Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host Paul, and in this video, we’re breaking down X-men 97. Episode 7 is now out and throughout this video, we’re going to try to be up to the task to bring you a big breakdown of the episode.
Sinister things are happening in the Marvel Universe and throughout this video, I want to be a bastion in breaking it down.
This will cover Easter eggs, hidden details, and our theories for the future as we head towards that finale. We know the next three episodes are all part of a three-parter called Tolerance is Extinction. So it all kicks off from here and yeah, there’s a lot of things I want to talk about.
Heavy Spoilers ahead so if you haven’t checked it out then check out now. If you enjoy it then please hit the thumbs up and make sure you subscribe for our breakdowns every week.
With that out of the way, thank you for clicking this, now let’s get into Episode 7.
X-MEN ’97 EPISODE 7 BREAKDOWN
Now as always we get a couple of additional shots in the opener.
This includes the clip of Cable’s war against Apocalypse which is happening close to the year 4000.
Nimrod also continues his appearance from inside Master Mold with us getting a shot of Bishop taking him down. We’ll talk about Bastion later in the video but I feel like this is all leading towards Messiah Complex.
Starting off at a graveyard we see the funeral for Gambit and the fallen X-men from the events of Genosha.
Now the episode is titled Bright Eyes which is something that pulls from the original series. This went down in Time Fugitive Part 2 in which Rogue said it to Cable.
Cable has played a big part in the series with him pretty much getting his origin story. That’s always been a bit convoluted in the comics and it was so complex they even dropped covering it for Deadpool 2. They realised it was just too much and instead skipped over the planned flashbacks and images of Cyclops and Jean or… Madelyn in his home. Here though they’re fully going into it with us seeing his birth and then his journey to the future. I loved how the first person he ran up to and stopped was Madelyn. It shows the true person he’s trying to save which is of course his mother.
Now here we can catch Nightcrawler as the priest with the character being heavily religious. He’s often depicted as living in a church before his appearance in X2 echoing that. The series also had that as well with him lying low at one. The local villagers thought he was a demon and in the end, he was saved by Rogue and Gambit.
So it makes sense why he’d want to lead this and it’s a sombre way to start things off.
Joining him are also the Assassins Guild with Bella Donna being in attendance.
The card puns are out in full force and while they’re grieving Rogue is angrier than ever.
Now we then segue into a scene that was released early last night by the good folks at Phase Zero. Shoutout to them, bloody great bunch of people, and it was awesome seeing them get an exclusive clip early. We really see Rogue tearing up shop and you sometimes forget how overpowered she is. She’s absorbed the abilities of Captain Marvel and is capable of wrecking up shop.
Punching the ground this knocks lots of soldiers down with this being the powers that she took from Avalanche.
She also busts out a kick that is a clear callback to a lot of things. This is based on her Dive Kick that was first introduced in X-men vs Street Fighter and then later used in Marvel vs Capcom. You might know it as a rider kick or an Eva Kick with it appearing in lots of different things. Rider kicks are a big move and seeing Rogue get hers as well made it such a cool scene.
Seeing the surveillance we then cut out to see General Ross watching over the monitors. Talking about how this is the place built to hold the Hulk this location featured heavily in the Red Hulk storyline. I won’t spoil who that is in case you haven’t read it but this took place after the events of World War Hulk. Banner was put in a cell underground but a new red hulk was roaming on the surface. They had to go to Banner for advice with his cell being something that we visited.
Breaking in, Rogue mentions her father who raised her out in Mississippi. Both her parents wanted her for nefarious things so it makes sense they’d talk to her about breaking into prison.
Cut to Scott talking to the UN who’ve abandoned the rescue attempt. Due to optics, they can’t help with the death tolls and we see Magneto’s statue has been destroyed.
Symbolically this shows his fall there as well with the character being seemingly killed last week.
Coming in we see Jean with her hair down and I was wondering if this was a cheeky misdirect. This used to be used as an indicator to retroactively show if it was Madelyn with the opening credits having her with that. The pair also held hands at the funeral but it looks like they’re just coming together.
Checking over the reports we see they come from WHIH news with this being the in-universe news station that is also part of the MCU. They cover a range of things and are pretty much the go-to for news reports in the Marvel Universe.
Scott says that in the wake of mutant genocide they need hope which could be a reference to Hope Summers. That kinda takes us to Messiah Complex which builds off the back of House of M.
In what’s one of the most famous panels in comic history, we watched as Wanda uttered No More Mutants.
This led to the population of mutants with powers going from millions to hundreds in the blink of an eye.
However, during Messiah Complex, mutant genes begin to reactivate with the first one of these being seen as a messiah.
That is Hope Summers who quickly gets a target painted on her back. Attacked by the Purifiers in her hometown of Alaska these are led by Nimrod.
The Purifiers believe she will wipe out countless humans during what they call the six-second war leading to a new rivalry between humanity and mutants. This belief is also held by Bishop who aims to stop Cable from saving the child as it leads into the dark future that Bishop is from.
The Marauders and X-Men also seek the child leading to a big power struggle in which both sides are attempting to get the first post-House of M mutant.
Now while it appears Mister Sinister was behind the hiring of the Marauders just like in the past, it is revealed it is actually Mystique masquerading as him.
She was told by her former lover, Destiny that the baby, upon touching Rogue, would be able to revive her from a coma.
This led Mystique to employ the Marauders as Sinister to get the baby for herself. Thankfully, the baby survives the touch of Rogue while also waking her up.
Hope is then entrusted to Cable by Cyclops and the pair go into the future akin to how Bishop travelled with Cable at the end of Episode 3.
Down the line, this eventually led to Avengers Vs X-men which I’d love to see them also adapting further down the line.
Now the Blackbird lands on Genosha and we see the Blob, Pixie and also Multiple Man. He’s got his multiples doing multiple jobs which I thought was a nice little touch. He played a big part in Messiah Complex with two versions of him travelling off into future timelines to report on what happened.
Beast also talks to Amelia Vought who is a member of the Acolytes. Giving a harrowing tale about how surviving isn’t all it’s cracked up to be we see how lives have been completely destroyed by it.
Following on from the report at the X-Mansion we see Patricia Tilby joining the scene. She and Beast have had a big romance in the comics which we see blossoming here. From here we cut out to a massive cameo with Captain America with his old World War 2 bike being parked outside the hut. This is something he rode in the first avenger with it being part of the big action scene in the woods.
So good seeing him pop up and it really helps to expand the Marvel universe.
He is of course an arm of the government but like Rogue, he went against them as well. Civil War saw him turning against the superhuman registration act with mutant registration also being a hot topic.
On the lookout for Gyrich we see a secret compartment below the cabin which is akin to the reveal in the winter soldier. There are data banks at the back and it’s similar to the layout of the secret shield basement.
Here we see on the screen we see OZT which stands for Operation Zero Tolerance.
Nah in the end we learn that it’s Bastion who is a form up from Nimrod. I love that name ‘cos a Nimrod in the UK is an insult. You bloody Nimrod.
Beau De Mayo hinted at this on Twitter and we saw the villain in the intro last week.
Bastion was seen back during episode 4 and we could catch a photo of Forge with his arm around the character.
Bastion is a machine who’s a fusion between Master Mold and Nimrod, the former of which we could see the pair of in the intro last week. Bastion was part of Operation Zero Tolerance which involved Sentinels wiping out the mutants.
This is what Rogue finds here with it clearly being a reference to that. This might explain why he was with Forge and potentially the anti-mutant weapons were designed by him.
He’s basically a mutant-hating machine who was embroiled in the Messiah Complex as its main antagonist who sought to wipe them all out.
Captain America’s hands are tied though and though he says where Gyrich is he can’t help out yet.
Love how Rogue just throws away his shield with some proper kicking away the ball ‘cos you lost the game energy.
Back on Genosha we see Strong Man and can also catch the character Forearm working in the back as well.
Strong Man says there’s gonna be a war so better bloody start bulking up mate.
EASTER EGGS IN X-MEN ’97 EPISODE 7
Roberto doesn’t really want to be involved with this stuff and it’s clear he isn’t ready for a war. He hasn’t come out to his parents yet and wonders what would’ve happened if he’d died. They would’ve found out that way and he argues these attacks go ahead because people don’t stay hidden. However, that’s pretty stupid in the end and you can’t hide away who you are forever.
So Jubilee tells him she’ll go with him and we see the people mourning for the dead. This includes the Morlocks who have repeatedly appeared throughout the series. Magneto saved them in episode 2 and then seemingly died with them in episode 5.
Beast quotes Martin Luther King in front of the destroyed Xavier head symbolising how his dream for mutant and humanity hasn’t worked out. We see a real change in the character and if they lose him it shows how mutant-kind can change.
This change is shown metaphorically with Gyrich who we see surrounded by butterflies. Butterflies are a symbol of change with the mentality of the characters changing. However some figures go through literal ones with Trask becoming a human Sentinel.
Anyway, Rogue confronts Gyrich and he reveals he’s been outfitted with anti-psychic tech. Rogue doesn’t need it though and she absorbs him directly with us initially getting a flash of Bastion. This then changes to Nimrod which was its own transformation just like the butterflies.
Picking up on the psychic echoes we see flashes of Genosha including a shot of Madelyn. Alongside it are Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost. It seems like she’s seeing things through the eyes of rats who would’ve been witness to the attack.
Cyclops and Jean haven’t had the best of times mate and she references her seeming deaths at the hands of the phoenix force and so on.
Finding Emma Frost they see that she’s activated her second genetic ability. This is the way she can transfer her skin into diamond form which was invented by Grant Morrison. This went down because Morrison wanted to use Colossus in a scene but they realised that they couldn’t. So he just invented it that Mutants could also have second abilities with her getting hers here.
Emma is a psychic as well so it explains why Jean was able to pick up on her.
Getting a direct message from Bolivar Trask he first appeared in Night Of The Sentinels Part 2.
After the Sentinel program was shut down, Trask ended up travelling to Genosha in order to build Master Mold but this ended up turning against him. The X-men in the end stepped in to save the day and he went into hiding until popping up at the start of episode 1 in the season.
Now Trask wants them to come to Madripoor which is a big location in the Marvel universe. This crime-infested locale is one of Wolverine’s haunts with it being a place that showed up in Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Across with Roberto, we see him going to his parent’s penthouse. It’s adorned with butlers and Jackson Pollock-type paintings showing the guy’s got money. His parent’s company was referenced in episode 1 where we could see a sign for them in Times Square.
His mother is accepting of it though and said she always knew with parents being more accepting of stuff like this these days. Well, most but you know, it clearly a metaphor for coming out with this also being something explored in X2. However, she wants them to keep it quiet showing that she perhaps isn’t as tolerant and supportive as she’d like to be.
Cutting to Rogue we see Nightcrawler coming across her. It’s the Day Of The Dead but whereas this is normally supposed to be a time of acceptance, Rogue can’t do it. Maybe you shouldn’t have kissed Magneto in front of him love. Ruined his last moments eh. Good thing I’m not there mate ‘cos I’d have ruined it but Nightcrawler says Rogue helped them live.
Cutting to Gyrich we see Bastion arriving. Voiced by Theo James he sounds more Sinister than Sinister and his first act on camera is killing Gyrich.
Cutting to Madripoor we see signs for Vista Corp who own the news station WHIH. The Hammer Tech building is there too and we also have Horizon Labs. This is a big company with it predominantly appearing in Spider-man.
Using another secret gateway we see the hybrid of humanoid Sentinels and more things pointing towards Operation Zero Tolerance.
Quoting Oppenheimer after he made the atom bomb Trask reveals that he’s unwittingly ushered in a new dawn of destruction.
He brings up how Sinister has been working on Trask and this explains why Bastion needs him. We have talked about him earlier in the season but here’s a quick rundown in case you missed it.
As Morph Mentioned he was a scientist in the 1800s and he went under the name of Nathanial Essex.
Obsessed with evolution he studied Darwin but had his own theory time on what was going on. Essex believed that evolution stemmed from untapped powers and he believed Evolution could alter humanity.
Now at the time in his personal life Essex was married to a woman named Rebecca but unfortunately, the pair had lost their only child. That was the driving force for him to try and find a way to improve humanity so that others wouldn’t have to face that kind of pain.
After the death of his son, he brought his findings to the rest of the other scientific minds who kicked him out of the club due to what he wanted to do. He believed human experiments were fair game because in the end, the discoveries would improve the species.
So he assembled a gang known as the Marauders who took homeless people and gave them to him so he could carry on his work. One of these was Daniel Summers who… I’m guessing you can figure out who he’s related to. Sinister would become obsessed with the family and study several of them and the untapped powers in their genetics.
Rebecca came across the experiments and discovered that Essex had dug up their son’s body and worked on him too. Pregnant at the time she went into labour and lost too much blood in the process. Her final words condemned him for all the sinister double life he’d led and eh….
She said it, she said it.
It was at this time that he came across Apocalypse who wanted him to create a worldwide plague that would kill most of humanity. This is the techno-organic virus which we saw Nathan infected with. Only the strong would survive and it would reshape the world for Apocalypse. However in a twist of fate, Sinister used it on Apocalypse who had to return to hibernation in order to heal. Realising he’d need someone who could combat the villain he cloned Jean Grey in order to have it so that she’d have a kid with Cyclops who could then be the most formidable mutant to stand against him.
Phew sounds like a long one but that’s it and probably gonna lead us into the Messiah Complex story down the line.
X-MEN ’97 ENDING AND FINALE EVENT EXPLAINED
Now Rogue drops Trask like people drop likes on the videos and it again shows how the mutants aren’t playing around. They don’t wanna work together anymore and would rather just kill some peeps but we see how this leads to something worse. Revived as a human Sentinel he goes on the attack and destroys the building. In the back we can also catch Stark Industries which we get during the falling shots.
Transforming into Quicksilver we see Morph take on his powers which wasn’t something I was aware could happen. I’d just be Apocalypse the whole time mate and one-shot everyone. Saved by Cable he’s got futuristic weapons which are capable of taking down the Sentinels with ease. In the future, Cable was fighting a war against terminator-like machines which were under the direction of Apocalypse. So it makes sense that he’d be able to do this with it all going down in Time Fugitives Part 1 and 2. That took place in the year 3999 which was a darker future for mutant-kind that played off the Days of Future Past timeline.
However the world started to fall apart which we learned was because Bishop changed things in the past. Thus this timeline was being wiped out and we saw as Bishop arrived in his present.
That took him to 2055 where he learned that things had still turned out badly. Rather than Senator Kelly weaponising the Sentinels a plague had been spread across the world.
This was the techno-organic virus and thus Bishop travelled back in time. Part 1 was about him learning who was behind it with them stopping Apocalypse at the end.
However, this destroyed Cable’s reality even more and it wiped out his son Tyler. So he travelled back in order to stop Bishop thus meaning he had to help out Apocalypse.
Gets complex but his computer said that millions had to die in the past so billions in the future could live. Realising that they needed to create the anti-bodies and allow the plague to still be unleashed Cable used Wolverine because of his healing factor.
This meant that Apocalypse could be defeated whilst also preserving things in the past. Bishop returned to find his future still in ruins and thus time travel often creates more issues than it fixes.
I wonder if they’re gonna address that and they may have ushered in an even darker timeline by possibly allowing Bastion to rise up.
Cutting to Sinister and Bastion, he brings up how he’s failed since ’92 to beat the X-men. The show started in 1992, so it’s a nice little reference.
Turns out he’s been spying on the Shi’ar, which we talked more about last week. I’m not going to recap that, but yeah, I’m guessing we’re going to go back to it.
Cutting to deliberated streets, this looks like where Trask ran through last week.
Putting on a record, this is Sheb Wooley’s The Purple People Eater. This is about an alien descending from the sky to eat humans. Here though, we have a purple figure coming down to eat mutants, and we see he has Magneto with an inhibitor collar on.
Shaving Magneto, it’s clear the next step in his plan is getting the mutants to become his weapons and yeah. Big, big way to end the entry.
Now as for next time, like I said at the start, we’re going to be getting a three-parter finale. This will be titled Tolerance Extinction, with parts 1 to 3 running from next week until the finale.
The synopses are as follows:
The X-Men must unite to face a new threat for part 1. Part 2 says the X-Men work to settle the score before it is too late.
The final one says the X-Men’s dream is put to the test as mutant-human relations reach a tipping point. So, lots of things going down and I feel like due to the idea of tolerance leading to extinction that we’re going to have a lot of things happening with Magneto. He’s always been someone who sees working alongside the humans as something that will usher in the end of the mutants. This is due to humanity fearing them and they’ll always do things to try and erase them.
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