Jonathan Dobres

Season 4, Episode 7. Air date: February 17, 1996.

“Secrets, Not Long Buried” is a simple story. Cyclops travels to the town of Skull Mesa and teaches its inhabits to stand up for themselves. The plot is classic Western. The quiet townsfolk are getting rolled by a trio of brutish criminals and need the help of a handsome stranger—in this case, Cyclops instead of Clint Eastwood—to help them set things right.

The episode isn’t based on any comic story that I could find and is full of characters that we’re only going to meet this one time, many original to the show. The bandits are the very talkative Bill Braddock (aka Solarr, with two ‘r’s), OG X-Men villain Toad (unbelievably, only now making his first appearance), and Chet Lambert (an original character with no alias and the power of intangibility). On the good guys’ side we have Darrell Tanaka (a mutant with healing powers who functions as the town doctor and coroner), and Dr. Taylor Prescott, an old friend of Cyclops’s and Xavier’s. Dr. Prescott, like Xavier, believes in mutant-human coexistence, but is more interested in providing mutants a safe place to live rather than training a vigilante strike force.

Also, Watchdog. When Cyclops first flies into Skull Mesa (or near it, at any rate), Watchdog uses his powers to read Cyclops’s mind, knock the plane out of the sky, and neutralize Cyclops’s powers for good measure. Altogether this would suggest that Watchdog is one of the most powerful mutants on Earth. But like everyone in Skull Mesa, he’s a gentle guy forced into doing bad things at Solarr’s direction. The only reason Watchdog doesn’t rule the world is that he doesn’t want to. Sadly, we shall never see this very good boy again.

There’s a bunch of back and forth while Cyclops investigates the disappearance of Dr. Prescott and harangues the frightened townsfolk to fight back against Braddock’s gang, who are repeatedly shown intimidating the town. Eventually Braddock straight-up tells Cyclops that they’ve imprisoned Prescott while they extract all the gold from a mine beneath the town (again, classic Western stuff). Probably the most effective moment in the episode comes when, having told Cyclops all this, Braddock just lets him crawl back to Darrell’s house, confident that he, like everyone else in Skull Mesa, won’t do anything about it.

“Powers or not, I’m still an X-Man,” Cyclops declares, intent on fighting back. It’s a brave thing to say, but Cyclops’s attempt to fight Lambert and Toad goes poorly. Braddock decides to make an example of him in the town square, telling the town that Cyclops is a spy sent to destroy them. This obvious lie, along with the threat of an imminent public execution, is finally too much, and the townsfolk at last take matters into their own hands. A mutant named Tusk kicks off the revolt by sprouting a miniature version of himself from his back to tackle Braddock, and Darrell restores Cyclops’s powers. My favorite part is when a mild mannered lady with green skin uses her plant-based powers to strangle Braddock with some bushes and then gives Cyclops a sheepish smile.

It’s a cute enough story that preaches the value of standing up for oneself. It also feels of a piece with “Sanctuary”, intentionally or not, as it pretty clearly shows that living a quiet life is not enough to stop evil. Braddock and his little gang (again, it’s three people) only get to run roughshod over the town because nobody wants to cause trouble, and their petty scheme falls apart the minute there’s pushback. Call me crazy but I think 2025 can learn some lessons from this 1996 cartoon.

Stray observations:

• Toad and Solarr/Braddock appear in their classic costumes, which look extremely weird next to everyone else, who are otherwise dressed for a casual weekend in Arizona. Even Cyclops, who is almost never out of uniform, spends the episode in a vest!

• I have no idea why a woman would let out a shriek seeing the extremely normal Scott Summers walking around town, but the shriek is pathetic.

• On the toilet: everyone except Cyclops (plus Xavier in a flashback). This is another episode in which Wolverine does not appear, for a total of three so far.