Shock of the New
Mutant X Episode Synopses
Shock of the New: Episode #101
Tag: On a mission to protect the unwitting subjects of a covert human genetics program gone awry, Adam and his MUTANT X team set out to find these new mutants before they can be hunted down and exploited for their special powers. [ Transcript]
Cast & Crew: Written by Howard Chaykin; Directed by T.J. Scott
Sean Bell.... Michael Azzarello
Chuck Byrn.... Ruby Bishop
Ingrid Hart.... Allison Turner
Kevin Hicks.... Brad Carter
Lorne Hunchuck....Vince
Matthew MacFadzean.... Tony Reese
Douglas O'Keefe.... Frank Thorne
Cedric Smith.... Dr. Paul Breedlove
Official Synopsis: Terrified young Emma deLauro (Lauren Lee Smith) rushes through the crowd at a chic nightclub. As she collides with the handsome Brennan Mulwray (Victor Webster), their eyes meet and Brennan immediately senses something extraordinary about Emma. Before he is able to speak, however, she disappears. Outside, Jesse Kilmartin (Forbes March) mysteriously materializes out of nowhere and guides Emma to safety as a black sedan chases her down a dark alley. As the vehicle races towards him, he takes a deep breath, alters his body density and phases out, allowing the car to pass straight through him. When the agents in hot pursuit emerge from the car, the striking Shalimar Fox (Victoria Pratt) pounces from above and beats them unconscious. Jesse suddenly sees two more agents rushing towards Emma and alters his body density again, this time becoming impervious and blocking the bullets meant for her. Utterly confused, Emma turns to run. A calm mysterious stranger, Adam (John Shea), blocks her path. Adam takes Emma's hand and tells her she is among friends and that all her questions will soon be answered. He then leads her, along with Jesse and Shalimar, to a Stealth VTOL aircraft and they fly off into the night.The aircraft lands inside Stormking Mountain and the group enters what is called Sanctuary, a Zen garden and high-tech wonderland. Adam informs Emma that her assailants are security agents for Genomex, a biotech firm where he used to work as chief biogeneticist. Adam tells Emma that she, like Shalimar, Jesse and hundreds of others, were unsuspecting subjects of covert experiments in human genetics that went awry. As a result of this genetic engineering, these new mutants produced by Genomex have extraordinary powers. Adam explains to Emma that the agents were after her because of her "telempathic" powers, which allow her to sense and influence the feelings of others. The next day, Mason Eckhart (Tom McCamus), the security chief of Genomex, visits the head of Genomex, Dr. Paul Breedlove (Cedric Smith). Knowing that Breedlove feels guilty and is ready to expose their covert operation to the press, Eckhart and he discuss the possibility of making reparations for the atrocities they've committed. That night, as Breedlove prepares his speech for the press, he's confronted by Eckhart and his right-hand man, Frank Thorne (Douglas O'Keeffe), who is himself a Child of Genomex. Telling Breedlove that he should have kept his mouth shut, Thorne uses his mutant powers kill him. Meanwhile, Brennan and his two longtime buddies, Tony Reese (Matthew MacFadzean) and Michael Azzarello (Sean Bell), secretly meet with Brad Carter (Kevin Hicks) who has hired them to steal $10 million in treasury certificates. As they enter the Hickman & Wrightson Securities Agency, Brennan zaps a bolt of electricity that surges from his fingertips to short out the cameras and alarm. The three pull off the dangerous and complicated heist and narrowly escape. Emma is now at a safe house for new mutants where Adam has taken her, but is in denial about the fact that she has special powers. When Shalimar arrives, she hands Emma new identity information. Another new mutant, Allison (Ingrid Hart), then drives Emma to the marina where she is to take a boat out of town. But when Emma sees two agents approaching her, she flees in Allison's car, prompting Adam to initiate an immediate search. Back at Genomex, the unscrupulous Eckhart assembles the staff and blames Breedlove's death on the genetic "anomalies" their experiments have produced. He proclaims that for the safety of the world, he's instituting the Genetic Security Agency in order to hunt down and capture them. In the meantime, Shalimar spots Emma on a holographic map grid and sets out to find her as Emma makes her way back to the nightclub where she and Brennan met. Finding him there, Emma joins him for a drink and they begin to confide in each other, revealing that they each have special abilities. When Emma goes to the ladies room, Thorne arrives and approaches Brennan, telling him he's about to make him the offer of a lifetime. When Emma returns, she has a telempathic vision of Brennan being strangled, which he's able to pick up. Brennan and Emma race out of the club with Thorne close behind just as Shalimar arrives. Brennan is able to stop Thorne temporarily with an electrical bolt, but he and Emma are soon surrounded by a group of agents. Suddenly, Shalimar and Jesse burst on the scene and struggle with the agents, but it's not until Adam appears that Thorne and his men decide to back off.
Quotes:
Proxy Blue: A teenaged girl falls six stories, then walks away unscathed. A man bursts into flames with no signs of burns. One thing's for sure. It's getting weirder out there every day. But the truth is spoken here.
Jesse: Smile, loser!
Adam: No need to run anymore, Emma. You're among friends.
Emma: How do you know my name? Wait, what's going on?
Adam: All of your questions will be answered. Right now, time to go.
Emma: Will someone please tell me who the hell you guys are and what this is all about?
Adam: Sorry, Emma. I'm Adam. And this is Mutant X. Your assailants were members of a security wing of Genomex, a biotech firm which is actually a secret branch of U.S. intelligence.
Jesse: Is that what I looked like when I first saw it?
Shalimar: Nah. You just started crying. Just kidding.
Adam: Shalimar, Jesse, and you are all children of Genomex. Genomex conducted a secret genetics program which had the unforseen consequences of creating men and women with special abilities, like your telempathic power.
Emma: I keep telling you I don't have any powers.
Adam: Now, you're aware of these odd stories that we've been hearing about recently? Curious events, inexplicable mysteries, human oddities?
Emma: Yeah, but I never believed those stories were true.
Adam: Yes, all right, some of them are fakes; some of them are hoaxes. But to an alarming degree, it's the children of Genomex that are behind such phenomena.
Emma: So it's not all aliens and crystals and reincarnation, huh?
Adam: No, well of course not. You've seen what Jesse and Shalimar can do. There are perhaps a thousand children of Genomex. Now some of them know who and what they are, but some of them are terrified at the changes that are happening to them.
Emma: Well, I still don't get why you've kidnapped me.
Adam: I prefer to call it recruitment.
Emma: So are you one of these children too?
Adam: No. No, I was chief biogeneticist at Genomex.
Mason: That sounds like Adam and his people.
Frank Thorne: Our GS agents are new at this.
Mason: Well, they have to get better. And fast, Mr. Thorne.
Frank: Yes, Mr. Eckhart. Ah. Good to go.
Adam: Despite your genetically enhanced abilities, the children of Genomex are not superhuman.
Emma: I keep telling you, I don't have any--
Adam: And it's vitally important for you to recognize the toll that these abilities take on your body, mind, and soul.
Emma: Soul?
Adam: Soul. There's a spiritual side to your condition too. Too many of the new mutants are under the delusion that they're God.
Proxy Blue: Call me paranoid, but I figure the paranoid will inherit the Earth.
Tony: I thought you'd outgrown the cartoons.
Brennan: I'm just curious about all this stuff that's going on.
Tony: Ah, it's crap. On the interactive hotline? It's gotta be a scam.
Dr. Paul Breedlove: I heard all about that business last night, Mason. Sounds like Adam to me.
Mason: You seem almost amused. That you don't despise him for betraying you remains a mystery to me.
Paul: That you hold him responsible for the collapse of your immune system would have nothing to do with that, eh? You were always too hard on Adam.
Mason: And you were always too easy, Paul. And that's how he stole your database.
Paul: Which I have nearly reconstructed. So we can make amends for the horrific mistakes we've made.
Mason: I should have killed Adam when I had the chance. And now Breedlove intends to go to the press and expose everything. And I'll never get the chance to bring Adam to the justice that he deserves.
Frank Thorne: Well, we can change all that.
Ruby Bishop: Yes, the place is a mess. But I am spotless. Your mind, it's an open book to me.
Adam: Ruby's a telepath.
Ruby: I prefer ESPer. It just sounds...sexier.
Allison Turner: So what's your power?
Emma: I don't have any power.
Allison: Ah. The power of denial.
Emma: Well, that was too weird.
Jesse: I kind of like it, myself.
Shalimar: Me too. Helps me get in touch with my powers.
Emma: Well, I don't have any powers. And I'm certainly not a freak like you two.
Jesse: Freak? [Jesse leaves; Shalimar's eyes flash as she follows him]
Adam: Jesse is very sensitive. Shalimar is very territorial, and very protective of the people she loves. And that includes Jesse.
Mason: Normal people don't want super-powered freaks next door.
Paul Breedlove [to Mason]: You should come down and visit us more often.
Paul Breedlove: When Genomex was conceived, we saw ourselves as pioneers in a new frontier of knowledge. Men and women with the power to remake the world, to play God with the genetic code. All of us at Genomex feel enormous guilt for the harm we've caused in manipulating DNA against the laws of nature.
Mason: Speak for yourself, Paul.
Paul: What's that supposed to mean?
Mason: I don't share your guilt. "The government owes enormous reparations to the victims of Genomex for the horror inflicted on these innocents." You can't put the demons back in the box after they've been released.
Paul: There's no need for them to suffer without compensation.
Mason: The only thing this compensates is your guilt. You create these anomalies and then make it better by apologizing and let someone else clean up after you. Perhaps if you recognized Adam for the criminal that he is, you wouldn't be so self-deluded.
Mason: If only you'd kept your mouth shut, everything would've been fine. But you had to beat yourself up with guilt over the mess you've made. And now I have to use your lemons to make lemonade.
Mason: So much for the paper trail.
Allison Turner: I've gotta tell you girl, I understand your decision completely.
Emma: What decision?
Allison: Not to join Mutant X. I mean, it's not like every new mutant's a hero.
Mason: We have operated under covert conditions since the inception of this project. That need for secrecy has been brought home by this brutal murder. A heinous crime that was committed by a product of the program who somehow managed to break into our archive section and burn that historical landmark to the ground in the process. Genomex will not be cowed, corrupted, or coopted by these creatures. Instead, I have been mandated to create the Genetic Security Agency to protect the world from this rapaciousness. While our pure research continues, this covert force will take these anomalies into custody under a cloak of absolute secrecy.
Mason: That went well, don't you think?
Frank Thorne: Well, they seem...happy.
Mason: Don't get carried away, Mr. Thorne. They're all just easily bought by flattery and bigger paychecks.
Mason: Let's start performing the job that we were meant to do, shall we?
Frank Thorne: Indeed.
Emma: You'd be surprised how persuasive I can be when it comes to Misses and Petites.
Brennan: No, I don't think I'd be surprised at all.
Frank Thorne: I came here to make you the deal of a lifetime. Fast cars, hot women, all the money you'll ever need.
Trivia & Nitpicks: The Double Helix is currently in autopilot. Proxy Blue, visual cloaks, Genomex, the GSA, Mason’s sterilizing unit, the EDD, the new mutant database, the mutant underground, and Brennan’s love of fast cars and burglary are introduced.
Shalimar joined Mutant X before Jesse. Prior to joining Mutant X, Emma sold misses and petites at Leverman and Stokes, using her powers any chance she got. Prior to joining Mutant X, Brennan learned that he could throw off sparks as a kid, but never told anyone. Thorne is the first person he’s used his electricity against.
Shalimar, like most ferals, is territorial. Shalimar rides a yellow motorcycle.
The GSA has an inside connection to the Proxy Blue hotline.
Mason holds Adam responsible for the collapse of his immune system. Further details about what actually happened to him are never given in the series.
Emma's non-telempathic ability #1: Emma demonstrates her ability to cast illusions when she makes Allison see two innocent dock workers as GS agents. She will repeat this trick when pretending to be Nicole Carter in "Blood Ties," Megan in "Presumed Guilty," and Mason Eckhart in "Dancing on the Razor."
You’ve got to love the Darth Vader-like hissing in the pods as Mason’s face is superimposed over the new mutants in stasis.
It’s perhaps telling that Brennan’s first words in the series are, “Wai-wha?”
Though we’re not sure why they want to kill Emma rather than bring her back alive, the GS agents at the beginning of this episode are definitely carrying guns. They’re also carrying guns in “I Scream the Body Electric,” “Fool for Love,” “The Meaning of Death,” “Lit Fuse,” “Crime of the New Century,” and “Blood Ties.” Remember this information for when we reach “Deadly Desire.” It’s too bad that the GS agents don’t know that Jesse can only stay massed for a certain amount of time. If they just waited a few seconds between rounds, their bullets would be much more effective.
For someone who feels so guilty about the way new mutants were handled by Genomex, Dr. Breedlove shows a surprisingly mild response to learning what Mason's GS agents have been up to, chasing Emma. He doesn't even ask why they were after her.
Brad Carter, although the trio of car thieves he has just hired is standing right beside his shiny black car, apparently thinks nothing is amiss when he discovers on hopping in that his seat needs to be readjusted for the length of his legs. Ahem.
Brennan’s gang are either really good, or really stupid. When they rob the bank, they aren’t wearing masks or gloves, and we know for a fact that Brennan, at least, has been to jail in the past, meaning that he does have fingerprints on file.
Brennan will inform Shalimar in “Into the Moonless Night” that before he joined Mutant X, he only robbed people who probably deserved it. Tell that to the poor woman in the bank whose necklace he steals in this episode.
We learn that Genomex is really a branch of U.S. government intelligence, but the Genetic Security Agency isn't officially formed until this episode, following Dr. Breedlove's untimely demise at the hands of genetic terrorists . Interestingly, Frank Thorne refers to GS agents *before* Eckhart makes his Orwellian announcement. Which makes you wonder how much, if anything, the Genomex Rank & File already know.
Adam states that there are maybe 1,000 children of Genomex. Pretty impressive for for a bunch of labs that didn't have site directed mutagenesis (c.f. Time Squared). Adam also says that new mutant DNA is in a constant state of mutation ( evolution --hey, writers? Not. Equivalent.). This necessitates the tune ups and is probably as good an explanation as any for the growth spurts in A Breed Apart. This information is then promptly forgotten about until “A Breed Apart,” and then again until season 3.
It doesn't make much sense that Paul Breedlove isn't aware that Frank Thorne is a new mutant. I mean, Breedlove was the one who created the new mutant database. Twice.
How is it that Shalimar has been with Adam all those years but has never heard of Paul Breedlove before this episode? She certainly knows who Mason Eckhart is.
It’s funny how there’s always just one red car in the parking lot at Genomex.
Ruby’s bookstore is actually a bookstore. Even as Adam is showing Emma how to get into the safehouse, there are actual people browsing through, buying books....any of whom could be undercover GSA, like Kendra MacEvoy. How secure can that be?
Brennan says he's never told anyone about his abilities before Emma. If that were true--which it isn't--Brennan trusts Emma awfully easily just by learning she has powers too, doesn't he? After all, Thorne has powers too. By season three, we'll learn that at least two other people were in the know, Brennan's childhood partner-in-crime Cole Thatcher ("Divided Loyalties"), and his high school counselor, Dr. Victor Palance ("Shadows of Darkness").
Frank Thorne sensibly goes off to capture Brennan wearing a shock-proof vest. Now, why can’t any subsequent GS agents follow suit?
What are they all looking at as the scene fades to black at the end?
Stuff dropped like a hot potato: Jesse using his comlink like a flash camera during the first fight scene. Adam probably got tired of getting out-of-focus images of beat-up unconscious GS agents for the database.
Ep Tally. Topless Brennan: 0 (It’s Emma this time) Adam Kisses: 0 Freak mentions: 4 Food intake: 2 drinks (Brennan)
Return to The Mutant X Warehouse
Shock of the New: Episode #101
Tag: On a mission to protect the unwitting subjects of a covert human genetics program gone awry, Adam and his MUTANT X team set out to find these new mutants before they can be hunted down and exploited for their special powers. [ Transcript]
Cast & Crew: Written by Howard Chaykin; Directed by T.J. Scott
Sean Bell.... Michael Azzarello
Chuck Byrn.... Ruby Bishop
Ingrid Hart.... Allison Turner
Kevin Hicks.... Brad Carter
Lorne Hunchuck....Vince
Matthew MacFadzean.... Tony Reese
Douglas O'Keefe.... Frank Thorne
Cedric Smith.... Dr. Paul Breedlove
Official Synopsis: Terrified young Emma deLauro (Lauren Lee Smith) rushes through the crowd at a chic nightclub. As she collides with the handsome Brennan Mulwray (Victor Webster), their eyes meet and Brennan immediately senses something extraordinary about Emma. Before he is able to speak, however, she disappears. Outside, Jesse Kilmartin (Forbes March) mysteriously materializes out of nowhere and guides Emma to safety as a black sedan chases her down a dark alley. As the vehicle races towards him, he takes a deep breath, alters his body density and phases out, allowing the car to pass straight through him. When the agents in hot pursuit emerge from the car, the striking Shalimar Fox (Victoria Pratt) pounces from above and beats them unconscious. Jesse suddenly sees two more agents rushing towards Emma and alters his body density again, this time becoming impervious and blocking the bullets meant for her. Utterly confused, Emma turns to run. A calm mysterious stranger, Adam (John Shea), blocks her path. Adam takes Emma's hand and tells her she is among friends and that all her questions will soon be answered. He then leads her, along with Jesse and Shalimar, to a Stealth VTOL aircraft and they fly off into the night.The aircraft lands inside Stormking Mountain and the group enters what is called Sanctuary, a Zen garden and high-tech wonderland. Adam informs Emma that her assailants are security agents for Genomex, a biotech firm where he used to work as chief biogeneticist. Adam tells Emma that she, like Shalimar, Jesse and hundreds of others, were unsuspecting subjects of covert experiments in human genetics that went awry. As a result of this genetic engineering, these new mutants produced by Genomex have extraordinary powers. Adam explains to Emma that the agents were after her because of her "telempathic" powers, which allow her to sense and influence the feelings of others. The next day, Mason Eckhart (Tom McCamus), the security chief of Genomex, visits the head of Genomex, Dr. Paul Breedlove (Cedric Smith). Knowing that Breedlove feels guilty and is ready to expose their covert operation to the press, Eckhart and he discuss the possibility of making reparations for the atrocities they've committed. That night, as Breedlove prepares his speech for the press, he's confronted by Eckhart and his right-hand man, Frank Thorne (Douglas O'Keeffe), who is himself a Child of Genomex. Telling Breedlove that he should have kept his mouth shut, Thorne uses his mutant powers kill him. Meanwhile, Brennan and his two longtime buddies, Tony Reese (Matthew MacFadzean) and Michael Azzarello (Sean Bell), secretly meet with Brad Carter (Kevin Hicks) who has hired them to steal $10 million in treasury certificates. As they enter the Hickman & Wrightson Securities Agency, Brennan zaps a bolt of electricity that surges from his fingertips to short out the cameras and alarm. The three pull off the dangerous and complicated heist and narrowly escape. Emma is now at a safe house for new mutants where Adam has taken her, but is in denial about the fact that she has special powers. When Shalimar arrives, she hands Emma new identity information. Another new mutant, Allison (Ingrid Hart), then drives Emma to the marina where she is to take a boat out of town. But when Emma sees two agents approaching her, she flees in Allison's car, prompting Adam to initiate an immediate search. Back at Genomex, the unscrupulous Eckhart assembles the staff and blames Breedlove's death on the genetic "anomalies" their experiments have produced. He proclaims that for the safety of the world, he's instituting the Genetic Security Agency in order to hunt down and capture them. In the meantime, Shalimar spots Emma on a holographic map grid and sets out to find her as Emma makes her way back to the nightclub where she and Brennan met. Finding him there, Emma joins him for a drink and they begin to confide in each other, revealing that they each have special abilities. When Emma goes to the ladies room, Thorne arrives and approaches Brennan, telling him he's about to make him the offer of a lifetime. When Emma returns, she has a telempathic vision of Brennan being strangled, which he's able to pick up. Brennan and Emma race out of the club with Thorne close behind just as Shalimar arrives. Brennan is able to stop Thorne temporarily with an electrical bolt, but he and Emma are soon surrounded by a group of agents. Suddenly, Shalimar and Jesse burst on the scene and struggle with the agents, but it's not until Adam appears that Thorne and his men decide to back off.
Quotes:
Proxy Blue: A teenaged girl falls six stories, then walks away unscathed. A man bursts into flames with no signs of burns. One thing's for sure. It's getting weirder out there every day. But the truth is spoken here.
Jesse: Smile, loser!
Adam: No need to run anymore, Emma. You're among friends.
Emma: How do you know my name? Wait, what's going on?
Adam: All of your questions will be answered. Right now, time to go.
Emma: Will someone please tell me who the hell you guys are and what this is all about?
Adam: Sorry, Emma. I'm Adam. And this is Mutant X. Your assailants were members of a security wing of Genomex, a biotech firm which is actually a secret branch of U.S. intelligence.
Jesse: Is that what I looked like when I first saw it?
Shalimar: Nah. You just started crying. Just kidding.
Adam: Shalimar, Jesse, and you are all children of Genomex. Genomex conducted a secret genetics program which had the unforseen consequences of creating men and women with special abilities, like your telempathic power.
Emma: I keep telling you I don't have any powers.
Adam: Now, you're aware of these odd stories that we've been hearing about recently? Curious events, inexplicable mysteries, human oddities?
Emma: Yeah, but I never believed those stories were true.
Adam: Yes, all right, some of them are fakes; some of them are hoaxes. But to an alarming degree, it's the children of Genomex that are behind such phenomena.
Emma: So it's not all aliens and crystals and reincarnation, huh?
Adam: No, well of course not. You've seen what Jesse and Shalimar can do. There are perhaps a thousand children of Genomex. Now some of them know who and what they are, but some of them are terrified at the changes that are happening to them.
Emma: Well, I still don't get why you've kidnapped me.
Adam: I prefer to call it recruitment.
Emma: So are you one of these children too?
Adam: No. No, I was chief biogeneticist at Genomex.
Mason: That sounds like Adam and his people.
Frank Thorne: Our GS agents are new at this.
Mason: Well, they have to get better. And fast, Mr. Thorne.
Frank: Yes, Mr. Eckhart. Ah. Good to go.
Adam: Despite your genetically enhanced abilities, the children of Genomex are not superhuman.
Emma: I keep telling you, I don't have any--
Adam: And it's vitally important for you to recognize the toll that these abilities take on your body, mind, and soul.
Emma: Soul?
Adam: Soul. There's a spiritual side to your condition too. Too many of the new mutants are under the delusion that they're God.
Proxy Blue: Call me paranoid, but I figure the paranoid will inherit the Earth.
Tony: I thought you'd outgrown the cartoons.
Brennan: I'm just curious about all this stuff that's going on.
Tony: Ah, it's crap. On the interactive hotline? It's gotta be a scam.
Dr. Paul Breedlove: I heard all about that business last night, Mason. Sounds like Adam to me.
Mason: You seem almost amused. That you don't despise him for betraying you remains a mystery to me.
Paul: That you hold him responsible for the collapse of your immune system would have nothing to do with that, eh? You were always too hard on Adam.
Mason: And you were always too easy, Paul. And that's how he stole your database.
Paul: Which I have nearly reconstructed. So we can make amends for the horrific mistakes we've made.
Mason: I should have killed Adam when I had the chance. And now Breedlove intends to go to the press and expose everything. And I'll never get the chance to bring Adam to the justice that he deserves.
Frank Thorne: Well, we can change all that.
Ruby Bishop: Yes, the place is a mess. But I am spotless. Your mind, it's an open book to me.
Adam: Ruby's a telepath.
Ruby: I prefer ESPer. It just sounds...sexier.
Allison Turner: So what's your power?
Emma: I don't have any power.
Allison: Ah. The power of denial.
Emma: Well, that was too weird.
Jesse: I kind of like it, myself.
Shalimar: Me too. Helps me get in touch with my powers.
Emma: Well, I don't have any powers. And I'm certainly not a freak like you two.
Jesse: Freak? [Jesse leaves; Shalimar's eyes flash as she follows him]
Adam: Jesse is very sensitive. Shalimar is very territorial, and very protective of the people she loves. And that includes Jesse.
Mason: Normal people don't want super-powered freaks next door.
Paul Breedlove [to Mason]: You should come down and visit us more often.
Paul Breedlove: When Genomex was conceived, we saw ourselves as pioneers in a new frontier of knowledge. Men and women with the power to remake the world, to play God with the genetic code. All of us at Genomex feel enormous guilt for the harm we've caused in manipulating DNA against the laws of nature.
Mason: Speak for yourself, Paul.
Paul: What's that supposed to mean?
Mason: I don't share your guilt. "The government owes enormous reparations to the victims of Genomex for the horror inflicted on these innocents." You can't put the demons back in the box after they've been released.
Paul: There's no need for them to suffer without compensation.
Mason: The only thing this compensates is your guilt. You create these anomalies and then make it better by apologizing and let someone else clean up after you. Perhaps if you recognized Adam for the criminal that he is, you wouldn't be so self-deluded.
Mason: If only you'd kept your mouth shut, everything would've been fine. But you had to beat yourself up with guilt over the mess you've made. And now I have to use your lemons to make lemonade.
Mason: So much for the paper trail.
Allison Turner: I've gotta tell you girl, I understand your decision completely.
Emma: What decision?
Allison: Not to join Mutant X. I mean, it's not like every new mutant's a hero.
Mason: We have operated under covert conditions since the inception of this project. That need for secrecy has been brought home by this brutal murder. A heinous crime that was committed by a product of the program who somehow managed to break into our archive section and burn that historical landmark to the ground in the process. Genomex will not be cowed, corrupted, or coopted by these creatures. Instead, I have been mandated to create the Genetic Security Agency to protect the world from this rapaciousness. While our pure research continues, this covert force will take these anomalies into custody under a cloak of absolute secrecy.
Mason: That went well, don't you think?
Frank Thorne: Well, they seem...happy.
Mason: Don't get carried away, Mr. Thorne. They're all just easily bought by flattery and bigger paychecks.
Mason: Let's start performing the job that we were meant to do, shall we?
Frank Thorne: Indeed.
Emma: You'd be surprised how persuasive I can be when it comes to Misses and Petites.
Brennan: No, I don't think I'd be surprised at all.
Frank Thorne: I came here to make you the deal of a lifetime. Fast cars, hot women, all the money you'll ever need.
Trivia & Nitpicks: The Double Helix is currently in autopilot. Proxy Blue, visual cloaks, Genomex, the GSA, Mason’s sterilizing unit, the EDD, the new mutant database, the mutant underground, and Brennan’s love of fast cars and burglary are introduced.
Shalimar joined Mutant X before Jesse. Prior to joining Mutant X, Emma sold misses and petites at Leverman and Stokes, using her powers any chance she got. Prior to joining Mutant X, Brennan learned that he could throw off sparks as a kid, but never told anyone. Thorne is the first person he’s used his electricity against.
Shalimar, like most ferals, is territorial. Shalimar rides a yellow motorcycle.
The GSA has an inside connection to the Proxy Blue hotline.
Mason holds Adam responsible for the collapse of his immune system. Further details about what actually happened to him are never given in the series.
Emma's non-telempathic ability #1: Emma demonstrates her ability to cast illusions when she makes Allison see two innocent dock workers as GS agents. She will repeat this trick when pretending to be Nicole Carter in "Blood Ties," Megan in "Presumed Guilty," and Mason Eckhart in "Dancing on the Razor."
You’ve got to love the Darth Vader-like hissing in the pods as Mason’s face is superimposed over the new mutants in stasis.
It’s perhaps telling that Brennan’s first words in the series are, “Wai-wha?”
Though we’re not sure why they want to kill Emma rather than bring her back alive, the GS agents at the beginning of this episode are definitely carrying guns. They’re also carrying guns in “I Scream the Body Electric,” “Fool for Love,” “The Meaning of Death,” “Lit Fuse,” “Crime of the New Century,” and “Blood Ties.” Remember this information for when we reach “Deadly Desire.” It’s too bad that the GS agents don’t know that Jesse can only stay massed for a certain amount of time. If they just waited a few seconds between rounds, their bullets would be much more effective.
For someone who feels so guilty about the way new mutants were handled by Genomex, Dr. Breedlove shows a surprisingly mild response to learning what Mason's GS agents have been up to, chasing Emma. He doesn't even ask why they were after her.
Brad Carter, although the trio of car thieves he has just hired is standing right beside his shiny black car, apparently thinks nothing is amiss when he discovers on hopping in that his seat needs to be readjusted for the length of his legs. Ahem.
Brennan’s gang are either really good, or really stupid. When they rob the bank, they aren’t wearing masks or gloves, and we know for a fact that Brennan, at least, has been to jail in the past, meaning that he does have fingerprints on file.
Brennan will inform Shalimar in “Into the Moonless Night” that before he joined Mutant X, he only robbed people who probably deserved it. Tell that to the poor woman in the bank whose necklace he steals in this episode.
We learn that Genomex is really a branch of U.S. government intelligence, but the Genetic Security Agency isn't officially formed until this episode, following Dr. Breedlove's untimely demise at the hands of genetic terrorists . Interestingly, Frank Thorne refers to GS agents *before* Eckhart makes his Orwellian announcement. Which makes you wonder how much, if anything, the Genomex Rank & File already know.
Adam states that there are maybe 1,000 children of Genomex. Pretty impressive for for a bunch of labs that didn't have site directed mutagenesis (c.f. Time Squared). Adam also says that new mutant DNA is in a constant state of mutation ( evolution --hey, writers? Not. Equivalent.). This necessitates the tune ups and is probably as good an explanation as any for the growth spurts in A Breed Apart. This information is then promptly forgotten about until “A Breed Apart,” and then again until season 3.
It doesn't make much sense that Paul Breedlove isn't aware that Frank Thorne is a new mutant. I mean, Breedlove was the one who created the new mutant database. Twice.
How is it that Shalimar has been with Adam all those years but has never heard of Paul Breedlove before this episode? She certainly knows who Mason Eckhart is.
It’s funny how there’s always just one red car in the parking lot at Genomex.
Ruby’s bookstore is actually a bookstore. Even as Adam is showing Emma how to get into the safehouse, there are actual people browsing through, buying books....any of whom could be undercover GSA, like Kendra MacEvoy. How secure can that be?
Brennan says he's never told anyone about his abilities before Emma. If that were true--which it isn't--Brennan trusts Emma awfully easily just by learning she has powers too, doesn't he? After all, Thorne has powers too. By season three, we'll learn that at least two other people were in the know, Brennan's childhood partner-in-crime Cole Thatcher ("Divided Loyalties"), and his high school counselor, Dr. Victor Palance ("Shadows of Darkness").
Frank Thorne sensibly goes off to capture Brennan wearing a shock-proof vest. Now, why can’t any subsequent GS agents follow suit?
What are they all looking at as the scene fades to black at the end?
Stuff dropped like a hot potato: Jesse using his comlink like a flash camera during the first fight scene. Adam probably got tired of getting out-of-focus images of beat-up unconscious GS agents for the database.
Ep Tally. Topless Brennan: 0 (It’s Emma this time) Adam Kisses: 0 Freak mentions: 4 Food intake: 2 drinks (Brennan)
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