Jonathan Dobres

Season 4, Episode 14. Air date: October 26, 1996 (in season 5).

Every time I start to think this show has lost sight of what makes X-Men great, it gives me an episode like “Bloodlines”. The kickoff is that Graydon Creed is desperate to rejoin the Friends of Humanity (now even more klan-coded), and he agrees to eliminate all the mutant members of his family to prove his loyalty. We haven’t seen Creed or the FoH since way back in season 2’s “Beauty and the Beast”, so their reintroduction here is quite a surprise. We learned in that earlier episode that Creed is the son of Sabretooth. This episode reveals that his mother is none other than Mystique, whose other children (Rogue via adoption, and Nightcrawler via Count Wagner, as previously seen in “Nightcrawler”) will also figure prominently here.

How, exactly, Creed manages to coerce the very clever Mystique into his scheme to ensnare his half-siblings isn’t very clear, though she does mention that she wanted to get closer to Rogue (as usual). Regardless, ensnare she does, sending Nightcrawler a letter meant to lure him to an FoH facility. Correctly sensing a trap, he takes the precaution of stopping by the X-Mansion on Halloween night to recruit Rogue (always fated to end up in Mystique’s garbage), Wolverine (continuing his near-perfect attendance record), and Jubilee (finally doing something!) for help.

This is the third story in a row that focuses on family feuds, produced (but not aired) immediately after “Proteus” and “Family Ties”. Those earlier episodes felt disjointed, either going through the motions of Saturday morning action pieces or doling out the family drama, but not really managing to blend the two into satisfying stories. “Bloodlines”, on the other hand, manages to keep everything in balance. The action is simple (but not boring) so that the characters can shine. Nightcrawler, Rogue, Wolverine, and Jubilee infiltrate a massive FoH compound (Rogue: “How did we miss this place?”) and spend the remainder of the episode fighting Creed and an escalating number of FoH goons. In between the gunfire, we get a lot of strong character moments and a surprisingly strong climax.

The show leans heavily on Nightcrawler’s religious faith once again, and while I wish the writers would show us some other sides of his personality, this continues to be effective, even in some unexpected ways. When Nightcrawler expresses his doubts about dragging the X-Men into his personal quest, Wolverine snickers, “Just have a little faith, pal. I hear it can work wonders.”

As the action comes to a head in the background, Mystique bitterly explains to Nightcrawler that his birth cost her a comfortable life as the wife of a German aristocrat. She’s always been an opportunist, she says, stealing little bits of other peoples’ lives, but never really living her own. She never wanted Nightcrawler, and hates him for existing. In response, Nightcrawler says, “I will beg God to bestow his grace on me, so that I can learn to forgive you. Then I will ask him to bestow his grace on you, so that you might forgive yourself.” Not even the flames of the Phoenix itself could deliver a burn this sick, people. Adrian Hough’s understated, gentle performance makes it hit like a truck. Mystique is taken aback, and shortly thereafter pushes Nightcrawler out of the way of Creed’s pistol. We briefly see her memories of nearly throwing the infant Nightcrawler off of a waterfall, as she goes over the side of the dam.¹

Meanwhile, Rogue, Wolverine, and Jubilee are having a grand old time fighting the FoH. Rogue teases the goons (who are all terrible shots, naturally), and even wrestles a helicopter to the ground! The episode is full of fun touches like this. There’s a very cool shot of Wolverine prying open some reinforced doors with his claws, Nightcrawler climbs along the ceiling to keep up with Rogue, Mystique cycles through some disguises that go all the way back to “Days of Future Past”, and even Jubilee manages to take out a few thugs along the way. Speaking of Jubilee, it sure is nice to see her! This is her first significant outing since “Savage Land, Strange Heart”, and she’s very fun. She’s mostly there as the episode’s Han Solo, occasionally calling out the crazy soap opera that’s unfolding in front of her.

The episode closes with a tearful Mystique quietly slinking away to whatever her next mercenary venture is, and the FoH dumping Creed out of a plane, putting him right in front of the family member who remained conspicuously absent from the reunion: Sabretooth. Leaving the episode’s villain to snivel in front of his hulking, sadistic father is, needless to say, a pretty dark way to close the adventure. Then again, Creed had it coming.

All in all, a very fun, tightly plotted episode that manages some really effective soap opera theatrics in its scant twenty minutes. Alas, Nightcrawler’s second big episode will be his last. At least he exits on a strong story.

Stray observations:

• Wolverine doesn’t like that kids essentially get to pretend to be mutants on Halloween, which seems like a better note for Beast. Ironically, he’s wearing a Beast mask shortly before he says this, which muddles the message even further.

• Mystique, explaining why she chose to marry the bland Count Wagner: “I’ve been many women in my time, some rich, some poor. Rich, I find, is preferable.”

• On the toilet: everyone except Wolverine, Rogue, and Jubilee.