"Hated and Feared" Re-Watch: "Til Death Do Us Part" Parts 1 & 2

 X-Men

The season two premiere of "X-Men" was notable because it featured the wedding of Scott Summers and Jean Grey. Scott and Jean had been dating since the '60's but they had never taken that extra step. Their wedding was planned for the comics, but the animated series beat them to it. The second season premiered on October 23, 1993, but the couple's comic counterparts wouldn't tie the knot until "X-Men" #30, which hit stores in March of 1994. 

A little bit of interesting background on where the comic team was at the time. In the '90's, the X-Men were one of the most popular teams in comics. The two main X-books, "Uncanny X-Men" and the adjective less "X-Men," had two distinct teams. Storm led Jean, Iceman, Bishop, Colossus and Archangel as the Gold team in "Uncanny" and Cyclops led Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Psylocke, Beast and Jubilee as the Blue team in adjective less. Mutants were being ravaged by the mutant targeting Legacy Virus, but they found time to come together to celebrate these nuptials. The other main X-teams of the time: X-Force, Excalibur and X-Factor, were all on hand. Just like in the episode, Wolverine skips out on the wedding. The issue was written by Fabian Nicieza and drawn by Andy Kubert. It's not terribly difficult to hunt down a copy and I'd highly recommend a re-read before watching these episodes.

"Til Death Do Us Part" Part 1

Gambit: [to Jean at her and Cyclops' wedding] "Where I come from we always kiss the bride."

[kisses her]

Gambit: [to Rogue, who is a bridesmaid] "We also kiss the maids."

Rogue: "This ain't Cajun country, hun. Zip those lips!"

It's the happiest day of Jean Grey and Scott Summers' lives. They are finally getting married. The team is there to celebrate except for Wolverine. The happiness won't last because a new enemy, Mr. Sinister, is lurking in the shadows. Unbeknownst to the X-Men, he's revived their teammate Morph and is using his lust for revenge to throw the team into turmoil. Using his shapeshifting powers, Morph sows seeds of discontent while also sending the team into danger. Can they get out of it and save their friend from Sinister's machinations?

I just wanted another pic of Jean's '90's dress.

I have to admit right from the start that I love this episode. It has everything that a good "X-Men" episode needs. It has action. It has drama. It has melodrama. It is compulsively watchable. The 22 minutes flies by. 

It starts out with Logan being a complete and total drama queen. Fully dressed in his '90's wedding finery, Logan decides to skip out on the wedding entirely and instead face off in the Danger Room against a robotic simulacrum of his romantic rival. People like to claim that hell hath no fury than a woman scorned? Well, clearly, whoever came up with that idiom, had never seen a Wolverine scorned. He'd literally rather almost die than go to this wedding and I for one love it. The cuts between Scott and Jean taking their vows and Wolverine getting shredded in the Danger Room are just really fucking fantastic and I can't get enough.

Things pick up basically where season one left off. After being saved by the X-Men, Senator Kelly is now President Kelly and because of the X-Men saving his life is trying to bring mutants and humans together. This doesn't sit well with anti-mutant hate group the Friends of Humanity who send in a member dressed like a mutant to terrorize a press conference and start anti-mutant riots in the streets. It's crazy to watch this and how easy it is to replace FoH leader, Graydon Creed, and the FoH, with Trump and any various, racist, homophobic, xenophobic group that's out there. This rhetoric that is being spouted by these people in an early '90's television show is still being spouted by real-life people today. It is bananas and just infinitely sad. 

The big revelation in this episode is that Morph, presumed dead in the two-part series premiere, is actually alive and none too happy that his friends and former teammates left him for dead outside the mutant registration office. With Sinister in his ear, Morph enacts his revenge plan. He is the minister that marries Scott and Jean. As Rogue, he sends Gambit to get a kiss from the sleeping Southern belle. He sends Jubilee into the arms of the FoH. Disguised as Magneto, he sends Xavier away. He locks Beast in the Danger Room with it set on the highest setting and when Storm and Rogue go to quell a FoH riot, he turns into the police chief and orders them to fire on the mistress of the elements.

Morph wasn't a super interesting character in those first couple of episodes and he was created for the show, so it wasn't a huge surprise that he "died." Bringing him back is great, because it immediately creates high stakes. Morph knows just how to get under the skin of his teammates and he's not fucking around. I like the split personality aspect and his shape shifting abilities make that part even more interesting. It's extremely compelling to watching him shift from his normal self to the raving, dark circled "bad" Morph.  

A great cliffhanger with almost all the mutants in some kind of danger has you ready for part 2 immediately.

Grade: A

"Til Death Do Us Part" Part 2

Jubilee: "Why do you hate us? What did we ever do to you?"

Graydon Creed: "You were born! Take her away!"

After his revenge games in part 1, the X-Men are in disarray and at each other's throats. Morph just can't leave well enough alone. He overplays his hand, shifting into Xavier in front of Wolverine, who sniffs out the deception. Morph gets away by playing Jubilee. He heads to an island where Sinister and his band of Nasty Boys have capsized Jean and Scott's boat and taken them prisoner. Sinister has plans for the newlyweds. Will the X-Men reach them in time? And what about Xavier and Magneto?

Morph's doing great.

In season 2, "X-Men" really committed more to the serialized aspects of the storytelling. Even in the more standalone aspects, there was the Magneto/Xavier thread along with others that carried through the entire season. It's not something that you saw a lot in children's programming of the time. It encouraged kids to not miss an episode otherwise you could potentially not know what was going on. That is quite the commitment for a 10 year old. 

This is still a great episode, but it doesn't necessarily hit the heights of the first episode. We get to see how Sinister got his claws into Morph. It's basically what you would assume. He seemed to be stalking the team and when they left Morph after the Sentinel attack, he swooped in, capitalized on the emotional trauma and the rest is history. 

I'm glad they didn't spend a lot of time on the team infighting and instead had Wolverine sniff out Morph's deception pretty easily. My favorite part of the episode is when Jubilee and Wolverine chase Morph into the hangar and he shifts into the clawed Canadian. Jubilee can't figure out who to blast but when one of the Wolvie's says to blast them both, it seems like her decision his made. JK, thought. The selfless Wolves was actually Morph. It's a great little twist on that trope and it makes perfect sense that Wolverine wouldn't suggest that to Jubilee. 

The majority of the second half of the episode is a battle between the X-Men and the most '90's group of villains there ever was, the Nasty Boys. Let's just revel in these codenames. We have Slab, Gorgeous George, Ruckus and Hairbag, a codename so bad, Wolverine uses it as an insult without realizing it that it is actually the guys name. Things maybe shake out a little too conveniently for our merry mutants here. Morph fights off his bad side long enough to free Scott and Jean but takes off in a jet before his friends can try to help him. Sinister vagues it up about why he's so interested in Scott and Jean and turns tail a little too easily. Scott pouts about them not being officially married, but Jean convinces him they will get married someday. Officially. 

The episode ends with Magneto and Xavier meeting and trying to figure out who brought them together, right before an avalanche hits.

Grade: B+

Next up, the Shadow King makes his debut as does the evil, Russian mutant... Omega Red.

I really think that the 13 episodes of season two are some of the most tightly plotted of any animated series. I'd love to hear your thoughts though. Tell me about it in the comments.