The Nitpicker's Guide to Mutant X: Part Deux
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Continued from Part One.

SEASON TWO by tptigger
Beta aid by tribeofroses

Past as Prologue
In the scene where Jesse and Emma infiltrate Ashlocke's house, Jesse phases the wall with his hand before walking through it. Since Emma's not coming too, why doesn't he just phase himself?

Someone should really explain to both Ashlocke and the writers that there's no such thing as genetic memory.

Power Play
The display timer for the bomb clearly reads 1:20 before it's activated remotely, which is also laid out on the display before Brennan & Emma run for it. After the act break, Emma says "We had three minutes left, [he] must've detonated it remotely." Gee, ya think?
Also the stuff about internet resarch deserves a joke about "no, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night"

Time Squared
Is it just me or was Shal the slightest bit squicked at young Adam hitting on her?

Also, site directed mutagenesis is an in vivo technique for changing single base pairs in DNA in vivo. Not sure how it gets into the human genome.

And given what New Mutants are, they would require mastery of it to create one. *eye roll* Cure for Ashlocke? Unlikely.

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SEASON THREE by firstmutant
Beta aid by tribeofroses

Into the Moonless Night
Continuity points: Adam's locator device is a MX pin.
The password to Adam's files is LEXA.
Lexa was part of Mutant X 1.0, and lived in Sanctuary for two years before Adam found Shalimar.
Brennan's favorite drink is dirty vodka martini straight up.
Brennan can be "grounded" by wrapping his arms in metal chains. Bwaha.
Sanctuary's access code is 730924.
Sanctuary is located in a place that was important to both Mason and Adam. The slash writers could have a field day with that one.
Adam, whom Mason held responsible for the loss of his immune system, was working on a solution for Mason's immunological compromise for several years. Even though later experiments were successful, he kept this information from Mason.
Though Lexa doesn't specify who "the people" are this early on, the money for Sanctuary and Adam's escape from Genomex may have come from The Dominion.
Mason claims to know what experiments Adam was doing with the Mutant X team members. He may have simply been stalling for time, but this was a wasted opportunity.

Continuity errors: Emma's hand, when it drops from the blanket, looks like a man's hand.

Why won't the emergency workers allow Shalimar to see her father? Why won't Brennan and Jesse allow her to see Emma? Why doesn't anyone at least check a pulse to make sure she's really dead? There isn't an EKG or EEG monitor around, for heaven's sake.

Shalimar says that Sanctuary's main computer system has better search capabilities than the one in the Helix. But aren't they connected?

When Lexa tells the team that there were people Adam answered to, Shalimar confusedly asks, "Adam worked for people?" Apparently Shalimar has lost her memories of Adam's government connections revealed in "Power Play."

If Mason's dermal casing was truly compromised in the explosion, and he has no immune system at all, why is he walking around, exposing himself to countless infections? The lot behind the chemical plant where he himself meets Mutant X for the second time doesn't look like a particularly sterile environment.

Mason states that he found Adam's comlink ring on his charred body. Since we see later that Mason does have an ad hoc genetic laboratory with scientists at his disposal, it seems a bit odd that the otherwise detail-oriented Mason wouldn't have checked a DNA sample to verify that corpse was really Adam.

It's rather difficult to believe that Adam, who trusts no one, should not have changed his computer password in two years. Especially after having been hacked by Toni in "In the Presence of Mine Enemies," and knowing that telecybers like Barry Sterling and Michelle Bigelow exist.

How does Lexa get into Sanctuary? Surely, her lasers would have triggered an alarm. The Dominion seems to be ignorant of Sanctuary's access codes (they're still asking for them in The Assault), and surely Adam has changed them since she was there last.

Brennan taunts Lexa, "Don't tell me people in your world actually care about someone else." Typical Brennan quip, but it's oddly placed here, given the fact that Brennan knows nothing about Lexa or who she works for at the time he says it.

As will occur again in "Brother's Keeper," Jesse and Brennan gossip about Lexa in the front of the Helix as though she's not listening in the back. Perhaps there's a sound barrier between the front and back seats.

Brennan says, "I may not have been such a good guy before I joined Mutant X, but at least I always picked a mark who probably deserved it." Uh-huh, sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night, Brennan.

Fashion Victim: Lexa. In the DVD extras, Karen remarks that she too regrets the choice of that shiny red top.

Notes: In the wake of Emma's death and Adam's disappearance, Shalimar and Brennan seem to go a little mad. Shalimar, who usually contents herself with knocking people around, rips Silva's stomach and murders the lizard feral. Brennan electrocutes the helpless wheelchair-bound psionic Marika, and then shocks Mason until he falls to his death.

Wages of Sin
Special guest star: Joshua Valentine's mother from "Crime of the New Century" pops up as casino owner Kristen Greg here.

The Dominion is paying the bills for Mutant X in Adam's absence.

The Dominion has access to Sanctuary's computer system. Remember this tidbit when we get to "The Assault."

Dominique has stabilized the DNA of the new mutants she employs. Yet, in "The Assault," The Dominion asks that Lexa hand over Jesse so that they can determine how Adam fixed his genetic structure so that he was able to pass his expiry date. Since Dominique is part of The Dominion Council, they should already have this information.

Non-Americans in Mutant X never seem to be on the side of good. Here, Jesse discovers that every Chilean in the casino is a terrorist with expertise in biological weapons.

Brennan cheats at the roulette wheel by shocking the turning mechanism. Something tells me he's done that before...

Why is it that whenever Lexa or another member of Mutant X calls her Dominion contact, he's always sitting right by the computer? Doesn't he ever need a potty break?

For someone who is as suspicious as Kristen Greg appears to be, it's odd that there are no cameras in her outer office to catch the fight between Shalimar and the psionic mutant. It's even odder that, after all the commotion, including Shalimar's throwing the psionic across the table, the only thing disturbed in the room are two chairs.

Shouldn't Lexa be able to move again once the psionic is knocked unconscious, thus rendering his mind unable to maintain her immobility?

Damn. If Brennan would just follow simple instructions, we might have found out about the depths of Dominique's knowledge base. It's funny to watch him, after Lexa has blown his cover and Kristen's already suspicious, walking down the hall apparently talking loudly to himself. Nope, that wouldn't draw unwanted attention.

As demonstrated at the beginning of the episode, the prion weapon causes skin breakdown before death. Brennan, Lexa, and Shalimar clearly don't have these symptoms before they collapse, so why does Kristen believe they are truly dead?

Dominique tells her henchman to find out as much as he can about who stole the prion weapon. Once again, since Dominique is actually a member of The Dominion Council, she should already have inside knowledge about Mutant X's mission.

The Breed
This episode marks the first guest appearance of the mysterious growth on Brennan's chin. Frightening for the little kiddies.

The emergency signal that Dr. Arrigo sends into Sanctuary comes through on Adam's private line. Which seems self-defeating, given that the alarm that goes off is loud enough to wake everyone in Sanctuary. Perhaps the public Sanctuary line that Charlotte used in "Altered Ego" would do just as well.

More evidence of Adam's military connections: Adam pulled strings to get Dr. Vincent Arrigo into the army's bioresearch division.

The Dominion claims not to know the details of what Dr. Arrigo's been up to in the military facility, though we know they have access to secret military files and have been behind Genomex's research projects for decades. In fact, Lexa's magical cell phone contacts grant them access to said military facility. This must be yet another case of their annoying habit of letting information out on a need to know basis.

Mutant X enters the quarantine barrier through "Section 9," the same name as the section of Genomex for podded mutants. Coincidence?

Major General Kline says that he's diverted every ounce of power from the base to the fence, which is why the lights keep flickering on and off. Yet Dr. Arrigo's lab equipment and computers still function.

Okay, so it's a little freaky that Jesse bookmarks the diagrams for the military laser cannon for later...

The scene where Lexa makes the car outside the facility explode is in the opening credits, but the exact moment shown in the credits has been cut from the episode itself.

It's a bit suspicious that Dr. Arrigo didn't test the serum against the parasite in the petri dish to ensure safety BEFORE testing it in Peter.

Where Evil Dwells
This episode is a cross between Silence of the Lambs and S2's "Inferno," where Emma's psionic connection with a non-mutant is strong enough to make her take on some of his characteristics, even after death.

More evidence of Adam's connections: he was the one who introduced Shalimar to Andrea, a profiler with the Justice Department.

Apparently, in the Mutant X universe, psychiatric facilities allow murderers writing instruments. They must have missed that all-important scene in Silence of the Lambs.

Appropriately, the Puzzle Killer's name is Marker, Andrea's the policewoman's last name is Marshall.

Shalimar sheds her revealing top for one even more revealing for her first visit to the prison. Which is certainly what I would choose to wear were I an attractive woman going to visit a psycho woman-killer. Hm...

Andrea rules out a copycat killer because the details of Marker's crimes weren't in the news, but Lexa's contacts easily access the information. Who says the copycat has to be from the general public?

It doesn't speak well for law enforcement that whenever someone suggests calling the police, it's universally regarded as a bad decision. The murders have all occurred within a 4 mile radius, and even though the killer turns out to be one of their own, it seems that's well within the scope of something the police could handle. It's rather odd that as Mutant X searches for the next victims, they don't come across any other police in the area.

Jesse's search of the new mutant database didn't turn up any psionics who "fit the profile" to be potential partners with Marker. Really? It's pretty hard to believe that Ashlocke was the last mentally unstable psionic in the country.

You would think that the prison guards would have some inkling that Andrea's not your usual profiler. The silver glow coming from her forehead each time she interviews him would be a big clue.

When Jesse discovers that the "Stitch in Time" probably refers to Brennan's quadrant, why don't Lexa and Shalimar join him there?

Remember the ground car from S1? Now that Mutant X is on The Dominion's payroll, they can afford a shiny pretty new car with every scene. The car Brennan and Lexa drive to the medical supply warehouse is different from the one Shalimar drives to the Abbatoir, and also different from the one Brennan and Shalimar drove in "Wages of Sin." The garage must be full.

When Shal suggests that she question Marker alone, Brennan and Jesse immediately act all overprotective because he's a psychopath. Hello? Last I checked, Shalimar is still a feral, and perfectly capable of kicking ass.

Okay, so Shalimar's comlink ring falls off after she falls, and she's unable to contact Mutant X. That makes sense. But why can't they track her location anyway? The comlink doesn't need to be on in order to track it.

Andrea's voice becomes a slow southern drawl when she switches to Marker!Andrea, which is extremely helpful in following her personality changes back and forth. Unfortunately, Marker didn't have a southern drawl...

The Taking of Crows
This plot is brought to you on 90% recycled paper from "Hard Time," with Lexa taking Brennan's role as the mutant drugged and behind bars.

We learn all kinds of things in this episode. Our deadly serious Lexa used to be a party girl? Jesse speaks Italian? Brennan can use a computer? Wonders never cease.

Lexa tells bar owner Milo she's looking for her brother Luke, but as we learn in "Brother's Keeper," her brother's name is actually Leo. The man shown in her photograph isn't Leo either. So either Luke is one of Leo's unidentified alters, or there are Pierce triplets instead of twins.

More evidence of Adam's deep pockets: Lexa informs Jesse about Dr. Marcus's underground advanced genetics lab, which Adam's been secretly funding for years. And the list of side projects goes on and on... Too bad Jesse doesn't think to ask exactly what the purpose of Dr. Marcus's lab is.

It is interesting that when a doctor is needed for anyone else on the team ("In Between," "Age of Innocence"), Lexa calls The Dominion, but for herself, she heads to Dr. Marcus. This could be because he happened to be the closest at the time, or evidence of Lexa's early distrust of the Dominion.

Dr. Marcus claims that he's of good mind. Well, he must be, given that he blithely pronounces Lexa stable after laying a hand on her forehead and checking her pupils with a penlight. C'mon, the girl just ingested an unknown substance strong enough to cause unconsciousness. At least check out some other vitals first.

The story that Lexa gives the prison matron about her implant is actually true, though that information won't be revealed until "She's Come Undone." At last! Some evidence of forethought!

Dr. Sara Stanton's DXL, like Deklin Charvet's circus in "Cirque des Merveilles," was created to destroy all new mutants in case Genomex failed to control them. Stanton claims that Adam was well aware of this project.

Shalimar's accounting of Stanton's "sloppiness" post-DXL addiction includes a romantic relationship with one of her new mutant subjects (not unlike Adam's relationship with Danielle Hartman, hm?), and the death of a mutant under her care (which was actually the purpose of the drug in the first place).

Hector is a thermal molecular mutant whose specialty is explosions. Whose bright idea was it to allow him to walk around the lab? The chemical used to purify DXL is highly explosive, and any contact with DXL itself causes mutant powers to go beserk.

Someone should really explain to TPTB that nerve paralysis does not cause seizures.

Jesse miraculously restarts Lexa's heart simply by breathing into her mouth. This is a reversal of the habitual Mutant X version of CPR (also incorrect), which usually consists of chest compressions without the breaths.

Shadows of Darkness
It's very apparent how small the interior of the Helix is at the beginning of this episode. Brennan has to stoop in order to get inside. We also see that the camoflage mechanism for the hanger doors in the side of Stormking Mountain is only one-way. From the inside, you can see bright sunlight.

In high school, Brennan had a choice between juvenile detention and court-ordered psychotherapy. Dr. Palance was the first person Brennan told about his mutant abilities...something he kept Emma in "Shock of the New" when he told her that he hadn't told anyone before.

It is odd that Dr. Palance chooses to contact Brennan for help with his hospital’s haunting, long before anyone knows that the cause is a psionic mutant. Mutant X is not Ghostbusters, after all.

Lexa's brother, Leo Pierce, spent some time at St. Pastor's. This must have occurred while Lexa and Leo were in the military facility or earlier, since the hospital has been closed for 15 years since the fire.

At the beginning of the episode, Brennan and Lexa take the Helix to the hospital. Several hours later, Shalimar and Jesse take the Helix to visit Sandy’s apartment. Either the Helix returns to Sanctuary on autopilot, or there are two Double Helices.

Dr. Palance introduces Brennan and Lexa to Dr. Willette as investigators from "the State Board." The State Board of what? Hospitals? Health? Psychiatry? The Paranormal? Given that they are not wearing name tags (and Brennan's not even wearing a suit or tie), Dr. Willette must be psychic, for she knows which State Board to call in order to find out more about them.

In a flare-up of early Alzheimer's, Jesse asks Shalimar what her problem is with mental institutions. Of all people, Jesse should already know about Shalimar's past with her father. Better to have had Lexa ask that question to clarify things for the viewers who hadn't seen S2.

The scene where Shalimar and Jesse dig up Johnny's grave is unbelievably campy, with lightning and wind effects. This will come up again in "Cirque des Merveilles" when Lexa and Jesse go to visit the *cough* werewolf *cough* dog feral.

While we're on the subject, Brennan saw the "ghost" of Nurse Campbell, who tried to lure him into the elevator shaft, and Lexa and Dr. Palance saw little Johnny. Though both were listed as deceased in the fire, it's a good thing that Shalimar and Jesse decided to look for Johnny's grave, not Nurse Campbell's, hm? That wouldn't have been pretty, and would have led them down the wrong path--that episode would've been longer than the allotted hour, I'd say.

We are somehow supposed to believe that a smart, resourceful woman like Dr. Willette did not destroy all the evidence of Project I.E.T. after the fire. She's had 15 years to cover her tracks, but leaves trails of her misdeeds neatly boxed up in the basement. Sure.

As psionics go, Johnny is almost unbelievably powerful. During the fire, the little boy must have been terrified to be caught in a fiery hell of his own creation, but he preserved enough mental control to create an image of Nurse Campbell to lead his friend Sandy to safety. Consider the amount of mental concentration it would take a psionic to “haunt” an entire hospital for 15 years. While constantly maintaining the bloody words “Get Out” on the wall of one room, he is simultaneously able to send separate visual, tactile, and auditory images into the minds of others: the song “Hush Little Baby,” the little boy, cockroaches, the young janitor, and Nurse Campbell for the orderly, Lexa, Brennan, Palance, and the other hospital employees. The full scope of Johnny’s abilities is especially revealed at the end of the episode, as he sits, doused in gasoline in the basement of St. Pastor’s hospital, while projecting a convincingly solid image of himself to the minds of dozens of people in the police station miles away.

Hand of God
Excerpt from an early Mutant X article:
Want to watch producer Rock’s mood turn cool? Ask him about an early rumour that the feral Shalimar was going to have a tail. She doesn’t, and her animal side has other limits, Victoria Pratt says. Like a cat, she can jump several times her own height but she couldn’t fall out of a plane and survive, for instance.

Well, I'll say this for the man. Peter Mohan loves a challenge. As if in direct mockery of the common sense in Victoria's statement, the "Hand of God" plotline defies the laws of physics and anatomy by having Shalimar fall thousands of feet from the Double Helix, landing impaled on a tree limb through her lower left abdomen...and survive. Why, Mohan, why?

Not only that, but her comlink remains on, though that relatively insignificant one story fall in "Where Evil Dwells" knocked it right off. Jesse must have learned his lesson after that episode and soldered the thing to her skin.

This episode should have been placed earlier in the season for two reasons. First of all, it doesn't make sense that Mutant X should wait seven episodes to really grill Lexa about exactly who they are working for. Yes, they've unquestioningly followed Adam in the past, but Lexa is certainly not Adam. In fact, she's the one who has been telling them how silly they've been for trusting him, and how everyone has a hidden agenda, so the interrogation that occcurs in this episode should have taken place much earlier.

Second, Lexa, who had begun to reveal a bit of her human side in the past three episodes, reverts back to bitchiness of "Wages of Sin" proportions in this episode. The point here was to prove to Lexa that teammates can be as important as the mission, but since some of that headway had already been established in the past several episodes, it's counterproductive to have this relatively new character bounce back and forth from quasi-human to superbitch for the sake of achieving a minor plot goal.

Jesse states that the Helix must be fueled at Sanctuary. Not sure whether this is because the special fuel can only be found at Sanctuary, or simply because the local gas station isn't the best place to drop stealth shields on a top-secret aircraft.

Shalimar falls out of the Helix as it is falling toward a lake. It crosses the lake, and lands on the other side, almost hitting a mountain. When Lexa and Brennan emerge from the Helix to find Shalimar, Brennan says they'll make better time by heading up the mountain. Which is exactly in the opposite direction from where Shalimar fell out.

Shalimar's flashbacks as she's lying in bed at Kristoff's camp should be from her perspective instead of the camera's.

Ferals are able to identify other ferals by the smell of their blood. It's quite amusing the way everyone throughout the episode is able to find that one stick that Shalimar bled on in the woods.

Plot recycling: Kristoff's mutant sob story is nearly identical to Samantha's from "Possibilities," and Leo's from "Brother's Keeper": I'm really messed up now, but it isn't my fault, since in order to test the limits of my abilities, W evil people tortured X innocents nearly to death so that I could use my Y abilities over and over again. Because of that I've decided upon Z crazy action.

Poor Jesse should get some kind of award for most unappreciated work done in this episode, for babysitting everyone. While continually feeding coordinates to Brennan and Lexa and playing shoulder-to-cry-on for Shalimar, he still manages to nurse the Helix back to health just in time.

Kristoff, as he's about to heal Brennan, seems rather distracted by the ongoing sexy cat fight in the background. He's still a man, after all.

Once again, no one checks Kristoff's pulse to figure out whether he's really dead. *sigh*

Carl is a moron. As he bends over Kristoff to grab him, Kristoff is visibly breathing.

Wasteland
Jesse keeps a Bible in his room. The verse he tries to impress Lexa with is from Revelations 9:2. He then loses his cool points when he automatically assumes the entymologist is a male. Ah well.

The vapid looks Brennan and Shalimar's faces acquire whenever Dr. Bellows speaks are proof of why Adam had to dumb down his technobabble at times. Brennan is even more silent then usual in this episode.

Jesse and Alisha were high school sweethearts who were once engaged to be married.

Lexa, looking around ZDT headquarters, remarks that their security is "pretty tight." Given that they haven't seen any cameras, guards, metal detectors, gates, identification cards, door locks, bugs, or safes, what's she talking about?

Just as Jesse was sensitive about the "freak" crack Emma made in "Shock of the New," he's also uncomfortable with Lexa's teasing him about his wealthy background. For a new mutant on a crime-fighting team, Jesse acts awfully sheltered at times. And for someone who's been betrayed by his father in the past, he's awfully trusting of his ex-fiance, even after Lexa's turned up what looks like evidence of her misdeeds--not once, not twice, but three times.

Shalimar finds the origin of the first locusts' release by putting satellite images of their final location and direction of flight into the computer, and reversing the timeline. This would only work, of course, if she actually knew exactly when the locusts had been released or how fast they had been flying, which she doesn't.

Jesse's drink is gin and tonic.

Why is the hellishly busy corporate executive Alisha having sex in her office in the middle of the afternoon? Really, come on.

Strange that Alisha, who claims to be such a micro-manager, hasn't seen any of the R and D files before Jesse told her about Project Redstock. Even though Nate said he kept the information from her, she is able to find it quickly enough when she actually looks at the R and D documents, and Lexa's already said that they aren't in the database under "Project Redstock." Where did she think all that money was going?

Even stranger, Nick claims to be erasing all relevant memos and messages, but somehow the all-important one from Michael Porter stayed in place just long enough for Lexa to find it. Hm...

Dr. Bellows tells the team that the locusts are being fed with Fer-lomant, which Lexa promptly searches in the ZDT database. Though she's never heard of it before, she types the name in exactly correctly, even with hyphen in place.

The curse of the high heels in Mutant X continues when Alisha trips while trying to run through a corn field in a pair of them, and almost gets shot by Nate.

Jesse's new mutant abilities began in high school, making him the latest bloomer of the Mutant X team.

No Exit
Brennan and Jesse play basketball again in this episode, but amazingly, Brennan does NOT cheat.

No one should be at all surprised that the TunnelQuest game Jesse downloads causes Sanctuary's computer systems to fail. After all, it was his downloading Toni's pictures that allowed her to hack into Sanctuary's system in "In the Presence of Mine Enemies." Adam should have established some ground rules about Jesse's pleasure downloads back then.

Jesse tells Lexa that Sanctuary protects them from even the most hi-tech viruses. Once again, Jesse's amnesia has kicked in, allowing him to forget about the existence of telecybers.

Santuary goes into lockdown mode once it senses intruders, locking them in on the second floor before closing the first floor doors. This, of course, would only work if the enemy was located on the second floor. And missed the flashing lights and blaring alarms that indicated that their presence had been noted.

The cage that barely misses Lexa and Shalimar is the same one that Jesse will use to capture Lexa in "She's Come Undone." The rooftop Dennett falls from in the flashback is the same one Andrea Marshall leaps off of in "Where Evil Dwells."

Every time the girls try to contact the boys in this episode, they unfailingly call Brennan's line, even when it's Jesse who actually knows the information. How very convenient for Dennett.

How can Brennan be clueless about Sanctuary's heat sensors? He was standing right there when Jesse was showing them to Shalimar at the beginning of the episode. Come to think of it, why doesn't Brennan seem to know much of anything about Sanctuary's security systems? I know that Jesse's the techie of the group, but what would happen if he wasn't around? Wouldn't it make sense to make the other members of Mutant X aware of the basics of how their home base works?

Shalimar instantly recognizes William Dennett from his catchphrase, "I say when the game is over." This is admirable, given the number of stock phrases she's heard during her time with Mutant X. Indeed, this sentence could just as easily have come from "The Hand of God" Kristoff, the other presumably deceased mutant who often used one of Dennett's other catchphrases, "I decide who lives and who dies."

William Dennett's name doesn't ring a bell with Lexa, so the Mutant X team must have first met him before season 3. Yet, in the flashback, Brennan has his characteristic Season 3 goatee.

In the game, Lexa's weight is 109 pounds and Shalimar's is 108. In the FBI profiles (the pictures of which come from the Mutant X official site), both weigh 114.

The FBI SWAT team that comes to surround the "armed and dangerous terrorists" Lexa and Shalimar, somehow neglects to first secure their getaway vehicle, The Double Helix, which is sitting perfectly visible on the roof.

How did Dennett get BZ into Sanctuary's air pumps?

Since Dennett kills Nurse Gamble before she can hang his fluids, he must be pretty dehydrated by the end of the day.

When Shalimar and Lexa enter Dennett's room, why doesn't he page for help on the overhead?

Poor Nurse Gamble lies dead in William Dennett's room all day, and no one comes to check on her or him until after Lexa and Shalimar have left. It seems being in a private hospital makes for a rather lousy bedcheck system. It would be interesting to see what the police made of that scene: a quadriplegic unplugged from his exploded monitor, electrocuted nurse at his bedside, a huge hole burned into his computer screen, and the fingerprints of two armed and dangerous terrorists everywhere.

Brother's Keeper
Lexa grabs 5 collars in this episode. Clearly, the director has decided that's the best way to show that she means business.

Bain is unbelievably fast with a scalpel. Shalimar and Lexa run to the motel because of Candace's screams. By the time they reach the top of the first flight of stairs, he's already cut her (Shal smells blood), and by the time they reach the third floor, he's had time to take out her liver and leave the room before Leo's come in and out--to pass Lexa and Shalimar on their way in the door. That's speedy, all right.

Leo returns to the motel in his cop persona to watch the tape before Lexa and Brennan get there. But then he leaves the tape there, so what was the point of his coming back, other than to alert his sister to the fact that he was there? Surely the real police would still be coming if they had been called?

Lexa knows what Leo's alters look like and is on the alert for Leo as she enters the motel. Yet she passed by the Asian man without even recognizing him. No wonder she's been searching for five years. It's surprising that she was able to find him at all, even with the help of The Dominion, given the fact that she's only showing a photograph of his main persona.

When "Leo Pierce" pops up on the new mutant database, Shalimar somehow automatically guesses that he is Lexa's twin brother, though "twin" isn't mentioned anywhere in the profile.

Leo's alters include Troy, Saka, Nancy, John, Ben, Joon, and Mary Kate. The mutant database information that Jesse pulls up on molecular multiple mutants is actually about multiple personality disorder.

Just as Jesse's clothes phase and mass when he does even before he's supposed to be able to phase and mass by touch, Leo's clothes change with his bodily appearance. It must be a molecular trait.

Despite Brennan's theory of "more efficient hearts, stronger lungs," mutant organ transplants would lead to instant organ rejection in normal humans because they are, by definition, genetically dissimilar. Therefore, even though Leo is indeed able to change his molecular structure to become alternate people, he would not be the universal donor because each of his personas still carries the same DNA--and so, being from a new mutant, would still be incompatible with a normal human.

Lexa yells at Brennan for screwing up the one time she's been the closest to Leo in four years. She previously indicated that she'd been searching for Leo for 5 years.

In the flashback, Lexa says that she's checked Eckhart out, and believes he can help Leo. This probably means that Lexa joined The GSA before she joined Mutant X 1.0, because it's difficult to believe that anyone who'd been with Adam for two years could have missed hearing about Mason Eckhart before.

It's funny that the admission form Lexa has Leo sign for the Genomex facility has a section for insurance information. Apparently, medical insurance in the Mutant Xverse covers secret government genetic testing.

Brennan automatically assumes that since Lexa is ex-GSA, she must have known Carter. Why? Jesse gave him no time frame for his appointment with the GSA, and he doesn't know how long Lexa was with the GSA.

How does Leo know Lexa's cell phone number? He hasn't seen her in five years.

After Leo runs away, leaving the phone hanging in the sewer (why is there a phone in the sewer anyway?), Lexa immediately hears the kind of busy signal that one hears when the other user has hung up.

Troy is the second man in the series who is able to withstand Brennan's usual voltage.

If only Lexa had just disabled Troy instead of murdering Leo! Or even just severed the blade from the sword with a laser to prevent his killing Brennan. So much missed potential.

Possibilities
Time rewinds a total of seven times in this episode. It's interesting to note that though Samantha is only capable of going back short intervals at a time, she can piggy-back the jumps, so that it is possible for her to attain longer stretches through successive leaps. Therefore, all Samantha really had to do was take Brennan back to a couple of days before the day the bomb exploded so that they had more time explain matters to the team and come up with a plan, or weeks before the bomb had even been made/entered the building.

Samantha says that she's only able to bring Brennan's consciousness and memories back with her, but since she's actually never tried to bring back any of the other team members, she doesn't know that for sure.

Every time you think Brennan has sunk to the lowest level, he finds a basement. Brennan has a little black book, where the women each get a certain number of stars.

Shalimar: How many girls you got in this thing?
Brennan: Not enough. [Ugh.]

The first time Lexa comes down the stairs, she picks Brennan's black book out of Shalimar's hand and gives it to Brennan. But when time rewinds, she passes them, and Shalimar gives Brennan his book.

Jesse may be in charge of stocking the safehouses, but he's certainly not the one in charge of stocking Sanctuary. And he has the bad-milk breath to prove it. Hee.

From Shalimar and Lexa's remarks in this episode, it seems as though The Double Helix needs time to warm up before it can be flown anywhere. Yet, in "No Exit," Shalimar and Lexa are able to run into into it and fly away immediately.

When Brennan first walks into Loire Industries, there are six people milling about in the lobby. They all conveniently vanish just in time for him to shock the guard at the front desk unseen.

When Samantha calls The Dominion for help, why doesn't she tell them that she's being held at Loire Industries, so that they can send someone to help her escape the first time instead of wasting time getting out herself?

When Brennan and Samantha try to explain the time travel concept to the team, Shalimar's first reaction is, "That's not possible." Of course it is, silly. You've seen time travel before, in "Time Squared." Sheesh.

Also, while Lexa and Shalimar are digging up dirt on Samantha's background with Bosch and Broder Biochem, isn't anyone curious about what Samantha's connection with The Dominion is?

Lexa has worked in South America, though she doesn't say with which organization. This is the episode where we learn about her revenge "list."

The props in this episode suck. The ferocious elemental mutant in the elevator manages to kill Brennan and Samantha with deadly cardboard wrapped in tin foil. The bomb that is powerful enough to bring down a building is a pink styrofoam ball. It's almost as bad as the Rafflesia Pricei jello mold in "Dark Star Rising."

When Brennan and Samantha bring Shalimar to Broder Biochem, the same woman walks to the window as did when they brought Jesse the time before--but this second time is much earlier in the day.

As Bosch's car drives down the alley where Shalimar and Lexa are arguing, "Happy Birthday, N.Y." can be seen written on the wall in the background.

Jesse phases his hand through the wires so that when he masses, they are all cut in half. Yet in "Past as Prologue," people left in the wall after Jesse unphases are just stuck there. Perhaps he would have had to actually mass the wall for them to be cut in half as well.

At the end of the episode, Jesse talks to Lexa about her revenge list again. But since they had that conversation on the third repetition, and didn't tell the details to the other team members, he should have no memory of her telling him about it.

Conspiracy Theory
This episode was obviously written as an imitation of The X-Files, right down to the "The Truth Is Out There" bumper sticker on Leon's car. Had Mulder and Scully shown up at the old folks home, I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised.

As sad as Leo's death was, it's rather telling that his loss receives more referrences in its aftermath than Emma's seems to warrant. After "Into the Moonless Night," Emma's death is mentioned indirectly by Jesse in "The Taking of Crows" and directly in a sentence by Adam in "A Normal Life." In contrast, Leo's death is discussed at length in "Conspiracy Theory," mentioned by Adam in "She's Come Undone," and given as Lexa's reason for risking her life for her teammates in "The Assault." That isn't much of a tribute to one who spent two years as an integral part of Mutant X.

In classic television fashion, all three men in black shooting directly at Brennan as he runs down the hill completely miss him.

Wouldn't Eddie plainly see Brennan shock the two men in black as Eddie runs toward him?

For a paranoid nut, Eddie certainly trusts Shalimar and Brennan easily. He even lets them take his alien to Jesse without too much resistance, though for all he knows, they could be part of the overall conspiracy. Shalimar certainly didn't do a good job of hiding the fact that she knew the name Adam Kane.

Why is Shalimar suddenly so skeptical of the existence of aliens? Doesn't she remember meeting some in "Sign from Above"?

Given what will be revealed of the widespread influence of The Dominion and The Creator in "The Assault," it's fun to wonder how much of the conspiracy Eddie actually got right. He was correct about all roads leading back to Adam Kane, and his connections with Genomex. The cast of Friends? Hm...

Eddie explains that he took the picture of Brennan while he was fighting company security at a gene research company four years prior. Since that's before S1, makes you wonder what Brennan was doing there.

Apparently, Jesse and Dr. Marcus have become friendly enough after "Taking of Crows" that Jesse's allowed to use the lab to examine potentially dangerous bodies there in Dr. Marcus's absence.

Shalimar and Eddie distract the man in black while Brennan grabs the body out of the ice-cream truck. That plan almost would work, except that the driver is still sitting in the truck as Brennan's stomping around in the back.

The information that Eddie reads to Brennan and Shalimar about Project Contact isn't on the screen of information he's reading from.

Since Shalimar and Brennan didn't have time to go back to Sanctuary before visiting the senator, the nice clothes they're suddenly wearing must have come from Dr. Marcus's lab, or a quick pit stop at The Gap.

The Prophecy
This is the last of of several Mutant X episodes which feature a creepy mental hospital; in the opening scene doctors and nurses walk blithely by patients in obvious distress. Somebody call the APA.

New toy in Sanctuary: Shalimar’s boxing bag. Second appearance of Brennan’s barbells. Third and last appearance of the glass chess set.

A cross between a hobo spider and a whip scorpion, The Guardian is the second arachnid feral in the series. He's much less human than Lorna Templeton.

The different team members get incoming calls differently, apparently. Jesse talks to his computer when Alisha contacts him (his is the only one which seems to have caller ID on it), Shalimar answers Gia’s call in the main hall (why doesn’t Gia have her private number?), and Brennan picks up a cellphone to talk to Nathan Reynolds. How Nathan got Brennan’s private number when Brennan’s not even aware that he was part of Gabriel Ashlocke's plans is anybody’s guess. Shalimar and Bren joke about too many incoming calls to Sanctuary of late, but they never answer the question of how Nathan got Brennan's number, specifically.

As Shalimar and Brennan walk to find Nathan’s phone booth, you see the rather hokey-looking solar eclipse occurring in the background.

Let’s talk about The Guardian’s sporadically deadly mucus for a minute. The mucus is supposedly caustic enough to destroy the metal of Nathan's phone booth and melt Nathan's body. But as Shalimar kicks Brennan to the ground to protect him from being sprayed, his right foot is clearly soaked in mucus, though it seems to be none the worse for it. It's also weird that Shalimar's able to collect samples of something that acidic with a simple plastic pipette.

By the by, why does Shalimar have a pipette on her in the first place? Does she carry a chemistry kit hidden in her skin-tight leather pants, ready to whip out in case there should be some mucus to collect?

It is kinda sad that nobody really feels sorry for Nathan’s death. Shalimar’s too busy steaming about Brennan’s running off with Riley, and Jesse frankly thinks that it’s cool that he was slimed. Whatever happened to their compassion for their fellow mutants?

The photo of the Guardian which Jesse pulls up in the mutant database is actually taken from the previous scene where The Guardian attacked Shalimar and Brennan; you can plainly see Brennan’s tesla-coil-holding hand in the picture.

Kara is the second feral druggie we've seen. I guess the message is, "Don't do drugs, kids. You could end up being cloned and used for the pleasure of wealthy men, or slimed to death by a spider/scorpion man after your DNA has been stolen by a power-hungry psychopath."

Gabriel Ashlocke was the reason Genomex shut down. Lexa used to work at Genomex; she even knows what became of the pods after Genomex's demise. How can she not have heard about The Links before this episode?

Why did Ashlocke choose Brennan, of all people, to add to his successor's DNA? He didn't seem to be terribly impressed with Brennan during his lifetime.

Riley is the first psionic in the series to use finger telepathy, though she does have a psionic blast like Emma’s. When Riley mind-blasts Brennnan, can't you just imagine Emma's ghost laughing at the payback for the times he electrocuted her?

While giving a prophecy, John Bishop’s eyes turn black like Marc Griffin’s while memory absorbing. This process seems to be automatically triggered by touch, though he can tell riddles at any time. The main difference seems to be that when his eyes are black, he rhymes.

Bishop's riddle: Tell the last of the bloods that they will find The Guardian where tracks meet water under destiny. (Man, didn't that boat look fake?)

Bishop’s prophecies:
1. From the blood of four will come our son / Once all signs pass / If the Links remain / The Heart of Ashlocke will live again.

2. The Child will be born / But for our hold to last / All four signs must come to pass / The moon will fall / Two bloods will be dashed / The Child will choose / And the mountain will crash.

3. Four will begin / True love will call / One will betray / And one will fall.

I am still all confused about why Bishop occasionally speaks in reverse. Shalimar says it's because he is "unstuck in time. Backwards, forwards, they're the same to him." Since his body is still clearly in the present at all times, isn't he time-travelling in his mind only? And if so, why would he be speaking backwards?

Brennan tells Riley to read his mind when he knows Jesse’s waiting to talk to him about her. Isn't that a bit risky?

Riley tells Brennan that most of The Links were Genomex’s.

Bishop says that The Child was born two years ago...but the kid looks to be about 7 or 8.

The child has input from 4 bloods–which of them did force-fields and teleportation? If it was the molecular Nathan, then he should have had no difficulty stopping The Guardian from killing him.

Jesse tells Shalimar to aim for the part of the Guardian’s back where the plates overlap. Shal, of course, hits the exact spot on the first try, though it’s impossible to see through his coat and she has never seen Jesse’s computer image to guide her. X-ray vision must be her new growth spurt.

Does anyone besides Brennan and Riley really believe The Child is NOT evil?

Cirque des Merveilles
Apparently, the mutant underground is still alive and well in season three, despite the demise of Genomex.
Mason Eckhart brainwashed sleeper agents to wipe out new mutants should his plans not be successful before his death.

As Jesse points out, Lexa uncharacteristically wears blinders for the majority of this episode. In “Possibilities,” Lexa’s the one who advises finding out more background behind the mission in order to do it well; as a result, she always discovers Lawrence Bosch’s involvement no matter which alternate reality they are in or how many obstacles Brennan tries to throw in her way. This time, however, she’s so focused on getting information from Tony that she ignores every warning given until it's too late.

Shalimar is acting pretty out of character here too. Usually maternally overprotective of Brennan, she is so caught up in being the lady on the trapeze that she barely notices Brennan’s been gone for hours until Diane tells her he has been trapped in the Chamber of Souls. Brennan who?

Without knocking first, Jesse barges headfirst into where Lexa’s showering, and then has the gall to look surprised that she’s not decent. Not buying it, you Peeping Tom.

It's funny that when the ultimate computer geek Jesse reports that Brennan’s comlink is offline, Lexa pushes in front of him to show him he must have made a computer error. As if she knows what she’s doing. Remember "damsel in distress, aisle two"?

Only Brennan could look at himself in a distorted mirror and still be pleased with what he sees.

Note Deklin's strategic placement of the female contortionist directly in front of The Chamber of Souls. Both of our boys stride purposefully into the circus intending to expose evil, only find themselves rooted in place, gawking at the sight of her distracting moving limbs. Men will be men.

Deklin deceived Diane, cheated on her, physically and mentally abused her, sneered at her, and planned to kill her. Taking all of this into consideration, she chooses to spend the rest of her life floating in an alternate dimension with him. Diane! Go find a decent man!

The Assault
This episode was disappointing on many levels, most notably the Shalimar/Brennan quickie, the inexplicably out of context 'plot twist' in the form of The Creator, and the unexpected cliffhanger which would end the series.

Continuity:
This is the first time Jesse masses objects outside of himself.
This is the first time we see geneticist Dominique since "Wages of Sin."
Adam had calculations of the expiry dates for the new mutants to the day of their death.
Adam was raised by Mike and Kara, employees of The Creator.
The Creator directed all the events of Adam's life from behind-the-scenes.

As Lina has pointed out, the helicopter shot at the beginning of this episode is the same as the one in “No Exit.”

It really is too bad that the GSA never developed mutant-resistant suits like the invaders from The Dominion. That would have been smart.

We've known since "I Scream the Body Electric" that comlink rings are keyed to the user's particular DNA strand. In previous episodes, the ring's owner had to be wearing the ring (or, as in the case of Adam in "Presumed Guilty," at least the owner's blood) in order for it to turn on. Why, then, after Lexa abandons her ring in Sanctuary does it turn on when Jesse touches it?

Brennan: "Typical Lexa. Don't ask for help, don't tell anyone where you're going..." Brennan, it seems, has forgotten all about his own conduct in "Divided Loyalties."

The place where Shalimar and Brennan make love suspiciously resembles Mason's desk from the first season.

In "I Scream the Body Electric," Mason Eckhart explains that subdermal governors connect to a new mutant's DNA, so that when he uses his abilities without the controller's permission, he experiences debilitating pain. Brennan demostrates that he can form a tesla coil with his governor in place, but soon collapses with abdominal pain. Thorne later explains that the second feature of the subdermal governor is that the controller can turn it on and off at will. In Season 3's "The Assault," however, when Lexa Pierce attempts to produce a laser after being fitted with a subdermal governor, she is clearly not in any pain. She is simply blocked from using her abilities. Perhaps The Dominion has developed a newer version of the original Genomex governors created by Adam Kane.

The above might also explain the fact that although this represents the third frickin' time Jesse has received a subdermal governor (that we know about), he is still unable to deactivate this one himself...though Adam clearly showed him which button to push as early as "Russian Roulette."

It is so easy for Jesse to track Adam down that you would think The Dominion, with all of its resources, could have accomplished it much sooner. For all his high-tech knowledge, you would think that Adam would have developed a camoflauge to deflect a simple thermal scanner. Thicker walls, for instance.

Adam claims that he did not know that his research in prolonging Jesse's lifespan had been successful until the moment Mutant X informed him of it. This can't possibly be true, since he was the one who had calculated Jesse's expiry date in the first place, and Mutant X did not contact him until two weeks later. Seeing that Jesse lived even the day afterwards should have been sufficient indication that something had worked.

In "Wages of Sin," Jesse found that Dominique had already discovered how to stabilize new mutant DNA. If she was indeed working for the Dominion, then why was it necessary that Lexa bring Jesse to The Dominion for study after he passed his expiry date?

Lexa: "You know, for an organization bent on world domination, you sure don't know the first thing about security." No kidding. Why does Lexa have only one guard, and why is he unskilled in martial arts? Lexa just strolls in and downloads her virus with a keystroke; why aren't the main computers locked down when there is no one in the computer lab? Why are there no security cameras in Jesse and Lexa's holding cells to watch them, since they are indeed next to one another and capable of speaking? Why aren't the walls of their cells molecular-proof?

Thanks to the hair, the clothing, and the voice, The Creator looks like something from a really bad B horror film. Wouldn't someone who needed to give himself daily injections cut his nails once in a while, or at least wash his hands?

Speaking of which, now we know why The Dominion wasn't so keen on shutting down Burns's de-aging serum research in "The Age of Innocence."

The Dominion murdered Michael Hayes in "Divided Loyalties" and Tony LaPorta in "Cirque des Merveilles" in order to keep Adam from learning information about The Creator. But if The Creator was merely looking to find Adam so that he could continue his genetic research, what was the big secret they were killing to protect?

What is the logic behind Adam’s blowing up the Helix? Who plans to destroy the getaway car in the process of a rescue mission?

The obscure prophecy John Bishop gives Shalimar in "The Prophecy" was: Four will begin / True love will call / One will betray / And one will fall. Apparently, the 'fall' was a reference to Shalimar's plummet from Sanctuary's catwalk at the beginning of the episode. Or her plummet from the circus's rafters in "Cirque des Merveilles." Let's face it, Shalimar plummets on a regular basis; the prophecy could be referring to anything, really. The betrayer could be Lexa (betraying The Dominion), or Adam (betraying his team to fraternize with The Creator). And true love...well...this was probably supposed to be Brennan and Shalimar, but it could have been interpreted as meaning Jesse and Lexa as well. In the end, we're really no closer to knowing what Bishop meant than we were to begin with.