X-Men 97 Episode 10 Ending Explained: Onslaught Groundwork, Phoenix Returns and That Gambit Horseman Tease

The X-Men 97 finale has landed and it is loaded with comic history, Easter eggs and setup for season two, which I know has already finished filming because I have seen the seeds being planted for what is coming. This episode picks up right where episode nine left off, with Magneto tearing the adamantium out of Wolverine's body, a moment pulled straight from X-Men 25 and the Fatal Attractions crossover, which eventually led to Onslaught being created back on Earth as Bastion beat down the heroes and turned Cable against Jean.

If you are wondering why any of this matters, it is because this run of episodes is clearly laying the groundwork for Onslaught, one of the most overpowered characters in the Marvel Universe, and for a season two that already has scripts written.

The title sequence adds a new Magneto and Xavier scene from their friendship days

The intro includes an added shot of Magneto and Charles working together, pulled from their backstory in the original series episode Enter Magneto. This is picked up immediately at the start of the finale, seemingly in Vietnam, with Professor X believing mutants will be accepted and Magneto believing it is best to hide. The pair reveal the truth to each other, and there are clear real world metaphors here with prejudice as the central theme.

Xavier and Magneto are locked in a psychic memory trip that sets up Onslaught

Xavier is inside Magneto's mind on what plays like a psychic journey down memory lane. Xavier tells Magneto that if he does not restore Earth's power, he will force him to, and Magneto warns that doing so will shut down both their minds, which is clearly building toward Onslaught. Xavier ends up performing a big psychic blast to restore power anyway. In the comics, the adamantium ripping happened in X-Men 25, but Onslaught did not actually show up until X-Men 53, almost two years later, born from a blast by Professor X that absorbed all the pain and misery from both Magneto's mind and Xavier's subconscious. That evil persona lay dormant until it built up and broke free, fueled by the collapsing relationship between mutants and humans. Onslaught wanted to fuse everyone into one combined consciousness, a hive mind with no more hate on either side. I think this will be a big thing for season two, and since it is already written, I cannot wait to see where they take it. Onslaught is also one of the only characters capable of going toe to toe with Apocalypse.

The global blast brings in Silver Samurai, Doctor Doom, Daredevil and Doctor Strange

The psychic blast is felt across the planet, and we see Silver Samurai again, who I believe will be a season two villain, alongside Doctor Doom and Zeeza, though I think those two might actually be used in other shows down the line. Spider-Man has already been confirmed as coming from the Fox cartoon universe, and I would love to see more of those shows tied in, even though there has been no Spider-Man 98 announcement yet. We also get Daredevil out in Hell's Kitchen and Doctor Strange operating by candlelight at Manhattan Memorial Hospital because the power is out, which gives the whole sequence an end of the world feeling.

Wakanda's T'Chaka, Cloak and Dagger and Puck all join the fight against the Prime Sentinels

In Wakanda we see T'Chaka, father of T'Challa, in his classic nineties look complete with the cape, fighting alongside the Dora Milaje against the Prime Sentinels. Daredevil gets knocked back but is joined by Cloak and Dagger, who were injected with synthetic drugs that gave them light and dark force control. Cloak can teleport through the dark force, powers that Spot later studied and replicated, while Dagger creates light daggers and can heal people. We also see Sunspot and Northstar, and out in Genosha, identifiable by its destroyed statue head, we get Puck as the attacks spread worldwide, confirming this is a global event.

Omega Red returns as a likely season two threat alongside a wider Sentinel uprising

We also see who I believe is Pulse Star alongside Omega Red, confirming he is back with his allies rather than leaving his freedom as a cliffhanger. Omega Red can emit a death factor pheromone that kills within seconds and absorb life force to power it further, and in this universe he has been used to power a plant. I think he is going to be a big force in trying to take out humanity.

Bastion's Prime Sentinel plan echoes Master Mold from the original series finale

Bodo said the homework for this episode was The Final Decision, the season one finale featuring the battle against Master Mold, which included the line dropped last week: the brave always die first. In that episode Magneto kidnapped Senator Kelly to force humanity to accept mutants, only for the Sentinels to take him before Master Mold, who planned to replace world leaders' brains with machines and mold the masters into servants. That mirrors what Bastion is doing with the Prime Sentinel program, making people his slaves. Bastion is a fusion of Master Mold and Nimrod, born into human form, so it makes sense he would follow this path with deep rooted mutant hate built into his programming. Master Mold's own logic was explained back then: you were designed to protect humans from mutants, but mutants are human, which is the same idea Days of Future Past leans on, that mutant evolution will always eventually turn every human against them.

Final Decision also had Sentinels flying against the Blackbird, mirrored in this episode, and ended with the X-Men saving Kelly, Magneto lending a hand, Kelly announcing his presidential run, and Cyclops proposing to Jean, who worried their children would be persecuted as mutants, all while Sinister watched from the shadows. That episode plays directly into Bastion's actions and the Magneto Protocols that saw him blow up Asteroid M, showing why he views Magneto as an extremist, much like Bastion himself, two opposite sides of the same coin.

Operation Zero Tolerance and the Xavier files reveal Bastion's darker methods

Back on Earth, Bastion has mutated into something more machine than man, talking about the ages inside him tied to Nimrod's programming. His forces swarm the world under Operation Zero Tolerance, whose ultimate goal was to wipe out mutants, though here it seems less about wiping out humanity and more about enslaving mutants under the guise of improving the world, as shown in the future vision where mutants serve a Prime Sentinel ruler while still enslaved by Bastion. Gyrich signed off on firing on American citizens, and Graydon Creed, Sabretooth's father, was assassinated in a false flag attack used to justify the Prime Sentinels. Bastion also uncovered the Xavier files, essentially Batman style contingency files showing how to kill the X-Men if they ever went rogue, more of an Iceman focused story than anything, though the show has clearly taken this in a new direction.

Cable's failed attempts to save Madelyne set up the Phoenix's return

Bastion torments Cable, revealing he made two hundred attempts to save Madelyne, all ending with both Jean and Madelyne dead, but this time the Phoenix rises from the water, similar to how her powers activated in X2. The Phoenix has been teased throughout the intros all season. Bastion moves to kill Cable, but Sinister stops him because he needs Cable for the techno organic virus he plans to use to kill Apocalypse, the same reason he cloned Jean in the first place, believing that child could be the one weapon capable of taking Apocalypse down.

The Phoenix ages Sinister to a shell and Bastion rips off Cable's arm

The Phoenix wipes out the Sentinels across the planet and strips Sinister of the DNA holding him together, instantly aging him and running off after seeing his own reflection in Morph, who Sinister once captured and enslaved, a nicely poetic touch. Bastion then rises from the ashes and rips off Cable's arm. This sets up two opposite paths: Cable tried and failed to save his mother but found one in Jean and did not want her death on his conscience, while Bastion lost his humanity entirely and used his own mother in the Prime Sentinel program. I noticed the creative team posted an image referencing this online next to a picture of Norman Bates, whose mother's corpse being kept in the family home was central to Psycho, with Norman's split personality reflecting her control.

Bastion's final plan is to crash Asteroid M into Earth

In his final form Bastion wants to hurl Asteroid M into Earth, an extinction level event akin to what killed the dinosaurs.

Magneto and Xavier reconcile as the team rallies to save the asteroid

Back with Wolverine healing up, we learn in the comics his claws were originally bone before adamantium was added, a fact relevant with Deadpool and Wolverine coming next, though this season deliberately does not tie into that film, confirmed by Beau DeMayo on Twitter, who said he was told Deadpool was off limits so the shows could stay separate. Everyone wants to take Magneto out, but Xavier wants to save him, calling back to The Final Decision where Magneto helped Xavier escape after he loaded the Blackbird with explosives to destroy Master Mold. The divide in the team heals, with Rogue saying the cards are in their favor, a nod to Gambit, and Beast referencing Bastion, calling back to episode five, which I noticed has now been put forward for Emmy contention and deserves it. Rogue takes Magneto to the Blue Area of the Moon, a real Marvel Comics location created by the Skrulls that later became home to the Watchers' Citadel. Joined by Sunspot, the team defends the asteroid while T'Chaka and Steve Rogers try to talk Magneto down, and a file reveals his children are Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, shown here as Pietro and Wanda in shadow on the boat vision, with Magneto reflecting on his lost parents.

Cyclops's beam clash and the Sentinel Throne carry deeper symbolism

The battle includes a beam versus beam clash that is actually Cyclops's special move from Marvel vs Capcom, so I will let that one slide. Bastion is thrown into the Sentinel Throne, symbolically representing where he came from and the monster he created, reinforced by the rest of the team arriving to bring it all down, a moment that echoes how his ideals are dismantled from within, similar to how Cortez turned against him earlier in the season. Cyclops stops fighting Bastion and instead tells him Xavier tried to look after him, but it was his mother who crippled him under the weight of a Sentinel, showing that hatred and destruction will always weigh someone down. Even so, the X-Men choose to support Bastion, even if humanity will not support them.

Morph teases the Fantastic Four and Cyclops stays behind like Gambit once did

As the asteroid comes down, Morph briefly turns into Reed Richards, a nice tease toward the nineties Fantastic Four show, which I would love to see revived. Cyclops says he will stay behind while the others reach the jet, echoing how Gambit stayed behind on Asteroid M during the Sanctuary arc and survived.

Peter Parker and MJ's reunion finally gets confirmed on screen

As the team pushes to stop the asteroid, Cable brings Nathan into the moment, and the UN broadcast includes Peter Parker and Mary Jane watching the news together, confirming after all this time that Peter did find MJ, something I have been waiting to see confirmed for a long while. Morph then transforms into Jean to comfort Wolverine, and Nightcrawler is shown praying, moments I found genuinely moving in what I think is my favorite Disney Plus show on a character and action level.

Magneto restabilizes the asteroid but the team is scattered across time

Working together, Magneto and Xavier restabilize the asteroid, but doing so scatters the team across time, cutting to an eight bit no signal screen before jumping six months ahead. A news report mentions Graydon Creed's death without revealing who did it, which kickstarts events in the comics. A bulletin reveals the team's fates: most of the main crew are presumed dead, Scarlet Witch is off world with her brother, Cable has gone AWOL, and Archangel's status appears to read missing presumed dead, matching the layout of the others, which could tease his return as one of Apocalypse's Horsemen. Jubilee and Sunspot are okay, Colossus and Magik are fine, Dust is fine, Iceman is cool, Havok is great, and Exodus, Shadowcat and Emma Frost are also fine. President Kelly is taking heat over Magneto being mutated, and Bishop, sporting a new haircut, tells Forge they will be friends one day, standing near an ice containment unit that later matters in the Time Fugitives storyline where Bishop keeps altering the timeline and the two become allies who build his time travel devices.

Mother Askani is revealed to be Rachel Summers, daughter of Jean and Cyclops

Scattered across time, Cyclops and Jean encounter Mother Askani, who eagle eyed comic readers may recognize as Rachel Summers, previously glimpsed briefly in Bastion's vision of an enslaved mutant future. In the comics, Rachel is the daughter of Jean and Cyclops from the Days of Future Past timeline, the dark future where Senator Kelly was assassinated leading to a mutant holocaust, a future she helped avert with Kitty Pryde's help before ending up in the main timeline. She later aimed to help Captain Britain and was split into alternate beings, one of whom ends up at the end of time in an apocalyptic world after Apocalypse has taken control, forming the Clan Askani, meaning a clan of outsiders, aiming to take him down while carrying the X-Men's ideals forward. In the comics she looked after Nathan in the future, believing the techno organic virus would make him the savior of their time, until Apocalypse burned him and created Stryfe as a means of resurrection. She also brought Nathan's parents to the future to help raise him, and the three of them eventually defeated Apocalypse together, suggesting a battle across past, future and present is coming.

The post credits scene has Apocalypse digging up Gambit's cards, teasing him as Horseman Death

The post credits scene, set in the present, shows Apocalypse traveling to Genosha and digging out Gambit's Queen of Hearts card, the one he had for Rogue. I have said for seven weeks now, though I am claiming it as my own after first hearing it from Rob at Comics Explained, that Gambit will return as Apocalypse's Horseman Death. The creative team has said they wanted Gambit's death to mean something and shut down time travel rumors around bringing him back that way, but resurrection through Apocalypse is clearly a different route being teased here, especially since past Horsemen have included Angel and Wolverine. Apocalypse's line about so much death is a fairly clear signal.

The Summers family focus points toward a Messiah Complex and Hope Summers storyline

Given all the focus on the Summers family, I think season two is leaning toward the Messiah Complex arc and the arrival of Hope Summers, the mutant messiah whose birth kickstarted mutant rebirth after House of M in the comics. In that story, several factions went after baby Hope, including Mystique disguised as Mister Sinister, purifiers trying to grab her, the X-Men trying to protect her, and Bishop secretly trying to kill her, believing that eliminating her in the past could prevent a future in which mutants end up in camps because of her. Mystique eventually got hold of Hope, hoping that pressing her to the comatose Rogue's skin would transfer energy and wake her up, and while Hope survived unaffected, Rogue woke up furious that a baby had been endangered for her sake. Cable then took Hope to the future to protect her, and upon her return the Phoenix Force sorted her out while the Avengers wanted her gone and the X-Men fought to protect her, leading into Avengers vs X-Men. I think that kind of storyline would be a great direction for season two.

My verdict on the season as a whole

I loved this season. I was skeptical going in, because Disney Plus Marvel shows have not exactly been top tier television and I think on the whole they have diluted the brand a bit, something the studio itself seems to recognize given how much it has talked about scaling back and admitted a number of projects have been hit and miss. Spacing things out with a couple of shows a year, like this and Deadpool going forward, feels like the right approach to avoid fan apathy. This season stayed true to the original nineties series while genuinely building on it and taking things in new directions, which is exactly what these legacy reboots should do. Every character, especially ones I thought might get overlooked, like Rogue and Storm's life and death arc, went in an interesting direction, and the action balanced beautifully with the drama despite each episode only running thirty minutes. Viewed as one long episode, the three part finale was incredible. As Beau DeMayo put it, the show is about nostalgia, about what parts of us to keep versus what parts to carry forward, and as Storm says, it is all the same because the team ends up back in their old costumes fighting humanity and Magneto once more. These are classic battles, but it is what happens in between that matters, and this show found something new that still feels classic.

Which storyline are you hoping season two leans into most, the Gambit as Horseman Death tease or the Hope Summers and Messiah Complex setup?