"Hated and Feared" Re-Watch: "Secrets, Not Long Buried" & "Nightcrawler"

 X-Men

A classic X-Men character makes his animated series debut with this post, but first we have to get through another Cyclops focused episode. So, let's get right to it.

"Secrets, Not Long Buried"

Scott Summers: "You the only doctor around here?"

Darrell Tanaka: "Doctor and coroner."

Scott Summers flies to a small community that is ran by an old friend of his and Xavier's, Dr Taylor Prescott. Once Scott gets there, his plane is shot down and he finds that things in Skull Mesa aren't great. These bad feelings just multiply when he loses his powers and is confronted by Brian Braddock aka Solarr. Soon, it becomes clear that not only Dr Prescott but the entire town are in trouble and only Cyclops can help them.

This guy.

I feel like there have been so many solo Cyclops episodes in this series and I don't understand why. Cyclops is legit the worst. He's boring. These episodes are never good. And like, you've got a character like Storm who gets no real solo showcases but this boring, white man gets these episodes that make 20 minutes feel like twice that length. And I'm sorry to say, this episode isn't any better than the other two Cyclops focused episodes we've been forced to sit through. 

This whole episode is a big WTF? There's this random dude that apparently has been around since Cylcops was a kid. He knows Xavier. He's like the human Xavier? He also has a dream that humans and mutants can peacefully co-exist, but he's not training soldiers. I guess. It's difficult to care about all of this from the jump because you know that none of this is probably going to matter in the end.

I think this episode really showcases for me why I dislike Cyclops so much. First off, he's a condescending prick. Has anyone noticed that he never speaks in a normal tone of voice? He's always shouting and it makes no sense. I get that he's suspicious of Tanaka after his plane gets shot down, but why he is he screaming at him? You can think someone's not telling you the entire truth without like shrieking in their face. This intense dislike of Cyclops carries over to the flashbacks of his childhood when he's getting bullied. Like, bullying is wrong, but Scott Summers has an extremely punchable face.

This episode could have been a little better if the villains in the episode were better. Solarr is just as white bread and boring as Cyclops is. He is extremely generic. They have Toad here who is a classic X villain and he gets literally nothing to do except spit his goo on people. It's so weird. I mean, I would have loved it if he had just jumped once. But, nope. He's basically there to just tie people up. There is no rope in Skull Mesa.

Just a lot of this episode doesn't make sense. If Tanaka could bring back Cyclops' powers at any time, then why didn't he do it when Cyclops asked him to help him fight. Like, I get Tanaka didn't want to help, but he could have restored Cyclops' powers. It also doesn't make sense why the townspeople had such a change of heart at the end. Like, what was it that caused them to do it? 

I just don't even want to talk about this episode anymore. It's bad. Don't watch it. You're not missing anything.

Grade: F

"Nightcrawler"

Kurt Wagner: "It is not for me to judge you, Brother Reinhardt. The question is... how will God judge you?"

[helps him up and shows him the blazing library]

Kurt Wagner: "Look around you. 

On a ski vacation, Rogue, Gambit and Wolverine hear about a demon that is supposedly terrorizing a small German town. While investigating, they are caught in an avalanche and are helped by a monastery in the German town with the demon. It turns out the monks are helping the demon, who is actually a mutant named Kurt Wagner who goes by the name, Nightcrawler. In the midst of theological debates with Wolverine, one of the brothers turns on him and leads the villagers in an angry revolt against the monastery.

Mein Gott!

This is more like it. I love when the show brings on classic X characters and they really do the job right here. This is Nightcrawler. If someone asked me, what is this blue skinned demon like mutant all about, all I'd have to do is point them to this episode. It gives you everything that you need. You get the religious aspect, which is a pretty heavily focused on in this episode, which we all talk about. We get his origin story which is pretty on point. When Nightcrawler was born, his mother left with him because of his appearance. She sent him down the river, much like Moses. And oh yeah, his mother? Mystique. I have a feeelliinnng we will be touching on that before the series is over. He was taken in by a troupe of circus performers and was one of their star attractions. He ended up devoting his life to God and joining the Abbey. Like in the comics, Xavier saves Nightcrawler from the angry mob and recruits him for his second team of X-Men, but Nightcrawler was always very devout so this tracks.

There is so much good in this episode. I love the dynamic between Logan, Rogue and Gambit. Rogue and Gambit are trying to have a romantic skiing vacation in the Alps and here is crusty, irritable Logan ruining all their fun. Gambit provides a lot of comic relief here. His terrible skiing is a highlight and his concussed behavior once they are all in the Abbey. Rogue is always great and I love how she's heating up the monks robes in her skintight ski suit and bare arms. She's doing the most around men who probably haven't been in such close proximity to a woman in years, if at all. Another fun moment is how the robe they give her lasts about five minutes before she's done with it.

There are great action set pieces in this episode. The avalanche on the Alps is great. I think the episode handles the tonal shift from look how funny Gambit's bad at skiing to oh no, Gambit hit a tree and now we might die in this avalanche really well. The final showdown between the villagers, the mutants and the monks is great. It's giving me very much the villagers coming for the Beast in "Beauty and the Beast" except in this case Brother Reinhardt is Gaston and Nightcrawler is the Beast. And like, angry villagers with pitchforks always tickle me. It's very on the nose, but I'm not mad at it.

The most impressive thing about this episode is the theological debate that Wolverine and Nightcrawler have throughout the episode. It's very true to the comics. Logan and Kurt are great friends who don't agree on religion but that doesn't stop them from being friends. They will debate but neither one really tries to sway the other one too hard and they remain resolute in their individual beliefs but don't let them impact their friendship. It's cool to see this debate happen on a child's cartoon in the Nineties. 

Wolverine is talking about atheism here. He never comes out and says the word because that would be too far, but that is his position in the debate and that feels like a big deal. I'm actually kind of surprised they were able to get away with it and kudos to episode writer, Len Uhley, for having the cojones to do it. The episode definitely tilts more towards Christianity and God existing, which is to be expected, but every little bit helps.

This episode isn't perfect. I think that Brother Reinhardt comes around maybe a little too quickly and easily considering how fanatical he was like seconds before. And, I don't love the ending beat of Rogue catching Wolverine praying in a Cathedral. Something like that almost undoes all the debate that happened before. I'd for sure love the episode a lot more if they left that out. But overall, it's a great episode that does an iconic X-Man justice and makes you hope he shows up again soon.

Grade: A-

Next up, it's more time travel shenanigans as Trevor Fitzroy and Bantam try to assassinate Xavier and we meet Bishop's sister.

What do you all think of these episodes? I know there are some Cyclops fans, I'm sure I pissed off, but whatever. This is what you get for liking Cyclops. Is "Nightcrawler" a classic episode? Let me know in the comments.