Recap / X-Men '97 S1E01 "To Me, My X-Men"

To me, my X-Men!

One year after the apparent assassination of Professor Xavier, the X-Men investigate the Friends of Humanity when the anti-mutant group comes into possession of Sentinel technology.

Episode Synopsis

A year has passed since Professor Xavier was assassinated by former NSA agent Henry Gyrich. This unprecedented display of hate-fueled violence has led to an increase in sympathy towards equality for mutants. Even still, hatred and prejudice still exists.

So it is that the Friends of Humanity, an anti-mutant extremist group, kidnap Roberto de Costa, the heir to a wealthy family and a burgeoning mutant. As the Friends of Humanity prepare to sell him off for profit, Storm (Ororo Munroe), Lucas Bishop, and Cyclops (Scott Summers) of the X-Men converge on the warehouse they are using as a base of operations. While the Friends of Humanity are easily driven off, another troubling development emerges when they are revealed to be using technology taken from Sentinels. Scott is also troubled by some of his fellow X-Men not taking the situation as seriously, in part due to his wife Jean Grey's pregnancy. In confidence to one another, Scott and Jean discuss the possibility of leaving the X-Men to raise their son together in peace, which Scott is reluctant to do, feeling that the X-Men need him.

Meanwhile, Roberto awakens after his run-in with the FoH, and is greeted by Cyclops, Storm, Dr. Hank McCoy (Beast), and Jubilation Lee (Jubilee). The X-Men question Roberto about where the FoH got their hands on Sentinel tech. Roberto proves less than cooperative as he simply wants to go home. Jubilee tries to help Roberto open up with a trip to the Danger Room, only to be frightened off when Wolverine (Logan) scares him off after he mouths off at Jubilee.

With Roberto in the wind, Scott orders the X-Men, including Logan, to find him. Logan is reluctant to follow Scott's lead, but with Jean's encouragement, relents. He still leaves Scott with some parting venomous words: "What Gyrich did was pretty horrible, but you know the worst part of the Professor being gone? You!"

While Wolverine, Jubilee, and the others manage to find Roberto and keep him safe from the FoH, Cyclops and Storm approach Gyrich about the FoH and their Sentinel tech, which they could have only obtained with the help of Bolivar Trask, the scientist who created the Sentinels and has been missing for years. Gyrich refuses to cooperate, believing himself justified in assassinating Xavier, and arguing that mutant equality would mean the end of humanity: "Tolerance is extinction." With Gyrich refusing to be of help, Scott and Storm call in their trump card: Jean Grey, who uses the psionic supercomputer Cerebro to directly probe Gyrich's mind. After a disturbing apocalyptic vision, Jean pinpoints Trask's location: the Sahara Desert.

In a junkyard in the Sahara, the X-Men confront Trask, who has built a second Master Mold and begun building a new army of Sentinels. These robots, however, prove no match for the X-Men, who handily destroy the Sentinels and decommission the Master Mold. UN armed forces arrive shortly afterwards to arrest Trask, who dejectedly proclaims that the existence of mutants reminds him, and others like him, that humanity's days are numbered. Cyclops, however, has reason to feel optimistic and that peace between humans and mutants may not be as remote a possibility as some may fear: "We all win when men like him fail."

Afterwards, Scott and Jean join the other X-Men for a game of basketball, where the two announce their plans to retire from the X-Men to start their family. This raises the question of who will lead them going forward...

At that moment, alarms go off in the Mansion when an intruder appears in the Professor's office. The X-Men go to investigate, finding Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) inside. In his hands is the last will and testament of Charles Francis Xavier, which bequeath's Xavier's entire estate — his mansion, his fortune, leadership of the X-Men, and his dream of human and mutant coexistence — to the man who was once the X-Men's sworn enemy!

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This episode contains examples of:

• Aesop Amnesia: Bolivar Trask, who had seemingly repented after witnessing Master Mold plotting to subjugate humanity, makes a comeback seeking once again to destroy mutantkind with another Master Mold.
• Arm Cannon: The Friends of Humanity use Mega Man-style arm cannons made from Sentinel tech to fight off Storm and Bishop.
• Artistic License – Geology: Storm uses lightning to create glass in the Sahara Desert then forms a tornado containing the shards to destroy an entire horde of sentinels. The glass is smooth and shiny, but real-life fulgurite is little more than clumps of sand fused together by the quick flash of lightning. While it's still not something you'd want flying at you with tornado-force winds, it's not nearly as elegant as manmade glass.
• Audience Surrogate: Much like Jubilee before him, Roberto Da Costa is made into one, a newbie to his powers and the world of mutants.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Bishop and Gambit do this briefly during the fight against the Sentinels.
• Call-Back: To the first episode of the original series.
  • The plot is kicked off by the X-Men rescuing an innocent teenager from anti-mutant forces. Jubilee (the teen from the original series) actually sympathizes with Roberto (the teen from the revival) for going through the same thing she went through.
  • When the Friends of Humanity remove his visor, Cyclops pulls an I Surrender, Suckers before opening his eyes. He pulled the same move on a Sentinel in the second half of the original premiere.
• The Cameo: Morph shifts into Archangel in one scene, and then into Blob later.
• The Chains of Commanding: Part of Cyclops edgy state is him not only still grieving Xavier's absence, but also being able to continue his legacy and lead the X-Men. It's only complicated with Jean very late into her pregnancy and that they might need to leave the X-Men to be proper parents instead of balancing a home life and their superhero duties.
• Continuity Nod: A copy of the Daily Bugle appears in one scene.
• Defiant Captive: Gyrich is smug and dismissive when Cyclops tries to buy his cooperation with a reduced prison sentence. Having seen this coming, Scott has Jean on standby to simply pluck the information from Gyrich's mind using Cerebro.
• Double-Meaning Title: The episode is titled after Professor Xavier's customary rallying cry in the comics, which is spoken by Scott in the climax—fittingly showing him embracing his new role as leader of the X-Men in the Professor's absence. But it also foreshadows the final scene, where Magneto reveals that the Professor named him head of the Institute in his will, speaking that very phrase to assert himself as leader of the X-Men.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Scott is not at all amused by Morph taking on Xavier's form for their jokes.
• Entertainingly Wrong: The FOH remove Cyclops's visor, apparently believing it's the source of his optic blasts, not knowing it's actually what moderates them. This gets them all blasted.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Storm is introduced attempting to use fear to force the Friends of Humanity to surrender. Bishop jumps into the fray and cracks wise about Storm's attempt at a non-violent resolution.
  • Cyclops's first appearance has him handily take down multiple FoH goons, then afterwards fret over the comparitively laid-back nature of his teammates, at times riding their asses about "acting like X-Men".
  • Gambit and Rogue are introduced being laidback, as well as Morph, who makes jokes about Cyclops's being a killjoy while borrowing Professor Xavier's appearance, to Cyclops's chagrin.
  • Jean Grey plays peacemaker between the quarreling X-Men.
  • Beast and Jubilee are lighthearted and friendly towards Roberto, with Jubilee, who is around the same age as Roberto, quickly befriending him.
  • Wolverine is introduced demonstrating why what he does isn't very nice, striking fear into Roberto when he mouths off at Jubilee, then butting heads with Cyclops over his overly-commanding style of leadership.
• Fastball Special: A variant. Gambit charges up Wolverine's claws before charging up his staff and chucking it at Wolverine. Wolverine rides the explosion into Morph, who turns into Blob and uses the momentum to catapult the X-Man into Master Mold's neck.
• Foreshadowing: Jean’s horrific vision will be revisited in “Remember It”.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • A missing person photo glued to a light post early in the episode shows Marrow. The Daily Bugle cover shows Dust, Banshee, Maggott and Stacy-X as part of the United Colors of Benetton campaign as well as a photo of Alani Ryan (Loa) and Lin Li (Nature Girl). It also questions whether or not Spider-Man might be a mutant.
    • The paper lists a spiel on the Hellfire Gala, with photos by Peter Parker and text by Eddie Brock.
  • Leech and Calisto from the Morlocks are shown in an alley behind an FoH hideout.
• Good Is Not Soft: While the X-Men start by asking Gyrich nicely and offering him incentives to trade information on Master Mold, that's far from their only option—they just wanted to give him a fair chance to do it the easy way. Since it's an emergency, Jean is willing to break into his mind and just take what they need when he refuses to hand it over willingly.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: When Wolverine tackles and pins Roberto, the kid is unimpressed and thinks Wolverine is another program like the Magneto that attacked him. He's quickly proven wrong when Wolvie says "Computer, end program", then unsheathes his other claws in front of him.
• Ironic Echo: Cyclops drops his famous "To me, my X-Men!" about midway through the episode. At the very end Magneto words the conditions of his return as "[...] everything he (Xavier) fought for, now belongs to me, my X-Men."
• I Surrender, Suckers: When the Friends of Humanity have Cyclops restrained and he pretends to be helpless so they will remove his visor, then he gives them a full optic energy blast.
• Laser-Guided Karma: It is revealed that after Gyrich's assassination of Professor Xavier got him thrown in prison.
• Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: Downplayed; Gyrich's reach is limited, but he has friends on the inside who can convey messages between him and Trask, which he uses to warn Trask of the X-Men's impending arrival.
• Motive Misidentification: Roberto initially assumes that the Friends of Humanity kidnapped him for a ransom and tries to buy them off, but the FoH doesn't care if he's rich; they only care that he's a mutant.
• Mythology Gag:
  • When asking what powers Roberto might have, Jubilee suggests "shooting out gold balls from his body", referencing the X-Man Goldballs/Egg.
  • There's a portrait of Xavier with the original five X-Men in his office, complete with their costumes from their first appearance in the comics. Doubles as a Call-Back to the various flashbacks from the original show establishing that this classic team existed in some form.
  • Wolverine getting his claws supercharged by Gambit and using them to behead Master Mold via Fastball Special is a nod to the "Hot Claws" upgrade he gained in the "Return of Wolverine" storyline and to the Danger Room sequence from X-Men: The Last Stand.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: A downplayed example, but Gyrich's apparent murder of Charles Xavier on live television actually served to increase public sympathy for mutants. Gyrich isn't concerned, seeing this as only a temporary shift. Public outcries against mutants persist as well, regardless.
• NOT!: The Friends of Humanity immobilize Cyclops and take his visor. Cyclops pleads "Don't, I surrender!"... then adds "Not!" and opens his eyes.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When Roberto is ready to leave the mansion, Jubilee compares his experience to when she was first brought to the Mansion by the X-Men.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Wolverine, Gambit and Rogue disarm the Friend of Humanity that had tracked Roberto to the club while the scene stays on Roberto and Jubilee dancing and discussing the goals of the X-Men.
• Off with His Head!: Wolverine, his claws supercharged by Gambit's powers, takes out Master Mold by beheading it with a single stroke.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Roberto mouths off Jubilee in the Danger Room, Wolverine pounces on him, claws drawn. Roberto scoffs at what he believes to be just another hologram, until Wolverine turns off the simulation and demonstrates he's not a hologram, eliciting abject fear from Roberto.
  • Gyrich sneers and rubs Xavier's (public) death in Cyclops and Storm's faces while throwing casual bigotry around, refusing to do anything even though it would get his sentence lowered. Then Cyclops lets Jean take a direct approach to extracting the information and all that confidence collapses.
  • As much as a Sentinel is capable of; when Cyclops calls in Storm, the Sentinels immediately react at the incoming Omega-level threat that is about to make short work of them.
• Promoted to Opening Titles:
  • Morph and Bishop are added to the opening title sequence, complete with their own title cards alongside the rest of the X-Men.
  • The White Queen and Lady Deathstrike replace Warpath and the unidentified bald man (assumed to be either Gargoyle or Gremlin by fans) in the last scene of the opening credits where the X-Men and various villains charge each other.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: An imprisoned but defiant Gyrich smugly mocks the idea that his murder of Xavier led to any permanent change, dismissing the wave of support for mutants as nothing but a fad that will quickly blow over.
• Remember the New Guy?: Val Cooper, a long-time guest character from the comics, makes her first appearance in this continuity, but is described as an old ally of Professor X with whom the X-Men are acquainted.
• Ruder and Cruder: The episode sets the tone for the rest of the series by doing things the original couldn't, such as Wolverine having the first use of profanity in "damn," the characters clearly drinking alcohol while looking for Roberto in a club, and even a bit of blood. While still very mild, the streaming model and changes of standards and practices has allowed more freedom to delve into issues the '90s series couldn't.
• Ship Tease: Jubilee and Roberto engage in a bit of flirting, being around the same age and having gone through similar experiences.
• Shout-Out:
  • Beast paraphrases Casablanca while taking control of a damaged Sentinel.
    Beast: Louis, this looks like the beginning of beautiful involuntary friendship.
  • Wolverine gets in a "Computer, end program" while shutting down Roberto and Jubilee's simulation in the Danger Room.
• There Was a Door: Storm and Cyclops make their entries through a roof window and a wall, respectively.
• Time Skip: In universe, it has been about a year since the events of "Graduation Day".
• Title Drop: The episode’s title is said twice, though with two different meanings. The first time it’s said, it’s an Avengers Assemble call; the second, it’s a menacing revelation by Magneto.
• Unexplained Recovery: The Daily Bugle has a story written by Eddie Brock. Keep in mind, the original series was in the same universe as Spider-Man: The Animated Series, so this is the same Venom who was last seen trapped in the Dark Dimension with Carnage and Dormammu, so at some point, Eddie managed to escape and, against all odds, given he was fired twice by J. Jonah Jameson, managed to get his job back yet again.
• Wham Line: The episode ends with Magneto in Xavier’s office, revealing to the gathered X-Men that Xavier has willed everything to himself.
  Magneto: The last will and testament of Charles Francis Xavier. As you all will, his fortune, his school, everything he built built, everything he fought for, now belongs to me, my X-Men.

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