X-Men ’97 – Episode 3 Recap & Review

Episode 3

Jean uses her telepathy to see the other Jean’s memories, but her mind is so dense she can only see fragments. However, she learns they share the same memories and that the woman escaped from a strange lab to get there.

After examining their DNA, Beast concludes that the Jean who’s been with them, Nathan’s mother, is actually a clone. She gets furious and doesn’t believe that for a second, but the others are different. They have doubts about her, which just makes things worse. Then, she takes her son and goes to his room alone.

Suddenly, someone starts speaking with her through the baby monitor. At the same time, Beast says he knows who cloned Jean Grey: Mr. Sinister. The villain reveals to her she really is a clone and that his objective is to get Nathan for himself.

The clone doesn’t stand a chance against Sinister, as he made every cell in her body. Memories flood her mind, and she loses control of herself as a red diamond appears on her forehead. Then, she uses her powers to modify her clothes and destroy her pictures with Xavier and the X-Men.

Morph, Wolverine, and Gambit leave the Danger Room and go on their way to do other things, but start noticing strange things. Morph finds Logan in the shower, but he suddenly becomes a monster. Gambit sees Rogue and Magneto glued to each other’s skins and enveloped in a green light.

Meanwhile, the horror movie Roberto and Jubilee becomes more real than they expected and a creature comes out of the TV. It has the face of Roberto’s mother and calls him a monster, a failure, and a liar.

Strange creatures and visions are also attacking Beast, Bishop, and Cyclops. When the entire team gathers in the same place, they descend into what looks like hell. Even more monsters attack them, but now they can use their powers together to deal with them. As a giant demonic sentinel appears making things hopeless again, the real Jean uses her powers to save everyone.

Unfortunately, it’s not the X-Men’s win for now. The clone, now calling herself the Goblin Queen, takes Nathan with her and goes to Mr. Sinister. Luckily, Morph knows where his lab is.

Sinister says the combination of Jean and Cyclops’ powers makes Nathan’s potential unlimited, but first, he needs to be invulnerable. So, he puts the baby inside a strange machine with green chemicals and activates it.

As the X-Men enter the villain’s mansion, they find the Goblin Queen waiting for them. Morph turns into Magik, but she messes with their mind, turning them into a demonic version of the girl. Magneto tries to capture the clone using the windows, but she easily sends so many objects towards him that he can’t even repel them.

So, Cyclops hits her with his optic blast. However, he stops and says he’s sorry when he sees she’s bleeding. The Goblin Queen takes advantage of that to get closer to him and enter his mind.

At the mansion, Jean Grey wakes up again, and Logan helps her adjust to her powers. With them, she sees Scott is in trouble so she starts talking with her clone. The Goblin Queen is furious, blaming the woman for stealing her life. As they go together through a journey inside their memories, they find Annie, a friend from Jean whose death made her powers manifest.

When they see Nathan’s birth, the clone gets control of herself again and offers Scott help. They go after Sinister and save the baby, but the villain says they actually doomed him. Suddenly, a techno-organic virus starts taking over Nathan’s body.

After analyzing it, Beast says there’s no way to fix that with the current technology. So, the clone Jean proposes they take Nathan to the future with Bishop. However, his time band can only take him and the boy through time. Having been abandoned before, Scott refuses the idea and says he could never do that with his child. Unfortunately, no one sees another alternative.

Later, Jean uses her telepathy to tell the boy he is perfect and his parents love him dearly. Every time he feels alone, he can remember that and feel her comfort. Then, Bishop takes the baby and goes to the future, vanishing before her eyes.

After that, the real Jean finds the clone, now calling herself Madelyne Pryor, leaving the mansion. Even though she tries to stop her, Madelyne says she wants to live her own life and that they can’t know how or when Sinister switched them. So, they say their goodbyes, and the clone goes away.

Far away, Forge, an old friend of Xavier, finds Storm and tells her he wants to help her get back what she has lost.

The Episode Review

The episode rushes a bit through some things at the start, which might bother a few people. For example, when Beast says Jean is a clone, it’s hard to believe no one would try to vouch for her, mainly Scott. Also, she is the only one who seems shocked by the fact, as if it’s something normal to everyone else.

However, it quickly develops that plot, and Sinister reveals himself and transforms the clone into an evil puppet of his. When the episode focuses on the fears of the other X-Men and the action scenes, it helps you set your mind on the story it’s really trying to tell. Also, having Madelyne and Jean see their memories together and talk is a great way to show their complex relationship and solve the clone problem.

It’s a bit sad the cartoon adapts Inferno, a famous comic arc, into only one episode. However, the adaptation is done nicely and even manages to give us some good fanservice, like seeing Magik. Also, it’s incredible how it can explain well something built throughout several chapters. The writers and the whole team deserve a lot of praise for that.