Season 1 Episode 10

X-Men: Evolution Season 1 Episode 10

SubTitle: 
Shadowed Past
Original Air Date: 
Sat 31st March 2001
Credits: 

Rick Ungar, Avi Arad, Stan Lee (executive producers), Boyd Kirkland
(producer), Jules Dennis (story), Bob Forward (writer), Steven E. Gordon
(director)

Brief Description: 

Rogue is having strange dreams about Nightcrawler as a baby, Mystique and
Magneto. Professor X scans her mind to find that they're memories Rogue
absorbed from Mystique, and understands that Mystique is Nightcrawler's
mother. Wolverine checks Magneto's involvement and finds some sort of a
genetic laboratory, but Magneto blows it up before they he can find anything
and sends the Brotherhood to stop Mystique from telling her son the truth.

Full Synopsis: 

In Rogue and Kitty's bedroom at night, Rogue is on the phone, talking about
a movie. She hangs up, and the girls go to sleep. Later that night, Rogue is
having a dream about a castle at night. In one of the towers, a green light
appears. The tower is full of tubes and weird experimentation instruments.
Mystique runs from it outside in a cloak and yells "Monster! What have you
done to him?" as a baby cries. Magneto calls after her to come back. She
runs into the woods, chased by a pack of wolves and Magneto in a cloak. She
reaches a bridge above a river. The wolves attack, making her drop the
crying baby to the water. She cries after him. Rogue wakes up screaming.

A few minutes later, Kitty is awake from the screaming. Scott and Jean
enter, and Scott asks Rogue what happened. She says she had an awful
nightmare with horrible images, and it's not the first time – she's had this
dream before. They started when she moved to the Institute. Evan and Kurt
enter, and Kitty tells them that Rogue's having nightmares. Kurt asks what
they're about, and Rogue says she's not sure - there's a castle and wolves
and a poor baby – she didn't really see his face, but she seemed to know him
somehow. She looks at Kurt, and suddenly realizes that the baby is him. The
others don't understand, and she explains that in the dream there was a baby
crying and someone, a woman, she thinks, was running and she accidentally
dropped the baby into the river. Jean says that maybe the professor can
solve this mystery, but they should wait till morning. Telepathically,
though, the professor says that it's important and asks Rogue, Kurt and Jean
to come to the library while the others try to get some sleep.

Later in the library, Kurt says that he always known that his parents
adopted him, but they never said anything about him being fished out of a
river. Xavier tells him not to worry, and says that since Rogue had the
dream, he should start with her. He asks her to concentrate on the dream and
starts reading her mind. The dream is shown again, only this time it start
at a later point and keeps going after the previous ending: The wolves leave
as Mystique lies crying on the bridge. Magneto floats away. Down the river,
the Wagners pull Kurt out of the water happily. Mystique watches them and
walks away. Back in reality, Xavier tells Rogue that her dream isn't a dream
- it's a repressed memory, not just her imagination. Kurt asks why Rogue had
the dream then and not him, and Xavier says that she must have absorbed the
memories of someone who indeed knows about Kurt's past. Kurt remembers that
Rogue touched him when they first met. Xavier says that he was just an
infant in the dream – it's possible that she absorbed it from him, but it's
not certain. Kurt asks the professor to probe his mind, as maybe it'll tell
them more, but Xavier says that they has enough excitement for one night and
promises to do it the next day after school. He leaves, and Kurt sighs.

The following morning at Bayville High, Xavier is sitting at Principal Raven
Darkholme's desk. He tells Mystique that he knows she's been carrying a
terrible burden for many years - Rogue's recent contact with her seems to
have given Rogue some of her darker memories, nightmares about a very
unfortunate incident involving an infant. Mystique/Raven thinks that Xavier
is just fishing and knows nothing. He says that he knows her relationship
with the boy – what he doesn't know is what Magneto did to him and why she
was running that night. She just taunts him, and he asks her what the two of
them were up to in that dreary castle and if it was worth the loss of her
son. Mystique is very shocked to hear that Xavier knows and, after seeing
flashes of the dream, drops a book and orders him to get out. Before
wheeling out, Xavier tells her, just in case she's curious, that Kurt turned
out to be a very fine lad. "Raven" sighs. Xavier wheels out of school and
telepathically tells Logan that he has the coordinates. Wolverine is in the
jet, taking off.

In a classroom, the bell rings. Kurt hurries to hand his test and leave.
Rogue runs up to him and asks him what's the rush, and he reminds her that
the professor said they'd look for more answers after school. She asks him
if he's sure he wants to know, and he says of course and asks her if she
never wondered who her real parents are. She says sometimes, but Irene was
always a good mom to her. He says his parents were great too, but he always
felt that they were keeping something from him - whenever the subject of
where he came from came up, they were always vague and never mentioned
anything like the stuff in the dream. Rogue says that maybe they didn't
know, or maybe they were trying to protect him, but he doesn't think that
hiding his past from him is protecting. Down the hall, Scott and Jean are
talking with a kid. Kurt angrily tells Rogue that maybe she can live without
knowing, but he's gotta know the truth about his life. He turns off his
image inducer and teleports away. Scott and Jean ask Rogue what that was
about, and Rogue answers that he's still really worked up about last night.
They go to find him. The kid Jean and Scott were talking to morphs to
Principal Darkholme.

In the football field, Principal Darkholme hands Pietro a big envelope to
deliver. He asks if she's sure, as there are defenses where he's going, but
she says he's fast enough to get in and out undetected. He asks her why is
it so important to give Nightcrawler a message, and she says it's none of
his business. Quicksilver speeds away to deliver the envelope.

In Cerebro, Xavier is looking at a map and talking to Logan, who's on the
jet. Logan reports that he arrived at the place, and goes searching. Outside
the mansion, Pietro speeds in the yard. Xavier senses him. Kitty is sitting
in the foyer, reading, and Pietro speeds past her. She doesn't even realize
it's him, only feeling wind. Kurt is in his room, hanging upside-down from
the chandelier and looking at a picture of him and his adoptive parents. He
hears a knock on the door and teleports outside, but sees no one and
teleports back in. The envelope is there. He opens it, and finds a letter
that reads: "If you want to know the truth, come to the new mall
construction site at sundown. Come alone." He decides to go, and teleports
away. Just then, Scott enters, saying that Professor X says he may have some
info, but Kurt's already gone.

Quicksilver talks to his father from a cell phone, telling him that Mystique
is meeting with Nightcrawler, and that Wolverine and the jet weren't at the
mansion, just like he said. Magneto, who's at the castle from the dream,
tells him he did a good job and orders him to get the others and intercept
Nightcrawler before he gets to Mystique - she must not tell him what he
wants to know. Magneto notices Wolverine entering the castle. Logan makes it
upstairs, where he's attacked by the castle's defenses, but he easily gets
through them. He reports to Xavier that it looks like he was expected. He
thinks this place was some sort of a DNA lab or something, but whoever was
running it pulled out recently. Suddenly, he notices a bomb with a timer on
the wall, and jumps out through the window, as the castle explodes.

In the Institute, Scott walks up to Jean and tells her that Kurt's taken off
and the professor wants them to check out his room. Jean asks what they're
looking for, and he says he's not sure - Professor X seems to think Kurt
might've had a visit from Pietro that afternoon. Jean finds the letter,
reads it, shows it to Scott, and they rush out.

In the construction site, Kurt is looking for the person who sent him the
letter. Mystique shows up in a cloak, hiding her face. He recognizes her as
the woman from Rogue's dream and asks her who she is and why she's hiding.
She takes off the hood, saying that he's her son and that he already knows
her. He is horrified to see Mystique and backs away, asking what happened to
him. Before she can answer, though, the Brotherhood boys show up,
surrounding Kurt. Mystique orders them to leave, but Quicksilver says that
they got higher orders. Toad tries attacking Nightcrawler, but he teleports
around and asks Mystique what she's doing. Toad manages to knock him down,
but just then the X-Men arrive. Spyke easily knocks Toad, Shadowcat and
Cyclops trap Blob, Rogue absorbs Avalanche, and Jean rescues Nightcrawler
and steadies Quicksilver so Cyclops can hit him. Rogue tries to stop the
running Mystique using Avalanche's power, but she morphs into a raven and
flies away.

In the Institute, Professor X tells Wolverine, Cyclops and Jean that the
dreams Rogue was having were absorbed from Mystique, but they'll never know
the truth now that the lab is destroyed. He's amazed that Magneto would go
as far as genetic experimentation on mutants. Scott asks when he'll tell
Kurt, but Logan says maybe they shouldn't tell him yet.

In Kurt's room, Kurt and Rogue are in the balcony talking. He says he can't
believe Mystique is his mother, and she says he can't really know - maybe
she's just messing with him. He mentions the resemblance between them, but
Rogue says they should wait till the professor finds more answers. Kurt says
he thinks Xavier already knows more than he's willing to tell them, but she
says that if he does, he's probably got good reasons for not telling him.
They go to get ready to school, both looking sad.

In Raven Darkholme's office, Mystique looks sadly at the parents driving
their children to school.

Featured Characters: 

Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Rogue, Shadowcat, Spyke,
Wolverine (all X-Men)

Avalanche, Blob, Magneto, Mystique, Quicksilver, Toad (all Brotherhood)

Civilians

In Rogue's dreams:
Baby Nightcrawler
Magneto
Mr. and Mrs. Wagner
Mystique

In Mystique's shape-shifting:
Principal Raven Darkholme
Schoolboy

Notes: 

In the first scene, Kitty hugs a stuffed dragon. That's a cameo of Lockheed.

In the comics, Mystique's leaving Nightcrawler happened quite different.
Magneto had nothing to do with it. When Kurt was born, Mystique was under
disguise, but after the people saw her baby they thought he was a demon, and
the panic caused her to reveal her true form. She ran away from the angry
mob, but her only way out was to morph into a farmer, pretend "he" caught
the blue woman and threw her off a cliff, and then tossed the baby from the
cliff as well. Kurt was saved and handed to Margali Szardos. Wagner was the
name of Mystique's dead husband and not of Kurt's adoptive parents.

It is later revealed that someone indeed saw Kurt turning off the
image-inducer and teleporting in school: Amanda Sefton. This will lead to
them starting to go out in "Shadow Dance".

Rogue absorbed Nightcrawler in "Rogue Recruit", and Mystique in "The Turn of
the Rogue".

Author: 
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