Given his dark past, stoic demeanor and deep self-loathing, Logan has often been referred to as a brooding loner. Season 2, Episode 5 of X-Men ’97, “Sex, Lies and DVDs”, leans into that, allowing the best there is at what he does brood…with the Brood.
Picking up directly after the Episode 4 post-credit scene that saw Captain America and Black Widow deliver information on Weapon X to Logan, “Sex, Lies and DVDs” stands as a brilliant bottle episode that’s both surprising in its premise while carrying a heavy emotional load.
Presented to both the audience and the episode’s supporting cast as an opportunity for Logan to prevent Dr. Cornelius from further experiments in the Weapon X program, the episode suddenly and shockingly flips the genre switch, becoming a survivor horror piece, riffing hard on masterpieces such as Alien and The Thing with Marvel’s parasitic, apex predators, the Brood, hunting Logan, Morph and Team X.
When Team X’s plane crashes somewhere in the wilderness–and the first member of the team is killed–the episode’s tone begins to subtly shift, hinting at what’s to come ahead of the reveal that Cornelius was using the Brood to help weaponize soldiers. Though it’s subtextual, the episode reveals that, as in the comics, the Brood have been on Earth for some time, leaving open the possibility that the bottle episode could eventually be tied back to the season’s main antagonist, Apocalypse, as was the case in the comics. Whether the creatives ultimately travel that road or not, “Sex, Lies and DVDs” does plenty to stand on its own as one of the series best.
While he might be many fans favorite heroes, Episode 5 paints a less than flattering picture of Wolverine, revealing the monster within while turning him into a monster…and in both cases, he’s a problem for his friends, mostly because he doesn’t really have any. Ultimately, Logan’s betrayal of his friends costs many of them their lives and until Morph–who is used smartly throughout the episode–forces him to reckon with his actions, it seems as though he’s just fine with the cost of him getting his groove back.
“Sex, Lies and DVDs” is exactly the type of episode a series like X-Men ’97 must allow time for. Though it’s a bottle episode, it also works to resolve one of Season 1’s biggest issues (Wolverine being stripped of his Adamantium) while challenging Logan to be better, something that he’ll almost certainly have to do as Season 2 moves on and the team continues to be faced with overwhelming, apocalyptic threats.
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