4x05 Proteus (2)

[6.710] This is a two-parter that probably should have been confined to a single episode. I liked some of the beats, but they get repeated over and over again. We get it. Professor X wants to reach Kevin. Joe McTaggart is a hypocrite who talks a big game about family but ignores his son. Kevin wants to find his father and is a big scary ghost creature. These are all bits established in the first part of this duology that get repeated ad nauseam here.

What’s frustrating is that I like them! The X-Men have often been an LGBTQ allegory, so there’s a particular resonance to the idea of a family values politician trying to sweep away a child who doesn’t fit the brand they’re selling. Joe MCTaggart being publicly confronted by the son he abandoned over what he was, not who he was, should be a momentous thing.

So is Professor X’s willingness to help. Part of his dedication here is his care for Moira. The show continues to hint at unresolved romantic tension between them. But it also highlights something I’ve come to appreciate about this version of Professor X. He promises to help mutants control and master their powers, yes. But he also promises to help them deal with the psychological hardship that a lifetime of being an oppressed person comes with. He wants to help Kevin understand and overcome his anger and resentment, not just hone his reality-warping abilities, and having a leader who cares as much about his charges’ mental health as their physical health is a really cool thing.

As much as I gripe about this episode, I do like that ultimately what saves the day is Professor X reaching out to Kevin as a person and understanding his pain, rather than some sort of magical or technological solution to Proteus’ rampage.

That said, the show does chicken out a bit. Rather than having a confrontation where Joe admits that he abandoned his son and left his wife because Kevin was a mutant, he just has a change of heart when facing Kevin down and apologizes for his mistakes. This is an aspirational show, so I shouldn't have been surprised, but it feels like too easy an answer to the tough and complex issues “Proteus pt. 2” raises.

In the same vein, I like the episode’s focus on the mixed sentiments of children who’ve been abandoned. This is, true to form for X-Men, a very high volume rendition of the idea. But I like the notion that Kevin wants to be reunited with his father and is understandably both devastated and furious when he realizes his father doesn’t want him. The show connects that with Rogue’s experiences, and I frankly wish we got more in the way of commiseration and mutual understanding between them.

I do like where this one goes with Wolverine. The notion that he has PTSD and genuine fear for the first time in a long line after his confrontation with Proteus is a unique beat for the otherwise fearless brute. Seeing the normally unshakable berserker suddenly hesitant in battle, having him lash out at himself and others over it, and ultimately come to respect Professor X all the more for his ability to stay cool in harrowing situations helps add depth to the X-Men’s most iconic character.

Overall, this is definitely a story filled to the brim with potential that only half-realizes it, thanks to repetitive story beats and melodramatic realizations of its ideas. But I’m still compelled by what it’s trying to do, even if I’m more nonplussed by how it does it.