Season 4 Episode 4

Story Title: Sins of the Son

Staff: Rick Ungar, Avi Arad, Stan Lee (executive producers), Greg Johnson, Boyd Kirkland (producers), Craig Kyle (co-producer), Greg Johnson, Boyd Kirkland, Craig Kyle (story), Marsha F. Griffin (writer), Gary Graham (director)

Brief Description:
Xavier receives a phone call from a boy claiming to be his son, saying he's been abducted. He puts Beast in charge and leaves with Storm, Cyclops and Jean to the house of his ex-wife, Gabrielle Haller, who confirms that she had a son from him – David, and he's been abducted. Jean and Scott soon gets captured too by the mutant kidnapper, Lucas, and taken to McFadden Castle, where David is kept. Through Ian, a mutant boy who lives with the Hallers and turns out to be evil, Xavier finds David's location and leaves to there with Jean, Ororo and Gabrielle. At the castle, they are all reunited, and it's revealed, to everybody's shock, that David, Lucas and Ian are really all the same person – David is schizophrenic, and a mutant with shape-shifting, pyro-kinetic and telekinetic abilities. Xavier tries to heal his son's schizophrenia and get rid of Lucas and Ian, but is tricked into getting rid of David and Ian instead, leaving the evil Lucas in charge of the body. Frustrated and sad from the tragedy, they return home.

Full Synopsis:
On a cliff above the ocean in the ruins of McFadden Castle, Scotland, at night, a party is taking place. A man named Lucas is walking past the partying teens, and they all seem to admire him. He walks into an underground part of the castle, a dungeon, opening and closing doors telekinetically. He lifts a grate the same way and floats into a chamber. He talks to an unseen boy called David, telling him that if he really wants to end it, there's only one way – to call him.

In Xavier's bedroom, the phone rings, waking him up. He picks up the phone, and on the other side of the line a voice says "please, I need your help, father", to his shock.

Later, on the Blackbird, Storm, Professor X, Cyclops and Jean are flying to Scotland. Xavier is on the phone with his ex-wife, Gabrielle Haller. He tells her that even with Cerebro, he doesn't just scan the world with his telepathic powers unless he's looking for someone and he would never think to look for a son he wasn't aware of. In the back, Jean and Scott are talking about how weird it is that the professor has an ex-wife they didn't even know about. Ororo interrupts them and suggests that they'll check in the mansion to see how Kitty is doing.

By the front doors of the mansion, Beast is standing with a bunch of backpacks, calling for the New Mutants, as they have to go to school. Jamie(s) run down the stairs, followed by Bobby on ice and Roberto. They take their backpacks and leave to school. Next are Amara and Ray, though Amara hasn't had time to dry her hair. Ray holds the plug of her hair drier and it starts, and they leave too. Last is Sam, flying past Hank and taking his backpack on the way. Just as he leaves, the videophone rings. It's Scott and Jean, calling to check if Kitty's flu is any better like Ororo suggested. Hank answers that not only she's still ill, now Kurt is sick too.

In Kurt's room, Kurt is sleeping. Hank opens the door to check on him, and leaves after seeing he's asleep. Kurt sneezes and teleports to the hallway, still sleeping. He then sneezes again, appearing in an empty bedroom. Another sneeze sends him back to his bed.

In Kitty's room, she's also sneezing on her bed, though awake. She looks pretty sick. Hank enters to check on her and suggests that she tries sleeping, and she says that every time she closes her eyes, she has this nightmare that she's at school in her pajamas.

In the Blackbird, Xavier sighs and decides to finally tell the curios Scott and Jean that he was married briefly to a woman named Gabrielle Haller many years ago, and they had a son he knew nothing of until that day, and now he's been kidnapped. In the McFadden Castle dungeon, David is seen. He's dirty and his clothes are torn.

At Gabrielle's house, the mutants arrive. Gabrielle starts thanking Charles, but he seems to be angry that she didn't tell him about David and stops her in the middle, cutting to the chase. He asks her if she heard from the police and she says she hasn't. Storm then introduces herself, Cyclops and Jean to Gabrielle and assures her that they'll find her son. Xavier gets to the issue again, telling his ex-wife that they'll need a complete list of David's friends and the places he goes regularly. She answers that they just moved there and David didn't have any friends, before she starts crying.

At McFadden Castle, David manages to just from a pile of rocks to the grate and open it, freeing himself. He starts running through the halls with no idea on where he's going, and arrives at the stairs leading to the party. He tries to escape to the door without getting caught, but some of the punks notice him and walk after him. He runs for a while, but then reaches a dead end.

At Gabrielle's house, Gabrielle and Xavier are arguing about Gabrielle hiding David from Xavier all these years. She tells him that it wasn't to hurt him – she just didn't want David growing up with a father who didn't have time for him. He tells her that she's just blaming everything on his study of mutants and asks if that's what she told him. She answers that David knows nothing about him – or at least she thought so.

Outside the house, Lucas is hiding. He sees Jean through the window of David's room. In the room, Jean and Scott are going through David's stuff. Suddenly, Jean spots a boy in the hallway. He runs away, and she follows, though he disappears. Gabrielle enters and explains that that's Ian - David found him living on the street and he's been with them ever since. Scott asks if he said anything about Ian, and Gabrielle answers that Ian doesn't talk. Jean thinks maybe a telepath can get an answer out of him and runs out of the house to look for him. Outside, she sees a shadow hiding and, thinking him to be Ian, runs after him. Suddenly, a ring of fire surrounds her. Lucas shows up and knocks her out mentally.

At the Institute, Kitty is still ill and sneezing, when she runs out of tissues. Annoyed, she gets out of bed and walks to Kurt's room, where he just sneezed and teleported again under his bed in his sleep. She enters and finds Kurt sleeping under the bed, so she grabs his tail and tries pulling him away, just as he sneezes again, teleporting them both to the front steps of Bayville High. Kitty is terrified that her nightmare is coming true, and tries to wake up Kurt before anybody sees them, just as they teleport again on the teacher's desk of a classroom, to everybody's laughter. Angry, she drags Kurt down the hall, as he sneezes again and they teleport to the street. A car drives by, spraying Kitty with water.

At McFadden Castle, Jean wakes up with her ankles and wrists tied up. She tries to release herself, when suddenly the wrist lock unlocks on its own – with Lucas's telekinesis. She asks him who he is, and he answers, after releasing her ankles too, that he's a mutant like her, but his friends call him Lucas. She walks away, but he stops her. She telekinetically tosses him on a wall, but, like before, he knocks her out mentally. He helps her up and asks her to stay, saying that it'll be fun. She tells him that he can't force her to stay, and he answers that, actually, he can, before tossing her on a wall telekinetically. He continues, telling her that he can do whatever he wants, but she'll stay because it's the only way she's going to find David, and then leaves with a girl.

Outside Gabrielle's house, Cyclops rides his motorcycle out of the Blackbird to where Professor X and his ex-wife are standing. Storm joins them flying down and says that she saw no sign of Jean or the boy, but she did spot the glow of some fires burning toward the cliffs. Gabrielle explains that that must be the McFadden Castle, as teenagers have been using those ruins for parties. Cyclops decides to go and look for Jean, and Xavier tells him to be cautious - three people are already missing and they don't need a fourth. Scott rides away, and Xavier suggests that in the meanwhile, they'll search for Ian – he might know more than he's let on.

At McFadden Castle, Scott arrives. He leaves his bike outside and enters, making his way through the partying teens. He passes a wall, and there Jean pulls him out of sight, telling him that David is there somewhere. He asks her what happened to her, and she answers that she was following Iain and that's when Lucas showed up. He asks who Lucas is, and she points to him, saying that he's the kidnapper. Scott decides to go confront him, despite Jean's telling him that his powers are too strong. Lucas notices Scott and, after teasing him, sends him flying across the ruins. Jean rushes to him, but Lucas stops her. Scott shoots an optic beam, but Lucas creates a force field and is un-hit. He then keeps tossing Scott into walls, and Jean too when she tries helping. Scott is knocked out and gets tied up with a helmet covering his eyes, and Jean is thrown to the dungeon. Lucas tells her that she's not powerful enough to escape, closes the opening and leaves.

In the street, Storm, Xavier and Gabrielle are driving the X-Van, searching for Ian. The fog makes it hard to see, so Storm uses her powers to make it clearer, and suddenly Ian is seen right in front of them. Storm manages to go left and not hit him just in time and then stops the van. They all rush out and Gabrielle asks Ian what he's doing out there, and Xavier tells him that they just want to find out some information. Xavier tries scanning his mind, but something's blocking his efforts to reach in, almost like a mutant power. He tries again, this time touching Ian's head, and sees flashes of flames, David, Lucas, Ian and McFadden Castle. He tells Storm that they're at the ruins, and then Ian runs away towards the castle. They try chasing him, but he creates a firewall between them, and Gabrielle states in shock that he's a mutant. Xavier says that he's afraid his loyalties are with David's abductor.

At the McFadden Castle dungeon, Jean sends a telekinetic blast, trying to break the walls. In the next room, David hides as the wall between them breaks and Jean floats in. He asks her who she is, and she answers that she's a friend of his father's. David is surprised that he actually came, and Jean tells him that they have to get him out of there. She levitates them both through the hole in the ceiling and asks him how to get out, and he says they should walk until they'll hear music. She says that she wishes she could just send a signal to his father, but David doesn't think he'll care. Jean tries explaining that Xavier is a good man, and David says that it's his fault he doesn't know him. Jean corrects him, saying that it's his mother's fault, as she never told him, but David says that Lucas said he's one of the most powerful telepaths in the world, so how could he not know? Jean is surprised at Lucas's name and asks David if Lucas knows the professor, and David answers that that's what this is all about - so Lucas can go brain to brain with the great Charles Xavier. They then hear music, and start running towards it.

On the surface, Xavier, Storm and Gabrielle arrive and find Cyclops hanged on a wall. They release him and remove the helmet, and Xavier senses that Jean is near. He's right, as just then Jean and David show up. Jean runs to hug Scott, and David runs to hug his mother. Gabrielle introduces David to Xavier, and David hold out his hand and calls him "father". Right when Xavier shakes his hand, though, David morphs into Ian and a fire ring appears around them all. Jean asks Ian in confusion if he's David, and Ian morphs into Lucas, saying that sometimes he is, sometimes he's not. He then sends everyone but his father out of the ring to handle Xavier, while Xavier uses his telepathy to tell the others not to attack. Lucas starts a speech: "What do you think, Daddy? Am I a chip off the old mutant block or what? But what do you care, right? You were so busy taking care of other people's freaks that you never had time for your own! Well, take a good look, Professor. I hope you're proud 'cause you made me what I am today." He then ruins parts of the castle. Suddenly, he grabs his head and screams "no", as he morphs into David. David hurries his father to get out of there before Lucas comes back, but Xavier tells him that Lucas and Ian are a small part of who he is, so he can take control of them. David says he can't, and the professor offers his help, starting to work on David's mind. Inside David's mind, Xavier is floating in front of David, Ian and Lucas. Ian attacks Xavier, but he attacks back, and Ian disappears into a ball of light. The exact same thing happens with Lucas, and then Xavier merges the balls of light into a big one, and sends his hand to David to pull him away. The ball catches David, and Xavier keeps pulling him out. Back in the real world, David lies fainted, and the fire is out. They all surround David, and then David morphs into Lucas. Xavier asks where David is, and Lucas answers that he sent Ian and David away. Gabrielle asks Xavier what he did, and Lucas answers that he did exactly what he brought him there to do – he was the only one strong enough to get rid of the others. He then floats in the air, and after saying that now he's free, flies away. Gabrielle starts crying.

At the Institute's hangar, Beast meets Xavier, Storm, Cyclops and Jean. Xavier just wheels away sadly, and Ororo says that they'll have to give him time. Jean asks Hank how things went with Kitty and Kurt, and Hank answers that there wasn't a peep out of their rooms all day.

In Kurt's room, Kitty and Kurt teleport back. He's still asleep, and she's a mess. He finally wakes up with a yawn and says that he's feeling much better, though he had some weird dreams that they were out in public in their pajamas. He then sees Kitty, wet, muddy and leafy, furious, and gets scared as she hits him with the pillow and yells at him – the school, downtown, in the park, at a funeral – she can't show her face in Bayville again. He says that he's been in his room all day, and she just screams and leaves.

On the balcony, Ororo walks to Xavier. He tells her that the tragic part is that he lost him before he even found him. She tells him not to lose hope - someday he'll find his way and he'll be there for him like he is for all of them.

Characters:
Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Shadowcat, Storm (all X-Men)
Berzerker, Cannonball, Iceman, Magma, Multiple, Sunspot (all New Mutants)

David Haller / Legion

Civilians
Gabrielle Haller

David's other personalities: Ian
Lucas

Notes:
This is the first (and only) appearance of David Haller and Gabrielle Haller in the show.

This episode introduces Gabrielle Haller as Xavier's ex-wife. In the comics, though, they were never married.

David's split personalities here are different from the ones shown in comics.

Issue Summary Written by: electAbuzzzz