X-Men '97: Episode 3 Review/Spoilers

[Rift]

So now the X-Men have two Jean's. Jean reads Jean's mind and sees that Jean is very dense; she mostly has vague memories of flashbacks from the original show, "as if her awareness was born only yesterday." Jean had woken up in a laboratory, escaped, saw the X-Men on TV and found hope in her life. (Relatable.)

A red diamond briefly appears on our Jean's head, and Sinister flashes on screen for a moment. Our Jean screams and almost faints. Well, she tried and it's a mystery. Nothing they can dBEAST WITH THE SAVE. He reveals that he used gamma radiation to check their DNA: Jane Doe is her proper age, while our Jean is not. Ergo, our Jean is a clone.

So Jean's pissed and says that someone with bad intentions must have sabotaged Beast's science. She looks to Scott for back-up, but even he's doubting her. In a very Maddy moment, our Jean shatters Beast's science stuff and insists that she's the real Jean Grey. She starts guilt-tripping all of them, then takes baby Nathan and walks away..

Later, our Jean talks to Scott, guilting him more about the life they were setting up. Scott says that he trusts her, but she calls him out for lying and she tells him to go. And right as he leaves, a mysterious voice comes out of the baby monitor, seeking to speak with her.

Meanwhile, Beast is checking Bishop's time watch. Once it's all fixed up, Bish will be able to go back to his time. Cyclops points out that, for a guy from the future, he sure didn't know a lot about what was happening. Bishop WELL ACKSHUALLYs that time is a book that's constantly being rewritten. Beast interrupts: his science has determined that Sinister is behind everything.

Meanwhile, Sinister is bothering Jean, who hates him. To her horror, he reveals that he created her. He can also control her against her will. He has her wreck the room and undergo a magical girl transformation to turn goth.

Meanwhile, Gambit, Morph and Wolverine leave the Danger Room, sweating and panting. Morph checks the schedule and reveals that Rogue and Magneto booked the danger room next, and for all of tomorrow as well. Gambit leaves to see Rogue, while Wolverine leaves to see one of the Jeans. Morph decides to have a shower scene. Except when he's alone in the locker room, the showers turn on, and he finds Wolverine. He cracks jokes about wanting to help him wash up, but Sinister-Wolverine is all, "Always with the jokes. But We Know. We All Know."

Sunspot and Jubes are experiencing weird things while they watch TV. One of the actress comes out of the TV as a monster with Sunspot's mom's head. Gambit goes to Xavier's Office and sees Rogneto in their Savage Land outfits, fusing together. Cyclops and Bishop head to the crib to get the baby away from Maddy, but a monster shows up and grabs them. A monstrous version of Xavier taunts Scott about his failures. Shard's head guilts Bishop about abandoning his time, and her.

So they're all in Hell now, fighting their literal and figurative demons. While everyone fights back, Bishop is the one to kick the most ass. He charges up with Cyke's blasts and vaporizes all of the demons. But then a giant demon Sentinal arrives tOh wait, the real Jean shows up to shut down all the demon hallucinations and return things to normal.

And then she faints. Maddy shows up and calls her pathetic. Scott tells her that she doesn't have to be evil and mind-controlled, but she says that she's beyond Jean Grey, she is fire and brimstone and yadda yadda. She's animated really well, her boobs are looking insane and her hair is huge. I love that for her. And she's walking right out with her babby.

Later, the X-Men lick their wounds. Rogneto shows up and Rogue is quick to check on Remy first. Scott feels bad that he couldn't protect Jean or his son. Morph, having a personal history with Sinister, says he can lead the others to him.

Meanwhile, Sinister dumps the baby in some slime. The X-Men find Sinister's lair, though Morph tells the others to not kill the clone Jean, since she's under Sinister's control. Maddy mocks him, then talks smack about Scott being Xavier's little follower. She brainwashes Morph into fighting for her, but Magneto decides to 1v1 Maddy himself. And the choreography for this fight is really good, I gotta say.

Magneto starts losing, but Cyclops shoots Maddy in the face, drawing blood. He apologized, but Maddy smiles as she wipes the blood from her lips and wow, she's actually kinda hot and I think we should keep her instead of the real Jean. She then embraces him and gives him a kiss on the lips. "Don't worry. You'll bleed too, darling."

Meanwhile, Jean is struggling to remember how to control her powers. So she's pretty much useless at the moment. But Wolverine's there to power-simp until she finally remembers her past. She senses that Scott's in danger, almost faints again, and declares that she has to go help him. Beats tells her to stay in bed. So she does - but she sends her mind out to telepathically fight Madds.

The girls fight on a mental plane. The Goblin Queen is pissed, saying that Jean took her face, husband, family, and now her mind. Enough violation! She remembers the power of the Phoenix, and... Jean stops her there. She sends them on a flashback to when they met Xavier. And then farther, when their childhood friend Annie got hit by a car and was isekai'd to another world. This pain helped awaken their powers.

Jean is surprised by the emotional pain they feel. Maddie insists that it's her [Maddie's] pain, not Jean's. "We are what we remember. And YOU remember nothing." Maddie pushes Jean into a giant Jean's mouth, and the two get vore'd. Maddie flashes back to giving birth to her baby, and she remembers the love she feels for him. This is more than a memory to her, and Jean confirms that he's a living reminder of the pure love two people can share.

Sinny's control over Maddie is broken, so she teams up with Cyclops to save Nathan. Sinister says that they have doomed the boy before leaving. Doomed how? Well, Nathan is now infected with the TO virus.

Well, Beast's science can't help, the virus strain is too advanced for him. Maddie proposes that they can send Nathan to the future to save the babby. Bishop knows someone who might help, but his device only has enough juice to take him and Nathan. Despite Maddie's pleas, Scott doesn't want to abandon his son and refuses to be a part of this. Later, Maddie telepathically gives a message of love to her child, so he'll always know he was cared for. Bishop leaves with Nathan.

Maddie, too, chooses to leave the Mansion. Jean says that she can stay here, as it's also her home. Jean remembers everything now, though neither Maddie nor Jean are sure when the switch was made, who married Scott, who was the Phoenix, etc. Maddie asks to be called Maddoe, and she takes off. She has a certain mutant who has the ability to unbutton a blouse. That's right, Hellion retrieval arc.

Meanwhile, Storm is in her punk outfit, drinking at a bar. Forge meets up with her. Introducing himself, he says that he's an old friend of Xavier's and wants to help her try and get back what she lost.

Notes:

• Jean wears a ponytail. I'm thinking this Jean will wear the ponytail, while all those images of Jean with her hair down were just Maddie. I really hope that isn't the case. Her ponytail is ugly.
• Morph transformations: Spiral, New Mutants-era teen Illyana, Darkchylde Illyana,
• Disney+ is not translating Sunspot's Portuguese. Which is inconvenient, because I thiiiink I hear a grammatical error at one point, but I can't hear it well enough to get the whole thing.

[Havok83]

They adapted Inferno and Endgame and it was very well done!

I dont like how uncertain they kept the switcheroo. Jean for most of the orginal series could have been a clone for all we know and i dont like that

ETA:
Did anyone else think that Maddie was going to go to the future with Nathan to raise him? I did not expect Bishop to actually leave. Within the first 3 episodes, the 2 black characters are written off the team

[Konja7]

They adapted Inferno and Endgame and it was very well done!

I dont like how uncertain they kept the switcheroo. Jean for most of the orginal series could have been a clone for all we know and i dont like that

It's possible they have adapted "Jean was a clone in the Phoenix Saga" retcon.

A theory I read was the change could have happened between Light Phoenix and Dark Phoenix. In the show, Jean dissapears after she sealed M'kraan Crystal (the X-Men thought she died), but she was found alive. Of course, this would mean Maddie was the Dark Phoenix and who married Scott after that.

I've understand why they wanted to make the situation ambiguous. That way they could create more drama in the situation.

[Purplevit]

After episode 3 I am sure that rogneto won`t be a problem and is just a misdirection.

Gambit`s arc for season 1 maybe finally realizing that he is a hero and people need him. Like Cyke told in ep1 hat we needed you but Remy didn`t bother even to listen.

As for Rogue then Mags probably will help her to start control her powers. But in the end it will be made to make her weaker.

Mags in ep2 told that Xavier always was staying in his head so I am ready for Onsalught reveal in the end of season 1 and that Mags planned most of stuff and played a long game to destroy X-Men from within or smth like this.

[BESTXMAN]

wtf did they just do? they just made the whole Jean/Madelyne headache much much worse.

[ChildOfTheAtom]

damn this recap sounds so freakin fire and action packed!! can someone breakdown any difference in the intro

[Mantis-Ray]

Well Sinister was pants-shittingly terrifying here.

The whole baby monitor scene was bone-chilling.

[Duckie]

Well Sinister was pants-shittingly terrifying here.

The whole baby monitor scene was bone-chilling.

Freaked me out as a kid, and now freaks me out as an adult.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

Maddie P was an atomic firecracker. She was an absolute treat as a villain. I love Elizabeth Olson's Wanda, but THIS was how you do the good girl gone bad trope! Jesus, that smile after she wiped the blood off her mouth was chilling. Jennifer Hale is sooooo goooood.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

wtf did they just do? they just made the whole Jean/Madelyne headache much much worse.

It's called ambiguity! Now our distress mirrors the characters.

[Havok83]

damn this recap sounds so freakin fire and action packed!! can someone breakdown any difference in the intro

Theres an added scene of Magneto vs Storm, Beast and Cyclops,

Lilandra with Xavier in space,

Dark Phoenix vs Scott,

Rogue kissing her hand over Gambits lips on the basketball court with Logan and Jubilee watching

[Foon4000]

- Foon4000 done with Gambit speaking in the third person.

- Was it me, or was the creature in the lift a nod to Spirited Away (or weird anime in general)?

- Bye Maddie, you had better hair than Jean.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

- Foon4000 done with Gambit speaking in the third person.

- Was it me, or was the creature in the lift a nod to Spirited Away (or weird anime in general)?

- Bye Maddie, you had better hair than Jean.

It reminded me of a scene from Chainsaw Man.

[Luckystar.]

The Maddie/Magneto fight was so much fun and well done!

[gonnagiveittoya]

wtf did they just do? they just made the whole Jean/Madelyne headache much much worse.

Not really. They're just being vague on when the switch happened.