Power Play: Episode #202
Tag: The Mutant X team struggles to take down a military colonel who has threatened a nuclear holocaust. [Transcript]
Cast & Crew: Written by Turi Meyer, Al Septien; Directed by Milan Cheylov
Todd Faithfull....Sergeant
Jayne Heitmeyer....Beverly Parrish (voice)
Karen Holness....Sophia Taylor
John P. Liddell....Lieutenant
Stephen McHattie....Colonel Aaron Gaumont
Sean Orr....Military guard
Conrad Pla....Valdex
Official Synopsis: Military guards watch over a flatbed truck outside a warehouse oblivious that Black OP Soldiers are silently surrounding them. Brennan (Victor Webster) and Jesse (Forbes March) arrive on the scene, but as they creep towards the warehouse, a Soldier rolls a gas canister in their direction. A powerful nerve gas is released and the two fall to the ground. Moments later, one of the Soldiers rolls another gas canister into the warehouse while his comrades remove the cover from the truck revealing a powerful laser device. When Brennan and Jesse recover, Jesse phases through the wall of the warehouse to escape, but is hit with another powerful cloud of nerve gas. Realizing that the Soldiers are about to steal the truck, he phases back and informs Brennan before collapsing. Brennan watches the Soldiers escape with the truck as he tries to help Jesse to his feet. At Sanctuary, Adam (John Shea) examines Jesse and determines that the gas has bonded with his molecular structure. Jesse tries to stand, but collapses again and begins phasing out uncontrollably. He summons up all his energy and finally solidifies himself. Meanwhile, the Soldiers arrive at the Twin Creeks Nuclear Facility with the stolen weapon and overtake the facility. Back at Sanctuary, Adam tells Shalimar (Victoria Pratt) that the gas has affected Jesse's nervous system and it’s possible that if he phases out again, he could literally disappear. Later, Adam has an online conversation with a woman named Beverly who insists she had no idea that the man behind the operation, Colonel Aaron Gaumont (Stephen McHattie), was so dangerous. Suddenly Gaumont appears on the monitor and demands that ten million dollars be paid for each of the twelve soldiers that died during a covert operation in Kyrgyzstan. He goes on to say that he's taken control of the Twin Creeks Nuclear Facility and that if his demands are not met within 24 hours, he will initiate a holocaust. Adam informs the team that Twin Creeks develops Xiraxium, a radioactive and lethal compound. Adam then reveals that he's volunteered their services to overtake Gaumont and that the most effective way of destroying the facility would be to take out the cooling system. When Adam instructs Jesse to stay behind to crack the facility's computer from Sanctuary, Jesse becomes frustrated. Within moments, Jesse taps into the facilities security camera monitors and initiates video-loop recording. Meanwhile, the rest of the team arrives at the facility and on Jesse's command, Brennan creates a tesla coil and aims it at the perimeter of the facility which is protected by a laser shield. The electricity shorts out the defense system and Shalimar, Emma (Lauren Lee Smith) and Brennan rush in. When Gaumont learns that Mutant X has broken into the compound, he is thrilled that his plan is working. Inside the facility’s cooling room, Brennan finds that explosives have been wired to the control panel. Meanwhile, when Gaumont learns that Jesse is not with the team, he becomes enraged. He knows that without Jesse, he can't access the Xiraxium and, therefore, has nothing to sell the foreign buyers. He orders that the heat be turned up on Mutant X with the hopes that it will draw Jesse out. Suddenly the communication system cuts out and Adam and Jesse lose contact with the other team members. While Adam tries to get the signal back up, Jesse sneaks off. Moments later, Gaumont enters the cooling room where Brennan is and fires his weapon at the sprinkler in the ceiling. When the water hits Brennan, he screams in agony. Shalimar and Emma arrive on the scene and find Brennan. Incensed, Shalimar takes off after Gaumont, who is watching Jesse pulling up to the facility on a security monitor. While Emma and Brennan attempt to disarm the bomb in the cooling room, Jesse makes his way to the control room. Hearing a noise, he yanks a door opened and finds Sophia (Karen Holness), one of the control room assistants, who agrees to help him break into the security system. Back in the cooling room, the bomb suddenly explodes and Emma and Brennan escape just in the nick of time. With only minutes to spare, Jesse puts on a radioactive suit, musters up all his energy and phases through the wall to the reactors core where the Xiraxium is stored. Withstanding excruciating pain, Jesse grabs the encased Xiraxium and phases back through the wall to find Gaumont standing with Sophia. Sophia shoots a gun at Jesse, but he phases out just in time and misses the bullets. When Jesse tries to phase back, however, he is unable and remains in an intangible state. Desperate to help their friend, Brennan zaps Jesse with a bolt of electricity and Emma hits him with a burst of psionic energy. It works and he solidifies, but Gaumont has made off with the Xiraxium. The Mutant X team boards the Double Helix and take off after Gaumont and Sophia, who’ve escaped in the flatbed truck. Jesse connects two wires which instantly cuts the power of the Double Helix. The force also cuts the power on Gaumont’s truck forcing it to come to a screeching halt. Jesse then phases out and uses the laser on the truck to blast Gaumont and Sophia to smithereens. Back at Sanctuary, Adam is happy to report that all traces of the nerve gas have left Jesse’s system.
Trivia & Nitpicks: The Helix’s landing bay is made of polished marble this season.
This is the first solid mention of Adam’s government connections, and the first hint that Adam might have higher-ups that he answers to. The pixelated contact Beverly will reappear with vital information in “Body and Soul” before her true identity is revealed in “Within These Walls” as Adam’s former lover, Christina.
Adam has installed a video linkup to Sanctuary in the ground cars, of which there are many more this season.
Two new uses for Brennan’s electricity: It can stop laser beams. It can also create an electrical field around Jesse while he’s phased that will prevent him from dissipating completely.
In these early days, Emma’s psionic blast is actually a physical force, not just a mental influence. The blast she throws at Gaumont’s soldier hits his midsection instead of his head, but he’s thrown backwards anyway.
Props to Shalimar and Emma in this episode for the first and last time anyone performs CPR correctly in Mutant X.
Scared!Emma from “Double Vision” makes a cameo here while Brennan’s trying to deactivate the bomb. She’ll return to harass Jesse in “Reawakening."
The EDD must have been broken at the same time as the dojo. Rather than running the usual diagnostic scan on Jesse, Adam places some glowing headphones on his head, conveniently eliminating the need for Forbes to take off his top. Like James T. Kirk, Brennan finds that his shirts are always floating off. In contrast, Jesse only goes bare-chested in “Wasteland” and “Cirque des Merveilles,” even remaining covered while Dr. Robinson performs his abdominal surgery in “In Between.”
Adam says that had Jesse been solid for even a few seconds while in contact with the nerve gas, he would have been paralyzed as the soldiers were. But Jesse did actually materialize for a few seconds while in contact with the nerve gas, so his continued survival must be due to those good ol’ new mutant antibodies (c.f. “Deadly Desire”).
Beverly says Colonel Gaumant disappeared five years prior in the Middle East, but Gaumant says he lost his men in Kyrgysztan. Since this Soviet Union state dissolved in the 1990s, perhaps he meant to say Kurdistan?
Why is Shalimar unaware of the laser defense shield guarding the premises? I mean, Brennan and Jesse watched Gaumant’s men steal the device, and Adam even took the time to warn them that it would be there.
Jesse promises Adam that he won’t take any risks...then phases three seconds after reaching the compound. Even before the nerve gas has left his system, Jesse will phase three times with no adverse effects whatsoever. It would seem that the nerve gas has a well-developed sense of dramatic timing.
Good thing that bomb is waterproof! The shower of water which incapacitates Brennan also sprays the bomb, but it doesn’t go off or short out.
It’s too bad that the team hasn’t established Emma as a backup long-range communication route. Once the team realizes that their comlinks are turned off, it would have been nice if Emma could tune into Jesse’s thoughts in Sanctuary the way she did with Beau Longstreet in “Dark Star Rising,” and use those images to deactivate the bomb.
The display timer for the bomb clearly reads 1:20 before it's activated remotely, which is also laid out on the display before Brennan and Emma run for it. Yet Emma says, “We had three minutes left, [he] must've detonated it remotely.” Gee, ya think?
Also, Brennan’s line about internet research deserves a joke about "No, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night."
In keeping with Mutant X tradition, Xeraxium is a pretty blue. Nothing blue in Mutant X is good.
Large as the facility is, isn't it convenient that Jesse happens to be directly above his teammates when he phases through the floor?
What ever happened to Gaumant’s hostages? Adam sent Shalimar and Emma to find them, but they were distracted by Brennan’s mishap and never did go back to get them.