The Gist of It: The ep opens with a mysterious stranger wearing what appears to be Movieverse Wolverine's costume and a mask that makes me think of the Foot ninja dudes from Ninja Turtles (while I'm sure that sentence is just riddled with errors, please don't send me a million emails correcting me on the precise terms of the Foot ninja dudes from Ninja Turtles, or the technicalities of "the mysterious stranger's" costume. Please.) looking at a computer screen, on which pictures of various Brotherhood members and X-Geeks pop up. She-- oh, I mean, "the mysterious stranger" looks through the X-Geeks' files, and stops when "the mysterious stranger" comes upon our ol' pal Wolverine's file. "The mysterious stranger" then fondles the computer screen. Under normal circumstances, I'd make a joke about "the mysterious stranger" wanting some cyber lovin' from Wolvie, but... well, by the end of the episode, that's gonna be a massively squicky thought. Actually, it's a massively squicky thought already.

Realizing that love will never work out between "the mysterious stranger" and Logan, "the mysterious stranger" goes into a rage and destroys the computers and all other monitors bearing Wolvie's face. This sets off the alarms, and some S.H.I.E.L.D guys take notice of "the mysterious stranger" and take action. Naturally, "the mysterious stranger" evades them, pulls some fancy moves that I honestly don't remember because I wasn't paying attention, whips out Wolvie-tastic claws and escapes. *gasp!* The mystery!

Credits. I notice Evan is still in them, which means 1) he's coming back, 2) the animators were too lazy to change them, or 3) they're teasing us. I can just see the Evo people sitting back, laughing, saying things like "They didn't like Evan, did they? Well, we'll just throw this new character at them, and soon, they'll be begging for his return!" Bring back Evan, already! Bastards.

Cut to a scene of Berzerker and Little Bob walkin' through the forest, laughin' back and forth at what the other one has to say, remiscin', this 'n thattin', havin' such a good time, oo-de-lally oo-de-lally, golly, what a day. Uh, pretend I didn't just do that. Anywho, the two are going through the woods, bitching about what Wolverine has them doing. Bobby does an amusing impression of him, and I laugh. "The mysterious stranger", meanwhile, lurks in the trees like a creepy li'l voyeur. Berzerker gets kinda jumpy, like a soldier in 'Nam surrounded by the enemy, and he winds up falling into a pit. Bobby gets attacked by Nerf balls and promises to help out Berzerker, after finishing the race, of course. He continues on his way, icing up the road for good measure (although, really, he could just walk. Now you're just showing off, Bobby). Along his way, he passes by various teammates who got stuck in traps, and rather than help them out, he just continues. Just as he reaches the end, he bumps into Logan, who's none too thrilled with his performance, and sentences Bobby, along with all of the other new recruits, to doing the course over again. Thankfully, S.H.I.E.L.D helicopters arrive, distracting Logan from tormenting the kiddies any further. He hands them over to Hank, and goes to see what they want. The kids cheer as the dictator leaves, but he turns around and promises that he'll be watching. Like an evil Santa Claus, he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.

Cut to Rogue in the infirmary with the Professor. They talk about how she's feeling, the Prof says that she's fully recovered from the episode I still haven't seen yet, but Rogue says that she doesn't really feel up to being around a lotta people. Given her general behavior in the show, I don't think she's ever been up to being around people. Ahh, but I kid. Chuck teases her about wanting to skip Logan's training sessions from Hell (I dunno, I think they look kinda fun...), and Rogue plays innocent. Ahh ha ha ha. Whatever.

Back to Logan. Nick Fury, faithful exposition man and plot device, hops out of the helicopter, and gives Logan and the Prof (who just arrived at the scene) a little nod. Logan goes with him, and they head off to S.H.I.E.L.D HQ, where he clues Logan in on "the mysterious stranger's" doings from the night before. They exposition about "the mysterious stranger" having claws and Logan's DNA. Naturally, this makes Logan a wee bit pissed, since, y'know, his DNA is his DNA, damn it! Nick then introduces Logan to another convenient plot device, a scientist lady who goes by the name of Deborah Risman. Debbie says she works for Hydra, which is a group of people who have a fondness for sending spies after S.H.I.E.L.D info. She expositions how it was her job to create the ultimate weapon, blah blah, based off of Weapon X and Wolverine's DNA, blah, failed 22 times, 23rd time was the charm. She illustrates this through a video clip of X23 fighting a bunch of robots, one of which I expected to start cackling and spouting out lame puns about throwing various foodstuffs on the "barbee" and things going "down undah". Anyhow, X23 was a perfect soldier physically, but also happened to have serious anger management problems as a result of Debbie trying to breed out emotion. Hey, like father, like clone. Debbie reveals that X23 is uber dangerous, and we cut to a shot of the mutant formerly known as "the mysterious stranger", who's still lurking around the Institute. It is then revealed that X23 is simply... a little girl! To quote many a Fanfiction.Net review: "OMG WTF I never saw taht comming lol!!11 PLZ rite more!!/ (seriously, no offense to people who, er, actually leave reviews like this)" In other words, X23 is merely a really shitty Mary Sue that's been done a billion times over in the terrible world of fanfiction. I guess the writers just ran out of ideas and went to FF.net for inspiration.

Anyhow, the Mary Sutant formerly known as X23 watches as Multiple (Man) and Hank go through an obstacle and laugh and generally have a good time. My bitter, frozen heart melts to goo, and I momentarily forget that this ep is really about Mary Sutant and not the characters I actually care about. My happiness is shattered, of course, as the episode reminds us that it's all about Mary Sutant for today. Damn. We cut back to her love-child-of-Logan-and-Amara face as she scowls bitterly and has her own flashbacks of her SAD UNHAPPY CHILDHOOD ANGST! I don't care. I've read this a thousand times in bad fanfics. In the flashback, sandbags are continuously thrown at her (in the rain, to emphasize the sheer SADNESS OF HER LIFE), and she slashes through them, until one hits her and she falls over. Or something. I don't care. We cut back to reality, and she turns her attention to Bobby, Sam, and Roberto, who're goofing off and making me happy. Stop teasing me like this! Stop getting my hopes up by showing characters I like! As a constant reminder that Rosiel is not allowed to fully enjoy this episode, we cut back to Mary Sutant, who's obviously not as amused by the boys as I am. Instead, she extends her claws, but since she only has two, and since she's not entirely in focus on the screen (that, or mine's just blurry. I'm thinking it's because mine's just blurry), it looks more like she's flipping them the bird. Hee!

Anyhow, just when it looks as though Mary Sutant is about to jump down and skewer Sammy for being happy, Hank breaks up the training session, and the muties go back to the Institute to relax. Mary Sutant retracts her claws for the time being, and we cut back to Debbie, who's still giving Nick and Logan the general gist of her horrific creation, complete with stupid flashbacks. Mary Sutant was isolated from all attachments, like love, as a baby, and oh, the angst. Her life has sucked in a fairly Spartan way. She was trained to be a soldier, and to blend in. To emphasize this, they show her crankily sitting on a bench while people around her were smiling and having a good time. Good job teaching her to blend in, guys. She looks like she's permanently PMSing-- oh. Okay, nevermind, I guess that means they did do a good job teaching her to look like a normal preteen girl. Debbie explains that Mary Sutant was pretty okay, barring the fact that she had this tendency to go into rage whenever she saw anybody who was happy. Oh, the sadness of her life!

At 12, Mary Sutant was exposed to the Weapon X program so that she could be more like Logan. Joy! Logan spazzes at this point, pulling the "But she's just a CHILD, you fiend!" card, and Debbie angsts about how she can't sleep at night because she created this monster and unleashed it on the land of Evo-- oh, I mean, because she was largely responsible for Mary Sutant's HORRIBLE ANGSTY LIFE.

We cut back to the Institute, where Sammy and Roberto are playing chess. Funny, I never figured them for chess playing types. Mary Sutant watches from the window, then she climbs up the wall (like Spiderman, but BETTER!) and peeks in on Ororo watering her plants. She moves on to watch Kitty talk about having "such a way with pastry" on the phone, and watches as Kurt bamfs in and teases Kitty. I rather like the X-Geeks when they're like this and not in full X-Geek mode. Anyhow, she has another flashback to her life of SAD HORRIBLE ANGST AND ABUSE, and we're treated to an image of her crouched in a white room, whimpering and such. Waaah. I don't care. Mary Sutant growls in a fairly Logan-esque manner, then moves on to peep in on Scott and Jean, who're doing the dishes. Scott checks himself out (hee!), and so Jean telekinetically blasts him with water from the faucet. Hee! I can't believe I like them together.

Meanwhile, the Professor wheels himself down the halls, when he comes upon Mary Sutant crying over the chess board. For some bizarre reason, he just wheels on up to her without being the slightest bit suspicious, and so he's attacked and rendered inert (moreso than usual) by a blinky dot she smacks onto his head. Poor, misguided Professor X.

Cut to Logan and Co. heading back to the helicopters. Nick reveals that the computers have been fixed and that Mary Sutant was last checking on files about the X-Men. Logan says he's going to go in and face her alone, but Nick ain't havin' none of that. Debbie stops him from coming along by saying that the S.H.I.E.L.D agents aren't any match for Mary Sutant, OF COURSE.

Back at the Institute, Mary Sutant wanders around the X-Geeks' rooms and fondles their possessions. This leads me to expect the next scene to be one of Scott going "Jean? Where are you?" and walking in to find Mary Sutant dressed in Jean's clothes with sloppily pasted on makeup and wearing a red wig. But no. Instead, Sammy walks in on her, thinking it's Jean, and is beaten up in two seconds. And then we're treated to various scenes where she takes out pretty much all of the X-Men, OF COURSE. Luckily, Scott and Ray are okay, so they run into the room where the Prof's still lying inert. The door rattles, so they prepare to attack, only to open it and find *gasp!* a shadowy figure! Who could it be? Cut to commercials.

We return from the commercial break to find that it's just Rogue. Scott expositions to her, then they run over to the Prof. Ray decides, with Scott's blessings, to zap the blinky dot from the Prof's head, but just as he's about to, Logan bursts in and tells him not to, because if he does, Prof go BOOM! Logan tells them to go run, but Scott refuses to leave without the others, and so do Rogue and Ray. Logan grudgingly allows them to help him out. They run out of the room to survey the damage done to their teammates (all of whom are inert with the explosives on their heads), and Ray points out that not even Logan can take all of them out the way Mary Sutant did, OF FREAKIN' COURSE! Not even freakin' Sabretooth can take out all of the X-Men, I-- ANNOYANCE! Rosiel MAD!

Suddenly, the floor's cut out from under Logan, and he goes poof, down through the floor, as Mary Sutant takes his place and attacks the trio. They last slightly longer than the others, but then she rips off Rogue's shirt (the fiend! The slashy fiend! Ew... ewww, I hope nobody tries to slash that horrible thing with Rogue) and throws her at Scott and Ray, thus defeating all three at once. OF COURSE.

And then Logan comes out and fights her. There is a big fight. I don't care. Things go smash. Logan tries to reason with her, but she just screams and whines at him, which is fairly standard Mary Sue behavior. And then she reveals that her feet have claws too, and she seems to kick Logan right out of the Institute. And yet, he's not bleeding at all from being kicked with a big knife. Hmm. Maybe I'm mistaken, though, because I wasn't really paying attention to the scene. Anyhow, he continues to attempt the reasoning method, even though he should really just use his claws to cut her angsty little head off. She continues to whine and cry and blame him for her HORRIBLE ANGSTY LIFE. Logan then breaks out with the claws and says that they're both victims, and that he's the only one who "understands" her, and that he's the closest thing to family she's got. Good god, did they hire a twelve-year-old fanfic writer for this episode (no offense to twelve-year-old fanfic writers. Some of you guys can churn out good stuff, you little prodigies, you)?

Despite Logan's appeals to her angst, Mary Sutant continues to scream and whine, but she's pretty much given up. I guess she's attempting to pull a Faith from "Five By Five" from Season 1 of Angel, only, y'know, it's crappy and has absolutely none of the emotional significance of Faith's scene. And there's no hot Wesley or Angel, just... Logan. Anyhow, she hugs him, and right then, the helicopters come. Logan tells her to run, and so Mary Sutant gives him puppy dog eyes. Ruuuun. She leaves. YAY!! Nick Fury shows up, and Logan gives him a big "Fuck off".

Next day! Rogue's feeling better, and there's another training session. Everybody expects the worst, but Logan surprises them by allowing them to play a game of Mutant Dodgeball. He's softened up 'cause he's a family man now. Aww, whatever. He then says that there's extra credit for pelting Bobby with the dodgeballs (y'know, I had to keep rewriting that sentence, because it was full of sexual innuendo every time I wrote it). Hehe.

Brotherhood Moments: Well, they showed little pictures of the Brotherhood at the beginning, when X23 was looking at mutant files on the computer dealie.

My Opinion: Thankfully, I didn't hate this episode nearly as much as I feared I would. I rather enjoyed seeing the X-Geeks all casual-happy, and Bobby scenes are always a plus. The scene with Multiple (Man) and Beast was so cute... Wow, I must be gettin' old if I find that cute. My maternal instincts may be kicking in.

Anyhow, this episode frequently had me rolling me eyes, as you can probably tell by the numerous uses of THE SHIFT KEY (especially towards the end). I'm sorry, but the character X23 did not make me care at all. I just... don't care about her. She was completely unoriginal, and I don't see why they didn't just use some canon character instead of her. There are great canon characters that could've given the X-Men a run for their money and have some link to Logan. There's Lady Deathstrike, with the claws and whatnot. There's Deadpool, with the healing factor yoinked from Logan. Oh, wait, right, because if we used any of them, then Logan couldn't get his righteous anger riff out, and we wouldn't have some poor angsty victimized Sue to distract us from the lack of interesting villains in this ep. Considering that this episode was originally supposed to air with the last chunk of Season 3, I don't see why time was wasted on this lame-ass Mary Sue ripoff, when it could've been spent on some of the characters in the show who could USE some development, like Colossus, Pyro, or, I can't believe I'm saying this... GAMBIT. Or, if they needed a new character, what better than Mr. Sinister? Y'know, that guy? With the connection to Apocalypse?

Hell, I'd rather see another Wolverine/Sabretooth smack down than see this stupid waste of a character. I hate her stupid blatant angst, and her stupid storyline, and the way she single handedly BEAT UP EVERYBODY. Yes, one could argue that Wanda, too, has stupid angst and single handedly beat up everybody, but I don't really care. When I watched "The HeX Factor", I was actually interested in Wanda's character (possibly because mental patients always hold my interest). Her angst actually made me a little sad, and I could conceivably see why her powers could knock the shit out of the X-Men upon first meeting. X23? I just didn't see it. The X-Geeks have faced tough baddies like Sabretooth, Juggernaut, the Sentinel, etc. Granted, they had help, but I think they could've been able to up WAY more of a fight against X23 before getting knocked out. Oh well, fuck her. Stupid Mary Sue.

What's even more annoying than her character is that I don't hate her. Sure, I've been flinging the word around much like a monkey with its own-- yeah-- but, I don't hate her. She just annoys me. I've seen her character before in so many cheesy fics, that she couldn't even surprise me with her sheer stupidity. She just annoys me.

On a lighter note, I no longer hate Jean or Boom Boom (where was she, anyway?) anymore. Whoo!

Rating (out of 5): 1.5. Sure, I said I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would, but that's not saying much, since I originally thought I'd be giving this episode a -5.

BH Babble:
: Y'know, they're really not giving us stuff to babble about lately.
: Are we even on this show anymore, yo?
: I'm not feelin' the love...
: I think we need to get new contracts. In fact, we'll get our own show!
: Can it be a variety show? With musical numbers? And special B-movie guests?
: Uh...
: I can provide comic relief!
: It's a variety show, dumbass, it's supposed to have comic relief all on its own.
: Pffth, not the ones I've seen, yo.
: You'd best not be talking about Sonny and Cher. You can't come back from talking bad about Cher.
: See, actually, I was thinking more like action--
: Why don't we do something like "Iron Chef"?
: I'm thinkin' more like "The Drew Carey Show".
: I'd rather do a "Will and Grace" sort of sitcom.
: Oh, forget I said anything!