Remember It
We’re finally here, the episode that changes it all. Let’s just jump right in–with a slightly different format–cause a lot happened.
Episode 5, “Remember Me,” opens with Trish Tilby interviewing the X-Men at the Xavier Institute for a TV spotlight while the UN formally admits the mutant nation of Genosha. Over on the island, Magneto, Rogue, and Gambit are visiting on behalf of the X-Men. They meet up with Madelyne Pryor–representing the Interim Council–as well as Val Cooper who is not happy to be there. As Magneto meets with the council, Nightcrawler (returning voice actor Mr. Adrian Hough) teleports in to show his adoptive sister and her beau around Genosha. It’s a mutant utopia with cameos featuring Leech, Glob Herman, Pixie, Nature Girl (who I mentioned in episode 1), Multiple Man, Exodus, Cipher (a seriously obscure character who’s different from Doug Ramsey’s Cypher), Dazzler, Boom Boom, and a girl who transforms into a parrot who I assume is an original character. Nightcrawler picks up on the tense vibe between Gambit and Rogue and tries to encourage the Cajun to propose to the woman he so clearly loves, with Gambit demurring that scoundrels don’t get happy endings. Put a pin in that. Back at the mansion, Tilby’s interview with Cyclops takes a turn when she asks about Jean, who he’s been estranged from since the whole Madelyne drama in episode 3. Jean’s off trying to remember which memories belong to her versus her clone (the show refuses to answer that question) when Wolverine checks in on her. Separately, Scott and Jean describe the moment they fell in love, citing a romantic gettogether during the Phoenix Saga–which specifically happened in the comics in Uncanny X-Men #132 (1980)–where she used her cosmic powers to hold back Cyclops’ optic blasts so the two could look each other in the eyes. Jean shares a kiss with Logan, but he refuses to get between the two. But things really turn when Tilby asks Cyclops about his son, having found birth records. Scott doesn’t even try to explain sending his son to the future hoping it could cure the techno-organic virus he was infected with, instead lashing out that humans could never understand his life. Back in Genosha, we see the Interim Council is very, very reminiscent of Krakoa’s Quiet Council, complete with Nightcrawler, Sebastian Shaw (Travis Willingham), and Emma Frost (Martha Marion) on it. There’s also Banshee (David Errigo Jr), Callisto, and human representative Moira MacTaggart (Martha Marion again) to show it’s not direct one-to-one parallels with the comics. Anyway, they want Magneto to rule Genosha, a prospect he finds laughable. Ideally they would ask Professor X to represent them, but he’s gone and left everything to Erik so maybe he’s the next best thing? Magneto agrees, but only if Rogue joins him in a leadership role; she’s not a fan. Over with Scott, he and Jean are finally talking to each other about how angry he feels. The subject naturally turns to Nathan when the two are interrupted by… Jean? Oh, I see, that was actually him and Madelyne having a psychic meetup that Jean intruded on, saying, “Don’t tell me, you can explain.” Trade Madelyne for Emma Frost and that’s New X-Men #138 (2003) almost exactly. Anyway, Jean is furious Scott has been psychically meeting with Madelyne–quote/unquote–behind her back, going as far as to call her clone “it.” Damn, girl… Their argument is interrupted by what looks like a psychic bullet piercing Jean, stunning her. Shit’s about to get real.
Gambit gets ready for what I’m gonna call the Genosha Gala when Rogue shows up and explains her history with Magneto: while a part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Mystique brought her daughter to be trained by the mutant leader, and during that time the two fell for each other; certainly didn’t hurt his electromagnetic powers allowed them to touch. But Rogue felt Magneto didn’t have room in his heart for his demons and her, so she left. Gambit is not happy, especially when Rogue feels like the fact that the two lovers can’t touch is an unsurmountable hurdle. Gambit says they can only be just friends if she feels that way, and we cut to–oh. Oh dear. The Watcher is watching over the gala. Sure he’s the narrator in What If…?, but in the comics he almost exclusively shows up when something major is about to go down. I know, we’re drowning in foreshadowing, but we’re almost there. The party is huge with even more cameos, like Sammy Paré the fishboy and Archangel. Val storms in, unhappy that Magneto is being offered a leadership role, and he and Sebastian Shaw basically wave her away. Val reacts in an interesting way when she finds out Rogue was offered a seat, leading many to think she might be Mystique in disguise. It’s happened in the comics in the late 80’s so it’s not without precedent! Speaking of Rogue, she flies in and shares an incredibly sexually charged dance with Magneto to Ace of Base’s “Happy Nation.” Haven’t we heard that song before…? The two share a kiss, but Rogue realizes her heart truly belongs to Gambit. Too bad at that moment Madelyne gets hit by that psychic whammy right as a gruff voice calls out to turn off the music. It’s futuristic soldier Cable (Gambit’s old voice actor Chris Potter), who is too late to stop what’s coming. As he’s pulled back to the future, Madelyne recognizes his eyes and realizes this is her son, Nathan! Then she–and everyone else at the gala–is caught in a blast of green energy. Rogue, Gambit, and Magneto survive, but find a Tri-headed Sentinel killing everyone and anyone it can. We even see Banshee and a cameo from Marrow get disintegrated. It’s death and chaos, but those three–with some help from Nightcrawler–have enough training and power to try and stand up to it. Gambit goes to rescue the Morlocks from the horde of Sentinels attacking the island–effectively making up for his involvement in the Mutant Massacre (1986 – 1987) which saw the sewer dwellers slaughtered–while Magneto takes the fight straight to the super Sentinel. The wholesale slaughter triggers the Holocaust survivor and he goes toe-to-toe with the Tri-Sentinel, but for narrative reasons he can’t take it down. Kind of surprised he didn’t try to tear it apart and instead threw things at it, but it’s like the one flaw this episode has. The Morlocks are saved, but Magneto’s getting his ass handed to him. As he tries to protect Leech and the other Morlocks from a direct blast from the Tri-Sentinel, his final words are, “Hab keine Angst,” German for “do not be afraid.” And with that, Magneto and the Morlocks are seemingly killed. Rogue goes into a fury, ready to throw everything she has at the death machine before Gambit knocks her out of the way of a blast. Gambit decides to fight the Tri-Sentinel directly, but gets pierced through his chest. Charging the metal–and therefore the Tri-Sentinel itself–with kinetic energy, Remy LeBeau defiantly says, “The name’s Gambit, mon ami. Remember it.” The death machine explodes, stopping its attack. The episode ends with Rogue cradling Gambit’s body–touching his skin with no reaction because he’s dead–crying while saying, “Sugar… I, I can’t feel you.” AND NOT A DRY EYE IN THE FUCKING HOUSE!
Magneto and Madelyne are presumed dead, but Gambit is dead dead. Or at least as dead as you can be in a world of superheroes. I mean, Cable was there so maybe time travel could save the day? Regardless, I honestly didn’t see this coming. I mean, Gambit is a main character! He’s a fan favorite! And he’s dead? They killed him? Holy fucking shit. I just… it’s a lot. Genosha was a genocide, and that’s exactly what it was in the comics, too.
So when talking about X-Men comics, there are two major changes to the team’s status quo that can’t be overstated, beyond adding new team members like in Giant-Sized X-Men #1 (1975). The most recent is the Krakoan era (which is sadly coming to an end and we’ll have to see its lasting impact in the years to come), but the one before that was Grant Morrison’s New X-Men (2001 – 2004). A previous story saw Magneto turn Genosha into a mutant sanctuary, and Morrison’s opening arc, E is for Extinction, has in New X-Men #115 (2001) a Tri-Sentinel–created by Xavier’s evil twin sister Cassandra Nova, who will be the villain of Deadpool & Wolverine–slaughtering nearly everyone on the island. 16 million mutants lost their lives that day, with Magneto assumed to be one of the victims. He got better, but that’s a whole can of worms I don’t want to get into here. Morrison’s run shook up the X-titles and led to long-lasting changes like Xavier revealing his school as the X-Men’s headquarters, turning the Institute into an actual school for young mutants, and Emma Frost taking a (slightly) more heroic role, among other, smaller changes. Thus far a lot of X-Men ’97 episodes were pulling stories from the 80’s, but Genosha was a full on 21st century story. How much will they pull from Morrison’s run? Well, let’s just say don’t be surprised if Magneto is revealed to be alive and if Jean reconnects with the Phoenix–since the title sequence and this episode keep reminding us about it–and has a bad time with it.
Also, can we take a moment to talk about the showrunner, Beau DeMayo? He even had a cameo in this episode alongside supervising producer Jake Castorena!
If you’ve heard about him lately, odds are it’s because he was fired as showrunner a week before X-Men ’97‘s first episode. As of writing we don’t know why, with theories ranging from rumors about him being “difficult to work with” to the real possibility he was too gay and/or too black for Disney. I can only assume whatever the reason it was pretty serious, because right now just about every corner of the internet is begging Disney to take him back after seeing the writing of this show. And it’s not without precedent–Marvel reversed course on firing James Gunn leading to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which was a great film. Until we know the truth I don’t want to defend him too strongly–after all, shitty people can make great things–but people are coming to the conclusion that this show is one of the best things Marvel has put out in a long time, so I hope they make the right call in the end.
Previous: Episode 4
Next: Episode 6
Follow Me Elsewhere
Chwineka Watches 
Leave a comment