‘X-Men ’97’ episode 5’s devastating ending, explained

Warning: This article contains full spoilers for X-Men ’97 season 1, episode 5.

After reaching the end of X-Men ’97‘s fifth episode, the first thing you probably did — well, apart from mopping up your tears and unfolding from your fetal position in the corner — was wonder if you’d just watched the show’s season finale.

So shocking and dramatic is episode 5, titled “Remember It,” that it feels like a season-ending storyline, but we’ve still got another five episodes to go. And yet it’s hard to imagine where the season could go next after the team suffered such devastating losses right on the eve of landing an uplifting victory for mutants all around the world. We knew the good times wouldn’t last long for the X-Men, but we didn’t think things would go south this quickly… or this tragically.

What happens to Magneto and Gambit in X-Men ’97 episode 5?

In “Remember It,” the X-Men attend a gala hosted on the mutant island of Genosha to celebrate the nation becoming officially recognized by the U.N. for the first time. Magneto is shocked, however, when the Genosha council (comprising familiar characters as such as Emma Frost, Madelyn Pryor, and Sebastian Shaw) announce they want him to rule over Genosha. Still, he’s not as shocked as Rogue is when he asks her to rule alongside him as his queen.

Wrestling with the weight of the decision, Rogue finally comes clean to Gambit about her past romance with Erik Lensherr — they once had a passionate affair in her youth, once they discovered his electro-magnetic powers negated her energy-sapping touch. Although she loves Remy, Rogue admits she still desires to be touched, although he stresses that they have something that is “more than skin-deep.”

At the gala, Rogue appears to make her choice when she dances through the air with Magneto and kisses him, much to everyone’s shock — and Gambit’s heartbreak. Unbeknownst to Remy, though, the kiss convinces Rogue that she needs something that’s more than skin-deep. In other words, she chooses Gambit.

That’s when pandemonium breaks loose as a giant Wild Sentinel (which Gambit dubs a “Godzilla Sentinel”) attacks Genosha, and the partying mutants are helpless to defend themselves against it. Suddenly, the gala turns into a massacre as countless citizens of Genosha are murdered — including much of the ruling council, like Shaw and Banshee. Magneto, committed to rescuing as many mutants as possible, puts himself between the Wild Sentinel and some Morlock children — including Tommy (the rainbow-haired girl) and Leech (the reptilian boy).

Magneto then becomes the Wild Sentinel’s primary target as the robot detects that he is an “Omega-level threat” that must be neutralized. Rogue desperately tries to intervene, but Erik locks her and Gambit in a makeshift metal cage to protect them. Although he fights hard, the Sentinel’s energy blast is ultimately too much to overcome and Erik appears to be disintegrated.

Once freed, a furious Rogue attempts to single-handedly take on the Sentinel, but Gambit incapacitates her with one of his psionic blasts to save her life. Taking the killer robot on himself, Remy shockingly falls foul of the Sentinel himself when it stabs him in the side. He’s able to give as good as he gets, though, when he charges up the impaling weapon with his powers, which reverberates through the Sentinel and blows it up.

The episode ends with Rogue cradling the apparently dead Gambit in her arms, surrounded by the devastated ruins of Genosha. “I can’t feel you,” she tells him, both echoing their earlier conversation and another heartbreaking moment from a different Marvel Disney Plus series, WandaVision.

So, are Magneto and Gambit really dead? Well, we don’t see a body in Erik’s case, so that one seems the easiest to undo. The framing, aftermath, and dialogue surrounding Gambit’s self-sacrifice seem much more final, though, which suggests that if he is coming back then his resurrection could be a much bigger storyline. For now, though, it seems like Rogue has gone from having two lovers to none. Sucks to be you, sugah.