Episode #31 - Day Of Recovery
Original Airdate September 14th, 2002

With several of the X-Men and The Brotherhood, the remaining mutants attempt to free them from thier captures. How will the world at large cope now that the mutants are out in the open?

Credits
Story By: Boyd Kirkland, Greg Johnson
Written By: Cydne Clark, Steve Granat
Directed By: Gary Graham
Music Composed By: William Anderson
Guest Starring: Kelly Sheridan as Wanda, Jim Byrnes as Nick Fury, Andrew Francis as Iceman, Tony Sampson as Berzerker, and Michael Donovan as The President

Review: This episode continues directly from where the last season’s finale ended, and is essentially “Day of Reckoning, Part 3”. The revelation that everyone was know aware that mutants exist was not squandered here, now, without the majority of the cast keeping secrets, we could finally see X-Men: Evolution live out it’s full potential.

The episode doesn’t disappoint. There are some who claim it was too rushed, but personally, I felt the episode was damn close to perfection, certainly as strong as the two episodes preceding it. It does have a fast pace; no doubt about it, but this is Kids! WB we’re talking about, and Kids! WB “doesn’t do” 2 part episodes, except in the season finales. Out of all the seasons, however, this one really does feel like more of an arc than the rest of them, essentially meaning that there wasn’t much of a need to stick a “To Be Continued” in the final seconds of the episode.

The opening was absolutely outstanding. With the Mansion completely destroyed, we see the mutants fight for their lives against the Police. With members of both teams kidnapped, we’re once again left with The X-Men teaming up with The Brotherhood, which, I think we can all agree, is preferred to having them fight each other again.

One of the more interesting notes is that with Wolverine, Xavier and Beast kidnapped, Storm really got a chance to shine, without Evan being involved at all! Finally, a chance to see her do something other than baby-sit her annoying nephew! There was conflict here of course, the same conflict that is always found when Mystique is around. It was easy to relate to Storm’s annoyance with Mystique, by the time we were 5 minutes into the episode, I was hoping someone would kick her ass. If you can’t make a villain sympathetic, make them as evil as possible! Remember, 60% of the time, it works every time!

Nick Fury’s appearance here actually caught me off guard. It was great to see him again, and he really helped move the story along. The fun really started kicking in once the team arrived at Area 51, and the breakout begins. The break in reminded me of the original X-Men’s Night Of The Sentinels Part One, only it was on a much bigger scale and told in a much more exciting way.

The real punch of the episode came when Mystique finally got her comeuppance. I couldn’t help but smirk after Scott locked her in the facility. With Mystique arrested and The Professor missing, we still had a long way to go before the episode had any real resolution, but the episode really did begin a whole new chapter for X-Men: Evolution, one that really couldn’t be told anywhere else. I was certainly excited for what was set to follow, and gladly, I was left disappointed only a handful of times.