Transcript

Taylor: Hello listeners, and welcome to Sisters Assembled fully in the middle or I guess in a third of X-Men ‘97. And like the first two episodes, Episode Three, it really hit so we have a lot to talk about. We were just talking about this, I texted Katie bright and early this morning because I started watching it before work. And I’m not going to lie, I was excited for her to be excited because I knew she was going to be pumped and for that reason also because she always does, I’m going to let Katie kick off this episode and talk to us about X-Men ‘97, Episode Three. 

Katie: Guys, I’m first going to say, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I’ve always, like, loved the X-Men. However, in about a month I have become probably an expert. I’ve read so much lore, I know everything. And the way I talked about Madelyne Pryor and the baby and everything in the predictions episode, and then last episode in our reactions and then the blog post, I was like, I bet you Mr. Sinister is behind this because he’s supposed to be the villain of the season and he has like a whole weird obsession with Jean and Scott and everything. I mean, listen, I could have written this episode at this point. I think I did, I might have, caught me in the credits. 

Taylor: I mean, you kind of like told us what this episode was going to be last episode, didn’t you? 

Katie: I really did like – listen, I told you. Catch me in the credits. I’m in there somewhere I am.

Taylor: I know, I’m not going to lie, I was watching the episode unfold and it pretty early reveals who the clone is, which isn’t a surprise, but it does, it does confuse you for a hot second because you have Madelyne saying, oh, but she doesn’t have any memories. And you’re like, oh my gosh, is the girl who just walked in, actually Madelyne, because she doesn’t have all the right memories? And then when he rolls out with his science and he’s like, actually, you’re the clone and I was like, oh, okay. So they tried to pull one on us. They like reverse uno-carded that real, real fast, and now I know exactly where this episode is going because my sister just told me.

Katie: Oh my God. Yeah. I mean, listen, the ending of last week should not have been a shock. I got on this episode or on that episode, and I said, this is what is happening. I think I either said it here, or I said it in the blog, there’s no shock factor if the Jean that was there all these years is the Jean, like is the real one. There’s no shock factor to that. I mean, it’s like, okay, well, here’s a clone all of a sudden, okay, that doesn’t really make you feel anything. It’s like, okay, I guess there’s a clone. What do we do? Help her? The shock factor obviously comes in, I mean, first off, poor Scott, poor Scott. I’m no Scott lover personally, because, like, I love me, my guy Logan, and my only thought was Logan, you get one now too, like, go you. I’m not going to lie. And it took him point five seconds to try and make a move on Jean again when she returned and I was like, no shame, no shame here. 

Taylor: The man was like, well, technically this one’s not married. She may be the real Jean, but she’s not married. Therefore she is fair game, and I am ready. Yes, Jean, you can read my mind. 

Katie: I live for Wolverine and so again, no hate towards Scott. He’s not like one of my faves, just because I do have a soft spot for Jean x Wolverine but poor dude.

Taylor: Couldn’t do anything right. Couldn’t do anything right in this episode. 

Katie: No and then he had two women kind of mad at him. 

Taylor: And then he lost his son. 

Katie: Yeah, then he lost his son and the ending was kind of like cinematic, though. Just them standing over the broken bed. I was like, how symbolic in pure silence. I was like, this guy has had the worst, like 24 to 48 hours of his entire life and I just want him to one, go to therapy and two, like, I want to give him a hug. 

Taylor: Yeah. The guy literally just watched his son be born, he’s so happy. Like, I’m pretty sure that was like the day before. I really think that they literally just brought Nathan home and so he watches his son be born. He’s like, yay, this is the best day of my life, I have a son, how wonderful. And then his real girlfriend walks in and it turns out he wasn’t married to his real girlfriend and then his kid gets kidnapped and then sick and now he’s gone and now both his wife and his real girlfriend kind of hate him a little bit. And all he did was marry the girl he thought he loved. I’m like, you actually didn’t do anything wrong, my guy, and I’m really sorry. 

Katie: On top of all of that, let’s not forget the fake wife who he actually did marry went insane for point five seconds because Mr. Sinister was controlling her and tried to kill them all. Let’s not forget that itsy-bitsy little tiny detail. 

Taylor: It’s like very mild. I thought her reaction was totally, you know, in bounds. 

Katie: For a 30-minute show so much happened.

Taylor: This show is bonkers. I think about everything that we watched and I’m like, that was just one episode?

Katie: That was one episode. That was one single episode. And the crazy thing here is and this is my only complaint, and I told Taylor this immediately was I was shocked they did this entire storyline in one episode, mainly because I really enjoy this storyline. I think it’s so interesting. I’m sure we will see Madelyne again, I’m not for a second putting that off. But they did the whole Goblin Queen and I mean, I don’t even know if I expected them to do the Goblin Queen, but they did it like when she said, I’m the Goblin Queen. I was like, you say it, girl, yes you are. And that was before she even said Madelyne Pryor, which was a whole other thing that threw me off, but I don’t think I expected them to necessarily do all of this storyline in one episode. I mean, we didn’t even get a two-parter. The old series probably would have made this one a. What would they call them? 

Taylor: Mini series? 

Katie: Yeah, like a mini-series within this season. I do think it deserved that. That’s my only complaint. 

Taylor: Yeah, I don’t disagree. I think that is my only qualm as well is as we were going through the episode, I was like, I’m vibing, I’m vibing and then it was getting to a resolution and I was like, why are we resolving this? This doesn’t make sense. Then I was like, oh, so this just became like a one-episode thing. I thought this would be kind of the arc of the season. Like, that’s definitely what we’re used to narratively, but it did make me take a step back and realize two things. One, they’re still treating this as if it’s your Saturday morning cartoon so I have to kind of take out that whole overarching narrative mentality and set it aside, take that whole thing with a grain of salt because they are treating it like, for lack of a better term, a kid show. You have a conflict and you resolve it, usually within the same episode. You’re right, there were multi-episode arcs in the previous show, but the thing to think about is those were only 20-minute episodes. This is already an episode and a half just by length alone, so I do get it. Like I definitely too was like, oh, I really kind of was hoping they would draw this out a little bit more. Why is Maddie suddenly regulating her emotions? And I get part of that is, you know, not being influenced by Mr. Sinister, but I still think I would be like really frustrated and shocked and I don’t know that I would necessarily be as calm, cool, and collected as Madelyne was if I had just found out I was someone’s clone, my husband doesn’t actually really love me all that much and my kid just got sent to the future, so like, she’s very emotionally balanced for someone who just had all of that happen. I just felt like that was a little too neat of a bow tie for me. I needed like another episode to get there, I think.

Katie: I definitely agree. I know you said about the overarching theme or storyline, and I don’t think that’s exactly what I was struggling with. I think going back to the OG series, having some of those episodes that are two-parters, three parts, I think the Dark Phoenix storyline might be 4 or 5. 

Taylor: It’s five.

Katie: I knew one of them was because the regular Phoenix storylines are four then and the other one must be five.

Taylor: Oh yeah, I don’t know which ones which, but one of them there are like five-episode arcs in that show. 

Katie: Yeah, and I think with that knowledge, I was sad that something so big and prominent to really the whole entire Scott/Jean relationship was kind of like here, but it’s over and I know it’s not completely over because I do understand we’re going to see the repercussions of this as Scott and now the real Jean have to figure out how do we continue going on with life at this point? I mean, you had a baby with somebody else, you’ve gotten married to somebody else and while you thought it was me the whole time, it wasn’t. And she doesn’t have those memories. We will see that, and I know we will. But I kind of wished this could be a great two-part to tell a bigger story. Of course, you made a great point, this episode pretty much is already one and a half of the old ones, so we really had the time to fit it I guess. But I would have liked to see the Goblin Queen kind of drawn out a little longer.

Taylor: Yeah, she was definitely cool. I have so many thoughts about how this ties back to what we saw in the first series because obviously we now know that Nathan is Cable. It’s not Nate Grey that’s been confirmed, not only because Maddie’s his mother, but just what happens to him in this episode. I mean, him going to the future, he’s Cable like 100% confirmed. But what I kept thinking about when he got sick, and it’s a little murky because I zoomed through large portions of that first series. 

Katie: How do you think I feel? I’m pretty sure I watched all 70-plus episodes within a two week time span. 

Taylor: I’m still working through it, but Seasons Two and Three are very murky for me. But my thing is, the storyline with Cable does have to do with the techno virus or one of the storylines where Cable appears has to do with the techno virus and mutants needed to have it in order for it to mutate or for them to mutate the virus or something so that they could have immunity. So then him being a baby with the techno virus, is he basically like, I can’t remember. 

Katie: Well they solve that by giving it to Wolverine. 

Taylor: Yeah, okay I knew there was someone else involved. So I was like, how does this then change what we know if baby Cable has it or was this always supposed to happen? This is why I hate time travel. 

Katie: Yeah. I mean, even for a kid show this one’s a little rough. From what I remember, I know that Bishop screwed around in the past, I think the second time stops the virus because his future is messed up. Also, that always has confused me how Cable and him are from different futures, always has me lost. Either way, anyway, moving forward, Cable then goes back because the virus has to happen in his future and all I remember there is that they end up exposing Wolverine to it because he has the ability to heal himself and then, therefore, makes the antibodies that they can then use when everyone gets sick in the future.

Taylor: Those were the medical terms that my brain was unable to retrieve. So thank you for saying that in a coherent and intelligent manner because I was struggling. 

Katie: Of course, you know I always have your back. 

Taylor: Thanks, buddy. 

Katie: Sometimes. Anyway, yeah, that’s what I remember. I can’t say for sure all the details as far as him having the virus as a child now, I don’t know because I guess it depends, this is so weird because if you think Bishop interacts with grown Cable, but nobody, let’s just clear the board for a second here, nobody knows Cable is Scott and Madelyne’s son. Let’s remember that. Nobody’s aware of that fact. It was never revealed in the OG series. Cable told the audience but nobody from the X-Men team knows that Cable is their grown son.

Taylor: Well, and not to mention he’s not actually Jean’s son, he’s Madelyne’s son, so that’s a whole. That begs the question then, does he know he’s not Jean’s son? Or does he think he’s Jean’s son? Because I haven’t gotten to the end yet so I think what you’re saying is there’s a more explicit time where he says that Jean and Scott are his parents but I do know earlier in the season, I think it’s his second or third appearance when he is talking to his computer and she’s like running through the X-Men – it’s what gives him the idea to use Wolverine as basically patient zero for immunity for the mutants. He basically skips over Scott and Jean, he’s like, oh, I know about them. Does he more explicitly say later in the series that they’re his parents, or is that what you’re referring to? 

Katie: Gosh, I’m going to be honest, I’m not sure. I know he never actually sits there and is like Scott and Jean Grey are my parents. He never comes out and explicitly says it. However, I cannot remember at the present moment if there’s another moment I’m thinking of or if it’s that one. I feel like there’s a different one where it’s a little more clear, because I don’t think that was early on in the series, and I don’t think early on in the series I was putting together who his parents were.

Taylor: Okay, cool. So either way, he, to me, seems like he thinks that Jean is his mother, which biologically other than carbon dating, which is what Hank did, she is because biologically she and Maddie have the same DNA. That’s literally the definition of a clone. However, realistically, the Jean Grey that he has interacted with up until this point is not the body that carried him, it was Madeline. So I’m genuinely curious to know if he thinks that the woman that he has met on multiple occasions is his mother because she’s not.

Katie: but we don’t know that. 

Taylor: Well, that’s what I was getting to. We don’t know when they switched. 

Katie: That is still the golden question that I am very excited to explore and what I think the rest, obviously not the rest of the series is going to spend the time doing but I think throughout the rest of the season we are going to be getting a little bit here and there regarding this. I am excited to know because they both don’t know. They both have splotchy memories and they even sit there and they’re like the Phoenix and they were talking about when they were the Phoenix and both of them were like, who was the Phoenix? They both had memories of being the Phoenix, but only one of them could have been. 

Taylor: Yeah, I mean, I know you and I have hypothesized that it makes most sense for them to have made the switch after the Dark Phoenix Saga when Jean had to be basically reincarnated or, yeah, I guess that’s the best word brought back to life, essentially because her body died. So I think that’s kind of what you and I have said makes the most sense but that doesn’t necessarily mean that that wasn’t Madelyne’s body that was brought back to life. 

Katie: Right and to look at it this way, then keep in mind, Mr. Sinister had to have Jean’s body for an extended period of time in order to make the clone and to do everything he had to do, and I mean extended by not a few hours, usually when he kidnaps her -.

Taylor: Usually when he kidnaps her. Let’s just I just want to pause on that sentence for a hot second. Usually when Jean is kidnapped by this individual, this is how it goes. 

Katie: Well, let’s be fair, I mean, it is like that is the b-plot of the entire OG series is just Jean getting kidnaped by Mr. Sinister. 

Taylor: You’re not wrong. I just the way you said it, I was like, we’re glossing over this a little too much, it’s a little too casual. We need to call this out. 

Katie: I mean, I guess I’m just used to it, I don’t know.

Taylor: Desensitized. 

Katie: Yeah. I’m completely d-. Yeah. I can’t even say the word. I’m like, I’m completely d that’s all. Okay, either way, when he usually kidnaps her, it’s only for what appears to be a few hours. If Scott is with her, it’s maybe a little longer, because I feel like normally it takes a little longer when Scott’s part of the people who need rescuing but as soon as it’s Jean, I mean, don’t worry, Logan and Scott are on the case like buddy copping it up. So I would have to think I’m still going to stay with my theory that it was around the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix storylines because that from my memory, is the longest time she’s kind of MIA because nobody’s really looking for her at that time. Otherwise, I’m not sure when it really could have been that he had her, and remember, he also takes her to his, like, spooky little laboratory thing which we see her break out of there. That’s a memory she has, right? Or am I thinking of I don’t know, they were inside each other’s heads and I was getting confused.

Taylor: Are you talking about this episode or in the past series? 

Katie: No, this episode, because the only time we see that specific laboratory to my remembrance regarding Mr. Sinister is in one of the last episodes of Season Five when they do his background and they talk about how he becomes Mr. Sinister like that’s his OG lair. 

Taylor: So then to answer your question, the scene that you’re referring to is Madelyne reading Jean’s memories.

Katie: Of her breaking out.

Taylor: Yeah, when they had just brought Jean into the mansion. That’s what you’re talking about? 

Katie: Yes and the reason I brought that up is because we never see her rescued from that mansion. That’s never in the OG series, her being rescued from that location. 

Taylor: Why is that important? Run that by me again.

Katie: I might have lost myself in here, to be honest.

Taylor: I’m like, what is the significance of your note here? 

Katie: It’ll come to me, I promise. It’s like when you’re writing one of those really intense research papers and you’re like, this is so good, I’m doing great and then you read it back and you’re like, I’m not sure the connections here. 

Taylor: What is my thesis?

Katie: Yeah, then you’re like, maybe I need to change the whole thesis because I made some great points, but it doesn’t support the thesis I wrote. That might be where I’m at right now, because I think that point is probably important, but I’m not sure if it backs up what I’m trying to say. 

Taylor: Yeah, I’m just like, not really following.

Katie: I think either way, when I was saying everybody comes and rescues Jean relatively quickly, the point of the location is they’ve never rescued her from that OG lair before, and that’s all I know. 

Taylor: I just don’t get it, I’m sorry. 

Katie: Oh, okay. It was something about when she was taken, it had to be for an extended period of time. 

Taylor: So are you saying that at one point she was kidnaped and moved to a secondary location and because we never saw her saved from there, perhaps she was swapped with the clone? 

Katie: Yes, that’s what I’m saying. 

Taylor: That doesn’t quite make sense but, you know, it’s okay. 

Katie: I think that’s the thought process, though. It was like, that’s when she would have been swapped because we never saw her get saved. 

Taylor: Yeah, it’s weak at best, but go with it, finish your thought.

Katie: No, but like, don’t you get it a little, though?

Taylor: I just like, no. 

Katie: Okay because I’m saying I think it made – okay, first off, it makes sense to me. But what I’m trying to say is, that every time Jean is kidnapped, we’ve always seen her rescued and we’ve seen where she’s been rescued. If he took her during, let’s say, the time of the Phoenix, and he took her to this laboratory where we apparently have seen her now escape, nobody ever came for her there and that would have been the prime time to have gotten her. She was in a completely different location than at any other time. Now let’s think about this, why was Mr. Sinister always kidnaping the clone then? If she was kidnapped during any of the Phoenix storylines, why was he always kidnapping Madelyne Pryor if he had Jean Grey? That’s a question. So that means our theory wouldn’t work. 

Taylor: You lost me, like a few minutes. 

Katie: Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. 

Taylor: There’s a lot of circles that you’re doing and I’m confused.

Katie: We’re gonna back up. We’re gonna back up. My running theory has been they were switched during the storylines of the Phoenix.

Taylor: Correct, I get that. 

Katie: Yes. However, Mr. Buddy, Mr. Sinister has continued to kidnap Jean in Seasons Four and Five but technically speaking, he had Jean the whole time, if that’s the theory we’re going with when they were switched. He had the OG Jean while Madelyne was out here partying with the X-Men and Xavier’s little school. Why would he still need to kidnap Madelyne then if he had the OG Jean?

Taylor: I have two thoughts to that question, because it is a good question, and I’m going to try to say this much more logically than the last few minutes, so we can get back on some sort of track here. One I have another question to your question, which is if he has enough genetic material from Jean to make a clone, why does he need Jean at all? Because he literally just recreated her.

Katie: And he wanted their offspring then, he wanted Nate. But it’s like if it’s the exact same DNA, what’s the problem? 

Taylor: Right, so that’s my other question is like, why do you need Jean, for an extended period of time if you sent back the clone? Why do you need Jean at all to be there if you have enough genetic material to make a clone, right?

Katie: Right. So the only reason I understood he made a clone, and correct me if I’m wrong is because he knew the clone then once having a child with Scott would bring the child because he would have control of the clone, correct? 

Taylor: That is a fair point. 

Katie: That was his reasoning, right? That’s why he made the clone. I think it was partially a question, partially a like statement. 

Taylor: I don’t feel like that statement is incorrect. 

Katie: Well, that’s what I got from the episode, was that was my understanding. If he had the clone in there long enough, he would be able to like once she had a child or settled down with Scott or whatever, he would have control of her when the time was ready to return.

Taylor: Like basically he had an inside woman, for lack of a better term. I think that’s right. I guess my thing is just like, I feel like he’s way more into Jean than he is into Scott. And so like if he has Jean’s material, like genetic material, I guess I just like, don’t understand, like, what’s the point of getting the child. You’ve had Scott in the past. It’s literally like you can get DNA from a cheek swab, from a skin cell, from a piece of hair. Why does he just, like, continue to, like, capture them? I’m like, dude, what are you doing here? Like, if you’re trying to infuse their DNA on other mutants because you feel that they are superior and that using them to mutate other mutants, you don’t need the host, for lack of a better term there. My very rudimentary understanding of genetics is just that you just need a sample of DNA, which again, can be very easily procured. So I just didn’t get that part even from the original series. Then to go all the way back to your question about why he would continue to keep going after the clone. I almost wonder if he was covering for himself because he kept going after Scott, so maybe he like, didn’t have what he needed from Scott and thought it would look weird if he went after Scott, but not Jean because again, Jean’s his girl. Scott’s just kind of the dude that she like, hangs out with sometimes, who happens to be better than most of the other dudes that she hangs out with in Mr. Sinister’s point of view from a genetic standpoint.

Katie:  I guess, but I feel like now I have to start thinking that it wasn’t during Season Three’s Phoenix storylines, you know? I have to start thinking about what could be the other times. And now that we know it was Mr. Sinister, did he have Madelyne waiting? And then one of the times he kidnaped Jean, he just swapped them because I feel like now that’s a different thing, we can consider knowing who was behind it. We can consider all those times he was kidnaping her, maybe he had already created Madelyne Pryor, and all he had to do was swap them when they came to rescue her, he just had to have a Jean there. They were none the wiser.

Taylor: Right, I mean, yeah, that opens up a lot of possibility for like basically any time after time number one, if you think about it like, again, I’m not an expert on cloning. I do watch Star Wars though, so I have more than most people. So I’m going to say I don’t think you need a ton of genetic material to create a clone. So say he pulls out a clump of hair, say he gets some skin cells, maybe does a swab on the inside of the cheek. Whatever it is, that’s all he has to do time number one kidnaping Jean Grey.

Katie: He’s also a mad scientist who managed to make himself a mutant even though he was inherently just a human. 

Taylor: I’m still not there, obviously. He mutated his own living body?

Katie: Yeah, he was a full human. It all started when he was trying to find a cure for his wife. And he was a scientist and he knew about mutants and pretty much the entire scientific community at the time, because he’s been alive since the 1800s, laughed at him and whatever, and thought he was pulling something on them. So he started to kind of go crazy until he eventually was drinking these, I don’t know, formulas he created that allowed him to start becoming pretty much a mutant. That’s why he looks kind of like a robot. That’s why he has the ability to I don’t know, he like, shoots power, whatever he does, that’s all him created. He is not a mutant. 

Taylor: Got it. Okay, well, anyway, all that does is prove his credentials in terms of kind of knowing what to do. So basically, to get back to my original point, all he had to do time number one with Jean was get a few DNA samples, they pick her up, being the X-Men, they pick her up, they bring her home, they think all is well. In the meantime, Maddie’s over here being created. Time number two, they get swapped. Maybe. Maybe not. Time number three, they get swapped. Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t remember how many times exactly she gets kidnapped, but it could be any one of those times after time one, assuming he got enough genetic material that first kidnaping to go make Maddie on the side. 

Katie: I really hope we get an answer to this. This is going to bother me. 

Taylor: This is one of those things that I will continue to think about for the rest of my life if they don’t give me a definitive answer.

Katie: I agree I’m going to be intensely bothered by not knowing when it happened because I do think there’s such a cool element as a viewer. Especially, and I’m not going to gloss over this because I am not a 90s kid, nor would I have even for T, she would not have been old enough to have watched the show at the time.

Taylor: Well, let’s put it this way this show’s called X-Men ‘97 because the next season would have come out in 1997. I was born in 1998, so I wasn’t even alive. 

Katie: Yeah, exactly. So for us, there’s a different type of nostalgia because we did see a couple of episodes growing up, but we weren’t watching it. It wasn’t the same as when it was coming out on Saturday morning cartoons. But I would have to think for those who are of the age to have been watching this growing up, it has to be so cool to think about it this way, about the fact that their Jean Grey, that they watched for who knows how long might have actually been Madelyne Pryor because I’m out here and I think it’s absolutely insane. I just watched all of that show and now I’m trying to pick my brain and think, oh my God, this all could have not even been Jean. 

Taylor: There’s nothing quite like messing with a childhood memory in the best way. And like making you question something that you remember and like if this was a seminal show for people as we talk about the Spider-Man show that we loved as a kid if they were to go back and do something crazy with that, that would blow my mind, right? Because it’s such an important memory. It’s one of those things that, like, sticks out to you. It’s why we got into Marvel at different levels growing up like that is important. If they did that, I’d lose my mind and I’m just like, to your point, thinking about those people who grew up on this show and are now going back as a kid, and being like or thinking about when they were a kid, and being like, oh my gosh, like that is a totally different experience now, not only because I’m an adult looking back at this, but because I now know these things that at the time weren’t clear or weren’t even really being considered by the writers, which is fine. But now they’ve just added another layer of depth to my already, like increased nostalgia and like just going back to being a kid and how I felt about that. I mean, you guys are so lucky for all of you who watched this as children.

Katie: I’m sure there’s a part of them that’s like, am I lucky to be old enough to be remembering this from my childhood? 

Taylor: Do your knees hurt millennials?

Katie: Yeah, yeah. I have one more question to ask regarding this before we go on to my favorite topic. Do we think Jean and Scott will make it now, or do we think going slightly off book the creators might be finally setting us up for Jean and Logan? 

Taylor: You’re going full, full love triangle on me here. We also we have to talk about the other love triangle in this episode.

Katie: That is the next topic. 

Taylor: Well I couldn’t figure out when you were like my favorite topic, I was like, there’s one other big one and I don’t think that’s your favorite topic. And then I was like, oh, I know who our favorite topic is. 

Katie: No, but Gambit is my favorite topic, so anything involving him is my favorite topic. 

Taylor: Oh, I know, it just took me a half second to get there. But to answer your question, I just don’t know how you mess with Jean Grey and Scott Summers. I think it’s like if you were to have Sue Storm and Reed Richards get divorced in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie, right? There are a few couples within Marvel who are just so intertwined. They are who everyone thinks of, and I just know how people are going to react if they don’t get back together. And I know, I understand like this is not 95% not going to be our 616 X-Men. So it’s not like we’re going to see this play out in live action and Scott Summers and Jean Grey are not going to be together in live action like that’s one thing. But I just don’t know, it’s hard for me to think that they are going to move away from a couple that is so established the way that Jean and Scott are.

Katie: I don’t disagree, I just think it’s an interesting time to maybe take advantage of a side quest.

Taylor: You’re not wrong. 

Katie: And I mean, we have gotten five full seasons of her and Scott. Technically, they’ve gotten married twice now, although actually, no, they’ve only got married, well, actually, Jean and Scott have never actually gotten married because Morph when he was under Sinister’s rule, was not actually marrying them.

Taylor: Sinister is really into the idea of them getting married, but not really. 

Katie: Yeah, yeah, he kind of keeps pulling that on them. He’s like the best wedding crasher ever. 

Taylor: You’re so right. But like, he doesn’t show up, he just destroys us.

Katie: I was going to say he’s not even there, but he manages to pull one over everybody every time.

Taylor: Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, man, you have someone giving you a run for your money because he’s done it to this couple twice, twice. And they’re not even married. 

Katie: I know. In very creative ways.

Taylor: The clone? Icing on the cake, man, that is just a chef’s kiss. 

Katie: They had a baby like I can’t imagine. I don’t know, I just think again it would be off-book because it doesn’t, it’s one of those things where it’s not really prominent in the comics. It’s more played up in the OG X-Men films than really in the comics. Pretty much Jean’s always pretty set on Scott, but you know, you never know. It could be a possibility now that there’s quite a little bit of a fissure in their relationship I would say. My other favorite topic as we pivot is Gambit, but unfortunately, my not-so-favorite topic is my boy’s broken heart, because what is Miss Rogue doing out here? But also, they had no business making Magneto look like that, so I get it. Like, I’m gonna be honest. Sometimes he walks into a room and I’m like, somebody on the internet was like Silver Fox and I was like, walk away. 

Taylor: Those were literally the words that were about to come out of my mouth. I’m not gonna lie.

Katie: They had no business, I’m sorry. Who in the creator room sat there and said this is what we’re going to make Magneto look like now.

Taylor: The upgrade and I know we talked about this last episode, but Rogue, she is not settling like, look, I love Gambit. He’s cool. I want to see him in live-action. We all know that poor Channing Tatum has been working on this movie to the point where he probably can’t do this movie anymore. I’m sorry, Channing, it is the truth, but I do want to see him in live action for sure. Nothing against him, but I don’t think that she’s taking a step down and going to Magneto is all I’m gonna say. And again, we talked about it last episode, Magneto can touch her, and that is important for her because she’s never really been able to have that aspect of her relationship, and she’s definitely never had it with Gambit so I get it. 

Katie: Yeah, I mean, and okay, first let me just say I hated – this has a story, this comes circular, I promise. I hated Morph in the original series, he really freaked me out. He gave me the heebie jeebies and that laugh freaked me out more. When he died, in what, the second episode, I was like, thank God this guy’s gone, he is scary, I don’t like his vibe. Okay, I really he just he’s just one of those people if I saw him in a grocery store, I would keep an eye out for but be walking into another aisle. They’ve upgraded my guy, I adore him now I think he’s hilarious and ten times less freaky, but he had me cackling when he sat there and he goes, oh look, it’s booked for Magneto and Rogue, all day and all day tomorrow and Gambits like he’s very much ready to end it all and Morphs like, wow, there really must be training. I’m like, leave him alone. 

Taylor: The amount of trolling that Morph does in this new series, to your point, what a great character. I ended up liking Morph towards the end of the original series when they made their comeback after everything that happened with Sinister. You can’t forget they were controlled, it was kind of awful. And so for them to come back later in the series, I was like, I like them. I also really like their relationship with Logan, I think that’s really sweet, and the fact that they bring out that kind of more fun side of Logan that we very rarely get to see. It’s a side that really only Jubilee is the only other person who brings out that side of him. So I like it Morph for that reason. But the personality that is really allowed to shine through in this episode or in this series is fantastic. I have a question though, what he saw in that room, what Gambit saw was that a projection from the Goblin Queen, or was some of that based on reality?

Katie: No no no no, that was a projection and the only reason I know is that the next session was Rogue and Magneto, and they were in the, what do they call it, the Danger Room. They were in the Danger Room when the nightmares started. So honestly for them, they probably didn’t even fully realize they were nightmares because they were in a room that’s meant to simulate all of these experiences or to train in everything. That was completely in his head because that was also Magneto as well, technically, was Professor X’s office, so it’s where he had seen her leave prior to that. 

Taylor: Got it. Got it. Okay. 

Katie: So I think yeah that’s what’s been playing in his head of like what did they do in the office and that’s pretty much what he saw.

Taylor: Got it. Okay. That’s kind of what I thought because they also like weren’t around for most of the episode but then I was like, how much of this is real?

Katie: How is nobody else picking up on the weird vibes? Because Gambit, of course, I get it. That’s his girl and he’s getting very confused about what is happening suddenly. But why is nobody, when they have the training room booked for a day and a half getting a little weird? Or when they show up together when everybody else is dealing with the situation and they’re the last two to arrive together, and it’s like, where were y’all? What were y’all doing it? Nobody’s putting that together?

Taylor: I would like to give everybody the benefit of the doubt because they just got a bomb dropped called Madelyne Pryor.

Katie: Which I get. 

Taylor: But if this inability to see their surroundings lasts for another 2 to 3 episodes, then I’m going to be like, to your point, y’all, what are you doing? 

Katie: He’s also their new leader, and I think they’re all suddenly cutting him a lot of slack.

Taylor: Yeah, yeah. 

Katie: And it’s a little suspicious just saying that they’re not questioning where their leader is during these moments at all. 

Taylor: But to be fair, are they seeing him as their leader really? 

Katie: I don’t know. Scott’s having a mental breakdown so he’s really not giving pure leadership right now. 

Taylor: He is like not in his prime right now.

Katie: My guy again needs therapy. 

Taylor: So much therapy. But I do want to talk about as our final topic those last few minutes because it picked up a storyline from Episode Two that we had kind of ignored up until the very end there, which is our friend Storm, who’s hanging out in Dallas, and then she is approached by none other than Forge, which is interesting because that is the guy who Bishop always talks to when he is in his own time. So obviously there’s not a lot that we know yet from where Storm is going to go. It didn’t really hint at much other than or it didn’t give us a lot of clues other than she’s now talking to Forge and he wants to potentially get her her powers back. But I love that we are not letting entire plot threads dangle for whole episodes. We’re getting a little reminder at the end saying, hey, we remembered she may not be with the team, but she’s important and we are going to come back to this one so put a pin in her, and next episode probably we’re going to pull the pin right back out. 

Katie: Yeah, it felt very much almost end credit actually.

Taylor: Yeah, yeah it did.

Katie: Which was a nice touch for us as MCU fans, almost lifelong MCU fans at this point. So I liked that. I do get confused with Forge because Forge is one of those characters that also kind of exists across timelines or across time in general, I should say. But if anyone can get it back, it’s him and all the things that he and his storylines have ever shown to me, he’s going to help my girl, which I’m excited about. Poor bestie doesn’t know her best friend was a clone, so my running theory was that Madelyne was going to go find Storm. 

Taylor: Ooh, I like it. Especially because in one of the saddest lines of this episode, Madelyne says, well, Storm would have believed me. Tear my heart out, why don’t you? 

Katie: Yeah, that one was tough, for sure. That’s why as soon as she said she was taking off, I had a feeling that maybe she’d be going after Storm because she didn’t feel like she could do it before with Scott and the responsibility of Nathan. But now she’s lost both of them and her entire life and the only person who isn’t aware of that is Storm, and the only other person who’s going through the same amount of loss in a very different way is Storm.

Taylor: And even if she does tell Storm, there are very few people who have more empathy than that woman, and she is so kind and she would be a great shoulder to cry on because realistically, Maddie is an antagonist. She is also a victim. She didn’t do any of this saying, hahaha, I’m going to trick all the X-Men into thinking that I’m Jean Grey. She really thought she was Jean Grey, to the point where she read the real Jean Grey’s mind and said, wow, she has so many of my memories like she is a victim and I think that got lost for so many of the people who are closest to her because they felt betrayed. And I get it, Scott, like, dude, you went through it, we talked about it, but I think Storm would be someone who could take a step back and say, well you didn’t do this intentionally. You’re a victim, too, you were tricked. You were deceived and can give her the space to like, emote and process, and basically do all the things the best friend is supposed to do, even if she does tell her and it is revealed, or she does reveal hey, I really thought I was Jean, but our friendship is still real because we were friends for however long I was living in Jean’s life, and even for me before that because I have all of Jean’s memories of the two of you together prior to my even arriving on the scene.

Katie: Yeah, I think I’m going to stick with that theory in the sense that it’s most likely to me because I don’t see Madelyne going away completely, and because we have that threat of Storm who’s now looking to try and get her powers back and everything else. I think they are both in a place emotionally where they need each other, and they’re not the versions of themselves that we know. One quite literally, but the other one, I mean, she was being called a goddess in not just the first episode of this series, but in the OG series they’ve mentioned it a few times. There was one time she was going to get married to a guy on another planet, where they literally worshiped her and called her a goddess because she had saved them with her abilities. She has lost all of that, and being a mutant for her is everything because it’s what she’s always known. She has always to her, been a mutant. Remember that she came to Professor X at a very young age, like a very, very young age. Keep that in mind. Her mutant powers showed at a young age, and now she’s no longer technically a mutant. I think these two are emotionally in a very connected place, and they would be a really good duo I think on the side for now. 

Taylor: Yeah, I don’t disagree. I think that’s a sad buddy cop show that I would want to watch. 

Katie: Yeah, and I think Storm needs a friend right now. 

Taylor: Yeah and so does Madelyne and I think watching the two of them help each other and support each other through probably wouldn’t be like the main plot, but I could definitely see it as a B or C plot to help their characters develop and get to the next stage. I love that I think that’s such a good use of where they both are emotionally to help each other, but also help us connect to them even more, which I would love to. 

Katie: And then on top of that, I’ll be curious as far as Madelyne, just to see if Mr. Sinister goes after her or Jean again. Who knows?

Taylor: That dude. He’s cray. 

Katie: I can’t wait to see what he does next. 

Taylor: I know.

Katie: He’s like a car crash you can’t quite look away from. You’re just like, oh, the car is burning and you’re driving by slowly. Yeah, that’s what Mr. Sinister feels like. You just like you can’t wait to see what he pulls out next. It’s always something crazier than before. 

Taylor: Oh, he is one of those people who’s always topping himself, for sure. Well, I think that is everything for what shaped up to be a very crazy and intense episode of X-Men ‘97 in Episode Three. If you’re looking forward to our coverage of the remaining seven episodes of the series, please subscribe on your podcast platform of choice, and make sure to check out our website linked below, because that is the center for all things Sisters Assembled.

Katie: You can give us a follow on Twitter at SisAssembledPod and Instagram and Threads at SistersAssembled. You can also find us on YouTube, where all of our weekly Sisters Scoop, Marvel news segments are. That’s also at Sisters Assembled, so go give us a subscribe there as well. And we are continuing to cover X-Men ‘97 next week once again with Episode Four. We are super excited, this has been so fun already and we’re technically only two weeks in, so I cannot wait for it to keep going. As always, keep up with Marvel and keep up with us as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.