This episode marks the beginning of the end.

We have started our descent into the three-part season finale of X-Men ’97 and the writers have made it incredibly clear they aren’t playing around. All the puzzle pieces are coming together and the real villain of the season is not pulling his punches as he activates his army and the mutants, still scrambling from Genosha, are trying their best to survive. With two episodes left, the end of Season One is still gray and in the meantime, just about anything can happen.

Genosha – An Absolute Point in Time

Arguably the most critical part of the episode is pretty early on. Beast, when speaking to Cable about Genosha, drops a bomb that Genosha is an Absolute Point in time. This wording and meaning are critical for two reasons. The first is that if it sounded familiar, it’s because we first learned about Absolute Points when watching Season One of What If? In the Dr. Strange episode, Strange is told by the Watcher that his not being with Christian and always losing her is an Absolute Point, and that universe’s Strange all but tears his soul into a million pieces, becoming Supreme Strange, to try and change it. Yet an Absolute Point cannot be changed, it always has to happen, which also explains why the Watcher appeared in the sky during Episode 5.

The second reason this information is critical is because it means there simply is no undoing Genosha. Since Episode 5, we had been theorizing that as Cable had shown up there, there was a good chance it would all get undone. Unfortunately, this conversation confirmed there would be no undoing Genosha, as Cable even says that every time he tried, the time stream pulled him out, as he isn’t supposed to be there and therefore can’t interfere with an Absolute Point. The genocide at Genosha will have to stick and with it, unfortunately for now, the death of our favorite X-Man, Gambit.

One final thing to acknowledge from the statement regarding the Absolute Point is that Beast is aware of it. This may seem like a strange statement, but remember that in What If?, the Watcher had to explain to Strange what it was, and in all the other universes that we’ve visited, it hasn’t seemed that those people were aware of Absolute Points either. It’s interesting that Beast does know, and while that could be tied to the fact they have spent quite a bit of time with characters such as Bishop and Cable who time travel often, it’s still interesting that in this universe, they are aware of such a critical topic in relation to time and time travel.

The Prime Sentinels Activate

The horrifying army of Bastian has fully activated during Episode 8. While Episode 7 gave us a taste of what we were in for, shockingly, Episode 8 gave us the full thing. We have learned the truth behind the X-Men ’97 Prime Sentinels, which is that Bastian is injecting humans with nanotech (Stark Expo Easter Egg if you missed it), that when activated, turns them into mutant killing machines, the Prime Sentinels. In Bastian’s messed up mind, he believes this is the next step in human evolution, to out-evolve if you will, the mutants. Of course, this is forced mutation, which is entirely unnatural if you didn’t pick up on that from the heads spinning 360 degrees and the limbs cracking in unnatural ways, going very Stranger Things over here.

One of the worst traits the Prime Sentinels seem to have is that they are able to stitch themselves back together. This is seen the most during Wolverine and Nightcrawler’s fight with them, as they are torn apart but then are able to completely reattach limbs, heads, etc. until they’re back to new. This poses the obvious question of how exactly they can ever go back to being human. Yet it also makes this new foe seemingly very difficult to defeat, except for one man.

It seems we have gotten part of our answer on why Bastian wanted Magneto tied up and stored away. Magneto may be one of the few people on the planet who can disarm Bastian’s army of Prime Sentinels, as seen towards the end of the episode. Disarming is a good start, yet if Magneto has that type of control over them, it still seems unlikely that the human side of the Sentinels will win out in the end. If someone like Beast is unable to find a cure, hundreds of human lives will have also been lost during this.

Magneto Declares War

The final few minutes of the episode see Dr. Cooper have a change in heart and she takes it upon herself to free Magneto from captivity. Magneto, who has been trying his hardest to play the part of the good guy, finally snaps, as his point has been proven. Humanity will never accept the mutants for who they are and will always be threatened by them, there will never be any peaceful coexistence. As Dr. Cooper even admits, Magneto was right, haunting words to say but those the audience of the show can fully agree with. With his newly found freedom, Magneto does the one thing that you would expect from him: he sends out a magnetic pulse around the entire world, shutting down everything and in doing so, declares war.

At this point, mutants are more than likely to join in on Magneto’s fight. It’s important to point out that one of the OG episodes that were recommended viewing for this episode was one in which a future timeline has the mutants fighting under Magneto against the humans in an all-out war. Now, with Cable continuing to reappear, it’s clear that something is going to have to change, as Cable’s current future puts the mutants as essentially slaves to humanity. Could the changes that are going to come about create instead a future where we see an all-out mutant/human war?

It’s here that we have to recall the true final moments of the episode, in which Professor X makes his return to Earth. In that future from the OG series, Professor X dying early in his life is what caused the future that took place. With his return, a war may still be avoided. However, it can’t be forgotten that he is currently not loved by the humans and there is a good chance many mutants don’t have much love for him either. He is best known for battling against Magneto, so his return may mean we narrowly avoid seeing the war that Magneto is prepared to fight. The other option is that Professor X joins Magneto in the fight, realizing that maybe he was wrong in believing the two groups could coexist. They tried, and even Magneto tried but the humans only fought back harder. It would be somewhat crazy if Professor X returned only to say that he believed Magneto at this point was also right.

Interesting Cameos

The final part of this episode was some of the additional characters that showed up. Starting with the villains, there was Dr. Doom and Zemo, both spotted on TV screens speaking to Bastian. Clearly, Bastian wants an audience of peers, yet it’s also interesting that he has seemingly brought together a group of villains, in the meantime. It’s unlikely that Bastian himself will make it out of Season One, but it would be a waste to see the Prime Sentinels also only be used in one season, while the Sentinels as a whole have been critical to the show since the very first episode. Could Bastian’s little villain club be the next step in Season Two, continuing his work when he’s gone? What villains don’t have a use for something like the Prime Sentinels?

The other end of interesting cameos came in the form of Spider-Man. Now, any time we get another Marvel character in the show is exciting, as we also just saw Captain America last episode as well. However, the exciting thing here is that this is actually the Spider-Man from the animated show that came out also in the 90s, confirmed by not just his look, but the show’s writer. There has been quite a bit of talk and speculation that Marvel might bring all the superhero shows that were running around the same time as the OG X-Men into one timeline together, and it appears this could be at least partially confirming that rumor. For those who are unaware, that Spider-Man show is full of cameos as well, as he works with just about everyone at some point to take down enemies. Seeing him could be a great sign of our own animated universe coming together.

Image: “X-Men ’97 Episode 8”, Colin Leggett. Game Rant