at this level, there can’t be more than a handful of people who could do it. He knows every one of them.
Shalimar: Yeah, and he’ll tell us when he figures it out.
Brennan: No, as usual, he’ll tell us when he feels like it. Shal, you’re way too supportive. I hope he deserves it.
Shalimar: Let me tell you a little story about a kid 10 years old. Different from her friends. Different from her parents. Stronger, faster, and a whole lot wilder. And because those parents didn’t see her fitting in, instead of loving her for what she was, they threw her into a psychiatric institution. Can you imagine being 10 years old and scared out of your mind in a place like that. They pumped me full of enough Thorazine to put ten kids under, but it didn’t work on me. So when they found they couldn’t sedate me, they turned to beatings to keep me down. Three or four grown men laying into a little kid.
Jesse: Your parents must have known something was wrong, Shal.
Shalimar: Yeah, my father knew. He told them to keep it up. Whatever it took to make me normal. But what they didn’t know, was that my powers were still growing. And then one night when the orderlies came for me, I was ready. I showed them what it was like to be really scared. That was the night I ran. So when you’re asking me to reconnect with my loving father, that’s what I’d be going back to.
Adam: Shalimar.
Shalimar: Adam, until you came and found me, I didn’t have a father. Please don’t make me do this.
Brennan: Hey, what you’re doing is brave.
Shalimar: Masochistic or stupid might be more to the point. Families are supposed to love each other. The only thing any of us ever felt was bitterness and hate. Not much like your typical sitcom family, huh?
Brennan: More like a real family. Nobody’s family is perfect. Look, I’m not making excuses for the guy, okay? But people change. Maybe he is interested in making things right.
Shalimar: Yeah, well if that were the case, he would already stopped breathing.
Nicholas Fox: Shalimar? I can hardly believe it.
Shalimar: I look different out of a straight jacket, don’t I?
Adam: Once I’ve reconstructed the search, I can confirm the names of the people that the killers are looking for.
Emma: Confirm? So you have some idea who they’re looking for.
Adam: No, I didn’t mean confirm.
Emma: Are you okay?
Adam: Yeah, I’m okay. I just, you know, I wanna find the people before the killers do.
Emma: What do you want me to do? Pretend that I believe you?
Adam: I want you to stay out of my head. You’re not invited.
Shalimar: Surprised you haven’t moved into genetic research. You know, modified grains, that sort of thing.
Nicholas: That’s a science that betrayed me once. I have no interest in giving it another chance.
Nicholas: But you’re okay? I mean after what that bastard did to you.
Shalimar: Who?
Nichloas: The doctor from Genomex. Adam Kane. You were too young to understand, but I found out a lot of things about him afterwards.
Shalimar: What are you talking about?
Nicholas: It’s not important now. He’s water under the bridge.
Shalimar: Look, I’ve told you guys before, I don’t think my father is involved.
Jesse: Shalimar, it’s a hell of a time to develop a set of family values.
Brennan: You know what, Jess? Why don’t you pour yourself a big glass of shut the hell up!
Emma: So what the hell is your name doing on a list of people needed by somebody manufacturing mutants?
Adam: My name is on a lot of lists.
Emma: That’s not the right answer, Adam.
Adam: It’s the only answer available right now.
Shalimar: I’ve hated him for so long, and then I see him again and it feels like none of that bad stuff ever happened.
Brennan: Well, we look at things differently when we get older.
Shalimar: You know what? It’s more than that. Okay, my father said something about Adam carrying out some kind of plan.
Brennan: Plan?
Shalimar: C’mon, you saw the way he’s acting. He’s hiding something.
Brennan: No, he was as shocked as the rest of us.
Shalimar: I don’t know anything anymore.
Brennan: Listen, Emma. Did you get any kind of a strange hit off Adam back there?
Emma: Look, if I sense something from someone, it’s like a priest hearing a confession. I can’t talk about it.
Brennan: Okay, Emma, it’s good to have morals, but you gotta know when to cut them loose.
Emma: She’s going through what we all go through. Adam is more of a father to me than my own father was. All of you guys are my family. But sometimes I wish that my mom had done the right thing, you know? That she had been there to worry about me instead of going off on whatever new age kick was popular at the time. But I mean sometimes, I still think about looking her up.
Brennan: So why haven’t you?
Emma: Because when you can see into someone’s soul, you don’t have the same illusions that other people do. You want to believe that people can change, but they don’t. Shalimar has to realize that.
Rucker: Nowhere to run?
Emma: Guess not.
Shalimar: Okay, Adam we’ve been patient. I wanna know what the hell Eckhart’s doing at my father’s company.
Adam: He’s tricked your father into providing him with the resources he needs to support his new project.
Brennan: Which is?
Adam: Well, according to the material on these hard drives, Eckhart is on the verge of controlling the keys to life. And what he plans to do with it, of course, we’ll have to ask him in person.
Shalimar: Okay, if he’s so close to having his hands on such big secrets, why are his mutants so messed up?
Jesse: The guy who died in the flower shop had the metabolism of an 80 year old, Adam.
Adam: Eckhart is attempting to do selective mutation from a specific blueprint, but he doesn’t have the required DNA to perfect the process. The samples that he’s collecting will allow him to do that.
Brennan: How do you know all this?
Adam: It’s not important how I know it. What’s important is that we get in there, we get him. We shut his operation down as quickly as possible. So I’m gonna ready the Helix for immediate takeoff, and then you four are going in.
Emma: No.
Brennan: Wait, Emma, what are you doing?
Emma: You were right, Brennan. There’s a point where you have to go past your usual moral code. Now I’ve understood what’s been going on for a long time, and I think the rest of you deserve to know too.
Adam: Emma. Stop it.
Emma: I could make you talk, Adam. But you’re gonna do it yourself. So tell them about the third name on the list. Tell them what it all means.
Adam: All right, so you want to know how Eckhart got the blueprint for making mutants? He got it from me.
Jesse: What?
Adam: After I realized the genetic mutations that my therapies were causing, I stopped using them to treat people. But I couldn’t just throw that information away, so I gathered specific genetic samples, including my own DNA, and
I experimented on selected mutations in secret.
Shalimar: Yours was the third name on the list?
Adam: He needs my DNA to complete my work. He wants to recreate it.
Shalimar: That’s what my dad was trying to tell me. You’re no better than Eckhart.
Adam: I was on the verge of cracking the genetic code. The possibilities for humanity? They were limitless.
Brennan: So you were just in it for the knowledge? Oh, must be hard to go back to being plain ol’ Adam Kane after playing God for so long.
Adam: All right, look, I knew nobody should have this information. It was too dangerous for anyone to have. So what did I do? I stopped my experiments. I encrypted information. I took it out of Genomex as quickly as I could.
Shalimar: You can’t hide anything from Eckhart. You should know that.
Brennan: For all we know, you wanted him to have it.
Adam: What does that mean?
Brennan: I don’t know, okay? All I know is we’re having a hard time believing anything that’s coming out of your mouth right now.
Adam: Wait, wait. Where’re you going?
Shalimar: To Naxcon. I’m gonna get my father away from Eckhart before he gets in too deep.
Adam: Shalimar, it’s too late for that.
Shalimar: I spent all these years hating him. Thinking you were my family. And now it turns out he might be the only one telling me the truth.
Brennan: You keep your eyes open.
Shalimar: I thought I had my eyes open. I was looking right at Adam and I didn’t see him at all.
Brennan: Yeah, I know. All I’m saying is just make sure. You know, before you go putting your faith in someone else.
Shalimar: Thanks. I can always count on you, can’t I?
Brennan: Always.
Nicholas: Eckhart came to me, yes. He offered me money for my business. But he offered me a chance to get you back.
Shalimar: What?
Nicholas: The way you were. Before Adam Kane changed you. He’s working on a cure.
Shalimar: There is no cure. It’s not a disease! I am what I am, and I like what I am. Can’t you understand that? And I would have liked myself a whole lot sooner if I thought for one moment that you and mom liked me too.
Nicholas: But we loved you! Do you know what it was like watching the pain you were in? Losing control of your anger, your fear. What did you want me to feel, Shalimar?
Shalimar: You were supposed to treat me like a daughter. Not like some kind of freak.
Brennan: You know, this man that you put your trust in is a murderer. You know that he’s killed hundreds of people?
Nicholas: He said you would say that. It’s for the best, Shalimar. You’ll see.
Mason: Hello, Adam. Have you missed me?
Adam: You’re looking more like your old self, Mason.
Mason: Feeling like a million bucks. It’s amazing what a new hairstyle can do for one.
Emma: Where do you think you’re going?
Adam: Well, you should know. You seem to know everything else.
Emma: Look, Adam, I didn’t want it to happen this way.
Adam: None of us did.
Jesse: It took me 28 years to find someone to believe in, Adam. I’m not just gonna throw that away.
Mason: Adam. It’s been a long time. Of course, being in the pod made it seem even longer.
Adam: How’d you get out?
Mason: You don’t think I’d devise a trap without a back door for me to wriggle out? Six months in, any pod that I hadn’t coded the locks on was automatically reopened.
Adam: I was hoping that you’d have used some of that time to think about all of the damage that you’d done.
Mason: Beautiful. As sanctimonious as ever. Actually, I did use my time for thinking. I thought a lot about you and what I planned to do when I got out.
Adam: How long have you had my files?
Mason: I had your files as soon as you saved them. But it took my people until just a few months ago to break the encryption. You always were the best. And now your brilliance and your DNA will change the world in a way you never had the courage to.
Adam: It wasn’t about courage. It was about the fact that there are some things that people shouldn’t try to control.
Mason: Adam, I thought you’d understood. Destroying disease. Creating a race of perfect humans. Turning on genes to make people live forever. These are dreams that people like you live for. Thanks to your research and your DNA, I’ll be father to a whole new race.
Nicholas: What’s going on? That’s not the agreement. You can’t do it. I won’t let you.
Mason: I’ll keep my end of the bargain. Your daughter will be returned to you cured, as soon as I get what I want.
Adam: What about your friends here? What have you given them besides a lot of pain? All he’s given you is a life that’s gonna end very soon.
Silva: What is he talking about?
Adam: Why do you think he needs my DNA? He needs it to perfect the process of mutation because you’re just rough drafts. I mean, that’s why your friend died. That’s why you’re gonna die. What, you forgot to tell them this, Eckhart?
Mason: That’s enough. I need the samples. Take him.
Adam: I don’t think so. This is an electromagnetic pulse generator. This is strong enough to fry every piece of electronic equipment in this building.
Mason: Really, Adam? It showed up on the sensors the moment you walked through the front door. And that’s when it was rendered unworkable. When are you going to learn that I really am a step ahead?
Silva: Lady, you are about to have the worst day of your life.
Emma: I don’t think so. It’s hard to share pain that you don’t feel, isn’t it?
Mason: You idiot! What did you do?
Nicholas: I opened up the steam valves. I released the pressure. It’s all about to go up.
Mason: You always have to screw things up, don’t you Adam?
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