“Persona”

The episode “Persona” starts off with Peter rushing into his house and him asking Aunt Mae if he’s missed anything and much to his chagrin she doesn’t have the TV on.  The news is covering the symbiote that was discovered on the space shuttle when Col. Jameson landed.  It was announced that the alien life form was turned over to Dr. Curtis Connors.  Peter thinks he has an “in” so he calls Eddie Brock but Eddie says there are to be no visitors especially photographers that aren’t trusted. 

Still wanting to see the symbiote, Peter heads over to the lab in the guise of Spiderman and sneaks in through the top window and as he does so he see the Black Cat trying to steal the life form.  They tussle and in the process the life form escapes and adheres to Spidey’s foot unbeknownst to him.  During the tussle Black Cat flirts with Spiderman and basically asks him to become her partner in crime.  Dr. Connors comes in and sees what’s happening which gives the Black Cat time to escape.  Spiderman tells Dr. Connors to call the police while he goes after Black Cat, thinking she stole the life form.    

The next morning we see Spiderman’s picture on the front page of the Bugle announcing that he stole the life form.  Eddie Brock is upset when he reads it because he thought Spiderman was a hero and he is further upset that Peter took the pictures and didn’t call the police.  Peter goes to see Jonah Jameson and questions him on why Spiderman is labeled as the bad guy and he learns that Dr. Connors didn’t discover the theft until the morning making Peter wonder why Connors lied.

We then see “Dr. Connors” saying to himself that Spiderman must be confused and an arm comes forward to remove the mask revealing it is Chameleon that was there the night before and he was trying to steal the life form for someone who contracted his services.  Chameleon tells his staff they aren’t getting paid for this job but he has an idea for another job.  His one associate (Beck) is good at special effects and another (Mason) is good at mechanical things. 

Spiderman is then seen swinging across the city and the symbiote crawls from his foot all the way up his body turning his suit to all black without Spidey knowing what’s going on.  Black cat comes up to him and comments on the new suit which causes Spidey to look in a reflective mirror.  Black cat tells Spiderman that she didn’t take the alien life form and he believes her now realizing that the life form is on his suit.  Black cat says she doesn’t like being blamed for things she didn’t do and remarks that Spiderman must really be upset about the news pointing the finger at him. 

As Spiderman swings away from Black Cat he sees a small airplane going out of control and we learn that Eddie and Peter both lost their parents in a plane like that.  Spidey saves the pilot and manages to get the plane to crash in a park away from people.  In the process he comments to himself about how he was able to leap farther and have his webs go further than normal now that the “ooze” is part of his suit.  Next we see Spiderman save more people showing great strength and he thinks to himself that having the ooze as part of his suit is enabling him to help more people and thus be able to get more photos (aka earn money).  He then rationalizes that it might be ok not to return the ooze but says its not his call.

As he approaches his house, the ooze comes off revealing Peter Parker underneath so he thinks that keeping the ooze was the right call.  He enters the house in time to catch Aunt Mae who was about to pass out from doing an excessive amount of cooking and the heat from the oven.  Peter puts her to bed and we see him using the black web shooter to turn the stove off.

In the next scenes we see “Spiderman” in the red and blue costume robbing banks and stealing with the Chameleon’s henchmen being part of the crimes.  Looking close you can see the web shooters on this “Spiderman” are mechanical but no one seems to notice.  The Bugle is reporting about Spiderman’s crimes because they have an anonymous source who is donating pictures of the crimes for free (we later learn its one of Chameleon’s associates taking the pictures).  Interestingly everyone believes Spiderman has gone bad except Flash Thompson who defends Spiderman at the high school saying that he doesn’t think it’s the real Spiderman.

The real Spiderman in his black suit is swinging across the city looking for the fake Spiderman as he comes across Black Cat.  She points to a boat where the mayor is holding an event and indicates that will likely be the fake Spiderman’s target.  The Mayor and Jonah Jameson talk to Captain Stacey and Captain Stacey says he still doesn’t believe Spiderman went bad.  The mayor greets Norman Osborne as he comes in with a briefcase and says he has a donation.  Mr. Osborne goes into the bathroom and it turns out to be Chameleon and in the briefcase he has the Spiderman outfit. 

Chameleon’s associates are seen offering the police officers on board coffee while Black Cat and Spiderman are riding small speeder boats to get aboard the Mayor’s boat.  As Spiderman, in the black suit, comes on board he sees the police officers sleeping.  Chameleon dressed as Spiderman tells all the guests to empty their belongings into his bags and then ties up Captain Stacey.  Captain Stacey remarks that this Spiderman is too tall and runs after Chameleon but one of his associates warns him via a hidden headset.  The real Spiderman busts in and takes on Chameleon Spiderman. 

One of Chameleon’s associates drops a smoke bomb to buy Chameleon time to try and escape but Spiderman continues after them while Black cat stops the associates.  In the fight the black suit is ripped but it fixes itself immediately.  The fight moves to a speed boat that Chameleon is driving.  Spiderman remarks that the suit is balancing him compensating for the water and the boat.  Chameleon dons two gloves that increase the power of his punches but Spiderman catches him with a web and the two gloves touch one another causing them to shock Chameleon at which time Spiderman unmasks Chameleon. 

We see J. Jonah Jameson on the phone saying to print a retraction but he’s burying it in the middle of the paper and in small print.  Captain Stacey is seen talking to Spiderman and says his name is cleared and that they will find out what Chameleon did with the E.T.  Spiderman was about to tell Captain Stacey about the symbiote when he stopped himself saying he needs the symbiote’s power to help people.  Captain Stacey tells Spiderman that as long as he wears a mask people will wonder about him.

The mayor exclaims to Captain Stacey that the Tiger, the necklace she was wearing, wasn’t there among the recovered jewels and valuables.  Captain Stacey goes to lockup vehicle to question Chameleon about the Tiger but sees his officer tied up and stripped down to his undergarments. 

Black cat and Spiderman are seen talking.  Spiderman tells her that she should switch sides since they made a good team.  Black Cat kisses Spiderman but then holds up behind him the Tiger.  She then disappears.

**End of Episode**

Review

Another great episode and the symbiote storyline is being fleshed out and it seems they aren’t trying to make it a quick storyline.  We also have Chameleon and Black Cat introduced during this episode and both are at large at the end.  Black Cat was voiced by Tricia Helfer from Battlestar Galactica and she did a great job.