Episode #22 - Joyride
Original Airdate December 1st, 2001

Hoping to get closer to Kitty, Lance leaves The Brotherhood and joins the X-Men. Will the X-Men be able to trust thier former enemy to work alongside them?

Credits
Written By: Cydne Clark, Steve Granat
Directed By: Steven E. Gordon
Music Composed By: William Anderson
Guest Starring: Alexandra Carter as Magma/Amara Aquilla, Mike Coleman as Sunspot/Roberto 'Bobby' DaCosta, Andrew Francis as Iceman/Bobby Drake and Chiara Zanni as Jubilee.

Review: “Joyride” isn’t just about Lance and Kitty. It is about them, but it’s also about Lance and Scott and the fleshing out of the Brotherhood.

Lance and Scott have a deep-running feud because they are so alike. Both orphans, both embraced an adopted family because they didn’t have a biological one, both are the leaders of their respective squads, and both dislike the other because they do not feel he gives due respect.

The two characters butted heads directly in “Survival of the Fittest,” “Growing Pains,” “Mainstream,” and “No Good Deed;” but in “Joyride,” Scott lets it come to a boiling point.

When Scott starts picking on Lance in the Danger Room unprovoked, he loses the moral high ground. He did something similar in “Survival of the Fittest,” but it was precipitated by Lance. This time, Scott is clearly the antagonist and our sympathies are with Lance. This is a change in pace. For the entire first season, the Brotherhood acted like stock villains, only there to irritate the X-whelps. (The only breaking of pattern was in “Survival.”) Suddenly Lance could be the hero, and Scott could be wrong. Suddenly Lance—and by association, the Brotherhood—had depth.

(Originally, this depth could have come from a scene in “Growing Pains” where Lance saves Kitty from a plummeting statue, but the scene had to be edited due to violent content.)

In the end, Lance does help save the day, though the most fantastic heroics come from Kitty. But then, after proving himself noble, Lance returns to the Brotherhood claiming the X-Men are “too high-maintenance.” He is still capable of good as can be seen in “No Good Deed” and “Ascension, Part II,” but he is no longer with “the good guys.”

Also, the other Brotherhood members squeeze a few character moments out Lance’s departure, and it speaks to their friendship that they accept Lance back. Though they tease, they feel their respect has been misplaced when Lance leaves them. Fred has the most poignant line: “And to think I used to look up to you.”

Lance’s retort: “The Brotherhood is dead. You guys just don’t know it yet.” Au contraire, by the end of the episode, the Brotherhood is back and more interesting than ever.

Oh yeah, the Lance and Kitty stuff was cute.