Charlie and Steve Watch Stuff

[00:00:00] Hi friends! Welcome to Charlie and Steve Watch Stuff, where today we are watching X Men 97. My name's Steve Selnick, and joining me as always, he just got done sending the guy full of metal to fight the guy who can control metal. It's my good friend, Charlie Peppers. Charlie, how you doing today?

well. And should I be leading the X-Men? Because that decision to send Wolverine to fight Magneto was just a little Charles, what are you doing?

If this were the NBA, all of the podcasts would be talking about how Charles would be looking for a new job in the offseason. Just a disaster of a coaching job from my guy Charles. And maybe a little bit of Scott Summers as a coach on the bench, maybe is going to be looking for a new, a new

gig at the end of the season.

like, we're jumping ahead just a little bit, but when they were in the war room on Muir Island, for that base that they went to, Scott was pretty aggressive in calling the shots, and Charles gave him this sideways glance that I believe was, Oh, [00:01:00] okay, you're leading this, I'll take the backseat and I'll let you do this, because I know that all of y'all are mad at me.

The X Men are not displaying heat culture, and I don't know if you would understand that reference, but maybe there's someone out there that would understand that reference. It's a basketball reference. Do you know heat

culture? Are you aware of that? Yeah. So the Miami Heat down in South Beach basketball, professional basketball team, they're very famous for this term called heat culture, where it's essentially like everyone works out really hard.

it's one of the few teams in the NBA left that has a, body index standard that you have to adhere to. Like you can't, you're not allowed to get too hefty. They, they literally test you. There's, it's very much so like everyone who plays in Miami is very in on the culture of the business is very well defined.

I guess and a lot of the times they go farther than other teams because they know their culture and they buy into their culture rather than other teams being just like [00:02:00] a collection of stars who don't really know how to work together. like the X Men today. So I would say that they're, they're acting a little less heat culture ish than they should have.

And it started with the strategy for sure. No Eric Spolstra on that bench. That's that's for sure. I'm throwing a

lot of sports references at you this morning.

sports and comic book teams are a lot alike if you really think about it

Let's get into the reason why we're here today. It's to talk about X Men 97, a show that, if I may be so bold, has an absolute stranglehold on both myself and Charlie. We were together 36 hours ago from this recording we had like a really hard time not just having the podcast episode in person. We wanted to talk about it so fucking badly, so here we are getting to talk about it now. We're here to talk about the ninth episode of this first season of X Ben 97 and absolute banger of a season titled Tolerance is Extinction Part Two, released on May 8th, 2024, written by [00:03:00] Anthony Ti and directed by Emmy Emmett y Mora. And the plot of the episode is the X-Men work to settle the score with bastion and magneto before. It's too late. So we're going to get right into this amazing episode spoilers. It was an amazing episode. Every episode of X Men 97 has been some kind of amazing so far, and I'm going to hand it off to Charlie to take us through this one.

My dude Let's talk about these opening credits. So the first thing we hear is wolverine our favorite canucks voice He's like previously on ax man. I I think we know that shit's about to go down because logan is gonna be the Backbone, the adamantium, heh heh, backbone of this episode.

Hey.

change is that Storm is back, BB. She's back in the opening credits. She's got that new look. She's in her

Thank the

Lord.

And her new cowboy Carter get up. I'm so excited. [00:04:00] Our girl's back.

before we jump into it, I wanna double click on this for a second. We've been seeing Phoenix and Apocalypse in the opening credits for a minute now.

Interesting, huh? Wouldn't you say that's interesting?

I would say that's definitely interesting. It's one of the few things that hasn't been Addressed out of the opening credits so far for sure, even though we've been seeing I mean we've seen Both the Phoenix and cable and apocalypse almost every episode at this point in the opening credits. I feel like it's got to be coming in the next one since I guess it's spoilers for this episode is that we don't see anything to that extent in this episode, but I would say with the direction that both Cable and Gene went in in this episode, poor team planning aside, there's a chance that maybe we're going to see one or the other of the results of those opening screens in the finale next week.

Oh, for sure, I will throw the show a bone in that episode too. When [00:05:00] Madeline said he's here and Wolverine was like who apocalypse I think that could have Apocalypse that could have been the show Telling on itself a little bit and showing that apocalypse would be in the near future of the series But I digress moving on past the credits Xavier is met with some distrust, but the X Men focus on stopping Bastion and convincing Magneto to reverse his blackout.

Storm and Forge stop an angry mob from attacking Jubilee and Roberto. Dude, this beginning of the episode, I felt bad for Charles. I don't know if you felt bad for Charles, but what were your feelings going into this?

I just watched this episode again, as we were talking about before we hit record today. I found that on my second watchthrough, I have like, close to no sympathy for Charles. I think Charles fucked up and he knows it, and he's now [00:06:00] sort of reaping what he sowed a little bit. I don't know, man, I don't have a lot of, I don't have a lot of positive feelings about Charles in this episode. I think he really fucked up, and for being a telepath, he didn't fucking talk to anybody, he just kind of assumed everything. I just think a little communication could have gone a long way for my guy, which is like, a running theme for Charles Xavier.

So, nothing new here, under the sun. under the shear empire.

Under the Milky Way Ghetto.

Listen, I do crazy things for that bird bussy too. Like

it's happened.

you know in his power is literally communication I don't understand. I don't understand what the whole Lapse of communication was him not even checking in on them, but him suddenly I don't know, I, this episode highlighted how deeply idealistic Charles is and Charles's idealism had a certain charm to it in the original series [00:07:00] because things had never been quite this bad.

With things being this bad and Charles not pivoting his views, it makes him seem disconnected from reality. You know, everybody else is

He's

really rigid

to the point of being absurd like no humans and mutants can coexist i'm like Not that that isn't Possible but you have to you have to look at what's been happening Genosha happened and if he can read minds he could literally just go into Rogue's mind or nightcrawler's mind and just See how horrible and how terrifying that was and for him to I don't know.

I I also think that his conversation with rogue should have been approached differently. it should have started with an apology. It also should have started with a how are you doing? What's up? Talk to me. I really fucked up and To his credit, maybe that's

where the conversation was going.

What

I was [00:08:00] literally just gonna reference that conversation and with, with the risk of skipping ahead a

little bit in the sense that Rogue, rogue tells him that in multiple ways, like you weren't here, you don't look at us as people. You're just focused in on that dream, and then you weren't here for Genosha, so you have no idea how things have changed.

Like, you might have sensed that a lot of people died, but you have no idea how things changed. And he was told that multiple times, and never really listened.

my dude's

making his bed.

He's making his wheelchair or his, whatever, his hover, his hover chair or what have you. But I still felt for him though, because of the pain that the animators put on his face. You could tell, you could tell. That he was regretting everything, and I,

Yeah,

for him, and you know why I feel for him?

Because I see how skilled and how talented of a teacher [00:09:00] he is. From that episode, I think it was episode 6, where he said classes in session and pulled everybody into the astral realm. That won Charles a hell of a lot of brownie points for me. And I really, really enjoyed seeing him in his element, just taking control and just really doing the thing.

And that's the Charles I wanted to see in this episode, but seeing that there was no space for that I had some space for him, you know, but nobody else did. I understand both sides, which makes it really great writing.

When did he write his last will and testament? Was it after Magneto helped him in the series finale of the original X Men cartoon, or was it seasons before that? Made that will, seasons and seasons, before then. Duuuuude.

Magneto was fucking up. I believe there was an arc in the second season.

Where Charles and Eric were in [00:10:00] the Savage Land and learning to rely on each other again. So maybe he came back from that like my boyfriend's back, I'm gonna leave everything to him if shit goes sideways. So that could've been the moment.

If we're both single at 35, we'll get married.

let's talk about this moment with Jubilee and Roberto being chased down. That was the big payoff of the moment in the opening credits where you see Roberto running up to a chain link fence and people are behind him. That used to be Jubilee.

I love that it's no longer Jubilee because we show that Jubilee's outgrown that.

And that she is an X Man, and she knows how to take care of and assert herself. I am wondering why none of the X Men went out looking for Jubilee and Roberto. That struck me as a little odd, but I wonder if it's because Charles had been telepathically speaking to [00:11:00] Aurora. And he knew where Jubilee was and he said, Okay, on your way in, and maybe that's me giving Charles too much credit because his communication sucks this entire episode, but I

Heh heh.

that any of the X Men, particularly Wolverine, and also Scott, would look around, not see Jubilee, and not be concerned.

What do you think?

Interesting. So my feelings on that scene based on how the last episode ended. And I mean, there's a lot of chaos that's happened when Magneto kills the magnetism of the world, but technically to my recollection, feel free to tell me if my recollection is incorrect. Cause you know, the old memory isn't what it used to be. Jubilee and Sunspot were getting collared by Prime Sentinels and being taken away, and nobody

knew where they were. they were hanging out with Sunspot's mom, they went to the mall with the butler, and then all of this shit went down, so, there was probably a degree of like, where are they, [00:12:00] but technically no one knew where they were, and, I think, just to bridge canon gap, I think I agree with you that Professor X probably called this door and was like, This is where they are.

Scoop them up. Get them over here.

Yeah, I think he would.

It's the only way I can I don't think it's gonna get

explained, honestly.

but he is a telepath. And he said, come to me, my X Men. And there's no way he didn't also touch Jubilee's mind. But I think Ian joked in our last episode that he reached out to his favorites, the most responsible ones first. But after that, he definitely reached out to Jubilee as well.

Like he doesn't know who Roberto is. So he left that alone.

He clearly has tabs

on everybody.

He does, Speaking of Storm, another thing that I really enjoyed was seeing Storm and Jean's reunion with each other. we don't have,

so

we don't have many of the X Men just having this level of a friendship with each other that much. The most that we are seeing right now is [00:13:00] Wolverine and Morph and Nightcrawler and Wolverine.

And I'd also say In the last episode, we saw Jean and Nightcrawler having more of a rapport with each other, which I think is lovely.

So once all of the warm introductions are done, we get Magneto reestablishing his mutant haven on Astrid M, choosing to leave Earth without power and reject Xavier's dream of mutant human coexistence. He invites the X Men to join him, which Rogue and Roberto do. Steve, how do you feel about Rogue's heel turn?

Was it earned? Personally, I loved seeing it. Roberto's turn to the dark side on

the other hand, ehh.

Sure. I, I mean, so for comics lovers or people like me who immediately watch something and go back and watch all of the reactions from comics lovers, would be quick to point out that the outfit that Rogue is wearing is her 80s comics [00:14:00] outfit, which is when she was a villain. So any keen eyed individuals who saw that outfit, Kind of were able to predict that the heel turn was coming me not being one of them because I never read any of those comics But I thought that was a cool little factoid In terms of was it earned?

I think yes, absolutely I I think the moment she started stepping forward and talking about ushering in a new dream for mutants and how burned she's been specifically by Charles Almost immediately in the aftermath of that conversation that they just had where he was A little bit like sorry, but not sorry and also maybe your boyfriend should have been buried here as his leading line not a surprise Honestly, I wasn't terribly surprised to see sunspot

turn. I was up until this point Confused why he didn't have an intro card, especially when he Was in a full x suit In the beginning of this scene, like he's in a full x men suit in this scene. So I was like why the fuck didn't sunspot get a card and then [00:15:00] he turned to the bad side And I was like, oh, that's why I think in terms of like, if anyone else was gonna go, I probably would have ended up picking him. Did they make it quick, and did they sort of leave Jubilee out to dry a little bit? Absolutely, but I don't think I'm necessarily shocked that he turned, especially after what happened at the end of the last episode.

Okay, I'm gonna start with Roberto. I'm gonna work backwards.

I was really expecting Roberto's dad, Emanuele da Costa, to have stepped forward to reveal that he was a benefactor for the Prime Sentinel program. And also, low key, maybe helped remove Sebastian Shaw off of the board, because Sebastian Shaw is a very key player in the Hellfire Club. So I think, I was expecting for Emanuele to have done Something shady in the background to remove those two key players from the Hellfire Club off the board.

So for that to not happen, I was like, huh, okay. [00:16:00] I think that some of the DaCosta family shadiness Is being shown through Roberto switching to the dark side because Roberto's never been a villain per se. Well, actually, he's never been a villain. He's always been a good guy.

But because that's a beat from the story and a reveal from the comic book run, I think adding that flavor to his character was done just to give a nod. what did happen with his family's dealings in the background. It gives him something to do if he had stayed on the team with Jubilee, it would have pretty much just him been him like oh Jubilee, I'm using my powers more. Do you see me? Do you see what I'm doing? And you know what? I'm changing my mind while I speak this out You I think I actually do like him going with Magneto because it's the first strong decision he's made.

He's not selfless, he is pretty much about himself, which, [00:17:00] he's an 18 year old kid, but Jubilee has been with the X Men and she has role models like Storm and Jean and Cyclops and up until this point Rogue, so I think Jubilee's been indoctrinated in a way that Roberto hasn't been, but also she has found her footing through the years, and she was found by the X Men at a time where she was way more open to what they had to offer her.

She was also living with them, and she's been through so much with them. They are her family, and to Roberto, they're just strangers. So I get why Roberto would have his heel turn. He also, he doesn't know who he is. Like, Roberto has such a flimsy sense of self, so it makes sense that somebody like Magneto would appeal to him.

Because it's a seductive argument, you know? You're mad, you're hurting. I'm always mad, I'm always hurting. Come with me.

Let's be mad and herding

together in space.

Rogue as a villain, I thought this was so [00:18:00] fierce. I was kind of, there was a moment when it happened that I just in my head thought, yassss. I'm kinda, I'm here for it because I get it.

She's an intimidating villain too, I mean,

She can,

fuck shit up, quite

literally, so.

all episode 7, but it's been earned. It's earned. No one's really had a conversation with her.

No one's had time to talk to her about the fact that she Fucking dropped Bolivar Trask to his death

We still have no idea what she did when

she was blocked out too, I think that might be a

finale piece to fill

a piece to fill in We have no idea

So yeah, rogues heel turn was definitely earned. She's an intimidating villain I love how she reads each x men for Phil storm says don't turn you back on family and rogue says you were gone gal and

You

were gone.

it's like, you weren't here, which is valid, but then goes through each member of the team, and like, what it would feel like to lose [00:19:00] them, and her making the most logical choice.

I think, if anyone were gonna step forward, Cyclops should've stepped forward and been like, Rogue, I hear you. But the entire world, the entire world, really Rogue? I don't fault him for hitting the world with an EMP as like a Quick fix to get rid of all the prime sentinels, but the lack of regard for people with pacemakers, people on life support, people in planes, some of which could be mutants, just killing without discrimination, I would say is almost just as bad?

and for him to not reverse the Earth's polarity after that is, it's pretty fucked up, you know, and that could have been the argument to win Rogue over, like, I see you wanting to go with Magneto, but, girl, could you talk him into reversing the Earth's polarity? Like, we're just gonna destroy Earth where a bunch of mutants still haven't been born.

And [00:20:00] are living, and other people, babies included, just got killed in this attack. Like, this is madness. It's so extreme.

I think this is actually a good time to talk about this, because I think one of the things that made Magneto's turn, harder to watch this time around, is that they made him a good guy for literally

seven episodes. We we spent all season rooting for him to be good, to to like, get past his notions of wanting to wipe out humanity in favor of a mutant only future, or to separate mutants from humanity in some kind of way. And to me, I found myself thinking this multiple times. It was just like, damn dude, we almost had him. We almost had him being good. And now he's like fully flipped back over to the other side, which is, I think what makes Magneto such a compelling characters. Cause he has those moments of you could be the most powerful good guy on the planet, but at the end of it all, you [00:21:00] always get pushed back onto the other side of the spectrum and then it pushes him too far.

And I think that's what we're seeing here. So it makes it really effective

just like a man, a man would rather reverse the Earth's polarity than go to therapy! Jesus Magneto! Better help! I got some apps on my phone, boo boo. Like, well, it's the nineties. I'd be like, pull up this phone book, get a therapist. It just,

If it's the 90s, It's probably affordable.

It's probably not as talked about either. It's like, oh, what therapy? No,

Magneto. Do you think that Magneto would turn his nose up at therapy? I,

Yeah, he'd probably just like, go read Shakespeare and pretend like that's

enough or something like that.

I know, It's so bad. It's so bad. But moving on.

The rest of the X Men return to their former base on Muir Island to regroup before splitting into two teams. Cyclops blue team goes to Asteroid M to confront Magneto, while Storm and Jean's gold team heads to Bastion's hideout.

With a collar that can block Bastion's [00:22:00] Technopathy, severing his control over the Sentinels. So, Steve, this is me getting really deep into my version of sports teams, because my version of

Let's go.

is X Men Blue and X Men Gold. So in the 90s run of the X Men, when Jim Lee was doing the art, There were two X Men teams. Cyclops led the blue team and Storm led the gold team because Storm is second in command of the X Men. So if anything happens to Cyclops, Storm is getting off the bench and she's leading the team, she's calling the shots.

Steve, the amount of Reddit threads that I have Done a deep dive into talking about blue and gold x men teams and which team would work better Also, is Scott the better leader or is it Storm? That's something I also want your opinion on in the original comics run the blue team was made up of Cyclops, Wolverine, [00:23:00] Gambit, Beast, Jubilee, Rogue, and So pretty much, any character who could be a wild card and had a lot of power and had a strong personality, Cyclops had them on his team so that he could pull them together.

Cause he really is a good disciplinarian and a good person who Everyone has a level of respect. Everyone respects Cyclops at the end of the day because they know that he knows his shit. And Wolverine, even if he busts his balls, he still takes orders from Cyclops, so that says a lot. The goal team, on the other hand, we still have powerhouses, but people who aren't as hard to control.

You have Storm leading the team, Jean Grey, Iceman, Colossus, Archangel, and Bishop. All people who are powerful in their own right, but also people who are level headed. In your opinion Steve, who would be the better leader? Storm [00:24:00] or

I'm always gonna answer Storm to this question, and I don't know if that's the right answer to this question. I think if you were just asking me who would I prefer to take orders from, it's Storm every time.

I feel you on that, I feel you on that. I think they're different kinds of leaders. I think that Storm is a great leader to keep team morale up. and to make everybody feel important and included. I think that Storm has a lot of empathy and Storm has a better way of understanding people. Storm is great at the difficult conversations and of pulling the team together.

Like, look at how optimistic she was coming back and how she was able to just say, we'll handle it

as a family. That's not something Cyclops would say, even though he feels it. But Cyclops, on the other hand I think he has a lot of tactical skills. He has a lot of, like, military esque edge to him. He's able to, [00:25:00] in the heat of battle, think of strategies like, Oh!

X Men! Do this, do this, do this, do this. I think Scott is neck and neck with Captain America in terms of being a really good strategist. And I stand by that, and I think we've seen that in this cartoon a few times, just, Cyclops having a really good way about being able to direct people, I think that is not a mutant ability, that's just a natural skill that he has.

So if I were on the battlefield with Scott, I would listen to him, because I know that Scott, 90 percent of the time, knows what he's talking about. But also, Scott's tired, Scott's getting cynical, I don't, I think that Scott has a different connection to the dream than Storm does. feels a connection to the Earth and feels a connection to nature.

So I think that, in a way, that gives her more of an affinity for the dream of having [00:26:00] everybody coexist on Earth. I think that they should both be leader and balance each other out

Great. Well, then this works out for you.

Oh, man.

There's this great moment where Forge and Beast are having a bromance, and Storm just walks up because she now knows that she's that bitch and says, Impress me, and they go through her ear. their plans to put a collar on Bastion. They also want to take it so far as to completely neutralize his powers.

And Storm doesn't even say no, she just looks up and you hear thunder crash outside and Forge says, Oh, noted. We'll do something else. Don't even worry about it.

No neutralizers. You got

it.

got it. Do you think she's being unreasonable about this? Cause

yeah,

absolutely not. I think it's absolutely insane that they

even considered it.

after, because that technology could get into the wrong hands again, and that could lead to a [00:27:00] whole other debacle.

Like, Forge, what are you fucking doing? Like, did you learn zero

lessons from this, like, le I don't know. I just was like, I'm, I was shocked that they even brought it up as an idea. So it's good that they, like, showed that character growth for Storm, but I just think the premise of them being like, oh yeah, and we're gonna keep using neutralizer technology even though it's quite literally the point of struggle between multiple people here.

And she was just like, the fuck you are. And so, I don't know. It was funny, but I was just like, you guys are crazy. Like, I think that's the moment of, like, in Step Brothers, where they take all of their hijinks a little bit too far. I think that's what we were getting right there. The little bit of, did we just become best friends? Do you want to go do kung fu in the garage? Like, that sort of feeling

between the two of them.

away. I don't think they considered it. I give them a

pass, in that moment. Storm was like, no more activities, move these fucking bunk beds.

They're just

boys playing with their toys.

Heh,

fucking bug pits.

heh, heh.

it [00:28:00] doesn't feel sturdy, but I know it is.

Alright, so we are following the gold team. It is solid gold, baby. The gold team battles Sinister in an army of sentinels that Bastion is powering himself.

Sinister takes control of Cable's mind and uses him to overpower Gene, who sends a desperate psychic message to Cyclops. got some shit to say, we can go back and forth on this, Steve. What do you think was the coolest moment from this fight?

I mean this whole fight was so good I want to start with I'm I honestly just want to go through in the order that you have it here in the outline because we start with Morph turning into the fucking Hulk so We we're now outside of him. Just being able to morph into mutants. He can morph into

Anything a little bit of a question mark on his power set there though, because he was clearly getting You I feel like the Hulk himself probably would have been able to make some of those leaps without the help [00:29:00] of Gene telepathically

floating him around, but I do feel like the whole spinning tornado thing probably would have been Gene assisted no matter what. They continue to sort of be very ambiguous with what exactly the power set is. He clearly can smash things very hard as the Hulk, but does he have all of the physical abilities? But it's so cool to see that. I mean, this show does such a good job of subtle fan service, where this didn't feel egregious, it was really fun, it was over really fast. And you just got a moment of like, oh shit, they're doing this. That's really cool. I just, I, I'm, I'm constantly floored

by how fun this show

I'm floored, and it was the X Men getting a win, like that music came in, the dun I'm like, finally! They're fucking shit up

That's true. We needed some

ass kicking Yeah.

ass, you know, I loved

It

didn't last

long.

I

but we got,

We got some,

[00:30:00] We had to do something. I also I really love seeing Jean lay the smackdown on Sinister Who was able to get back up after a bunch of balling balls Smashing in his face. Crazy! That was nuts

the moment that you see Sinister on top of the cliff and he starts talking his shit to Jean, being like, I know your genes, like, I've, I've dissected you, I know your weaknesses, your strengths. How often In the show, or in super content in general, do you have a showdown between two people where you're literally going, Fuck

his shit up, Gene. Like, go

fucking get him.

kill him so that, like, of everybody in this show, Mr. Sinister is the one that I hate the most. Because he's outside of the conflict between humans and mutants. I would say he's worse than Bastion. In some ways. Just Has Mr. Sinister committed genocide? No. I mean, he was helping [00:31:00] in what happened in Genosha, but just the violation of taking Jean's DNA and doing that to her and doing what he did to Nathan and giving him the virus, it's just, they need to murder Sinister.

I'm almost surprised. Backing up to Magneto, another point, if Charles were smarter? And Magneto came to the mansion, he would have said, You know what, old friend? Let's table this for a second. Do you wanna go kill Bastion? Do you wanna go, like, completely shut his shit down? Also, let's rip Sinister apart while we're at it.

But, Charles is too idealistic for that, If the Earth is gonna end in a day because of how severely the reverse polarity has been thrown out of whack, I think that didn't occur to anybody because that is the most pressing issue, but I think that would have appealed to Magneto.

I'm also surprised that Magneto didn't go to do that himself.

I think he's at the point where he's just ready to let the world burn. He did his thing, he stopped the [00:32:00] Prime Sentinels, he's getting as many mutants as he can out, and then he's gonna essentially watch it explode

behind him as he walks away. One of those. But I, I wanna go back into the Gene Sinister fight where I was trying to think of moments in this Marvel superhero content where you really feel like, A lead up into a fight got you like, like

yes, this is what I've been waiting for, and the only one that I can, the only moment that I can think of where I felt a similar thing is in Infinity War. When Thor gets Stormbreaker, and he jumps into the battlefield with Groot and Rocket, and he's like, bring me Thanos, and he's running at everyone, that's sort of the same like, oh, let's fucking go sort of moment that I, it's just like, yeah, Jean, go get him. Like, let's, let's, let's take him out, and she does, and she, Like he's dressing her down.

He's trying to get in her head and he's she's like absolutely not I've got Madeline on my goddamn side and you can't handle the two of us and that [00:33:00] first smack with the bowling ball Also, I don't know if you noticed it when she throws him into the pins the first time it actually makes a strike sound

like He knocks over a bunch of pins. Did you

did you catch that sound design? I caught it the second time which I thought was brilliant. But yeah that first smack smack with the bowling ball was so visceral and so like you felt his

face crack. I am very excited to see hopefully the end of Sinister by the end of this series, but as we can

tell, He ain't done. yet.

So

to be done next episode because while we're here,

while we're here, I would be shocked if Gene doesn't get brought back after. Okay, let me not get ahead of myself. Let me go to this next moment and let me, we'll end on that part that I want to speak about. While Jean is having her smackdown with Sinister and just beating the shit out of him with bowling balls, we have Storm and Forge in the skies because Storm, as the team leader, makes the call of Alright, we're gonna draw their fire [00:34:00] while you go down to collar Bastion.

Love seeing Storm do her thing with all of the hurricanes. It felt very X2 and I think that was also Holly Berry Storm's most badass moment, just quietly making all those hurricanes in the air. I was a little annoyed at the show for having Storm get shot down and having Ford shot down because they're obviously not gonna die.

Like, the show can't fool

bit too quick.

that. That's not gonna happen. Also, they've been through more danger with The demonic creature who was trying to get them in episode six. Like Storm already had her come to Jesus moment. She's stronger than ever. So, I think it's gonna be like that moment in the first X Men movie where She got knocked into an elevator shaft and she came back PISSED What do you think?

For sure. Two things about this scene. A, the moment between Gene and [00:35:00] Storm, where she says, make sure they mind your wind sister. And she responds to her. That was the moment I, I was

just like, am I crying I'm actually crying at this. It was so good. It just like, I think it just hit me at the right moment in time where I was just like, yeah, this is, this is it.

This is real character connection that we've. been missing and now we're getting it again. And they're going, I mean, there's a lot of setup for Jean potentially dying in this episode. If you go back and watch it, just the moment that her and Scott have before they leave to go on to their separate adventures, this moment right here between Jean and Aurora. The other thing that I thought is, this is the moment I was ref was gonna reference when, at the end of the day, Cyclops is probably a better tactical leader than Storm, cause Storm got

distracted real quick when Forge's plane started going down, and she should've probably trusted that my guy could've, like, figured out how to land the jet.

I mean, he made it this far, his brain is literally, like, a supercomputer that can figure anything out as long as he thinks

about it for long enough. So he probably would've been okay, it was [00:36:00] very Not to reference the worst Star Wars movie, but it's very Attack of the Clones when Padme falls off of the ship and Anakin's like, Put it down!

And Obi Wan's like, No! We have to keep going! We have a mission! Get your head out of your penis! Like, let's go! And so, that's, that's

what it gave to me.

For sure, for sure. But they're not gonna die. It just, Like the show, the

not even a chance.

on on us. There is another moment where Morph turns into Mr. Sinister, they're schlepping up to Bastion, and saying, we gotta get out, and Bastion calls bullshit, rightly so.

I'm just wondering, and this is me circling back to the whole formation of the Golden and Blue teams, I'm wondering why Nightcrawler wasn't on this island to pretty much just teleport over to Bastion and put the Collar on that way.

Obviously to get them in the back door to Magneto's lair, and also to have the conflict [00:37:00] between Rogue and

Nightcrawler, obviously, storytelling,

know, I know. I just can't help it. I can't help it. I'm like this is so

annoying. Well, then again, I'm wondering if the team pushed back a little bit on some parts of this plan. Like, wouldn't it make more sense? And Scott's like, alright, Nightcrawler has a connection with Rogue.

Jubilee has a connection with Roberto, Charles has a connection with Eric, so I think that was also part of the thinking. Like, alright, we have relationships with these three people and let's try and figure it out that way. So maybe there was some behind the scenes going back and forth. you know what wasn't smart?

Bringing Cable to the island. When Mr. Sinister fucked with him when he was a baby, I think that that wasn't smart at all. And when he got activated, I kinda shrugged and I was like, that's what you get. That's what you fucking get.

Yeah, I don't know why that one surprised me as much. I didn't see that coming at all, honestly. I was just like, oh shit. [00:38:00] This makes sense, but I, like, didn't even consider it

as an

they're probably shocked that Sinister had enough time to do that to Nathan when he captured him because they probably thought that giving him the virus was the worst that Sinister could do.

Agree. Well, obviously, they didn't even they obviously didn't consider it as an option either, since they

were all so shocked by it.

like, a lot is happening, so that probably wasn't something they considered. When Cable starts going ham on Jean, I think that Jean is powerful enough to push back on him with just as much, if not more, ferocity. I think she doesn't do it because it's Scott and Madeline's son.

And she doesn't want to vaporize him in turn. But what did you think of her just having that last message sent to Scott? Like, I love you so much.

I think the show wants us to think that she's about to die in that moment, and that she Scott thinks that she's dying in that moment. But I also agree [00:39:00] With your point here, which is the point that we posed at the beginning of the episode, we've seen the intro card for the phoenix over and over again. And we haven't actually seen anything with the phoenix other than Madeline and Gene kind of referencing. We don't know who, which one of us it was. A few episodes ago, I theorized that it was Madeline who is the phoenix, but that does not preclude Jean from also potentially becoming the phoenix since they are clones of each other. And so it's technically same person, same ability. You could theorize that the Phoenix could embrace Jean like it did Madeline if that was the way that it happened back in the day. So I agree with you here that the Phoenix is going to potentially step in and overtake Jean and who knows how that's going to resolve itself because the Phoenix is its own wild card in itself.

But I, I think it's a really good chance that a, she's not dead and B, we see the Phoenix in the finale. And, and that plays a role [00:40:00] in. How everything

gets resolved.

Yes. And to that, in X-Men Legends two, one of my favorite video games of all time, Jean has two super moves. One of them is Phoenix Force, where if she has enough energy, you hold R two and you hit triangle. I can't believe I still remember that . And she is like Phoenix force and she lifts everybody up in the ground and slams them really hard.

That's the move for that.

And then she has another move called From the Ashes, and it gives her the ability to resurrect one fallen team member I think that she is going to save Logan after the Animanium is pulled out of him. That could be what she does. She comes in, saves Logan, and I could also see her This would be a lot for her to do, but again, it's the motherfucking Phoenix.

I could see her reversing the polarity of Earth

Okay.

it come back to fruition, and [00:41:00] I would appreciate the show so much more because these last two episodes were really action packed, if everything gets resolved in the first five minutes. And the rest of the show, the 25 minutes, is doing character work and showing the fallout with everybody, and everybody having really difficult

Interesting.

I think

Okay.

I don't know if there's a lot more fight scene to be had after this, particularly if the phoenix does wake up. You know, because I want to hear about them talking, I want to hear them talking about Rogue joining the Brotherhood, I want to hear them talking about Wolverine stabbing Magneto, and Wolverine having the adamantium stripped from his bones.

I kinda want episode 10, the finale of this show, to be a quiet coda to everything that's happened, I'm satisfied. I don't need to see another [00:42:00] episode just of fight scenes. I wouldn't be mad at it, but I would also respect the show a lot.

because we got so much to talk about, so much has happened. Like, let's really have those conversations. What do you think? Yeah,

third talking about it. I'm a little bit off. I'm a little bit on the opposite side of you, but that's I think that just shows my simple brain versus your creative writer brain. I'm just like, let's watch him, let's watch him punch it for a little bit longer.

I want

the Avengers to show up. I want to see Spider Man one more time. Like, I want more. I want as much as possible. The show has not been shy about cramming as much shit into it as

possible. And so, I want breakneck, lots of action, and a little bit of talking.

Enough talking. Just like, I think, I think if it was 25 minutes of lore download, I'd be like, This is disappointing, to me.

But I know that to people like you, that would be like,

well, the writing is so good. And also, like you [00:43:00] said,

It

is so

of conversations haven't happened. Like,

like so much shit has not been said. And again, you know that this episode, the finale is going to have an explosive cliffhanger and an explosive closing. So I would love for it to be a sandwich. Like, you get the resolution.

You get to have all those conversations and something batshit crazy happens at the end. That's what I want, but I also understand if Other people are like pew pew pew pew pew pew More smash Like that's great, too

but

of Smash.

I really want to get back inside the character's heads and just see what

the also What are conversations with the government like?

I wanna see President Kelly. I wanna see, like, the fallout with the world. I wanna see Roberto's parents again. Like, there's

so much to tie up. I

would be annoyed if [00:44:00] all the finale is still on Asteroid M. And on the island. It's like, girl. Let's just, yeah.

with that. No, I agree

with that.

Speaking of Asteroid M, on Asteroid M, Xavier attempts to take control of Magneto's mind, but is blocked.

Wolverine stabs and seriously injures Magneto, who begins ripping the adamantium metal from Wolverine's skeleton in liquid form. Vicious. Vicious. I, of the two teams and the two fight scenes, I loved this fight scene the most because when I think of X Men, I think of them having missions like this. Like, this is classic X Men.

The costumes were 80s style. You had Xavier and Cyclops's head. It felt like a video game, to be honest. I, this is probably my favorite fight scene in the entire show just cause it, it's so epic. God, so much [00:45:00] nostalgia, what'd you think?

It's a great fight scene. I like that they pair the characters up the way that they did. Yeah. I mean, seeing the in fighting is always interesting, I think to reference the MCU again, one of the best fight scenes in the history of the MCU is the airport fight in Civil War, where we watch the two teams, Team Cap and Team Iron Man fighting each other, I think it's way more interesting that way, they were also pulling their punches in the same way. That they were and I think especially showed well, with the exception of Wolverine, Wolverine was never pulling his punches enough with the blabber. Let's get right to the stabby stabbing and it rogue. Actually, like when she pulls him aside, she's like, you need to time out. You're fighting. You're playing

to kill right now where it seemed like the rest of them were maybe like, obviously, Roberto feels bad about hitting Jubilee with one of his son beams.

And then Jubilee is like, well, fuck you then. And they start fighting each other. And I think the. Yeah. These were the ju well, you know what? I don't even want to say that these were the juicier matchups because the matchup between Gene and Sinister and even Gene and Cable is [00:46:00] really fucking juicy. The rest of it aside, I think it's just all of the juiciness was more abundant in this

Magneto fight whereas in the Sinister matchup, The Bastion fight, I think only one or two of the pairings were the ones that we were really waiting for, whereas in all of these, you're like, Oh shit, like, they're all fighting each other, these are all really, like, interesting matchups, Who's going to cross the line?

Well, technically, Charles crosses the line first. then Cyclops crosses the line. And then Wolverine. Magneto's already been past the line, so I don't think we can say that Magneto crosses the line, but then Magneto really

finishes it.

I don't think Magneto was planning to kill any of them. I think,

for years and years, Magneto's never really trying to kill them. Because I think Magneto has, and it's not personal, it's not for an emotional reason, it's for an ethical reason. I'm not gonna kill another mutant unless I really have to, and I'm [00:47:00] definitely not killing one of the X Men.

Because regardless of me not agreeing with them, they are out here protecting our people. The whole Magneto Charles confrontation was very juicy. The part where he was like, I've been waiting to say this for years and years. Shut up!

Shut up! The way he says it, too, is so classic. It's just exactly the way you would say it to someone you're just

Super fed up

fed up with.

And also that you have a long relationship with. But to be fair, Magneto talks just as fucking much as he does. Like, y'all both monologue.

That's fair, but I think I think Magneto feels like he's tried, and also he's, like, been able to adjust his mindset more than one time, and he's landed here, versus he's annoyed that Xavier

is so rigid. Xavier's been saying the same shit over and over, and he's like, I've tried it your way, look at what happened, you're still talking [00:48:00] like this, literally shut

the fuck up.

Mm hmm. Like, start saying something different.

Yeah, like, pay attention to the

shit that's happening around you

haven't even checked in on me to ask me if I'm okay. I've seen

two genocides. I

That's real man.

have also thrown that in his face. It's like, you know that I've seen this twice. I've lived through this twice. And you're asking me why I'm on this for him to just say you're letting the world win if you just give in to Charles is that classic friend who When you're having a mental breakdown Looks at you and it's like but it could be worse

Have you

tried running?

I Get it. I'm a magneto side. I don't,

like that he is destroying the entire world, because again, I think that's extreme, and there are still mutants on the world, so you're kinda going against your entire plan. And mutants are gonna start getting persecuted and killed by the rest of the remaining humans because of [00:49:00] what you did to the Earth.

So you're placing a lot of mutants in danger, like Jubilee and Roberto, for something that happened. So I don't think he's thought this through, but also he's had a mental breakdown.

What did you think of What did you think of Wolverine stabbing Magneto?

So I think one of the underappreciated moments of the scene is just how it sort of builds

to this moment. Part of the benefit of it being a chaotic and not necessarily a well thought out plan is that you could you could see Every little moment start to go wrong and descend into getting farther and farther out of their control People ask, like, why wouldn't Magneto control Wolverine's body right away. I think it's because at first, A, he's not trying to hurt anybody beyond where he has to. As it gets more and more out of control, as he loses his helmet, he actually does push Wolverine away via the adamantium

inside of his body. And I mean, if we're going to lose control to the [00:50:00] sense that Magneto almost got telepathically lobotomized by Charles, Magneto is actively in the process of killing Charles for doing that. Showing how far gone he is. He was actively killing him. And so Wolverine, in that moment, felt like the only option was to eliminate the threat, and of course, Wolverine with his quote, been in a lot of wars, bub, the brave die first. at that moment, you think he's referencing Magneto, but potentially he's referencing himself too.

too. And so that's, I mean, many lines had to get crossed on the way to this one being crossed. But I think that it doesn't happen without each one of those lines being crossed. I'm talking about lines being crossed over and over again, because that's probably what's going on here. Like everyone walked into this situation with a quote unquote plan and an ideal for how it was going to go with this little collateral damage and violence as possible.

And it becomes very apparent very quickly that that collateral damage and that violence is. going to be the only way to resolve this because everyone is beyond [00:51:00] any sort of peaceful resolution any sort of what's the

word reason? Any sort of like everyone is beyond reason at this moment. And I think you see that in full when Magneto chooses to cause intense and immense pain to An X Men.

Yeah, that was hard to watch. and he didn't even rip it out of his body, he turned it into liquid.

It's

insane.

out of Wolverine's body. This is leading up to a very great arc for Wolverine that comes from the comics. I know where they're going with this.

Because you know that Wolverine has bone claws, right? Yeah, so he's gonna

go back to having his bone claws. I think it'll be good for him story wise. It'll also be a Wolverine story that I'm interested in following. They've been light on Logan this whole season, but this moment, we're gonna be seeing a lot of his

arc in season two, but not in the way that we usually do, because usually Wolverine is just a glory hog in all the fight scenes and kind of [00:52:00] just Inappropriately chiming in During really tense moments to the point where it's like dude, would you shut up?

But they're gonna do some really great work with him next season. I can tell I

Yeah. I'm excited to see that. And especially to see the aftermath of this pretty epic fight scene. And I mean, that's the way that the episode ends. So you get that recreation of the comics panel where he has the liquefied animendium being ripped from his body. If you, if you know the comics lore, just the lore of Wolverine in general, you know that he's not dead in this moment, but you know that this is still like a really crazy epic moment that happened in the comics.

And. Very much so. I was actually talking with my friend Jose about this, who both watches this show faithfully and listens to the podcast. So showed up to Jose friend of the pod and just sort of like that moment of, or are they going to do this? Are they like, are they? Cause you could tell like, even if you're not super caught up on all of the lore, like, you know, that Wolverine's body is full of metal and you know that Magneto can control metal.

So [00:53:00] when he crosses that line of stabbing him, you're like, Oh no. This is not gonna end well and you can feel it coming as it starts to happen around him and you're like, Oh shit, are they gonna fully go there? And then they fully go there. And I, and I do want to commend the style of the show because I feel like in a few moments we've referenced Madeline's transition into the her witch form as being Goblin Queen, thank you, as As being very reminiscent of Sailor Moon, we, we referenced the fight between Trask as a Prime Sentinel and Jean Grey as feeling very Dragon Ball Z with two fighters and Super Saiyan kind of smashing into each other and the energy this felt from the moment it.

Of Magneto getting stabbed all the way through the end of the episode with the adamantium being stripped from his body felt like it was in the style of one of those classic animes that you used to watch where I feel like even the animation style changed a little bit to fit more of that Japanese anime style with like the blood dripping and the [00:54:00] big eye expressions and those extreme close ups and then the way that we saw the adamantium burst from Wolverine's body. It felt like an homage to some of those classic Japanese animes that I'm sure plenty of people who watch X Men 97 also enjoy shows like that. I'm not as well versed in them, I don't know how much into the anime world you dive into, but it just felt like very, very on point with what those shows would look like in a moment

like that.

very much. So very much. So ah god. I love this show. It's so good

Me

So that's it for the episode, shall we move on to our Sentinel ratings?

Can we, I just, before we go to our Sentinel ratings, I don't think we nitpicked this enough. Or maybe this is too low hanging fruit. What the fuck were they thinking, sending Wolverine after Magneto? Like, what the, what, what were they fucking thinking, Charlie? What is the thought process there, you think?

to be fair, there were five seasons of the original show where this was never really an [00:55:00] issue.

You know what? Okay.

Magneto usually pulls his punches with them. They're just in his way. Magneto's trying to hurt humans, he's never coming after the X Men.

Wolverine's fault.

Wolverine's fault for underestimating Magneto, but also they've never been in a we're trying to kill him situation with Magneto. I think that he thought

that one strike would have been enough.

Going back to Infinity War, he had the same issue that Thor had. Wolverine should have went for the

Gotta aim for the head.

He gave Magneto enough time to gather his bearings

Well, that's a good explanation. I

dig that, actually. a lot of people have been very long winded about the team makeup, so I think we can, we can just leave it at that.

All right, everybody. That's our episode. We're gonna move on to Sentinel ratings Steve. I'm gonna let you go first What do you rate this episode out of five Sentinels?

I gotta give it five sentinels, man. I laughed, I [00:56:00] cried. I was on the edge of my seat. I wasn't sure what was going to happen the entire time. Team chemistry and composition nitpicking aside. I am so excited for the finale. I thought this was a very worthy penultimate episode and I have been thinking about this show. Almost every spare moment of my free time, I was walking on the beach with my partner last night and I started thinking about a funny line that Wolverine said and I was just kind of like looking out into space and smiling and she was like, what's so funny? And I was like, oh, I'm literally thinking about X Men 97 right now. And so,

Is Aaron watching it

this show is amazing. This, no, I, I tried to get her to watch the first episode and she couldn't hook in. It's cartoons. She just, she doesn't really do

animated very well. I don't know what it is, but there's some like, she listens to these too, so she's gonna hear me saying this, so we'll see

Aaron, if you're listening to this, watch the damn episode!

[00:57:00] Try it again! Women do things. But yeah, so that's it's a, it's a five Sentinel rating for me. And I, I, it was top notch stuff and I hope it's just as top notch heading into the finale finale.

I am gonna keep up with our pattern of these episodes. It's also gonna

I'm so nervous. Every time we do this,

for me.

let's go

Five Sentinels for me. I thought it was wonderful. It had enough X Men nostalgia while deepening the relationships in ways that we've never seen before.

I concur with that. And that's such a, good explanation for why the show cooks in general. It hits the correct amount of X Men nostalgia, but we're also deepening characters, relationships, all of this good stuff. And I was actually thinking Yesterday, how epic it is that we've wiped so many characters that people

know off the board and we're still able to feel like this show is fresh and we're excited for [00:58:00] every new person that comes in and we're getting, like, really deep on every character that we still get to spend time with, so I'm like, I remember saying a couple episodes ago that I was going to feel really happy. Disappointed in that I missed out if Madeline was really dead on the tail end of Remember It, and now I actually feel like it's okay because we get So much more with Jean. It's also a reason why I don't think they're going to kill Jean because I just

I mean Madeline's

especially with Madeline

gone.

like I, she's coming back as the Phoenix.

for sure. So yeah, I mean this, this show has done an incredible job of giving us the nostalgia and giving us something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,

something like that. Yeah. Give me, give me that beast of

something blue, baby.

Absolutely. Oh man, I love this show so much. I love you so much. I'm so glad we're talking about this.

I love you too, man. Yeah, this is the best. Well, that's gonna it's gonna do it for this episode of Charlie and Steve Watchduff. We're gonna be back next week with our thoughts on the finale of the first [00:59:00] season of X Men 97, Tolerance is Extinction Part 3. We're working on getting a really big time, awesome guest, a friend of both of ours, so we're really excited to potentially welcome in a someone who's arguably More of a geek than both of us combined.

So I'm going to keep that as a teaser for now. And once we officially get them on the pod, you'll be able to see for yourself. And then we're also planning on doing an episode soon on our overall thoughts on the season as a whole. We're going to bring in some of our other nerdy friends for that conversation as well.

So you've got a little bit more of good X Men content to look forward to. And then from there, we're The world is ours. It's Charlie and Steve watch stuff We're gonna try and keep up with some more recent things that we're watching and we're gonna just keep the train rolling from there

it's gonna be a fun ride everybody. So for myself Steve Selnick and my good friend Charlie Peppers We will see you on the next

one. Bye friends