‘X-Men ’97’ Season 2 Episode 4 Review: A Pharaoh’s Rise Costs the X-Men Everything
Apocalypse has loomed over this season like a shadow waiting to fall, and in this fourth episode, titled Rise of Apocalypse Part II, that shadow finally swallows the light whole. The series splits its cast across three timelines this year, but it is the ancient Egypt thread, following Professor X and Magneto’s attempt to steer a young En Sabah Nur away from tyranny, that has carried the emotional weight of the season so far. This episode completes that two part arc, and it does not waste a single frame doing it.
‘X-Men ’97‘ has spent its run reintroducing viewers to characters they thought they understood from decades of comics and the original animated series, and En Sabah Nur is the boldest of those reintroductions. Watching him as a person rather than a myth, someone capable of trust and even gratitude before destiny closes its grip on him, gives this episode a tragic shape that most superhero television never bothers to attempt.
Once the truth of what he is meant to become is laid bare, the shift into Apocalypse is not staged as a triumphant villain reveal but as a mourning of what could have been. That distinction is what separates this episode from the rest of the season, and honestly from most of what Marvel has produced across any medium in years. The show trusts its audience to sit with loss rather than rushing past it toward the next fight.
Magneto’s death lands with a weight that feels earned rather than manufactured for shock value. His entire arc this season has been built around the belief that history, and people, can be changed through patience and empathy rather than force, and watching that belief get violently disproven by the very person he tried to save is devastating in a way that recalls the loss of Gambit without ever feeling like a repeat of it. The show understands that grief in serialized storytelling only works if each death carries its own distinct emotional fingerprint, and this one absolutely does.
The action itself deserves real credit too. The sequence built around Magneto shielding a city from a sentient, ancient warship is one of the most visually inventive set pieces the show has produced, blending scale and intimacy in a way that never sacrifices character clarity for spectacle. Beast gets a small but memorable beat once the true nature of the temple is revealed, and it is a welcome reminder that even in an episode this heavy, the show still knows how to have a little fun before the walls come down.
Professor Xavier’s reaction in the final moments is the episode’s most quietly unsettling choice. His willingness to excuse an act of horrifying violence out of grief suggests something darker stirring beneath his usual composure, and given what was done to Magneto’s psyche last season, that unease feels intentional rather than incidental. It is the kind of small character crack that rewards viewers who have been paying close attention since season one.
If there is a weakness here, it is that the episode leans so heavily on the Egypt storyline that the other two timelines barely register this week, leaving certain characters feeling parked rather than developed. It is a minor complaint against an otherwise tightly constructed hour, but noticeable given how ambitious this season’s split structure has been.
How did you like the episode?
By the time the credits roll, with a small tease involving Captain America and Wolverine pointing toward next week, it is clear this show remains one of the most confident pieces of blockbuster animation currently airing anywhere. Every risk taken here, from character death to tonal restraint, feels like the product of writers who actually understand what made these characters matter in the first place, rather than a team simply checking franchise boxes.
Taking everything from the animation to the emotional gut punch of its final act into account, this is one of the strongest hours the show has produced across either season. My score for ‘X-Men ’97’ Season 2 Episode 4 is 9 out of 10.
Do you agree with this verdict, or did Magneto’s death hit you differently? Share your take in the comments.
