X-MEN 97 Episode 8 Breakdown | Marvel Easter Eggs, Ending Explained & Review

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show. I’m your host Paul, and in this video, we’re breaking down X-Men 97.

We’ve now hit the first in the three-part finale, with the episodes being called “Tolerance is Extinction.” This is a mentality we’ve seen throughout the characters, with Beast leaning into it at Genosha. Rogue dropped Trask like it was a like on the video, and there’s a real feeling like they might have had enough. Genosha was basically akin to a terror attack, and we know what happens in the aftermath of those. There’s lots of big things that the show’s tackling, and throughout this video, we’re gonna break it all down. This will contain Easter eggs, hidden details, and things you missed along with everything. Make sure you subscribe for our breakdowns on the final two episodes, as I can’t wait to talk about them too.

With that out of the way, thank you for clicking this. Now let’s get into X-Men 97.

X-MEN ’97 EPISODE 8 BREAKDOWN

Now, rather than getting the usual added-in shots, we just get repeated ones from earlier in the season. Not trying to slag them off, mate, but these show Cable and Apocalypse in their future war in the year 39999. You know… you get Nimrod and Mastermold and lastly a shot of Magneto at Asteroid M. This pulls from the episode “Sanctuary,” and we will talk about it more later on in the video.

Cutting to Cable blasting bottles, we see he and Cyclops aren’t exactly having some quality father and son time. Cyclops is unable to connect with his son, and he marvels at the professor’s ability to be a dad. Xavier saw all the mutants as his children and he himself as a child of the atom.

We also learn that he and Bishop were separated, with it teasing the character’s return down the line.

Now the episode is titled “Tolerance is Extinction,” and it kick-starts the three-part finale. The title itself is based off two stories, with these being major Marvel events. The first of these is Operation Zero Tolerance. That’s been something that’s appeared a lot last week with the initials of OZT. The second event is E for Extinction, which introduced Cassandra Nova.

Xavier actually quoted this in the episode, with that line pulling directly from the comics.

Nova is showing up in Deadpool and Wolverine, and they’ve based a lot of things off what happened there. That had the Wild Sentinel attacking Genosha, which was the big event in the season so far. So far, mate.

I doubt Nova’s gonna turn up, and instead, I think we’re heading towards Messiah Complex. We will talk about that more later on, but the title kinda gives away where things are going. “Tolerance is Extinction” is pretty much the mindset that a lot of the mutants are in now, with even Beast last week arguing if they could co-exist. Rogue gave Trask a date with the pavement, and I feel like it’s gonna be Xavier who guides them all back from this.

Now, at this point, Cable basically does a big spoiler man and breaks down everything about Bastion. Using a diagram that looks like the chain of evolution, we learn that he plans on making the next step. We learn that the fallout from Genosha allowed him to get government funding, which explains why he’s been rubbing shoulders with people like Val Cooper.

This started a war that lasted 300 years, with Morph joking it’s another timeline where Logan’s the last to die. That plays off Logan, Old Man Logan, and by the looks of it, it’s something that they’re doing in Deadpool and Wolverine.

They hint at how he upgraded humanity, and this led into a Utopia. We see what society would look like if I didn’t constantly make mistakes in the videos, and get what looks to be Russia. Might not be, so that’s keeping us on that dark timeline, and we learn what happened to the mutants. Enslaved, we see things that build off the back of Slave Island and also repairs to the Golden Gate Bridge. Think this builds off the back of Last Stand, in which Magneto used it to get to Alcatraz.

Now, Bastion is also a big character from the comics, who was a fusion between Nimrod and Mastermold.

Nimrod was virtually indestructible, so the X-Men had to find another way. This was referenced in “One Man’s Worth,” with his body going back together like the liquid metal Terminator. Sending the machine through the Siege Perilous, this was a pan-dimensional portal in which all those were judged.

Cast back by the universe’s higher powers, he returned to Earth. Living as a human-sentinel hybrid, he was taken in by Rose Gilberti. Given the name Sebastion, this was shortened down to Bastion, and he became fascinated with the mutant problem.

Teaming up with anti-mutant groups like the Friends of Humanity, we know that he’s been laced throughout the season. We’ve already done a big breakdown going through it all, but he’s appeared in every episode except for three.

The first one had a flash of his childhood with his hands being the ones that held the purple crayon. He was the buyer that the Friends of Humanity referred to, and we could see his back at that UN meeting. In episode 4, he appeared next to Forge, with him passing in front of the frame during episode 5. Six was said to be a sort of cameo with the globe turning into purple flames.

So, it’s all been hiding in plain sight, which is a master stroke of what they’ve been planning. I actually think it’ll be revealed that Cable and Bishop made him when they travelled to the future, which kinda ties this whole thing together. We will see, but Rob at Comics Explained came up with this theory, and it definitely makes a lot of sense. Check out his video if you wanna learn more, but so far his predictions have been pretty bang on.

Now, at this point, Cable’s computer comes out of his wrist, which is something we see guiding him during Time Fugitives. It’s basically Navi from Zelda or Siri… like a futuristic Siri that informs him on historical events. This is so he can navigate the past and understand how his events might alter things in the future.

On the hologram, we see some other cool details, including a time stream with several branches. This looks like it builds off the back of the ones shown at He Who Remains’ citadel, and we can catch some interesting events. The first of these looks like the formation of the X-Men, and you can see an outline of Professor X and Magneto.

The next major one looks like Marvel Girl aka Jean Grey. They got her after setting up the school, and I love how there’s all these branches that show where things have gone.

Beast also mentions Kamar-Taj, which is where the Ancient One trained Doctor Strange. They talk about fixed points in time, which is something that was brought up during What If. Episode 4 had Strange trying to save Christine from dying, but he was unable to alter reality.

This is why Cable is unable to change things, and we learn that he couldn’t alter the past. It’s all pulling off the back of Operation Zero Tolerance, which was a major crossover in the Marvel universe.

First beginning in 1997, you can see why they picked it for the backdrop of the show. Though Bastion was returned as a humanoid, his prime directives started creeping in his mind. Creating nano tech, he experimented on humans and turned them into his own sleeper agents.

Known as Prime Sentinels, they would attack when activated, and they worked as his sleeper cells against the mutants.

Loads of crazy things happened in it, like Bastion’s head got cut off and then was passed about like a Dune popcorn bucket. The X-Men were caught and captured, and yeah, just a crazy run that I never thought they’d adapt. There is a possibility we could even lead into Avengers vs. X-Men if we go from this into Messiah Complex. That had the arrival of the mutant messiah Hope Summers, with Avengers vs. X-Men centring around her.

Now, on the news, we see the X-Men learning that Xavier’s alive and leading the Shi’ar. However, rather than being seen as a good thing, there’s conspiracy theories they faked it and might even be behind the death of Gyrich.

Though Xavier is loved by mutants, you can see why humanity might fear his rule because they’re already scared of his powers. On top of this, he’s now leading the Shi’ar, who are an extremely powerful empire.

Now, the Shi’ar are an extremely powerful empire.

The Kree and Ronan were easily slapped away by The Imperial Guard, with Deathbird literally making Ronan get that step on me energy.

Their religion urges them to unite all peoples and societies together, except they do this by force. As Xavier explained, they cut off the kneecaps and pretty much force planet after planet to join with their empire.

Just like Lilandra, the Shi’ar debuted in X-Men 97. Wait… that’s the name of the show.

Their throneworld is Chandilar, and the homeworld is called the Aerie, where they left to take over and rule a million planets.

They initially worshipped the Phoenix Force, but things turned sour when they saw the atrocities the hosts of it committed, and thus they turned against the chaotic cosmic force.

The Imperial Guard was formed to combat it, with Gladiator eliminating the host Rook Shir.

The fear of the Phoenix Force led them to try and take out Jean Grey in the comics and original 90’s run of the show.

The Shi’ar would also eventually go to war with the Kree during the Operation Galactic Storm storyline, a thinly veiled reference to Operation Desert Storm, the name for the first Gulf War.

However, the war would result in a tragic atrocity as the conflict escal

ates in the background, engineered by Deathbird as a Nega Bomb is set off, and billions die in the explosion from tech derived from Captain Marvel’s nega bands.

In the show, the Kree and Shi’Ar are currently at war, with the Supreme Intelligence in hiding, so it seems we are at the start of the Operation Galactic Storm. With Xavier gone as peacemaker, will we see Carol Danvers? Considering her Binary persona played a large role, and Carol has a huge gap in her MCU adventures, it’s possible.

However, look on and ponder the question, What If? At the end of The Marvels, Maria Rambeau is revealed to be the Binary of another world along with Kelsey Grammar’s Beast. What if X-Men 97 is indeed that Earth Monica ended up in? I know everyone says it’s not connected to the MCU whenever I bring this theory up, but the multiverse has allowed for countless franchises to come together.

X-MEN ’97 EPISODE 8 HIDDEN DETAILS

Now, from here, we cut back to Jubilee and Sunspot, with us getting a shot of New York. Due to the show being set in 1997, the twin towers are still part of the skyline. Up in the penthouse, we see a news report that has an interesting name. Though it’s cut off, we can see the end of it, with this being William Stryker. He’s saying how a mutant war’s coming, and he’ll commit genocide to try and avoid it. You really seem to have these two sides of humanity, with there being these militant wants that want to start a war. The other side is people like Roberto’s mother who want to try and help the mutants, but they see them as being less than. Rather than getting their hands dirty, they’ll do PR that boosts their image as well and do things like hold fundraisers for Genosha.

Cutting to Jean trying to read Rogue’s mind, I wonder if Rogue was twisted after absorbing Gyrich. This could explain why she killed Trask, as that darkness might have existed in her mind.

Now, I feel like Rogue is the one who’s gonna pull Magneto back from the brink. They were clearly discovering their past for a reason, with it being something that’s often forgotten. However, I think her going to the dark side is gonna be a battle she has to win within herself, and then she’s gonna pull him back too.

Now, we also have Nightcrawler comforting Jean and saying she can be a mother even if she wasn’t there. He talks about his own mother, Mystique, but the comics have retconned it now to make her the dad. It’s weird, but they also talk about Rogue too and how he sees her as a sibling. Rogue viewed Mystique as a mother at one point, and they go deep into it in the comics. It’s something they skirted around in the comics for a while, but I was so glad to see them touch upon it.

While protestors and evolution deniers are at the gates of the mansion, we get a reveal with your girl Val. Now, I did theorise that she might be Mystique, but instead, it turns out she’s a Prime Sentinel.

Now, these Prime Sentinels are what we get here, with them being regular people that have been twisted by Bastion. This is why he needed Mr Sinister, as he’s someone used to experimenting on people. One of the creepiest things about them is once they’ve been activated, the person behind them is no more. Rogue tried to absorb one once, but all she got memory-wise was an empty shell.

They do kinda change things up here, with Val seeming like she wasn’t complicit. Apologising, it’s paired with the tattoo of when Erik was in the camps, which is clearly done for a number of reasons. Regular people were the ones who somewhat allowed it to happen because they turned blind eyes like Val did here.

She wants Magneto to at least respond to her, but his silence speaks volumes to what he views her as. He’s seen bigotry and what it can do before, with it being like history repeating itself.

Now, on the news next to Magneto, we see that the Friends of Humanity leader’s been invited on. I think that this is a comment on Both Sides-ism, which is something the news often does. This is so they can present both sides of the argument, but this has been criticised for a lot of things. It’s been said that in giving them the same platform, you make it seem like both arguments are valid. For example, you get someone on who says Heavy Spoilers sucks, it makes it seem as valid as the guy who bought 5 t-shirts from us the other day. Cheers, Kenny Svensson and Joseph Lucca as well, mate.

Now, we see Magneto strung, which happens to be on an X. It reminds me of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, but others also clear allusions to torture and crucifixion.

Really interesting imagery, and back with Beast, we see him with Patricia Tilby. Brought this up before, but just in case you missed it, these two got it on in the comics. Dunno if that’s gonna be happening here, but there may be a way to bring people back.

Cutting to Pittsburgh, we see the home of Bastion and get some really cool Easter eggs. In a box, we have a toy robot that looks like a Sentinel and also a magazine for the Stark Expo. This has a robot that looks like Rosie from the Jetsons. We also have a book that says X-Men 52, with this being a big nod towards Bastion. X-Men 52 was where he debuted and yeah… what a great little Easter egg.

Coming across his mother, it’s creepy as shit with this twisted family being reflected in the three here. I definitely feel like Bastion had a happy childhood, though.

We see the drawing that Jean saw in the first episode, and then get flashes of him struggling in school. His subconscious took over him, and this is what drove things the way they went. Bastion’s dad was basically infected with Nimrod, and then he came forth. Obviously, they didn’t have time to do the Siege Perilous, but it’s a nice change-up for the character.

Back with him, we get some amazing cameos, with the episode later on packing some big hitters. There’s Doctor Doom, Baron Zemo, and later on the web-head. Bastion mentions how he’s already handling President Kelly, and I wonder if he’s already a Prime Sentinel. We see the transformation they go through with them getting dipped into tanks. There’s lots of comments on how mutants are basically replacing humanity, which is down to their ability to do work. Recruiting the most vulnerable, he’s doing it all out of his hate for the mutants. I wonder if Cable’s gonna be the cure to the techno-organic virus, and this could be how the character comes to be used.

Back in Bastion’s room, we see a painting called “The Final Dream,” which is clearly playing off the final solution.

We see Mastermold in the middle and demons below it, but these are clearly based on the X-Men. We have Professor X, one that looks like Cyclops, Angel, Beast, and that last one… think it might be a bit Wolverine.

X-MEN ’97 EPISODE 8: ENDING EXPLAINED AND REVIEW

Now, Bastion has weaponised his mother, and we then see her activated. Cutting back to Jubilee, we get a comic-accurate costume, with it being based off her later looks. Prime Sentinels just be activating everywhere, and it leads into a big chase while the mansion’s attacked. Morph turns into Juggernaut, and Nightcrawler finally gets to bust out his swords. The swashbuckling isn’t something we’ve really seen in the cartoon, and I loved watching the Prime Sentinels activate. Reminded me a lot of the agents in the Matrix, and it just leads to some incredible action. Also, Patricia calls Wolverine a Neanderthal, showing that she believes the Prime Sentinels will replace the X-Men.

Wolverine is a cut above the rest though, and we get to see him slice and dice alongside Nightcrawler. They’ve kinda kept Wolverine in the background for the series, but I loved seeing him finally getting to bust out his claws. Love how we see what it’s like going through Nightcrawler’s portals as well and ey, another standout scene in the series.

Jubilee goes tumbling over the edge of a building, and we get a cheeky little X on the opposite side. Sunspot also finally activates, and once again, the Blackbird’s destroyed.

Dear me. This forces Cyclops into his car, with it featuring in a couple of things. Typically he drives a Mazda, but guessing for legal reasons they can’t use it here.

This is what Wolverine jacked, though there have been other versions. Love this little Hot Wheels one, mate. Later on, when they crash, you might also notice that the licence plate says SL1M. This is a nod to his nickname Slim, which goes all the way back to his first comic appearance. Slim Summers was actually gonna be his name, but they decided to instead go with Scott. Wolverine still calls him it, though, so it’s a nice little Easter egg to add into the series.

Now, this scene was released last night, with the Summers road trip being the theme behind it. We get a way better look at the car and see the Xs on the front along with the steering wheel.

Now, at this point, we see the trinity come down with Jean’s arms stretched out in a Christ-like pose. We have the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, with this being laced with a lot of religious allusions. You can even see it as a Mother Mary, Joseph, and Jesus relationship, with them all being keys in the Messiah Complex.

Now, Roberto crashes the fundraiser with the Sentinels turning on the charm. His mother basically says that if they comply, then they have nothing to worry about. It’s a clear comment on things like police brutality and how the blame can often be levied at the wrong people. Cutting to Val, we see that she’s let Magneto out, and I do wonder what is going on with her. I’m still going back and forth over whether she’s a sleeper cell.

She kind of has a redemption by letting him go, and she’s sick of seeing history repeating itself. She talks about how bigotry and attacks are cyclical, and though it’s played with giant robots, there is some truth to it. Magneto says enough, hashtag Magneto was right, and he controls the world through the poles. The guy goes super saiyan, and we see the web-head out in New York. I really hope the rumours about them bringing back the 90s cartoon are true, as I think this show’s knocked it out the park. We also see the Silver Samurai and Omega Red, who I think may pop up as a villain in the future. If you ever played that X-Men Wolverine game with Mark Hamill, you’ll know he was left as a big cliffhanger at the end. Never got a sequel to it, so I’d love to see him here. He’s being used to power a power plant, and I can’t wait to see what the war brings.

I do wonder if this is what Polaris was fixing before when we got that vision of the future. He’s messing with the poles, so ey, Polaris makes sense, and yeah, let me know what you guys think.

Magneto is here, though, but on the other side, we have Charles, who comes down in a crashing ship. Wearing his comic-accurate astronaut costume, he calls out to the world and summons the X-Men.

It closes out what’s an incredible entry, and yeah, those final two better be bangers.

Now, when discussing the episodes you need to be familiar with for the finales, Beau DeMayo dropped a list of must-watches. I’m gonna treat you guys like you haven’t seen it, though, and give you a quick brush up in case you want the lowdown.

He said it would be “One Man’s Worth,” Parts 1 and 2, “Sanctuary,” Parts 1 and 2, “Descent,” and “The Final Decision.”

“The Final Decision” is actually the first release-wise, with that chronicling the rise of Mastermold. It revealed that he was attempting to replace the brains of world leaders with computers. Going against him, the X-Men took him down and managed to save President Kelly in the process. This altered the character’s stance on mutants, with Mr Sinister silently watching from the shadows. “Descent” was where we learned his origin story, with it chronicling his life around the 1800s.

Happening mainly in 1888, we saw as London was terrorised by Jack the Ripper. Put on the case was James Xavier, who believed that Sinister was the one behind it. At the time, he was going by his original name Nathanial Essex, and check out our breakdown from last week if you wanna see his history.

Now, as we learn, James and Essex have history together. The pair have known each other for over 30 years, with them at one point being friends that always hit the thumbs up.

In the end, it was revealed that Sinister created Jack, and he took on his sinister moniker as he left for America.

“Sanctuary” Parts 1 and 2 are based around Genosha, with the slave colonies causing lots of backlash. We opened with Magneto attacking the UN before announcing his base up on Asteroid M. Creating a sanctuary for them, this will be a place mutants can live at without the worry of humans on Earth. However, the asteroid was struck by missiles, which were seemingly fired first. As we learn, though, Fabian Cortez was carrying out a false flag attack, and he struck Earth first to help start a war. At the time, Magneto was extremely weak, which came from him overusing his powers. Cortez was the one helping to recharge him, so Magneto was in a sort of… sort of a moral quandary. Mirroring this, we also learned of his history with Amelia Vought and watched the pair’s rocky relationship. She appeared out on Genosha with her wanting to live away from humanity out of fear. Charles, of course, wanted everyone to co-exist.

Magneto was drained of his powers and fired into space, with the X-Men being blamed for it. Turned out he crash-landed on Earth, and the X-Men launched a strike on the asteroid to stop Cortez.

Threatening to fire nukes, Magneto managed to stop him, with Cortez being found by Apocalypse.

Lastly, we have “One Man’s Worth,” which is a lot of timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly stuff. In the present, the time stream alters and sends the X-Men onto one that’s a war-torn world. Storm and Wolverine were married, with their relationship being the heart of the episode. The big mystery is about who was behind this, with us jumping back and forth through the timeline.

Turns out that a servant of Mastermold called Fitzroy had been sent back in time to kill Professor X. This was alongside Nimrod, with the pair going back to 1959. Bishop, his sister Shard, Wolverine, and Storm travelled back, and they managed to stop the attack from going down. This is what the clip in the opening of Bishop shooting Nimrod references, with it setting up the villain. It basically showed what one man’s worth was and how important Xavier was for mutant civil rights. They actually failed the first time in trying to stop things and had to replay the events in order to change things. Showing Fitzroy that Mastermold would betray him, he then worked with the group to change the future.

In the end, Storm and Wolverine had to give up their love and erase their future for the better of the world. It was a really poignant way to close things out, with Xavier in the present saying that they’d never know.