‘X-Men ‘97’ Episode Six Recap: “Lifedeath – Part 2”

*Warning: the following article contains spoilers for episode six of X-Men ‘97*

After the emotional wallop of episode five, we’re back into the story of Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) and Forge (Gil Birmingham) as she attempts to regain her powers. After Forge gets badly injured and poisoned by the Adversary (also voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith), the two climb a mountain to find a cactus that would heal Forge of their wounds. And despite his lying to Storm, a boiling love begins to occur as they defeat the Adversary together. Forge uses magic, while, in an absolute bravura moment, Storm regains her powers and flies off into the sun, akin to Superman’s (Henry Cavill) first flight in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. 

Of course, I wouldn’t simply throw this comparison out there, as it’s my favorite “superhero flight” sequence of all time, but the visual inspirations are so painstakingly obvious that it’s almost a miracle how effective and powerful it is when Storm fully regains her abilities. It’s almost visually the same, but this cathartic transition in Storm’s arc hits like a ton of bricks, contrasting to how Clark Kent was never the same when he discovered his origins as Kal-El.

And even though the episode is called Lifedeath – Part 2, which would directly follow the cliffhanger ending of Lifedeath – Part 1, the bulk of the episode is centered around the Kree-Shi’ar War, with the return of Lilandra (Morla Gorrondonna), empress of the Shi’ar, at the forefront of the episode’s main storyline. The episode begins during an intense confrontation between Ronan the Accuser (Todd Haberkorn), as the Watcher observes once again events unfolding in the X-Men universe (a more subtle appearance than last week’s episode, but he’s there!), and Deathbird (Cabi Kabinoff), who returns to Chandilar when news breaks of her sister’s marriage. 

And who is she marrying, you may ask? None other than Professor Charles Xavier (Ross Marquand). What? How is this possible? Well, did you really think they really killed him off? C’mon, this is Professor X we’re talking about, one who’s been now killed off three times in live-action form (and keeps coming back!).

Of course, Professor X faked his own death to elope with Lilandra and join the Shi’ar Council, but Deathbird objects to this union, as she believes the human race is far inferior to the Shi’ar (which she refers to as the “Milky Way Ghetto.”) There’s also the events that transpired in The Animated Series’ Phoenix Saga that come into play, where Deathbird and Lilandra’s brother, D’Ken, succumbed to the M’Kraan Crystal and is trapped within it, with the X-Men playing a massive role in the conclusion of these events. 

She compels Xavier to prove his loyalty to her people by invoking the rite of M’Dashaa, which will erase all of his memories of Earth. While he initially accepts to forego all of his memories on the planet, he begins to have doubts when Deathbird invokes the X-Men. No matter the acts of “performative jingoism” he must put upon the Shi’ar Empire to be accepted as one of them, Xavier will always stay loyal to his X-Men, especially now that their leader, Magneto (Matthew Waterson), has perished in the battle of Genosha. 

Because of this, Deathbird begins to fight Xavier, thinking he is not ready to give up the mortals living on Earth. If he chooses to return to the planet, Deathbird’s point is proven, so he attempts to reeducate the Shi’ar by transporting them in the astral plane and teaching them about the coexistence between mutants and humans. However, as he’s about to reign in a crucial moment in his lesson, he begins to experience strange visions of the attack on Genosha, and sees a larger-than-life Gambit (AJ LoCascio), with only his skeleton remaining. 

Meanwhile, Storm also sees the aftermath of the attack on Genosha, which has been orchestrated by Mister Sinister (Christopher Britton), who tells Bolivar Trask (Gavin Hammon) that he’s planning a war between humans and mutants, with Genosha’s attack the first part of his master plan. With a dark vision of the X-Men perishing at the hands of Sinister almost fully realized, Xavier tells Lilandra he must return to Earth, to his X-Men, as the next chapter of the story will likely bring about even more tragic events. 

While this episode’s story might not have flown as much as last week’s, how it neatly ties itself together to the battle of Genosha through Professor X and Storm is incredibly admirable, as we’ll now get back into the meat of the story, with many of our lingering questions from episode five still left unanswered.

The sixth episode of X-Men ‘97 is now available to stream on Disney+.