Episode #29 - Day Of Reckoning, Part One
Original Airdate April 20th, 2002

A mutant hating fanatic named Trask kidnaps Wolverine and tests his deadliest against him - The Sentinel.

Episode #30 - Day Of Reckoning, Part Two
Original Airdate April 20th, 2002

With The Sentinel attacks The Brotherhood and The X-Men whilst Magneto introduces his new followers and initiates a plan that will change the lives of all mutants...

Credits
Story By: Greg JOhnson, Boyd Kirkland Written By: Cydne Clark, Steve Granat
Directed By: Gary Graham, Steve Gordon, Frank Paur
Music Composed By: William Anderson
Guest Starring: Megan Leitch as Boom Boom, Andrew Francis as Iceman, Alexandra Carter as Magma and John Novak as Trask.

Review: Looking back on this series throughout the course of these reviews has really opened my eyes on a lot of things about this show. Episodes I originally disliked have proven to be better than I gave them credit for; characters I originally liked have proven to be annoying and the voice cast has greatly grown on me. It is surprising to see how your opinion on any show can change when watching it right the way through years later but personally, I’ve never seen more of an extreme circumstance than here with X-Men: Evolution.

Most of the points above, however, simply do not apply to this episode. I knew this episode was simply outstanding back when I first watched it, and my opinion hasn’t changed on it since. There’s no doubt this is arguably one of the biggest, shocking and brilliant turning points in a show ever. That’s no mere exaggeration, whilst the show had been fun to watch before this episode, from this moment on it became must watch TV. The 6 month wait for the next episode was one of the cruellest I’ve ever had to experience, damn UK TV schedules. I actually remember emailing the guy who hosted the show Evo (Jamie, from Up On The Roof for those of you who care about such endeavours) and asking him when the show would be back several times. You can imagine how much I was, ahem, displeased the day I sat down to see the conclusion to this episode and the damn Power Rangers aired. Jamie got an email, and actually agreed with me – Mighty Morphin’ Powers Rangers is un-watchable rubbish, and should only be remembered as the worst show in the history of all time.

The episode starts off with Wolverine captured, which intrigued me from the get go. These were the days before the Internet spoiled everything that happened before you watched it on TV and it was a genuine surprise to see, as very few people got the better of Wolverine throughout the show’s run.

The episode certainly has more than it’s fair share of shockers, first with the revelation of The Brotherhood joining The X-Men, then the Sentinels and then the Acolytes! This was great fun for me, as the members of The Acolytes were some of my favourites, and people I never really thought I’d see in Evo. I think one of the great things about this show was that it allowed for such a big cast. Whilst some of the characters got downplayed because there was a lack of room for them, it could be argued that they weren’t interesting to begin with. Jubilee, Wolfsbane and Spyke were more than acceptable loses considering how cool those who replaced their screen time were. Whilst I could’ve done without the somewhat lame Sabertooth taking a place in the team, he had to fit in somewhere, didn’t he?

The Sentinels also debuted here, but this wasn’t really The Sentinels I knew and loved, these were much, much cooler. Killing machines rather than just tin cans that got ripped to bits, it seemed that at long last The X-Men had a challenge that couldn’t be stopped by a touch from Rogue. The fact it looked damn cool and capable of kicking anyone’s ass made it all the more sweeter. It really did look like a killing machine. It was utterly awesome.

One could complain that a little too much was crammed into these two episodes but I’d have to disagree. Whilst part one isn’t anywhere near as entertaining as part two, the only episode to top either of them thus far was On Angel’s Wings. Some of the things in this episode though, I simply couldn’t believe what I was watching when I first saw it, the main one being that they were ousted, on national TV. Everyone knew they were mutants, there was a whole other series worth of potential to be utilised. It seemed now, at long last, the series could really get moving.

Then came another shocker that I didn’t see coming despite the fact several hints were dropped in Hex Factor. Jean having to use Cebrebro, Scott manually gathering the team and the original scene where Xavier was replaced. That finale scene was one that was I was simply dying to see resolved and luckily, from this moment on, Evo rarely disappointed.

Truly and utterly fantastic turning point.

Part 2