Original Airdate: October 20, 2001
While extracting a new mutant, Brennan gets shot by Russian bounty hunters, Sonya and Yuri, with a special ray gun that neutralizes new mutant powers, and more so, causes a painful death over time. Adam has Brennan stabilized and the girl they saved is sent to live with a family that works with the cause.
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| Brennan suffering from the effects of the gun |
Jesse joins the bounty hunters, intent on learning more about the gun and how to reverse the effects. He gets along with Yuri well enough, but after the gun detects that Jesse is a new mutant, they capture him, but before they kill him, they decide to go for his family anyway to get more money from Eckhart. They implant a subdermal governor on him, restricting his power usage. Emma feels this, and alerts Adam to this development.
Adam's plan for this was pretty fair - replacing the real family, Adam has Mutant X pose as the family, Adam as the father, Shalimar as the mother, and Emma as the new mutant placed there the day prior. When the Russians, along with Jesse, show up to take care of them, short work is made of the bounty hunters.
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| Shalimar and Emma |
Daniel, as it turns out, despite his initial claims that he hates new mutants, is a new mutant himself, possessing the same ability as his father. He was afraid of his powers, and instead of confiding in his parents, hid them, hating himself, but reflecting his hatred onto new mutants themselves. He helps Mutant X take down the Russians, and Brennan, back on his feet again after having been cured, destroys all of the computers at the Russians' base, ensuring that Genomax and Eckhart don't get their hands on the information, particularly the blueprints to the gun.
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| Dramatic group shot, walking away from computer explosions |
This episode felt rather soulless, truth be told. While Brennan was in real danger of dying, we never really felt it at any point in this episode. It seems to me it would be a more emotional time for Mutant X, but it was mostly business as usual.
Jesse pretending to be Daniel was an interesting move, and for the most part, he did okay undercover, but there were portions in which he made mistakes, such as calling Adam just feet away from the bounty hunters, playing it off like he's calling his father to ensure they'll be in place to be caught. I'm surprised he wasn't caught there, but as he was found out mere minutes later, it doesn't much matter.
The new mutants introduced, including Tina (the girl saved at the beginning) along with Daniel and his father, don't seem the type of characters to appear again, and didn't make much an impression on me regardless. Interesting to note, though, that Daniel is played by Ross Hull, who had quite a big role in the classic Are You Afraid of the Dark?, playing Gary.
Sonya and Yuri, the Russians, didn't really make threatening villains - really, Eckhart, while he didn't appear much, took up the spotlight insofar as threatening goes. Of course, I'm beginning to see a pattern - a new mutant appears, both Adam and Eckhart try to get to them, and they fight. I'm guessing that this will be a common occurrence in this show, but if I am right, I'm hoping they shake it up a bit.
The scene which stands out most in this episode would be the fight between Mutant X, posing as an innocent family, against the Russians. Jesse's surprise at seeing Adam and Shalimar as his "father" and "mother" was pretty amusing, and how the Russians weren't tipped off immediately that something was wrong utterly befuddles me. But the slow motion fight scenes, while repetitive, can occasionally be fun, and so these scene was particularly enjoyable. I'd still like to know more about what Shalimar can actually do, or whether it's literally just super good reflexes and glowing eyes, but I suppose that can wait.
"Russian Roulette" was an exceedingly average episode. Hopefully it does not become the norm, as I was starting to get more into this series after the last episode. Time will tell.
Rating: Average
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