X-Men '97 Season 2 Episode 6: Danger, Polaris and Gambit as Death Explained

Whenever the Watcher shows up, you know something big is about to go down. Episode 6 of season 2 of X-Men '97 ended with Apocalypse bringing Gambit back from the dead as his horseman Death, which my cat Gambit was thrilled about. I'm going to break this one down scene by scene for all the Easter eggs, details and references you might have missed.

Episode 6, danger.exe, has three credited writers: Beau DeMayo, Mariah Wilson and Bailey Moore. Moore is the writer's assistant on the show and was previously the assistant to DeMayo. The episode was directed by Emmett Yonemura, who also directed episodes 1 and 2 this season.

Dr. Cooper is set up as a second threat to Charles and his new X-Corp

The previously on is spoken by Dr. Cooper. We end this episode with Cooper as more of an out and out threat to the X-Men than she was before, and it seems like they're setting this up to be a battle on two fronts. The larger physical threat is obviously Apocalypse, but Cooper can also be a bureaucratic thorn in Charles's side as she works against him and his new X-Corp.

A little bit of fun info I've mentioned before: Dr. Cooper is voiced by Catherine Disher, the original series voice actor for Jean Grey. At the time, she was married to Cedric Smith, who voiced Charles Xavier in the original series. They've since divorced, and I wonder if there's any part of her that's a little happy that she gets to continuously yell at the new voice of Charles. It's kind of the divorced voice actor's version of therapy.

The recap reminds us how the Danger Room works and who Magneto was

In the recap, we see Sunspot training in the Danger Room from last season's premiere, To To Me, My X-Men!, when Jubilee was giving him the lowdown after he'd been rescued from the Friends of Humanity. This serves to remind the audience how the Danger Room actually works before we see it go rogue. Jubilee also gives some background on Magneto, and we see him as the villain he once was, someone Polaris spends her time desperately trying not to turn into. Fear of this happening clouds every decision she makes. Later we'll see the more complicated and nuanced man through Charles's memories of him.

Then Charles is in Magneto's mind from Tolerance Is Extinction Part 3, and in that mind, on a boat in raging seas, we see Rogue, Polaris, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Magneto says there is no one like him, which this episode proves wrong. His daughter is clearly like him. His memory is carried on in his loved ones and his family, which, as Charles says here, includes him. Apocalypse says the ones you care for will be your undoing, but I think this season is trying to deliver the message that your loved ones are actually your salvation and are what make you strong. We also see Jubilee appealing to Polaris, reminding her that she started out as an X-Man, from this season's episode 2, A Force to Be Reckoned With.

Wolverine's adamantium claws are back in the opening

A couple of things are worth pointing out in the opening. Wolverine's adamantium claws are back. They make the snikt sound instead of the flesh ripping noise the bone claws made, they have blue circles glinting around them unlike the bone claws, and they make the sharp metallic noise when he slashes at the screen. His sideburns are also a little shaggier than in the opening for 205. No idea what that's about, but I like that he's experimenting with his look. We don't actually see Wolverine this episode, so maybe after his hard jaunt in the previous episode, he took one of his patented soul searching day trips.

The only clip we haven't seen yet this season is the giant bug Sentinel turning its head as it gets ready to blast. And even though we've seen Scott blasting the robots in the Danger Room before, it reminds us that the room is in fact dangerous. These are also the same assessment protocol robots the room will manifest later in the episode.

Charles turns the Danger Room into penance over Magneto's death

The episode opens with Charles engaged in the absolute least healthy form of therapy I've ever seen. He's enlisted the Danger Room to let him relive Magneto's death over and over. Notice that Charles is actually wearing the clothes he wore in the past, so he really put back on the clothes he watched his best friend die in. Everything else, including Magneto's helmet, is simulated by the room, although the room lets the helmet linger after everything else has faded away, almost like pouring salt in the wound.

Charles is haunted by the idea that he didn't do enough to save his old friend. As he relives the memory, he doesn't include the part where he shouted "Stay away from him" or when he trash talked Apocalypse. I think that's because those were moments when he was actually being brave, and he'd rather punish himself by remembering himself as weak. A cool detail is that the sound in the memory is more muted, since that's probably how Charles remembers it, and his face isn't as lit up as it was when it actually happened, probably because this whole memory is a shadow in his brain.

The room monitors his vitals and everything he says, zooming in on his eye. When it doesn't cut the memory off and simulated Apocalypse actually steps on Charles, he shouts that this was supposed to be a therapeutic exercise. It's not. This is Charles performing penance for what he sees as his failure, a digital hair shirt he'll wear until he's forced to remove it. Charles says, "I wasn't strong enough," and it's Apocalypse and the Sandstormers' idea of survival of the fittest that the Danger Room will adopt. A lot of the storylines this season, from Wolverine thinking he needed his adamantium back to Charles wanting to push the new students, go back to this idea that everyone needs to be made stronger. Charles also says he's less worried about surviving Apocalypse than surviving without Magneto, and by the end he'll have new resolve because he'll have found peace. The Danger Room is voiced by Rachel Kimsey, who also voiced Ship and is married to Magneto actor Matthew Waterson.

Polaris takes on the Purifiers, Karl Lykos and Stryker

Polaris flies to intercept an illegal smuggling operation by the Purifiers. They were introduced in 1982's X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills and haven't appeared in the animated series before, although they've appeared in some live action stuff. They're basically a Christian fundamentalist terrorist group led by Reverend William Stryker, and they think mutants are the children of the devil to be eradicated. They kill a ton of kids in the comics. X-Factor member Wolfsbane's pastor dad was a member at one point, and we saw that character in the New Mutants movie.

Here we see Karl Lykos, last season's leader of the Friends of Humanity, who later donned the Executioner gear and took out Storm's powers. This guy is always on the side of whatever fanatical anti mutant group pops up. The woman is Anne, who in the comics is a mutant with no real powers and was responsible for a lot of those dead kids. The two communicate with Stryker, whom we saw briefly last season in Tolerance Is Extinction Part 1 discussing an inevitable human mutant war on TV. He's voiced here by Morph voice actor J.P. Karliak. They're smuggling in vibranium weapons, which I'm sure the Wakandans would be very interested in.

Polaris identifies herself and they open fire, which is wild since she's there on behalf of the US Defense Department. She has her father's powers, manipulating metal and controlling magnetic fields, including sensing magnetic auras, which is why she can later tell the Danger Room's magnetic field is shifting. These Purifiers don't stand a chance, and I honestly wouldn't have blamed her if she'd killed the whole lot of them. But Cooper doesn't want that, so Havok intervenes.

Polaris's history with Iceman and Havok, and a Newton's cradle nod

Back on the helicarrier, Cooper reads Polaris the riot act. To recap the original series, season 3 episode 11, Cold Comfort: Polaris and her boyfriend Bobby Drake, Iceman, were two of the original X-Men. She got hurt on a mission, Bobby got mad and left, and Polaris went with him. They lived a normal life for a while, with him working as an accountant, but they fought because she wanted to use their powers to help mutants. Forge recruited her to X-Factor, and knowing Iceman would try to stop her, they faked her disappearance. She didn't even break up with him properly. She and Havok fell in love, Bobby thought she'd been abducted and tracked her down, and it was messy. I'm like 99% sure Polaris and Havok have now broken up, because there's nothing romantic about their relationship here. She does have some chemistry with Bishop later on, though.

Cooper has a Newton's cradle in her office, and I love this, because we saw live action Magneto in 2000's X-Men using his powers to play with one just like Polaris does. That one had no string, so when Magneto left, the balls fell all over. Polaris shows more restraint, since she's constantly worried about losing control like her father, and lets them fall back into place naturally.

The animated series canon is not the comics canon

In my previous breakdown, I mentioned that Graydon Creed is Graydon Creed Jr., and a lot of people said that was wrong because his dad Sabretooth's name is Victor. But the animated series changed his name so kids fully understood they were father and son. The same goes for the hero the animated series calls Vindicator, whom comics fans know as Guardian, changed because of rights issues. In the movies, Lady Deathstrike was a mutant, whereas in the animated series she wasn't.

Names, storylines, power sets and relationships all got changed during the original run. The whole reason Morph exists is that the writers wanted to use the comics character Changeling, but there was also a DC character named Changeling and Marvel and DC were in a naming rights legal battle, so the show invented Morph with the same power set. It's the show changing stuff from the comics, not me.

President Kelly outlaws X-Men activities

We learn that President Kelly has outlawed X-Men activities, which leads directly to Charles establishing X-Corp on Genosha, since the US government has no jurisdiction there. Polaris's actions are all over the news, and Trish Tilby has an awful lot of coverage of an operation that was supposed to be covert. On another screen, a red skinned mutant mother and child are being detained by government troops.

A round table news program shows a man at a podium who looks a lot like Graydon Creed Jr., since he always wore that maroon suit in the original series. The headline underneath reads "Is President Kelly's super" before it's cut off. I'm wondering if Creed is trying to announce a bid for president and presenting Kelly as too soft on mutants. Cooper clearly knows Polaris is Magneto's daughter. It's not clear who else knows, but Cooper would have done a thorough background check, which means she also probably knows Havok is Cyclops' brother. Polaris is fired, and Havok has no sympathy for his, I assume, ex girlfriend.

The mansion fills with future Generation X students

Polaris's moving box is from Salem Center Moving. Salem Center is where Charles's school is located, 1407 Graymalkin Lane in Westchester County, New York, so it hints at where she's heading. The mansion is being rebuilt again, which happened so many times in the original series that they made jokes about it. Charles announces Storm as the new headmistress, and a lot of the kids Jubilee broke out of X-Factor's prison in episode 2 made their way here: Quentin Quire in a Magneto Was Right T-shirt, Monet St. Croix, Wing, Everett Thomas or Synch, and Jonathan Starsmore or Chamber, some of the teens who go on to become Generation X.

The brain in the jar is Martha Johansson, No-Girl, whose brain was forcibly removed and kept alive in this capsule. Next to her is Iara Dos Santos, Shark Girl, a were-shark with shark powers. The girl in the yellow shirt we saw on Genosha in Remember It, and I think she was an original character. The green blob is Dupe, who speaks an unidentified language and has unknown origins, so he might not even be a mutant. There are Beak, Dust and Trevor Hawkins, Eye-Boy, whose powers are mostly vision related. Pixie, the girl from Genosha who turns into a parrot, Glob Herman, Nature Girl, Artie Maddicks and Angel Salvador are there too, plus Rockslide, with a body made of granite. I think the girl with the yellow boots and headband is Cypher, who can phase through objects, and the girl with short blonde hair and heart shaped sunglasses might be Boom-Boom, Tabitha Smith, who creates exploding plasma orbs. Charles reveals all this is happening in the Danger Room and scares those kids, sounding very apocalyptic when he says they need to be pushed to become stronger.

Polaris's room is pure 90s teen punk goth

Polaris's room is exactly how she left it, with purple Christmas lights, punk posters and a stolen street sign, a very big thing in the 90s. There's a chessboard, and her father and Charles were often shown playing chess. Framed photos show her with Iceman, with Jean and Storm, and with the first X-Men class: Charles, Scott, Jean as Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel and Iceman. In cutout magazine letters she put "No rest for trouble." I'm not sure we're seeing the whole thing, but this could be a play on Job 3:26.

Beast wears his Howard the Duck shirt with his brown leather jacket, first seen in The Phoenix Saga Part 2: The Dark Shroud, a look I found online and recreated. He quotes a line Polaris correctly attributes to Tryon Edwards. She, like her father, is very well read. She calls Magneto by name rather than anything paternal, since he wasn't around when she was growing up. In the background, Morph turns into Reed Richards and uses his arms as a jump rope. Charles says he had hoped a piece of Magneto's mind would linger in his, another hint that Onslaught might be coming, and he's back in his original green suit. Forge teases Polaris about missing him enough to get booted, since he led X-Factor in Cold Comfort, and Polaris calls Storm "Headmistress of the elements," a play on Mistress of the elements.

Danger takes shape and the team catches on fast

Bishop tries to revive Wing. We never find out exactly what happened, but Storm hits Bishop with lightning and he uses it to restart Wing's heart. In the comics, Danger convinced Wing to kill himself in the Danger Room, which might have been deemed too dark here. The room lures Storm, Forge and Morph out and locks down. Polaris and Bishop butt heads in a way that makes me think they're definitely going to hook up. Also, I see now why everyone wants to punch Quentin, because he's super annoying.

The robots the room summons, the ones Cyclops fights in the intro, are based on the mech suits Genoshan magistrates wore, most notably worn by Purifier Cameron Hodge, which X-Men director and executive producer Larry Houston confirmed in an old tweet. The room uses the energy Polaris expels to manifest as Danger, created during the 2000s Joss Whedon comics run as a physical embodiment of the Danger Room who adapts to any threat. I love how quickly characters catch on in this show. Forge and Storm realize immediately what's going on, and that's satisfying writing. Bishop's line about killing machines ties back to his future as a mutant hunter for the Sentinels, later pursued by Nimrod. Danger's "Now shall we begin?" is taken directly from Astonishing X-Men volume 3 number 9.

Charles has his toughest fight yet on Genosha

Danger heads for Genosha and her creator, Charles. Because of Kelly's executive order, anything Storm or X-Men tied to the school do would be breaking the law. But Polaris, just fired, isn't officially involved yet, and Bishop is a time traveler, so he's above the law. On Genosha, Charles asks "WWMD?" What would Magneto do? Genosha is another source of guilt, since Magneto was doing what he thought Charles would do.

Jean gives herself telekinetic Wolverine claws to refract Cyclops' optic blasts into many beams, something she did sometimes in the comics. This is the toughest we've seen Charles be: he fires his chair guns, has the chair lay him flat and blast him out, rolls off before it explodes, then uses the mini jet as a battering ram. He calls Danger a child like one of his students, and in the comics Danger considered Charles her father. A lot of characters have picked Charles up by the neck this season, and Danger's "This time I go for your head" reminded me of Thanos and Thor's "You should have gone for the head."

Magneto's memories free Polaris and give Charles closure

Danger keeps reforming, determined to force everyone to level up or die. Charles tells Polaris to unleash her full power and shows her his memories of Magneto: telling the UN he's trying to be better in Mutant Liberation Begins, then protecting the Morlocks on Genosha, telling little Leech not to be afraid in German, and attacking the bug Sentinel with tears in his eyes. Charles was in space with the Shi'ar then, but he had a vision, and because he was inside Magneto's mind, those memories live on in him.

Before she's obliterated, Danger expresses pleasure at finally seeing real strength. She was kind of right: she helped level Polaris up, and Charles got to feel his old friend's presence one last time. That closure lets him form X-Corp on Genosha, which really angers Cooper. In the comics, X-Corp helped mutants legally and investigated mutant rights violations, and this is Charles's way around Kelly's order. Charles senses Apocalypse is still out there. In the premiere, Apocalypse said he'd time travel to the 1990s; the X-Men don't know that, but Charles knows he will show up, since he is inevitable.

Apocalypse resurrects Gambit as Death in Athens

In Athens, the Watcher looks on from the sky as Apocalypse uses his machine to bring Gambit back as his horseman Death. I love that Apocalypse shouts, "Increase the power to no one," because he's used to someone else doing that. Gambit's playing cards turn into tarot cards: Death, the Tower and the Lovers. I'm not a tarot girly, but I think rather than a real tarot meaning, this indicates Gambit is going to X-Corp Tower to look for Rogue, his love.

I think Apocalypse remembers his conversation with Rogue as En Sabah Nur, which gave him the idea to get at her and the X-Men through the man she loves, because he believes the ones you love will be your undoing. The episode ends with Gambit opening his eyes and smiling, but it's definitely not our Gambit, not yet at least. At this point in the season, I thought the X-Men were going to be in for one nasty ride before it was done.

Which detail from danger.exe stood out most to you?