X-Men: The Animated Series Review – “The Final Decision”

Previously on X-Men: We completed the “Days of Future Past” saga; Bishop’s time-traveling prevention of Senator Kelly’s assassination didn’t fix the future; it turns out Mystique was behind everything, not actually Gambit; and Magneto has kidnapped Senator Kelly.

Let’s get started!

Not-So-Short Summary: Humans really don’t like mutants; we open on a protest that’s taking place in dozens of cities across America. Apparently they don’t like their senators being taken hostage by rogue mutants.

Professor X muses alongside the X-Men as to the whereabouts of where Magneto may be with Kelly. While they could be anywhere, they do have Cerebro on their side.

Pan over to Magneto and Kelly. Magneto explains why he’s done the unthinkable: like Kelly, he does not believe in human/mutant equality or peaceful relations. The time of the mutants is now while humanity is still weak. Kelly’s assassination would have started the war he wanted and now it’s up to Magneto to finish what others (aka Apocalypse) have started.

He has heavy machinery floating above Kelly and when he goes to drop it from his control, a sentinel hand comes through the wall and saves him. Much like Days of Future Past (the movie) the sentinels are made of plastic, so Magneto has no control over the giant robot, who flies off with Kelly as Magneto has a showdown with other sentinels.

The X-Men arrive to find the fiery remains of where Magneto had been. They find the remains of sentinels and also a bloody, passed out Magneto, who they take back to the Mansion.

It’s Master Mold! He’s making sentinels that will have an order to destroy all mutants just as soon as Kelly becomes president. The newest sentinel is under Master Mold’s control, not Trask’s. Master Mold wants Trask to remove Kelly’s brain and replace it with a computer. Apparently sentinels are bringing leaders from all over the world to do the same thing.

The X-Men decide that to find the sentinels, the answer lies in Genosha, specifically Henry Peter Gyrich, who helped Trask do a lot of the dirty work. To corner him, Storm creates a snowfall, which crashes his car. Gyrich takes refuge in the Lincoln Memorial where Wolverine corners him.

Conveniently, Gyrich’s phone is on speaker and Trask is on the line, relaying everything Master Mold just told him so the X-Men hear it, too. He tells them there’s no point in trying to track down the sentinels’ home base because there are already thousands of them.

Meanwhile, Professor X has some good news, everyone! They have to rescue Senator Kelly to prevent a civil war from starting. Magneto stumbles in to tell them that they are idiots. Everyone goes to rescue Senator Kelly.

The X-Men find Master Mold’s lair and all of the sentinels are released into the night sky. Rogue is armed and ready with heavy trains; Storm gets a whirlwind going, and Jubilee takes out a water tower. Insert more mutant fighting montage where all the girls get hit at least once and Professor X in the jet spirals to the ground, only to be saved by Magneto.

Down below, Cyclops, Jean, Wolverine, and Gambit split up to find Senator Kelly. Wolverine locks Gambit out of a mine shaft to take on a dozen sentinels on his own, but he blasts through the door to help.

Trask is yelling at Master Mold and asking how he can make him do this to Senator Kelly. “You were designed to protect humans from mutants!” he claims. “That is not logical. Mutants are human,” Master Mold replies, and Trask’s reaction is hilarious.

Jean and Cyclops stumble upon this tirade and Jean uses her telekinesis to mobilicorpus Kelly out of the room. Naturally, Master Mold senses them and takes out Cyclops.

Trask aims a laser at a propane gas line as Jean, Cyclops, and Kelly retreat. The sentinels can sense that Master Mold is in danger and retreat underground, only to be caught in the explosion Trask started. Gambit and Wolverine are still underground, but are found by Cyclops in the nick of time.

Master Mold emerges from the fray to make a long, pointless speech about being indestructible, only to have Professor X fly the Blackbird into him, rigged with explosives. Let’s not worry about how they get home.

Senator Kelly returns to civilization and makes a speech to the public about how mutants are human, too, and we shouldn’t oppress them just because we don’t understand them…. as Beast is released from jail because of this.

We end with Cyclops asking Jean to marry him. This pans out to a computer screen watching the two of them with Mister Sinister cackling evilly. The episode ends. A fitting season finale, wouldn’t you say?

Badass Moment of the Week: “What is that object?” a sentinel asks, getting really close to the lit card. “It appears to be an Ace of Spades.” Insert explosion.

Best One-Liner: “Stop him gently, Storm,” Cyclops says.
“As gently as the falling snow,” she replies, with Gyrich’s car crashing into a tree. This is very accurate.

Cyclops makes a comment about not leaving anyone behind, so you know Morph is still on his mind. Keep that in mind as we continue onto next week’s episode, and that’s all I will say.

Magneto does a lot of grandstanding about keeping mutants and humans separate. It makes me wonder how long we have until the episode where he creates Asteroid M.

This is a very serious question: Is there anyone out there that likes Jubilee? I understand that I haven’t read enough of the comics to get a better take on her character, but she is over-the-top annoying teenager in this cartoon series. Someone please tell me she’s better in the comics.

“If we fail, there will be a Civil War.” It’s a comment made by Professor X. I like it for many reasons, but mostly because it seems like a great allusion to the Marvel Civil War… except for the fact that this episode is from 1993 and the Civil War series wasn’t published until 2006.

Slightly unrelated, but I have discovered Pushing Daisies. If you’ve never seen it, look into it because it is adorable and entertaining. Anyway, the two main characters can’t touch or else the girl will die, and watching it, I mentally picture Rogue and Gambit. It has really made me understand their situation better… which is probably weird for fictional people.

Come back next week when we start Season Two and we get to see Jean and Cyclops’s wedding! Or so it would seem!