The Gist of It: The episode opens like an old episode of Scooby Doo. Anyone else remember the episode with the "haunted carnival"? Ah, hell, I'm sure there's like ten episodes about a haunted carnival. Anywho, Jean's walking around said haunted carnival in her PJs, when... clowns begin to chase. These clowns aren't any ordinary clowns, ohhh no. These are HellClowns! Admittedly, I didn't like this part. Not because I don't like Jean or anything, but because... clowns scare me. They've scared me for as long as I can remember. >.< Yeah, so anyway, Jean wakes up from this terrible clown-infested nightmare, and finds the Jack-in-the-Box next to her bed twisting its crank. The song it plays is nifty, annnd she picks the box up, only to have the Jack pop out looking really creepy. Jean screams annnnd fade to credits!

In the morning, nobody can find Jean, as she seems to have disappeared without a trace. However, they've found her Jack-in-the-Box! Yippee! And so, the X-Men run around searching for her. Scott drives around calling Duncan, then Taryn (fun fact: he has Taryn on speed dial :P) asking about Jean. Kitty goes to the Brotherhood and pisses off Lance (haaahahaha!), annnd so forth. As they're doing so, Beast is checking computer stuff, annnnd the new recruits (I keep on trying to call them the New Mutants O.o) decide to go play in the Danger Room because finding Jean isn't worth their time XD Okay, it's just Jubes, Cannonball, Iceman, annnd Berzerker. Cute lil Jamie follows them and is like "HEY! You guys didn't tell me! *cute look* Can I play too?" and they're like "Uhh, no, you're too young, bye!" and shut the door on him.

Anywho, Logan finds out that Jean went off to Boston, Cerebro picks up traces of her mutant signature, and Scott's generally like "JEEEEEAAAAAN!!". The new recruits are playing around in the Danger Room, and when Jubes' hair gets frazzled, she decides to leave. However, the door shuts on them and more baddy things pop up ala "Fun and Games". They're like "GAH!" and meanwhile, Jamie's in the control room giggling eeeevilly.

Jean steals a ring. I'm not sure when this occurs in relation to the other scenes, but it does. Back to the interesting stuff! The recruits are like "Uughhh" with torn up clothes (Berzerker's moreso than others) and crawl out of the room when the session's done. Jamie's standing in front of the Danger Room lookin' awfully smug. The guys are like "We're gonna get you!" and he says "D'oh." and runs away. They... lurch after him, then give up like "Ehhh, we'll get him tomorrow" So cute! XD

Anyway, meanwhile, Jean comes back to the mansion at night, and so Scott's like "JEEEAN!" and runs after her, only to get knocked out and floated back to bed. Awww. And so, Jean goes to Kurt's room, crazy mind noise ensues, and the next morning *gasp* Kurt's gone too!

They rob a bank-- well, not really ROB it so much as steal one lil ring from it-- and are almost stopped by Scott and Wolvie! Of course, the end result is Jean and Kurt jacking the Blackbird, but hey, at least the good guys TRIED doing something.

That night, Kitty and Evan are also brainwashed or whatever and join Jean and Kurt. The X-Men figure out who the villain is (Mesmero, a man they had met at the carnival a few weeks ago), and board the X-Helicopter-Thing to go to the carnival and find him just as the brainwashed X-Geeks are about to give him the loot they stole. And so, a fight ensues, and Xavier confronts the lil freak. However, as the Prof is kicking Mesmero's brain's ass (Yes O.o), some other powerful force steps in and rescues the tattooed freak (the tattooed freak being Mesmero, not X). Mesmero escapes, probably with the aid of some magical carnie trick, and he has the rings that he wanted. All of the X-Geeks are back to normal, and X is like "Dude, there was this other force; a mind more powerful than I'd ever encountered". Spooky.

And so, cut to... some other country. Mesmero goes into this tomb, turns the rings into a key, and unlocks the first door that leads to his mysteeerious master's tomb. Of course, if any of us are familiar with the comics, it was painfully obvious the second that it showed him going into a tomb that the villain of the season will be none other than... APOCALYPSE. BOOO!!!

Brotherhood Moments: Well, they showed the house... and Lance made an angry sound effect at Kitty. O.o;

My Opinion: I loved this episode! Probably because the villain turned out to be Mesmero instead of Mastermind, which really makes me happy, even though I abhor the way they made him look (uhh that's because I've really only seen him in Deadpool, and he looked pretty neato and I thought he was cool XD). Or maybe it was because of the Jamie scenes! *squeal* The new recruits were the best part of the episode!! And... uhhh.... they showed Evan not being totally useless for once! Apparently, the only way he can do anything neat is if he's being evil O.o;; Ohhh well! Uhh wow, I just found the straps to my bondage pants o.O I totally forgot that I left 'em in here!

Of course, the ending disappointed me, even though I saw it coming. Before Season 2 started, I had the major villain narrowed down to Apocalypse or Mr. Sinister. I was crossing my fingers and hoping it'd be Sinny, but *sigh* the second Xavier made the remark about the "really powerful mind thingie", I knew then that the villain would be Apocalypse. You know how I say that I hate Mastermind? Well, multiply that for fifty and you have my hatred for Apocalypse. I loathe this villain more than any other Marvel villain that I can think of at the moment. HE JUST WON'T GO AWAY!!! Remember in the old cartoon? This is how any story involving Apocalypse went: "MWAAAH! You can never defeat... APOCALYPSE!! *is defeated* *comes back a few minutes later* MWAAAH!! You can never defeat... APOCALYPSE!! *is defeated again* *comes back a few minutes later* MWAAAH! You can never defeat... APOCALYPSE!! *is shoved off platform into empty space or something I can't really remember but I think I still have this episode on tape* MWAAH!! You can never-- okay, fine, you defeated me. Damn it."

I have a friend who used to watch the old animated series as well. She still goes into convulsions every time I mention his name... and then gets violent. I mean, okay, Sinister and Magneto also come back multiple times in the comics/cartoon, but at least they're not so god damn annoying about it! They're just like "Eh? Oh! Whoa, I'm back again! *cackleplot*"

...I hate Apocalypse. Hopefully, Xavier and Magneto will team up to whoop his ass. I always loved it when they teamed up XD

Rating (out of 5): 5, despite the fact that Mesmero looked like Xavier on LSD and they dared to mention the name "Apocalypse".

BH Babble:

: So, uh, I guess we ain't the villains anymore.
: Our fifteen minutes of fame are over! *sobs*
: You can't push the Brotherhood aside forever! Sooooon, we'll be back... uh.... as Freedom Force!
: Yeah!!
: *bounce bounce* Maybe I can finally be on the show! I mean, c'mon, they're showin' MESMERO, for God's sake!
: *scoff* Yeah right. They'd sooner show Thor, Sauron, Exodus, and Spiderwoman before you.
: Or they'll make you Apocalypse's bitch.
: *cries* I hate my life!