Gambit, Magneto, and Rogue go to Genosha to celebrate its entry into the United Nations, while the rest of the team has an interview back at the mansion while dealing with unhealed wounds.
Magneto, alongside Rogue and Gambit, visit Genosha at the behest of the fledgling nation's interim council, greeted by Madelyn Pryor and Dr. Cooper. There, they are greeted by Kurt Wagner — the Nightcrawler, a fellow X-Man and old friend of Rogue and Gambit. As a member of the interim council aiding the country's religious communities, Nightcrawler offers a grand tour of mutantkind's new homeland. Rogue is fascinated by the nation's burgeoning prosperity and culture, but Gambit remains skeptical, his misgivings partly fueled by lingering resentment towards Magneto...
Magneto meets with the interim council, who approaches Magneto with a radical proposal: they wished for Magneto to be the leader of Genosha, ruling over the nation as "Chancellor". Magneto expresses reluctance at accepting the title and position due to his checkered past, but council members Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost insist, as his actions at the UN trial have made him a respected and admired figure, both among mutants and in the political sphere. Xavier's trust in Magneto was also considered a vote of confidence in his favor. Magneto finally relents and agrees to accept the position, under one condition: if he could take Rogue as his queen. Rogue is incensed at the prospect, believing Magneto's actions to be born of ambition and a thirst for power; but Magneto insists that she would make a great leader, and that he, too, would be a better man with her by his side.
Back at Xavier Mansion, the media interviews the students and faculty. While most of the X-Men are happy to tell all, Jean Grey is reluctant to be interviewed, still reeling from recovering her memories after Mister Sinister's experimentations. Logan approaches her to offer support, and she kisses him in the heat of the moment. While Logan would've been happy that she reciprocates his feelings for him, he restrains himself and reminds Jean that her place is by Scott's side. Scott, meanwhile, sours at questions about his newborn son, Nathan. Still hurting from having to send his son into the future to treat his Techno-Organic Virus infection, he snaps at the news crew, blaming them for ruining what should've been a momentous occasion for him as he tried to build his family, and expressing his resentment towards an ungrateful mankind.
Scott and Madelyne telepathically talk about the matter afterwards, taking comfort from their pain. Jean discovers this, flaring tensions between her and Scott, with Jean accusing him of preferring Madelyne over her, and Scott accusing Jean of not truly loving him after having lost her memories and chasing the half-remembered memories of their relationship. At that moment, however...
As Gambit prepares for the Genoshan gala, Rogue approaches him and confides in him about her history with Magneto, whom she had been introduced to by her villainous mother after her powers emerged. Rogue grew to look up to, and admire, Erik for his visions of a mutant nation and culture, and after discovering that his electromagnetic powers made him immune to her syphoning powers — that they could touch, they grew intimate. Through it all, however, she became intimately familiar with his inner demons borne from fear and hatred of humanity, and left shortly after, joining the X-Men. Now, however, she was prepared to accept the position of Genosha's co-ruler, but this would leave no room in her life for a relationship with Remy. Remy insists that his love for Rogue had nothing to do with their inability to touch, a love that he still harbors; but for Rogue, who was touch-starved as a result of her powers, her inability to touch Remy was just too much to bear. Heartbroken, Remy tearfully agrees to break off his relationship with Rogue, ensuring her that they were still friends.
The Genoshan Gala is a festive time for the nation, as mutants gather to celebrate. Remy, however, finds it hard to feel festive, particularly when he witnesses Magneto and Rogue share an impassioned dance with one another, during which Rogue tearfully declines his affections. As Madelyne watches this unfold, however...
At the same time, on opposite sides of the world, Jean and Madelyne share the same vision — the one Madelyne had when she probed Henry Gyrich's mind earlier, portending future doom. Cable appears in Genosha, warning everyone at the Gala to evacuate. Madelyne recognizes Cable's eyes as that of her son, Nathan Charles Summers, and takes heart in the fact that her son lived and grew into a fine man.
Nathan woefully apologizes to his mother moments before he is pulled back into the future...
...and at that moment, tragedy strikes.
Explosions rock the nation as the Gala is attacked by a mechanical monster: the Tri-Sentinel! In the span of a few moments, countless mutants are killed, and others severely wounded. Gambit reports that casualties are mounting, and the Morlocks are trapped. Determined to save his people, Magneto engages the Tri-Sentinel, distracting the abomination so Rogue and Gambit can rescue the Morlocks, fighting their way past Sentinel units.
Against Magneto's awesome powers, however, the Tri-Sentinel proves resistant. With his new nation crumbling around him, and visions of the horrors he witnessed at Auschwitz flashing in his mind, Magneto fights back all the harder as Gambit and Rogue reach the Morlocks. Their relief is short-lived, however, as the Tri-Sentinel overpowers Magneto. Erik raises a barrier to protect the Morlocks from the Tri-Sentinel's death ray, creating a shelter to protect Gambit and Rogue at the same time. Unfortunately, his powers prove to be no match for the Tri-Sentinel: all he can do is offer the Morlocks comforting words before they are overwhelmed...
Enraged at Erik's death, Rogue charges headlong at the Tri-Sentinel, only for Remy to intercept her and charge at the machine himself. As he launches himself towards it, the Tri-Sentinel runs him through with a metallic tendril and acknowledges that the mutant intruder has been neutralized.
Having the foul machine right where he wants it, however, he smirks. "The name's Gambit, mon ami..." he says as he grabs the tendril and activates his powers, charging up the Tri-Sentinel to the point of exploding, "...remember it...!"
In the wake of the Tri-Sentinel's attack, the X-Men watch in horror Trish Tilby’s report on the massacre. Genosha lies in ruins. Countless civilians are dead, injured, or missing...
...and in the middle of it all, Rogue cries over Gambit's lifeless body, holding him close with her bare hands...
"...sugah...I...I can't feel you..."
Tropes
- Adaptation Amalgamation: Scott’s psychic affair and the attack on Genosha, including the massive three-headed Sentinel, are inspired by Grant Morrison's X-Men, while the island's general vibe (and Interim Council) comes from Jonathan Hickman's X-Men. As the Morlocks are the most notable victims, this could also count as the Mutant Massacre.
- Adaptational Badass: In the original "E is for Extinction" storyline, Magneto is wheelchair-bound when Genosha is attacked due to a previous fight with the X-Men, and none of the X-Men are present to stop the event. Here, Magneto is healthy and whole, and Gambit and Rogue are around, allowing the attack to be (marginally) less devastating than it would have been.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Scott's psychic affair with Emma in the comics was changed to his still having a connection with Madelyne here, making him much more sympathetic on that front. Likewise, Jean kissing Logan stems from her hurt and confusion over her abduction and missing life and isn't a sign that the Phoenix is coming back.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the comics, Gambit (albeit somewhat unwittingly) led the Marauders in the Mutant Massacre against the Morlocks at Sinister's behest, an action that later earned him Rogue's scorn and left him with a hefty amount of atoning to do before he finally redeemed himself in her eyes. Here, not only does he play no role in orchestrating said massacre, he unambiguously dies a hero by pulling a Taking You with Me against the Tri-Sentinel, halting the attack on the Morlocks but leaving Rogue to tearfully mourn for him.
- Ambiguous Situation: A lot of mutants might be alive or dead at the end of the episode. Some are caught in the Tri-Sentinel's beams, others are shown with their eyes closed in what appear to be ad hoc triage fields, and a few disappear in explosions. The last we see of Callisto is her pupil narrowing, so she was alive at that moment, but she was in bad shape.
- Anachronic Order: The entire episode occurs on a single day, switching between the X-Mansion and Genosha. While the scenes at the Mansion happen in a few short hours without changes in daylight, the scenes in Genosha start in daytime, shifts to dusk after the conference, then nighttime for the gala and the attack. Peculiarly, Jean psychically kicks out Madelyne during the conference and then gets hit by the psychic flash right afterward, but much later Jean and Maddie are shown getting hit by the flash and nosebleeds at the same time during the gala.
- Bait-and-Switch: One scene looks like Scott describing his infant son to Jean after losing his cool on-camera, but then the appearance of the actual Jean reveals that it's Madelyne communicating with Scott telepathically to comfort him over losing their son.
- Berserker Tears: Rogue sheds plenty when she tries to attack the Tri-Sentinel.
- Bilingual Bonus: Magneto tells Leech not to be afraid in German, shortly before the Tri-Sentinel seemingly evaporates them.
- The Bus Came Back: Several, including Nightcrawler, Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw, Banshee, Moira MacTaggert, and Cable.
- Call-Back: Gambit's last words mirror his Pre Ass Kicking One Liner from the climactic fight
in the original cartoon's episode "Reunion - Part 2". - The Cameo:
- The population of Genosha contains a lot of these, including Glob Herman, Pixie, Nature Girl, Multiple Man, Exodus, Cipher (Alisa Tager), Dazzler, Loa, Boom-Boom, Squid-Boy, and Marrow. Archangel is also present at the gala.
- Sharp-eyed viewers can spot the image of Uatu the Watcher in the sky over Genosha as the Gala begins. This can be seen as a tipping of the hat that something major is about to happen given the significance of Uatu making his presence known.
- Cassandra Truth: Cable tries his best to warn people to evacuate Genosha, but he arrives too late to give a proper warning and those hearing him, including Madelyne, are only confused by his presence and can't fully process what he's saying before the attack begins.
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Averted. This is the first time in the show's continuity (as well as the first time in a very long time from Marvel overall) that Jean's "Marvel Girl" codename is acknowledged.
- Composite Character:
- The Tri-Sentinel is the Sentinel that commits the Genoshan genocide. In the comics, the Tri-Sentinel looks different and is the result of Loki magically fusing three Sentinels in Acts of Vengeance, the character is more of an enemy of Spider-Man than the X-Men, and the Genoshan genocide was carried out by two of Bolivar Trask's giant Wild Sentinels, activated by Donald Trask III and Cassandra Nova.
- Madelyne's psychic encounters with Scott stem from Emma Frost's psychic affair with him during Grant Morrison's New X-Men run.
- Continuity Nod:
- Jubilee cites some of the bizarre adventures she's had with the X-Men, including "vampire pterodactyl men" (Sauron).
- Rogue reveals her time with Magneto was during her time with Mystique (as seen in "A Rogue's Tale"), and his time in the Savage Land (as established through season 2 of the original show).
- As Madelyne has Jean's lifetime of memories (plus having taken her place for a still-undetermined amount of time), she immediately recognizes Cable from his past encounter with Jean in the original series (just before realizing Cable is actually her Nathan).
- Creator Cameo: Former showrunner Beau DeMayo is shown with the remnants of the Interim Council during the attack.
- Darker and Edgier: While the deaths caused by the Sentinel attack on Genosha in Grant Morrison's New X-Men "E is for Extinction" arc numbered in the millions, this episode shows the attack from the point of view of the victims, including a child (Leech), instead of a witness far away (Professor X through Cerebro in the comics).
- Death by Adaptation:
- Banshee, Marrow, Sebastian Shaw, Moira MacTaggert, and Callisto were not present in Genosha in the "E is for Extinction" arc. And Madelyne was absent completely from comics due to being dead (a second time) back then.
- The Tri-Sentinel. Here, it is destroyed when Gambit overcharges it. In the comics, one of the two wild Sentinels that carried out the Genoshan genocide becomes self-aware after being reactivated by Danger (the sentient Danger Room AI) and, appalled at the murders it had committed, left for space to spend time alone reflecting.
- Downer Ending: The only positive thing to be said is that the Tri-Sentinel was destroyed before it could kill everyone on Genosha. Apart from that, the island has been devastated, with countless mutants dead including Gambit and possibly Magneto. Both the X-Men and the world at large are left in horror at what's happened, and the episode ends on Rogue weeping as she cradles Gambit's body.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Trish's interview with Cyclops ultimately goes Off the Rails after she explains how she's trying to show that mutants are like "normal" people, leading him to call her out.
- Emergency Temporal Shift: Cable's computer forcibly time-jaunts him away from Genosha as the Tri-Sentinel starts to attack.
- Evolving Credits: Jubilee facing down Mojo is replaced with Cable fighting Apocalypse in his pyramid from "Beyond Good and Evil, part 1", and Storm fighting Callisto returns.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- During Scott's emotional talk with Jean about Nathan, her hairstyle and teal blouse are tip-offs that it's actually Madelyne he's speaking to (by telepathy). To sell the Bait-and-Switch, Madelyne is in Genosha and wearing her hair differently all this time.
- During the fireworks, Cable rushes in trying to warn everyone, and then notices some huge, green-colored fireworks-like bursts in the distance... except on the ground instead of in the sky.
- Foreshadowing:
- Scott says that his most striking memory of Nathan is his big, brown eyes. Later, Madelyne recognizes Cable as Nathan because of his eyes.
- In the shot of the starry night, one can see a silhouette of Uatu the Watcher. Those who know the character understand that if he is watching an event unfold, it is going to be very significant and potentially catastrophic.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost have joined the Interim Council of Genosha. They've remained the same upper-crust elitists as before, something that both Magneto and Callisto call them out on, but they are working with the X-Men because it furthers their interests as mutants.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The Tri-Sentinel impales Gambit in the side, and Gambit takes the opportunity to charge it, destroying it at the cost of his life.
- Hope Spot: Genosha is on the verge of being accepted into the United Nations, an unprecedented step forward in human/mutant relations and making Charles Xavier's dream a reality. Then the Tri-Sentinel, carrying with it a number of smaller Sentinels, attacks.
- Implied Death Threat: Magneto to Gambit, in a darkly humorous manner:Magneto: Gambit, please remember that should the new Blackbird suffer a..."malfunction", you are the only soul onboard for whom gravity would most certainly be an issue.
- Innocently Insensitive:
- Trish Tilby's cameraman asks if Cyclops can take off his ruby-quartz sunglasses, clearly unaware of why that would be a bad idea.
- Trish asks Scott about Nathan, unaware of what became of the child and why talking about him would upset Cyclops so much.
- While she appears to be trying to help, Trish's explanation about how she is trying to show that mutants are like "normal" people sets off the normally unflappable Cyclops, who has good reason to be offended.
- Internal Reveal: Madelyne learns that Cable is an adult Nathan Summers. Gambit also learns that Rogue has a romantic past with Magneto.
- Ironic Echo: During their break-up, Rogue tearfully says that while she knows Gambit's heart beats for her, she can't feel that. The final scene in the episode is Rogue, gloveless and in tears, holding Gambit's lifeless body and saying she can't feel him.
- Irony: A large part of Rogue breaking things off romantically with Gambit is due to her inability to express her love for him by touching him. By the end of the episode, she's able to do just that and literally just that since he's beyond any capacity to reciprocate, tactilely or otherwise, on account of him being dead.
- Just Friends:
- Jean is well aware of Logan's feelings for her, and when he approaches her to offer her aid as she struggles with putting her life back together, she suddenly kisses him. Logan, however, declines Jean's feelings for him and insists that she try to patch things with Scott.
- In light of Rogue's romantic past with Magneto and the present offer for her to rule Genosha by his side, Gambit ends their relationship, accepting that all they can be is friends. After a dance with Magneto, however, Rogue comes around and decides it would be better to make things work with Remy... only for the Tri-Sentinel attack to devastate Genosha and kill Gambit and seemingly Magneto as well.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Because the attack happens during the gala, the mutants are all fighting the Tri-Sentinel in formal dress.
- Lighter and Softer: Believe it or not, the attack on Genosha. In the comics, it ended with the murder of almost everyone on the island, some sixteen million mutants in total. Far fewer died here, though the death toll was still unimaginably high. In Bright Eyes, Rogue says that Trask's Sentinels killed "thousands" during the episode, which is horrible and monstrous, but a number several orders of magnitude lower than the "E for Extinction" event.
- Mechanical Abomination: The Tri-Sentinel is a miles high, multiple-headed, bug-shaped thing that just appears completely out of nowhere and annihilates Genosha and its population.
- Mood Whiplash: Most of the episode comes across as drama of the romantic, family, and political varieties, with a lot of focus on the politics of Genosha and the love triangles of Rogue/Gambit/Magneto and Cyclops/Jean/Madelyne (with a bit of Jean/Cyclops/Wolverine thrown in for good measure). Then the Tri-Sentinel attack begins, and the focus quickly shifts to the horror and tragedy of an attack that kills several named characters and decimates the island of Genosha.
- Mythology Gag:
- Among the signs in Genosha are ones proclaiming "Magneto is Right", a callback to the "Magneto Was Right" imagery from Grant Morrison's New X-Men run.
- Madelyne Pryor's presence and involvement in Genosha references to her being a central character in the 1988 Uncanny X-Men #235-238 arc in which Genosha originally debuted.
- Cyclops mentions that while Jean was possessed by the Phoenix, she demonstrated her raw power by holding back his eye beams, something depicted in the original version of The Dark Phoenix Saga, but which was left out of the animated series' depiction.
- Cyclops explains that his and Jean's first meeting happened when he walked into her and knocked the books she was carrying out of her hands, which is how they met in X-Men: Apocalypse.
- As in the original comics, the tangle between Scott, Jean, and Madelyne is undermining his marriage. But in this universe, it's Scott's marriage to Jean, with Madelyne as the other woman as opposed to the other way around (although it's still a mystery which of them Scott married).
- Jean psychically saying to Scott, "Let me guess, you can explain," when he and Madelyne were making out is taken from the comics when Jean walked in on him and Emma in bed together (also psychically).
- Emma's amusement at Madelyne's drama with Scott and Jean is a reference to her playing Madelyne's role in a similar love triangle and psychic affair in the comics.
- The red dress Rogue wears for the Genoshan gala is a slightly modified version of the one she wears for her abortive first date with Gambit in X-Men #4 (1991), drawn by Jim Lee.
- Cable's connection to Madelyne causing her to nosebleed also happened to her once in the comics due to her connection to Nate Grey, his Age of Apocalypse counterpart.
- It shouldn't go unnoticed or unmentioned that among the many mutants Magneto fights so desperately to protect are two whom he went out of his way to attempt to kill in the movies, namely Rogue and Leech.
- Not Enough to Bury: Anyone directly hit by the Tri-Sentinel's blasts appear to be vaporized completely. The named victims of this shown include Banshee and Marrow, and possibly the Morlocks and Magneto.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: That Cable, who previously faced down Apocalypse with stoic defiance, is utterly terrified as he crashes the gala, should be a sign that whatever is about to happen is something worse.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Some of Cal Dodd's Irish brogue comes out during Logan's talk with Jean.
- Our Founder: Genosha has installed two giant statues of Professor X and Magneto. During the fight with the Tri-Sentinel, Xavier's gets knocked over and crushes several mutant bystanders. In the aftermath of the battle, the Magneto statue is also destroyed.
- Poke in the Third Eye: Both Jean and Madelyne get psychic flashes warning them of what's about to happen in Genosha, strong enough to make them start bleeding from the nose.
- Reformed, but Not Tamed: Despite working towards the same cause as the X-Men, Emma Frost remains as arrogant as ever, questioning Moira's presence on the ruling council and cracking a smirk at the drama between Madelyne and Scott and Jean.
- The Reveal: Rogue and Magneto had a past relationship before she joined the X-Men when they discovered how his electromagnetic powers made him immune to her powers.
- Rule of Symbolism: The statue of Charles Xavier, symbolic of his dream of human-mutant coexistence, is destroyed in the Tri-Sentinel attack. It is followed by the statue of Magneto, who has just been broadly accepted as a protector of that dream, and is now watching it crumble around him.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Cable suddenly arrives at the gala in an attempt to evacuate everyone before the Tri-Sentinel attack, though he is able to do little else but reveal to Madelyne that he is her now-adult son Nathan, getting pulled back into the future immediately after. His brief comment ("not again!") at least implies that it's not the first time he's tried.
- Ship Sinking: The Tri-Sentinel decides to attack just when Rogue's finally made up her mind to patch things up romantically with Gambit and the ensuing onslaught ends with Gambit making a Heroic Sacrifice to stop it before Rogue can make her decision known to him.
- Ship Tease: Beast and Trish Tilby mildly flirting during their interview is a nod to their romantic history in the comics, as she was his main love interest in the original X-Factor series and one of his longest relationships overall.
- Shout-Out: Rogue's last words (and the last words of the episode), "I can't feel you", are the same words Wanda says to the disassembled and deactivated Vision in WandaVision.
- Sickly Green Glow: Just in case the Tri-Sentinel wasn't unsettling enough, its energy blasts and the resulting explosions are a bright green color.
- Spoiler Title: Downplayed: The significance of it only really happens by the climax of the episode, when it's made clear it was alluding to Gambit's takedown of the Tri-Sentinel.
- Stunned Silence: The X-Men are understandably horrified at the sight of the Genoshan genocide, with Cyclops quickly going into leader mode and trying to find out the number of dead.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Gambit notices that for a mutant paradise, things are pretty expensive in Genosha. But as Nightcrawler points out, it is still a new nation, which naturally means there's a few hurdles to overcome, like its economy.
- Taking You with Me: After the Tri-Sentinel runs Gambit through with a metal tendril, he grabs it and supercharges it to the point of exploding.
- Test Kiss: Between Rogue and Magneto, after dancing around each other for five episodes. Rogue realizes that some things are deeper than skin and formally rejects him, while Magneto's feelings are more ambiguous.
- Title Drop: Courtesy of Gambit's last words, as noted under Spoiler Title.
- Token Human: Moira MacTaggart is the only human on the Interim Council, as she's a fierce ally to mutants.
- Trauma Button: The Tri-Sentinel's attack on Genosha triggers Magneto's memories of the Holocaust, fueling his righteous fury as he batters at the monster.
- Troll: Emma Frost smirks when Madelyne claims that her telepathic chewing out by Jean was just her spacing out for a moment.
- Uncertain Doom:
- Magneto and the Morlocks are seemingly vaporized by the Tri-Sentinel's beam, but their deaths are not explicitly confirmed. Magneto turns up alive in Bright Eyes...as a prisoner of Bastion.
- The characters seen in the triage (Sebastian Shaw, Dazzler, Moira MacTaggert, Squid-Boy) are also not explicitly confirmed to have perished. Special mention goes to Callisto, who seemed to have Dies Wide Open, but her pupil dilates for a split second, indicating that she is just barely alive. Bright Eyes confirms that Shaw, Dazzler, Squid-Boy, and Callisto are dead.
- Emma Frost is nowhere to be seen once the attack starts nor afterwards. Scott and Jean rescue her in Bright Eyes; she survived by discovering her diamond form in the desperate situation.
- After Cable disappears and then followed by the green energy appearing, that's the last moment Madelyne is seen.
- The Unreveal: The identity of whoever sent the Tri-Sentinel to attack Genosha remains unknown by episode's end.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Cable makes a surprise appearance during the gala to try warning everyone about the coming of the Tri-Sentinel, but he's sent back to the future before he can reveal more just as the Tri-Sentinel arrives.
- Wham Episode: By the end of the episode, Genosha is devastated, its leadership decapitated, much of its citizens slaughtered by the Tri-Sentinel, Magneto is missing and presumed dead, and Gambit is confirmed dead.
- Wham Line: "...Sugah...I-I can't feel you...!"
- White Shirt of Death: Gambit opts for a white tux for the gala, which gets covered in blood when he's stabbed.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Sentinels make no difference between adult and child mutants.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: After spending several episodes jealous of Rogue's connection to Magneto and seemingly losing her for good, Rogue definitively chooses Gambit over Magneto. Too bad he dies before he can learn it.
