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"The Cauldron, Part 1"
Synopsis: One morning at the Institute, Scott Summers and Jean Grey return home for the weekend. Jean sees a mysterious person lurking in the underbrush nearby, and discovers she was being watched by the Toad, who tries to whack her with a branch. Todd claims they all have to prove their worth, but he is easily tossed into a well by Jean's telekinetic powers. Suddenly, a large metal sphere plummets from the sky, and when it opens, constricting coils pull Jean into it, leaving Toad all wet as it flies away. Across the world, a teenage boy takes a break, wading out into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii. His reverie is interrupted as he is knocked off his surfboard and into a confrontation with a hungry shark. Only his newly manifested powers of generating blasts of cosmic force prevent him becoming fish bait. Back at the mansion, the new spherical Cerebro is online, and Wolverine is surprised to learn that the new mutant it has registered is none other than Alex Masters, originally known as Alex Summers (Scott's brother). Charles asks Logan to get Scott to meet him in the hangar. Back in Hawaii, once Alex reaches the shore, his joints on fire, a shadowed figure appears out of nowhere. Magneto says he can assist him in controlling his powers, as well as to offer him sanctuary. Scott blames himself for not looking for his brother, but is anxious to go after him with Wolverine and the Professor. The other students are a bit angry that they go ditched, but Kitty realizes that it would be pretty awkward for Scott to deal with a crowd. Kurt suggests they go on a road trip to find another beach. They depart in the X-Van moments later as a cat skulks across the premises, morphing into its real form -- Mystique! Scott and Logan go out to take a look around and see to pairs of footprints. Wolverine realizes that Alex had a visit from Magneto who takes over control of the Blackbird. Logan races to intercept the careening plane, and grabs onto the landing gear as it soars away. Scott turns around just to see his brother Alex. They have a joyous reunion, until Alex says that Magneto told him he'd be coming. He tells his older brother about his powers and that Magneto wants to show them all something. Scott is reluctant, but he eventually agrees to enter the metal sphere that will take them to the master of magnetism. Despite his various efforts, Wolverine is unable to hold onto the wing of the X-Jet when Magneto throws him off, manipulating his adamantium skeleton. Storm returns to the mansion, finding it empty except for Mystique in her cat-form. Raven doubles over in pain as Ororo blasts her with a bolt of lightning. A short distance away, Rogue, Evan, Kitty and Kurt find their road trip interrupted by the appearance of all four members of the Brotherhood who cause them to crash the X-Van into the Blob. Wolverine makes it to the shore of an island, but is immediately met by his nemesis, Sabretooth. The Professor is finally taken to Magneto's mutant sanctuary, the floating Asteroid M. The various battles continue as Magneto explains that the winners of each battle will have the right to join the assembled mutants at the sanctuary, and hone their abilities, safe from those who would persecute them. The four X-Men at the beach surprise the Brotherood by escaping their sand trap. Blob crash lands on Kitty, who managed to phase, though not in times -- she's knocked out. Avalanche takes down Nightcrawler in a string of falling rocks, and Spyke is buried by a whirlwind of sand created by Quicksilver. Toad tries to get Rogue with his tongue, but she slams it into the door of the X-Van. Overhead, their "reward" comes: four more transport spheres. At the mansion, Mystique keeps trying to kick Storm, but Ororo fills the foyer with fog and then ambushes her. She, too, is taken captive. Wolverine and Sabretooth continue their battle, as Magneto requests that Professor X joins with him. Charles obviously refuses when Magnus shows him the unconscious forms of Rogue, Jean Grey, and Storm in a set of holding tubes. Professor Xavier reels in horror as Magneto reveals his "new converts," the Summers brothers. Review: You feel pretty exhausted by the end of this episode, if only because of the ceaseless battling that goes on. I was kind of disappointed that Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Spyke were defeated so easily, but it just goes to show that even if the Brotherhood haven't really managed to work well as a team, at least they have good control of their individual powers. The new version of Havok is pretty cool, even if he does seem like kind of like the typical "surfer dude" stereotype, and it was neat to see him and Scott reunited as that didn't happen officially in the original animated series. I'm frankly a little disappointed about one thing though -- Magneto seemed to always be more imposing when he was hidden in shadow, and doesn't seem nearly as scary now that we've seen his face, but he's definitely powerful AND persuasive as demonstrated by this episode and the second part.
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