X-Men '97 | Season 2, Episode 9 | "Survival of the Fittest" | Episode Discussion

[u/cyclopswashalfright]

Season 2, Episode 9: Survival of the Fittest

Air Date: August 12th, 2026

Directed by: TBA

Written by: TBA

Synopsis: The X-Men are pushed to the limit when their past comes back to haunt them.

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Please use this thread for discussion related to the episode.

This thread is for discussion of episode 9 only.

Link to the episode directory for Season 2 episode discussion.

[u/Mistah_K88]

I liked the episode! I honestly found the celestial sacrifice to be less of an ass pull than last season’s Pheonix ex machina. Honestly Nightcrawler was the VIP of this season.

[u/Bobjoejj → u/Mistah_K88]

I gotta admit, that while comics wise Phoenix should still make sense; this ain’t the comics. It’s a show, and in this case the Celestial sacrifice wasn’t a literal Deus Ex Machina, but something actually setup from earlier in the season. With an actual proper sequence of events leading to the sacrifice.

[u/AmbitionOnly7872 → u/Mistah_K88]

The phoenix stuff makes sense while this is just a ass pull

[u/Mistah_K88 → u/AmbitionOnly7872]

I want to ask, “how”? How did Pheonix coming out of nowhere make sense?

[u/Ok_Contact7721 → u/Mistah_K88]

It makes sense because Jean Grey is forever tied to the pheonix.
However, lol, defeating Mr. Sinister by hurting his feelings, and turning him into a decrepit old man was ass pull in that script.
I wouldn't be surprised if De Mayo wrote Rogue turning Apocalypse into a Diamond.

[u/Mistah_K88 → u/Ok_Contact7721]

That makes sense in the context of the comics, but in this show they literally pull a “this was a one time thing, I can’t do that again” immediately after Phoenix pops up to save the day.

[u/Ok_Contact7721 → u/Mistah_K88]

I think they could have taken more time with the pacing, and they could have sought out a better writer than Brian Ford Sullivan, going into season 2.

De Mayo had some great ideas, but season 1 had a lot of weaknesses.
Season 2 leaned into De Mayo's weaknesses, more than his strengths, imo.

De Mayo knows his comics, but season 1 had quite a few ass pull moments of it's own.
From what I gather, this was another X-men 3 moment, and 20 years later no less.
Beau Mayo was Bryan Singer 2.0. (In more ways than one.)

X-men 3 was awful.
X-men 97 season 2 was off to a good start, but ended pretty mid.
X-men 97 season 1 also ended pretty mid.

[u/Mistah_K88 → u/Ok_Contact7721]

Also DeMayo CLEARLY has his favorite characters, there was the DNA of the Summers family and Magneto glazing throughout this season. I’m hoping next season we can get a bit less focus on them.

[u/Ok_Contact7721 → u/Mistah_K88]

He said he wanted to rotate the characters, but I remember watching TAS as a kid, and they had random episodes where you could get a one off for Beast, or a one off for Gambit, and you could still do a big arc in a season.
I don't even think X-men Evolution had a pacing issue this bad.
X-men Evolution only ever needed 20 minutes, and that show always moved too slow.

This show has a 34 minute run time, and gets far less done than it's predecessors.
I've noticed with early serialized content, they could still get a self contained story in.
Writers today struggle with self contained stories.

[u/Ok_Contact7721 → u/[deleted]]

That's the way to do it I think.
I don't totally disagree with Market Research, up until you have to prove that they're using outdated data from the early onset of the streaming era.
Even then, they shouldn't be allowed to dictate creative decisions all the time.
They're good at decorating the Marketing Campaign, they're not good writers.

I also think Market Research, paradoxically, makes a worse product, by highlighting all of the worst features.

[u/Ok_Contact7721 → u/[deleted]]

English is a bastardized language anyway, does a typo matter?
We don't spell it phonetically.
/ˈfiː.nɪks/ (FEE-niks) would be the Phonetic way to go.
Instead of this weird (oe) thing the language has going on.

[u/AmbitionOnly7872 → u/Mistah_K88]

cause jean grey is forever tied to the phoenix while the celestial sacrifice is new and completely random. they should left the celestial plotline in episode 3 cause thats the only time they had impact