Transcript

Taylor: Hello listeners, and welcome to Sisters Assembled, where we are continuing our coverage of X-Men ‘97. This week we’re going to focus on Episode Seven, which was a lot. There was a lot going on in the episode this week, so we have quite a bit to get through. With that in mind, I’m going to hand right over to Kate so that we can start diving deep into it.

Katie: You said it right from the start there, honestly, this was a jam-packed episode. I liked it as a whole, but I’m not sure where to start about talking about it. It definitely was that transition episode, and we kind of talked about this a little bit with Episode Six, how you could tell we were moving some of the chess pieces into place. This episode was the episode of like, we’re setting up the final three episodes, which, if you don’t know, are all part of their own little mini series. And you could tell they were trying to move the final chess pieces into place in this episode, which you could all tell like I said. That being said, this episode was actually nuts. If you think about it from a storytelling perspective, I think we had six different plots.

Taylor: Yeah, to your point, I don’t even know where to begin. There was grief. There was rage. There was the aftermath of Genosha, understanding that Sinister isn’t working for himself and that we have a whole nother villain behind him and everything that goes along with that. There’s there’s a lot to cover, you know, understanding that the villain knows about Charles and what he’s been doing with the Shi’ar Empire. So I think the best way to do it, because there is so much let’s just start from the top. Let’s start with – Katelyn’s giving you face – let’s start with that scene that opens the episode that if I had been more awake at 7:15 this morning, I probably would have sobbed hysterically but it was Gambit’s funeral. Emotions were high, and there were people who were sad, and there were people who were frustrated, and there were people who weren’t there and then there were the people who were frustrated at the people who weren’t there. You could just see the very different ways that people were grieving with it. And one particular person who took it to a whole nother level.

Katie: Yeah, this was rough. I put the episode on and I didn’t really know much about it. T hadn’t really said much, she just was like, can’t wait to see how you feel about this and I was like, okay. I mean, anything can happen in that kind of episode, right? But I start this episode and I’m like, oh, pic of Gambit? And then there’s like a whole casket and I’m like, oh, oh, oh, that’s what we’re doing today and that’s what we’re doing from the very beginning so that was rough. Jubilee girly, we’re on the same page, we’re on the same page. I felt your frustration in that moment when she was like, she couldn’t even show up, she couldn’t even be here? I was like, I get it, but I will say, I don’t want to jump ahead of myself in saying this but then I felt for Rogue, the entire episode. I felt for her rage. I felt for her grief. I felt for the turn in her, which you could see was happening, the way she was acting on pure emotion, on pure pain. I honestly sat there and at one point she and again, I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself but at one point she’s being held by her half brother Nightcrawler, who I thought was dead but that’s cool like I’m fine he’s alive. I just thought he died on Genosha, I was a little confused by that. But you see, the other X-Men kind of show up, and it’s actually in that moment as she’s, like, starting to bawl like, hysterically, that I just think how painful because not a single other person, Nightcrawler can yes, but nobody you know from your X-Men, nobody on your team can understand, not just the grief you’re having, but you lived it. You lived and watched Magneto and we’ll get to that, you watched Magneto get blown up, question mark. Then worse, you held Gambit’s dead body at the end of the of Episode Five. You sat there and you not only watched all these people get completely obliterated, but then you had to watch both of those men go down in different ways. Nobody can relate to that. So by the end of the episode, I was like, never mind, I get you like Rogue. My anger towards you isn’t as prevalent anymore because we’re both in mourning.

Taylor: Yeah, I think the funeral scene was definitely a tough one. It actually reminds me a little bit of and maybe we just misinterpreted this, or maybe I misinterpreted this, but when they were doing the previews for this show, they showed a casket being lowered into the ground. At the time, I just assumed it was Charles because I hadn’t actually finished the original series, and I knew that he wasn’t in this, I thought he had died. Then after we had talked about, no, he’s not dead, he’s with the Shi’ar but they told everyone he died, which, to Katelyn’s point earlier, we will get to that because we were kind of spot on on a few things there.

Katie: Oh, we were hitting quite a few things between Episode Five and Six. We actually have at least mentioned almost not almost everything, but I’d say that 75% of the direction that this episode took us, we at least mentioned at some point.

Taylor: Yeah so I would just like to give us a virtual pat on the back, because we kind of nailed that. But going off of what I was saying, I assumed that was Charles because of the lie that was told to the public. Now I’m looking back and I almost want to go see what that preview showed, because I think it might actually be Gambit’s casket, which is really just jarring and shocking and a lot. I think you kind of started talking about this so I think the most natural way to go is then Rogue, because she is truly the person who is most personally affected by what happened. I mean, everybody who’s a mutant feels what happens on Genosha. I mean, even Beast, who is the most calm, clear headed, objective individual not just on the X-Men, but of any character I think that we’ve seen I mean. I truly, really struggle to think of someone who is even close to his level of calm and collected. Even he is angry, even he is bitter, even he can’t look at a human and say, it’s not all of you, some of you were doing the right thing. We do have a place here and there is peace possible. Even Beast has now been converted and is saying, I don’t think there’s a place or a time where we are ever going to live peacefully and for that transition to take place, obviously something awful has happened, but that’s on a macro level. On a micro level, I fail to see anybody who was as affected as Rogue and to your point, we get to see her rage. She goes over the edge, she crosses a line. I think it’s Morph who even says, is this what we are now? Basically, are we the people who enforce? Are we the people who kill? Do we cross this line because clearly our enemies don’t have lines, and maybe it’s time that we meet them and I don’t think that’s what Morph was saying but I think in some ways that’s the question that Rogue poses. Do we have to up our game in terms of the lengths that we’re willing to go, the intensity all of it, because we’re playing in a different league now. We’re talking mass murder. We’re talking genocide. That’s that’s very different than what we’ve seen before.

Katie: It all ties back to that main conversation with the mutants and their existence, can they coexist with humans? And I think the X-Men and their existence is also kind of being brought to the forefront, where they have always shared that responsibility of trying to make that coexistence happen and trying to show, you know, there are bad mutants or there are misdirected mutants, but we can help by defending the humans, by helping them in those moments. I think of Juggernaut a lot for some reason, and how that one episode, he’s out there like breaking into banks and they originally think it’s Colossus, and I think that’s when they meet him originally and I think of that episode, I’m thinking the X-Men go in, not only do they help clear Colossus from being attacked because he had been, but they make an attempt to try to help Juggernaut as well. Obviously, he isn’t really a mutant, his is a whole mystical thing but that’s what I think of those types of episodes that we got a lot of in the OG series of them defending humans from misguided mutants. To Beast’s point and to everything you were saying and to Rogue’s point, it’s like, how much more can we keep doing this? The stakes keep getting higher. We don’t keep getting more powerful. We don’t keep getting stronger at this point. We are what we are and if they’re going to keep coming at us, we can’t keep playing by the good guy rules. I think this is a constant question or a constant debate, I should say, for a lot of heroes, a lot of heroes that walk that gray area a little bit because it’s like you could play the good guy all day until what are you going to get? If you’re following that rule book, but your enemy isn’t, you’re not going to win.

Taylor: I think that even goes back all the way to what Magneto was saying in the U.N. trial, where he says to them, these X-Men have put their lives on the line again and again and again. And how do you repay them? You just shot her out of the sky and you took her powers. That’s how you repay them. So you have to wonder at a certain point, when these people and this isn’t Magneto, this is just kind of the next logical step in that thought process, you have to wonder when do these people say, I’ve had enough. I’m tired of playing by the rules. I’m tired of protecting these ungrateful humans who have done nothing but scorn me while I save their hides. Why should I continue doing that? And then you add on the trauma of Genosha, where the mutants who were finally getting their rights, finally being recognized, finally had a place that was safe for them, a true safe haven, obliterated, wiped off the map in the most public, disgusting, vile act of violence that was pretty much televised. I mean live it wasn’t, but like right after and it gets to the point where you have to wonder how much more can these people take and still be these benevolent protectors. You’re going to push them past their breaking point and I think Rogue has reached her breaking point, because it’s not just about Genosha for her. It’s not just about mutant rights in general for her, for her, it’s personal. You’ve taken two people that she loves, and you took them from her in front of her face, and she could do nothing to help them. So when she killed Trask or tried to kill Trask, I was like, yeah, saw that coming because she’s human.

Katie: Well, she’s mutant, but yes.

Taylor: Yes, you know what I’m saying though. At the end of the day, she and if the X-Men do stop pulling their punches, they’re going to be eviscerated for that, too. There’s no winning here. There’s no way I can play the good guy and you’re going to finally respect me. Obviously, we’ve seen that doesn’t work. But if they go to the dark side, quote-unquote, or start toeing that line a little bit more, well, now they’re no better than all the crazy mutants that they were trying to protect people from so it’s like they can’t win. It’s really sad and you understand why someone like Rogue, who has seen what she’s seen, snapped. I just wonder how much of this are we going to see from the other team members. I think Cyclops is really close. I think he’s the next one to go, honestly. 

Katie: Yeah, I think this season has proven that everybody has been tested for the most part. I mean, you bring up Cyclops, he and Jean tested. Look at this episode and we’ll get to this in a second but look at this episode and their relationship and the layers that have been added to that. I think we’ve seen Rogue cross the breaking point. And again, you said it, I’ve said it, I don’t blame her. On top of all of this, she is very, I think very similar to a morlock. Morlocks, a lot of them can’t pass as human, right? Their mutations allow them to, or don’t allow them to really go on public without making it clear that they are a mutant. For a Rogue, she cannot touch anyone or anything like that’s just a fact. So while she does look human, she can’t go out without wearing gloves, she can’t brush up against somebody, she has to be fully covered. And so I think, like she has such a deep rooted problem in her own way because she cannot experience any sort of physical touch. Add that into the mix of just like already having this awful gift, because her gift is amazing, she is a great mutant. I mean, a lot of her ability comes from Carol Danvers, so like, that’s kind of a weird thing, but she is an amazing mutant but she hates it, and we all know that. So not only does she have this deep rooted hatred essentially for herself, she just went through this most traumatic event for being a mutant that she really doesn’t want to be. She doesn’t want to have the powers she has and so, yeah, I get her snapping. She’s probably already been 50% of the way there this whole time. Now it’s just like not only was she attacked for it, she lost a bunch of people she cared about, not even, the main two people she cared about. As far as pivoting to Scott and Jean, which were another plot of this episode. This picked up from, I’m starting to lose them because they were going out of order, I want to say Episode Three.

Taylor: Well, Three and then Five because we saw the ramifications of Three in Five.

Katie: True. So Three, Five, and Seven have dealt a little bit with the Jean and Scott and Madelyne debacle. Well, Three was a debacle, but obviously, Five spent some time in it and now we had some time in Seven. It was interesting because that’s still rocky and I think that’s affecting both of them and their abilities to do their work essentially. On top of that, I mean, Scott’s out here desperately searching for Madelyne when they go to Genosha which, you know, mixed feelings because I think if I was Jean, I’d be like, oh, and on the other side of that, I’m like, but she is the mother of his child as well, which also is shown in this episode. Very overwhelming episode. I don’t know, I would have some mixed feelings. I think that they tried to talk and I don’t know if it went anywhere in this episode.

Taylor: Yeah, I feel for like you were saying, both sides, because if I’m Jean, I’m like, um hi, what’s going on? Clearly, you still have an emotional attachment to her, which to your point, she is the mother of his child. Regardless of whether or not he thought it was Jean, he had the baby with Madelyne. So there is an emotional connection there, which we saw was maintained through their psychic link that Jean had a little bit of a meltdown about in Episode Five. I get it, I do so. From Jean’s perspective, I would also be now more insecure in my relationship than I ever was, because he clearly still has feelings for her who’s me. So confusing. Then from Scott’s perspective, the mother of his child was just obliterated and I like Scott refuse to acknowledge that she did not survive. I mean, as we saw, there is hope, right? Nightcrawler survived. Now, granted, he has the ability to teleport, so that kind of makes sense but still, there were survivors, not everybody was completely lasered into the earth. So I understand his kind of denial that she’s dead and his desperate search to find her alive. I think those two things are very opposed to one another because Jean can’t understand the depth of the relationship that he had with Madelyne because one, she wasn’t a part of it, but two, I think if I’m Jean, it’s hard for me to understand how she’s the same person but also different. Jean refers to her as a sister so it’s like if your husband or your boyfriend marries and then has a baby with your sister thinking it’s you, but then is like in love with her also, but she’s also you so is he in love with her? Unclear.

Katie: Do any identical twins out there have this problem? 

Taylor: Yeah, wait, well us. Twins, if you are out there and you’re identical twins, please DM us on Instagram or Twitter or something and like tell us your thoughts.

Katie: Yeah, like, I feel like I need a firsthand, somebody truly went through this. It has to be real. There has to be at least one example where this happened.

Taylor: Yeah but anyway, going back to Scott and Jean, not to get too derailed. I totally get it. I think they’re both dealing with their own emotions and they are not really effectively communicating about it and they’re also both traumatized. So it’s like maybe not the right moment to be working on your relationship. At the same time, you kind of need each other to lean on and support each other during this time. Let’s not forget at this moment, that’s when is her name, Emma Frost? I know her last name is Frost and I can’t think of her first name.

Katie: Yes.

Taylor: But she is pulled out of the rubble so that’s another notable mutant who survived. So let’s just keep that in the back of our minds, because that might come to fruition maybe not this season because she seemed pretty wiped but in later seasons, the fact that she is still on the board.

Katie: Don’t she and Scott have a relationship as well at some point?

Taylor: I kind of feel like I caught a comic where they did, in one of my like, random comic grabs that you sometimes get at comic book stores. I feel like I saw one where they are together or like it’s, you know what? It might actually be Secret Wars, where there’s like, not a parallel universe, but like an illusion universe where they’re together. Maybe it’s not Secret Wars, but I feel like I read a comic where they were together, but it’s not reality.

Katie: Okay, well, I’m going to just say, as of a Reddit thread, Scott and her were together ironically, and again, this is going off of a Reddit thread with a really quick Google guys. But ironically, she cheats on him while being under the influence of the Phoenix Force.

Taylor: That man needs to stay away from women and the Phoenix Force.

Katie: I feel like he just needs so much therapy, like emotional therapy before he just gets with other women. Everybody in the whole Madelyne/Jean debacle needed therapy. Let’s just put that on the board.

Taylor: Yeah, I mean, you said it, right? I mean, I feel like everybody in that house needs a decent amount of therapy. I know that’s kind of what Professor X does when he does their like, quote-unquote treatment is he’s like working through some of their mental traumas from a telepathic point of view but he’s gone. So none of them have their main coping mechanism, also known as Charles Xavier until he comes back in an episode or two.

Katie: Yeah. I mean, while we say all of this and the need for therapy is truly there, going back a few thoughts, I am very intrigued that she’s the one that comes out of the rubble. I’m not shocked and I think that has to set something up in the future in my opinion. I don’t think it’s going to be like, to your point, any time this season, I don’t think she’s going to be prominent any time this season, especially considering Scott and Jean are still on the outs from Madelyne. So I do think that could be something we can look forward to in the future and that was definitely a prominent person to get pulled out. That wasn’t just like a random Morlock or something.

Taylor: Yeah, I agree there is a reason that Emma Frost survived. I do want to pivot to another X-Men storyline or another X-Men and her storyline that was furthered and we don’t have to spend a ton of time on this because it’s not the main storyline for sure, but it’s definitely something to note, which is Roberto and Jubilee and that whole situation with his family. Which I think is really interesting and kind of like a microcosm of basically the larger conversation around mutants that blew up in Genosha. I think there’s not much more to say to that other than that eventually I do think he’s going to become a member of the team. They’re clearly getting closer. He wants her to be by his side when he has these conversations but I definitely did want to skim over that because that’s a thread that, while it hasn’t been super prominent, has come across multiple episodes is their relationship developing and also his insecurities about being a mutant, which in many ways mirror Rogues.

Katie: Yeah, I will say in a season so prominent with so many big things going on, this has been the weirdest, like I’m going to call it an F plot because it’s so far down there but to your point, it is a reoccurring thing that we see a little bit in almost every episode. Very little, not much, but just enough to further add a little bit more. We see that it seems that they have a little bit more of a relationship progressing. This shouldn’t be too shocking as I want to say it was her birthday episode, so it was Episode Four that we saw them kiss. Seems like they’re progressing further. We really don’t see much of them in the last two episodes because obviously we were on Genosha and then everything happened and then we were with Storm and Xavier in the last episode, so we didn’t really see much of them either. They’re a weird little, like I said, F plot like all this crap is happening above them, and then they’re like, here’s Roberto and Jubilee, just like kind of being cute and kind of starting a relationship and they’re our little like baby X-Men. And he’s coming out to his mother about being a mutant, which I think very clearly mirrors, to your point, quite a few things, I also used my words very clearly for a reason there. So I think it’s interesting kind of seeing this little plot go on as well because it reminds us that it is still affecting everybody in their day-to-day life. The X-Men are always going to be in the thick of everything, that’s just a fact. They are the heroes, they put themselves in that position but being a mutant in general still affects every kid. Jubilee, it affected her, and this entire series started with her when she became a mutant and was abducted by the first Sentinel. Now we have Roberto, who’s kind of following his path of being a younger kid who’s a mutant and trying to figure out how he tells his parents, and having his parents, who are prominent figures in society, well, his mother more specifically say, this is awesome and I support you, but we can never talk about this. Don’t tell anyone and it stays completely silent that you’re a mutant. And to your point, T it deals with some of the political standards of what’s going on right now with Genosha, but also just mutants in general. It’s a very interesting and smart storyline to keep adding to the show as a whole.

Taylor: Yeah, I do think coming off of that though, I want to tackle the big one, which is the reveal of a new villain, a new goal. Some new weaponry, some horrifying things, and I think there’s just a lot to tackle. So I think let’s go for the big one.

Katie: I’m ready and I’m glad that you were like, let’s go, because I was about ready to be like, there’s two big things that really happened in this episode and we need to hit them. Let’s get into the villain because I think that ties into the big reveal at the end, which, oh, the way I screamed at my TV because did I not say, did I not say? But we do have a new villain. We’re finding out that Mr. Sinister, as we had mentioned, is working for someone bigger than him. We did think it was possibly Apocalypse because he’s just been such a big player in the OG series, that it just kind of seemed fitting. But our new villains actually named and correct me if I’m wrong, I’m going off of memory, Bastian.

Taylor: Bastian, yeah. So that is a new one. That’s one we actually did not see to my memory in the original series, which I actually really like.

Katie: Yes, but I was confused because when I did my research, I couldn’t figure out when we had seen him before but did he not make a comment about well I changed to make myself better? And we also never saw him like we weren’t seeing him fully so I was thinking, oh, they’re going to show his face. It’s going to be a reveal, and I’m going to remember him and I was like, I don’t know who this dude is.

Taylor: Yeah, I had a similar reaction because one, I don’t remember him at all and I literally just finished the series like two weeks ago. Two, he does make that comment, or actually I think Sinister says, well, you were one of those villains, blah blah blah blah blah. So I don’t remember him, but I almost wonder if he was such a small like not quite him yet when he encountered the X-Men that it took – it’s funny because he actually mentions the year. He says they’ve been bothering you since 1992, which I thought was so strange because you mentioned in a previous episode how they very rarely put a stake in the ground when it comes to time. 

Katie: But I thought that was also hilarious because I was like when the show premiered, that was really funny.

Taylor: Yeah, no, it was great and it was super meta but I also think it was intentional because I think it shows that he’s been watching this all happen for now, five years. I think at some point we are going to see that he was a part of something small, like he was a part of something bigger, but he was a very small player or he was affected or something like that, because I don’t remember him as like an episodic villain, for example. That’s what I mean by like, we never saw Bastion in this form in the original series and I like that we’re getting this new villain that is not one that we’ve seen before, because a lot of the players in this series thus far, with the exception of Executioner, have been crossovers, which they totally should be. We should have people coming from one series to the other because they are so tied. This series is a direct sequel. It would make no sense if nobody but the X-Men was crossing over from the original to this. I love the continuity, don’t get me wrong, but there’s also a fine line to be walked between nostalgia, but also bringing in something new. So I love that we’re bringing in a villain that we haven’t seen, and for him to be the big bad, and for him to have Mr. Sinister doing his bidding, this dude has to be super powerful. So just to give a tidbit or two on who is Bastion, I think the most important thing to recognize about him is that he is actually a combination of a human and a Sentinel, so that’s terrifying. And he has the Prime Sentinels, which he’s created to basically be the next generation of these machines that are out to kill mutants. So big old baddie on the board, and he’s new and he’s scary.

Katie: Terrifying, I think is the right word, because for those of you who aren’t quite grasping it, when Trask, who throws himself, that’s the doctor, off the building, and Rogue catches him and then she’s like, never mind, and lets him fall and go to his death, which I’m like, yeah, as you should. When he came back, like lowkey zombie mode, because I was like, what is going on? I was kind of terrified. That is a version of what I assume they’re going to call the Prime Sentinels because this is what Bastion makes and forms, and that is what he is. The important thing here is, and it’s actually said by, I want to say Beast when they’re talking to Trask prior to him dying, or I don’t even know if he’s dead now, I’m not sure what’s happening. They mention that the technology that they’re seeing with those, like robot-looking things is way ahead of its time. And then guess who shows up? Cable, our time-traveling companion who anytime he shows up, you know time is whacked out. 

Taylor: Yeah, I think to clarify, I’m pretty sure those machines that Beast was referring to, I think those are the Prime Sentinels. But Bastion is also able to basically turn humans into a version of Sentinels, which is what we saw with Trask. You mentioned cable, so let’s get into that because clearly he’s now shown up twice as far as it’s related to Bastion and the Sentinels. He got to talk to Mom and Dad on his trips so let’s focus on the Sentinel portion first and then we’ll go to the relationship and that very broken family. But first, you know, I think what we’ve seen and you alluded to this when you talked about Cable and being from the future, and the future being probably not a great place to be right now. Every time Cable has come back, it’s because something has gone completely awry in the future. So whatever has happened at the end of the first series or in the first few episodes of this series has really set in motion something truly awful in Cable’s future. He’s probably out there, let’s be honest, if Bastian is part Sentinel, he probably doesn’t age the same way that you or I would a normal human or a mutant doesn’t matter. So he’s probably still out there battling Bastian – Cable is – in the future, which means he now knows, okay, this is not normal. This is not the future that I thought it would be or that I remember or whatever alerts him because I’m still confused by this whole time travel thing when it comes to Cable. But he comes back and is like, we have to stop this. He originally tries before the Genosha Massacre, meets Mom, and doesn’t succeed, but now he’s coming back and he’s trying to stop it again because I would assume that whatever happened in Madripoor or what happened in Madripoor is probably an important inflection point or turning point in this battle. I think part of that is now they understand that they have a whole new enemy who’s playing a very different game than what they thought it was and it’s not just Mr. Sinister, it is this guy who is a thousand times more intelligent, with a thousand times more technology that could really do some damage. Then he’s also implanting humans, potentially with stuff, and we’re just playing a whole different game than we thought we were and that’s when Cable comes back and says, hi, dad but also, I’m too busy to have this little reunion. So can we get down to brass tacks?

Katie: Yeah, there are so many things I have to say to so many of the points you just made. I’m going to start with first Cable and his relationship really quick with his parents. Clearly, yay, mom, nay, dad. We see that pretty clearly in Episode Five when he’s like mom, like having like a moment even though she’s about to die, and then in this episode, he’s like, can’t be bothered with you actually, dad, go away.

Taylor: Mama’s boy. Mama’s boy.

Katie: Yeah. Which do I blame him? No, because I’m sure as far as he’s aware, all his dad does is go back to his mom’s clone when she was right there, she was right there. She was still an option.

Taylor: Or the original. He goes back to his mom’s original.

Katie: Every kid’s going to take their parent’s side in that, not the random woman, even though she was the clone of the random woman, he had a family with Madelyne, his mother, that was supposed to be their family. He didn’t even choose his mom, you know? So like I get the pain there. Also, as we’ve been saying, he shows up in these pivotal moments trying to undo them. He has shown up at Genosha, you pointed that out. That had us saying, well, there has to be a way that Genosha becomes undone or something happens. There’s a reason Cable was there. He was clearly trying to stop it, which is why he was yelling for Madelyne to get people out and to go. He’s here now, too. There’s a lot of futuristic things happening here. This Bastion guy, futuristic, way too futuristic for where we’re at, which was the point in which, and like I said, I think it was Beast who said it, this technology is too far advanced for the time we’re in. Here are my thoughts. I think whatever Cable’s trying to do, he’s trying to undo the damage Bastian’s doing. Keep in mind it wasn’t Mr. Sinister who did the attacks on Genosha. He was a pawn in Bastian’s plan. This all being said, if you undo Bastian being here because I don’t think he’s from this time, and he’s from the future, theoretically you undo Genosha. Let’s just put that out there. On top of this, I think Mr. Sinister is involved due to he’s still a brilliant scientist, whether you want to admit it or not. So really, Bastian needed to come up with the plans from the future, he just needed Sinister to help execute it and I’m sure that’s what we partially saw. Because Sinisters of science, man and he’ll do it if it works in his favor, which is what I think we’re seeing. I truly think we’re leading up to a whole-time excursion going to happen. This is all people out of time messing with the current present, in my opinion.

Taylor: Yeah, I think it could very well work out that way. I think when I was reading a little bit about Bastian in preparation for this episode, the thing you need to know is he’s not from around these parts. That’s the moral of the story and that’s the thesis. So to your point, Cable is here because Bastian doesn’t belong and he is doing some really horrible stuff so keep that in mind. I guess we need to talk about Tolerances is Extinction, which is basically the next and final three episodes of this season. I think that I have not fully wrapped my head around what that means yet. We had our theories at the beginning of the season about Magneto and the whole conversation around mutant tolerance and the idea that mutants are no longer going to be tolerant of their treatment. I think now, as I’m saying, my theories are evolving to it being that humans can’t tolerate mutants or they will go extinct. That’s what that means because Bastian hates mutants and he does not want them to survive. That’s why he has created the technology he has, and that’s why he did that attack on Genosha. He is literally trying to exterminate them on a grand scale. He’s trying to make them extinct and so I think what we’re going to see to your point is they’re not going to be able to defeat him potentially in this time. They are outmatched. They don’t have the technology. And even with Storm and with Charles back, because we know they’re both on their way. I don’t know how they come out of this unless they go either backward in time to figure out where this guy came from, maybe give us a clue to where we potentially saw him before, because apparently he lost to the X-Men, unclear where that was.

Katie: Unless it was never in our dimension or in our time.

Taylor: This is true. This is true. I would actually love more though, if they did fight him, and he was such a throwaway person that we all forgot about him.

Katie: Well, they could have, because how many times did they mess around with the time? Think about all the episodes, especially Bishops. Every time Bishop shows up, the same thing as Cable crap’s going down. So they could have very easily interacted with him somewhere in one of the times where they’ve been messing with the times they were in different futures or whatever, and we had no clue who this guy was. We very easily could have had him as a very minor place, just maybe not directly on our timeline. 

Taylor: Yeah and I think either way, what I’m trying to get at is I love that. The idea that this villain of the episode, or not even villain of the episode, minor character of an episode that’s so small we can’t even remember him. But it made such an impact on him that he spent the last however many years plotting against them, traveling across time, likely stealing technology, using his technological gift, and using those gifts to plot so many years ahead of time. He makes Mr. Sinister look shortsighted and I love that. I love that he’s taking those skills and just absolutely playing in a whole new league. The X-Men are in the big leagues now, and Bastian is going to rip them a new one, and not that I’m wishing anything bad on them. We’ve seen horrible things happen to them just this season, but I am excited to see that conflict happen and to see them really go at someone who is of their caliber in a way that they probably haven’t quite yet.

Katie: You know who he actually reminds me a lot of?

Taylor: The High Evolutionary?

Katie: Oh, that’s an interesting one. No, I was thinking more of like, a person, but that would be interesting. I can’t remember his name, and I was trying to really quickly look it up but the guy who creates Extremis in Iron Man 3.

Taylor: I know who you mean and it’s also funny you mention that because you can very clearly see a Hammer Industries tower in Madripoor, next to the UN building where they fight Trask.

Katie: Yeah. Oh yeah. But no, I bring it up just because he makes me think a lot about him.

Taylor: Killian.

Taylor: Yes. Killian because he also played the long game. He was this minor little guy who Tony forgot to go up to meet on New Year’s and essentially, he then built an entire system and company based on all this to lowkey get back at Tony, and then at the end of the day. It was kind of crazy, if you think about it because Tony makes all his own villains somehow, and this is what that reminds me of. If this is true, like, if he is such a minor person that the X-Men defeat at some point, it’d be kind of hilarious that all these years later he comes back and he’s like this horrible foe.

Taylor: Yeah, I think those make for some of the most interesting villains, right? You have your Killmonger of the world, which is interesting for one reason, and you have your Gorr the God Butcher, which is interesting for a similar reason, but it actually reminds me a little bit of Dar-Benn, the idea of playing the long game. Carol wipes the floor with her and takes out the Supreme Intelligence, and she waits and she waits and she searches for that bangle and when she’s ready, she really almost takes out Carol. I think that slow burn villain is such a fascinating concept because then you can think about all of the things that our hero was distracted by, while this villain was laser-focused on nothing but their destruction.

Katie: Yeah, 100%. That’s why I kind of bring up a similar comparison. In the meantime, avoiding just the one small thing that I’ll mention, which is Cap just randomly showing up in this episode because I guess he does that.

Taylor: This universe is a confusing place.

Katie: Yeah, I don’t even want to get into that especially because, come on, you’re going to tell me Cap listens to the government get out of here. That was so annoying. But I want to get into the thing that I can’t believe we were right about and that’s the fact that somehow or another, Magneto’s alive.

Taylor: Yeah so we called that along with Mr. Sinister having a master. We called this and we said, Charles didn’t see Magnus’s essence in the afterlife or what’s the word? The astral plane, he didn’t see his essence. And they definitely had a mental connection, which we talked about at length last episode. Yeah, I don’t think I was surprised when it revealed it because we talked about it but at the same time I was surprised if that makes sense.

Katie: I was surprised because while we talked about it, let’s level set guys. You guys listen to us, hopefully, every week. You know, we could throw out some of the weirdest, most random, absolutely off-the-wall theories that have ever existed. Truly, ever. I don’t think I felt like we were going to ever be right about this one. When I said, you know who I didn’t see? Magneto. I didn’t think like, oh, for sure he lived. A part of me was thinking, how wild would it be? But I really was like, I mean, the pieces are adding up that he’s not there but we watched him die and so dramatically, and all the Morlocks were with him so that also adds a level of like they died so how did he not? I guess I just sat there and now that it actually happened, when they showed him the gasp, I gasped because I really was like, how did this man live? But then I’m going to throw out a wild theory because so far they’ve been right, is he in on this in some way? 

Taylor: I threw that out last episode and it pains me to do it. I do think we have to keep it as an option. I loved straight and narrow Magneto, mostly because I’m a rule follower, and I loved that he was coming to the dark side, and by the dark side, I mean the rule follower side so I loved that. I also think it was really interesting for his character to make that change and to show the depth of his love for Charles through that complete 180 in personality. So I thought that was great, and I really wanted it to be real. And look, if he gets turned because he got kidnapped and now he believes that all humans are not worth saving and that Charles’s dream is dead because they’re never going to accept it. I can accept him changing his opinion back, but I would be so disappointed if he hoodwinked me into liking him because I thought he was good.

Katie: Well, and when I said what I said and I agree with everything you were just saying. I don’t think he’s truly in on this, but I got to throw it out there because how’d he live? That I think, is the big thing for me is they didn’t sit there and say like, okay, granted, they never said they found his body, they clearly buried Gambits. Also, the team didn’t have the same dedication to him as they did with Gambit, so I wasn’t necessarily thrown off by that because I think the only person who might have argued that they should have a funeral for him was probably going to be Rogue, and she was rogue. So not really, like prominent in that way but what do we always say? No body, no death. I just like I don’t know how he lived unless another wild theory I might throw out is has he been replaced by one of those weird robot things? Are we going Agents of SHIELD here?

Taylor: I have a few things to say because you and I are thinking on a similar wavelength. First, I will say I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t have a body for Magneto because Gambit and Magneto died in very different manners. Magneto was literally incinerated by that laser. So I was like, I’m not really sure what could be left because that was pretty thorough. Whereas Gambit was tossed back by the explosion.

Katie: Yeah, but you would think that type of explosion would have, like, incinerated him.

Taylor: Yeah. I mean, he was far back because he was impaled on that rod, so he wasn’t like in its face. So if there was enough kinetic energy moving out and I also sort of wonder because it was his kinetic energy and like, that’s his power, is it not going to hurt him in that way? You know what I mean? Because it’s his own energy being reflected back. So I wasn’t necessarily surprised by not having a body from Magneto, just based on what we saw. But to what you were saying about him being used as a weapon, that’s immediately where my mind went as we started talking because there is something to be said about Magneto’s power in that it is great. He has great power, he is very, very strong, and not to mention he looks like he is kidnapped he does not look like he’s there willingly, and granted like we could be seeing something to throw us off, but he definitely looks like he’s not there willingly and I can’t imagine Magneto is comfortable with just anyone shaving his face like that to be screamed hostage. But he is an Omega-level mutant and he has a lot of power. So my thought process then was can he be used? He also is now a martyr, so can he be used to demolish his own people? And what would break him more than to be the exterminator of his own people through his own hand, but not his own control? And I think that’s a fascinating idea of using Magneto as a weapon and it also ties into the fact that Bastian has some clear issues with Charles Xavier. If there’s one way that you can break Charles Xavier, it’s to use Magnus against him and to use him as a weapon and to make him choose, do I save my friend or do I stop what he has become, which is a living weapon? I think that could be really, really interesting because again, something that we called last episode, people don’t know yet that Charles is alive, but Bastian at least is POed that the X-Men lied and that he is still alive. So if that’s one man’s reaction, imagine that amplified. I don’t think that is the reason that he is doing what he’s doing. I actually wouldn’t be surprised, I’m going to go out on a limb here, maybe they didn’t fight him. Maybe he’s actually a student that Charles rejected that he didn’t feel was a fit for the school and maybe he’s been harboring this bitterness towards Charles Xavier all these years. He’s been putting this plan into place, and now Charles is dead, so he’s just going to attack all mutants because he doesn’t want to be a mutant or whatever. I don’t know, I’m just spitballing here. Then he finds out the man who rejected him is actually alive, oh, now all bets are off.

Katie: Yeah, you said a lot there again, that it’s going to be hard to kind of go back to everything. As far as Magneto, we have been on this train. We don’t think he remains a good guy. I said, if Xavier is back, he’s going to rubber band so fast back to his platform of mutants rule, humans suck. We belong in this world more than you do, etc., etc. Xavier hasn’t come back yet and I’ll get to that part in a second but I do think we can’t and I will not get off the train of Magneto is not staying a good guy. I just don’t fully understand the plan with him and that’s why you threw out some great theories going off of some of the things I’ve also said. Is he the weapon? I mean, I would have to think and they say, oh, we make the Sentinels now out of plastic, whatever, yeah, okay. I would have to think that he’d be the only person who could theoretically stop these Prime Sentinels in their place because of his ability with magnetism. I cannot think that these types of enhanced robots are made entirely out of plastic but go off. I could see wanting to take him off the chessboard for sure. I just guess I’m not sure where he is in all of this and I like some of the thoughts you’ve had, I just, I’m not sure. It’s like we’re just kind of shooting in the dark, right? I’m not really sure where they’re going with the whole Magneto thing. Bastian also makes a really uncomfortable comment of, like, you’re right in your place or something like that, which I was like, what are you implying, dude? Like, are you implying that mutants should be like, I don’t know, because he’s not treating Magneto poorly. He’s in there like shaving him and stuff. He’s clearly not like making him his servant, but he’s also clearly implying you’re here for me to just do whatever I want, I’m going to use you to whatever ability I want to and so I did love that. But then you brought up the Xavier piece, and I think that’s the final piece of this puzzle. At least I don’t think we know the picture and I don’t know where to put them but I do think it’s the final piece of the puzzle. We have them all and we did talk. What happens when Xavier comes back? The world thinks this man’s a martyr. The X-Men, while they know he’s alive, probably aren’t going to be ecstatic that he was just living up life when he could have returned but he had actually chosen not to and was going to choose not to had he not exposed him and opened his mind and seen all the things going on at Earth. So I don’t think there’s going to be a single person who’s going to be happy he’s back. I think Bastian gives us a hint of that. There are layers here somewhere. I just don’t know where they are.

Taylor: Yeah, I think to your point, the pieces are all in place and now all Seven, Eight, and Nine are going to give us a clearer picture. I’m really excited for next week. It was interesting, one of the articles I was reading talked about Bastian when they were talking about his obvious hatred for Charles. It was mentioned that maybe he just defeats Charles and I was like, wow. Everybody thought this man was dead. What if he comes back and then is actually murdered? That is something we have to think about and when I read that in the article, I was like, wow, we are not pulling punches. It is dark. This season has already been incredibly full of evil is the best way to put it. 

Katie: It’s been whiplashy.

Taylor: Yeah, there’s joy and there’s pain and there’s love and there’s loss, and it’s a great little microcosm of human life but it’s been an emotional roller coaster. I think that Charles coming back is just going to stir the pot even more and I’m so excited for the last three episodes. Also, knowing that they are I mean, all of these have been serialized, right? There are through lines, through each of them, even the ones that feel random there are things that tie them. But to have three that are very clearly tied to one another like that, to end the season, it’s going to be very intense and I’m very excited.

Katie: Yeah, I am too. I mean, I have not been so excited for a season finale in a very long time, and part of that’s probably because I constantly feel like season finales let me down when it comes to Marvel TV, so I have high hopes here. I am not sure where we’re going. In this episode, as I said at the beginning, the chess pieces are all on the board. Everybody’s moved into place now it’s just time to play the game and that’s what these last three episodes are. I am so excited. I cannot wait for the next three weeks.

Taylor: Yeah, and I think that is the perfect note to end on because Eight, Nine, and Ten are going to be intense and we are here and ready for it. So make sure that you are following on your podcast platform of choice so that you are ready for all of our coverage coming out of X-Men ‘97 and the final three episodes. Also, make sure that you are checking out the website, which is the central hub to all things Sisters Assembled, as well as the home of our blog, which has some great supplementary content to the episodes that you should definitely check out, just to even whet your palate in between our episodes.

Katie: You guys can also follow us on Twitter at SisAssembledPod and Instagram and Threads at Sisters Assembled. You can also find us on YouTube, where our Sisters Scoop news episodes go every week, that is also at Sisters Assembled, so go ahead and give us a subscribe there as well. And as we’ve been saying, we are reaching the end of X-Men ‘97. We are entering the last few weeks, which is crazy to say already, but we are so excited for Episode Eight to come next week, and then Nine and Ten to come within the next two weeks after that. Make sure you guys are sticking around with us as we cover all of them, as we always do. And make sure you’re keeping up with Marvel as Marvel just blew your mind so let’s talk about it.