X-MEN ‘97 S2 Ep 6 Breakdown: Every Detail You Missed!

Whenever the Watcher shows up, you know. something crazy is about to go down. I'm. Gina Ippolito, and episode 6 of season 2. of X-Men '97 ended with a hell of a bang. that my cat Gambit was thrilled about. I'm going to break this baby down scene. by scene for all the Easter eggs, details, and references you might have. missed. But before I get into it, go. over to nerd riot.shop to check out some. of our sweet merch. We've got a bunch of. new designs over there, including a lot. of X-Men designs, and buying some merch. is the best way to support the channel. Episode 6, danger.exe, has three. credited writers, Beau DeMayo, Mariah. Wilson, and Bailey Moore. Moore is the.

writer's assistant on the show and was. previously the assistant to DeMayo. The. episode was directed by Emmett Yonemura. He also directed episodes 1 and 2 this. season. The previously on is spoken by. Dr. Cooper. We end this episode with. Cooper as more of an out-and-out threat. to the X-Men than she was before, and it. seems like they're setting this up to be. a battle on two fronts. The larger. physical threat is obviously Apocalypse, but Cooper can also be a bureaucratic. thorn in Charles's side as she works. against him and his new X-Corp. A little. bit of fun info, I've mentioned this. before, but Dr. Cooper is voiced by. Catherine Disher, who is the original.

series Ron voice actor for Jean Grey. At. the time, she was married to Cedric. Smith, who voiced original series. Charles Xavier. They've since divorced, and I wonder if there's any part of her. that's a little happy that she gets to. continuously yell at the new voice of. Charles. It's kind of the divorced voice. actor's version of therapy. Real quick, we want to thank Team Moover sponsoring. today's video. We've been working with. Team Moover for a while now, and. something we've noticed is that we save. a lot of money shopping on Team Moover. And you can save even more if you just. use our promo code to get stuff for $0. Literally $0. It's super easy to do.

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link in the description or scan the QR. code on the screen. And don't forget to. $0 items with the code KJR4459. and $100 coupon bundle with the code. KJZ9524. Thanks again to Temu for sponsoring. today's video. In the recap, we see. Sunspot training in the danger room from. last season's premiere to Meet My X-Men. That was when Jubilee was giving him the. lowdown after he'd been rescued by the. X-Men from the Friends of Humanity. This. also serves to remind the audience how. the danger room actually works before we. see it go rogue. Jubilee also gives some. background on Magneto, and we see him. here as the villain he once was, someone.

Polaris spends her time desperately. trying not to turn into. Fear of this. happening clouds every decision she. makes. We'll later see the more. complicated and nuanced man through. Charles's memories of him. Then Charles. is in Magneto's mind from Tolerance's. Extinction Part 3, and in that mind, on. a boat in the raging seas, we see Rogue, Polaris, the Scarlet Witch, and. Quicksilver. Magneto says there is no. one like me, which is proven wrong in. this episode. His daughter is clearly. like him. His memory is carried on in. his loved ones and his family, which as.

Charles says here includes him. Apocalypse says the ones you care for. will be your undoing, but I think this. season is trying to deliver the message. that your loved ones are actually your. salvation and are what make you strong. Then we see Jubilee appealing to. Polaris, reminding her that she started. out as an X-Man from this season's. episode 2, A Force to Be Reckoned With. There are a couple of things worth. pointing out in the opening. Wolverine's. adamantium claws are back. They make the. snikt sound instead of the flesh-ripping. noise the bone claws made. The. adamantium claws have blue circles. glinting around them, unlike the bone. claws. They also make the sharp metallic.

noise when he slashes at the screen. Also, Wolverine's sideburns are a little. shaggier here than in the opening for. 205. No idea what that's about, but I. like that he's experimenting with his. 'do. We don't actually see Wolverine. this episode, so maybe after his hard. jaunt last week, he took one of his. patented soul-searching day trips. The. only clip we haven't seen yet this. season is the giant bug sentinel as it. turns its head getting ready to blast. Even though we've seen the clip before. of Scott blasting the robots in the. danger room, it serves to remind us that. the room is in fact dangerous. These are. also the same assessment protocol robots. the room will manifest later in the.

episode. The episode opens with Charles. engaged in the absolute least healthy. form of therapy I've ever seen. He's. enlisted the help of the danger room to. let him relive Magneto's death over and. over again. Notice that Charles is. actually wearing the clothes he wore in. the past. So, he really put back on the. clothes he watched his best friend die. in for this exercise. Everything else, including Magneto's helmet, are. simulated by the room. Although the room. lets the helmet linger after everything. else has faded away, almost like pouring. salt in the wound. Charles is haunted by. the idea that he didn't do enough to.

save his old friend. And as he relives. this memory, he doesn't include the part. where he shouted, "Stay away from him.". or when he trash-talked Apocalypse. I. think because those were moments when he. was actually being brave and standing up. to Apocalypse, and he doesn't want to. remember it because he'd rather punish. himself by remembering himself as weak. in this moment. Also, a cool detail is. that the sound in the memory is a bit. more muted since that's probably how. Charles remembers the event. His face is. also not as lit up by the light as it. was when it actually happened, probably. because this whole memory is a shadow in. Charles's brain. As he replays it over.

and over, the danger room monitors his. vitals and everything he's saying, zooming in on his eye as he experiences. the simulation. When the room doesn't. cut the memory off and simulated. Apocalypse actually steps on Charles, he. shouts that this was supposed to be a. therapeutic exercise. And dude, no, it's. not. This is Charles performing penance. for what he sees as his failure to save. his friend. A digital hair shirt he'll. wear until he's forced to remove it. Charles says, "I wasn't strong enough.". And again, it's Apocalypse and the. Sandstormers' idea of survival of the. fittest that the danger room will also. adopt. A lot of the storylines this. season, from Wolverine thinking he.

needed to get his adamantium back to. Charles wanting to push the new. students, goes back to this idea that to. survive in this world, everyone needs to. be made stronger. And it's this idea. that the danger room seizes on. Charles. also says that he's less worried about. surviving Apocalypse right now than he. is about surviving without Magneto. By. the end of the episode, he'll have a new. resolve to fight Apocalypse because. he'll actually have found peace over. Magneto's death. The Danger Room is. voiced by Rachel Kimsey, who also voiced. Ship. She's also married to Magneto. actor Matthew Waterson. Polaris flies to. intercept an illegal smuggling operation.

by the Purifiers. They were introduced. in 1982's X-Men God Loves, Man Kills. They haven't appeared in the animated. series before, although they've appeared. in some live-action stuff. They're. basically a Christian fundamentalist. terrorist group led by Reverend William. Stryker, and they think mutants are the. children of the devil to be eradicated. They're absolutely bonkers. Like, they. kill a ton of kids in the comics. X-Factor member Wolfsbane's pastor dad. was a member of the group at one point. We saw that character in the New Mutants. movie. Here we see Karl Lykos, who we. saw last season as the leader of the. Friends of Humanity, and then later he. donned the Executioner gear and is the.

one responsible for taking out Storm's. powers. This dude is just always on the. side of whatever crazy fanatical. anti-mutant group pops up. The woman is. Anne. In the comic, she's actually a. mutant who has no real mutant powers, and she was particularly nuts and was. responsible for a lot of the. aforementioned dead kids. The two. communicate with Stryker, who we saw. briefly last season in episode eight, Tolerance is Extinction Part One, when. he was, unsurprisingly, discussing an. inevitable human-mutant war on TV. He's. voiced here by Morph voice actor J.P. Karliak. They're smuggling in vibranium. weapons, which I'm sure the Wakandans.

would be very interested in. Polaris. shows up and identifies herself, and. they open fire on her, which is insane. since she's there on behalf of the US. Defense Department. Polaris has the same. powers as her father, the ability to. manipulate metal and control magnetic. fields, and everything that goes along. with that, including sensing magnetic. auras around people and things. Hence. why later in the Danger Room, she can. tell that the room's magnetic field is. shifting. She's super powerful, and. these Purifiers don't stand a chance, and I honestly wouldn't have blamed her. if she just killed the whole lot of. them. But Cooper doesn't want that, so. Havok intervenes. Back on the.

helicarrier, Cooper reads Polaris the. riot act, and I went into a little bit. of Polaris's backstory from the original. animated series in episode two. But to. recap, in season three, episode 11, Cold. Comfort, Polaris and her boyfriend Bobby. Drake, Iceman, were two of the original. X-Men. She got hurt on a mission which. caused bad boy Bobby to get mad and. leave the X-Men in a huff. Polaris left. with him and then they lived a normal. life for a little while with him getting. a job as an accountant, but they started. fighting because she felt they should. use their powers to help mutants and he. just wanted to be left out of it. Polaris got recruited by Forge to join. X-Factor, but she knew Iceman would.

pitch a fit and try to stop her, so they. faked her disappearance. She didn't even. break up with him properly. Once she. joined X-Factor, she and Havok fell in. love and started dating. Bobby thought. she'd been abducted and tracked her. down. It was messy as hell. And also, I'm like 99% sure that Polaris and Havok. have now broken up because there's. nothing romantic about their. relationship here. She does have some. chemistry with Bishop later on, though. In Cooper's office, she has a Newton's. cradle and I love this specific because. we saw live-action Magneto in 2000's. X-Men using his powers to play with one. of these just like Polaris does here.

This is obviously an homage to that. That live-action one had no string, so. when Magneto left, the balls just fell. all over. But Polaris shows more. restraint here since she's constantly. worried about losing control like her. father and just lets them fall back into. place naturally. Also, I've mentioned. this before, but the canon of this show, the animated series, is not the same as. the canon of the comics or the canon of. the movies. Last week I mentioned that. Graydon Creed is Graydon Creed Creed Jr. and a lot of you said that was wrong. He's not a junior because his dad. Sabretooth's name is Victor. But they. changed his name for the animated series.

because they wanted to make sure kids. fully understood that they were father. and son. Same thing with the hero known. in the animated series as Vindicator who. comics fans know as Guardian. They. changed it because of rights issues. And. in the movies, Lady Deathstrike was a. mutant, whereas in the animated series, she wasn't. So just remember because. people do this a lot, the canon of the. animated series is not the canon of the. comics. Names, storylines, power sets, relationships, all got changed during. that original run. In fact, the whole. reason Morph exists is because they were. created for the animated series when the.

writers wanted to use the comics. character Changeling. There was also a. DC character named Changeling and Marvel. and DC were engaged in a naming rights. legal battle. So, the show invented. Morph and gave them the same power set. This is one to say, "Please stop sending. me angry messages. It's the show. changing stuff from the comics, not me.". We learn that President Kelly has. outlawed X-Men activities, which is. huge, and which leads directly to. Charles establishing X-Corp on Genosha, since the US government has no. jurisdiction there. Polaris' actions. against the Purifiers are all over the. news. Trish Tilby, in particular, has an. awful lot of footage of an operation.

that was originally supposed to be. covert. On another TV screen, we see a. red-skinned mutant mother child being. detained by government troops. We also. see a round table news program and a. news anchor showing footage of a man at. a podium on a stage, and this looks a. lot like Graydon Creed Jr., since he. always wore that maroon suit in the. original series. There's a headline. underneath it that reads, "Is President. Kelly's super something" that's cut off. I'm wondering if Creed is trying to. announce a bid for president and. presenting Kelly as too soft on mutants. Cooper clearly knows Polaris is. Magneto's daughter. It's not clear who.

else knows this at this point, but. obviously Cooper would have done a. thorough background check on all the. mutants in X-Factor, which means she. also probably knows that Havok is. Cyclops' brother. Polaris looks out at. Washington DC fighting to keep her. temper in check. She's fired, and Havok. really has no sympathy for his, I. assume, ex-girlfriend. Polaris has a. moving box from Salem Center Moving. Salem Center is the town where Charles'. school is located, 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center in Westchester County, New. York. So, this is a hint at where. Polaris is heading before we see her at. the mansion. The mansion is currently. being renovated and rebuilt, which.

happened so many times in the original. series that they made jokes of it. One. time it was destroyed by Juggernaut, but. really, there was always something or. someone messing that place up. Charles. announces that Storm will be the new. headmistress of the school, and it looks. like a lot of the mutant kids that. Jubilee broke out of X-Factor's prison. made their way here. From episode two, there's Quentin Quire in a Magneto Was. Right T-shirt, Monet St. Croix, Wing, Everett Thomas / Synch, Jonathan. Starsmore / Chamber. These are some of. the teens that will go on to become. Generation X. The brain in the jar is. Martha Johansson, No-Girl. Her brain was.

forcibly removed from her body and kept. alive in this capsule. At some point her. brain gets put back inside her body and. she starts going by the name Sarahbella. Next to her there is Iara Dos Santos, Shark Girl. She's, you know, a. were-shark that has shark powers. We saw. the girl in the yellow shirt on Genosha. and remember it and I think she was an. original character created for the show. The green blob guy is Dupe and this is a. very weird character. He speaks an. unidentified language and his exact. origins are unknown, which means he. might not even be a mutant. He does have. a whole bunch of powers though. Then.

there's Beak and Dust who we also saw. back in episode two. The one with lots. of eyes is Trevor Hawkins, aka Eye-Boy. We also saw him briefly in episode two. [clears throat] Most of his powers are. vision related like x-ray vision and. infrared vision. Pixie is there next to. the girl we saw on Genosha who can turn. into a parrot. Glob Herman, Nature Girl, Artie Maddicks, Angel Salvador all freed. by Jubilee. The big rock looking guy is. Rockslide. He's an Italian Goomba with a. body made of granite. The girl with the. yellow boots and headband I think is. Cypher since she was often shown with a. yellow headband in the comics. She can.

phase through objects. And I think the. girl with the short blonde hair and the. heart-shaped sunglasses might be. Boom-Boom, Tabitha Smith, because this. design is similar to her design in X-Men. Evolution. She can create plasma orbs. that explode. Charles reveals that this. is all taking place in the Danger Room. and he scares the hell out of those. kids. He's sounding very apocalyptic. when he says that they need to be pushed. to become stronger. The Danger Room. clocks all this and we get a very close. up shot of Charles's distraught eyeball. from his exercise earlier. Polaris. returns to the mansion and her room is. exactly how she left it and it's so 90s.

teen punk goth girl coded with the. purple Christmas lights and the punk. posters. She's even got a stolen street. sign which was a very big thing in the. 90s. There's a chessboard in there too. Her father and Charles were often shown. in the movies and other media playing. chess with one another. She's got a. couple of old framed photos, one of her. with her ex Iceman, another of her with. Jean and Storm, and one of her with the. first X-Men class which includes. Charles, Scott, Jean when she was going. by Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel and Iceman. On the wall in cutout magazine letters, another big 90s trend, Polaris put the. quote "No rest for trouble." I'm not.

sure we're seeing the whole thing, but. this could be a play on a Bible quote, Job 3:26, "I am not at ease, nor am I. quiet. I have no rest, for trouble. comes." Beast comes in and he's wearing. his Howard the Duck t-shirt with his. brown leather jacket, which we first saw. in the original series, season 3, episode 4, The Phoenix Saga Part 2, The. Dark Shroud, which I'm sure you'll be. thrilled to hear that I found online a. couple years ago and recreated the look. Hank says this, >> Every party is a form of death, as every. reunion is a type of heaven. >> Polaris correctly attributes it to Tryon.

Edwards. She, like her father, is very. well-read. And speaking of her father, she and Charles talk about his death. She calls him Magneto instead of. anything paternal, since he wasn't. around when she was growing up. In the. background of the scene, Morph plays. with some kids by turning into Reed. Richards and using their arms as a jump. rope. Morph can transform into anyone, but can only copy physical powers, not. mental ones like Jean's or Charles. Charles says that he had hoped a piece. of Magneto's mind would have lingered. inside his after he invaded it. Again, they're dropping hints that Onslaught. might eventually be coming. Charles is. back to wearing his original green suit.

that he always wore in the OG series. When some of the team leaves for. Genosha, Forge greets Polaris with this, >> Missed me so much, you got yourself. booted off the team, eh? >> Again, this is because when he first met. X-Factor in Cold Comfort, Forge was the. one leading them. Polaris calls Storm. Headmistress of the elements, an obvious. play on Storm frequently being called. and referring to herself as Mistress of. the elements. In the danger room, Bishop. tries to revive Wing, and we never do. find out exactly how this happened, but. it gives us this very cool moment where. Storm hits Bishop with lightning, and. then he uses it to restart Wing's heart.

In the comics, Danger convinced Wing to. kill himself while in the danger room, but that might have been deemed a little. too dark to show here. The danger room. lures Storm, Forge, and Morph out of the. room and then locks down. Polaris and. Bishop butt heads a little, but in a way. that makes me think they're definitely. going to hook up at some point. Also, I. see now why everyone always wants to. punch Quentin in the face, because dude. is super annoying. The danger room makes. these robots show up, which we always. see Cyclops fighting in the intro. They're actually based on the mech suits. that magistrates from Genosha wore to. control the mutant population. Also most. notably worn by purifier Cameron Hodge.

X-Men director and executive producer. Larry Houston confirmed all this in an. old tweet. Then the Danger Room uses the. energy Polaris expels to manifest as. danger. Danger was created during the. 2000s Joss Whedon comics run and is a. physical embodiment of the Danger Room. Just like the room itself, she can adapt. to any threat and change as the. situation needs it. One thing I love. about this show is how quickly the. characters catch on to things. They're. always playing at the top of their. intelligence. Forge and Storm realize. immediately what's going on and in a. lesser show that might have been dragged. out for the sake of tension, but not.

here. That's some damn satisfying. writing. Bishop says this, >> Always a damn killing machine. >> In the original series in the future, Bishop was a mutant who hunted down. other mutants for the Sentinels until. they decided that he'd outlived his. usefulness. Not only were the Sentinels. after him, but so was Nimrod, a super. advanced Sentinel who could heal and. adapt to mutant powers. Then Danger. says, "Now shall we begin?" A line taken. directly from Astonishing X-Men volume 3. number 9. Danger steals a mini jet and. heads for Genosha and her creator. Charles. Forge reminds Storm that they. can't do anything about it because of.

President Kelly's executive order. outlawing X-Men activity. Since Storm is. now headmistress, anything she or an. actual X-Men involved with the school. does would be considered breaking the. law. But Polaris, who was just fired by. the government, isn't involved in the. school yet in any official capacity. And. Bishop is, you know, a time traveler. from the future, so he's above the law. On Genosha, Charles stands in the middle. of the wreckage and wonders, "WWMD?". What would Magneto do? What happened on. Genosha is yet another event that. Charles feels guilt over since Magneto. was doing what he thought Charles would. do when he brought mutants there to live.

safely. Jean and Cyclops do a team-up. move against Danger. She gives herself. telekinetic Wolverine claws and uses. them to refract his optic blasts into. many beams. She did this sometimes in. the comics. This fight is actually the. most badass we've seen Charles be. When. Danger rushes him, he first uses his. chair guns to fire at her. And when that. he has the chair lay him out flat and. then blast him out. Then he rolls off it. before it explodes. Then he uses the. mini jet as a battering ram. He calls. Danger a child like she's one of his. students learning a lesson from him. In. the comics, Danger actually did consider.

Charles to be her father. Then Danger. grabs him and let me tell you, there. have been a lot of characters picking. Charles up by the neck this season. When. she says, "This time I go for your. head." it definitely reminded me of. Thanos telling Thor, "You should have. gone for the head." and Thor later on. saying, "I went for the head.". >> You should have gone for the head. >> I went for the head. >> Jean unleashes a telekinetic maelstrom. at Danger and Polaris throws a bunch of. metal in the mix, but Danger just keeps. putting herself back together determined. to force everyone to level up or die to.

attain survival of the fittest status. Charles tells Polaris that she needs to. unleash her full power and helps her get. over her control issues by showing her. his memories of Magneto. Forge absorbs. the power spilloff and yeah, these two. are definitely going to bone. Charles. shows Polaris him entering Magneto's. mind and Magneto tells the UN that he's. trying to be better. This was from last. season episode two, Mutant Liberation. Begins. Then we see him protecting the. Morlocks on Genosha in Remember It. He. looks down at little Leech and tells him. not to be afraid in German. He then. swears vengeance for their deaths and. attacks the giant bug Sentinel with.

tears in his eyes. Remember, Charles. wasn't on Genosha when any of this. happened. He was in space with the. Shi'ar, but he did have a vision of what. happened and because he was inside of. Magneto's mind, Magneto's memories now. live on in him. Right before Danger is. obliterated, she expresses pleasure at. finally seeing real strength and. accomplishing her mission. I mean, she. was kind of right. She did help level. Polaris up. And Charles finally got to. feel the presence of his old friend. again one last time like he stated he. wanted at the start of the episode. And. this gives Charles the closure he needs. to move on and focus on the next.

mission. He forms X-Corp on Genosha. which really pisses off Dr. Cooper. In. the comics, X-Corp did things like. helping out mutants legally and. investigating violations of mutant. rights. This is Charles's way to get. around President Kelly's executive order. and still have the X-Men be active. Charles can sense Apocalypse is still. out there. In this season's premiere. episode, Apocalypse said he was going to. time travel to the 1990s, but the X-Men. don't know that and he hasn't shown up. yet. But Charles knows he will since he. is inevitable. Then it cuts to Athens. and we get this episode's holy crap. moment. The Watcher watches what's about.

to happen from the sky. Using his. machine, Apocalypse brings Gambit back. from the dead as his horseman death. I. love that Apocalypse at one point. shouts, "Increase the power to no one.". Because he's used to having someone else. do this part for him. As Gambit is. resurrected, his playing cards turn into. tarot cards. Now, I'm not a tarot girly, but we see death, the tower, and the. lovers. And I think rather than this. being a real tarot meaning, this is. indicating that Gambit, death, is now. going to go to X-Corp Tower to look for. Rogue, his love. I think Apocalypse.

remembers the conversation he had with. Rogue when he was still En Sabah Nur. And that gave him the idea to get at her. and the other X-Men through Gambit, the. man she loves and would do anything to. reunite with. Because again, he believes. that the ones you love will be your. undoing. And the episode ends with. Gambit opening his eyes and giving a. smile. But it's definitely not our. Gambit. Not yet at least. And I think. the X-Men are going to be in for one. nasty ride before the season is done. So, that's it for this breakdown of. episode 6 [music] of X-Men '97. Let me. know what you thought about it in the. comments. And a special thanks to Tam.

who supports us at the executive. producer level. Big thanks to Studio. Tech Brian Kim and New Rockstars editors. Josh Hurd and Abby Friel and all the. supporting editors. Follow me everywhere. at Gina Abby. Subscribe to all channels. in the New Rockstars network for. breakdowns and news coverage of. everything you love. Thanks for. watching. Bye. [music]. >> [music].