In July I made a video defending X-Men ’97. I said the show earned its swings, and I meant it.
This finale does not get that from me.
“Survival of the Fittest” lands exactly where you expected it to, and that is the problem. There is a difference between a setup that is seeded and a setup that is telegraphed, and it is the difference between a payoff and an announcement. This episode announces everything. Nightcrawler’s sacrifice. The faith line. What happens to Gambit. You saw all of it coming, and the show is counting on the fact that seeing it coming feels like satisfaction.
It doesn’t. Here is the case, with receipts.
The full Season 2 verdict lands Saturday.
Timecode Chapters
00:00 – The Finale Was Gorgeous, But It Was Built Wrong
02:38 – Nightcrawler’s Unearned Sacrifice & “Faith”
05:55 – The Graydon Creed Post-Credit Payoff
06:43 – Cable Shoots Gambit: Directing for Cheap
07:36 – The Missing Connective Tissue on Apocalypse’s Ship
09:09 – “Key Jangling” Iconic Comic Moments Without Consequence
11:53 – Sentinels in Genosha: The Emotional Miss
13:23 – Cliffhangers vs. Post-Credit Stings
15:20 – The Know-It-All Index
16:48 – Your Turn: Where Did This Episode Lose You?
WATCH NEXT
Why I Let X-Men ’97 Get Away With This:
Every X-Men ’97 video:
Strange New Worlds Season 4:
Spoilers for X-Men ’97 Season 2 Episode 9 throughout, including the post-credits scene. Nothing beyond.
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I will have to disagree with you there because when Rogue goes in to the strine and Nightcrawler repeats that there will be a price i thought that was just him worrying about his sister still not knowing the cost of her decision but knowing there will be a price to pay. At the end when Rogue touches Gambits face and removes Apocalypse from him then hugs him i was expecting Rogue to start coughing up blood and fall to the ground after the hug with Gambit kneeling down catching her dead body Gambit crying knowing that she died to save him Gambit saying something like it should have been me in a call back to the ending of Remember it. I was expecting the post credit to be where Creed would be sworn in as president of the United States of America . The start of Season 3 being Rogue's funeral with Nightcrawler leading it as Nightcrawler Gambit and the rest of the team learn to deal with her lost. So yes Nightcrawler dying in Rogue's place that twist hit for me. However the mystique revival I was expecting mystique to kill Vel Cooper as I thought that Vel Cooper always was mystique and that there was no Vel Cooper. The revival I was expecting if anything was Vel Cooper in her office reading mystique's file then shape shifting into mystique herself.
What I do agree with there should of been a line or two maybe even a conversation/argument while fighting between Cyclops Jean Gray and Cable about the Sentinels the Genosha Massacre and how Madeline Pryor died and the fact that they should of worked through the ship. Maybe even Noting that Apocalypse was kinda the X-Men's fault for lying to him
I respected the ending but I did know it around the point Rogue came out the shrine. I was hearing her points to Esen and thought there was no way Kurt wouldn’t pick up what was going down and just sit with it. I also felt cheated of a convo with him and Beast about sacrifice and philosophy vs theology. The ending didn’t bother me. The 10 minutes left on the cutting room floor did.
I agree with a lot of your other points. Sentinels on Genosha, something off with Cable shooting Gambit… the Gambit/Apocalypse mash up character being the completely wrong mashup character to end this. And the Val/Mystiq end being lack luster. Like what were we supposed to believe or get from it???
Highest I could go was 7.5 but cause the animation was dope and they stayed true to characters. But something felt off and it might have been the weakest episode of a season that probably has more questionable elements than we wanted to admit on first watch
Disappointing season
Very fair take and grade. Would have kept it at 5. I’m not going into Season 3 with any level of anticipation like I eagerly awaited S2. Feels like… blah. It’s giving GoT S8 which is super disappointing because it started off SUPER strong… Apocalypse inside a trinket??? What the actual f*** is this??? I think Beau started something no one else could honestly finish. #bringbackBeau
I think you went easy on the Wolverine-is-a-dick episode because you expected them to have a better plan here. So did I!
We could sketch the season as a parabolic arc that reaches its emotional and technical peak with the death of Magneto and then fizzles out. To compare it to another show you recap, the latter half of the season suffers the same way Strange New Worlds suffers. With all the standalone episodes the lack of consequence and connective tissue diminishes the logic and dramatic heft of the eventual finale.
And like Strange New Worlds so many of these episodes become rule-of-cool dominated. They look and feel good in the moment but when you step back they make little sense, or they reduce normally deep characters to thin missions–Wolverine becomes nothing without his adamantium; Rogue's entire character becomes Gambit Gambit Gambit; Nightcrawler becomes an endless well of empathy to the point of self-negation.
A few additional thoughts:
Is Apocalypse an inherently boring character like Ryan Arey of ScreenCrush argues? Maybe! The show didn't offer any evidence to refute that charge.
Is Kurt's sacrifice keeping with his character and is it moving? Yeah, it sorta is in the aforementioned rule of cool way. Will they probably undermine it by bringing him back to life? You betcha. Will they make it worse by making him evil somehow? Double-plus betcha.
Is it bad that everyone seems chill and happy at the end to justify Kurt's actions? YES.
Is it bad that Mystique replacing Val Cooper as more exciting than the rest of the finale? ALSO YES.
Great review. I also thought it was meh. But I knew Kurt felt something when Rogue hugged him.
I thought Kurt was going to sacrifice himself at the same point you did, but I was hoping rogue would die at the end.
Loved the Weapon X episode for the most part, but it a) squandered Maverick b) Came too early – rendered him losing his adamantium pointless – no boneclaw Wolverine and c) was too much of a departure from the main plot
Great content, I admire the passion. I agree with you on the sentinel Xcorp attack and, obviously, there is no defense for apocalypse gambit (which looked like apocalypse wearing paper-doll-cut-out gambit clothes with tabs that fold over to cling to the paper frame.
With that said, I think a lot of your and others complaints for this season with “key jangles” are blind to what was established in the first season. This show’s pace of blinding speed as if it’s made for Quicksilver himself to watch I think is the culprit for most of its problems. The entire goblin queen story in one episode. Storm and Forge’s story is half an episode. The entirety of the mutants’ Genosha is… two episodes?! In comparison the weapon x episode is fine, although i do wish was just later in the season. Wolverine has no admantium for only 4 episodes I think is even too fast for Quicksilver. But the flaws still aren’t even close, imo, to blemish the miracle that this show even exists and would melt my brain when I was 12 years old.
any ending where rimmy leblow is still breathing is not the right ending…
Wow, you’re incredibly pretentious and pompous. You’re more than entitled to your opinion. I won’t challenge that, regardless of how I felt about the finale. And then I saw your channel’s title, and then I thought, at least you’re honest. Emotionally packed finale that serviced the characters, even if some of the plot points were predictable. Looking forward to season 3, and hopefully a tighter season. RIP Kurt.
I knew Kurt was going to die when he was given a whole episode to deal with family drama, and when I realized, they were going to Ship at the start of the season finale episode I figured that I was right. I mean, I love the Elf, but I've never felt he gets the respect he deserves outside of the comics. So, giving Kurt a whole episode that resulted in bringing in everyone's favorite metal X-Men basically felt like a huge red flag to me.
I agree with the fact that it does feel like a key jangle, though I suspect they keep Nightcrawler dead the whole show. I think the problem comes from having a direction that was changed combined with doing what probably needed to be a twelve-episode season within nine episodes instead.
Next comes the part that really makes this long so people can stop here if they want or keep reading.
I disagree with the idea that people have negative feelings about Ship in-universe at this point. Ship is at a point where it has already sacrificed itself once to help them thus, I doubt anyone feels animosity toward Ship. At that point in the story, Ship is basically their last shot at resolving the ordeal happily, so I imagine that they felt feelings of hope, maybe even lingering gratitude for Ship's actions back in the original series.
Either way, unless a vital bit of information needed to be communicated, I would expect everyone on the Ship mission would be so far into their own thoughts that nobody would be talking. That's because at that point, Beast, Nightcrawler and Rogue know there isn't anything useful to say until they revive Ship.
Not totally related but out of the original series and 97 revival series combined I think I'd have to say the Wolverine mission this season, and Polaris rejoining the X-Men may be my two favorite episodes of all. They basically bumped the Kurt forgiving Mystique episode to number three on my list.
The Sentinel thing really bothered me. X-men should have been so angry that you fear they might kill the pilots. (Also X-factor should have been uncomfortable)
I agree with many of the points made here, but I must push back some of them a)making the emotional argument to cable & the humans would've fallen on deaf ears since they already justified it to themselves as an option of last resort to save the world, b)little was done in apoc's ship to keep most of the attention on the battle in order to maximize the surprise at the end, c)the revival was originally greenlit for 2 seasons so it's probable that this finale was written to conclude the series, which is why there was no cliffhanger & it's way easier to add a bonus scene after than to remake the ending/episode.
Honestly when nightcrawler said that a sacrifice had to be made. I just thought he was talking about rouge. Then when rouge was confused and Hank was alone. I was like KURT NOOO! So it got me and someone who watch the og series also it hit hard. I just remember him also talking to wolverine in the pass. I said this Kurt is real X-men, friend, and brother. I teared up. That was the only thing about episode that made me like it. Things I hated
1. No cyclops and havok
2. Gambit and apocalypse.
3. No one makes a big deal about the sentinels
4.Bishop and Poloris shipping
5. Felt rushed after episode 4. Give us 24 episode seasons again.
Season 2 was very "Trust me bro", and it couldn't live up to that. Season 1 made Bastion, Operation Zero Tolerance, Wild Sentinels, and Fatal Attractions all work together with some serious emotional beats. Season 2 just threw all those emotional beats out the window and tried to make Apocalypse the big bad without really doing a good job of giving him weight. The cast was too big for the number of episodes.
You know how in the comics, there can be a very acclaimed run by one author, and the next author immediately undoes all that out for their own agenda? Yeah, that is what happened in Season 2, except it was the same writers throwing their own hard work out.
Writer sdont seem to care about the source material, continuation or consistency….
This….show….isnt that good…
Its can even become frustrating too watch….
The entire season felt rushed and lacked the great character building moments we got in Season 1. The writing was subpar and the overall plot was handled in a clumsy and stupid way. "The walk not taken" has been the theme for this whole season. Spectacle over character. It's a shame.
Sooo many horrible channels on this platform so when you’re lucky enough to find real shit… nah hear me out not hyperbole or uninformed opinion but with actual receipts!!? You jump in subscribe and hype da fuck outta it. Thank god actual information and intelligence exists. Cheers 🍻 and for what it worth I subscribed and will share
Well said tbh….. I thought I was going crazy 😂
I think by having Charles not snap and become Onslaught after Apocalypse made the X-men his horsemen was a missed opportunity
I let this episode get away with Kurt’s sacrifice because I, for almost 30 years now, have loved the animated Gambit and Rogue saga and I am just tired of the tragedy they are dealt over and over. This was a truly happy ending for them at the cost of a dear friend and family member.
lol, them kicking De mayo out is not showing its consequences
So disappointing, i knew it when Kurt looked, like you. We wanted Apocalypse with 4 Horseman, not an Apocalypse defeated by love and turned into a gem. Lame AF. Fuck Disney
After the somewhat Canon / filler episode with Wolverine in it. I kind of figured where the show was going to be at. 🤷🏿♂️
Another whiner. This season was great and the final episode was nearly perfect. 😂
Wonder Rogue 3:30
Apocalypse did all of that just “I must get them at their weakest in the 1990s..” just for Rouge to put on a gold costume and instantly defeated him as soon as she touched him. No big battle, no all out war, no stakes..nothing..?
This episode was straight from Avengers: Infinity War playbook
freaking sentinels in Genosha again :'D re-traumatized
imo they're setting up a mutant – human war for the next season (if there is one)
Doub I'd want to watch if Nightcrawler doesn't get resurrected in some way, tho 😀
The connective tissue is missing 😀 Perfect comparison imo
The show / pacing feels so hectic I can barely find the space to 'breathe out' lol.
I've never read the comics and only watched the original plus the early 2k movies. So I don't have this attachment or excitement about the lore others do.
All I wanted to add was that as an MCU fan I realized these plot points had been rushed and a lot of food material was used and then dropped quickly. I was able to give it a pass because Doomsday is coming AND Secret Wars will reboot the MCU, including this universe. It's like Marvel is getting it's rocks off as fast as possible due to all the missed years of the rights belonging to another studio.
Also, call me a simpleton but man when Nightcrawler dropped that line, 👌🏼I was damn near ready to convert haha.
Your being a little to harsh… it just about works
Very well thought out. I enjoyed your content!
This whole season was basically what happened to the FOX writers, directors, producers, and anyone else connected to the last two Xmen franchises… They definitely went to extra lanes than the books ever did- Kurt's faith & sacrifice, Rogue taking the Celestials power, Gambit actually being the host body for Big A instead of Cyclops, the death of Magneto in the past that has no effect on the present, etc etc.. Even the Brood being part of the Weapon X program..I think you can tell at what point that Beau Mayo left the show and his fingerprints are definitely on the Wolverine ep. as well as the first 2 part at the beginning of this season. But the finale was definitely not Mayo… This should have fans worried about season 3.
Who in a heat of battle would say that tho?
But Nightcrawler didn’t know what Rogue would have to do, so how would they have the walk and the subsequent conversation
Let's face it, the show suffers from a short screen time. An additional 10-15 minutes would have made the stories tighter. Nevertheless, it's still the best cartoon show at the moment for me.
I enjoyed the finale but TBO it wasn't heartbreaking (in the same way the Morph/Wolverine episode was heartbreaking). Nightcrawler is one of the best X-Men characters but the Catholic priest/morally perfect version of him is less interesting than the cheeky flirtatious swashbuckler. I love that he's a Catholic with deep faith but it's boring when they make that his entire personality… and constantly calling Rogue, 'Sister,' is just performative… nobody calls their actual sister, 'Sister.' By the end of the episode I said, 'thank God Nightcrawler sacrificed himself… Rogue is so much more interesting. Maybe when they resurrect him next season he'll be complex, cheeky, and interesting again instead of this boring 2-dimensional priest. By contrast, the Morph/Wolverine episode was filled with actual surprises and character growth… it's about Morph realizing that the person that they are in love with will never love them back… it's a story that cut deep. That being said… I'm looking forward to season 3!
We need Beau back end of story
The story is rushed, nothing is fleshed out, fan favorite characters killed on and off screen, I've lost my two favorites in (Ice-Man and now Nightcrawler) Charles Xavier is pretty much a non factor in every conflict he's been involved in… They could have really used an extra episode or two just to build up the stakes and at least the family dynamics between rogue and Nightcrawler…
It’s Dana Vasquez fault. Much rather have had a Bishop build up leading into Onslaught and Age Of Apocalypse. I was really hooked at the beginning of the season, even appreciated the Wolverine detour. But the ending fell demonstrably flat.
17:14 thank you for challenging us to look deeper because I was a fan telling my friends to watch and it’s such a well written season. But after watching your explanation I’m starting to think out loud… the reason why I said “I have Faith” at the same time as Nightcrawler while watching, was because it is predictable.
It was supposed to be an easy toss up for the watchers to understand and relate to. But why now? Why toss up an easy plot point on the show when the whole time they have been hitting us with some sort of element of surprise every episode. The characters we all know love and have read on, are adjusted to make for a good viewing experience. Accuracy aside. This last episode felt… predictable. That contrasts all of the other Material in szn 1 and 2. In my opinion.
I felt Kurt’s scenes were great and heartfelt. The problem was everything in between was a letdown and there were no stakes. You never felt like anyone was in danger, besides Nightcrawler. Rogue was powered up and on her way to save everyone and she did so with ease. If there was a whole battle with her and apocalypse, similar to a dragonball z episode, it could have been great. Maybe at the end the X-men form up with X-Force/Factor to take him down at the end, to honor those dead in Genosha.
I liked xmen becuase it was a serious, "grown up" cartoon with life consequences and life choices.. if we are all going back to the 'power of love' kind of thing, then we may as well go back to the care bears
3 first episodes were great! , then we have tons of filler episodes, even disconnected to each other.. like we don't have an interesting story to tell.. then, rush 2 last episode with something mediocre.. bad experience overall.. missed great opportunity with a great villain and a great story.
There is a big difference between forced religiosity and natural religiosity.
In the original X-Men series, the Nightcrawler episode felt natural. The characters had a genuine encounter, and the religious and spiritual elements flowed naturally from the story. Nothing felt like it was being pushed on the audience. The episode simply worked.
With this one, something felt off. It seemed like we were being told to expect “the religiosity,” and because of that, the spiritual element didn’t have the same impact as it did in the original episode.
That is what I would consider forced religiosity. I wouldn’t quite call it lazy writing, but it comes close. Instead of allowing the story and characters to naturally produce a response from the audience, the writing seems to be trying to force the viewer to see, feel, or experience something specific.
Good spiritual storytelling doesn’t need to announce itself. If it’s written naturally, the audience will feel it without being subtly—or secretly—told what they’re supposed to feel.
Lol. Cartoons being cut up like a mad scientist from Aliens.
Lol..Just eat your popcorn and smile.
I feel like they wrote this finale that way it was just in case Disney pulled the plug on season 3 and they wanted to end on a more hopeful note. I think the Mystique scene was made after they were sure season 3 was going to for sure. It could have been a behind the scenes thing we just don't know about. Do I think they needed at least another episode devoted to the ending yes, yes I do. Episode 8 leaves you questioning who was actually in the drivers seat while Remy was trying to seduce Rogue. Was it Apocalypse and with exactly what reason? Was it Gambit trying to get the love of his life back albeit in a manipulative and kidnapping kind of way due to the ruthless nature of Apocalypse? Which leads to the crystal thing that went nowhere and you are left wondering what was it really for. Destroying it seemed stupid especially that it would have made sense for Rogue to use in conjunction with the celestial powers to house Apocalypses essence instead of making a new one out of nowhere. Hell you don't even know what happened with the Assassins and Thieves guilds, are they dead or alive? I hope they are alive because I'd like to see one more episode about them in 3 or 4 where Gambit becomes the King of both guilds like in the comics. They really rush through and I know the original did that a lot too but this feels a bit egregious. As for Nightcrawler and his sacrifice, I'm ok with it as he was killed in the comics. It made me sad but at the same time we never saw what exactly happened to him. We knew that Rogue would offer herself up for Remy, that was a given. But it was nice to see that Kurt loved his sister and her happiness enough and the idea his sacrifice bringing about new life and that his faith was his comfort and motivation. I think it's supposed to be an inverse to Gambit's death. Gambit was in a war zone facing impossible odds, it was dark, there were screams and death all around him and he vanquished his foe, died a hero saving thousands of lives especially the one person that most mattered to him, Rogue. Kurt's was in bright light, it was quiet, his fate had agency, and he "died" in prayer.
I can't really disagree with this take. Nightcrawler's sacrifice landed for me, and I didn't need a big battle with apocalypse-gambit at the end – but I get that this season felt like it needed to hit certain character beats and got there as expeditiously as it could. And it's a shame because the plot in this is already breakneck – this season could have ended with gambit being raised from the dead and spreading that plot out more to give it room to breath. Where I'm hopeful for the future is that I suspect with the changes to the creative team and the plan going forward they probably needed to get where they did to pull off the rest of the series. Commercial constraints probably impacted this season when with more consistency and planning it could be better executed in the future.
But I really liked the mystique sting. She's a character who's absence up until this point has been conspicuous – she's an important character, her power means she could be anywhere, and she was frequently eluded to during both seasons. I wonder with a closer viewing if we see she's been hiding anywhere in plain sight in S2.