Episode Twenty Two - Joyride

Aired: December 1, 2001

Stars: Avalanche, Shadowcat, Iceman

Appears: Cyclops, Jean, Nightcrawler, Jubilee, Cannonball, Multiple, Rogue, Quicksilver, Toad, Blob, Boom Boom, Xavier, Wolverine

Cameos: Magma, Wolfsbane, Sunspot, Spyke,

Guests: None

First Appearance(s) of: None

Written by: Cydne Clark and Steve Granat

Summary

Xavier comes out and tells them to give Lance a chance to talk. Inside when they ask Lance why he wants to join the X-Men, he glances at Kit and tells them that it's just time for a change. Xavier agrees to let him join. Scott is shocked, but when he starts to object, Xavier cuts him off and asks Kit to show Lance to a guest room. When they leave, Scott tells Xavier that Lance wouldn't be there unless he wanted something. Xavier says that what Lance wants is to be near Kit. He tells Scott that he believes Lance's feelings for Kit to be genuine and that it's a good start. He tells Scott to give him a chance.

Kit shows Lance to his room, but with a somewhat nasty attitude. He unpacks by dumping his duffel into one drawer. Kit is about to leave when she hesitates. She loses the attitude and tells him that she thinks it's cool that he wants to be an X-man, but that being at Xavier's can be tough. That the other guys aren't going to cut him any slack. Lance tells her he can handle it.

Next they show Lance running through a lot of training sessions with the New Mutants. First session is in the Blackbird. Iceman (Bobby) is flying as the others ride in the back. Lance is pretty nervous. Bobby promptly sends them into a spiraling crash and everyone screams. The sim shuts down and Bobby comes out pretty proud of himself. He runs up to Wolverine and tells him it took him almost twice as long to crash and burn. Wolverine knocks him down a notch or two and tells him that "hot-dogging" won't cut it.

Lance comes out of the sim looking pretty queasy. Kit asks him if he's okay and he tells her that he's fine, being an X-Man is a piece of cake. When turns away, he slaps his hand over his mouth and takes off running. Xavier asks Wolverine if he's not being a little hard on Bobby, that he's been known to do some hot-dogging himself. Wolverine tells Xavier that he can walk away from a crash, they can't. Nightcrawler is cleaning in the background (still on probation from Bada Boom) and has stopped to eavesdrop, Wolverine tells him to get back to work. Nightcrawler grumbles to himself and asks who wouldn't want to be an X-Man.

Next session shows the NM outside. They're supposed to take out some flying saw blades before they hit them. Magma (Amara) and Bobby both fail and Scott has to blast the blades out of the air. Lance walks up and Scott slaps a hand on his shoulder and tells him that his new uniform looks a lot better than his old "fruit bowl". Then he stands there with this stupid look on his face that (even though I watched the show like 3 times) I still can't figure out what it's supposed to be.

Lance gets mad (understandably) and shrugs off Scott's hand. Then he rumbles the training grounds and takes out the blade firing thingies (yes, that is the technical term) and the target. The NMs all gather around Lance congratulating him and Kit starts giggling. Scott gets mad and leaves.

Next session is in the Danger Room. New Mutants are running a gauntlet. Lance makes it to the end without being hit. He throws his arms up in the air and starts hamming it up. They show Scott, Kurt and Kit in the control booth. Scott tells Kurt to watch this. They cut back to Lance, who's now waving happily at Kit. Scott sends out a large padded device that knocks Lance to the ground. The NMs laugh, but up in the booth Kit gives Kurt and Scott dirty looks as they high five one another.

Next session is outside again. X-Kids are lined up in the pool playing drowning victims. New Mutants are supposed to save them. Rahne (Wolfsbane) goes after Kurt, Bobby saves Evan, and Sam (Cannonball) dives in after Kit. Lance is assigned Rogue. He throws out a lifesaver and hits Rogue in the head. She goes underwater. He dives in and catches up to Sam. He hits Sam (and due to the way Sam's powers work), and Sam is "cannonballed" out of the water.

Lance surfaces near Kit and she starts giggling. He "saves" her. Scott helps Rogue out of the pool. Sam comes to a crash landing as Scott yells at Lance. He tells him that he's saved the wrong victim and drowned two people doing it. Lance climbs out of the pool with Kit in his arms looking very proud. He says "Yeah, but look who I rescued!" Rogue stomps past them looking very wet and very angry. She calls Lance a creep and knocks him and Kit back into the pool.

Next day as the kids are all loading up to head off to school, Lance tells Scott "nice car." Scott turns to look at his car and realizes that it's been trashed. He gets totally POed as Lance and the NMs drive off. At school the NMs tell Lance see ya later. As he's headed down the hallway, he's ambushed by the Brotherhood. Blob slams him into the lockers and they ask where he's been. Tab says that they've heard he's living with the "geek squad". When Lance doesn't deny it, Toad tells him that Mystique is going to "hand you your left arm" when she gets back. Lance tells them that the Brotherhood is finished and Mystique is never coming back. Quicksilver asks him if he's actually becoming an X-Man and Lance says "What if I am?". The BH come down on him and Lance pushes Toad out of the way and starts to walk off. Tab calls after him and tells him that the X-Men are never going to accept him. Poor Lance walks away looking pretty depressed.

That night at the Institute, Lance wanders into the hall yawning. He seems to be headed for the bathroom when he sees some of the NMs (Jubilee, Sam, Bobby and Jamie) sneaking down the hallway. He follows them. In the kitchen, Kit is studying and making herself a snack. One of the NMs rush past the door and startles her. She asks if anyone's there, but when no one answers she goes back to her snack. She has to climb under the table to get her pencil and while she's under there, the other NMs run past. She phases her head through the top of the table, right over a plate. Lance walks past the kitchen door, then does a double take. When he sees Kit's head on the plate, he passes out.

The NMs take out the X-Van and wreak general havoc. Bobby stumbles into bed early the next morning, just in time for Xavier to call out all of the NMs for a training session. Kurt is out in the hangar, busily scrubbing down the Blackbird as part of his probation. Wolverine gives a lecture on the jet, then they head out to the garage to drive the X-van. When they get there the van is a wreck. Jamie whispers to Sam that they should say something. Sam elbows Jamie and triggers multiples of him. The multiples stumble into Jubilee and knock her down. Wolverine asks what happened to the van and Scott immediately points a finger at Lance.

That night, Jubes, Sam and Bobby tell Jamie that he can't go out with them again. He makes too much of a crowd. They send Jamie back to bed, then go into Lance's room and ask him along on a "joyride". Jubilee tells him that he's going to get the blame anyway. Lance tells them to forget it, that they've already gotten him in enough trouble. He pulls the blanket over his head and tells them to leave them alone. Bobby says it's his loss, that they're taking something bigger and faster. NMs head out to the hangar and the Blackbird.

Lance sits up in his bed suddenly realizing that they mean the jet. He knocks on Kit's door and when she answers he grabs her arm and takes off. They get to the hangar too late, the NMs are already taking off. The jet rolls beneath the walkway that they're standing on. Lance climbs under the handrail and grabs Kit's hand. She asks him what he's doing, but he just tells her to start phasing as he jumps. They phase into the Blackbird, but are thrown around as Bobby bounces it off of the walls.

They finally are able to take off and fly through the buildings and then up. Jubilee opens the top hatch and shows off by throwing fireworks into the sky. Kit and Lance are trying to get into the cockpit, but Bobby pushes the jet wide open and they're thrown to the floor again. Kit says that they're in big trouble. She takes Lance's hand and they phase into the cockpit together. She startles Jubilee and one of her fireworks hits the jet's controls. Bobby tells them that he's lost thrust control. Kit tries to radio the Institute, but the radio has been fried too.

They're intercepted by a couple of air force jets. Lance tries to find the P.A. to let them know that they're friendly. Instead he sends out a couple of missiles. The jets aren't hit, but they think that the Blackbird is hostile, and return fire. Jubilee climbs out of the hatch and launches some more fireworks. The heat seeking missiles follow them instead and explode mid-air. Sam does some work on the controls and is able to cut propulsion. The jet goes into a freefall and Lance gets sick.

Bobby hangs out of the hatch and creates an ice ramp that scoops the jet back into the air. They're able to restart the engines, but more air force jets have arrived. Bobby flies into some caverns/cliff walls to try to lose them, but more missiles are fired. Lance is able to quake the cliff walls and the jets are forced to pull up. But Bobby still isn't able to dodge the missiles.

Kit tells them that she thinks she can lose them. She tells Bobby to fly straight into a mesa. Bobby starts to argue but Kit yells at him to do it. She grabs a hold of the jet and is able to phase the entire Blackbird. They pass safely through the mesa just as the missiles close in on them. The missiles explode on the mesa and the pilots don't believe what they've seen. They call off the chase. Kit collapses from the strain and Lance catches her. They smile at each other as the NMs are amazed that she was able to do it.

Next day Scott accuses Lance of causing the damage to the jet. Kit tries to step in and defend Lance, but he pulls her back and says that he did it. Just then Bobby admits that Lance is innocent and that they are the ones who really did it. They also admit to trashing the van, Scott's car and Logan's motorcycle. At which point Logan looks like he's going to blow a gasket. Xavier tells them that there was no official mention of the incident. Kurt comes strolling in, saying that all he has to do to finish off his probation is wax the Blackbird. He sees the jet and drops his wax, saying that it's going to take a lot of wax. Xavier tells Kurt that he's officially off probation and Kurt takes off like the proverbial bat. He puts the NMs on probation and tells them they can start by cleaning up the Blackbird.

Scott tries to lamely apologize to Lance, but Lance slaps away his hand and tells him to forget it. Xavier tries to apologize too, but Lance tells them that he's leaving. Kit asks him to please stay, but he says that the X-Men are too high maintenance and he's going back to live with the Brotherhood. Kit is looking pretty upset as Xavier tells him that he's welcome back if he ever changes his mind. Lance starts to walk away, Kit runs to catch up with him. She kisses him, then rushes back. Lance puts his hand to his cheek where she kissed him and smiles. As Lance leaves, Kit stands back and looks pretty heartbroken.

Summary written by Denaill for her site -

Quotes

Scott: Professor, I think this is a mistake. I know Lance. He wouldn't do this unless he wanted something.
Xavier: Yes, I agree. What he wants it to be near Kitty.
Scott: But...
Xavier: I believe he's genuine about his feelings for her. And maybe that's a good beginning. Now let's give him a chance.

Bobby: Hey! Did you see? Were you watching? This time it took me almost twice as long to crash and burn.
Logan: Yeah. Look kid, that kind of hot-doggin' ain't gonna cut it in a real battle. You got to think before you start playin' cowboy commando.
Xavier: Don't you think you were a little hard on him? I mean after all, you've been known to do a little hot-dogging yourself.
Logan: Yeah, but I can walk away from a crash. They can't.

(Lance knocks out Rogue with lifesaver and blows Cannonball out of the water so he can save Kit.)
Scott: Wrong victim, Alvers! And you just drowned two people!
Lance: (with huge smile and Kit in his arms) Yeah. But look who I rescued!

Quicksilver: You're becoming one of them, aren't you? You're becoming an X-man.
Lance: So what if I am?
Toad: Say what?
Blob: Aw man! And to think I used to look up to you.
Tab: You're making a mistake Lance. You'll never fit in with those guys. And they're never going to accept you.

Jubilee: Lance! Lance, wake up! We're going on another joyride. You wanna come with us? You're going to get the blame anyway.
Lance: Forget it! You've gotten me in enough trouble. Now leave me alone!

Bobby: The propulsions' cut!
Lance: All right!
Jubilee: I'm new at this, but isn't that a bad thing?
Bobby: Well, it depends how you feel about emergency landings.

Scott: I uh, guess we all owe you and apology. Especially me.
Lance: Save it Summers. I'm outta here!
Xavier: Lance, we're sorry. It's been a challenging transition for us all.
Kit: Please stay, Lance.
Lance: Sorry. Living with the Brotherhood's a piece of cake compared to you guys. You're way too high maintenance.
Xavier: Well, if you ever change your mind.

Quick Review

Loved this episode. Absolutely loved it. I'm officially a Lance fan now.

Dislikes: Scott. I hate the way the he treated Lance throughout. Sheesh. Was it me, or is there anyone else out there that wanted to smack him? Tabitha, I just hate her more everytime I see her. Oh and with Xavier being one of the best telepaths in the world, you think it'd be a little harder for the New Mutants to sneak out like that, or at the very least for them to leave poor Lance with the blame.

Likes: I think it's great that Lance was willing to try and be an X-man just so he could be near Kit. I'm glad Kit came around at the end though. Kit has always been one of my top three fav X-Men of all time, but if she had rejected Lance at the end, that would have been it. I liked that we finally got to see more of the New Mutants. Little Jamie is so cute, and I liked the others too. Except for when Jubilee told Lance he would get the blame anyway. She would have gotten a smack too right about then.

I'm glad that Lance returned to the Brotherhood at the end. At first I really really wanted him to stay, but then I realized that it wouldn't be right. Lance has to be on the other side, if for no other reason than to get a chance to kick Scott's a** every once in awhile. Lance just wouldn't be the same as an X-Man, I just don't see him toeing the line. I really hope that they follow up on this relationship. It'd be interesting to see how a boyfriend/girlfriend on opposite sides would work. All I know is that the kiss can't be the end of it.

Beyond Evolution Copyright © 2004 Denaill.