And I'm Gary Butterfield. And this is Days of Future Cast, the podcast where Gary and I talk about all things X-Men. And we are talking about X-Men 97 still. And I'm so excited because we have gotten to arguably the best episode of this. It's my favorite episode of the season. I think it's the best one. And I think after this, it all is kind of one story.
I guess starting with this, I was going to say it's the last episode that is almost its own thing. Because in the run-up in the end, it's really just kind of one big story, even before the three-part finale. But this is perfect. This is the episode I think that most does things that the old show could never do.
Okay. Interesting. You know, this is more serious and more, you know, has a bigger impact and is more emotional and kind of smarter than anything I think the old X-Men animated series could do. Okay. So just from, this feels very modern, almost from a, like a, like a who's your target audience kind of standpoint. It's what you're talking about. Like knowing that like, you know, there's going to be a bunch of adults watching this, not just, not just kids and responding to that.
It's been interesting. So I know a few people who... Have kids like, you know, probably like the seven to 12. I don't know. Kids age. It's like seven to 12 age group or whatever. Um, and, uh, they watched it, they watched the series with their kids and like their kids are all into this shit. dressing up as Rogue for Halloween, going all out, going crazy. It just makes me so excited that a show like this
That's very like mature, right? Like there's some mature themes happening here, like with, with love and with.
death and with you know like revenge and all this stuff and sacrifice like very mature things happening are still like inspiring kids to get into the x-men like it makes me so so happy um it feels like the same stuff that got me into the x-men and it just yeah i got like genuinely obviously there's there's a lot of emotional stuff in this episode but i got like again genuinely emotional watching this again today for the second time um
When I say it's more advanced in terms of its audience, that says more about what TV was like in the 90s than it does the audience. Kids could handle this, but a kid's show wouldn't do that. Yeah. I feel like in the nineties, you know, you get a little closer with like Batman, the animated series, but even then, like this is very intense. Yeah. We killed a bunch of mutants this episode. Like we, we, a lot of people died.
important ones yes absolutely you know and in addition to just uh you know named characters but also it being a genocide yeah And that's, I can't imagine trying to explain that to a kid, right? They did a genocide. So now let's talk about, you know. Israel. Well, it all begins with the Gaza Strip. It'd be very difficult. I do that. It's also, I think this episode just has incredible action and kinesthetics and beats. Yes. It's like really well paced.
And it's got the melodrama, too. Like, it's got that undercurrent of aches and drama that I love about the X-Men just as much as I love all of the action and the shooting and the back and forth. It's just really, really good. And, and, and we'll talk about it obviously as we go through the episode, but just cool use of powers. I think that that's.
That's one of my favorite things about the X-Men. I hammer about that on the podcast all the time. But like when they use their powers in unexpected ways, it's always super fun to me. It's a cool part of the fantasy. Yes. You know, like if you were a kid who grew up with superheroes like us.
And you fantasize about having powers. That is such a cool thing to see displayed. Yes, absolutely. You know, like different ways to use it are the kind of shit I would talk about on playgrounds and stuff. And then just seeing, actually seeing it embodied is really fun. So to get us into it, we're going to be talking about Season 1, Episode 5, Remember. This was directed by Emi Yonimuro, written by Bo DeMaio, Maria Wilson, Stan Lee.
I don't think Stan Lee actually wrote it. No. I think it's just based on concepts that Stan Lee had furthered around. Thank you. Just copying stuff from IMDb sometimes. It's just – yeah. As Genosha prepares to join the UN, select members of the team head to the island nation to be honorees. Back at the mansion, a behind-the-scenes press event risk airing the X-Men's dirty laundry.
Notice a couple of new things in the intro. We get Cable fighting Apocalypse. We have the classic scene of Storm fighting Calypso and gaining control of the Morlocks. And then there's kind of a cool scene with Gambit and... Nightcrawler kind of back to back killing some robot.
i don't even know what they were doing like they were just back to back fighting i don't even know what they were doing it was cool it was interesting to see that last bit um because one of the things it made me think about is that like i have not seen gambit and they crawl interact very much in the comic
and they have similar fighting styles like it seems like they would go together really well in that way but they don't they're actually not super close friends yeah in the comics like everyone's friends with nightcrawler but You know, I don't, there aren't a lot of like Gambit Nightcrawler stories. Yeah. It'd be interesting to see those two together a lot more, I think. Yeah. But I liked the cable in Apocalypse stuff. It was nice seeing Apocalypse. You could see them just, you know.
Spoiler alert, he's not going to show up anytime soon in this season. They're always reminding you of stuff in these things. And Stormfighting Clipso, we're going to get Clipso in this. We had to get that history of them. So we started with Trish Tilby interviewing Beast at the X-Mansion. Lots of flirtation going on. Trish is a monster lover. We love her. She is Beast's girlfriend sometimes in the comics.
um he's he's they're basically doing like the oh no no i i i am so happy honored that you were here you know that kind of thing yes um as he's kind of being you know the ambassador of the x-men being kind of the For lack of a better word, most professional in the whole group. Jubilee gets to sit down and she's just excited to talk about all the stuff that they do, including vampire dinosaurs, which nobody understands, which is very cute. Yeah, in the danger room, like all the practical training.
And they show Scott. Scott is upset. This is a human interest story, news report kind of thing. It's a good day, though. Genosha is being inducted into the UN. A big deal. And we show Magneto, Rogue, and Gambit flying. And when they get there, as they approach, they're blown away. They've remodeled the place since then. And everything is real good in Genosha now.
And the degree to which I hoot and holler over cameos in the show. Oh, I know, man. It's so good. It's so good. It's undignified of me. Like. I was like, yes, fucking a it's, it's Garg wheel. That weird one-off new mutant. I mean, like, they show Glob so much in this, and you just love Glob. Like, I love Glob so much. One of the all-time greatest designs of a comic book character ever. Ever. Not just an X-Man. You know, ever. Anyone.
But you glob, you get pixie, you're getting everybody here. Nature girl is in there. All kinds of pretty like obscure pots. Yeah. And then leech. uh who's in there which is very funny because leech does a very specific thing it's in his name um and uh he doesn't do it anymore that's which is fine we don't care as long as the funniest thing is there's also leech has a little buddy named arty
yes who doesn't drain people's powers who's functionally the same as leech they could just throw an arty in there but they throw leech in there everybody everybody wants to see leech um yeah and this is a big montage of just like how great it is to live in genosha right like there's Street vendors. This looks like King's Landing on a good day when there's not seven kings vying for the Iron Throne. This is just a happy day in King's Landing. There's African music that's played.
And at first I was like, Oh, that's kind of a weird bit. But then I always remember, I always forget like Genosha is off the coast of Africa. Genosha is an African nation. So it's okay. Yeah. I mean, it's not an African culture. I don't know why, why they, I was like, Oh, okay. I guess that makes sense. If I had to choose Genosha music, what would I choose?
You invented new kind of music. Later they do it and they just choose Ace of Bass. Yes. I have a lot to say about the Ace of Bass song that they sing on this, by the way. This guy's a fucking Nazi. It's a weird choice that they chose Ace of Bass.
Just to get out of the way, it apparently was written because... like to to actually uh like take a stand against his neo-nazism um okay so because when it came out at first people were like yeah this dude is a such and such he has a background of this But if you actually look into it, that dude rejected all of that stuff, and this was part of that.
It's not quite as bad as I thought it was when I first watched the episode. And I was like, this is a weird fucking choice. Yeah. Like, why are you, why are we singing? Like, basically like Nazis are great during this scene. This is really fucking weird. It doesn't make it not a weird song though for the mutant.
Like we're going to have our own culture and music that's going to look towards the future and choosing like a 90s Ace of Base song. Yeah, if we're going to choose an Ace of Base song, like all that she wants is another baby, I think would be more appropriate. They make that dance scene with Rogen Magneto real weird. Yeah, and Madeline and Cable, come on. Oh, that she wants. Brutal burn to Cable.
I'm just saying there's better Ace of Base songs that we could have chosen. There are a lot better Ace of Base songs. So yeah, we see how great Genosha is. And then Madeline Pryor is there to greet them. This is where she has taken up residence after she left the X-Mansion. trying to kind of figure out her own destiny in life. Everybody's in a good mood. Everyone's a happy one.
It's great. They wanted an X-Man. It turns out you guys had a spare gene. She's happy about it. And Magneto gets pulled aside by Val Cooper and Gambit and Rogue are like, what are we going to do? like just teleporting everywhere. And I think the important thing, I think sometimes the comics, um, or not the comics, but this, this show specifically forgets that it like,
Every time he teleports, it causes the scent of rotten eggs, basically. That dude's just farting everywhere. It is a nonstop fart fest. And later in the show, they actually show how unpleasant it is to be teleported by Nightcrawler. Yes. absolutely uh and he's just doing it willy-nilly to gambit rogue like they're absolutely used to it yeah yeah But this is really charming. Yeah, he's going to take a tour of the city, right? Like, let's go check out Genosha together. Like, this is a fun time.
they're old friends they they allude to the first episode that you know the his highlight episode in the old series but the implication is they hung out after that as well we just didn't see it absolutely um and he credits the x-men for like allowing this to happen right like the x-men free genosha from this. And like, it was, it was built into this. And Gambit is in a bad mood, mostly because Magneto and Roger are kind of boning down. So he's not real happy about anything. So he's like this.
these Apple prices do high share. Uh, that was interesting. The first time I watched it, you know, cause it's a notion. My first thought, I didn't expect them to do E is for extinction, like in a million years. So I thought there would just be a dark secret. Yeah. And I was like, okay, like maybe these people are actually being exploited. Like it's a $10 Apple. The reason is they're not trading with other countries yet, you know, like.
When a country is new, it's expensive and everything. But I was like, okay, this is going to be a story where Gambit's the only one who realizes something's wrong. Exactly. But they're on a different level than that. That's what the old show would do. He's upset that there are statues of Magneto everywhere. Yes. There's signage everywhere. Magneto is right.
There's a very brief dance routine with Jamie Madrox, Azazel, and Dazzler, which is my dream blunt lineup, I guess. If we're going to talk about blunt lineups, that'd be a pretty good one, I think. I love Dazzler being here. And there's so many little cameos in this too. Like Boom Boom shows up, like doesn't get a speaking line or anything. But just like if you recognize him, you recognize him. Squid Boy. Yep. Squid Boy is there. Something like that. Squid Boy. Pretty fun.
Lots of rewatch material, right? Yes. Lots of stuff in the sidelines that you can pick up on. Obscure stuff, too. It is cool to see newer characters. Yeah. Show up in here like nature girl, which I think it's like from 2018 in the comics or something like a relatively late character is there, but still there. Right. Like still do an exhibition, like still do it. So it's still around, which is very, very cool.
nightcrawler pulls gambit to the side um and is basically like hey i can tell you're sad you should just marry rogue everyone can tell you guys have this this connection yeah you know I really like the scene. The Nightcrawler voice actor is the same one from the old series, which they didn't have to do, but it's a nice touch.
and in gamut's like no you know people like me i'd be too busy sinning to get married and i love this like carl goes there is no love without sin because love is measured in how much you can forgive Yeah. I like that line a lot. And it seems to like work on Gambit. Gambit's like, huh? You know, he really thinks about it. Chewing on that. Yeah. That is a nice line.
We go back to the mansion where Tish Tilby is now interviewing Cyclops. And there's kind of this awkward moment. I love this like... almost like office like faux documentary style thing that they do where they where you can hear the Caribbean like hey can you take the shades off it's causing he's like
Like, no, I absolutely cannot take the shades off. They hard cut to a room with different lighting. Exactly, yeah. Just very, very good, very, like, very good background. Like, people... I think with The Office and like 30 Rock and Parks and Rec and all the faux documentaries that have been like, people are so used to that format that just like referencing that is really easy and it's really good.
But Cyclops starts talking about Jean. And then as we talk about Jean, we switch over to Jean, who is like in the middle of a pond doing her best Moses impression. And like, I don't... She's holding these globs of water that have images in them, and I guess they're supposed to represent her memories, right? This is confusing, I think. I don't like the blocking in this. The color of the water looks weird to me, too. I'm blind, so don't listen to me.
To me, it looked like toxic waste. For some reason, it looked like greenish or sludgy. It looked a lot greener than I would expect a lake to look, to be honest with you. Yeah. And Wolverine walks up to her. uh you know she's talking about you know she's here with her memories and everything like i don't remember everything
I just, you know, and what I do remember, I don't necessarily trust. And we do this, this really beautiful scene where Trish Tilby says, how did you know you're the power couple of the X-Men Cyclops and Gene? How, when did you know? And they talk about a specific moment that's from the comics, which is when she was first becoming the Phoenix, she wanted to anchor herself to him. She talks about like the universe was calling her and stuff.
She needed to feel earthly. And they go back and forth, Cyclops is talking about as well, where she takes off his visor. and she can just hold his his powers back and they look in each other's eyes for the first time yes you know this is a very beautiful moment I love when this is referenced. I think that's a moment in the X-Men that stuck with me my whole life. Same. Weird little...
call out thing in Phoenix and song, which is not a great, not a good comic book. Yeah. There's a great moment in it though, where Emma Frost tries to duplicate this moment with Scott. she's in like a little thing and she just diamonds up so he can't hurt her. Yes. And tries to do the same thing, but the beams just reflect off and make a big, huge mess. Like it's not beautiful and sweet. It's really messy. And like, and I was like, oh man, that is a good.
You know, that's some good subtext for Cyclops and Emma Frost relationship. Exactly. Yeah. You know, I was reading it like comparing like. him and gene are like universally perfect you know and wolverine's going to say that something to that effect pretty soon
Whereas him and Emma was messier. Like I like Cyclops and Emma a lot. I like that relationship. Especially that period of Cyclops and Emma, right? Like that, I mean, they eventually get to a little bit more of a stable ground in their relationship, but like at the beginning it is. very messy. And her trying to emulate, you know, do this thing that Jean Grey did that was so beautiful for their relationship and it's just not working. Yeah.
You know, it's effectively the same, but it's not. I really like it. And the cut back and forth, I think, is really interesting, too, because Gene is talking about. holding back her immense level of power. And Cyclops is talking about allowing her to hold back his immense amount of power, right? Yeah. It's a special moment for both of them.
Similar reasons, but also different reasons. But it's mainly focused on Gene and not Cyclops, which I think is kind of interesting, especially with all of the stuff we're going to get with Madeline and Cyclops here in just a little while.
Wolverine is there. Um, and he's kind of, his advice to all of this stuff was, as Gene is talking about these memories is, Hey, I've got, you know, a head full of bad memories. My, I would look forward, not back. Yeah. You'll drown in them. Yeah. You know, and Gene leans over and kisses him. um which is you know i think a kind of a major deal for wolverine major deal for anybody who is into logan and gene but he pulls back and is like hey
you know, you're, you're with the boy scout. Like you should remember that. Like I'm not, you know, you're Jean gray. He's got summers. Those are the rules. And you just forgot for a moment. You know, like walks away. Yeah. Yeah. Really good line. So Tish then kind of ruins this whole, you know, Cyclops is fondly thinking about his wife and asks about Nathan. Basically reminds him like, oh yeah, that's not the person you had a baby with.
You know, he denies it. And she's like, oh, yeah, well, there were records. You know, of this, you know, I saw birth records for it. I, you know, their testimony from the doctor, why are you lying? And Cyclops gets really mad. Yes. You know, he's, he snaps and this is also really good. I love this because I mean, it's.
Like Cyclops in the comics obviously has so many anger issues that we've dealt with throughout the years. But I mean, he's regarded as so much of like a Boy Scout. Like Wolverine just called him a Boy Scout.
like two seconds ago but he has all of these anger issues he has all of this repression and like this woman bringing up his baby who he just lost And while he's carrying the weight of losing his mentor slash father figure, the way that his team is now being controlled by a fucking terrorist that he's been fighting since he was 16.
The fact that his wife was not really his wife, but a clone. And that's really confusing. Like all of this stuff is on top of him. So when she starts asking these like real specific questions, he just blows up. He just can't help himself. And really like it's. fascinating because like the words that he's using like
I have to lie because you're normal, because you're ungrateful, because I have to answer your questions to prove that I'm even a person. Like, otherwise you would even think that I exist. I think a lot of people talk about the metaphor for X-Men.
heterosexual people and a lot of times it really really doesn't work but this time like with this kind of language it really really works right like it's just exactly like you're you're making me prove that i'm a fucking person like i don't i shouldn't have to tell you this stuff i'm just a person
Yeah. And it works really, really well. They extend it, you know, because the X-Men are superheroes as well, where they tie it in. It's like, you know, thank God we're not like you, because if we were, you would, you'd be fucked. Yes. Like we, you know, save your life all the time. You know, it's great. He loses his composure, like the most composed X-Men. Like you can see how much pressure he's under. I love the council group here. Like, where did we get these guys? It's a real mixed grill.
Who decided on this council? Like who voted? You know, it's very funny. The council is Banshee. you know, and Moira McTaggart, you know, fine. Madeline Pryor, they wanted X-Man, fine. Callisto, okay, leader of the Morlock. Get it? Kinda. Uh-huh. You know? And then Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost, so they have two horrible supervillains. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. He just did it to be awful. I love the idea of Madeline as an X-Man.
Because even Madeline doesn't know she was an X-Man for any length of time, right? Technically. She never wore an outfit. Yeah, exactly. But like that's the bare minimum. She did. We don't know how long she was in jeans. Well, that's what I'm saying. She doesn't either, though. Like nobody does. Yeah, I guess that's true.
So, yeah, she may or may not have. It's just very funny to me. And it's even funnier because they've called Magneto in here and they basically want him to take over the role as chancellor or a.k.a. king. They basically want him to rule Genosha. to be, if not necessarily its president, then its leader, like I said, as chancellor slash king.
And Magneto is like, can't you find anyone better to deal with this human democratic stuff? And Moira chimes in, and I like this a lot, where she goes, yeah, but Charles is already gone. He entrusted you with his X-Men, so we entrust you with this. This responsibility of developing our democratic relationships with all of the rest of the nations, which trust me, you are not our first choice. Yeah. I wanted someone to say that. Like, can you get anybody else? Like, I don't.
Literally anybody would be better, I think, at this than Magneto, to be honest with you. But what do I know? So, you know, Magneto thinks about it. He's like, oh, you know, I remember the first time Charles told me about his dream in a bar in Germany. We're going to see this later in the series.
You know, and says, you know, any dream worth having is worth dying for. Like, this is worth doing. He says he'll do it, but he's out of one condition. And then we cut to him talking to Rogue. The condition is Rogue will be his queen. You know, he says, you know, I will be the strong king and you are somebody who can feel what anyone else feels with a touch. You know, you'll be an empathetic leader. And he deflects it. She's like, this is ridiculous. And he says, this is Xavier's design.
This is a real weird, uh, thing to demand like i will take over your country if i can date the redhead is a real weird it's a little strange it's a little strange but i get it like he wants he wants like a partner in in ruling like and i understand i can i can understand that um it would just be a thing that like i would have checked with rogue first about like to make sure that she's down because she's not she's not into this at all she's kind of pissed about the whole thing especially like
As he continues, he turns this into a confession of love and says something to the extent of loving you leaves broken men whole. Yeah. Even if you don't love back, it fixes. Yeah, that's a little fucked up. Like, what are we doing? Red flag guy on TikTok. What are we doing?
It's the kind of thing Dracula says to Storm. Not usually the kind of thing that Magneto says to Rogue. It's the kind of thing Dracula says to everybody. Yeah. I haven't seen Nosferatu, but I bet that line is in there somewhere. Yeah. Great night scene, you know, go to the mansion where it looks like we're just after the interview. And it looks like Gene is just comforting Scott. Yes. You know, like, hey, everyone gets angry. You know, tell me about Nathan. And he starts talking about Nathan.
And they kiss, but it turns out this isn't Gene. This is Madeline Pryor who he's talking to. And Gene busts in on him. This is, again, the same thing that happens in Grant Morrison's X-Men with Emma Frost here. I love how it's playing the fact that they're clones against us. We think it's Gene for a minute, but it's not.
You know, it's fascinating to like this idea of their special psychic report that Jean talked about during what she wasn't being interviewed, but she was telling Wolverine about right like. a special like connection that they've always had since they've, since they were teenagers and seeing that, seeing him share that with a different woman. That's not her is, it's, you know, it's,
If not literal cheating, it's emotional cheating, right? Like it's sharing that with somebody else and she does it without telling her about it. And it hurts her. It hurts her feelings. I have a lot of sympathy for Scott here. It's a clone and he had a baby with her and he doesn't know when they switched. Yeah.
dude don't like yeah absolutely it's a fucked up situation all the way around super fucked up like i understand my genes upset i also understand scott's side during this which is a good you know makes it a good argument and so much better than the comics version of this where like
gene gray just disappeared he just met a clone didn't question it and married her immediately yes you know it was real stupid here it's like this is real fresh yeah you know i i don't expect scott to get over this right away And like the idea of having like this second psychic rapport, like have I have, especially if him and.
I guess we'll call her actual Jean, like Jean at the mansion, have not had that connection since this happened. And him and Madeline have. It lays more proof that she was there. longer than they ever expected. So this was the person that he was in love with as opposed to the real quote-unquote zine. He thought it was her. He didn't do anything wrong. It's a fucking clone. Yeah. You know, it's a very messy situation. It's really tough.
It's very difficult to navigate. I would imagine like most poly relationships are without cloning. She says, I turn my back on galaxies for you. Yes. And now Sinister just cut out a small part of me and you love it. You know, it, you know, and he's like, no, I love both of both of them. And Cyclops turns it back and says, do you actually love me or do you remember loving me? You know, or is this just a memory? Like you've been cold too. This is a great.
couples fight like this this feels very well realized uh gets interrupted when gene gets kind of zapped she gets some psychic feedback we're gonna see what this is And we're going to switch back to Genosha where we have kind of another breakup almost. Oh, this is great. Another relationship conversation where Rogue is preparing to tell Gambit.
kind of the truth about her and Magneto. And we actually see the history where her mom was training her how to use her powers and brought her to Magneto for like further training, just like people would bring. kids to Xavier, except Magneto. being what looks like 45 and Rose being what looks like 17 years old, kind of develop a romantic relationship during this, which is a little sketchy, but whatever. It's a cartoon. We can get over it.
little easter egg here she's the outfit she's in is like a rogue savage land savage land stuff yeah that's very famous uh even though she was only in it for like one issue in the comic but they brought they're like doing a mini series
of her in the sand they did that one cover and i think that like a trading card and people were like let's get it we need more popular image here's the story we're going to tell uh from this um but he kind of taught her not necessarily just how to use her powers, but also like... how being a mutant can be art and can be a culture and can be an identity.
Which is, I think, kind of fascinating that we get this brief history on this because we don't see this side of Magneto a whole lot. A lot of the stuff we see with Magneto is we have to kill all the humans or we have to do this in order to – we have to take over this.
island or whatever yeah he's always reactive exactly we haven't seen the and that was what so this uh doesn't have doesn't go into Krakoa era stuff you can tell in part because Moira McTaggart is Moira McTaggart in this but The idea of this version of Denosho with the culture and everything is a Krakoa era.
yes saying like what are mutants like when they're no longer uh reactive and on the defensive when they're no longer persecuted right like what what is what is possible if we're not on the defense all the time Yeah. Real cool. They told that story for a couple of years and real uncool. They just stuffed it back into a fucking sack.
Marvel, man. I swear to God. We'll always have the memories of it. Yes. During this whole thing, when she's telling the story, Gambit is just tossing playing cards into a fire. Yes. Formalware Gambit. Dude, I do love a white tux gambit. This is fucking legit. Yeah, white tux gambit's good. So she and Magneto broke up because he was too upset.
And he acted like nothing ever happened. They also, this is the point where they explained that his electromagnetic powers allowed her to touch him. So they were able to actually touch one another. So they developed an actual physical relationship. Like she talks about that with him.
um and she also says like the reason that they kind of split up is because despite him wanting all of this stuff he was so angry like his rage got in the way that he she left and they split and both of them acted like nothing ever happened after that until they you know, until he took the X-Men back over.
Yeah. Rogue is saying that, you know, not only is this her chance to do the thing she became an X-Man for, but also, you know, Gambit's like some things are deeper than skin. And she's like, some things aren't. Yes. You know, like she wants to be touched. during this. And this is where Gambit reveals the immense skill issue that he's never gotten a woman off the rear pants. Come on, man. That is fucking teenager shit. If you cannot do that, I don't know what to tell you, Remy.
I mean, like a fucking cooking glove. Yeah, any number of things. yeah yeah just get those black gloves and all those barbecue fuckers on on the reels and tiktok you know what i'm saying let me get my black gloves on absolutely yeah like We're going to do a little smoking and then we're going to do a little fucking. That's what we're talking about today. Literally never gotten off through frittage. Okay.
cool gambit um the uh but you know she says like so she basically breaks up with him and he's really upset he's like we'll just be friends he takes us very gracefully I was pleasantly surprised that this was so graceful, to be honest with you. It did not have to be. They could have really made Gambit a very petulant kind of childish character in this moment of, you know, Gambit wants to do all this stuff. But instead he like kisses the back of her hand and says like, oh, we'll just be friends.
And then walks away like does not want to be in this conversation anymore. But like what a mature thing for Gambit to do that I absolutely did not expect whatsoever. Yeah. It's good Gambit characterization. He's not being played as a clown.
you know during this this whole episode which makes sense given like what happens in the rest of this episode right yeah this is his highlight episode like every everyone gets a highlight episode you know during this and they do that previously on x-men they say it in the beginning this is game Meanwhile, Val Cooper is expressing that she's not very happy that Magneto is their chosen kind of leader for Genosha.
saying that most nations don't let terrorists be leaders. And Magneto responds saying, yet so many nations let their leaders be terrorists, which is very, very good. Gambit Madeline Pryor at the bar. Yes. Kind of watching this. You know, he's drowning his sorrows. We show fireworks and we see Uatu there because something big is going to happen. Yes. Here.
They say, you know, listen, you don't need to worry that much about Al Cooper because Magneal will rule, but an X-Men is going to join him, Rogue. And then Rogue floats down and everybody loses their mind like it's a John Hughes movie. This is amazing. The prom girl comes down. I think this is absolutely fantastic. Like the music kicks in. She floats in like a fucking queen. We don't often see rogue like this.
right like yeah she's obviously like has been used as like a sexual bombshell character but like this feels like something so totally different that we get from rogue Cause she's in this like beautiful gown. She's not in the Savage Land outfit or like a bikini or whatever. Like she's in this skin showing, not in like a horny way necessarily, but in a way that she wouldn't ordinarily do because it'd be too risky. Yeah. Yeah. You know,
But since she's going to be floating above the dance floor with somebody who can touch her, she can do this. She's like feeling herself. And this is, I think this is amazing. Like everybody is freaking out. Yeah. This is when the Ace of Base song starts playing. And we talked about this a little bit, but yeah. An odd choice, I think. It makes sense for Genosha. You just have to do a little history dive on it to realize it's okay. I think it's a weird song musically for this moment.
Like, I don't think this is a perfect music choice personally for this, even with the context around it. I don't know. I would have almost liked to see, and this is difficult, but the Newton brothers have done such a good job on music throughout this entire season. I would have liked to seen their take on like a ballroom dance techno track like this.
It's like a Dazzler song. The whole idea is there's mutant culture. Unless one of the people from Ace of Base was supposed to be a mutant. Just like JFK, who can just have another baby after another baby after another baby. I wouldn't have mined something, but I can also see why they wanted to do something that people recognized. I think grounding this into a song that most people, I think, would recognize as a track and having that as the background for this, let them do some...
some cool things. Yeah. Um, so I see the period appropriate. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it is weird that like this, we're celebrating this mutination and they're using like a 20 year old human song. I do. I think it fits personally. I like it throughout it. I also had the Ace of Base CD as a kid, so I can't really say anything. You're a big Ace of Base fan. Yeah. As everyone's watching, this very beautiful lyrical scene, Madeline gets hit with the same psychic bolt that Gene did.
And sees a flash of the future with like rafts crawling over stuff and everything. Her nose starts to bleed. All this is happening very fast. Rogue breaks the kiss that she has with Magneto and says, I'm actually going to reject this. I'm not going to become your queen. Some things are deeper than skin. And then, you know, Madeline goes outside and we see cable.
of all people um he's running around he's trying to get everyone to stop the music i hate ace of bass stop the music this is not a skate party yeah the main thing is he wants the music he's not just saying evacuate or like sentinels are coming which would have probably solved it it's just stop the music stop the music yes stop the music stop the music um
He's trying to get everybody away from the party and he says, you know, he's coming. And as he rushes up to Madeline, we hear his suit say like body slide in one, which if we know cable means he's about to teleport somewhere. And Madeline, looking at Nathan, recognizes him as Nathan, looks at his eyes and realizes that Cable is her son from the future.
realizes he survived as he says i'm so sorry mom and it's like teleported out um and then just then everything goes to hell and this episode just goes completely off the fucking rails in a way that just left me like literally agog as I was watching it. I had no idea that this was about it. It's something that I recognized that was from the comics, you know, right away, basically. Like when Cable showed up, I was like, oh shit, they're doing use for extinction here.
And it's just one of my favorite things about X-Men 97 is the way that it incorporates storylines throughout the X-Men into things. Without being a slave to them, right? Not even a little bit. We're going to take our favorite parts and make a cool Frankenstein monster out of this. That was done by Cassandra Nova, but for our purposes, it needs to be done by Bastion and it fits. Yes. You know, it's really clever. Like it is really well put together. I don't like Bo DiMeo as a guy.
It seems like I really hope this show can keep the juice. It's going to be interesting to see how much of it is him and how much like he would have you believe it's all him. But I know that creative works don't work that way. You know, they're collaborations. Other people wrote this as well. Other people directed it. I hope that they're able to maintain that angle of this specifically.
Very much so. Because, boy, are they – because they're whipping it on the What If series, my man. Yes. They're cooking it here at the very least. Yeah. I just – some of this would have stuff like autumn was watching it's like what the fuck is i don't know what any of this is and i was like that's kate bishop and she's like we watched hawkeye i don't I don't know who that is. Why is she a cowgirl? I don't understand what's going on at all. Like, why is Shang-Chi a cowboy? I don't get it.
Yeah. Big chaos, huge green lasers and stuff. And we come in kind of the aftermath, like Rogue wakes up under this huge brick. Uh, Magneto burst all of his stuff off and they link up, you know, uh, and there are sentinels here. There is a gigantic sentinel. Gambit calls it a big Godzilla sentinel.
um it's it's a masterable it's a three-headed super sentinel thing yes we've seen uh nightcrawler barely managed to save them and there's this great bit where it's like how many and it's just like too many You know, everybody, like so many people have died. And throughout this whole scene, we're going to pan over people who we know who are dead.
You know, Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost and Warrior McTaggart. We see Banshee get destroyed by a laser. Like, all these people who are important characters get killed. And just like devastatingly killed, like unquestionably killed in comic book land, right? Like just vaporized by Sentinel. One of the funniest things in the world happens, though.
where they're like the morlocks are stuck and it's like why didn't you invite the morlocks to the party like why are there more like why did y'all build an underground for the warlocks does it just make them more comfortable did you build they had to live in the denosha sewers did they ask for this? Is this where they wanted to live? I mean, if they did, that's fine. I get it. I totally understand. They're institutionalized. It's like in Shawshank.
yeah the room's too big yeah they can't they can't handle windows i get it but but at the same time um very funny uh Val is watching all of this in horror. We get her reaction. Magneto decides he's going to distract the Sentinels so that Rogue and Gambit can save the Morlock. And this is just... Fucking incredible. He starts slinging metal rocks at the Master Mold.
Gambit jumps on a fucking motorcycle out of nowhere. I don't know where he got that from. Rogue is flying beside him. This is fucking awesome. Everybody's like, she's holding up metal to like provide cover over his bike. um gambit is like like she gets into a fight with a uh a sentinel and through the rearview mirror he's looking at his like the love of his life to smash the sentinel up and it's so fucking cool i love i love all of this man this is
I'm just throwing my hands up loving this so much. I'm going to throw this out there. This is my favorite cartoon action. Yeah. This show generally, but this, the scene so far that we've seen is my favorite action I've seen in a cartoon. I think that like, there's definitely some, you know, I'm going to say it. People yell at me. There's some anime influence to some of the stuff. It is still grounded enough to where I know where everything is. Yeah.
in here like this action is cool and over the top but not so over the top that everyone is just flying and punching each other in midair yeah like it never slips into dragon ball bullshit in this it just has like a tiny little taste of it where it's over the top because they're superheroes but it's not over the top like nothing has weight which is my main problem with action and anime. Yeah. This is in terms of animation fight scenes.
This is as good as it gets to me. So probably in terms of fighting anime stuff, and I haven't watched a whole large amount of anime, but Attack on Titan is probably my highlight for...
like the way that they draw like combat. Um, and it's really interesting cause like they're on these, like, um, they're basically flying around on strings like it doesn't make any physics sense whatsoever but it looks fucking cool like that's the important thing they're fighting these giant monsters and it's very similar to this like this is more grounded than this but it's also like
people combining their efforts in order to take down something so much larger than themselves. And this looks so fucking cool. I love the, I love the moment where like Magneto keeps throwing stuff at this master mold and the master mold, like knocks them over and he hits the metaphorical Xavier statue and knocks that over. Really good. A bunch of people. Yeah. Yeah. It's not good.
Yeah. Being on strings is a good way to put it. I always want action where people don't look like they're on strings. Just for personal preference. Nothing more than that. But I never wanted to feel like strings. Yeah.
At this point, you know, he's really upset. He's knocked over the statue, killed a bunch of people, you know, and he says, you know, no more. This won't happen again. And he starts wielding these subway trains like whips. Dude, this is so fucking awesome. It's so sick. Like he has to swing his arms to like. you know, to beat this thing. It's really good.
um again talking about like when we talk about the use of powers right like the yeah it's he's not just shooting an energetic energy beam or anything like he picked up a fucking train of subway cars and it's like using it to whip up a fucking sentinel let
but there's something, something a hundred times his size. Amazing. Yeah, absolutely. The Morlocks are trapped and the, when Tommy is there, you know, they're all scared because they're going to die. And Tommy's like, the X-Men have never been, you know, friends to the Morlocks. Whereas Leech is like, Xavier will help us, or Magneto. It's real cute. But who actually comes in but Gambit?
Like saves them. Busts into the last minute. And as they're leaving the tunnels, Magneto is kind of knocked to the side. Um, and the master mold, we see, we hear him say Omega threat detected. And this Sentinel unleashes this huge energy beam right at Magneto. And Leech is sitting right beside him. Sucking out all his powers. Sucking all of Maidito's powers out. Sucking them off. But most importantly, knocking Gambit and Rogue out of the way.
magneto looks at leech like he he uses his native language to say do not be afraid in german which is a Real interesting choice because I don't know if Leeds knows German or not. Yeah. I mean, I get it. It also made me think why Magneto and Nightcrawler have never spoken German to each other. Right? Let's see if they would have something like that in common. Yeah.
The Sentinel blasts them, and it looks like they are just dead. We're not going to find anything out about their outcome for the rest of this episode. but the Sentinel says Omega threat eliminated. Um, and rogue flies up in rage. Uh, and I love this moment because it's not so good. She doesn't like growl or scream or anything, but like her, her, her formal dress is torn.
She's obviously been in battle, and she's just angry. You can tell by the look on her face, she's angry. She doesn't have to vocalize anything. And then she starts to charge into the master mold, Gambit. charges up the entire fucking motorcycle and slings it at her and knocks her to the side, saving her life. Yeah, so she won't kill herself on the master mold. Yes.
Uh, he, you know, the master mold slams down the concrete, creating this like ramp and gambit jumps up it with his charge staff. It's super fucking cool. Oh my God. This is so awesome. It's really good. Getting right up in his face and he gets stabbed in the gut. He is stabbed in the side. Uh, and he's been the master mold holds him right up in front of his face.
and says mutant intruder neutralized kind of bragging and i am like man the first time i watched this i'm like mouth open like just like there's no way they're about to fucking kill gambit like there's absolutely no way that this is happening in this cartoon like i'm not Children are crying right now. Yeah, yeah. It's really good. And then Gambit goes, the name is Gambit, Monami. Remember it. And then uses his body to charge up the Master Mole.
Exploding it, causing unknown devastation. Putting a huge hole in the middle of the earth in Africa. But killing the master mold, which is a big accomplishment. It's fucking incredible. And then we switched from here to the TV where like Tish Tilby is like doing a live report basically. And the X-Men are watching this from the mansion and they're all just devastated as we see footage of Genosha, which is just gone. Like it's just, there's holes in the ground.
And we see, we go back to Genosha as we see survivors go to the center of this crater. Like we see Nightcrawler kind of crawl up and Rogue is holding Gambit. And she's just like – she's finally touching him with her bare skin, right, and saying, I can't feel you. I can't feel you. And like – unbelievably like the screen just goes black with her sobbing. Like it's fucking wildly emotional. It's so heart wrenching. The credits are over sadder music.
Yes. You know, it's not, it doesn't get cool. Yeah. It is a jaw-dropping, show-stopping episode. Just incredible. And it feels like it changes everything. It was at this point I was like, oh, they can do anything that they want to. Marvel is just letting them do this stuff. They're letting them kill fucking Gambit. Anybody and anything can happen. It's also a really interesting choice for them to do Gambit because in terms of comic lineage, Gambit has spent some of the least time dead.
of any x-men like everybody gets a dead you know gets to hang out and be dead for a while that'd be a fun that somebody has probably done that graph but that'd be a fun graph to put together as like most times dead yeah there's probably a couple x-men who have never died i'm sure but not very many You know, like, I'm trying to think, like, who hasn't died? Who hasn't died that's been in X-Men? Maybe Kitty Pryde?
just being trapped in like a cosmic bullet count is dying oh yeah they did think they thought she was dead during that yeah i don't know who hasn't died um But everyone gets to be dead. Gambit has died before, but it was real brief. What about Guy, Guido? Oh, Strong Guy? Strong Guy hasn't died, but he hasn't been around long. He takes long periods of just being...
Off camera. He just hibernates. That doesn't really count. He goes into super slumber. He goes to the X-Men camps upstate. Just hangs out. Main X-Men who have never died. That's difficult, dude. I'm trying to, I am wrapping my brain around this, trying to figure out. uh beast just recently got the current beast got killed and replaced with a time displaced beast in the comics i feel like that happens all the time though i feel like that's happened a bunch like the uh
I think prior to that, Beast might have been, because he didn't die. He wouldn't join the Avengers for a long time. and stuff. Iceman maybe hasn't died. I was thinking Iceman. I was just thinking because I don't know that he's actually died. He just retired and then he came back and then like he was an accountant. One of my favorite facts about Iceman is he's just an accountant. He fucking loves numbers. I don't know. This is my calling. The fucking...
I definitely, definitely a decision they made for him before they decided to make him, you know, before he was sassy and gay. Yeah. Current Iceman characterization does not seem like an accountant. Fucking Colin Robinson of the X-Men. Jesus Christ. I think Iceman might be it, dude. I don't know that Iceman has ever actually died in mainline continuity. Maybe Bishop, too? Like, he's a later X-Man, but maybe Bishop. Of course, Bishop has traveled through time so much.
yeah he's been taken off off the board for sure but yeah it's fucking tricky Um, but yeah, Gambit is, is one of the least dead X-Men. That's a hundred percent true. He is one of the least dead X-Men. Um, yeah, I had, uh, I mean this episode. Like we poured sugar on it during the entire time we talked about it. So I don't have a lot of sugar to pour on it anymore, but like, it's just so fucking good. Like I think from tip to top, like.
My expectations for this show were so, so low that I was just expecting it to be kind of... I don't know, kind of average at best, right? Like just like, oh, they're going to write some X-Men stories. They, you know, they're going to maybe pick it up, but like.
By the time we get here, like in the first four episodes were great. Don't get me wrong. Like I was, I was like, holy shit, these are way better than I thought they would be. And then I saw this and I was like, this could be fucking anything. This could go a million different directions. Masterful work. Yes, absolutely. Love it. Love it, love it, love it. Yeah. Thanks everyone for listening. We appreciate you. We do. If you want to support us, go to patreon.com slash.
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Yeah, if you can find the number, you can do it. There are only so many combinations. If you can solve Will's puzzle, if you can solve Will's ARG that he's probably running right now. You can definitely do that. Yeah, there are ratings, reviews, Apple Podcasts, Podcast Addict, tell your friends. Yeah, yeah, do all that stuff. Listen to all the other shows. You know the things. Do all of them. Yeah, and we will see you with the next episode, Life, Death, Part 2. Bye, everybody. Bye.