Operation: Zero Tolerance commences.
Written by: Beau DeMayo and Anthony Sellitti
Directed by: Chase Conley
The X-Men must unite to face a new threat as Bastion sets his master plan into motion: "Operation: Zero Tolerance", the subjugation of mutantkind using cybernetic sleeper agents known as Prime Sentinels. Can our heroes prevail against an enemy that can potentially encompass the entire human race?!
Episode Synopsis
As Cable is target practicing and cleaning his blasters, Cyclops and Jean are discussing Cable; father and son are unable (and unwilling in Cable's case) to talk and Jean reveals that Bishop is missing somewhere in the timestream. Ultimately, Cyclops muses that he wishes Xavier had given him a few pointers on how to be a father. In their command room, Cable gives the X-Men the heads up on Bastion - the future has changed so that Bastion has taken over the world. He's created a new breed of Sentinels using the Techno-Organic Virus that Sinister made. Beast is horrified - this could be a biological evolution made to replace mutants. This led to a war lasting 300 years, creating not a dystopic future where Wolverine's the only survivor (again), but a "utopia" built on the backs of mutants.
Wolverine roars out at this, wondering why Cable didn't stop Genosha, but Cable's tried, over and over. Beast surmises that Genosha is an Absolute Point, an event critical in all universes. As Jean realizes that the reason Madelyne was happy upon seeing him before her death, Cable is ready to move out, as he has a lead on a factory Bastion is using, leading to Cyclops and Cable to argue. Their argument is interrupted as news comes out that Xavier is alive and well, with reports positing that Xavier's death was faked to garner mutant sympathy. Realizing the time for waiting is over, Cyclops declares it is time to derail Bastion's plans for the future.
In the Da Costa home, as an interview with William Stryker plays, Jubilee argues with Roberto's mother and, frustrated, drags him out to the mall. Back in the mansion, Jean and Nightcrawler talk while the former is tending to the still-injured Rogue. She laments that, despite knowing all of Madelyne's memories and thinking of them as hers, they aren't. Nightcrawler tells her of his history with Mystique and Rogue and explains that, while they may not be of blood, they are family and so will Nathan be part of hers. Soon, the Grey-Summers are out in the Blackbird, heading for Bastion's possible location of Harmony, Pennsylvania.
Val Cooper is revealed to be alive after Genosha, and in Sinister's lab likens him to Josef Mengele. Sinister scoffs at this, suggesting he could have been greater than a Nazi stooge. He reveals he's using Bastion to get more mutant samples. As he leaves, Val approaches the bound and naked Magneto, catching sight of his number on his left arm. She reveals she had no idea this would happen and begs Magneto to say something. In the mansion, Trish Tilby enters Beast's lab, looking to apologize for what happened in Genosha. Observing the captured Trask, she asks how many like him are there.
In Harmony, the Grey-Summers family arrive at a house. Jean realizes this isn't a Sentinel factory - this is Bastion's childhood home. Inside, an old lady, Bastion's mother, believes them to be moving people and asks for their help. Reaching Bastion's room, Jean uses a drawing to see into Bastion's past - a child driven mad by the Master Mold's voice, that Nimrod infected a janitor, leading him to give birth to Bastion. Bastion is a descendant of every Sentinel from Master Mold to Nimrod.
In Bastion's base, Val Cooper tells Bastion he should have told them about Genosha. Instead, Bastion explains that he had to carry out the event in Genosha to force humanity to grow apathetic towards mutantkind. From a videoscreen, Doctor Victor Von Doom chastises Bastion to not mistake his help as ignoring war crimes. Baron Helmut Zemo warns that launching the Sentinels now would be devastating as the X-Men have allies. A mysterious woman suggests that Val should be the one giving notes out. However, Bastion doesn't really care about their warnings - Genosha wasn't genocide, it was time management. Humanity would be wiped out in more than a hundred years and the Trask Sentinels are too big and clumsy. Enter Operation: Zero Tolerance - turning humans who are driven by their fear of being replaced by mutants into cyborg Sentinels. Val is horrified that Bastion is weaponizing humanity, but he doesn't see it that way.
In Bastion's home, his mother approaches the Grey-Summers and shows them a picture he drew as a child: a frightening vision of Sentinels overwhelming mutants called "The Final Dream". To their horror, she twitches and reveals that she is a Prime Sentinel. At a mall, Roberto is trying to get Jubilee to come around to his mother, but she isn't listening, more into the pink and black outfit she picked out... only for them to realize that Roberto's butler is also a Prime Sentinel. In the mansion, Beast is about to reveal how many people are like Trask when, all over the world, Prime Sentinels awaken. Beast tries to warn the team, but Trish, herself a Prime Sentinel, stops him and throws him around, gloating that he's no longer the future before launching him into the living room, to the shock of Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Morph. Wolverine attacks Trish, but she blasts him as Bastion's mother blasts the Grey-Summers away. Seeing the entire town of Harmony turned into Prime Sentinels, the Grey-Summers family races back to the Blackbird to escape.
As Nightcrawler gets Beast to safety, Morph turns into the Juggernaut to stop Trish, only for Trish to toss him into a wall... and the returning Nightcrawler. In the mall, Jubliee and Roberto attempt to escape, but get separated. As more Prime Sentinels arrive at the mansion, Wolverine finally catches up to the ones attacking it, where Trish tackles him and flies him airborne. Wolverine breaks free and slices up numerous Prime Sentinels while in freefall, before being tackled by Trish again. In Rogue's room, more Prime Sentinels prepare to kill her, as Wolverine and Nightcrawler to arrive and begin hacking away at these transformed beasts. Realizing Rogue is in danger, Nightcrawler teleports the Sentinels away, dragging Wolverine with him on the last one before realizing more are coming.
Outside the mall, Jubilee tries to escape on the rooftop, but her attempt to jump fails, with Roberto catching her, revealing that he's been practicing in the Danger Room and can now use his powers to fly. In the skies, the Prime Sentinels are able to take out the Blackbird by throwing themselves into the turbines. Cyclops decides it's time for teh family top bail into their escape craft - a Porsche, much to Cable's bemusement. With Jean taking the wheel, Cable blasts the Prime Sentinels and Cyclops builds a tunnel before Jean catches the two for a safe landing. In New York, Roberto and Jubilee crash his mother's party. The Prime Sentinels, realizing their actions are being observed by humans, change tactics and declare they're saving mutants. Caught between her son and her position, his mother chooses her position and tells them to go with the Sentinels.
As Bastion arrives at the ravaged mansion, Sinister contacts him — Val has freed Magneto. Teleporting back to his base, he binds Val and she uses this moment to tell Bastion that, yes, Genosha did give her a sense of apathy, but also a frightening thought:
Magneto was right.
At the North Pole, Magneto channels his power and with a hushed "Enough" filled with anger, unleashes an EMP wave that washes over the entire world. In New York, Spider-Man watches in shock as the city goes dark. In Japan, the Silver Samurai grimaces as it goes dark as well. In Russia, scientists panic as Omega Red awakens and across the world, Prime Sentinels fall out of the sky.
At the burning mansion, as the X-Men tend to their wounded, Wolverine laments on what Magneto has done: declared war on humankind. As he wishes Xavier was around, a flaming aircraft crash-lands into the mansion's ruins. As Wolverine and Morph approach the downed craft, expecting trouble, the craft opens to reveal a familiar face - Professor Charles Xavier. Hoping that he is not too late, he sends out a telepathic signal to his children:
"To me, my X-Men!"
Wolverine roars out at this, wondering why Cable didn't stop Genosha, but Cable's tried, over and over. Beast surmises that Genosha is an Absolute Point, an event critical in all universes. As Jean realizes that the reason Madelyne was happy upon seeing him before her death, Cable is ready to move out, as he has a lead on a factory Bastion is using, leading to Cyclops and Cable to argue. Their argument is interrupted as news comes out that Xavier is alive and well, with reports positing that Xavier's death was faked to garner mutant sympathy. Realizing the time for waiting is over, Cyclops declares it is time to derail Bastion's plans for the future.
In the Da Costa home, as an interview with William Stryker plays, Jubilee argues with Roberto's mother and, frustrated, drags him out to the mall. Back in the mansion, Jean and Nightcrawler talk while the former is tending to the still-injured Rogue. She laments that, despite knowing all of Madelyne's memories and thinking of them as hers, they aren't. Nightcrawler tells her of his history with Mystique and Rogue and explains that, while they may not be of blood, they are family and so will Nathan be part of hers. Soon, the Grey-Summers are out in the Blackbird, heading for Bastion's possible location of Harmony, Pennsylvania.
Val Cooper is revealed to be alive after Genosha, and in Sinister's lab likens him to Josef Mengele. Sinister scoffs at this, suggesting he could have been greater than a Nazi stooge. He reveals he's using Bastion to get more mutant samples. As he leaves, Val approaches the bound and naked Magneto, catching sight of his number on his left arm. She reveals she had no idea this would happen and begs Magneto to say something. In the mansion, Trish Tilby enters Beast's lab, looking to apologize for what happened in Genosha. Observing the captured Trask, she asks how many like him are there.
In Harmony, the Grey-Summers family arrive at a house. Jean realizes this isn't a Sentinel factory - this is Bastion's childhood home. Inside, an old lady, Bastion's mother, believes them to be moving people and asks for their help. Reaching Bastion's room, Jean uses a drawing to see into Bastion's past - a child driven mad by the Master Mold's voice, that Nimrod infected a janitor, leading him to give birth to Bastion. Bastion is a descendant of every Sentinel from Master Mold to Nimrod.
In Bastion's base, Val Cooper tells Bastion he should have told them about Genosha. Instead, Bastion explains that he had to carry out the event in Genosha to force humanity to grow apathetic towards mutantkind. From a videoscreen, Doctor Victor Von Doom chastises Bastion to not mistake his help as ignoring war crimes. Baron Helmut Zemo warns that launching the Sentinels now would be devastating as the X-Men have allies. A mysterious woman suggests that Val should be the one giving notes out. However, Bastion doesn't really care about their warnings - Genosha wasn't genocide, it was time management. Humanity would be wiped out in more than a hundred years and the Trask Sentinels are too big and clumsy. Enter Operation: Zero Tolerance - turning humans who are driven by their fear of being replaced by mutants into cyborg Sentinels. Val is horrified that Bastion is weaponizing humanity, but he doesn't see it that way.
In Bastion's home, his mother approaches the Grey-Summers and shows them a picture he drew as a child: a frightening vision of Sentinels overwhelming mutants called "The Final Dream". To their horror, she twitches and reveals that she is a Prime Sentinel. At a mall, Roberto is trying to get Jubilee to come around to his mother, but she isn't listening, more into the pink and black outfit she picked out... only for them to realize that Roberto's butler is also a Prime Sentinel. In the mansion, Beast is about to reveal how many people are like Trask when, all over the world, Prime Sentinels awaken. Beast tries to warn the team, but Trish, herself a Prime Sentinel, stops him and throws him around, gloating that he's no longer the future before launching him into the living room, to the shock of Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Morph. Wolverine attacks Trish, but she blasts him as Bastion's mother blasts the Grey-Summers away. Seeing the entire town of Harmony turned into Prime Sentinels, the Grey-Summers family races back to the Blackbird to escape.
As Nightcrawler gets Beast to safety, Morph turns into the Juggernaut to stop Trish, only for Trish to toss him into a wall... and the returning Nightcrawler. In the mall, Jubliee and Roberto attempt to escape, but get separated. As more Prime Sentinels arrive at the mansion, Wolverine finally catches up to the ones attacking it, where Trish tackles him and flies him airborne. Wolverine breaks free and slices up numerous Prime Sentinels while in freefall, before being tackled by Trish again. In Rogue's room, more Prime Sentinels prepare to kill her, as Wolverine and Nightcrawler to arrive and begin hacking away at these transformed beasts. Realizing Rogue is in danger, Nightcrawler teleports the Sentinels away, dragging Wolverine with him on the last one before realizing more are coming.
Outside the mall, Jubilee tries to escape on the rooftop, but her attempt to jump fails, with Roberto catching her, revealing that he's been practicing in the Danger Room and can now use his powers to fly. In the skies, the Prime Sentinels are able to take out the Blackbird by throwing themselves into the turbines. Cyclops decides it's time for teh family top bail into their escape craft - a Porsche, much to Cable's bemusement. With Jean taking the wheel, Cable blasts the Prime Sentinels and Cyclops builds a tunnel before Jean catches the two for a safe landing. In New York, Roberto and Jubilee crash his mother's party. The Prime Sentinels, realizing their actions are being observed by humans, change tactics and declare they're saving mutants. Caught between her son and her position, his mother chooses her position and tells them to go with the Sentinels.
As Bastion arrives at the ravaged mansion, Sinister contacts him — Val has freed Magneto. Teleporting back to his base, he binds Val and she uses this moment to tell Bastion that, yes, Genosha did give her a sense of apathy, but also a frightening thought:
Magneto was right.
At the North Pole, Magneto channels his power and with a hushed "Enough" filled with anger, unleashes an EMP wave that washes over the entire world. In New York, Spider-Man watches in shock as the city goes dark. In Japan, the Silver Samurai grimaces as it goes dark as well. In Russia, scientists panic as Omega Red awakens and across the world, Prime Sentinels fall out of the sky.
At the burning mansion, as the X-Men tend to their wounded, Wolverine laments on what Magneto has done: declared war on humankind. As he wishes Xavier was around, a flaming aircraft crash-lands into the mansion's ruins. As Wolverine and Morph approach the downed craft, expecting trouble, the craft opens to reveal a familiar face - Professor Charles Xavier. Hoping that he is not too late, he sends out a telepathic signal to his children:
"To me, my X-Men!"
Tropes:
- Adaptation Amalgamation: While the main storyline is Operation: Zero Tolerance, Magneto releasing an electromagnetic pulse across the globe came from Fatal Attractions. The Prime Sentinels as a form of artificial post-humanity that overthrows mutants comes from the Homo Novissima of Jonathan Hickman's Powers of X.
- Adaptational Backstory Change: In the comics, Bastion was the fusion of Nimrod and Master Mold, who had been forced through the Siege Perilous and emerged as an amnesiac android. Here, he's the result of the remnants of a destroyed, time-displaced Nimrod infecting a man, transforming him into a sort of Prime Sentinel, who became Bastion's father.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- In the comics, a number of Prime Sentinels were kidnapped poor people chosen because society viewed them as expendable. Here, it seems that at least most of them volunteered for the process, though they didn't know what they were signing up for and had their memories erased afterwards. Though given that everyone in Bastion's hometown proved to be a Prime Sentinel, maybe some people weren't given a choice.
- Trish Tilby, one of Hank's long-time love interests in the comics, is a Prime Sentinel.
- Rose Gilberti got this twice over, as she was turned into a Prime Sentinel, but in a retcon that combines Backported Development (as she was introduced in 1997 and the episode aired in 1995) and Canon Character All Along, the racist waitress from "One Man's Worth, Part 1" was turned into this universe's version of Rose.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- While Bastion makes it clear that he'll happily take volunteers for Operation: Zero Tolerance, he also notes that the process leaves the subjects with no memory of undergoing it and implies that he doesn't inform them of the full extent of what they're agreeing to, leaving it unclear how willing many of those converted really were. Word of God confirms that at least some, such as Trish Tilby, were made into Prime Sentinels without their consent to use as unwitting sleeper agents.
- While every Prime Sentinel in existence appears to have been taken out by Magneto's EMP, it not yet shown whether Bastion, being himself a hybrid, was also affected by the pulse.
- Jubilee and Roberto's statuses are also left unclear. Presumably, the pulse deactivated their collars and the Prime Sentinels whose custody they were in but it's not confirmed if this was the case.
- Ascended Meme: The phrase "Magneto Was Right", which first appeared in a 2003 X-Men comic storyline (written by Grant Morrison) on a t-shirt worn by Quentin Quire / Kid Omega, has since taken on a life of its own
, and is uttered verbatim by Val Cooper at the end of the episode, after appearing on Genoshan signs a few episodes ago. - Back-to-Back Badasses: Nightcrawler and Wolverine when they are defending Rogue from the Prime Sentinels.
- Badass Boast: The Prime Sentinels attack Cyclops, Jean, and Cable. What does Cyclops say?Cyclops: Okay, let's show these toasters why you don't screw with the Summers.
- Big Damn Heroes: Subverted. Magneto's EMP saves the X-Men (and probably most mutants all over the world). However, Wolverine knows that there's more to it than that.
- Blatant Lies: Despite the fact the Prime Sentinels were clearly shooting to kill Roberto and Jubilee all over the city, they lie when there are witnesses that they aren’t trying to kill mutants but save them.
- Call-Back:
- Bastion’s abilities come from his father merging with the remnants of Nimrod left in 1958 in the original series' "One Man’s Worth" episodes.
- As Jubilee and Roberto escape the Prime Sentinels at the mall, Jubilee complains "I'm totally done with malls!" alluding to the first episode of the original series where she was attacked by Sentinels at the mall.
- The Shi'ar spacecraft and spacesuit used by Professor Xavier to return to Earth are the same types Lilandra used when she originally came.
- The Cameo:
- Cable's vision of the future shows mutants such as Rachel Summers in her Hound persona (without the dog collar), as well as the two Canon Foreigner mutants shown with Wolverine in the original animated series' Days of Future Past storyline.
- An elderly Lorna Dane is among the enslaved mutants in Bastion's future.
- William Stryker appears on a news report railing against mutants.
- Bastion has ties to a number of people from the greater Marvel Universe, including Doctor Doom, Baron Zemo and a female silhouette who may be Madame Hydra.
- Daria, a.k.a Sentinel Girl, appears with Bastion twice in the episode. First time is at the end of Bastion's tour with Valerie Cooper, standing beside the restrainted Magento. Later, she accompanies Bastion to the destroyed X-Mansion, and teleports with him after Sinister informs Bastion that Magento's escaped.
- Spider-Man and the Silver Samurai witness the effects of the EMP.
- Omega Red is awakened by Magneto's planet-wide EMP.
- Morph's transformation cameo this time is Juggernaut.
- A toy of Machine Man the Living Robot can be seen in Bastion's childhood home.
- Chronically Crashed Car: Or rather, airplane; as the Prime Sentinels down the X-Men's jet, Jean lampshades that Hank will be frustrated with the loss of a third Blackbird in a short span of time, after its predecessor was blown up in the season premiere.
- Composite Character: Bastion's cabal of human leaders brings to mind Orchis, the anti-mutant alliance of Jonathan Hickman's X-Men run, as well as Norman Osborn's Cabal, which did include Doctor Doom.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Discussed. Bastion's attack on Genosha with the Tri-Sentinel, as he described it, overloaded humanity's bandwidth for sympathy, leaving them to become apathetic. Val realizes that she, too, mostly felt a sense of familiarity in the wake of Genosha — yet another in a long string of tragedies that was making her increasingly numb to human and mutant suffering. Thus, she realized she had made a mistake in siding with Bastion, releasing Magneto from captivity upon coming to the conclusion that "Magneto was right".
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: In the previous episode, Trask as a Prime Sentinel nearly defeated the entire team and only went down to Cable's EMP attack. Here, scores of other Prime Sentinels are taken out much more quickly and efficiently by smaller teams of X-Men or X-Men pairs like Wolverine and Nightcrawler working together.
- Cool Car: After the Blackbird is destroyed, Jean, Scott, and Nathan escape the plane in a modified Porsche 911 Turbo that was stored in the back.
- Crapsaccharine World: Cable describes Bastion's future as "a utopia" in which mutants cooperate with humans... as slaves.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- Bastion's description of the Prime Sentinels volunteers brings to mind the radicalized followers of alt-right and neo-fascist groups seeking validation online and then taking part in organized violence.
- Bastion gives "a mutant flirts with one of them at a local dive bar" as a hypothetical for what will activate a Prime Sentinel sleeper agent. This alludes to the infamous "gay panic defense", where a person argues that they had a right to commit violence against an LGBTQ+ person due to real or perceived romantic/sexual advances.
- Val talks about how most people are so used to experiencing tragedies like Genosha that they're stricken with a sense of déjà vu and then get on with their day, echoing sentiments over the rise in mass shootings along with multiple foreign wars and massacres of civilians, and that increasingly they're swiftly forgotten about and nothing meaningful is done about it.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Mister Sinister isn't all that invested in Bastion's grand ideals; he just wants mutants corralled so he can use them for his mad experiments.
- EMP: Magneto creates one on a planetary scale, knocking out all electronics and disabling the Prime Sentinels.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Bastion's mother was shown to be kind and accepting towards him as a child when his powers were developing. Unfortunately, this does not stop him from turning her into a Prime Sentinel, along with the rest of his home town.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Not all of Bastion's allies are fully on board with him. It gets to the point where Valerie Cooper pulls a full Heel–Face Turn.Dr. Doom: Do not mistake Doom's collusion as indifference to flagrant war crimes.
- When the Prime Sentinels among them are activated, the rest of the crowd protesting at the X-Mansion disperse and flee in horror.
- Not all of Bastion's allies are fully on board with him. It gets to the point where Valerie Cooper pulls a full Heel–Face Turn.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- Bastion sees what he's doing as a godsend for humanity, and himself as a savior; he's mostly indifferent to the horror others (including the likes of Doctor Doom) feel at his actions, and doesn't consider Val's horror to be anything but inevitably fighting the future.
- Sinister is actually surprised that Val's moral qualms led to her releasing Magneto.
- Family of Choice: Discussed. Jean is having a hard time reconciling how, due to the late Madelyne's shared memories and psychic link with her, Jean emotionally feels as if Nathan is her son while biologically he's not. Nightcrawler confides in her that he was abandoned by his mother, Mystique, after he was born. He met Rogue, whom Mystique had adopted, later. The two decided that instead of abandoning each other, they would stick together as brother and sister.
- Nightcrawler: Blood is blood...family is a choice.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Bastion's childhood memorabilia include a flyer of Stark Expo and a toy Machine Man.
- Full-Conversion Cyborg: The Prime Sentinels are transformed by a variant of the Techno-Organic Virus that converts their entire bodies.
- Girl Friday: Daria, Bastion's assistant, who doesn't appear to be a Prime Sentinel.
- Healing Factor: The Prime Sentinels are shown to be capable of re-assembling themselves even after being beheaded and sliced to pieces, giving Wolverine and a sword-swinging Nightcrawler a great deal of difficulty.
- History Repeats: As Val notes while explaining her betrayal to Bastion, humanity has seen tragedies like Genosha's many, many times before; enough so that even in the midst of the attack, no one - not even Val herself - was really surprised. Driving her point home, Magneto's Auschwitz tattoo is focused on several times, a grim visual reminder of what Val concludes by the end of the episode: that Magneto was right.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Understandably, once the Prime Sentinel attack is over Morph and Logan are seen drinking some beers.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: The young Bastion was terrified of his abilities and asked his mother if he will ever be "normal". She simply responded that he is.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: After noting that Magneto's EMP was effectively a declaration of war, Wolverine muses that he wishes the Professor was there. Cue a Shi'ar craft crashing into the wreckage of the school, and opening to reveal Professor Charles Xavier.
- Insult Backfire:
- When Val compares him to Josef Mengele, an amused Sinister replies that he knew Mengele and thought that he squandered his potential by being a Nazi stooge.
- Val calls Bastion a monster, to which Bastion calmly replies that he was just born that way.
- The Juggernaut: Morph literally bulk up into the character, during Prime Sentinel Trish Tilby attack, attempting a better fighting chance compared to their last encounter. However, Trish ironically proves to be far more unstoppable, tossing the Juggernaut Morph aside in one move.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Nightcrawler, who has mostly just teleported people away from attacks until now, picks up three swords in defense of the Mansion and Rogue and shows no hesitation in chopping Prime Sentinels into pieces.
- Manchurian Agent: Those that have undergone Prime Sentinel transformation forget the process and carry on with their lives until the programming kicks in in the presence of mutants or when Bastion so commands.
- A Million Is a Statistic: Invoked and weaponized by Bastion in the attack on Genosha. He planned to end the trend of human sympathy for mutants by creating a mutant tragedy bigger than most human minds could take in.
- The Mole: It turns out that Valerie Cooper was working for Bastion and Mister Sinister the whole time. However, the attack on Genosha and seeing Magneto's Auschwitz tattoo convince her to change sides.
- Mr. Fanservice: The direness of the situation aside note , Magneto spends a significant portion of this episode clad in nothing but a pair of black briefs.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Val feels immense guilt for working with Bastion, even though she didn't know about the full extent of his plans. That, plus the sight of Magneto's tattoo from Auschwitz, led her to release him.
- Mythology Gag:
- Beast explains Cable's inability to avert the Genosha massacre as the event being an "Absolute Point", according to the sorcerers at Kamar-Taj (and even starts the sentence with the word "Strange"). The exact term comes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which also had stories dealing with heroes who tried and failed to avert an Absolute Point.
- Jean's New Powers as the Plot Demands ability to read psychic memories off personal objects by touch is an ability Longshot had and used when he was with the X-Men.
- Bastion has Magneto restrained on a giant X, similar to what the Reavers did to Wolverine in Uncanny X-Men #251.
- During Magneto's global EMP assault, significant screentime is given to the reactions from Silver Samurai and Omega Red, two of the playable villain characters from X-Men: Children of the Atom.note
- Never Say "Die": Played With and almost immediately subverted. When describing Madelyne's last thoughts, Jean stops herself from saying she died, then Cable explicitly says that "[Bastion] killed my mother" and promises to avenge her.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Jean can now read the memories related to non-living objects by touching them, an ability she has never shown before. Nobody comments on it.
- Night of the Living Mooks: The Prime Sentinels attack en masse and without regard to their own safety, like a swarm of zombies.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When Bastion's powers were developing as a child, his mother was supportive and accepting towards him. How does he thank her? By turning her into a Prime Sentinel, along with the rest of the town he grew up in.
- No Name Given: Bastion’s OZT members from Latveria, America and China aren’t referred to in the credits by their obvious names.
- Noodle Incident: The condition of Xavier's spacecraft and that he had to crash-land would indicate either his departing from the Shi'ar, his journey back to Earth, his ship's arrival above Earth, or all of the above, didn't go quite smoothly.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Beast has a very understandably shocked reaction to seeing just how many Prime Sentinels there really are.
- In his brief cameo, this is Spider-Man's wordless reaction to the EMP hitting New York.
- A group of scientists in Russia look like they are about to soil themselves when the EMP hits their laboratory, where Omega Red was being held in containment.
- Bastion understandably has one once he understands how far Magneto has snapped when he lets off a world-wrecking EMP that turns off everything on the planet with even the smallest hint of technology, decimating even his entire Prime Sentinel army in an instant.
- Parental Betrayal: Roberto’s mother willingly allows the Prime Sentinels to collar and take him and Jubilee away, shutting the door behind them, proving she values her high status over her son’s well-being and that Roberto was right to fear coming out.
- Pet the Dog: While Jean, Scott, and Cable are at Bastion's childhood home, they come across the latter's mother. She asks for Cable's assistance in helping her get up from a chair, and he obliges.
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- While Doom shows moral qualms with the attack on Genosha, the rest of the OZT collaborators, including Baron Zemo, are just annoyed that Bastion didn't bother to let them know about it ahead of time. Zemo also notes that moving against the X-Men is dangerous while they still have favor from world leaders.
- When Roberto and Jubilee crash into the da Costa charity event filled with people, the Prime Sentinels quickly change tactics from trying to kill the two mutants to claiming that they "save" them, which manages to convince Nina to willingly surrender the two teens to their custody.
- Rage Breaking Point: Once freed from Bastion's grasp, Magneto immediately flies to the North Pole, where he declares, "Enough," and sets off a worldwide EMP, disabling all of the Prime Sentinels, shutting down all of the world's technology, and - as Wolverine notes - declaring war on humanity.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: When Magneto uses his powers to send the EMP around the world to disable the Prime Sentinels, and Logan fears that Magneto may have just declared war, the Professor finally returns to Earth and he summons the X-Men.
- The Reveal:
- Bastion is a mutated and evolved descendant of every Sentinel from Master Mold to Nimrod, after his father was infected by Sentinel technology from the future.
- The techno-organic virus that Sinister created and infected on Cable as a baby, turns people into Prime Sentinels.
- Shout-Out:
- Cyclops insults the Prime Sentinels by calling them "toasters", like Battlestar Galactica (2003)'s Cylons.
- When escaping from the Prime Sentinels, it is revealed that the store Jubilee and Roberto were shopping at is called "Wasserman's"; a reference to Ron Wasserman who created the original X-Men cartoon theme, among other notable '90s themes.
- Shown Their Work:
- Not only is Harmony, Pennsylvania a real-life suburb of Pittsburgh, but the houses in Bastion's childhood neighborhood are very "Pittsburgh" in appearance.
- Cable's unironic usage of the word "Utopia" to describe the Crapsaccharine World that Bastion creates in the future actually relates to the proper original Greek phrase of what a utopia means: a "no place" or simpler terms an "impossible place", a society that functionally cannot exist, while the more modern definition of a perfect society instead relates to the word eutopia (which means "good place") which are phonetically similar, which led to the terminology to be confused and corrupted into the belief that utopia means a perfect society. The original definition of utopia would then go on to inspire the word dystopia, which refers to what the future Bastion has actually created for mutantkind.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Jubilee swaps out her iconic pink top and blue shorts for the black outfit she wore during her vampire stint in the comics.
- Silent Treatment: Magneto gives it to Val Cooper, who was aware of Bastion's activities, though not of the Genosha attack.
- Start X to Stop X: Bastion believes that by creating the Prime Sentinels out of many humans, he could give humanity itself the necessary tools to evolve and protect themselves from the so-called threat of mutant evolution.
- Take That!: Against anti-Evolutionists. One of the protesters outside the X-Mansion alongside members of the Friends of Humanity is carrying a sign that reads "Evolution is a lie!"
- Teens Are Monsters: Bastion's mother reveals a nightmarish painting he made when he was 16 of Sentinels slaughtering mutants.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: In spite of having made the effort to his friend's dream of a future where humanity and mutant kind could, if not accept, then at least coexist and tolerate each other, the massacre of Genosha, the complicity of the government in the atrocity, his captivity and torture under Bastion and Sinister, and a constant live news feed of the world turning against mutants finally drives Magneto over the edge. His first move after Val Cooper lets him escape is to fly to the North Pole and use the Earth's magnetic field to unleash a worldwide EMP that shuts down the entirety of human infrastructure, completely uncaring of the massive collateral damage this will cause.
- This Means War!: Wolverine describes Magneto's EMP attack as a declaration of war on humanity.
- Too Much Alike: Bastion was a child born with powers he couldn't initially control, and who looked slightly off compared to most of the people around him. The parallels between him and mutants are pretty clear.
- Took a Level in Badass: Roberto is much more capable of defending himself than when he first arrived at the school, and has even started figuring out how to fly. He notes that he’s spent time practicing in the Danger Room.
- Tranquil Fury: Magneto gives little emotion and no words to Valerie Cooper, even as she begs him to respond in anyway to her involvement in Genosha. He makes it clear to the world before unleashing an EMP upon it that he is done with humanity.
- Trash the Set: Wolverine and Nightcrawler’s fight against the Prime Sentinels as they ravage the X-Mansion.
- Turbine Blender: Weaponized by the Prime Sentinels; some of them throw themselves into the X-Jet's turbines to take the vehicle down.
- Ungrateful Bastard:
- Justified; despite her freeing him, Magneto leaves Val behind to face Sinister and Bastion's rage. But given her collusion in Bastion's plan, even if she didn't know about its full extent and was horrified by the attack on Genosha, it's understandable that he feels no obligation towards her.
- Bastion turns his mother into a Prime Sentinel, despite our seeing in a flashback to his childhood that she assured him she would always love him when his powers were developing and he asked her if he would ever be normal.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Bastion's father, a janitor, was infected by the remnants of Nimrod. This technically made him the first Prime Sentinel.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: As a child, Bastion just wanted to be normal and was fearful of hearing Master Mold's voice in his head. As an adult, he's perfectly comfortable with who and what he is, even turning his own mother and entire hometown into Prime Sentinels.
- Villain Has a Point: As Val acknowledges after freeing him, all of Magneto's warnings about humanity have come to pass, with Bastion as a living, breathing embodiment of just how right he was.
- Villainous Rescue: Magneto, now fully in the throes of a Face–Heel Turn, unleashes a global EMP that deactivates the Prime Sentinels just as they are about to overwhelm our heroes but the worldwide damage this causes and the notion that he basically just declared war against humanity overshadow any good this might have done.
- Villain Reveals the Secret: To sour the public on the X-Men, Bastion reveals Xavier's survival and relationship with the Shi'ar to the world. Some stations see this as a threat for an alien invasion.
- Wacky Cravings: Among Jean's memories of Madelyne's life is craving oranges with cottage cheese while pregnant.
- We Are Everywhere: Bastion has planted thousands, maybe millions, of Prime Sentinels throughout the world. When he sends the signal to activate them, it's revealed that the da Costa family butler and Trish Tilby were both converted.
- Wham Shot: Magneto flies into the Arctic Circle and uses his electromagnetic powers, which create a wave that comes down from above to encompass the entire world, with every piece of technology powering down across Earth. Merely a scene later, Wolverine calls this out for what it is on Magneto's part: A declaration of war against humanity.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Scott outright questions what happened to Bishop early in the episode, given that he was supposed to take baby Nathan to the future and care for him. Jean notes Cable's account that he arrived alone, with the latter theorizing that they were somehow separated in the timestream.
- Where I Was Born and Razed: Bastion turns his entire town into Prime Sentinels.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Cable has made countless attempts to stop Genosha's massacre from happening, but each time he got temporally pulled away before he could. Beast relates a concept from Kamar-Taj mystics called "Absolute Points"; points in time that occur across all timelines and cannot be prevented.
- You Monster!: Val calls Bastion a monster, to which he dismissively responds: "I was born this way."
