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Zap 2 It 10/6/03: Karen Cliche and Peter Mohan
'Mutant X': The Unbearable Lightness of Lexa
(Monday, October 06 01:29 PM)
By Kate O'Hare
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - When the syndicated "Mutant X" returned for its third season the week of Sept. 28, viewers learned the fate of the team, trapped in an explosion in the season-two cliffhanger, and saw the show's universe turned upside down.
In the first two seasons of "Mutant X," John Shea plays Adam Kane, a genetic researcher trying to atone for his DNA experimentation under the auspices of the corporation Genomex and the evil Mason Eckhart (Tom McCamus). Adam gathered the "children of Genomex" -- young people with various mutant powers -- and formed them into a team to do good.
With Shea now a recurring guest star instead of a regular, and with the departure of Lauren Lee Smith -- who played telepathic mutant Emma -- things have changed. Returning to the team are Victor Webster as Brennan Mulwray, who can manipulate electricity; Victoria Pratt as the feral Shalimar Fox; and Forbes March as Jesse Kilmartin, who is a computer expert and can manipulate his body mass at will.
New to the team is Quebec-born Karen Cliche (pronounced "kleesh"), who was a regular last year on "Adventure, Inc." She joins the cast as mutant Lexa Pierce, who mixes a shadowy past with the ability to manipulate light.
"At the end of last season, we took the team to a point where they'd lost faith in Adam," head writer and executive producer Peter Mohan says. "They'd found out that the world wasn't quite what they thought it was. Adam wasn't acting in a way he had purported to be acting.
"There was a question whether the team could pull themselves back together and find that trust again.
"We left them in the cataclysmic explosion at Shalimar's father's company, and where we go from there is to drop a bombshell on them, where everything they thought they knew about their lives and mutancy and Adam and the world they live in has the bottom dropped out of it.
"That happens a few times throughout the season, as some of the cool plot twists that we have planned start to make themselves evident."
Cliche says that all will be revealed concerning Lexa's motivations -- but not anytime soon. "We don't reveal it in the first 10 episodes, because you want to introduce me slowly, and not give away the big punchline of who my character is and why she's here. But, there's a lot of stuff that you find out based on who I am and what I know.
"Every episode, the audience is going to start learning a little more about Mutant X, things that Shalimar and Brennan and Jesse have no idea about, because I've been around a lot longer than they have and was very close to Adam, and have a history with Eckhart as well.
"Lexa's a girl who comes into Mutant X with her own agenda. She is on her own mission. She's a bit calculating and not very nice at first. But, you will find out that all those reasons are justified by what she's been through in the past.
"She's not here to make friends. She tells them that she's here because she needs to be, for her own reasons. Then, of course, it starts to warm up in the end."
At this point, Cliche says, the warming-up process has not extended to lighting any romantic fires with her male co-stars. "We haven't even really talked about that. Jesse's the one who really gives her the benefit of the doubt and tries to get to know her the most. So I sense a bit of a friendship that will develop from that. But even I don't know what's going to go on with my little love life."
Cliche has been clued in, though, to Lexa's mutant abilities. "She can bend light in a certain fashion that allows her to become invisible when needed. And I can shoot lasers from my hands ... yep, from my hands. And I also create huge blasts of light as a diversion. I'm a Light Queen.
"I have no powers in the dark. I take light in from around me to shoot lasers or flashes of light or become invisible. It's been pretty helpful in some situations that we've shot."
Mohan agrees. "As we move into the dark, 'Alias' kind of world that these guys find themselves in, as their world becomes much more complicated and mysterious this year, those kind of stealth abilities will really prove a bonus to the team as they go through their operations."
Any time that a new character comes in and replaces an outgoing one -- as Cliche has done, taking the place of Smith -- there always is the possibility of a fan backlash. Cliche is well aware of this.
"I had an e-mail from somebody who said, 'Welcome to "Mutant X." Don't worry about what anybody says about you being the new girl on the show. You might get some negative reaction, but don't worry, you'll have your fans.' I thought, 'That's really sweet and funny that he wrote that.'
"But, yeah, I thought about that, going onto this show, and I was like, 'Oooh, people have been together for two years, what if they don't like me? What if the audience has a hard time accepting me?'
"But, I think that's going to be normal for the first few episodes. Hopefully, I'll grow on them, and they'll understand why I'm there. I just hope for the best. We all want to be loved. I just want to be loved, you guys. Come on, man, don't hate me!
"If I fit in the story and do my job well, I hope they'll love me."
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