1x05 Remember It

[8.310] Holy hell! This episode took a sharp left turn and completely knocked my socks off.

In truth, I wasn’t on board with this one until the “Godzilla Sentinel” showed up, more or less. A lot of “Remember It” was some pretty tepid romantic melodrama that balled up into, if you can believe it, a love septagon.

So Magneto had a thing with Rogue and wants her to be his queen. Rogue is tempted given their past and the fact that they can make contact but still cares for Gambit. Gambit loves Rogue with the full force of his heart, but is flirting a bit with Madelyne Pryor. Madelyne Pryor is having psychic dalliance with Cyclops on the astral plane. Cyclops and Jean are still trying to work out what their relationship means after this big clone saga. And Jean is so mixed up that she plants one on Wolverine.

That's a lot! And it doesn’t even count Morph’s sublimated crush on Logan, which thankfully isn’t thrown into the multi-person knot that tangles up the first half of this episode. I don’t mind romance, or the friction that comes with it. Romance and love triangles were a significant part of the original X-Men series as well. But the execution here wasn’t particularly good.

Some of that is the love octagon that the show spins up in a short amount of time. The Magneto/Rogue/Gambit thing really should have been the priority given what takes place in the rest of the episode, and deserved as much real estate as X-Men ‘97 could afford. Everything about the Pryor/Cyclops/Jean/Wolverine side of the house feels rushed, and the business with the reporter doesn't help.

But some of that might be able to be overcome if the dialogue and performances were better. Much of the lovers’ quarrels here lack the ring of truth in the way the characters speak with one another. “Real people don’t talk that way” is a fool’s gold criticism, because of course television dialogue is stylized to meet the moment. But the way the various X-Men speak to one another is tin-eared and mannered in a way that detracts from the authenticity and rawness the show seems to want to convey in these interactions, which is a big drawback for them.

That said, whether it’s dialogue or performance or both, there’s also a stiltedness in how the lines are delivered. Going to these places with genuine emotion is hard, but across the board, the performers can't quite gin up the emotion necessary to feel true when so many of the X-Men are breaking one another’s hearts.

That said, I’m still a sucker for the Rogue-Gambit relationship, so parts of this one hit me like gangbusters. I’m sure you can guess which.

The Rogue/Magneto business still wigs me out a bit. The May-December romance is still a bit gross, and Magneto’s electromagnetism blocking Rogue’s powers is still a bit cheap. In truth, I assumed this whole thing was some kind of fake out, so seeing them pull the trigger on it was a little unexpected.

All that said, I can appreciate the idea of it, at least. Magneto would not be above abusing a mentor relationship to make it a romantic one. (Granted, I’m not sure that's the intended read.) I can also appreciate the idea of Rogue gravitating toward someone she can actually make contact with, no matter what problems there may be, given how hard having to avoid closeness with loved ones has been for her. And even if I’m icky on the relationship, their mid-air dance is the most sensual and passionate X-Men has ever been, which counts for something! The animation in this episode is a mixed bag, with the pre-action sequences being particularly questionable, so that's a particular achievement.

And while the tortured romance thing makes me roll my eyes a bit, there’s something true and tragic about Rogue and Gambit’s relationship. You can understand why Gambit would be hurt, why he’d protest that their love is more than just skin deep. You can understand why Rogue doesn’t want to be tortured by never being able to touch someone she loves, and the political practicality of becoming Magento’s queen. And you can understand Rogue giving it the old college try, with the passionate dance with Magnus in front of everyone, only to realize that no matter what she tells herself, that partnership isn’t the one she really wants. The volume is high and the emotional tone is overblown, but there’s truth at the core of this corner of the love octagon, and it works.

Until the villains destroy everything.

The contrast between the bliss and sanctuary Genosha offers for most of the episode, and the utter devastation that follows once the Godzilla Sentinel invades, is completely jarring, in the best way.

The attack has meaning because Genosha does seem like a mutant paradise. There are tributes to Xavier and Magneto. There is good ol’ Nightcrawler, a goodwill ambassador to guide our friends around. And there is a ruling council, filled with a nice sample familiar faces from X-Men’s past, including a human, suggesting that in the wake of Professor X’s death, the mutants really did come together.

Not for nothing, the show’s creative team also does a wonderful job of making the mutant nation feel distinctive. The visual designs of the buildings and shops and decor; the way they use their abilities to dance and play and move in a space meant for them; the way they float and flit seem uninhibited in a place just for them all sells Genosha as the sanctuary they’ve been waiting for.

So it means something when the sentinel, the original enemy of the X-Men in this series, returns to rend it asunder. The last gasps of Cable to his mother (a reveal I hope we have more time for later in the show) comes with an appropriate sense of desperation. Too many of us who grew up with the original show have lived through seemingly normal days and fun events destroyed by sudden tragedy. The sentinel attack has that tone, and it’s gut-wrenching in action.

It’s also, in a strange way, cool as hell. Again, I don’t know what to do with this show’s animation. Sometimes, it includes stiff movements and awkward character expressions that make it feel like a high class flash cartoon. Other times, in sequences like the X-Men defending their fellow mutants against the super-sentinel, the fluidity, epic scope, and attention to detail make it feel downright Akira-esque. Maybe the animators are just saving all their juice for the big sequences, but whatever the deal is, when they bring their A-game, they blow you away.

The blinding blast of cataclysmic green light raining down on fighter and bystander alike, the heroism of Kurt Wagner diving in front of the beam to protect our champions, the force of Magneto using his powers to smack this mechanical demon in the face, Rogue and Gambit racing into battle, the Cajun combatant bursting in to rescue to Morlocks, Rogue bursting through one of the automatons’ shoulders, Magneto saving Leech within an improvised shell and telling the poor child not to be afraid. They are all marvelous, momentous, jaw-dropping moments in a kinetic finale that trades the gentle peace of Genosha’s new dawn for terrifying panic and a wave of utter destruction. If you could watch without gripping the edge of your chair, you’re a stronger man than I.

And of course, there is the shock, glory, and tragedy of Gambit’s sacrifice. Whatever their hang-ups, Gambit still loves Rogue, and his willingness to put his life in harm’s way to preserve hers shows the depths of that affection, requited or not. The moment where he leaps up to take out the demon, and it impales him like nothing, Remy’s limp body drooping from a mechanized tentacle, takes your breath away with the sudden surprise of it. And there may be no more triumphant, if sad moment in the series than Gambit using the spearing of his own guts to harness his powers and destroy the bastion of mechanized death that unleashed hell upon his loved ones and countrymen.

Therein lies the greatest irony of “Remember It”. Gambit and Rogue debate whether their love is enough, but in the end, Remy will make the ultimate sacrifice if it will save the woman he cares so deeply for. And what drove them apart despite their feelings was that they couldn’t make contact, only for the moment when they can finally be close to one another only coming because Gambit is no longer alive to be hurt by his lover’s touch. The romances of “Remember It” stumble and fumble their way through much of this episode, but by god, they finish strong.