Previously on the Disney+ series X-Men ‘97, we see a different side of Nightcrawler as he tries to protect his brother, Graydon Creed, from being killed by the Acolytes of Magneto.
The episode starts with Rogue, who wakes up from a nightmare centered around Gambit. While she is later on busy playing poker with the X-Men, she can’t help but be distracted by her dream and her memories of Gambit. The X-Men’s brief moment of normalcy is interrupted when Cable and Jubilee arrive carrying what appears to be Apocalypse’s body. Jubilee informs them that Gambit has something to do with this, showing them one of his cards. They don’t want to kill Gambit, but restore his soul, and decide to use Cerebro to try to find Gambit’s location. While doing so, Jean and Cyclops check in on Cable, the three of them agreeing to take a chance to make up for lost time as a family.
They find Gambit in New Orleans before he attempts to invade the ship. We watch as Rogue struggles to accept Gambit being alive again. They quickly learn that Gambit is under Apocalypse’s control. During battle, Apocalypse continues manipulating Gambit’s mind, forcing Rogue to confront the possibility that the man she loves may no longer be the same person. He quickly puts her unconscious before taking her away. During dinner, Gambit reveals that he’s become immortal and wants Rogue to join him so they can spend eternity together.
To complete Rogue’s transformation, he extracts a powerful stone from Xternal, the ancient priestess who was with Kang in the earlier episodes. Gambit inserts the magical stone into Rogue’s chest just as the X-Men and X-Force arrive to stop him. In a desperate attempt to keep Gambit and Apocalypse apart, Professor X enters Gambit’s head. However, just as it appears that he is succeeding, Apocalypse retaliates. Although Apocalypse is still inside Gambit’s mind at the end of the conflict, Rogue eventually intervenes to save both Gambit and Professor X.
The episode closes with X-Force, minus Jubilee and Sunfire, joining forces with X-Factor to bring Apocalypse to an end once and for all.
Two themes that go hand-in-hand with each other in this episode are family and second chances. We see Jean, Cyclops, and Cable come together as a family. So much time has passed since they saw their son, and the three of them were able to push the past aside and agree to make new memories. But this theme is also reflected in Rogue and Gambit. We see this for them as Rogue refuses to abandon Gambit because she still considers him family. Meanwhile, she’s concerned about whether he’s able to be fixed or what his motives are; she still believes they can come back together as one.
Following that comes the theme of love. It’s clear Rogue has and will always love Gambit, and we see that come out strongly in this episode. We get to see a much deeper and vulnerable side of her, which shows just how much she cares for Gambit. We learn and watch as love pushes characters to make difficult and dangerous choices.
Overall, this was a really good episode. It’s nice to see the balance between the X-Men helping Nightcrawler with his brother and them helping Rogue with Gambit, showing just how much of a family they are, even if they may not fully agree as a team. Lenore Zann and A.J. LoCascio did an amazing job in this episode as Rogue and Gambit, showing their emotional rollercoasters throughout their scenes together and individually. With the season finale coming up, what disaster awaits them in the next episode?
Rating: 9/10