X-Men '97 Season 2 Finale Breakdown: Rogue's Sacrifice, Nightcrawler's Death and the Mystique Twist Explained

The season 2 finale of X-Men '97, titled Survival of the Fittest, left me genuinely bummed that we do not get longer seasons anymore because I wanted more X-Men episodes after that ending. The episode is written by Brian Ford Sullivan and directed again by Chase Conley and Emmet Emil Unamora, and the title is Apocalypse's entire belief system, which gets put to the test this episode and ultimately fails.

The recap opens with a red X filling the screen, the same red X we later see on the front of the Ship shrine. It is a long previously on section since the finale needs to remind viewers of everything leading up to it, and I am not going to run through every beat since it is all stuff we have already seen. What it does is remind us of the season's big theme: is Apocalypse right that love is a weakness. As he puts it, "Love is pain. A weakness I cannot afford."

Apocalypse's Survival of the Fittest Belief Faces Its Final Test

On one end of the spectrum sits Apocalypse, abandoned by his mother, adopted by a group built on survival of the fittest, who watched his best friend die and then had the one woman he loved betray him and steal some of his power. He took that pain and let it twist him into someone who uses other people's love as a weapon against them. On the other end are the X-Men: Rogue watched the love of her life killed, Charles watched his best friend killed, and Nightcrawler was abandoned by his mother and hated by his brother, and all of them are feared and hated by humanity simply for being born different.

Even with moments of doubt, like Charles furiously telling Apocalypse, "How wise your mother, abandoning you," the X-Men still choose love. Rogue still believes in it, Charles still wants to teach the next generation, and Nightcrawler still argues to save his own brother. Nightcrawler promises Rogue that everything will be okay, which I said last week I was worried would not end well, and he still believes in miracles because he chooses to see the good in everyone. In other words, he has faith.

Cable Is Torn Between Destiny and the Family He Pushed Away

In the middle is Cable. Mother Askani told young Nathan he needed to be strong enough to do what others cannot, a lesson he carried into adulthood, letting his obsession with destiny and destroying Apocalypse alienate him from Scott and Jean. At one point someone warns him, "Nathan, do not make me take over your mind," and he snaps back, "Apocalypse is in there, and it's my destiny to kill him," and elsewhere jokes to a teammate, "Yeah, I'm a little busy. Have you met my parents?" He is caught between wanting love and believing love is a weakness because he has been burned so many times, including his repeated failed attempts to stop the Genosha massacre.

When Cable says the woman who raised him told him he had a destiny, that is Mother Askani. I went into this in a previous breakdown, but as a spoiler for the comics, Askani is Rachel Summers, Scott and Jean's daughter and Nathan's sister, who also got lost in the time stream. Her comic story is sprawling and a little convoluted, but essentially when Cable destroyed Apocalypse in the comics, the version of Rachel lost in the time stream became the main version of her, retaining only vague memories of having been Mother Askani. That is the origin of the destiny idea she hammered into young Nathan.

Val Cooper Turns X-Factor and X-Force Against the X-Men

The intro finally puts the full team together for the first time this season, giving Jubilee and Sunspot their own sequences now that they are officially back and done with X-Force, though still no love for Colossus. Instead of classic villains, it is Cooper and X-Factor facing the team, and alongside Havok, Wolfsbane, Multiple Man and Strong Guy there is Theresa Cassidy, aka Siryn, daughter of Banshee Sean Cassidy, who appeared in the original series engaged to Moira MacTaggart and was played by Caleb Landry Jones in X-Men: First Class. Siryn has never appeared in the animated series before despite arguably belonging in two of the live action movies, and her powers mirror her father's ear splitting sonic scream.

Just like in an earlier episode this season, it is mutant kids taken into custody by X-Factor who run between the two groups, chased by human piloted Sentinels we see later. Instead of Magneto facing Charles, it is Cooper touching her glasses so they flash and obscure her eyes, a visual that keeps recurring all episode and pays off in the ending. Cooper calls Gambit a weapon of mass destruction, a phrase that lands about five years before George W. Bush's infamous use of it to justify the 2003 Iraq invasion, and she tells Charles she has only ever tried to save his people from themselves, a line that echoes how people often justify atrocities. Even Havok balks when she vows to take the X-Men by force, and he later looks almost proud when Jubilee gets the better of him, which tells me his heart is not really in this fight.

Cooper commands more than X-Factor and X-Force here. There is also ONE, the Office of National Emergency, which in the comics she set up after the Shadow King nearly forced her to kill Mystique, and you can spot her operative wearing the ONE patch. ONE is using the human piloted Sentinels in hopes they can eventually replace superpowered teams, something we already saw teased in Cooper's office a few episodes back.

Ship's Shrine and the Celestial Eson Set Up Rogue's Sacrifice

The episode opens with Cable explaining that Apocalypse is hiding inside Gambit's subconscious, emitting celestial energy that will mean a full takeover once it hits 100 percent, because the celestial being Eson is the one who originally changed En Sabah Nur into Apocalypse. Underwater we see an anglerfish, which lures prey the way Apocalypse lured the X-Men by hiding inside Gambit, though honestly, anglerfish just look cool, so maybe that is all there is to it.

Rogue, Beast and Nightcrawler dive down to Ship, the sentient being created by the Celestials who first upgraded En Sabah Nur into Apocalypse in ancient Egypt, then later helped the X-Men seal him in an escape pod during the original series episode Obsession, an act that drained her energy and sent her crashing into the ocean. In the future timeline, young Nathan, Mother Askani and some X-Men found Ship again, who upgraded Nathan's armor and sent them home. Ship warns that those who enter the shrine do not come out without paying a price, a warning Nightcrawler remembers later, and the shrine's mouth opens exactly as it did for En Sabah Nur.

Once inside, Rogue speaks with Eson directly, and he rips the celestial gem back out of her chest after Death shoved it into her the previous episode. The way she communicates with Eson through the gem looks a lot like the Eternals film, where a golden sphere emerged from Ajax's chest in front of a giant illusion of Arishem. Charles confirms Cerebro cannot locate Rogue because wherever she has gone is beyond its reach.

Rogue emerges upgraded with a new outfit, green eyes and her glove back, though thankfully not turned purple, and gives her brother a hug she believes is their last because she thinks she is going off to die, not realizing it will actually be him.

The Battle Turns Into a Full Scale Showdown

What follows is one of the season's best fight sequences. Cooper sends human piloted mech Sentinels into an air battle while X-Factor goes after Gambit and Cable fights his own parents, knowing they would never truly hurt him. Polaris and Bishop guard Gambit's room since Bishop is the team's best hand to hand fighter and Polaris knows X-Factor's style intimately from training with them, while Jubilee flies the jet for Sunspot, a nice callback to the original series running joke that Cyclops would not let then-15-year-old Jubilee anywhere near the controls, with Havok even taunting her about her "learner's permit."

Storm points out that because the Sentinels have human pilots this fight requires a delicate touch, so instead of destroying the mechs outright she blows the pilots free and sets them down safely with parachutes, which is smart on Cooper's part since she knows the X-Men will never risk human life. Morph impersonates Wolverine, right down to a very convincing sniff, to fool X-Factor, echoing how Mystique pulled the same trick in the first X-Men movie, and later turns into Doc Ock during the fight. When Psylocke stabs the real Wolverine through the head with a psionic blade it does nothing, since as he puts it his brains are already scrambled from the Weapon X procedure.

Bishop and Strong Guy's powers cancel each other out since both absorb and blast back energy, and when Multiple Man starts beating on Polaris, Bishop lets out a scream that only reinforces what I have said before, that these two are going to end up together. All the sound cuts out the moment Gambit's returning throwing card lands, and it is a full circle moment that he is the one saving Bishop here, since Bishop tried to kill Gambit immediately after a similar reunion in the original series' Days of Future Past Part 1. Gambit is genuinely dominating the fight, right up until the celestial energy inside him hits 85 percent.

Cable Shoots Gambit and Apocalypse Fully Takes Over

Meanwhile the fight between Cable, Jean and Scott escalates fast. Cable deflects Cyclops's optic blast into Jean, tears off Cyclops's visor, punches the ground hard enough to blast out windows and collapse parts of the building, and then shoots Gambit directly in the head. I do not think that was ever going to work, since you cannot take Apocalypse out with a bullet, though I assume Cable hoped enough of Gambit remained that destroying the body would destroy Apocalypse with it. It reminded me of Bruce Banner's line about how he ate his gun and the other guy spit the bullet back out.

Once Gambit goes down, Apocalypse simply takes over his body outright, becoming what I am calling Gambocalypse, declaring this was always how it was meant to happen. He is consistently written as several steps ahead of the X-Men no matter what they try, which lines up with how Beast once theorized in the original series' Beyond Evil arc that Apocalypse was the personification of evil, meaning he might never truly be defeated since good cannot exist without evil.

The entire team throws everything at him and does not even make a dent, and Gambocalypse converts everyone except Charles into his slaves before twisting the knife, telling Charles, "Oh, now you all belong to me. My X-Men," which mirrors how Magneto twisted the same idea back in season 1 when he learned Charles had left him the school: "His fortune, his school, everything he built now belongs to me. My X-Men."

Rogue's Love Beats Apocalypse and Traps Him for Cable

Apocalypse repeats his old line to Charles that the people he cares for will be his undoing, the core conflict of the whole season, and Charles finally rejects it outright, insisting their loved ones are how they survive. Right on cue, Rogue, who leveled up through love rather than a hunger for power, snaps everyone out of Apocalypse's control without even touching them, then lets her glove disappear into thin air. Where Gambocalypse looks at her with pure hatred, she looks at him and smiles because she still sees the man she loves in there.

This is the payoff to their fireside conversation from earlier in the season. Apocalypse fears anything that makes him weak, but Rogue knows life is not worth living without love, and that love has made her stronger than him, not weaker. She touches him, separates Apocalypse out and traps him in a blue gem, which she hands to Cable, a fitting lesson for him too, since his obsession with destiny pushed away his own family. He can carry the gem as a reminder never to become the thing he fought so hard to destroy, or, I suppose, just use him as a strange paperweight.

Gambit, back to himself, says, "Rogue really do always come to Gambit's rescue," a direct callback to the pilot episode of last season where he said almost the same thing: "Rogue always come to Gambit's rescue." It frames Rogue saving him as inevitable, the same way Apocalypse believed his own rise was inevitable. They kiss without incident, and when Rogue turns back to normal without dying in what she thought was her last fight, something is clearly wrong.

Nightcrawler's Sacrifice Buys the Team Their New Memories

When Rogue sees Beast holding Nightcrawler's Bible with no Nightcrawler in sight, it is obvious what happened, and if that was not enough, Nightcrawler's own conversation with Eson finishes the job. He says he wants to complete Rogue's sacrifice rather than challenge it, offering his own life so Rogue and Gambit can live on together and so everyone can go on making new memories, because he loves all of them too. Adrian Hough, who has voiced Nightcrawler since the original series more than 30 years ago, delivers what I think is a genuinely amazing speech and a beautiful ending for the character.

Over that speech we see those new memories play out. Charles finds his X-Men simply drinking coffee together in the kitchen, Jean and Scott getting closure with Cable, Forge and Storm growing closer, and Morph and Wolverine repairing their friendship after the events of episode 5, with Beast off reading, notably a headline mentioning Creed that pays off moments later. Jubilee and Sunspot help the new students they rescued settle into a school that once felt dangerous to them, Charles is back teaching with his old purpose restored, Polaris and Bishop enjoy what looks like a first date picnic, and Colossus paints himself into a portrait with his sister, something Nightcrawler helped him find the strength to do. Gambit and Rogue, finally just happy together, close things out watching clouds, exactly as Nightcrawler says they were always meant to be.

The episode ends on what I think is a perfect final exchange between Nightcrawler and Eson: "How can you be so certain your end will bring forth all this life?" "Because I have faith." Nightcrawler's whole point this season was that there is more than one way to make life better for the people you love, that it is not just survival of the fittest, and that love and life can come from death.

The Post-Credits Twist: Creed Wins and Mystique Resurfaces

There is also a post-credits scene. In Washington D.C., who we are led to believe is Val Cooper goes through a classified mutant threat file while Trish Tilby announces that Creed has won the presidency, meaning things are about to get much worse for mutants. The file is on Mystique, alias Raven, listed as highly dangerous, a capable and intelligent shapeshifter, with photos of the Brotherhood of Mutants that appear to be lifted from Paul Smith's classic poster art, including Magneto, Toad, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Mastermind, Blob, Unus and Lorelei, with some names blacked out or redacted.

Three names stand out under the redactions: Randall C, Rebecca R and Jennifer L, which I take as a fun nod to the actresses who have played Mystique, Randall Carpenter voicing her again here, Rebecca Romijn from the original X-Men film trilogy who is reprising the role in Doomsday, and Jennifer Lawrence from First Class through Dark Phoenix. Further redacted entries point to Anna Marie Darkholme, which is Rogue's name, suggesting Mystique is her adoptive mother, and to Graydon, either senior or junior, referring to Sabretooth and to Mystique's son the new president, whose name was changed from the comics specifically so it would be clear Sabretooth is his father. There is also an entry for Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler, since Mystique is his birth mother, despite having thrown him off a waterfall as a baby.

Then the real Val Cooper walks in and gets shot in the side by Mystique, and a second gunshot after the cut to black makes me think she is a goner, setting up Mystique taking her place next season. In the comics, a time traveling Mystique actually assassinated Creed during a campaign speech so he never became president at all, because she knew his presidency would usher in an apocalyptic future. It is worth clearing up that, contrary to some online theories, the Val Cooper we have seen all along has been the real one, not Mystique in disguise the whole time, and she was not replaced after being killed by Bastion, and she was not Mystique the whole time.

I am not sure exactly where Mystique has been until now, but knowing her, she has probably been laying low watching how things played out with Apocalypse, the same way she eventually turned on him in the original series despite knowing it meant he would hunt her down. My guess is she is resurfacing now because she knows Apocalypse is gone for the time being, because her mutant hating son just became president, and because her other son Nightcrawler just died, which may be pushing her toward revenge. In the original series she did try to kill him as a baby, but by season 4's Bloodlines she actually took a bullet meant for him from Creed, right after Nightcrawler told her he would ask God to help her forgive herself, so some part of her clearly did love him. We will not know her real plan until next season.

My Verdict on Season 2 and What Is Coming Next

I know some people online were not as into this season as they were season 1, but I thought it was a banger and that the writers, directors, animators and voice actors did not lose a step. Season 3 is set to release in 2027 and season 4 in 2028, since Disney is aiming to stick to a yearly release schedule, and Marvel Studios head Brad Winderbaum has said that even a year between seasons felt too long to him, so I expect they will hold to that plan. Until then, my recommendation is to use the wait to rewatch the original series, which I go back to every couple of years and still think mostly holds up.

What did you think of this season, and where do you think Mystique's story goes from here?