The plot thickens as we near the end of the season.

Episode 7 has set the tone for what is going to be a very intense last three episodes of Season One of X-Men ’97. Villians have been revealed, heroes are losing their will to fight and an unexpected ally reappears and this is all only leading up to the last few episodes. It’s becoming difficult to predict just where this season might take us. Take a second to listen to our full reactions episode to Episode 7, out now on your listening platform of choice or live in the blog post.

Rogue is Going Rogue

Rogue has always been one of the X-Men that fits into the category of very unfortunate powers. While she is unlike the Morlocks in the sense that she does pass as human when out and about, her inability to touch others at all hinders her passing abilities, as she always has to be covered. Additionally, it clearly hinders her in her personal life and has been an ongoing struggle for the character. Take all of this, all this anger she already holds, and multiply it by 100 as Rogue now has lost the two men that she loved, along with being a survivor of the worst mutant attack to ever take place. It makes complete sense that she would begin to take matters into her own hands and would be entirely justified if she went on a villain arc.

This episode has proven she’s toeing the line of arguably both of these. We first see Rogue go off when she attacks the military base, looking for Gyrick. She continues her rampage until she finds him, yet shockingly she doesn’t kill him. Her journey does eventually have her meet up with the X-Men again, where they find Trask. Rogue makes the most drastic decision yet when she lets go of Trask, who falls to his ‘death’. All of the X-Men stand in shock, with Morph even making a comment about whether this is who they are now.

This all circles into a larger conversation that has been an ongoing debate in any good old story about good versus evil. The bad guys don’t tend to play by the rules and they even go out of their way to break them many times, while the stereotypical good guys will always be stuck with the parameters of law and order. Of course, there are plenty of heroes who either toe the line or simply cross it and they’re usually considered our anti-heroes, like Elektra, Moon Knight, and the Winter Soldier (not just in movies but comic stories as well). For our X-Men, it seems Rogue is pushing them to pick whether they are going to keep playing by the rules, or if they are going to start to get their hands dirty. After the attack on Genosha, who can blame her for wanting to throw out the rule book? If the enemy keeps getting stronger and more willing to go big or go home, then the heroes need to up their game too, or they will start to lose.

Here Come Prime Sentinels

As previously mentioned, Trask is dropped to his ‘death’ by Rogue, yet there is a very important reason as to why death keeps showing up in quotes. Trask didn’t quite reach the final destination that many anticipated, as his body returned in a very zombie-like way with the intent to neutralize the X-Men. He has become the first of the Prime Sentinels to be activated, yet how he became one is still in question. There are a few options, although all of them seem like they would not have been fun getting there.

We have to remember that Mister Sinister is involved in all of this, who has played the role of the mad scientist for far too long. Keeping this in mind, it’s possible Trask has actually been dead for a little while or missing and the Prime Sentinel just has his likeness and is acting like him. For those who are Agents of SHIElD fans, think of the entire storyline built around the LMDs. As the X-Men saw when they first arrived to find Trask, there clearly are quite a few of these Prime Sentinel bodies being built, so it’s possible they might be replacing real people with the Prime Sentinels that share their likeness. The more grotesque option is that they replaced Trask’s skeleton with this Prime Sentinels skeleton instead, actually affecting his real body. This theory has two powerful reasons why it might actually be right. The first is that Beast mentions that Trask is actually still alive in the Prime Sentinel, which makes us wonder whether they somehow did something science never should do. The second is that it has comic precedence.

The Prime Sentinels in the comics are actually humans that have had cybernetic nanotech implanted in their bodies. When these implants are activated, they turn the human into a Sentinel with powerful weapon systems. The worst part is that these Prime Sentinels were sleeper agents, just like Trask, who might not even know this technology is inside of them. Upon his ‘death,’ the tech was activated, although moving forward, it’s more likely that someone has control over when activation takes place. In the comics, our new villain uses his Prime Sentinels to capture Professor X and wreak havoc on mutants before the X-Men, with the help of SHIELD, put a stop to it. This very easily could be the direction we’re going but it will be interesting to see if the Prime Sentinels stick around, or meet their end in Episode 10.

A New Villian Emerges

Shocking to many viewers, a new and scarier villain has emerged from Episode 7 and it’s exposed that Mister Sinister is actually working for him. Bastian, also known as Sebastian Gilberti is an influential figure in the U.S. government who mans the creation of Operation: No Tolerance (ONT, as seen in Ep 7). He is also responsible for the Prime Sentinels mentioned above. Now, keeping this simple, a critical thing to know about Bastian is that he is actually the combination of two beings: Master Mold and Nimrod. This is fairly important, as a strong theory coming out of Episode 7 is that Bastian doesn’t belong in this time, and if half of him is Nimrod, that would confirm this theory. For those who don’t remember, Nimrod if the future Sentinel that the X-Men interact with in one of their time travelling adventures in the OG series. As for Bastian not being from this time, the other supporting factor is that Cable once again has appeared, seemingly aware of the issue. This likely means his future has once again gone up in flames due to a change in the past, such as Bastian traveling or existing in a time in which he shouldn’t. Another small thing to note is that at one point, Bastian is beheaded by Apocalypse’s Horseman of Death, who happens to be a resurrected Gambit.

An Ally Makes a Return but What Does It Mean?

The final moments of Episode 7 left us gasping for air as it was revealed that Magneto has in fact survived. Now, back to Episode 6, we did theorize that he hadn’t died, as Professor X sees Gambit’s skeleton, but not Magneto’s. With the relationship the two share, it seemed strange that he didn’t have a psychic connection to him that would show he was no longer alive. Besides all of this, he is alive and in the clutches of Bastian. There are various theories flying around all of this, so let’s get into them.

The first theory is as simple as Bastian needs Magneto as bait for Professor X. While this doesn’t explain how exactly he lived, it does make sense as to why he was the one taken. Professor X would do a lot for any of his X-Men, but we’ve seen various times how he is willing to bend the world to help Magnus. Bastian knows Professor X has lived and is not only angry, but ready to use it to his advantage. The quickest way to draw a soon to arrive on Earth Professor X to him is letting him chase after Magneto. Additionally, Bastian may have also taken Magneto as his power of magnetism could pose a threat to his Prime Sentinels.

Now be warned, as we go on, the theories get worse and more out of the box. The next theory is that Magneto in some way has been involved in all of this. Understandably, it seems strange to say Magneto would allow all these mutants to die and also allow himself to be captured and held hostage. However, it can’t be forgotten that Magneto is a villain playing dress up as a hero. All season, we’ve been waiting for him to snap back to his original way of thinking and lose his hold on acting as Professor X. Throughout everything that has happened this season, it’s possible he got himself involved in hopes of trying to win the X-Men and world over and things went horribly out of control. It’s likely a long shot to say Magneto, if involved, knew the entire plan and was okay with everything that went down. Yet it would help explain why he wasn’t actually killed, if he is still needed by Bastian even if he tried to step away from the plan and play the hero or end up a martyr, like Professor X.

The final and really off the wall theory is that Magneto has actually been replaced by a Prime Sentinel long ago and the Magneto seen at the end of Episode 7 is the real one, held hostage all this time. This obviously has holes in it, but it would help to explain how he was killed along with all the Morlocks, but is somehow alive when they do not appear to be. If his Prime Sentinel version was killed, it would allow for the real version to still clearly be alive. Naturally, the biggest hole is if the Prime Sentinels work by implant, then there is absolutely no reason there should be a lookalike of Magneto. I do believe I have PTSD from the LMD Agents of SHIELD season, so this could just be coming from a place surrounding that.

Regardless, the best theory is likely the first one, even though it does leave Magneto’s death scene difficult to explain. However, if the first theory is accurate, it means we will likely in some way see how he survived, filling in the hole that leaves that theory difficult to fully back up. No matter what direction it goes, Magneto’s reasoning for being with Bastian will likely leave all of us floored, whether he’s been captured, is part of this, or was actually replaced. Let’s just say, X-Men ’97 is reaching crazy theory territory and we’re living for it.

Image: “X-Men ’97 Episode 7”, Sideshow