Transcript

Taylor: Hello listeners! Welcome to Sisters Assembled, where we are deep, deep in our coverage of X-Men ‘97, with this episode specifically covering things relating to Episode Six. We don’t always do a verbal spoiler warning, but we are going to do one in this episode. If you haven’t watched all the way episodes one through six of X-Men ‘97, you should definitely pause this show, go watch it, and then come back because that is the number one topic of our discussions today. And I’m going to keep this intro super short, kick it over to Kate, and let her get the show started.

Katie: Yeah, we’re going to split this episode out into the two halves that Episode Six was split into. I think that makes the most sense, I’m getting a nod from Taylor, so we’re aligned on this, and we hope you guys are too. While the show went back and forth, we are not going to do that because I didn’t like that personally, mainly because I was just feeling a little all over the map. We are going to start actually with technically Lifedeath Part Two, even though the entire episode was called Lifedeath Part Two, and that is the whole Storm and Forge storyline that was going on. That was a continuation of Episode Four. I was intrigued because it was nothing like the comic line of Lifedeath, which I’m not angry about, but it was a lot less or I should say, it was more anticlimactic than I think I anticipated this exact storyline was going to be. 

Taylor: Yeah, I really was disappointed because I felt like they watered down the storyline a lot.

Katie: I agree.

Taylor: Yeah, like we talked a lot when we talked about Episode Four, about what this storyline becomes. They go to a different dimension, they have this kind of romantic love story there. There’s eventually, and I’m not sure if it’s in exactly the Lifedeath comic itself or if it’s just later on another time where they’re fighting Adversary, but at one point, eventually down the road, you know, the X-Men actually sacrifice themselves, which I think after last week, we were pretty sure wasn’t going to happen. Still, there was a lot of like, intense growth that could have happened, dimension-hopping, all that type of stuff. We stayed in the same dimension. Adversary was there, but he was also kind of, at the same time an embodiment of a mental block for her, which is not what I was expecting. I just feel like it kind of was a little rushed, maybe, and it just wasn’t at the level of intensity that I think I was expecting it to be.

Katie: I do have to agree with that. I think actually my biggest complaint, eh, and I’m going to hate to say this, this is going to sound so stupid, but my biggest complaint is that girly, I just found out that this guy she was crushing on helped to build the weapon that stole her powers. Okay, she reacted, slap the actual crap out of him, love to see it, do what you got to do. I hate the trope where it’s like, oh, but we’re stuck here together, so everything is forgiven and we fall in love. I hate that trope. That trope makes me so angry and that is what this episode was, was, oh well, we are both seeing Adversary and we’re both being haunted by Adversary and you’re dying and now I have to save you. I was kind of like with Adversary it sounded actually more like a female voice coming out of Adversary.

Taylor: It sounded like a version of Storm. Almost like a modulated version of her voice.

Katie: Yeah so I’m going to say that for the time being, because I’m not entirely sure the gender of Adversary, but I was kind of with them. They were like, let him die and I was like, kind of do, this is so annoying, he should not be the driving force here. It was just kind of annoying because like the whole point of the story then became the only way she realized she was holding herself back was trying to save him and I kind of just was like, I wish you were doing it for yourself.

Taylor: I don’t disagree, I think, honestly, I just couldn’t get past how different it was from the comics and look like I’m not a stickler for you’ve got to stick with the comics, right? We’ve made it very clear we’re not huge comic people in the fact that, like, we don’t read them a ton, we’re dabblers at best.

Katie: But we’ll do our research.

Taylor: Yes, 100%. 100%. I’m never going to hold a show and be like, oh my gosh, they changed this, that whole panel was so different. But I do think that one, I think you make a very valid point about her storyline being so wrapped into his and her development, being so wrapped into him, because that should have been more about her than it was about him, especially because they weren’t just tying it to what happened to Executioner, but what she had actually said to Jean beforehand and the doubt that she had felt in her own identity as a mutant. And so, because it was so tied into that, it should have been the driving force, was her trying to come to terms with her identity and I get that like she needed that push of an external force. But you could have had an initial push of the external force then realization, I need to do this for myself without him being the driving force the whole time.

Katie: Exactly and I think then too, and this is dumb, and I understand what I’m about to say is dumb, but time in these shows is always very unclear. Very rarely do we get a lot of updates on where we’re at next week, last month, or last year. I think the best idea of where we were was in the first episode, when they were talking about Xavier’s death, because they actually kind of gave us a timeline of where they were post that, especially to you had Jean, like ready to pop and we were like, well, that wasn’t a thing when Xavier was alive. Well, I guess Madelyne, but whatever. Regardless, you could kind of do a timeline. The thing is, this show is just like any good sitcom, you never really know how far the episodes are from each other. They could be so far apart that you don’t even realize three years have just passed. My thing is also, we have no idea how long Storm has not been with the X-Men and has been with Forge. This relationship to me is shoved down my throat, mainly because we never really see it develop until suddenly we’re like, oh, there are vibes in Episode Four, and then suddenly there was already kind of a thing. Now here we are and they’re like my love and I’m like, whoa, how long have you guys been even seeing each other? What is the timeline? I just feel very weird and then with Forge specifically being such a driving force for Storm’s development and her ability to get her powers back, I don’t know, it just felt a little disconnected to me.

Taylor: I definitely would agree with that. I think to your point, there was a lot of relationship development that happened off-screen. I don’t remember which episode it was where we see, I think it was three, where we see Storm and Forge meet for the first time in that bar in Dallas.

Katie: I think so too. Yes, because it was the end of the Goblin Queen.

Taylor: Yeah and so from that moment to even Episode Four, where we’re catching the vibes because I think six happens pretty quickly after four. It’s clear that he got attacked by Adversary and then pretty quickly he was starting to have some serious physical ramifications for that but we have no idea, to your point, how long it was between that Goblin Queen episode and when we’re actually seeing them in Episode Four and so much of that development between, hey, I think I can help you to, oh, hey, like we’re into each other happens off-screen. So it’s hard to become invested in the relationship, even though like we talked about before, it’s very iconic. They have a very iconic relationship in the comics, but unfortunately, we never see it develop so it’s not something that we can really even get into because it’s just all of a sudden there.

Katie: Exactly and it just feels weird and because it was such a driving force in everything that happened as part of this storyline, in this episode, I just was not invested. A part of me was happy they were splitting it up constantly because I think it would have very much been like to me, the Jubilee half of Episode Four, where I was like, I’m not not enjoying this, but I could have watched anything else. I would have been okay with something else especially – and we said this last week and we knew this was going to happen – when you are coming off of Episode Five, which literally blew apart everything we knew and has everybody across the fandom, whether you are an X-Men fan or not, whether you’re a comic reader or not, whatever you are saying, this was the best episode of TV they’ve ever seen, best comic adaptation of something they’ve ever seen and then we had to go to this and I understand we already had our complaints. I’m not going to sit here and sit on them, no reason to. I think when you already are going into the episode thinking, dang, I really would love to get a continuation of last week, I’d love to know what’s next and you already know it’s not going to be that you need to still meet it. I think the second half or the second part of this episode helped for sure, and I’m very excited to talk about that part but this part, the storyline, everything about it. I was just like, can we get this part over with like every time we went to it, I was like, oh my God, come on.

Taylor: Yeah, it definitely was the lesser of the two that I was like, oh, okay, let’s switch back to this, and every time it did, I was like, oh, okay, one this is so clearly deviating from any sort of real ramifications that we thought it might have and yeah, we were giving pie in the sky theories. That’s what we do on the show, okay? But like at the same time, to not even get close or to even try to get close, I just felt like that storyline was so mismanaged, I guess. I think the other thing, and you brought this up when you talked about oh, the half where was half Jubilee story and half Lifedeath; we did not need to split up Lifedeath, like you could have just literally done one episode called Lifedeath and been like, cool because again, it didn’t even get its own episode.

Katie: Yeah.

Taylor: It got split with another storyline so I don’t understand why we didn’t just do Lifedeath Episode Four or if we’re gonna keep it in the order that we did the unfortunate order that we had, where it’s that middle one between the real getting to see the real ramifications of Episode Five, because it does tie in. Obviously, we see Forge turn on the TV, and they both have their natural reaction of horror to what happened in Genosha when they see the news. So even if we’re going to keep it, much to our chagrin, that Episode Six is Lifedeath, but it’s Lifedeath in its entirety and then we see how that ties into the larger storyline of the attack on Genosha. That’s still better than having this weird Lifedeath, non-Lifedeath, Lifedeath when we could have done it all in one. That’s the part where I’m just like, you’re losing me with these episode orders, it just doesn’t make sense.

Katie: It definitely is a hard pill to swallow the weird pace of the episodes, and also then the weird pace within the episodes, and you kind of just set all of this, but we split Episode Four, went to a completely different storyline, also ignoring the fact that Episode Three had just happened. Then we went to Episode Five where chaos erupts, and then we split Episode Four again, not quite as cleanly, but we still split it or I’m sorry Episode Six. Then it’s like, so cool, now we’re going back to what happened in Episode Five and you’re going to see more ramifications. I understand why there were things that in this episode needed to happen prior to whatever we’re probably going to see in the next episode, more so because of the second half of this episode, not so much Lifedeath. I think it’s going to be important that you have an Omega level threat like Storm regain her power and I do think that’s important, and it’s going to be critical for the rest of the storylines that happen during the season. She is needed and I said from the start, she was not going to be sidelined the entire season. That would be insane. That would be absolutely crazy for them to do. I just don’t think the story held up in comparison to some of the stories they’ve been telling in the middle. I think you need to decide the order that’s going to work, that’s going to keep your viewers wanting constantly, instead of going into episodes and kind of being like this isn’t really what I want to watch, but like, I’m going to watch it because I know, honestly, the Xavier part is what kept me going in this episode, truly.  I kept waiting because I was like, they’re not just showing Xavier with Lilandra for no reason. There’s a story here we’re seeing it like it’s finally happening and we’ll get to all that later but like that is what kept me driving here. Not at all the Storm storyline and I knew she was getting her powers back too, so it was kind of like, yay, Storms’ back.

Taylor: You’re right. Yeah, I do think that’s true. I think it was the weaker of the two storylines that came through in this episode, for sure, which is disappointing because again, we talked at length about the opportunities that Lifedeath could open up, and then it really just fell very flat. What you were saying, though, did kind of bring up two things for me that I want to bring up. One is that actually three things, but they’re all relatively quick, I promise. One is that the one thing I did really like about this episode is it started to tie all of the threads together, right? We’ve talked about how we have all these like ABC plots and, and they’re kind of rotating around like every episode gets a different focus and we’ve been really moving between the plots. I think for the first time we’re starting to see as we get to the final four episodes, how these things are going to start to come together. Storm is going to come back into the fold and she’s going to be dealing with the aftermath of what happened to Genosha, however, the X-Men choose to respond. Now Xavier is going to come back because he’s going to have to take back the role of leader because Magneto is dead. You also mentioned Storm is an Omega-level threat. She was named an Omega-level threat, and then suddenly she lost her powers. I don’t think it’s also a coincidence that the Sentinel named Magneto an Omega-level threat, and then wiped him off the face of the Earth. We watched two Omega-level threats, Omega-level mutants get taken off the board in very different ways, but get taken off the board at different points this season and that’s definitely something that I think is worth noting. 

Katie: Well, something. I want to add, and I actually put this in the Episode Five blog post, but you’re edging that conversation, so I just want to point it out since we’re right there. The strike that took down Storm, though, was always meant for Magneto.

Taylor: This is true, this is true.

Katie: So keep that in mind is that there is somebody pretty determined to take down Magneto. Notice how the attack didn’t happen until Magneto was on Genosha. So leave it where it is. It could be nothing, but I do just want to say yes two omega-level threats had been taken out, but the first one was never meant to be taken out. It was always meant to be Magneto.

Taylor: We will get to the big reveal at the end of the episode, so let’s put a pin in that revelation – not revelation – but that point that you just made because it is a good one but we’re going to hold that till the end. I want to say one more thing about Storm before we move into the other major storyline of this episode obviously being Professor X, and I want to get your take on this because I’m curious. Obviously, we know the Executioner’s shot on Storm had a very real effect, right? We saw it in how Beast explained the science behind it and all of it. It wasn’t just a mental block for her, it was very much a physical reaction. So I’m curious if you interpreted it the same way that I did, which is that Forge’s machine actually worked when he put her inside it in Episode Four. I do actually think it healed the physical issues and remember we talked about it’s so weird that it didn’t work because that’s literally his mutant ability is to make whatever he can imagine. I do think it actually healed the physical issues caused by the Executioner’s shot, but I don’t think that it appeared to work because of the mental block, which is what Adversary then kind of helped her in its own roundabout way fixed. I’m curious if that was kind of also the take that you took out of it.

Katie: I’m actually really glad you explained that, mainly because I’m going to be honest, I was more confused. When Adversary was talking, you realize, and not just when Adversary was talking, but when Storm then does gain her powers back and she says it was a block, like I was holding myself back. I was like, well, that doesn’t quite make sense. Mainly because to your point, we saw the Executioner physically take it away from her. Not even just that, we see Beast perform scientific experiments in which he says, I’m afraid it looks like your powers are gone, possibly permanently for the time being, we don’t know how to reverse this, I don’t know how to fix this yet. Obviously, he doesn’t really have a chance because she takes off. I think you filled in that hole because I couldn’t understand why it was a mental block when I was like, there was science, experiments were done to prove that you no longer had your mutant abilities. How could it have been a block? But I like that. I like the fact that Forge maybe was successful, and I think it also kind of calls back to the original Lifedeath comic a little more, too, because, and as we’ve said before, he does help her get her powers back, but it takes him getting pulled into the alternate universe with her by Adversary to do so. Okay, we don’t necessarily see that happen in this show. We don’t see a lot of that storyline of Lifedeath happen in the show. However, we then at least could still say Forge helped her. Forge still was the one who helped her get the powers back, but she had to realize she was holding herself back from actually being able to utilize them again. So I actually really like that, I hadn’t put that together.

Taylor: Point for me, I just want to put that on the board, go me. I’m a little proud of myself, not going to lie, but I won’t belabor the point because we do have an entire kind of second storyline that was shining through in this episode. I know Katie talked about this, or at least mentioned it is definitely the more interesting of the two. No, shade to Storm. We love her, and also her new outfit bomb. She looks so good.

Katie: But where’d the hair come from?

Taylor: Who cares?

Katie: I do, she had a mohawk and then suddenly had a full head of hair and I was like, how did you just regrow all of your hair? It was very important to me during this episode, I’m not going to lie.

Taylor: She’s a literal goddess and that’s what you’re worried about?

Katie: Yes, I was digging the mohawk, and don’t get me wrong, I’m digging the new look. You all know black is my color, I will wear black constantly. So I’m like you go to the dark side, girly, do what you got to do. But where did you regrow all the hair? How did that happen? That is so important to me.

Taylor: I don’t have an answer for you, I truly don’t.

Katie: Apparently she has more than just abilities over nature. Although who to say hair growing could be natural.

Taylor: Okay. Anyway, moving on to an actual important point, let’s talk about Professor Xavier because we got to see what he’s been up to and man’s making a move to become Emperor of the Shi’ar Empire.

Katie: Listen, I knew as soon as I was going to say, as soon as I saw my guy pop up, actually, not even as soon as I saw the whole Kree battle and like a Lilandra’s people have weirdly shaped heads, slash hair, and I saw them. I knew we were in for something good because time and time again, have I not spoken about the fact that there is no way, absolutely no way, we were going to continue to have an X-Men animated show that, again, has not only been renewed for a Season Two and is already pretty much done for Season Two, has been renewed for a Season Three and not have Professor Xavier at any point make a comeback.

Taylor: Agreed and also you mentioned the Kree battle. Can we just talk about Ronan the Accuser making an appearance?

Katie: I was like, booboo, what are you doing here?

Taylor: Lee Pace, come on.

Katie: Yeah. I also was like, why are you dressed like that? I definitely have to say I liked the MCU version of you better.

Taylor: Agreed. He looked a little odd, but hey, it’s probably a different universe, so maybe this Ronan is less fashion-forward.

Katie: He’s also clearly less powerful because he kind of folded.

Taylor: Totally, I mean, look, we have not seen the Shi’ar in the MCU, so we have no idea how they would fare against some of the same people that Ronan went against but Ronan was out here wiping out planets, and granted that was with the help of an Infinity Stone, but still, he definitely he went down hard. He went down fast.

Katie: Yeah, I definitely was a little excited at first. I was like, Kree and then I was like, is that Ronan? And then he kind of folded and I was like, never mind. This was not important, apparently, to the storyline. He just kind of made a random appearance and we just moved forward but that was fine because moving forward took us into the Lilandra and Xavier chaos of marriage, just kidding, kind of vibe and I was living for it. I loved being able to see what he’s been up to, to your point, but I also love that by the end he was like, I cannot renounce my entire life. Listen, Lilandra, sweetie, are you sane? And I ask because your brother wasn’t, your sister is off the wall. Are you sure you are I?

Taylor: When I tell you that there is not a character that I hate more than Lilandra’s sister in this show, I find her so I can’t even think of the word, just everything about her. I see her face and I want to punch a wall. I hear her voice and I want to kick a wall. I’m just like, can Ronan just take you out, please? I find you so annoying.

Katie: I do too. I also struggled with I couldn’t remember how it ended with her prior, so I was also really thrown off because I was like, she’s fighting the Kree for her sister and like their home and whatever, but she’s actively trying to ruin her sister’s life and steal the throne. So it’s like a weird vibe of what is going on and I’m like, why did you forgive her the first time? That was weird to me because I was like, we all saw her act up the first time in the OG series, so why did you forgive her, and why is she still involved here? And then she lost it again because like, what else is new?

Taylor: That girl didn’t just, like, betray her sister. She literally made a deal with Apocalypse so that Apocalypse could get a seer, someone who was a telepath in exchange for murdering her. It was not a cute little sister squabble like Kate and I occasionally have. This was a contract for hire murder. 

Katie: I’m pretty sure the worst thing I’ve ever done to Taylor was like, shove her in the bathtub when I was really mad at her once. And like, this girl is out here, like, you don’t mind murdering my sister while you’re at it, right? Just take her out really quick. I’ll be happy. Or let me absolutely destroy your life and never let you marry the man that you want to marry, because he won’t actually be able to give up his entire life for you because I understand what I’m asking and what I’m challenging him with is arguably the worst thing you could challenge someone to do. And so I’m going to ruin your life for that reason. Thank you. 

Taylor: Not a good sister bond. Not approved.

Katie: No. She should have definitely just taken her out but we here at Sisters Assembled give these two sisters the disapproval stamp because we don’t love it. We are not loving it. Not the vibes that need to happen in a sisterly relationship. 

Taylor: No and you don’t even have to be blood sisters. These girls like they’re not even good as blood sisters. There are non-biological sisters in the MCU and in comic book TV shows and movies that are better than these blood sisters.

Katie: Yeah, and it honestly probably has to deal with the crown, because let’s be honest, we have almost never seen a healthy relationship – Loki and Thor – that deals with a crown and a throne, so it does probably have to deal with that, I’m going to assume. Also, keep in mind, that Lilandra was not supposed to be on the throne technically because they had an older brother who was also certifiably insane, but she was the spare. She was the first spare. So, you know, I’m sure there are some levels to this, by all means, but let’s focus back on our bestie Xavier over here, because not only does he not take the deal he originally was possibly going to, and yet the one person who held him up the most? Freaking Magnus.

Taylor: Look, we love a good friendship. Their friendship is so complicated because I truly believe that these men, both have had women in their lives, who have been important. Magnus is clearly not over his wife, we saw that in the original series. He has his thing with Rogue. I do think that those feelings are real and deep, at least for him, we now know how she feels on a deep level and that it is Gambit for her. So he’s had, you know, romantic partners. Same thing, we’ve seen Charles, I mean, in the original series, he’s like engaged twice. I’m pretty sure he’s like engaged to Moira. He’s engaged to that other mutant who turns into gas and I’m forgetting what her name is and now he has little Audra. So we’ve seen them have these also emotional, deep romantic relationships. But for these men, the only person that they have truly and unendingly loved is each other.

Katie: Let’s just say I need a relationship like Magneto and Xavier, because that type of friendship, honestly, let’s be honest, it’s not healthy. It’s not a healthy relationship. Nobody should make you feel the way Magneto makes Xavier feel and stress him out the way that Magneto stresses out Xavier, it’s not a healthy friendship. Let’s be real, they are definitely like trauma bonded and that never leads anywhere good. As somebody who’s gone through trauma with friends, we are not friends, okay? It doesn’t really do anything good. This man will not give him up. Not even like for Scott or Jean, who he pretty much helped to raise. He’s like but I could never give up my Magnus, it always shows me off when they call him his real name, but he’s like, I could never forget Magnus. I’m like, dude, you’re students you were like, eh okay but Magnus. Like, Magnus, just step away from Rogue, go be with Xavier. I don’t know, what to say at this point.

Taylor: I know. I mean, honestly, for me, what always just keeps striking me every time one of them admits their undying love for the other is just the amount of sheer forgiveness. How many times has Magnus done something genuinely awful to Charles and almost gotten him killed? How many times has Charles thwarted one of Magnus’s plans? Realistically, Asteroid M wasn’t really a bad thing in that Magneto didn’t have bad intent. He was just like, you know what Earth, I’m done with you. You have proven to be beneath me, and now you will be literally beneath me so I’m going to go on this asteroid with my mutant people.

Katie: The OG in Genosha.

Taylor: Literally, and look like we know that Gambit didn’t cause the problems because he had obviously people who were causing problems for him, but Xavier meddled, and now Asteroid M is gone. But they don’t stop forgiving each other for that. They just always are like, you’re my guy. No matter how many times I disappoint you, no matter how many times I put your people you know in danger, no matter how many times I fight them, we are always just going to be like that person for one another. At the end of the day, when Morph was trying to trap Xavier, whose body did he take on? Magnetos.

Katie: That’s true. I don’t know, these two are just something else and I had to laugh like that part, I genuinely chuckled out loud. I was like, dude, you were coming to terms with it and then you really sat there like, but Magnus, I’m not quite sure I can forget him, I’m like, okay. Moving past it though, whatever the challenge goes on. This was all just interesting to watch as far as like another planet and how they do things but the most important thing is he’s out here using his mind games like he does and maybe you can help me here. Class is in session, he’s teaching everybody a lesson here, and the next thing you know, a strange, scary zombie version of Gambit kind of starts invading and everybody turns to skeletons. Obviously, by the end, he understands oh, my God, something is so wrong on Earth, I must go back like there’s a mess down there, I don’t know what’s going on, I gotta go. I’m not sure what he saw though, and or how he saw it, because obviously I’m not great with the whole psychic abilities and telepathic abilities. I don’t fully understand the reach of them, but I’m not sure how he saw what he saw.

Taylor: Two things. One, I think what’s really important to point out here is he specifically says he’s on the astral plane, so that’s a whole nother level, right? If I’m remembering correctly, that’s where Doctor Strange goes when he leaves his body and goes into ghost ghost form.

Katie: Correct.

Taylor: So to me, he’s already closer to spirits and the afterlife and things like that when he’s in the astral plane. It would make sense that Gambit’s spirit would actually come to him, or he would be able to detect it more easily across time and space than he would have if he had just been in his body. I think the other thing to think about is with his students, I’m sure he has special mental links with all of them.

Katie: True.

Taylor: Right. At that moment when he’s in class and he sees Gambit’s zombie form, that’s the moment that Gambit dies, and that’s the moment that he no longer is connected to his living body in a very eerily similar way to how Rogue says, I can’t feel you. She can’t feel him from a physical sense but I think in many ways, or in really the best way to explain it is that Charles then can’t feel him from a mental and emotional telepathic sense.

Katie: I love that, and the reason I love that is because it can be easily backed up with something he even says when he says, I forgot what I do best, and this is before he takes them all onto the astral plane and is in everybody’s head. The thing is there that supports everything you just said because it means this man was not using his abilities when he was with Lilandra on her planet. He clearly has not been in tap with them. So if he has these psychic links with people, as you are implying, and I would assume he does, I mean, we know they’re there. Look at Jean and Scott fighting over the fact that he has one with Madelyne, so we know it’s a possibility. I would not be shocked then by activating them – and to your point, maybe it was when exactly Gambit had died or maybe it was like catching up. Like he finally enters the plane, he’s like, oh, my God, I’ve just missed a year’s worth of things. I mean, I think he even says at one point, when he left them, they were like drinking wine and blah, blah, blah, whatever, obviously now that’s no longer the case. So that makes more sense to me that it’s almost like catching up or that all that stuff was happening because everybody turned to skulls, which could also imply everybody dying on Genosha.

Taylor: Yeah and that’s why when you were saying, oh, they were drinking wine and laughing and merry and kissing, I actually think it’s not catching up, but in real-time. That’s why he was able to do the class, quote-unquote, and then when the attack actually happened, I think he was giving that class. So I think in parallel paths, he is giving his you’re actually just kind of an aggressive empire that takes over other people instead of letting them flourish. When he was giving that little lesson on how to not be a despot and an awful empire. At the same time, I think that’s when the attack on Genosha happened, because to what you were saying, he could probably feel them drinking wine, kissing all that stuff because who kissed then? Rogue and Magneto, like, there were these things that were happening in parallel paths and then the attack happens and Gambit dies. That’s when I think because it really does happen so quickly, right? If you think about it, it’s in a 5 or 10-minute period, and maybe there’s a delay because he’s so far away in a whole nother universe or galaxy or whatever, that it almost just hits him all at once. All of the destruction, all of the horrors, the death, all of it, and Gambit’s, of course, the biggest one, because he’s the one who he has probably one of the stronger psychic connections with. I am surprised that Magneto didn’t make an appearance, though.

Katie: I was just about to say that and I will say, we’re going to give it one second, we’re going to hit the whole final few moments because girly was right. But I will say there was a user who and I did shout him out in our blog post, and I don’t have his username up right now, but he had commented on one of our videos and was like, Magneto did it – talking about the attack on Genosha – and I was like that would actually be absolutely insane, but it would line up with everything that T was saying last week when she was like, it could have been another mutant. It could have been somebody who wanted to create the mutants as a full martyr. Now let’s take a step back, I get it. How would he have survived that blast? I don’t know, I’m going to be completely honest. I have no clue. I have no theory for that. But at the time before we saw those last few moments, I was thinking, what if he’s not dead because he didn’t see Magneto anywhere in there, and maybe he doesn’t have a psychic link to him? Although I feel like in the OG series it was implied they did at some point, which is why Magneto kept wearing the helmet, but he no longer wears the helmet.

Taylor: We just spent ten minutes talking about how much they love each other. There is no way.

Katie: Well, right but like that’s his whole thing with the helmet why he was like, I just can’t always have him in my head. So my thought process is if he’s not wearing the helmet, which he’s almost never worn this entire series because he thinks he’s dead.

Taylor: Well, not to mention, don’t forget, wasn’t it this first episode or maybe the last episode of the first series where they tell him that Charles is dead or no, it’s the last episode of the series when they go, I don’t know what Magneto is doing, I don’t remember. He’s doing something, organizing the people in some way that he always is, and they tell him, you need to come because he’s dying and he says something about, I can’t believe that voice inside my head is going to be gone, that constant presence. So they definitely do have a psychic link.

Katie: Yeah and you know, what you’re saying is when it was after he had been already attacked, after Xavier had been attacked and Magneto was on his, like, little island with a bunch of – it was like the OG Genosha like it was like before Genosha became whatever it was and then obviously it’s not anymore.

Taylor: Well, no, it was because we saw Genosha as the slave camp. I think it was the transition between the slave camp of Genosha and the actual.

Katie: Right, I’m just saying like it was the idea of Genosha.

Taylor: Of a country.

Katie: Yeah, of it being a safe place for mutants, which was Magneto’s like whole thing, the entire series which is why we saw the whole Comet M or what is it?

Taylor: Asteroid M.

Katie: Asteroid. Are they not the same? 

Taylor: Similar.

Katie: Somebody who knows, somebody who knows astrology is going to be like actually the difference between.

Taylor: I think you mean astronomy, not astrology.

Katie: Sorry, I’m an astrology girly. Okay. Regardless. Regardless. Anyway, exactly. I would think there is a connection there, even if it’s not being used as aggressively because again, we just said Professor X hasn’t been using his telepathic abilities, but he doesn’t see Magneto dead. What is very strange to me, is that he never actually sees him. Does it mean anything? I don’t know, might mean nothing, but just something to clock and keep in mind.

Taylor: Yeah, I definitely think that’s something that could come home to roost in the final four episodes. But we did get one important reveal as it relates to what happened on Genosha.

Katie: Hold on. We got to talk about Professor X coming back.

Taylor: Oh, yeah, he’s coming back, guys.

Katie: I’m very excited, but I’m not sure where we’re going to go. He’s coming back to the fact Jean and Scott are a hot mess, because there was a whole clone made of Jean, and he might have even known the clone, which is also weird.

Taylor: The clone is now dead.

Katie: Well, but also like, would he have had the psychic link with Jean? He has to create a psychic link, so how would he have not known? You know what I mean? Like, he should have known Jean was Jean and Madelyne was not Jean. So that could be explored later on just to kind of put that out there. That’s a mess. I don’t even half of them are, like, distraught probably after Genosha, Gambit just died. Magneto possibly just died. Rogue, I’m pretty sure might lose it. I’m not even sure where she is right now and she might lose it. Storm just got her powers back after getting shot and losing them, and she’s still M.I.A. She hasn’t returned yet to the X-Men. He is literally coming back to chaos and that doesn’t even include the fact that Genosha actually happened.

Taylor: Yeah, that’s just the X-Men. 

Katie: Well, and also we talked about this. Magneto and Xavier are oil and water, and Magneto was doing his best to be like Xavier, but he no longer needs to do that if Xavier is back. He needs to take back his yin and yang kind of thing. We don’t need two waters and we don’t need two vinegars. We need a little bit of both. So at the end of the day, if Magneto – don’t even say that to me right now, Taylor is giving me a look. Just let me say what I have to say. At the end of the day, if Magneto is to return, is this the end of Magneto’s little hero line? Because it’s not needed anymore?

Taylor: I wouldn’t be surprised. I think it’s something that we’ve talked about basically since Episode One since he came back. Magneto is not going to run the straight and narrow the whole time. It’s just that is the antithesis of what he stands for. He stood for what Charles wanted because he was honoring his friend. To your point, if Charles is there to take up the mantle, which also, by the way, how are you going to explain the fact that you’re not dead my friend? Because there is a whole movement that centered around you being a martyr. So that’s going to change the whole political climate. That’s awesome.

Katie: Don’t worry. Genosha just happened.

Taylor: But still, like, think about the way people who were narrow-minded are going to twist that. Oh well, you lied about him dying and you know, that changed my mind because I watched him die and now I became accepting of mutants but that’s all a lie and you’re all liars. And maybe, Genosha didn’t even happen and that’s how conspiracy theories are started.

Katie: Well, and it’s already crazy because what we see at the end with Storm watching the TV is nations are no longer letting mutants back to their home countries after Genosha. Which is crazy. 

Taylor: Yeah so already we’re seeing the political tides turn away from mutant acceptance. We always talked about this. There is a moment of coming together and collectiveness and all of that when there’s either a murder or a tragedy and we’ve had both of those things, right? We had Charles as the martyr, and it really moved mutant rights forward. We had what Magneto did. Even though he wasn’t a martyr at the UN, he was moving the idea of mutant rights forward. That’s how we even got to the whole situation in Genosha and originally when we saw the newscasts, it was, oh my God, this is so horrible. These mutants are under attack just for basically being alive and now it’s already turned to, oh, well, now they’re not allowed back into their home countries. We’ve already gone from unity and collectiveness to othering those people, and that’s changed so fast. Now Charles is going to come back and he’s going to expose the X-Men as liars about their martyrs and the face of mutant rights and this is about to get a whole lot worse.

Katie: Yeah. I mean, I couldn’t agree more. There’s definitely not a great reception waiting for him, probably across the board, if I’m being honest. I’ll be intrigued to see if Rogue’s returned yet because nobody knows Gambit and or Magneto are dead. I think it’s important for Rogue to have returned because I think that’s going to even change the climate more. I think it’s going to cause so many people in the X-Men, especially to be so mad at Xavier. And listen, it’s not because he left, it’s going to be because he came back. At that point, crap hit the fan. We saw this Magneto, and again, this is only if Rogue tells them all this, but Magneto will have died a hero. He will have done the best he could to save everybody on Genosha and he didn’t. Gambit will have died a hero. But now you have Xavier coming back in like you needed help. Sir, we needed help, we’ve been needing help but if you could have come back, that’s the other problem. That’s what’s going to be the issue is when he was written off, it was because he had the illness that had taken over him, could not be treated here and pretty much it was implied he could never return. He will forever have to be with Lilandra on her planet. Clearly, we see that’s not true. It was truly just treatment, like all he had to do was be treated and he was fine, meaning he could have returned whenever and that is guaranteed to be a problem.

Taylor: Scott is going to go ballistic.

Katie: Logan, you think Logan’s not going to lose it on him as he should?

Taylor: Oh, he totally is but think about Logan and Xavier have a very different relationship than Scott and Xavier.

Katie: It’s not even the relationship. Scott, yes, the relationship with him. Logan does not do the whole abandonment idea very well and that’s what he’s going to feel is abandonment and betrayal, not even just for himself, but for the team.

Taylor: Oh, and especially for his daughter Jubilee. And you know what? Here’s the thing too when it comes to Scott, Scott was already POed because he wasn’t put in charge. He was like, Dad, I did all the right things, I literally followed you, and your last words to me were, I couldn’t have asked for a better son. Yet somehow you put Magneto in charge because Magneto is always going to be number one but Scott just learned that lesson, and so he’s already POed. But now to find out that he never actually had to leave Magneto in charge, he just kind of abandoned them and then decided after the fact, after Scott has gone through the birth of his son, finding out the mother of his child is in fact not Jean Grey, then losing his son. Scott’s been through a lot.

Katie: All within like a week.

Taylor: His dad wasn’t there and then there was a genocide. It’s just like, you know what, my guy, you missed a lot, and you’re here a little too little, too late for both the micro personal issues that your students are going through and also the macro just devastation and political horrors that are happening right now. Too little, too late, Charles, too little, too late.

Katie: I agree, and that’s why I’m so excited for Episode Seven because craps hitting the fan. I also expect Gambit to return, so you know a lot happening. But as you alluded to, when you tried to skip over the whole fact that Xavier was returning to Earth, our bestie Mr. Sinister, the villain of the season and my personal pick for the person behind Genosha as of last episode, because I knew him to be the villain of the season, makes his appearance and confirms he is in fact, the person who was behind the attack. Am I shocked? No, this felt obvious. I shouldn’t say obvious, but it felt like it was right there and maybe it could have been another option but it was right there.

Taylor: It was. I think the only part where I struggle and I know will it’ll be revealed because he’s been revealed as the villain.

Katie: Is why.

Taylor: Yeah. I just don’t understand the motivation. What does he get out of it?

Katie: Here’s my thought. Mr. Sinister’s entire plotline deals with furthering mutants, which in its own way is weird because again, he is not a mutant, literally not a mutant.

Taylor: Such a weirdo.

Katie: He is a mad scientist, absolutely obsessed with the idea of mutants.

Taylor: And human evolution.

Katie: Exactly. With that being said, his entire life – no, because he’s been alive since the 1800s – his entire, like last like five years at least, has been an obsession with Jean and Scott because he knows the two of them together can create the next race of mutants. Okay, putting that out there, this all being said, sometimes you gotta destroy the old to get the new out there, and I wonder if that is part of his thought process of if we take out all the mutants if we take out a bunch of them, just start demolishing them, I can start moving forward with putting out the next generation. I can keep doing science. I mean, listen, maybe he’s gonna be on Genosha using all their genes. There are bodies everywhere and I know that sounds dark, but there are bodies everywhere.

Taylor: I hate that man/thing. He’s not even a man.

Katie: Well, and that’s why you got to say, like he is a mad scientist and when I say mad, I don’t even mean, like, as a kind of joke. He is literally certifiably insane. I would not put it past him, no one’s going to touch Genosha with a ten-foot pole right now. He has free reign right now over hundreds of mutants who are lying there dead, including Magneto, theoretically, if we are not going with our theory maybe he didn’t actually die, but I’m just saying it has to be science-based. That’s how every I mean, him kidnaping everybody all the time, everything he’s ever appeared to do has always, for some reason or another, been science-based. Or the one time he was in cahoots with Apocalypse.

Taylor: Yeah, that was kind of like a who’s who of villains and I kind of got everybody’s motivations a little confused. Because this is what I was talking about with Lilandra’s sisters. The same kind of we’re all working for Apocalypse series of episodes. What did he get out of the, wasn’t it something about evolution?

Katie: I think because he got Jean.

Taylor: Oh my God, that guy is so bizarre.

Katie: I don’t know, I don’t fully remember that one because that was that whole thing with like if you have all the psychics, it’s something with the time portals thing. It was like a whole, I don’t know, there was a lot happening in that episode but he has worked with Apocalypse in the past. Apocalypse pretty much once the downfall of mutants. So there are some, if we have a Venn diagram, there’s a little bit of crossover in the middle for their motivations.

Taylor: You’re not wrong. I do think it’s also important to point out that one of the things that Mr. Sinister says to Bolivar is, oh, Genosha just the beginning. So he’s clearly planning more attacks, question mark, but he’s got more up his sleeve and so I’m really curious if that’s like science-based experiments that are probably horrible for all of the people who are subjects or if it’s more carnage and he is just going to destroy living mutants as they exist, I’m not sure. I do think that’s important to point out that he’s already said like, oh, this is just the start. I have a full multi-layer mad scientist plan up in my noggin and it’s in the middle of being executed.

Katie: That line makes me think there’s a higher power like he’s with Apocalypse or somebody of that nature. Just because I can’t, just I’m trying to pinpoint like, what could possibly, and like I said, maybe it is scientific. Maybe he’s trying to get rid of all the old mutants right now. For what reason? I don’t know, maybe he’s finally decided he hates them, I don’t know, or he wants to be like the only and I’m using air quotes mutant out there. I don’t know, he’s crazy. Literally anything you throw out there is probably a valid theory because he’s actually not sane. I don’t know, a part of me is like, if he has such a plan thought out, I wonder if there is somebody with him and that he’s executing on behalf of somebody else.

Taylor: Do you want to put together a few theories that we’ve talked about?

Katie: Sure.

Taylor: All right. So our good friend who again, so sorry we don’t have your username, but just know we really liked your comment, who talked about Magneto being behind the attack on Genosha. We have in the past talked about how sometimes if you’re talking Venn diagram, his and Mr. Sinister’s actually kind of aligned because they’re talking about evolution and things like that. What if, if you’re going to bring in the political realm and kind of what I was talking about last episode, it’s more of like, all right, we’re going to use what happened under on Genosha and potentially other attacks to further mutant rights, because if they are furthered and mutants are protected, there is then a wider array of safety, reproduction and a larger gene pool for Mr. Sinister to then work with to kind of like what you were saying, get rid of the old, but also then secure the future of specific mutants or maybe not even specific mutants, but just mutants in general, because by securing their future, they’re going to again, this is very scientific, but they’re going to reproduce and that gene pool is going to mutate again. It’s going to become more varied. There’s going to be different powers and that is what Mr. Sinister is interested in. So maybe by protecting mutants and creating this whole idea of coordinated attacks against them and martyrdom and things like that, that they have found a way for their allegiances to kind of or their desires to align.

Katie: I quite like that. I also want to add to it and say Magneto’s thought processes also that mutants are superior. He agrees with Sinister there because they both think they’re the next step in the evolutionary line. They think mutants are the next to go or to be here, and humans are the next to go like they’re going to fade out, they’ll be gone. Which I do think is kind of funny because the humans are like, so scared and I’m like, you just got to die naturally. Who cares? Like the next generation is mutants or not, no one’s affecting you. It literally does not affect you. Either way, the other half of this is they will not be the ones getting the fingers pointed at them. Humans will be and it will very quickly turn over to people like Friends of Humanity, people like Gyrich, all these people who have been loud about their hatred for mutants are going to have the fingers being pointed at them, and anything could happen. Mutants might rise against them, they might start making attacks against them. And I’m sorry, but pretty sure if a mutant goes up against a human, I’m going to say the mutants probably got a 90 to 10% chance here. The odds are pretty good. So I don’t know. I think you have the other half of that that also helps with the whole let’s just get rid of our biggest problems because they’re going to get blamed for this. Think about we even spent all of last episode other than when like we had a couple of suggestions, but our first ones on the list for people like Gyrick, I’m being like, well, he’s been involved with the Sentinels from the beginning. Why couldn’t it be him?

Taylor: And there is something to be said about using Sentinels and using Bolivar, who literally had to give his own DNA in order to access Master Mold. That’s what he says when he’s talking to Sinister. So whether it ever is revealed that Mr. Sinister is the one pulling the strings, Bolivar is already implicated just by the fact that Master Mold was out there or Sentinels were out there and able to be used because are literally only access through his genetic material. Which, by the way, makes so much sense with Mr. Sinister because that man is obsessed with the genetic material. But yeah, I mean, I definitely think that that’s an important other layer to point out that not only are you creating a political climate that is now favorable to you, but you’re also potentially creating an environment in which you can easily and without a ton of questions, get rid of your biggest problems.

Katie: Exactly and just some mutants have to die in the process but to your point, mutants are only going to start to reproduce again. Although, and this is just a slight sidebar, I never understood his obsession with Jean and Scott because I’m like, you’re going to tell me there are no other mutants out there who have married or at least have children together.

Taylor: Also, like, not to be rude, but like, I guess, okay, they’re probably both omega-level in the comics, but in this show, they’ve never been identified as Omega Level. The only two have been Magneto and Storm. So I’m like, you’re not even picking two people who are verified in the show Omega-level mutants like cool Scott can shoot lasers out of his eyes, but are you telling me he’s more powerful than Magneto? BS. Are you telling me that Jean okay, Jean is probably just as powerful as Storm but like Scott no offense, but like, that doesn’t seem extra special to me, you know?

Katie: Yeah, no, I agree, but like I said, I just can’t also think there are no other mutant children out there at all. I don’t know what his obsession is with this specific couple because also, like, you’re not expediting the process. You’ve waited like five years for them to have a child and in the meantime, you had to make a whole clone and put her into the story to do so. You’re telling me there’s been not a single mutant child born that entire time?

Taylor: Dude is so single-minded. I don’t even know how to wrap my head around his lack of logic for someone who’s supposed to be so scientifically focused.

Katie: That’s probably the problem, though. He’s just too scientifically focused that he’s like, this is the only solution, and instead of being able to look around, he’s like, no, but this one, this is the solution so whatever. But I like that theory. I want to run with it into the next episode. I don’t love completely blaming our silver Fox. I don’t.

Taylor: I don’t either.

Katie: I don’t love putting it all on him, but I don’t trust him to save my entire life and I love how he went out. I know it sounds horrible. I love how he went out, he went out a hero. I think he’s going to make me regret saying that though.

Taylor: I know, I mean, I went out on a limb last week and I said, I don’t think Magneto was fooling us, I think this was real. Then I sat on it over the last week and I’m like, I think I’m going to eat those words.

Katie: Yeah, I don’t know, I just don’t trust him.

Taylor: He’s Magneto. 

Katie: Exactly. I don’t trust him.

Taylor: Yeah. I will be sad for the downfall of our silver fox that I think is coming.

Katie: I will be too, but I just want a quick throw-out so we can make sure we say it. To our buddy, I finally got the username pulled up. To the person who put Magneto on our map, and as a possible suspect in everything that has been going on and has now become the crux of our theory, shout out to @BrandonWeary28. You are pretty cool for that because you got us really thinking. I really enjoy that theory, and it’s thanks to you that we have everything we’re running with right now so again, shout out to you.

Taylor: Just goes to show for all of our other listeners, this is why you should definitely comment on the podcast, on our videos, and on our Instagram because we do look at them and we do take them into account. So if you’ve got an idea, shoot us a DM, shoot us a comment, whatever, because you might end up with a shout-out on the show. I think on that note, we’re going to call it a wrap on X-Men ‘97 Episode Six. It was an interesting little bridge episode, but it has made me excited for Episode Seven. So definitely make sure that you’re following on your podcast platform of choice because we will be continuing our coverage of X-Men ‘97. Also, just make sure you’re popping into the website every now and again because we have updates and just everything Sisters Assembled all in one spot right on there.

Katie: Go ahead and give us a follow on Twitter at SisAssembledPod and Instagram and Threads at Sisters Assembled. You can also subscribe to us on YouTube where we are posting our weekly news segments Sisters Scoop. That is also at Sisters Assembled, so make sure you guys are going on there and subscribing and following and doing whatever else. Those are also all the platforms that you guys can find us to comment or to give your thoughts, whatever you want to do, ask questions. We are very active and we try our best to respond in a timely manner and to everybody. So definitely go ahead and leave your feedback. We are heading right into Episode Seven next week, and then Episodes Eight, Nine and Ten are all part of the same little mini series, so it’s going to be a huge next four weeks. I’m excited, we hope you guys are as well. As you’ve been doing, keep up with X-Men and keep up with Marvel as Marvel just blew my mind, so let’s talk about it.