What a way to end an incredible season of TV.
The final battle did not disappoint, as the stakes couldn’t be higher with the fate of the entire Earth in the hands of the X-Men. In the final moments, the X-Men came together to do what they do best: save the world. With Bastian solidifying himself as an amazing villain throughout the season and Magneto returning for the comeback tour, Marvel TV has done something it almost has never done before, which is going 10 for 10. Every episode of this season kept us wanting more and wishing it would never end, with the finale setting up the next season perfectly, leaving us all frustrated that we will have to endure the wait.
The Battle to Save Earth
The possible destruction of the final battle doubled the second it no longer was just Bastian and his Prime Sentinels but also his plan to bring an asteroid down on Earth. The first half of the episode was more devoted to Bastian, as he goes through different morphing phases to become stronger and more of a machine. Once Xavier uses Magneto to turn the world back on, the Prime Sentinels continue their attacks and between them and their maker, it looks as if the X-Men could be fighting a losing battle. That is, before the Phoenix returns, as we theorized last week. Jean returns as the Phoenix to put the power neutralizer on Bastian, making his Prime Sentinels fall from his control. Unfortunately, the episode didn’t have much time to explore the consequences of those turned into Prime Sentinels and then back, but it appeared they ended up being fine. By the end, it’s actually the humans and their Magneto Protocol that finish off Bastian, surprisingly, although the X-Men, especially Rogue, and Cyclops, put up quite an impressive fight against him.
The second half of the battle came in trying to stop Asteroid M from falling to Earth and essentially doing to humans what happened to the dinosaurs. The end of the world was imminent and the real hero of the day, proving once again that he has had impeccable character growth all season, was Magneto himself. Without Magneto’s help, it appeared the X-Men couldn’t stop the Asteroid and would perish with it as it made an impact on Earth. However, don’t let the irony of the whole situation be lost. The Asteroid began to really go down once the Magneto Protocol was initiated, aka they shot a bunch of missiles at it. Yet, the only person who could truly stop the Asteroid’s descent was Magneto. Funny how that works out. Is it possible Magneto has solidified himself as a hero now?
Xavier and Magneto Talk it out
Talk should be used lightly, as the two of them actually have their entire heart-to-heart while inside Magneto’s mind. Yet, we said it last episode, this was Magneto’s season. We learned to love him and saw him really try and be the bigger person Xavier wanted. We saw his small slimmer of faith in humanity completely deteriorate during Genosha and sided with him when he was ready to let all chaos break loose in the name of those who lost their lives. We followed his story all season and it all culminated in this beautiful moment between him and Xavier and as Xavier worked to reason and level set with him.
Now, Xavier was for sure playing an interesting game inside of Magneto’s mind, one that was borderline manipulative as he attempted to calm him. It definitely raises some questions about Xavier and the therapy he provides his students. However, the big takeaway should be that Xavier truly was able to reason with Magneto and bring him to the X-Men’s side. As said before, without Magneto, the X-Men would not have been able to stop the asteroid from hitting Earth. The question now arises regarding how long this moment of truce or the possibility of family with the X-Men sticks around. At the moment, Magneto is with Xavier and most of the X-Men at a different time, but when they return, will the real test begin? How long will this really last? All questions will hopefully be answered in Season Two.
Friendly Faces Join the Fight
It would be remiss to not mention some of the interesting cameos that took place during this episode. While there have been several throughout the season, this episode jam-packed quite a few into only a few short seconds. Yet it was powerful to see the amount of heroes part of this fight, showing the Prime Sentinels are bigger than just the X-Men and mutants. On the ‘Avengers’ side (this is being used loosely), there was Captain America once again, Iron Man, Black Panther (T’Chaka), Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Cloak and Dagger, and Peter Parker with MJ and Flash. Then on the mutant side, there were quite a few but of the most notable names we saw Omega Red and Psylocke. In Magneto’s mind, all three of his children were on the boat, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Polaris. Lastly, Morph turned into Sauron and Mr. Fantastic.
The only other person to mention is Silver Samarui, as this is now their second appearance in X-Men ’97. Silver Samarui is known as a large Wolverine antagonist who did make an appearance in the OG series. With him being featured twice during this show, it’s possible they might be gearing up to have him make another appearance in a future season. Knowing Wolverine has a pretty blurry future ahead of him, the show may be going towards having a few episodes of Logan trying to put himself back together, which could feature Silver Samarui once again.
Season Two: The Age of Apocalypse
I’ve been waiting for this one. The ending, along with the mid-credit scene of Episode 10 told us everything we need to know about what to expect in Season Two. Where Magneto, Rogue, and the rest of the team, for the most part, ended up was no accident. The man at the end, named En Sabah Nur might have looked a little familiar, even if the name was not recognized immediately. This man is actually Apocalypse at his origin, which means his beginning is going to be critical to the next season, so let’s get into a little summary.
En Sabar Nur was abandoned as an infant due to his appearance and was instead raised in a tribe led by the Baal of Crimson Sands. Nur grew stronger and more intelligent, outperforming all the other tribe members, which left him ostracized by everyone but Baal. During this time, Egypt was ruled by Rama-Tut, which should sound familiar as this is one of the Kang variants seen at the end of Quantumania. Baal and Nur went looking for Rama-Tut’s origins and found his timeship, however, Baal died in the process, leaving Nur with the determination to take down Rama-Tut himself. Tut had planned to find Apocalypse and raise him as his own because, in the future, he knew him to be one of the most powerful mutants to live. This clearly didn’t happen and Tut instead tried to kill him, leading to his mutant abilities starting to emerge. Skipping forward, Tut fled back into the future and Nur became emperor, but not for long. This is likely the most important part to note in regards to the time period in which some of the X-Men landed, as Apocalypse continues to appear throughout history in various ways.
On the other side of time, in the present, the mid-credit scene confirms a theory that our show has been discussing since Episode 5. The final moments left us with a presumed Apocalypse uttering words about so much death, which is insanely important when he picks up one of Gambit’s playing cards. In the comics, Gambit becomes one of Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen, and more importantly, is the Horseman of Death. It would have been shocking to see the show completely do away with Gambit in Episode 5, and these final moments confirm the theory that he will be returned to the living by Apocalypse as one of his followers. Gambit struggles with maintaining part of himself while being a Horseman and eventually tries to kill Rogue to prove loyalty to Apocalypse. By the time the X-Men defeat Apocalypse, Sunfire (another mutant) leaves with Gambit to try and help him get the Apocalypse programming out of his head, before Gambit falls into the hands of Mister Sinister, becoming a Marauder. We will have to see what happens with this final bit, as Episode 10 left Mister Sinister in a questionable state.
Image: “X-Men ’97 Episode 10”, Colin Leggett, Gamerant
Sisters Assembled 