'X-Men 97' Episode 6 "Lifedeath Part 2" Review
Image Source: IMDb
Taking a bit of a breather after the harrowing events of "Remember It", X-Men-97 decides to take us back to Storm and Forge, as well as finally showing us what happened to Professor X.
"Lifedeath Part 2" starts midst of a space battle between the Kree and the Shi'ar. Deathbird and Ronan have a confrontation, which is followed by the whole of the Shi'ar imperial guard, (including fan favourite gladiator), showing up, and winning the fight. Deathbird then gets a message from her sister, Lilandra, where she announces her marriage to Charles Xavier. The scene plays out as a holo-transmission, so this marks the first time we've seen Professor X in the show. In the transmission, Lilandra is giving a speech, telling her subjects that she saved Charles Xavier's life, and during that process fell in love with him. They are now to be married.
We then see Xavier and Lilandra talking in a garden after the speech, discussing their love and future of ruling the empire. It's nice the show finally got around to confirming the status of Prof X. It seems rather late in the run to finally get around to such a core character, but in fairness; X-Men '97 has done an excellent job in returning the audience to their world and familiarizing us with the setting again, I can see why the showrunners took their time to return to this storyline. Xavier talks of his wish to visit Earth and the X-Men, but Lilandra warns him if he visits, he might not want to leave.
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Image Source: Side Show
The episode then takes us to the namesake storyline. Storm is tending the wound Forge got from the bird demon at the end of "Lifedeath Part 1". The Demon is also in the room, trying to convince Ororo not to help him, because of the bad things he has done/created in the past. The demon warps reality around Storm, locking her in a coffin in another great visceral sequence that is quickly becoming a hallmark of this show.
Forge then saves Storm by excising the demon with help from an old book he got from his mother, and then collapses. He is still dying, but tells her the book speaks of a cactus that grows nearby which is a powerful medicine and it might be able to save him. They both then ride off to find the cactus.
Back in the Shi’ar capital Chandilar, Xavier and Lilandra are being introduced to the Imperial Council. Deathbird arrives and states she doesn’t trust Xavier, and says a Terran shouldn’t be emperor. He must pass a test of loyalty if he wants to marry the Lilandra. Xavier agrees to the test, but then Deathbird says to pass the test, Lilandra must erase his memory of Earth and the X-Men.
after a brief pow-wow with Gladiator, Xavier tells Lilandra he can't erase his memories, but she convinces him to do it, as he him he has a new life now, the Shi’ar empire needs his help and she needs him.
We then return to Storm and Forge, who have arrived where the cactus grows; an old US Union army base in a mountain. Forge says he is sorry he couldn't get Storm her powers back, but she says she has wanted to be human for a long time, maybe things are better this way. Then Forge collapses. Ororo must now go on by herself.
back on the Chandilar, Xavier is about to undertake the memory loss ritual, but he hesitates when he is finally asked if he wants to proceed with it. Deathbird jumps on this straight away, saying he never intended to undergo the ritual.
Image Source: Escapist Magazine
A fight ensues between those loyal to Deathbird and those loyal to Lilandra. During the fight, Xavier sees all the fighting and seems to remember all of a sudden about his mutant power: telepathy. He warps the consciousness of all the key players away to the astral plane, where they are sitting in a classroom, being taught by himself. The professor has complete control over the situation, Deathbird tries to object to it all, but Xavier tells her she must raise a hand if she wants to speak.
We then return to Storm, she is crawling through a small mineshaft to get the cactus. The Demon returns and begins taunting her. It seems to be feeding off Storm's fear and self-loathing. All the personal attacks, and the demon shouting at her she doesn’t want to be an X-man anymore finally causes Ororo to 'wake up' and she gains her powers back! She quickly deals with the Demon with a huge explosion of lightning, grabs the cactus, and saves Forge. They are just about to celebrate their happy ending when they learn about what happened in Genosha
Returning to the Astral plane and Professor X's classroom. He is teaching everyone to get along, and how the Shi Ar empire can be better towards other civiliazations within their empire. It looks like he's just about to convince everyone to allow him to be emperor, when he sees a massive vision of a dead Gambit, and the events of Genosha come flooding to his consciousness. He returns everyone to Chandilar and announces he must return to Earth.
The Cliffhanger at the end episode again brings us back to the events of Genosha from last week's Remember It. Bolivar Trask is running away from Mr Sinister, who Guns him down. Trask insists he did everything he wanted in creating the mega sentinel. But Sinister kills him anyway. This positions Sinister as the one responsible for the attack on Genosha, and probably the big bad of this season.
Overall, great episode. This ends the ‘Storm losing her powers’ plotline in a really cool way. It will be awesome to see her return to the team. It's really nice to see Professor X in the show finally, and now we know he’s returning to Earth, looks like he will be a bigger part of the series moving forward.
It’s also refreshing to see how the series is splitting up its storytelling, allowing plot points to linger longer and giving the audience time to speculate.
Rating: 8/10
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