'X-Men ‘97' Season 2 Episode 8 Recap & Ending Explained: What Is The Tower?

In X-Men ‘97 Season 2 episode 7, a group called the Acolytes kidnapped Creed and took him to Savage Land. Colossus and Exodus, the Acolytes’ leaders, demanded that the US government release all the mutants that had been arrested by the X-Factor or else Creed would be killed. Given how Creed was Nightcrawler’s half-brother, he felt dutybound to protect him. Xavier convinced Val to let the X-Corp handle this business because the X-Factor would only aggravate this matter if they stepped in. Once Val gave Xavier the go-ahead, Beast, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Polaris, and Bishop jetted off to Savage Land. As soon as they entered the airspace of that place, their jet was downed and they lost their superpowers too because the Acolytes had reactivated Mr. Sinister’s power-inhibiting tower. The X-Corp got separated during the crash landing and while Colossus took Beast, Rogue, and Nightcrawler to the Acolytes’ castle, Polaris and Bishop worked on taking down the Inhibitor Tower. Nightcrawler managed to convince Colossus and Exodus to put Creed on trial; if they felt that Creed was truly guilty, then Nightcrawler would join the Acolytes; if they felt that Creed was innocent, then he’d be freed. When Exodus sensed that Colossus was going to rule in Creed’s favor, he got hostile, which led to an all-out scuffle. While all this was going on, Bishop and Polaris destroyed the Inhibitor Tower, which allowed the X-Corp to use their superpowers and take on the Acolytes. Creed killed Exodus during that chaos and Nightcrawler stranded him somewhere in Antarctica as punishment. Colossus left the Acolytes and rejoined the X-Men. Meanwhile, in Greece, the X-Force discovered that Apocalypse had seemingly died while resurrecting Gambit. What happened next? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

The X-Force Joins Hands With The X-Corp

Season 2 episode 7 opens with Rogue dreaming about dancing in Genosha with Gambit instead of Magneto. Initially, Gambit looks normal, but then he changes into his demented form, tells Rogue that “some things are deeper than skin,” and then hits her with some kind of a spell which causes her to explode with a dark energy. On that note, Rogue wakes up but she doesn’t bring up this incident in front of the X-Corp; she just silently watches them play cards. Xavier addresses Rogue’s offbeat behavior, which almost gets Rogue to open up about her dream, but before they can talk about it, the X-Force shows up at their doorstep with Apocalypse’s dehydrated corpse. Jubilee hands over the card that she had found in that temple in Greece to Rogue. Now, since the X-Force and the X-Corp are probably unaware of Apocalypse’s consciousness-transferring capabilities, or they have forgotten about it, they assume that Apocalypse resurrected Gambit as one of his Horsemen, and then this resurrected Gambit got too much for Apocalypse to handle, and he got eviscerated by Gambit. They know that whenever Apocalypse turns someone into his Horseman, they lose their original identity, which means that Gambit might not be like the old Gambit anymore. They also know that Rogue has the ability to undo someone’s Horseman transformation because she had done it with Archangel. Whether or not there’s something left inside Gambit to save is a big question mark. But since that question can only be answered by getting in touch with Gambit, Xavier and Cable form a temporary alliance to work together and find Remy; the only issue is that Xavier wants this to be a rescue operation while Cable wants to straight-up kill Gambit. 

Gambit Is In New Orleans

Rogue is worried about what’s gonna happen to Gambit, but Nightcrawler tries to get her to look at the bright side of this turn of events and celebrate Gambit’s resurrection. Well, on that note, the X-Corp and the X-Force head over to the Cerebra (which is an upgraded version of Cerebro) so that Xavier can see where Gambit is currently located. It doesn’t take long for Xavier to learn that Gambit is back in New Orleans, but what scares him is that Gambit has developed the capability to detect that he is being snooped upon from afar. Moreover, Gambit uses his Apocalyptic powers to knock the Cerebra off of Xavier’s head. This pretty much tells the X-Corp and the X-Force that they have to tread very carefully while dealing with Gambit. Speaking of Gambit, he gathers the Assassins Guild and the Thieves Guild at a church in New Orleans and turns them into his mindless slaves. While en route to New Orleans in Cable’s jet, Jubilee can be seen having a heart to heart with Rogue regarding Gambit’s fate. Cyclops and Jean try to have a chat with their son, Cable, and see how he is grappling with the pressure of being destined to kill Apocalypse. Cyclops and Jean wonder why Cable never told them that he is a grown-up Nathan. Cable says that he thought it’d be pointless because time-displaced people never really get to stay together. Cyclops and Jean assure them that things will be different this time around.

Gambit Attacks The X-Force And The X-Corp 

While the X-Force and the X-Corp are having their meeting about how they are gonna tackle Gambit, the plane is attacked by the possessed Assassins and Thieves Guilds. Once Gambit is sure that the X-Force and the X-Corp are completely overwhelmed and distracted, he moves in on Rogue. Even though Rogue gets emotional, she remembers that she has to fix Gambit, which is why she touches his face but her power-absorption ability doesn’t work on Gambit. That’s when Gambit reiterates the line “some things are deeper than skin” (which insinuates that this new and improved Gambit infiltrated Rogue’s dreams) and then puts Rogue to sleep. As the X-Corp and the X-Force get busy trying to crash-land the plane as safely as possible, Gambit and Co. escape the scene with Rogue as well as a possessed Nightcrawler. The X-Men learn about this incident from the news and they decide to flout the rules imposed upon them by Val to go over to New Orleans and help the X-Force and the X-Corp with their predicament (while leaving the kids in the mansion in Colossus’ care). Rogue wakes up from her slumber to find a possessed Nightcrawler inviting her to the dinner table where Gambit is waiting for her. Gambit starts talking about living together forever but everything is just too bizarre for Rogue to digest.

Apocalypse Resides In Gambit’s Mind

Gambit shares Apocalypse’s tragic love story with X-Ternal. Apparently, once upon a time, Apocalypse was in love with X-Ternal. During their affair, X-Ternal asked Apocalypse for a piece of his power, which Apocalypse gave to her in the form of a giant gem. Apocalypse hoped to live the rest of his life with X-Ternal, but she just took that gem and left; breaking Apocalypse’s heart was her way of taking revenge against him for attacking the people of the citadel that lived under Rama-Tut’s rule. Gambit thinks that if she takes that gem away from X-Ternal and gives it to Rogue, X-Ternal will get the punishment she deserves for betraying Apocalypse, and Rogue will get to live forever with Gambit. Even though Rogue is hesitant about this whole affair, she chooses to trust the process and partakes in the marriage ceremony, where the possessed Nightcrawler, Assassins Guild, and Thieves Guild are present. X-Ternal is summoned and killed, and the gem is ripped out of her body. Just as Gambit is about to thrust the gem into Rogue’s body, the X-Men, X-Corp, and X-Force arrive, thereby turning the wedding venue into a battleground. When Gambit eventually does manage to plant the gem into Rogue, she faints. Xavier penetrates Gambit’s mind and puts him in a state of deep slumber as well. But while Gambit’s body is asleep, his mind engages Xavier in a fierce fight. As soon as Xavier gains the upper hand, he tries to separate the real Gambit from the Apocalypse-infected Gambit. That’s finally when Xavier learns that Gambit hasn’t just been infected by Apocalypse’s Horseman transformation curse; he has been possessed by Apocalypse himself.

Gambit Subdues Apocalypse

Apocalypse tries to absorb the minds of both Gambit and Xavier, but that’s prevented by Rogue, who uses her newfound superpowers (that she has gotten from the gem) to enter the mental battlefield that Xavier, Gambit, and Apocalypse are duking it out; she not only rescues Xavier and Gambit, but also subdues Apocalypse. Now, while all this was going on, the X-Force betrayed the X-Men and the X-Corp and tried to kill Gambit, which prompted the X-Men and the X-Corp to take down the X-Force. So, as soon as Rogue and Xavier exit Gambit’s mind, the X-Men and the X-Corp return to Genosha before the X-Force mounts another attack. While assessing Gambit’s vitals, Beast says that, physically, he isn’t all that great, and his neural activity is pretty peculiar. Xavier bluntly states that Apocalypse is trapped in Gambit’s mind, which is why his physical and psychological stats are so wonky; and he is afraid that Apocalypse won’t stay in there for too long. Xavier says that if they don’t “move” quickly, Apocalypse will surely take over Gambit’s mind, body, and soul. Rogue says that she won’t lose Gambit again. But how can they exactly prevent Apocalypse from possessing Gambit? Maybe there’s some kind of prison in the Astral Plane that can be used to imprison Apocalypse. As long as Apocalypse doesn’t gain a physical form or takes over a physical body; so, I guess, the X-Corp are gonna rope in Doctor Strange and get him to use his powers to chuck Apocalypse into some corner of the Astral Plane (I’m just spit-balling here). 

Val Wants To Capture The Tower

In the ending of X-Men ‘97 Season 2 episode 8, maybe completely unrelated to everything that’s going on with the Gambit subplot, the X-Factor joins hands with the X-Force (which now only has Cable, Psylocke, and Archangel) to go after someone they both want. Val uses the tower tarot card to refer to this individual. But who is she exactly talking about? Well, Gambit was using tarot cards after being possessed by Apocalypse. So, maybe Val wants the X-Factor to work with the X-Force to kill Gambit. The tower tarot card is synonymous with sudden change, which is usually disruptive and destructive in nature. Apocalypse possesses all those qualities; so, again, I think Val wants Cable to help her (probably with some time-travel related shenanigans) kill Apocalypse. Last but not the least, there is a character in the Marvel universe called Tower, whose real anime is Edward Pasternak. As per the comics, he was hired by the X-Factor and he was eventually employed by Apocalypse, making him a part of the Alliance of Evil. Tower’s superpower is to alter his size; I don’t know if that makes him dangerous enough to compel the X-Force and the X-Factor to team-up, but hey, anything is possible in this show. What are your thoughts on this tease? Do you think Val is talking about Gambit, Apocalypse, or Tower? Let me know in the comments section below.

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