Jonathan Dobres

Season 4, Episode 1. Air date: May 6, 1995.

This episode is one of three that were pulled forward in Fox’s airing order to replace delayed season 3 episodes, but as originally produced, it was supposed to be the season 4 opener. It’s the show’s lightest season premiere by a mile, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially after the intense stories that dominated season 3. The plot here is simple. The Juggernaut loses his powers and the X-Men have to restore them, despite their very well-founded misgivings. Along the way, we get lots of character beats and see Xavier in a new light.

We last saw Juggernaut (aka Cain Marko) getting tossed into the ocean by Gladiator during “The Phoenix Saga”. What happened to him after that? He walked across the ocean floor for a while, as shown in the “Previously On…” Wait a minute, that’s new animation! The “Previously On…” has heretofore only ever reused clips we’ve already seen. I’m guessing they animated this sequence for the earlier story but had to cut it for time.

The undersea journey continues into the first scene of the episode, implying that Juggernaut has been slowly trudging back to New York for months, but hey, he’s the Juggernaut; a magic ruby makes him completely invulnerable, remember. Juggernaut punches a shark, emerges from the ocean, causes some mayhem in NYC, peels the top off of a cab, and drives it to the X-Mansion.

Courtesy of the news coverage of Juggernaut’s gleeful violence in the city, Xavier sees his half-brother coming and hastily tries to assemble his X-Men. He forgets that he is the world’s foremost telepath and instead tries to get in touch with everyone over their comm badges.

• Beast runs in immediately, as he’s the only team member also at the mansion.

• Rogue and Storm are out shopping for some new outfits, as they are known to do. Storm is wearing a green ensemble that, naturally, looks incredible on her. No bad looks for this lady.

• Wolverine and Cyclops are shown jumping into the Blackbird. They were at Muir Island, visiting Morph, who can be glimpsed waving goodbye (Awww! First appearance since “Reunion”).

• Jubilee is having fun in somebody’s pool and misses the call.

• Gambit is fixing a broken down school bus. He even uses his powers to jump start it. He will never mention this act of altruism to anyone, and if ever asked why he missed Xavier’s call, he’ll probably just scowl mysteriously, thinking of a carburetor.

• Jean’s absence is unexplained. Xavier doesn’t contact her. Possibly she’s at Muir Island recovering from the Dark Phoenix Saga (which might explain Cyclops’s presence there), but then again she looked fine in “Love in Vain”, which supposedly takes place before this episode.

Juggernaut busts in and shrugs off all of the mansion’s defenses. Xavier manages to corral him into the Danger Room, where he and Beast stall for time. Just when it looks like Juggernaut is about to break Xavier in half, he screams and loses his powers.

Intercut with all of the Juggernaut stuff are scenes of a hapless nerd, Eugene Torbett Widerspahn, exploring the ruins of a mysterious temple. Turns out it’s the Temple of Cyttorak, and Eugene has uncovered all the magical bits and bobs he needs to claim the powers of the Juggernaut for himself. Since the gem can only empower one person at a time, Cain Marko loses.

This is what makes the episode unusual: from here out, it doesn’t really have a villain. Eugene does a lot of accidental damage, mostly to his apartment and reputation, but he’s not out to hurt anyone. He just wants to score with chicks or whatever! Meanwhile, Cain, having been crushed by falling Danger Room debris when he lost his powers, is in a coma, and his only hope of recovery is to reclaim the powers of the Juggernaut. He’s still mean, but he’s not exactly a threat.

Xavier is insistent that they can’t let Cain Marko die, no matter how awful he is. It’s a noble sentiment that Cain is really, really going to test for the remainder of the episode. Through telepathic flashbacks, we see young Cain and Charles interacting as kids. Cain is only too happy to recount how his father (Charles’s stepfather) wanted to see Charles’s mother pass away and collect her fortune.¹ The stepfather is so nasty that it kind of seems like he might’ve had something to do with it, but the episode keeps the focus on how it affects Charles. On top of that, Cain is a bully and a bigot, at first calling Charles a “mutie”, and then later in life, getting everyone at school to do the same.²

He’s a real piece of work, this guy. Yes, his dad favored Charles and shipped Cain off to military school, but that hardly excuses the constant bullying and, later, multiple attempted murders. Xavier is forced to relive a lot of painful stuff—the illness and death of his mother, the confusing emergence of his powers, Cain’s relentless bullying, and tellingly, his failure to steer young Cain towards a better path. It’s too much, even for him. “I thought I was over all of this…but I was just a child. It hurts so much,” he says in dismay. Xavier is usually calm and collected to a fault, and yet here he’s more vulnerable than we’ve ever seen. For a moment it seems like he wants to let Cain die, but Storm brings him back around. The great Charles Xavier will not allow his past pain to bring him low, kids.

Meanwhile, Cyclops and Wolverine are on a mission to get the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak away from Eugene. It’s an easy one, as Eugene just wants to impress the girls at the club, not rule the world. He is, however, invincible and oblivious. He ignores Cyclops’s well-meaning advice (“Women like guys to be themselves. We could help you get back that way.”), which leads to a rare moment where Cyclops is cool and Wolverine isn’t:

Wolverine: Looks like we’ll have to do this…the hard way.

He lunges at Eugene, who knocks away his attack mid-dance without even noticing.

Cyclops: You don’t have to make it that hard.

A quick laser blast knocks Eugene off balance, the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak tumbling out of his pocket. End of “action” scene.

With the gem recovered from Eugene and Xavier recovered from his childhood trauma, he reconvenes with Cain in his mindscape, letting him know that he can say the magic incantation any time. When Cain asks what Xavier’s getting out of all this, he simply says, “The satisfaction of saving your life.” Cain speaks the incantation, becomes the Juggernaut once again, and throws the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak into space.³ Rather than try to kill the X-Men yet again, he begrudgingly walks out of the mansion without saying a word, as close to a “thank you” as you’ll ever get out of this guy.

Overall, a surprisingly solid, fun episode. The show’s take on Cain Marko is still pretty grating, and the quickly rendered portrayal of childhood trauma isn’t exactly nuanced, but seeing a more vulnerable side of Xavier was very effective. I also enjoyed the little character beats throughout (Gambit fixing a bus, Storm counseling Xavier, Wolverine being a bit of a dumbass, etc.). Not bad at all for a “light” season premiere.

Now That’s What I Call ’90s: Eugene leaps into the air to try to reach Wolverine and Cyclops in the Blackbird, but misses and crashes through the roof of a film studio. These people are definitely filming an episode of that other ’90s mega-hit, Power Rangers. The soundtrack even plays a few notes that sound suspiciously like its catchy theme tune, itself a subject of rad Powerglove covers.

Stray observations:

• I love the way the show filled out Juggernaut’s chaotic re-emergence in NYC. There’s a brief shot of two kids bothering each other in the back seat of a car (a nod to the sibling rivalry theme of the episode). When Juggernaut tears a cab in half, there’s a guy yakking into his carphone, saying, “Yeah, sell all the City Cab stuff.”

• “Heeeeere’s Juggy!” Again, Cain Marko’s penchant for grade-school puns and dated references is annoying.

• On the toilet: Jean. Like I said, she’s probably supposed to be recuperating at Muir Island. Her presence in “Love in Vain” might just be a continuity error.