Previously, on X-Men! Bastion is revealed to be the true mastermind behind the Genosha massacre. Trask is transformed into a Prime Sentinel. Magneto is revealed to still be alive. Cable is back.
The first part of this season finale trilogy raises the stakes even more than before, as Bastion’s plan unfolds (the mysterious “OZT” which stands for Operation Zero Tolerance), resulting in normal humans transformed into a new, upgraded breed of Sentinels. All of them doing his bidding, hunting down mutants starting with the X-Men being their first targets. We also learn a bit more about Bastion himself, see more family dynamics in regards to the Summers, some exciting action scenes and more cameos than expected. And all this is only the beginning of the “Tolerance is Extinction” arc.
Bastion is revealed to have once been a kid named Sebastion, normal for the most part though he keeps “hearing” machines. His father was infected by Sentinel tech from the future, courtesy of Nimrod, which resulted in Sebastion being a descendant of all forms of Sentinels past and future, but also evolved from all this into the villain he is in the present. His plan is to create a new apex species that would replace mutants, like humans replaced Neanderthals. All this in hopes he would build an utopia where mutants would be enslaved. A future that happens, according to Cable. Using the fear that most normal humans have of them being replaced by mutants, as they think the future favors these evolved beings, Bastion infects several people all over the world with a Techno Organic Virus strain (similar to Cable, again), which re-writes their DNA and basically weaponizes them. They have no memories of this ever happening but can be activated and turned into Prime Sentinels at any time and do Bastion’s bidding.
It’s all a pretty diabolical plot but makes for a good villain scheme. It’s also worth noting that as many other villains, Bastion doesn’t see himself as evil or anything of the sort. Mister Sinister is his partner in all of this but claims he is only going along with it to have more test subjects for his own twisted experiments. Plus, we get some nice cameos from other villains from the Marvel Universe, such as a certain Latverian OZT member (*cough* Doctor Doom *cough*) or Baron Zemo. Val Cooper also seems to be involved but does have some second thoughts, and disagrees with their methods. This results in her ultimately freeing the captive Magneto, realizing he has been right all along in regards to human-mutant relations. Her actions bring Bastion’s wrath upon her.
As for the X-Men, there’s plenty of stuff going on there, as well. For starters, the 
Summers family drama, with Cyclops and Cable trying to reunite, and Jean knowing she’s not Nathan’s biological mother but does share and even feels some of Maddie’s memories of giving birth to him. Thanks to some words of wisdom from Nightcrawler (i.e., “Blood is blood. Family is a choice.”) the three do seem to be able to work together fairly well, investigating Bastion’s hometown, meeting his mother and learning of his origin, before his mother and the other townsfolk are turned into Prime Sentinels and attack. It all leads to some cool action scenes, with some humor sprinkled throughout as well. At least this part of the Summers family seems to be on better terms since the family tree is more complex and hasn’t really been explored or explained yet in this animated continuity.
At the Mansion, Rogue is still injured and unconscious due to the fight with Trask in the previous episode and as such she misses out on the action this time. Trish Tilby is also a Prime Sentinel, and attacks Beast and the others. With Bastion broadcasting proof that Professor Xavier is still alive, the Mansion is also surrounded by protestors (who believe the X-Men faked his death only to gain more sympathy and trick others into supporting mutants), most of them also transforming into Prime Sentinels and causing more damage. Wolverine and a sword-wielding swashbuckling Nightcrawler hold their ground rather well, and again some neat action scenes ensue.
Meanwhile, Jubilee and Roberto are also under attack by Prime Sentinels inside a mall (where Jubilee got herself a new costume but don’t worry, she keeps the yellow trench-coat). Their fight scenes aren’t as impressive, at least in contrast to the others, but Roberto does turn his entire body into solar energy to escape, only to crash the party his mother was hosting, a fundraiser for the victims in Genosha. His mother foolishly also allows the Sentinels to take away her son (and Jubes), thinking it’s for their own good. While the action wasn’t on par with the rest of the episode, this still had a pretty dramatic effect.
The Prime Sentinels are stopped when the freed Magneto sends out an electro-magnetic wave that affects tech all over the globe. But in doing so, he also basically declares war. Logan seems to be the only one who realizes this. On a more positive note, Xavier is now back so things should get even more interesting in the following episodes. Storm is still absent, but the episode was getting a bit too crowded already, and there’s still time for her to come to the aid of her teammates and family.
The episode also includes a few neat cameos, such as the villains mentioned before, all aware of Bastion’s actions. Morph also provides another cameo in the form of Juggernaut, during the fight at the Mansion. In Cable’s future flashbacks, we also see a few older mutants like Polaris or Rachel Summers (as if things weren’t complicated and confusing enough as it is). Then, during Magneto’s wave we also see the likes of Silver Samurai, Omega Red… and Spider-Man. Long-time fans might remember he briefly popped up on the original series as well (shooting a web to save someone during the “Phoenix Saga”) but will most likely remember the big cross-over on Spider-Man’s own show from the ’90s, where the X-Men guest-starred for a two-part episode. Strom also returned later on Spidey’s show to help out during their version of the “Secret Wars” story-line. I’d love to see more of him, either more cameos here or perhaps a continuation of sorts to his own series, similar to how this X-Men ’97 was produced. But for now, this was a nice treat.
Overall the episode was quite entertaining and as mentioned before, only the first act for this season finale. It started out with a bang, and hopefully it will go out in style, as well.
