1x13 The Final Decision

[7.6/10] My initial gripe with “Final Decision” is that, being a season finale, it’s largely one big third act action sequence. And frankly, those big fireworks-filed elements of the episode aren’t my favorite. Rest assured, there are plenty of explosions here, like Trask turning a laser on a propane tank, or Professor X flying a blackbird full of dynamite into a giant robot, or the usual laser blasts against sentinels. Most of it becomes static, with really only Wolverine's rave-like efforts to dodge and destroy the Sentinels in the dark standing out in terms of the sequences we get.

But I actually really like the story cards X-Men puts on the table in its season finale here. First and foremost, I love the Asimov-es ue twist on Master Mold, the mega sentinel who turns on its masters. There’s something so poetic about the idea that it was designed to protect humans from mutants, only to use its pure logic to deduce that mutants are humans, and so its original mission doesn’t make sense. Granted, the I, Robot-esque leap to “Now, I must protect humans from themselves” is a bit of a stretch, and its urge to replace human minds with computers is pretty far out.

But there’s something clockwork about these scientists creating a tool to enforce their bigotry, only to have things go terribly wrong when even their creation realizes that their prejudices are founded on a falsehood. The fact that Trask sees the error of his ways and tries to sacrifice himself to stop this Frankenstein’s monster from removing the humanity from humanity is the icing on the cake.

Plus hey, there’s something magic every time Professor X and Magneto set aside their differences to help one another. Even without remembering this episode from childhood, you just knew Magneto would have a Big Damn Hero moment to come save the day. (Though I do remember Rogue’s hand-over-mouth kiss with Gambit, so I must have seen this one as a kid!) Magneto stepping in to help Xavier and a wayward blackbird, and shield it from Master Mold’s rays in his attack, is a cool acknowledgement that these two people care about one another, even if they’re on opposite sides of a philosophical and political conflict.

There’s nice smaller character beats here too. Wolverine and Gambit have had their differences, but they fight to save one another in the tumult. Jubilee hasn’t had much character development this season, but we do see her stepping up and helping the team destroy the sentinels as a full-fledged X-Woman, when she was running from them in the series premiere. And Rogue’s aforementioned moment with Gambit shows there’s some affection there too, even if their relationship plays into some uncomfortable tropes.

We also get a nice and all-too-plausible moment from Senator Kelly. It takes having his life saved by mutants....twice!...to change his heart. And even then, he doesn’t fully recant his bigotry, merely saying “Now I know a good mutant from a bad one”, which is its own form of prejudice. But he at least acknowledges the need to not allow measures meant to protect against “renegade” mutants to oppress noble mutants, which is a start, and in the episode’s most cathartic moment, leads to Beast’s freedom.

Overall, this finale is heavy on the big honking fights, which probably should be expected from the climatic end to the show’s first season. But it also lands some of its big ideas, about the sentinel threat, about the political threat, and about personal relationships, in a roundly satisfying way that makes it the best of the season.

On the whole, I’d admit to being a little disappointed with X-Men’s first season on rewatch, though. Every show takes time to find its voice, but the pacing, melodramatic tone, and action-over-story approach has made it lose some esteem from when I loved it in elementary school. But the compelling ideas at play, the unique character moments, and the cool world-building will undoubtedly keep me coming back for more. On to season 2!