Transcript

Taylor: Hello and welcome to our X-Men ‘97 era because in case you missed the title of this episode, we are reacting to Episodes One and Two of X-Men ‘97 because they just dropped this week. And my oh my, they did not start slow. X-Men came to play. Welcome to the MCU, my friends.

Katie: Stop everything, everybody because the way you are not going to get me to shut up about this show now. And listen, I will be the first to admit I was not an X-Men girly. We said before, that you kind of pick your team on accident, we were Avengers girls. I mean, just watching the old show, I was already like, okay, I’m getting into this, but now somebody get me a shirt with a picture of Gambit in the crop top as soon as possible. Like I do not care. I need that on a shirt, I was screaming, so I went back and rewatched it.

Taylor: Okay girl, I know how much you love Gambit after watching the original show and I got up early this morning to watch the episodes early, start the episodes before work, and it’s like 7:15 and I am like, oh my God, Katelyn is going to watch this and absolutely go feral and I’m sure you did. 

Katie: Oh no, I did. I have the funniest video of me on my Snapchat for my friends to see of me, just like screaming, and then I kind of turn into a weird demon at the end because I’m just, like, making the weirdest noises. I was like, what have they done to my man but like, this is beautiful, continue.

Taylor: I know I was so excited for you. I was like, she’s eating so well and it’s the first like ten minutes of this episode, let’s go. 

Katie: Oh, right from the start, they were like, don’t worry, we got you and I was like, I appreciate this so much.

Taylor: Yeah, yeah. All right, let’s dive into the meat of these episodes though, because I will say that Episode One was a cute little let’s get into it. It didn’t go too hard. So I was like, all right, that’s fine. Episode Two is a whole beast, so we’re just going to tackle One first.

Katie: Well, and let’s start by first just saying I was able to finish the original show and by doing so I finished it literally five seconds before I clicked onto X-Men ‘97. Before we get into the meat, I just want to say, as somebody who went from one directly into the other, they really did an immaculate job recreating the show. I mean, the theme being almost exactly the same with like, obviously a little bit of extra because this is still a continuation, but it’s also still new. Obviously, our animation has made quite a bit of progress in 30 years and we can tell. And it also does have a little bit of a What If? look to it and I like that as well. But they did so well. The only thing and this is what it is and this is nothing on anybody but as soon as Jubilee talked I was like woah.

Taylor: Different actress.

Katie: Yeah and which it happens I get it, you can’t get everybody back but she was the only one that really took me out of it for a second and that’s only because I just watched 70 plus episodes of the other one and now I’m hearing somebody completely different. But they really did an awesome job. And even the storytelling so far is so good.

Taylor: Yeah, so just a status update, if you guys listened to our predictions, you know I was like on Season One and like really far behind, I am now a third of the way through Season Four. So I’m not totally caught up but I did watch two and a half, two and a half seasons? Yeah, two and a half seasons of television in just over a week, so I have no life, it’s fine. But it was great because I’m now really excited to finish the show and get to the places that like, obviously they’re referencing things, especially from the last season. So I’m excited to like, understand the references a little more. So my goal is by Episode Three, latest Four, I’ll be totally caught up, but I’m also excited to see, to your point, that transition and see how they did it because you have your opinion that it was done really well. I’m excited to be able to like, speak to that and say, okay, cool, now I’ve seen, you know, Episode One of X-Men ‘97. Here’s the finale of the original X-Men animated series, great, this is how I feel about it. So that just makes me even more excited to actually finish the series, the original series, and be like, all right, cool like, I see exactly what you did here. Even just stylistically to what you were saying, having gotten through almost 80% of the episodes, it does really fit. You can tell it’s a continuation. You can tell it’s in the same style. A lot of the voice actors are the same. There really are only like, I really do think it’s just Jubilee where I was like, oh my goodness. But everything else just feels seamless but updated in a really cool way and I’m excited to see the elements that they bring back from the original show, the things that have evolved in Marvel over the last 30 years that they didn’t have access to in the 90s, you know, in terms of characters and stories and things. I mean, 30 years of comic book storylines have come out like that’s a lot of content. So there are so many opportunities for them to tell new and different stories – and I’m sure we’ll get to this when we get to Episode Two – but to talk about modern-day happenings and relate to the world that we live in now, even though it’s the 90s. So there’s just a lot that I’m really excited for in this show and I think the first two episodes, if the rest of the season kind of follows what we saw with these two, I think it’s going to be a really, really good few months and I’m really excited.

Katie: Oh, I mean, I am beyond excited at this point. The way after these two episodes, you would have thought I just watched Infinity War. No, I cried after that. You would have thought I just watched Ragnarok because I was on some sort of a high that you could not take me down from. I genuinely, I ate dinner afterwards and I was saying to my boyfriend, I was like, I’m so excited, like I have something to look forward to for the next nine weeks.

Taylor: Eight, eight weeks.

Katie: Whatever. It’s fine, let me have a ninth week, I can pretend. I genuinely was like, I am so excited this is something to be looking forward to and I love looking forward to a Marvel show, but I love it when they come out of the gate and it’s just already so good. I also am so sad because I’m so used to just watching the next episode, the next episode, and I actually have to wait and that’s really hard to do at this point.

Taylor: After 70-something episodes of being trained the other way.

Katie: Well, exactly like I’m used to just okay, next one, next one. I mean, as I said you couldn’t even, the way it’s set up because it’s a different title, Disney Plus didn’t even recommend it to me. It was like Paw Patrol, and I was like, weird, why Paw Patrol?

Taylor: That seems like an algorithm error. Disney you might want to look into that.

Katie: Yeah and now because it accidentally went right in a Paw Patrol, it’s stuck on my continue watching list. I’m like, what the heck?

Taylor: That’s going to mess up your recommendation for months.

Katie: I know, I’m like, what just happened here? So that’s frustrating.

Taylor: Watch some Daredevil that’ll help balance it out.

Katie: I know, my continue watching it never because Disney Plus always doesn’t let me finish even though I finish something so it just sits there and it’s very frustrating. Either way, I think we should just get into this because I wanted to talk about it stylistically, but now let’s just get into this because I think I will try my absolute hardest to muffle my feelings about the last scene as much as humanly possible, so we can go through the rest of it relatively in order of how it happened.

Taylor: Yeah, so let’s just breeze through Episode One because there’s some good stuff to talk about but I definitely think the much meatier conversation is related to Episode Two. So Episode One, we see all our folks, they’re trying to figure out what is life post Charles Xavier look like. We get a glimpse at how this affects the X-Men, and the kind of ruffling of feathers that comes with Scott taking on the leadership role, which I think we all kind of expected just based on his personality and all of that and the personalities on the team, they all have strong personalities that’s not an unexpected outcome. But then also, I think what I found interesting was the way that Charles’s leaving because, you know, we all know he’s not really dead, but his no longer being on Earth really kind of galvanized the mutant and human relationships in the sense of, he’s almost a martyr now. And really acting as that bridge character or that bridge person to kind of open conversations about, well, how do we actually learn to live together because this really prominent mutant is now gone. So that was kind of what I was really pulling out of Episode One was, what are the ramifications of that series finale on not only the characters that we’ve grown to know and love, but then also on the the society as a whole. I think that’s where I was like, this is interesting, and I’m curious about how long this – especially when it comes to the society part –  like how long is this going to last? I think we all know that everybody’s all together after a crisis and then give it in some cases a few days and that unity breaks out. So very curious to see how that plays out.

Katie: Yeah, I definitely got that from Episode One as well. The martyr kind of idea coming out of Professor X, I mean, to everybody else, it’s his death. Obviously, the X-Men know a little bit differently of the details of that. I think what’s also important to highlight is our lovely Friends of Humanity are back. I mean, I guess they weren’t really ever gone, but they have made their appearance within Episode One already. Not even just that but we also have the Sentinels making an appearance, which I think was an amazing choice. It was a very smart choice because of anybody who has watched the originals from the 90s. First off, you will see the Sentinels in at least half of all of the seasons. They reappear constantly, but not even just that, they are the first episode, from the jump, they kidnap Jubilee and that is how this all starts.

Taylor: Yep. They are – I think it’s called Night of the Sentinels One and Two – are the first two episodes of the original series. So to your point, bringing them as kind of the original villains back, it was like, hey, we get it. We are absolute paying homage to what brought you here in the first place, but then it also evolves and so I think it was interesting to see also kind of, as you all know, if you’ve seen the show or know anything about the X-Men, a lot of what they deal with is an allegory for hate against anybody who’s really not a part of the majority, right? That’s that’s what their stories are in so many of the iterations. I think what’s fascinating to me, using both the Sentinels and the Friends of Humanity in the same episode, is that it’s two different ways to approach hate. You have the Sentinels who were originally like, government funded. That guy was a Minister of Defense or something like that, so there’s that portion of it which is like government funded. Then you also have just your man on the street, random turd who’s just small minded and he is also hating on someone who’s different from him. And so I thought that was really interesting is that kind of institutionalized hatred against someone who’s different, but then also your everyday aggression against someone who isn’t in the majority. So I think that’s fascinating as well from a thematic element as well.

Katie: Oh, I completely agree and it is funny as we wrap it all into a bow and I say funny in the sense of it’s smart because you do see society as a whole making and the Sentinels – okay, that’s a little different, just because as a whole they do start as a government project, essentially, but the way they kind of devolve into so much more and so far from their origin, it’s very hard to keep them there at that standard of representation or of symbolism anymore. As far as the Friends of Humanity, it’s so interesting because now the whole point is society as a whole is kind of starting to accept these mutants, they’re starting to move forward. It’s becoming more and more normal to just have a mutant friend. I think somebody, it was the Friend of Humanity guy who killed Xavier, whose name is currently escaping me but he was saying, oh, because now it’s like a fad, but it’s I mean, let’s be honest, guys, fads maybe they come in and out, but they stick around in some way. Every fad sticks around in some way. So if that’s his thought process, it’s not like the mindset won’t stick around. Regardless, it’s becoming normalized but the idea here is Friends of Humanity, the FoH, they still exist, even if their pockets look smaller, even if they aren’t the loudest voices anymore, they’re still there. I think that’s such an interesting take, especially when you look at today’s society as you said. We’re taking today’s society and shoving it into this show just as clearly as a show is shoving it back in the 90s. It’s all representation and I think it’s really a smart choice.

Taylor: Oh, it totally is. It really follows that cycle of all right, something new, someone new, a new type of person, whatever or way of living comes about, and everybody’s afraid of it. Then slowly but surely, through exposure to the person or through meeting people, you realize, oh, this is just a person they just make different choices, they look different, they whatever. Okay, this is a person and that normalizes it and then more and more people start to realize this is not that big a deal. And then the people who were the loudest voices in the room in terms of hatred, they have to get quieter because it’s no longer – their opinion, is no longer socially acceptable. And I think, not to get political on our show because that’s not what it’s about, but I think what we’ve seen in our society is especially recently, those voices that were quieted have now risen and become more loud again and this is speaking from a US perspective, because that’s where we are but that’s kind of what we’ve seen. And so it’ll be interesting because I think what we’re seeing in the X-Men show is that quieting of the hatred voices and the growing movement of acceptance especially accelerated after Xavier’s quote unquote, death and then I’ll be curious to see if later on in the season and in future seasons, because we’ve been confirmed to have at least a second if the FoH, something happens and the FoH is able to gain their share of voice again and kind of mirror where we are in society now. So I think there’s so much to be said about how it parallels what we’re living and we’ll definitely talk about that more in Episode Two. But I’m always fascinated when art imitates life in such a smart way, but also a way that allows you to not necessarily be like, I’m watching the news.

Katie: Yeah, I’m 100% on the same page with everything you’re saying, and it is and I think the only way I could say it is it’s smart because we aren’t being introduced to new characters, we aren’t being introduced to new groups or new, you know, whatever these are characters that have existed in this show since pretty much Episode One. The FoH has been around and we’ve seen them in varying ways, their voices getting louder and quieter throughout the original and I think we’re seeing it now. I think it’s so and there’s no other word for it but smart really to continue with that idea and if you really listen to any X-Men discourse, whether you are reading the comics, whether you are just watching shows, movies or whatever you’re doing, you really can’t talk about the X-Men without seeing what they are a bigger symbol of in general.

Taylor: Yeah, I mean, I think if you were to bring this show back and not have that theme be one of the main talking points, it’s an absolute disservice to the first show, and you’re not at all honoring what it stood for and the messages that it taught children, because think about it, I mean, like we’re watching this as full grown adults. Cool, that’s awesome. But what was the show geared toward when it first came out? Children. And so it’s teaching these scenes to younger kids and I think you’re completely dishonoring the intention of not only the X-Men characters and everything that they stand for in the comics, but also the messages of the original show if you don’t touch on these immediately because that that was so prominent. But I do want to quickly talk about a few things that are Easter eggs and cool little tidbits that I both recognize when I was watching, and then also read some articles, to catch that I think are interesting and also kind of open up a conversation that we had in the predictions. So the first thing is the mutant who they do save in this episode, he eventually becomes Sunspot. So just keep that in mind, that is who that character is in the comics, so that’s just a quick one. The other thing that I want to bring up that I thought was awesome, that I like was literally on the subway, and I was like, oh, my God, this is cool, is Cyclops actually calls Storm – and this is important for the second episode as well – he actually called Storm an Omega Level, like, I don’t know what noun he uses, but he describes her as Omega. And if you know anything about the comics or you read the comics as it relates to the X-Men, you know that that’s a designation for basically the highest level of mutant, that you can be, the most powerful mutant that you can be. So definitely has ramifications for the second episode.

Katie: I remember that, but I just want to clarify, was that Cyclops who said that or was it one of the Sentinels? I thought it was one of the Sentinels when they, like, stood up and they were like Omega Level threat.

Taylor: Oh, I thought Cyclops said it to them when he was like, Storm, why don’t you bring them and show them some Omega Level power or something?

Katie: Well, maybe he did afterwards, but I think the Sentinels initially the one stood up and like, I don’t know if he lit up or anything, but I feel they said at first and said Omega Level threat detected or something of that nature.

Taylor: Okay, so I missed them, but I heard Cyclops say it, so.

Katie: Okay, see, I missed Cyclops saying it. That’s why I was confused.

Taylor: That’s why we are a good team.

Katie: Exactly.

Taylor: But I thought that was awesome. Also, her whole entrance when she came gave me chills. I was like, Ororo, you absolute queen! And then they broke my heart in the second episode, so that was cool. We also had a reference to Madripoor, which is great.

Katie: Oh, I had to pause it and make sure. I thought I made the name up and I couldn’t figure out why it sounded so familiar, so I had to pause and look it up because I genuinely, for a second thought I just was pulling something that wasn’t there. When I realized it actually was, I was like, oh, okay, now I need to be a little bit more eagle eyed than I thought I had to be, because they’re dropping some things in here I wasn’t expecting.

Taylor: Yeah, and I’m now blanking, but there were a couple others that the article I was reading was saying, actually, this may tie it to the MCU and I was like oh, okay. So let’s just think about that for a second, because we talked about this in the predictions that we didn’t think that it was going to be tied in. That it was going to be separate based on some conversations or some things that we’d heard online. But if they are going to tie it directly to the MCU, let’s place this in timeline order. The only person who is, she’s not around because she’s not on Earth, but the only current Avenger or at any point Avenger who is active would be Carol Danvers, who we know has a very complicated relationship with our good friend Rogue, so that’s a whole thing. And then I guess my other thing is, how do you make that our universe if, one, that happened to Carol Danvers and two Spider-Man is there, but Peter Parker’s 15 in 2017?

Katie: I don’t think it is possible for it to be our universe. Do I think it’s possible it can tie things into the MCU as a whole? Yes. Why? Because we’re in the Multiverse Saga. It’s as simple as that.

Taylor: Agreed. Okay, cool. I’m glad we’re on the same page, because I was going through and I was like, MCU and all is fine, but it can’t be 616 like there’s too many – also, if just from a macro level, like nobody’s going to reference that there was a whole mutant conversation going on in the 90s like, hello.

Katie: No, there’s no way. Especially keep in mind that SHIELD existed.

Taylor: Which we know, I mean, on so many levels.

Katie: Yeah, how are we not going to address that? So yeah if it’s MCU related I could see it definitely being another universe just as easily as we’ve seen 838 and we’ve seen the one that Monica ended up in, which we don’t have a name for yet. So I do think that’s the possibility, but I don’t think there’s any way to connect it to 616.

Taylor: Okay, then we are totally aligned because as I was going through that, I was like, absolutely not. I think that’s interesting because I think that conversation is one that we’re going to continue to have as the season goes on. Understanding are we looking at a Multiverse or a universe within our known Multiverse, which is a whole bag of worms that we didn’t think we were going to have to talk about but here we are.

Katie: Right and that has been the question I’m pretty sure we asked that a long time ago, whether or not we would see this tie in, or see this be something relating to the MCU and I think we were like, it’d be kind of cool if we’re being completely honest. It would be actually pretty awesome to sit there and have a show that’s been coming since the 90s, and now sit there and be able to say, actually, this is now whatever in the timeline and this now ties into this, that and another thing. I just don’t see how we would be able to do it in  616 in any way but by another universe and then having Secret Wars around the corner, that’s the only way I could see it working.

Taylor: Yeah, I would agree, but I think that’s it for me on Episode One. Like I said, it was a little bit more of a gentler introduction. Two slapped me in the face. It just ripped me a new one right away.

Katie: I watched episode two like I watched a Philadelphia Eagles football game. 

Taylor: Which is to say, scream, cry, and throw up all in one.

Katie: Yeah, and standing because I was stressed, I was like, how is this ending? And then just when I thought we were reaching the end, they slapped me in the face with the biggest thing that I have ever been slapped in the face with, primarily because I talked about it during the predictions episode so in depth. I walked out of that and I don’t know if I felt like I won or I lost that game, but I definitely, I’m pretty sure my Apple Watch was telling me to sit down because my heart rate was too high.

Taylor: Yeah, yeah, Two was a wild ride. I want to talk about it from – well let’s try to go in in order.

Katie: It’s hard though, because a lot of it wraps because I think we could start with Magneto, but then so much happens with Magneto throughout this episode.

Taylor: Yeah, I mean, he’s the star here. There’s there’s a lot. So, Magnus, let’s let’s give Magnus his due here. He comes in and he says, read a book, this is what Charles wanted. And I am now, I wanted to say, did you notice how many times he said, my X-Men? I was like you are so petty. I loved it.

Katie: Man, stop being so extra.

Taylor: I know, because honestly, like Scott, he’s fine, but he’s like a little much and I just was like, I love someone just absolutely tearing him a new one every once in a while and Magneto just was like giving it and I was like, yes, Magnus, absolutely. I know you’re a quasi-villain, but right now you were my number one man. So Magnus came in strong and I am so curious about whether or not his newfound agreement with Charles’s philosophy and his willingness to honor his friend, how long that’s going to last, if any of it’s really genuine, I don’t know, I’m so confused.

Katie: I’m also confused because I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. I’m going to first level set by saying, and there’s a point to this, I promise. This show has confirmed, at least in this universe, that he is the twin’s father, this has been said. Taylor is laughing at me, there is a reason I’m saying all of this, I promise there’s a reason. His son Quicksilver is part of the X factor, which makes me chuckle. The off brand X-Men out here, they make me laugh so hard.

Taylor: Which fun fact if you guys remember – oh no, that’s X-Force. I was gonna say we saw that in Deadpool 2, but that’s the X-Force. So there’s a lot of off-brand X-Men going on.

Katie: Yeah, this one just makes me laugh so hard because they even lowkey copy their costumes and everything, and I’m just like, what are you doing? But anyway, we’ve seen Quicksilver actually appear quite a few times. Wanda was only ever in one episode and we could open the can of worms of wondering if we’ll see them, but that’s another thing. The reason I bring all this up is we’ve seen that Quicksilver fights for the good side, and even when he learned Magneto was his father did not initially accept him because of him being a crappy guy. However, we’ve also seen Magneto have a very quick soft spot for his children, and while we don’t really see it with Wanda, we saw it with Quicksilver. So a part of me is thinking how quickly he had that soft spot with children he didn’t know about, he has always had that soft spot for Professor X. Xavier’s always been his guy. Talk about, like the most platonic friendship that has ever existed. They are just like, as much as they hate each other, they are tied together. They love each other and they hate each other at the same time. Frenemies definition.

Taylor: Well, even you know, Magneto says it in the episode he says, you know, it’s so weird, I could always feel his presence, not because he was invading or trying to take over or telling me what to do, I just knew he was there. And it’s that comfort of like as much as they butted heads on philosophy, he trusted Charles and so it’s almost that like trust of having that person always having your back essentially, and to just completely, like, be alone in there for the first time in probably like 30 years because they’d known each other forever. He’s talking about that grief, which I think is something that the X-Men don’t really allow him to feel because they feel like it’s their grief and he’s always been on the opposite side of the – not always, because they do fight together sometimes – but more times than not, he’s on the other side of the battlefield. I think that is absolutely a good point that they have that like really deep relationship. It actually reminds me of Angelina Jolie’s character in Eternals.

Katie: Speak my girl’s name. It is Thena.

Taylor: Thank you. I’m blanking. And what is her friend’s name?

Katie: Gilgamesh.

Taylor: Gilgamesh. I need to rewatch that movie.

Katie: Clearly.

Taylor: It’s been a really long time, but it reminds me a lot of their relationship. They don’t butt heads, but the love side, the pure, unending love, and respect that they had for one another reminds me a lot of Charles and Magnus and the way that they feel about one another. So, I mean, it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that he would change how he feels to honor the person that arguably he loves most in the world or loved most in the world.

Katie: Well, and that’s exactly the point I was kind of getting to was the way he, I don’t want to say he felt shame, but the emotions he felt with children he just met hating him because of his actions. I just think knowing he’s capable of those emotions for people he cares about and now that the person he cares the most about is no longer there. I do think you could make a good case to see him really switch sides. At the same time, I think the world is testing him and not even I think some of it’s on purpose, yes, I think some of it isn’t. The Friends of Humanity is not on purpose. That’s just because they’re who they are, and they don’t like mutants and don’t think mutants deserve to walk among humans. I think people like the UN want to put him on trial and everything else, that’s a test. They want to sit there and condemn him, help him condemn himself. His crimes really speak for everything he’s already done, but to do it in front of them is a very different story and that was a test. He passed with flying colors, actually. I think it’ll be interesting because it will depend on what’s the final breaking point for him if it’s going to happen. I think he actively is going to try to follow Professor X’s dream and lead his X-Men and be that person. And you know what? Maybe that switches, we finally see Professor X return and Magnus no longer has a need to be Professor X, because Professor X is there and he can go back to doing whatever he wants to do.

Taylor: Yeah, I mean, I love the idea of, like, what’s that inflection point because I don’t think we’re going to get this good version of Magneto forever. That’s not who he is as a person. That’s not what this character is going to stay as for this season or next season, because I don’t doubt he’s going to be a future seasons. I mean, X-Men and Magneto go together like peanut butter and jelly like that is just part of what is it for the X-Men.

Katie: Oh yeah.

Taylor: And Magneto being on their side for an undetermined amount of time, that’s longer than a season, not happening. So you’re right, there is going to be some sort of inflection point, some sort of moment, some ignition, where he is no longer able to do his deep breathing or whatever he’s doing right now to hold his rage in check because there’s something that’s going to push him past the edge.

Katie: Right now, Magneto is out there doing in for four, hold for four, out for four, in for four, hold for four, out for four every time.

Taylor: Oh, yeah, and when Storm got hit, he meditated for a while. He is doing his best to hold it together like the rest of us. 

Katie: But also on a slightly unrelated know, fully related, I don’t know how old this man is, but he is in impeccable shape.

Taylor: I didn’t want to say it, but like that new uniform.

Katie: Listen, I love my man Gambit so I will say it like, cartoon or not, I was like, he is built for, like, what, 60-70-year-old man?

Taylor: I just want to say his updated uniform is doing everybody a lot of favors, and I’m really into the costume change so nine and a half out of ten, because I don’t know that I want to give anything a perfect score. 

Katie: And the hair. The hair is impeccable.

Taylor: I know. So Magnus got a major upgrade in both demeanor and costume for this new reboot, and we’re excited.

Katie: Oh yeah.

Taylor: Speaking of how delectable Magneto may be in this new season, you know who else finds him pretty attractive? Um, Rogue, what?

Katie: Listen, she can have him, I’ll take Gambit. It’s fine. No, that one last scene with my poor guy watching her walk out of Magnus’s room, I was like, how freaking dare you? How dare you? Like, go beat him up.

Taylor: I just want to know how he can touch her.

Katie: Well, and that’s okay, so I’m glad you picked up on that too. Well, not that. Yes, we’ll talk about that in a second, but I’m glad in general, duh I would hope we all picked up on that. 

Taylor: I was like it wasn’t hidden. 

Katie: No, I know the whole like, weird, interested in each other kind of vibe. I thought I was like, am I reading this wrong? Am I not, like, is this supposed to be very innocent and I’m reading this as like further into something that it’s not? But I’m glad you also were like, yeah, there’s definitely vibes here because the first time it happened, I was like, I’m reading this wrong. But then by the end of the second episode, I was like, I’m definitely not reading this wrong, like, what is happening here? That is too close for comfort for anybody. Then they’re talking about like a history that they share so I’m like, hold on. Then I also have to question how old is Rogue in this show.

Taylor: Yeah, I mean, I’m so confused. I’m like, I don’t think if I’m remembering correctly, Magnus was never part of the X-Men and Rogue was not an original. She was not an original X-Men. We have a picture. It’s Jean, it’s Cyclops, it’s Morph, and Beast and I think there was someone else who I’m forgetting.

Katie: Iceman.

Taylor: Iceman but like, those were the originals. Rogue came later, so she wasn’t like because I was trying to think maybe when Xavier first started, you know, collecting mutants to or bringing mittens together to, like, have their safe space to learn and whatever, maybe they crossed paths and had a relationship like, fine, like that’s, your adults do your thing. Everybody has a past, no biggie. Then I was like, that timeline doesn’t work out and so now I’m like, well, think about who her mom is.

Katie: I was just about to say, you’re glossing over a big fact that her adoptive mother is Mystique. 

Taylor: Yeah.

Katie: Although I will say this show has not really painted Mystique yet as Magneto’s right-hand man, as we’ve seen in the live actions, so I’m not really sure. I will say, that when Rogue was part of Mystique’s little ragtag group, they were not your heroes, that’s for sure. So I wouldn’t have been necessarily shocked if they crossed paths with Magneto somewhere on that point, because they were kind of doing their own thing, too like they weren’t heroes by any means. So I think, you know, that’s a possibility during that time period. But during the actual X-Men era of Rogue, I do not know where that would have happened.

Taylor: Yeah, I think it has to be before she joins the team. I also like Charles reads minds. How does he like not know or did he know? I mean I guess it’s possible he did know and just was like well it’s not hurting anyone, we trust you now, like again everybody has a past like whatever. Maybe but also like I can’t imagine that if she was on the team and like, had a relationship with Magnus, Charles would be okay with that because as much as he has a blind spot for Magneto, I think he knows, like who he is, what his influence could potentially be, especially if Rogue was new to the team. I mean, Charles is just trying to get her on his side in terms of viewpoint, let alone Eric’s side. Eric trying to do potentially the same if they’re in a relationship, which is arguably potentially more persuasive. I just don’t see her being an X-Man and in a relationship with Eric simultaneously.

Katie: Yeah, I don’t either. On top of that, then I still don’t know how he’s able to touch her, but I will say that’s a very persuasive piece for him because this woman is not able to touch anybody. Throughout the show, the original, you kind of see that Gambit will not stop. He is determined, however, she and he don’t, it’s like some episodes they seem to be together, some they don’t, and they’re really back and forth, which granted in the comics they are as well. Currently they are married, but it took a lot to get there and that doesn’t mean they’re stable by any means. I think it’s interesting because you see her struggle with that. You see her struggle with Cody, who’s the kid that she initially hurt when she found out she had powers. And then here’s Magneto, who she apparently is able to touch and who she apparently also might have had a relationship with in the past and might be rekindling randomly, much to Gambit’s despair when I think he was – I mean, she was kind of up on him during the one episode, like not in a weird way, but like hugging up on him and stuff. So I was like, are they are they together now? I don’t know. Then the next thing you know here is Magneto and her and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, girly, pick a side, pick a lane.

Taylor: Yeah, yeah. I think so much of it comes down to Rogue’s desire to have a relationship like Jean and Scott. How many times in the original does she see them and say to herself, they have no idea how lucky they are to have each other, right? On an emotional level, she and Gambit have that kind of relationship, but I think she is looking for that complete relationship that involves the physical portion, which I mean, sure, that is important as well to have that, you know, part of a relationship as well. So I’m not surprised that if there’s someone who she can have that full 360, for lack of a better term, of a relationship with, she’s going to gravitate towards that because she didn’t think she could have it. I don’t blame her in the slightest. I mean, is the dude maybe the best choice? No. But if he’s the only dude you could touch on the entire planet, I’m like, all right, I get it.

Katie: I get it but Gambits like, right there.

Taylor: But he can’t touch her.

Katie: Okay but like, girl saw him in that crop top cooking in the kitchen and was like, Magneto will do up. What? Come on.

Taylor: Okay, but Magneto got upgrades.

Katie: He cooks like, enough said I think. Enough said. Period, the end. Yeah, it’s an interesting storyline. That one I’m actually probably one of the most anxious to get more details of.

Taylor: Same, I’m invested.

Katie: Yeah, I’m invested, but so confused and I have to know there’s like a weird love triangle starting already and listen, guys, if you know anything about Taylor and me, love triangles are our weakness. The Summer I Turned Pretty, who, like this is what we do for a living. We love a good love triangle. So I am invested. To move on to two more serious moments of this episode, starting with because I will leave mine to the very end, starting with Storm possibly losing her powers permanently. I say that because do I think it’s going to hold true? No, you did not just take Storm’s powers from her completely. This show has done more crazy things and undid them than you could even count but it’s interesting that it’s happened.

Taylor: Yeah, emotional warfare is what I like to call what that show did to me today. I was horrified. I knew as soon as she got hit, I knew that’s what it was going to be, that that was going to be the ramifications. And it’s just especially then you think about how it was foreshadowed earlier in the episode when she was like, oh, I do daydream occasionally about being human and I was like, I didn’t think much of it because they all expressed that sentiment at one point or another, like, I appreciate my powers, I appreciate my found family but man, wouldn’t life be easier if I was a homo sapien. That would be cool.

Katie: Unless you’re Wolverine.

Taylor: Yeah, he just owns it.

Katie: I could not imagine that man just being like, an everyday human. I just don’t think he was, I think he was born in the womb coming out, and was like, I’m destined to fight everybody constantly. That is my destiny.

Taylor: He was like, not one of those people who was made to fit into polite society.

Katie: No.

Taylor: Yeah, to your point, he definitely like it needed to be on the fringes, which like, cool. Like I said, he owns it and he is the greatest. He’s just I mean, he’s one of the most iconic characters ever. But I mean, to have Storm to have this happen to her especially coming off the heels of the most recent episode where we got to see her called an Omega-level threat, rip some nice glass sand, and like, have one of the coolest entrances that gave me chills and then you take it away. And I was like, gut punch. I can’t, no, that’s tough. To your point, I don’t think it’s going to stay. You don’t take Storm out in Episode Two of your rebooted series forever. In the meantime, I’m sad. Also, her hair looks amazing in this mohawk thing that she’s got going on.

Katie: Oh, I love it.

Taylor: It actually reminds me a little bit of the most recent live-action Storm. They kind of updated it to take her look versus the more traditional like hair down or whatever. And Halle Berry, I think at one point did the pixie cut. 

Katie: Yeah and I hated that. I’m going to be honest. 

Taylor: It didn’t fit the character. It was bad.

Katie: Well, and I mean, how many times do they I mean, Magneto even said it, she’s the closest thing to a goddess. And they said it a lot in the original series, too, like people would worship her like a goddess. And I’m sorry, but the pixie cut was not screaming goddess out here.

Taylor: No, but the most recent Storm – anyway, back to my original point – the most recent Storm does have that kind of Mohawk hairdo going on, and I love that they adapted that into this series. She looks I mean amazing and also her uniform looks great. I don’t know if it’s just like the animations better because of technology or I think it is slightly maybe redesigned a little bit. But I was like, this woman just is a literal goddess and she’s still a goddess even though you took away her powers. But I’m sad that that happened to her, very sad.

Katie: Yeah, I obviously am also very sad and I don’t think it’s going to stick as I said earlier, but I actually want to talk about the flip side of it because, I mean, there’s not much we could talk about with Storm. She took off. She’s probably going to kind of go live a human life, knowing any mutant really, who would get the opportunity or any person with any ability who would get the opportunity to be quote-unquote, normal. What’s the first thing you do? Be super freaking normal for the first time in your life. So I’m sure that’s what she’s kind of off to do. I want to just explore, though the guy who was after them, who Magneto floated up with the U.N. Council, and he’s the guy who shot, obviously her going to shoot Magneto, trying to take Magneto’s powers. He kept saying, I only have one shot. And when Beast explained everything behind it, he was saying, essentially, it’s what’s in the collars they always put on the mutants to quell their powers, but it’s like magnetized and pretty much put into a very volatile portion, I guess is the word, and then shot at her and because I also, I’m assuming where it hit, considering it hit her in the chest, that was probably also compounding the problem. But my question is they only had one shot, so does that mean there isn’t a possibility of this happening again? Or just they only had one for now? It just takes a lot of time and work to possibly do it again.

Taylor: I think it’s the latter because there was a scene of him because it’s the guy with the scarring right? That’s who you’re talking about. 

Katie: Yeah. 

Taylor: What did he call himself? Executioner. But I think we saw him taking whatever was in those blasters, they were almost mini Sentinel blasters. It looked like he was working on those and also the collars. So I think he almost has to, like, make each shot individually and maybe the cartridge or whatever it is, I don’t know, only holds one at a time, and I think he just has to go make another one. I don’t think we’re going to see the last of this mutant-taking gun thing that he’s got. I don’t think that I caught that he was saying that but it makes sense because that’s why he didn’t take another shot at Magneto. I didn’t catch that at the time, but I don’t think that we’ve seen the last of him and I don’t think that we’ve seen the last of – or if it’s not him, because he looked like he got the living daylights scared out of him by Magneto, and maybe he’s too afraid to continue going. I wouldn’t be surprised if that weapon makes it to someone else who also has the capability to turn the collars into a more portable, more not lethal because they know die, but lethal to mutant abilities format. I definitely think that we’re going to see more of that through the rest of the season, if not into Season Two, because some of these devices have literally existed since Season One of the original show. It could be something that’s around for a long, long time.

Katie: That’s very true and I like that point that you were making. I also and this does not need to go into depth here but I also just want to bring up, while we’re talking about this and the possibility of there being more, do not forget that Mister Sinister is supposed to be the main villain of this season. Obviously, we haven’t seen him yet, but kind of keep that in the back of your minds as we’re talking about things, as we’re watching episodes, because everything always ties together, right? They do a very good job at doing that. So keep in mind where we’re at, keep in mind there’s somebody out there able to have created something that now steals the mutant powers and just kind of wonder, theorize about how Mister Sinister comes into that conversation because I think that’s a really important one. Also just for a recommendation, if you haven’t watched the OG and you’re not really trying to, I would watch Season Five Episode, I want to say Nine or it’s one of the last few. It’s either 7, 8 or 9. That is the origin of Mister Sinister and I would watch that just to kind of get a background on him as a whole and why he is the way he is and his goals essentially. I would watch that. But yeah, I just want to throw that out there while we’re talking about this, because there is going to be an end goal somewhere in here that includes Mister Sinister. It’s just how the pieces fit yet, we don’t know. 

Taylor: Yeah, that’s a really good call out bringing us back to what we know we’re going to build up to. I don’t see, like you, I don’t see how that fits quite yet, but I’ll be very curious to see how we callback to this, or how this Easter eggs into something else in the future, how it foreshadows in later episodes.

Katie: Yeah, and I don’t yet see how it falls into this area and how Mister Sinister falls into this. However, to get to my final point of this episode, the very last scene, I see where he might fit here, and that is because Mr. Sinister’s favorite two people to have ever existed on this planet are Scott Summers and Jean Grey. Literally like if he could run a fan club, I think he would. He loves those two and he wants nothing more than their DNA. Well, and I talked about this in the predictions episode, Scott and Jean just had a baby in Episode Two, who we all now know eventually becomes Cable.

Taylor: Well, actually, he could also be – I was reading this – he could also be Nate Gray as another option.

Katie: Oh yes. Yes, I think he’s going to go the Cable route only because in the OG show they hinted at that.

Taylor: They did.

Katie: Because Cable makes a comment at some point about his parents. 

Taylor: What could be interesting though, is the article that I was reading was saying, well, if Maddie is the mother, which is what you’re getting at here, if Scott had the baby with Maddie, it’s going to be Cable but if he had the baby with Jean, it could potentially be Nate. I don’t know enough about Nate in the comics to be able to say like, oh, Nate is definitely the son of I mean, his last name is Grey. So I’m going to assume it really is like Jean is his mother and Scott’s his father. But we know that Cable is the son of Maddie and Scott so that could be our answer right there.

Katie: Right and as we kind of just- I feel like we’re dancing around it. So as I said in the predictions episode, let me just get to it pretty much at one point, Jean kind of dies. It’s kind of a lack of a better word, it actually is during the Dark Phoenix time frame, which happens in the OG show. There is a clone made of her, I’m not really full of details on that part, but just know there’s a clone made. Her name is Madelyne Prior, and nobody knows that she is a clone of Jean Grey, including Madelyne. She thinks she’s Jean Grey. She has a baby with Scott, who ends up being Cable, as Taylor was saying, and then eventually finds out she’s actually she’s a clone of Jean Grey, kind of goes crazy, and has a whole side storyline, which we might be getting to because that is what this ending essentially was showing. Somebody is not who somebody thinks they are and I’m going to assume just knowing some of the chaos that comes after all of this, that the version that showed up at the door is the OG Jean Grey. I’m going to assume that she’s also been missing since The Dark Phoenix, and we actually haven’t had the real Jean Grey around for the whole second half of the original X-Men show, which would absolutely blow my mind.

Taylor: Yeah, I think shock factor-wise, why would you bring in Maddie? Look, there is a certain level of holy crap, someone made a clone of Jean, that’s crazy. Okay, that’s like a two on the scale. Do you want to go for a ten? Holy crap, I just had a baby with a clone of my wife.

Katie: Well, and this is why the reason I bridge all of this was wouldn’t this have been perfect, a perfect plan for Mr. Sinister? All he had to do was give them back a Jean Grey. It didn’t matter what version, or who it was. And then he got to keep the OG for whatever he wanted to keep the OG for and now he doesn’t need her or maybe she escaped or whatever it happened and now she’s back. The real shock factor is that we finished that show, we watched two and a half seasons and it was never Jean Grey. That is crazy. 

Taylor: Yeah. As someone who is still on Season Four, when does Jean actually come back? Obviously, Dark Phoenix happens and then she’s not in a bunch of the episodes.

Katie: Yeah, I’m a little gray in that area, only because I’ve watched so many episodes consecutively that I am a little unsure of when she comes back exactly. But I do know she’s gone for a little bit and comes back, and I remember thinking, this is when they’re going to do it but then they never did it the whole rest of the show. And I was like, oh dang like they just never I guess they just decided not to do that, maybe that would be too confusing, I don’t know. And then this freaking show did it and I was like, shut up.

Taylor: Yeah, yeah. I mean, between Storm losing her powers, Madelyne either being exposed as not Jean, who just had a baby or coming in the door TBD and everything that is happening right now, Episode Two did not pull its punches. It hit you from moment one and then it kicked you at the end when you were down and it said, hi, you’re in for so much but good stuff like it didn’t make me sad. It didn’t make me angry. It just made me so excited to see what they’re going to do and how they’re going to apply these storylines that you talked about in our predictions, how they’re going to play it, how it’s going to affect our characters, is it going to be Nate or Cable? Unclear, like there are so many questions and that’s just the clone situation. Those are questions just from Jean and Maddie.

Katie: No, exactly and you know what? That last scene genuinely made me feel like the ending and the end credits scene of The Marvels, how I walked out of the theater high on something because I literally was like, oh my God, the possibilities of both of these scenes, I can’t even put into words where we’re going with this. That is what that final scene made me feel, because I was like, oh, there’s no way, there’s no way. They’re not only doing it, but if this is going to be Madelyne’s been here all this time, I mean, Jean missed well, Jean now has – actually, Jean never got married technically, because that wouldn’t have been her. Her husband slash at the time boyfriend had a baby with somebody else. Professor X, her mentor, died and also said some very kind words to her that she wasn’t there to actually receive. There are layers to the things she has not been around for.

Taylor: So much trauma. So much trauma.

Katie: I’m so excited. And on top of that, again, as I said, Madelyne doesn’t really take it well when she finds out she’s actually somebody’s clone, and everybody was only treating her the way that they were treating her because they thought she was Jean. And the only reason Scott loves her and had a baby with her is because he thought she was Jean. Then she finds out, oh, I’m actually somebody completely different, just made to be exactly like her and with her memories but I’m actually not the one that you love.

Taylor: I mean, can you blame the girl? I wouldn’t like it either.

Katie: That sucks like that is not great. So talk about Jean but like, let’s talk about poor Madelyne in that situation. She also just had his child.

Taylor: Yeah. There’s, to your point layers upon layers. I mean think about poor Scott. Scott’s out here thinking he had a baby with his wife, it’s not his wife. I mean, she is his wife, but, like, it’s not the wife he thought it was.

Katie: You know who I’ve been thinking about? Wolverine, who’s really winning in this situation because, let’s be real, my guy now has another chance. He has a second chance to finally get the girl.

Taylor: But that brings up a question, do clones smell the same as the original?

Katie: I guess because he never noticed. Unless he was just so blinded by love but he’s so defensive of Jeannie, as he calls her. I don’t think if he would have noticed anything was off about her I do not think for a second he wouldn’t have been like, what is wrong with you? Who are you? Give me her back.

Taylor: Yeah. I just thought when you said Wolverine, I was like, wait a minute, that man has a nose.

Katie: Yeah, they must.

Taylor: He knows what’s going on. Interesting.

Katie: If this is the work of Mr. Sinister, I will actually almost have to applaud him, because it will have been impressive.

Taylor: I mean, to fool Charles Xavier, to fool Wolverine.

Katie: To fool the clone itself.

Taylor: Yeah, I mean, that gets it from both a physiological sense and then also from a psychological sense, which to match someone at that level, if he wasn’t so evil, it would be impressive. 

Katie: Well, and that’s why I said if you haven’t watched the OGs and you don’t want to watch that one episode, because my guy is the definition of a mad scientist, emphasis on mad. Like, he’s smart, he’s not stupid.

Taylor: But he’s cray.

Katie: Oh yeah and he’s like off the wall. So I definitely don’t put it past him being the the person behind how this happened.

Taylor: Oh for sure, I think I mean, I think we’re both willing to go out on the limb and say that’s how they bring him in. That’s how he becomes their number one target this season is because he took Jean Grey and made a freaking clone, and then put the clone in her place. That’s not too hard to draw up in terms of math.

Katie: Yeah and then managed to fool everybody for years, for years.

Taylor: Crazy. Well, I think that’s it for Episodes One and Two.

Katie: That’s all out of two episodes.

Taylor: I know it was quite the doozy. It did not sit on its heels, X-Men ‘97 and for that I applaud it. So make sure that you’re sticking around as we cover it for the remainder of Season One. If these two episodes are anything to go off of, it’s going to be a roller coaster, so make sure you’re sticking with it and with us. The best way to do that is to subscribe on your podcast platform of choice, so that you get easy access to every single episode as soon as it drops. Also, just make sure you’re checking out the website for calendars and updates and all things Sisters Assembled on there. It’s a good central hub for the show.

Katie: You guys can also give us a follow on Twitter at SisAssembledPod and Instagram and Threads at Sisters Assembled. You can also be subscribing to YouTube also at Sisters Assembled, where you guys can be catching our full episodes, but also our Sisters Scoop new segments every week, so go ahead and subscribe so you don’t miss any of those. And as Taylor said, we’re here for the long run so join us next week for Episode Three recaps of X-Men ‘97. As always, Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.