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Why Mason?
The obvious interpretation of Mason Eckhart is that he is a purely villainous character. The series makes this point over and over again in a heavy-handed fashion.
What if a different interpretation is possible, derived logically from canon materials?
The first time some people hear of a possible alternate interpretation of Mason Eckhart, they react emotionally as if hearing blasphemous heresy. I have been personally attacked online for thinking of such a possibility, characterized as “sick”, “twisted” and worse, as if works of fiction could have one and one only interpretation!
Anyone is free to think of the Mutant X characters in any fashion pleasing to them. There is no one, single correct interpretation. Even the series itself presented the characters inconsistently.
All views of Mason Eckhart may be found on Matters Masonesque & More, but in my Impure stories, Mason Eckhart is the hero of the tale. I derived this view of Eckhart based chiefly upon Season 1 episodes, the now-vanished Tribune faux websites, the scientific definition of mutant, and my personal knowledge of how science is conducted within corporations.
Upon my initial introduction to Mutant X, there was something jarringly wrong about Adam’s claims of working at Genomex for 20 years without knowing how his research was applied. This is not the way corporations do research.
Adam is presented to be a PhD, and MD, and an innovator in genetics. He not only had to know the application of his work but he had to have people working for him whose work he had to direct. He also had to be responsible for putting together an annual budget, with full knowledge of the specific equipment, instrumentation and supplies to be purchased.
Either Adam managed the program, or he misrepresented his importance and was merely an insignificant., low-level, semi-skilled technician, doing simple work with no understanding of the overall project.
However, since Adam was Breedlove’s chosen successor, the latter cannot be true. Adam is falsely presenting himself as uninformed, a lie credible only to those outside of science. Adam’s portrayal of himself as a victim used by the corporation is confabulation.
No matter what you think of Mason Eckhart, the above conclusions about Adam hold true for all possible Mutant X universes. High powered research scientists are never treated the way Adam describes. For whatever motivations, Adam is not telling the truth.
What is Mason Eckhart’s role in the creation of the Genomex mutants?
This question is answered by creating a series time line.
Note: I am not claiming that the writers used this timeline, which focuses upon Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2. I believe the series was written without reference to any guidelines about characters or back story since contradictions arise thick and fast in Season 2 and Season 3. However, by design or chance, this timeline works, accommodating characters and events reasonably and plausibly.
In September 2002, the official Mutant X site listed Mason Eckhart’s age as 45 at the beginning of Season 1 [which makes sense, since that was Tom McCamus’s age at the start of production], and that he had been immunologically compromised for 16 years. The www.genomex.net site listed Eckhart’s birthdate as 6 June 1962. These data provide timeline essentials:
1962 + 45 = 2007
This is the year Season 1 takes place.
2007 – 16 = 1991
This is the year Incident X occurred, leaving Eckhart immunologically compromised.
When did Mason Eckhart beginning working at Genomex?
Born in 1962, he would have reasonably graduated from high school in 1980, and completed West Point in 1984 (where he specialized in military law). We are told he was recruited directly from the academy, so he probably would have started at Genomex in 1984 at the age of 21 or 22.
What are the ages of Adam’s mutants?
Emma is about 22-24 years old:
2007 – 22 = 1985
Brennan is about 28 (or perhaps older):
2007 – 29 = 1979
The others have birth years between 1979 and 1985, which also covers the ranges of ages of most of the mutants we see. The older ones are the work of Breedlove alone.
This is a critical point: nearly all of the Genomex mutants were created with before Eckhart worked there, or while he was in no position to influence development. Corporations do not put freshly graduated 22 year old security specialists in charge of complex biotech research—the notion is completely implausible. The conclusion is inescapable: Eckhart had nothing to do with the creation of the Genomex mutants. Responsibility for their making rests solely upon Adam and Breedlove.
Once one realizes Eckhart had no part in creating the mutants, it makes perfect sense that he feels no guilt about their creation. At this point, one can step back, and take a fresh view of Mason Eckhart, aware of what he did do, but free of implied misdeeds in which he had no part.
I have never pretended that Mason Eckhart is just a nice guy who is misunderstood. As I write Mason, he knows he is not a nice man. He is charged with performing a difficult, distasteful, but scientifically sound task (http://www.masonesque.net/html/human_.html) of rounding up the Genomex mutants, protecting society from them in the short term, and in the long term, prevent the extinction of humanity by containing the Genomex-tampered DNA from spreading through the population. [Reference in preparation, but this is sound biology.] He pursues this mission with singular, selfless dedication, always –always—putting the greater goal before any personal emotions. He is not a nice man, but hopes in his heart that he is a good one.
Once one understands what the presence of the Genomex mutants implies for humanity, that Adam and Breedlove are alone responsible for the creation of these mutants, and that Adam misrepresents his role and importance in the project, the confrontation at towards the end of “I Scream the Body Electric” takes on an entirely different meaning:
Eckhart: Never did know when to stop, did you?
Adam: We're both guilty of relentless tenacity, Mason. Something we've always had in common.
Eckhart: True. But while you chase your horrific dreams of rescuing these laboratory mistakes, my passion is in the service of humanity.
Adam: A grim and limited vision of humanity defined by your narrow mind and your pathetic perspective.
***
Eckhart: You and your freaks are threats to everything that I hold dear.
Adam: These so-called freaks are the products of Genomex's recklessness.
Eckhart: What? Am I supposed to be wracked by guilt?
Adam: No, I never expect guilt from you, Mason. It's too much to ask of a sociopath.
Eckhart: Now, that's what I've always admired about you, Adam. Your utterly perverse sense of reality.
Knowing now that the proliferation of Genomex mutant DNA is nothing less than a slow-moving plague implying extinction of the species, and the loss of all we have created, it is fair to ask who is acting in the interests of humanity.
The answer is not Adam.
Adam is not ‘preparing the world for mutants’. He’s imposing his ruinous mistakes upon society, blithely ignoring their long term problems, hellbent to continue his research and assuage his guilt. Adam knows perfectly well how dangerous individual mutants can be: he invented the only effective controls for them, the stasis pods and the subdermal governors. Neither has a place in the treatment of children.
I do not believe that ‘everything is relative. I believe in right and wrong, and in the reality of good and evil. Few humans are born evil, and exceptions, the serial killers and sociopaths, are rare.
I do not believe Adam is evil. He would not be the first scientist obsessed with his work, determined to find the usefulness of it. Adam’s character flaws are rooted in his inability to accept responsibility for the human misery he has created, his need for the cult-like worship of the individuals whose lives he has afflicted, and his demonization of anyone attempting to clean up his mess or make him face the disaster he has created.
While Adam is presented as a dashing hero, capable of inspiring the unthinking loyalty of Genomex mutants, one thing Mason is not, and that is charming.
Most everything possible was done to present Eckhart unfavorably. He looks peculiar, progressing through Season 1’s evolving collection of wigs, has odd mannerisms (putting his face down inches away whenever he examines something—one has to wonder if he is years overdue for an eye exam) and he is both stiffly formal and extraordinarily rude. He can threaten with a glance.
Curiously, Eckhart’s organization seems to be the greatest employer of mutants, dozens, maybe hundreds of them. Despite Adam’s claim that Eckhart hates mutants, the ones who work for him do so with dedication and loyalty. This apparent contradiction is never explained, and one is left to conclude that perhaps Adam does not know what he is talking about.
The explanation has been offered that Genomex mutants serve Eckhart not out of loyalty but out of fear. This cannot be. Given the chance to run away, they do not do so. Only one mutant agent expresses dread of podding (Altered Ego). Frank Thorne offers that he volunteered for service. Pamela X does not even seem particularly afraid of Eckhart, re-heating his coffee playfully.
If Mason Eckhart is feared and hated by his human and mutant employees alike, if a circumstance arose in which their doing nothing would cause Eckhart hard or death, wouldn’t they do that, look the other way and hope for the worst? But in ‘Nothing to Fear’, Eckhart is alone in his office when he collapses. When he becomes conscious again, he is being given medical treatment. Someone had to find him, and decide to do something. Probably several people were required to move him to treatment, and then the participation and cooperation of the medical staff was required.
There are two other times when Eckhart becomes unconscious and vulnerable, and killing him would have been easy, but that is not what happens.
Never once was Eckhart betrayed by any of his people (save for the pheromone befogged agent, and Marlowe, who made clear he worked for the highest bidder) despite his lack of charm and the demands he makes of people. The mutant employees do not run away to Adam at first opportunity, and even more interesting, Adam does not attempt to ‘rescue’ mutant GS agents. Why?
Possibly Eckhart’s people know the whole truth of what is going on, and that Adam is telling self-serving half-truths and confabulations.
Beyond all of this, there is the fact that Mason Eckhart has many admirable traits.
There is something heroic about Eckhart’s refusal to give in to his afflictions, his persistence in making daily adjustments and accommodations to continue working in the world of whole people. Corporations faced with a multiply handicapped employee injured on company time on company property by the actions of another employee (Adam) typically will settle a good deal of money on the injured employee, with no expectation that they will continue working. The fact that Eckhart does continue to work speaks to the seriousness of his purpose and to his character.
Mason Eckhart is fair and even-handed with his people. Note especially his respect and fair treatment of women. Adam could learn some useful lessons.
Mason’s weapon of choice is his mouth, which he uses to cut and slice with precision. We do not see him enjoying the physical pain of others, but we do see him stop Frank Thorne from further beating of Brennan, cautioning Henry Voight not to kill Shalimar, and questioning Dr Harrison’s need to destroy Longstreet’s mind. (Eckhart can probably imagine few things more dreadful than the loss of mental faculties.)
Contrast this behavior with that of Adam gleefully punching the medically frail Mason, and then laughing about it! What kind of hero strikes an unthreatening, defenseless cripple like Mason and finds it amusing? Only other cruel barbarians like Adam’s mutants could laugh along with him.
Eckhart was not always as we see him in Season 1. He was once an ordinary human with a wife and 3 children. The question arises how he came to be the cold, calculating, aloof figure we see. Mason’s transformation can be taken as a warning to any of us: given the right experiences and history, any of us could become like him.
Curiously enough, not only is it possible to view and write Mason Eckhart as a flawed, physically damaged hero, but as a hero of greater humanity than any of the other characters. That is why I write Mason as I do—not because I adore evil, or have a twisted view of the world, but because I do understand how complex people can become after life’s surprises work on them.
The Impure stories are not about making excuses for the devil, but about the strange dark alchemy of the human heart.
~Dark Mirage
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