Walk on the Wild Side | |
Season Two, Episode 12 | |
Air date | March 2, 2002 |
Written by | Greg Johnson Cydne Clark Steve Granat |
Directed by | Frank Paur |
Episode Guide | |
previous Joyride |
next Operation: Rebirth |
- "Scott, I was trying to teach Magma how to handle things that go wrong. Which does not include looking for a big, strong man to save you!"
- —Jean to Scott about Amara
Premise[]
When the female X-Men are fed up with playing second fiddle, Tabitha decides that they should form a girl's vigilante crime-fighting group. They begin to fight crime at night as the Bayville Sirens, while the rest of the town, as well as the rest of the X-Men, try to figure out who they are until an old enemy crosses their way in the end.
Summary[]
Jean is running Magma though a training session. Magma keeps telling Jean that she isn't ready for it, but Jean keeps going. Cyclops shows up to tell them that the Professor doesn't want Amara to be late for her first day of high school. Jean says that she's got it covered. A boulder breaks free from the training ground and Jean tells Amara to melt it back into place. She tries, but misses. Jean catches it with her telekinesis right above the girls' heads, but Scott decides to play hero and blasts it into pieces, showering the girls with debris.
Jean "lifts" them out of the sim and is understandably mad at Scott. He tells them it was a good thing he was there to "rescue the damsels in distress". Now both girls are mad. He follows them down the hallway, where Jean finally blows up and tells him that she was teaching Amara how to handle things when they go wrong, "which doesn't include looking for a big strong man to save you". Jean and Amara both stalk off, leaving Scott standing in the hallway.
At The Brotherhood house, Tabitha blasts down the bathroom door. Todd peaks out from behind the shower curtains, complaining about not getting any privacy during his one shower a month. She uses his mouthwash and then throws a bomb in the shower with him, blasting out water and all. On the stairs she tells Blob that his mohawk is outdated, then she proceeds to steal Lance's jeep and head off to school.
At school, Kitty is showing Amara to her first class, which she happens to have with Tabitha. Tabitha asks her about life with the "geek squad" and Amara tells her how Jean is pushing her too hard. Tabitha tells her she doesn't have to take it and asks if she wants to go to the mall with her after school. Amara agrees. After school, Jean sees the two of them driving off in Lance's jeep. She asks Scott to borrow his car to stop them. Scott jumps in and says he'll do it. When Jean becomes angry, he tries to apologize. She tells him that she's tired of being treated like the "weaker sex". Duncan shows up saying he's got them tickets to the Sadie Hawkins Dance. Jean blows up, snatches Scott's keys and stalks off. Duncan says that he's glad she took Scott's keys.
On the way to the mall, Tabitha and Amara witness a car-jacking. They chase after the criminals. Jean finds them along the way and manages to stop the car-jackers from running over two innocent bystanders. The chase then continues and Amara melts the tires of the jacker's car. Tabitha throws a bomb in the rear window and the criminals bail right before the car explodes. They take off running, but Jean traps them with cinder blocks. The girls celebrate and then take off when they hear the police coming.
The whole incident is on the news later that night, and Jean and Amara decide to keep it a secret. A strange rock video like montage follows with the girls shopping, then dancing, then doing some vigilante crime fighting, more dancing, Kitty and Rogue join the group, the girls all change into new costumes, then even more dancing, some more crime-fighting, and finally Risty Wilde watching them covertly and looking none to happy about the whole thing. A news cast tells about the new "Bayville Sirens", and how they've cut the crime rate in half. Scott watches suspiciously. Scott sees the girls walking together, he slaps himself in the head and realizes what's been going on. He grabs Kurt, who was passing by and tells him to cancel his plans for tonight, saying that they have got a little "secret mission" to take care of.
Back at the Brotherhood house, Tabitha busts in on Toad in the bathroom again. He tells her he's going to buy her some mouthwash. The Blob catches her on the stairs and yells at her for shaving his head during the night. She heads downstairs and steals Lance's jeep again (even though he took the time to chain it down this time).
At the Institute, Kurt and Scott waits outside in Scott's Convertible. They spy on the girls as they sneak out of the mansion, but they really aren't very good at it and Jean spots them right away. Tabitha picks them up in the jeep and the boys try to follow them. Kitty phases the jeep through a train and they lose the boys. Later they see another car being stolen and give chase. The owner of the car calls up the cops on his cell and tells them that his car's been stolen and the Sirens are already on the job.
The girls track the car to a warehouse, where they get caught spying on a ring of car thieves. Seems the whole thing was a setup by the ring to try and catch the Sirens (they've been cutting into their business). The girls beat up the crooks. Tabitha gets a little too excited with her blasts and starts multiple fires. Kurt and Scott hear the explosions and find the girls, but they wait it out on a catwalk above the fight. Scott wants to "let the girls handle it". Kitty and Amara trap the ring leader in the trunk of a car. Scott saves him at the last minute as the car is about to be engulfed in flames. He tells Kurt that he "never saw that".
The girls round up all of the crooks and put out the fires. A policewoman surprises them and tells them they're all under arrest. Tabitha wants to fight, but Jean stops her. The police woman agrees to let them go if they stop the vigilante routine. They agree and take off right before the rest of the police arrive. The police woman wonders off through the smoke and morphs into none other than Mystique.
Later that night in the Institute kitchen, Jean and Scott talk about the girls being the Sirens. Jean tells him it was nice to be able to help other people and she hopes that someday they can do it out in the open.
Quotes[]
Cyclops: (to Jean) But what did I do? Tell me.
Jean: Alright. You were being a.. a.. a guy!
Cyclops: Ohh. I'm...sorry?
Jean: Scott, I was trying to teach Magma how to handle things that go wrong. Which did not include looking for a big, strong man to save you!
(turns, opens her bedroom door and slams it shut)
Magma: The nerve. (slams her bedroom door)
Todd: (as Tab breaks down the bathroom door) Hey, hey, hey! I'm takin' a shower here!
Tabitha: Yeah. The whole town's thrilled. I'm out of mouthwash.
Todd: Man, I take one shower a month, and still I get no privacy!
Tabitha: Here. You dropped the soap. (tosses a bomb at him)
Amara: Jean's been pushing me too fast. Even though I tell her I'm not ready, she says…
Tabitha: You mean Miss Jean "Yes that's my real color"? Forget her Amara, you don't have to take any of that. I didn't.
Jean: (to Scott) It bugs me to be treated like the weaker sex!
Duncan: Hey Jean! Good news. I got us tickets for the Sadie Hawkins Dance next month!
Jean: (facepalms) Excuse me Duncan, but aren't girls supposed to asks the guys to that dance?
Duncan: Uh, well, yeah… but I figured…
Jean: (to Scott and Duncan) You know, I just don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you guys around to make decisions for me! (snatches Scott's keys and stomps off)
Scott: (whistles)
Duncan: Whoa, I'm glad she took your keys.
Scott: (Grabs Kurt)
Kurt: I didn't do it!
Todd: Hey, hey, hey, is nothing sacred?!
Tabitha: Don't get up.
Todd: (as Tabitha leaves) That's it! I'm buyin' you some mouthwash!
Tabitha: (sees Lance's jeep chained) Good thinkin', Lance! Wouldn't want anyone to steal your ride! (blasts off chain and steals jeep)
Lance: Come back here, you Klepto!!
Tabitha: The least you could've done was put some gas in the tank! (laughing)
Kurt: (looking at the girls through a pair of binoculars) Blue Boy to Tracker One, do you read me? The girls are leaving the compound. (camera pans down to see Scott sitting next to him)
Scott: Kurt, I'm right here. And why are you talking like that?
Rogue: Aw man, we gotta find a better place to change.
Tabitha: Relax, no one will believe that toll booth guy.
Tabitha: It’s a chop shop. They’re tearing apart stolen cars for parts.
Jean: Then this must be the base for the car theft ring.
Carjacker Ringleader: Glad you could join the party, girls. Uh, we’ve been... expecting you.
Rogue: Oh, man! It’s a trap!
Kitty: That is so weak!
Carjacker Ringleader: Eh, you see, you Sirens have been slowing down our business. And the boys are getting a tad... irritable about it.
Amara: Look — didn’t your mother teach you not to pick on girls?
Carjacker Ringleader: Oh, yeah. Yeah — too bad I never... listened to her.
Tabitha: Well, guess what, freak show — she was right. And here’s why!
Sirens: Hi-yah! (They begin taking down the car theft ring members)
Scott: (blasts car out of the way) Uh, you never saw me do that.
Kurt: (to Scott, seeing the girls fight the members of the carjacker ring) Come on! What are we waiting for?
Scott: No, wait. I think we'd better let the girls handle this.
Notes[]
- First vocal appearance of Magma and Patty Simcox.
- Sandy Dee and Patty Simcox are seen walking together in this episode.
- This is the first time Charles Xavier does not appear in an episode.
- This was the first episode where members from all three teams featured on the show (X-Men, New Mutants, and The Brotherhood), all worked together.
- This episode establishes that the brown-haired girl is Amara (Magma). Until this point, she had never been referred to by name and had appeared to be a pyrokinetic.
- Duncan Matthews got tickets for the Sadie Hawkins Dance that the group attended in "Shadow Dance" further suggesting that this episode was set before "Shadow Dance".
- Boom Boom, Jean Grey, Shadowcat, Rogue and Magma all briefly join together to make up the Bayville Sirens.
Goofs
- Scott's locker door is open, but after he turns around, it's closed.
- Amara's bookbag is on the edge of her desk, over the next few minute, it disappears and reappears again.
- At the start Kitty was in her Season 1 civilian attire. At the mall, she's wearing her Season 2 civilian outfit. Back at school she is in her pink top again.
- The scene after the music sequence, when the girls are walking down the hall of the school. They walk into the shot one after the other, but in the next scene, only Kitty, Jean, and Amara are visible.
- When Tabitha pops the chain off Lance's jeep it disappears when she drives away.
Trivia[]
- The song, which is played along the entire episode, is called "Walking on the Wild Side" but also goes by "Don't Mess with My Kind" and "Only A Girl".
- The above mentioned song in the episode is credited to Giovanni Moscardino, who also serves as the show’s dialogue editor.
- The animated action sequences used in the montage in this episode borrow heavily from live-action movies, including The Craft , She's All That and Coyote Ugly.
- The girls’ slow-motion walk sequence is an allusion to the movie The Craft. This is especially clear when Kitty blows a kiss, similar to Nancy in the movie.
- This episode, along with "Joyride", "Operation: Rebirth", and "Mindbender", is available on the DVD X-Men Evolution: Enemies Unveiled.
- Boom Boom would wear the same outfit she wore in this episode again in the Season 4 two-part finale "Ascension" — the only one of the former Bayville Sirens to do so — although without sunglasses and with her hair styled in her normal way.
Cast[]
Main Cast |
Recurring Cast
Guest Cast |