X-Men ’97 Season 2 Episode 8 Review: Playing a Bad Hand

This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 season 2 episode 8.

The first season of X-Men ’97 played an impressive trick on fans. The show took Gambit, a divisive character ever since his first appearance back in 1990, and leaned so hard into his charms that even his biggest detractors had to pay respect. His full triumph came in the episode “Remember It,” in which Gambit sacrifices himself to take down a murderous omega mutant, without ever losing his signature smirk.

That season ended with Apocalypse finding one of Gambit’s cards, signaling to comic book fans that he would return in the form of Death, one of Apocalypse’s horsemen. Post-credits scenes from the previous two episodes have shown us that transformation, and now he’s here in full in “The Dead Man’s Hand.” Perhaps it’s that sense of inevitability, perhaps it’s the still-lingering high of “Remember It,” but “The Dead Man’s Hand” feels a bit perfunctory, a lower point in an otherwise excellent season of superhero television.

After a flashback to Rogue’s final moments with Gambit in “Remember Me,” we find Xavier and the team enjoying a poker game. The moment of levity, which both sets the gambling motif repeated throughout the episode and acts as one more Star Trek: The Next Generation reference, breaks with the arrival of X-Force. Cable and his team have come to inform the X-Men that they’ve found a charred playing card next to the corpse of Apocalypse, and the mutants agree to investigate together.

The resurrected Gambit is three steps ahead of them, returning to his old New Orleans stomping grounds to visit his former fiancé Bella Donna and his brother Bobby in the Assassins Guild. Using new, still undefined powers, Gambit transforms the Assassins Guild into new Horsemen and sets them on a mission to recover a jewel that Apocalypse gave to the X-Ternal long ago.

At this point, “The Dead Man’s Hand” could have collapsed. The Assassins Guild and the Externals both come from the ’90s impulse to introduce shadowy conspiracies with ties to mysterious heroes, specifically Gambit and Cable. They were exactly the sort of thing that made Gambit so tiresome to some fans, the sort of thing that the first season of X-Men ’97 made us forget by emphasizing Remy’s charm.

Fortunately, “The Dead Man’s Hand” follows suit with season 1 and puts Gambit at the center, particularly his relationship with Rogue. Voice actors A. J. LoCascio and Lenore Zann, the latter of whom has been playing the character since the original series, do standout work here. LoCascio doesn’t overplay the danger presented by Death Gambit, but he does soften the character’s one-liners, adding a layer of sadness. Likewise, Zann subtly transitions from sorrow to hope to anger, as she finally reunites with her beloved, only to be turned into a pawn by the malevolent force controlling Gambit.

Even before Xavier engages in psychic warfare with Gambit, we know the evil behind him: Apocalypse. How and why Apocalypse has possessed Remy isn’t clear yet (some longtime readers may recall the storyline the The Twelve… sorry), but the mystery suits Gambit, as does his final moments with Rogue.

The episode doesn’t quite earn its climaxes, in which the power of love allows Rogue to free Gambit’s consciousness from Apocalypse—and, in an even less developed plot point, allows Cyclops to inspire Cable to join his telekinetic powers with those of Jean and Psylocke to save the team. But these shortcomings are mitigated by some solid fight scenes, which include a transformed Nightcrawler taking out his teammates and, of course, a psychic fight with Xavier.

Astral plane battles are always a highlight of X-Men stories, and X-Men ’97‘s higher budget and better animators give the show a chance to make those scenes stranger, more psychedelic than anything we’ve seen before. While it’s cool to see Xavier don a version of the psychic armor he’s worn since fighting the Shadow King in the 1980s comics, the battle itself feels a bit rote. Outside of the glowing auras around them, little happens in this fight that couldn’t occur in the real world.

By the end of “The Dead Man’s Hand”,” the stage has been set for the final episode. Apocalypse has reestablished himself as a threat, the X-Men have come together again around Gambit, but X-Force doesn’t believe that Remy’s completely himself, which is enough for them to join forces with X-Factor against their fellow mutants. All exciting stuff, even if it took a lesser episode to get there.

X-Men ’97 season 2 streams new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.

X-Tra Thoughts:

• The backstory of Apocalypse’s relationship with the X-Ternal basically continues from the original animated series. However, given how much X-Men ’97 has gestured at Krakoa-era comics, I was surprised that we didn’t get something like a wink at Arakko. But, then again, given how much I just griped about Assassins Guild and Externals lore, I should be glad that they kept things streamlined.
  
• That said, I’m shocked that X-Men ’97 didn’t take advantage of the fact that Psylocke was a underused in the original series to follow the comics and just make her Kwannon. Betsy Braddock’s butterfly psychic effect always looks cool, but with the comics openly admitting that it was gross to have a white woman take over the body of an Asian woman, I’m surprised that this Psylocke still has purple hair and an English accent.
  
• One more comics fan gripe: I can accept that Nightcrawler can teleport constantly without getting tired out on the show, because it makes for some cool fight scenes. But I cannot accept that he can bamf away with two entire superhero teams. Kurt has limitations!
  
• “News was freaking the kid, so I put on The Exorcist.” J. P. Kallark is killing it this season, and we aren’t getting nearly enough Morph.