‘The brave always die first’: ‘X-Men ’97’ episode 9 ending, explained

Warning: This article contains full spoilers for X-Men ’97 episode 9.

After nine epic episodes, the end is finally nigh for X-Men ’97‘s exemplary first season, so are you ready for the incoming finale? Trick question, of course you’re not. Penultimate installment, “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2,” was so thrilling, dark, and dramatic that we’re even more reluctant to see this incredible show leave our screens than we were before.

Previously on X-Men ’97: Uber-villain Bastion, a human Sentinel, had unleashed his Prime Sentinels upon the world, but an escaped Magneto stopped them dead in their tracks with an electromagnetic wave that covered the globe. This has just thrown the planet out of the frying pan and into the fire, however, as episode 9 reveals that the EMP blast has wrecked the Earth’s magnetic fields, meaning it’s now just hours away from destruction.

The X-Men split off into two teams — Gold and Blue — in order to confront Bastion and his minion Mr. Sinister and talk down Magneto, who has recruited Rogue and Sunspot to his cause. But things, as ever, don’t go exactly to plan…

Is Jean Grey dead (you know, again)?

As part of the Gold team, Jean — dressed in her old-school Marvel Girl costume — battles Sinister, but the evil villain plays his cruelest trick yet by mind-controlling Cable (the time-traveling son of Jean’s clone, Madelyne Pryor, don’t forget) into fighting her. Cable reveals that, like her and his mother, he’s a first-class telekinetic too before deploying a lethal wave of psychic power.

In the midst of the fight, Jean sends out a psychic signal to Cyclops — who’s part of the Blue team fighting Magneto — and tells him “Scott… I love you.” The astral Scott is powerless to do anything as he witnesses the moment that his own son appears to vaporize the love of his life.

After Erik Lensherr himself appeared to suffer a similar fate only a few episodes ago, the lack of a body leaves us tempted to believe Jean isn’t really dead. Especially as this is Jean “I beat Death for breakfast” Grey we’re talking about. Even Rogue lampshaded the trope earlier in this same episode. “Who dies next?” she asked, when joining Magneto’s side. “Jean? Hah! Been there done that.”

What did Magneto do to Wolverine?

Meanwhile, things are looking dire for the Blue team too, as Magneto gains the upper hand when he places his own telepath-blocking helmet on Professor X’s head to stop him from meddling in his mind. Wolverine appears to save the day, however, when he sneaks up behind Lensherr and stabs him in the back. “Been in a lot of wars, bub. The brave always die first,” Logan tells him — a clever callback to the time Magneto said this himself back in X-Men: The Animated Series.

Unfortunately, as Thanos might’ve told him, Logan really should’ve gone for the head as Magneto shrugs off the injury and retaliates with his own brutal attack on Wolverine. In an adaptation of a memorable moment from the comics’ “Fatal Attractions” storyline, Magneto savagely pulls the adamantium from Wolverine’s skeleton, which pools out through his skin in a wince-inducing, gore-filled sequence that would make the Fox Kids censors from the ’90s have a coronary.

How can the X-Men save the world in the season finale?

So, Jean dead, Wolverine violently incapacitated, and Magneto maniacally set on destroying the world… What are the X-Men to do? Kudos to X-Men ’97 for truly raising the stakes on both a global and personal level here as it’s hard to fathom just how the team are going to turn this thing around and pull a win out of their hats.

We’ve definitely seen enough death this season already, so with any luck Jean will funnel the powers of the Phoenix once more and maybe swoop into save the day. And we know all too well than you can’t keep a good Wolverine down, so a furious Logan could come back fighting with his bone claws instead. Alternatively, a heartbroken Cyclops may well unleash his optic blasts and do some real damage with them to neutralize the threat.

Don’t expect every little problem the X-Men have to be solved in the finale, however, as we already know a second season is on the way. X-Men ’97 ‘s first season concludes May 15 on Disney Plus.