X-Men ’97 Season 2 Episode 6, “Danger.exe,” hit Disney+ on July 22. It’s a Danger Room episode. It’s a Polaris episode. And it ends with Apocalypse making a new Horseman, which is the part everyone’s actually talking about.
X-Men ’97 Season 2 Episode 6 Plot Recap
Xavier’s in the Danger Room again, running the same simulation on loop: Magneto dying at Apocalypse’s hands. He’s using it to grieve. Bad idea, obviously. The alien tech he’s bolted onto the system finally gives the Danger Room’s AI a body of its own, and she stops taking orders.
Polaris walks away from X-Factor to deal with it. This is the episode’s best stretch. She flattens a wave of Danger’s constructs and drops the line “I’m not even at full power” without even looking winded. Fans have been comparing her to Wanda, Agatha, Sue Storm, the whole tier of Marvel women with cult followings on X and TikTok. This episode is the argument for why she belongs there.
Danger gets talked down, not fought down. Empathy over force, which is very “X-Men ’97.” Then the dominoes start falling: X-Corp gets founded on Genosha, the mansion crew splits to prep for Apocalypse, and a Watcher cameo in New Athens hints at how big this is about to get. Last shot of the episode: Apocalypse turns a body into a new Horseman. If you’ve been watching since Episode 5, you already know whose body that is.
Where Danger Comes From In The Comics
The show pulls Danger straight from Joss Whedon’s 2005 Astonishing X-Men run, condensing that whole arc into 30 minutes and swapping Polaris in for Kitty Pryde. It’s a deep cut for anyone who only knows the ’90s cartoon version of this team, but it fits.
Whedon’s version of Danger was the Danger Room’s operating system waking up angry at Xavier for treating her like furniture, and this episode keeps that core idea intact even while compressing years of comic plot into a single episode. Keep an eye out too for a Quentin Quire “Magneto Was Right” shirt buried in the background, a nod to Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run that’s been quietly feeding this season all along.
Is Danger.exe A Filler Episode?
Some fans are calling it filler, and season 2 only has nine episodes total, so every one of them gets scrutinized for pacing. Fair complaint. But Xavier’s grief and Polaris’ showcase both land, and the ending makes sure nobody’s calling it pointless by the credits.
CBR’s community threads had some real gripes, though. A few posters swear an earlier cut showed more of the wider mutant resistance during the Danger fight, Iceman going full power, Banshee pulling people out, even Sebastian Shaw saving Emma Frost.
Whatever got trimmed apparently took some emotional punch with it. Others pointed out the show never brings up that Polaris survived Genosha herself, which feels like a beat they set up and then just dropped.
What’s Next For X-Men ’97 Season 2
Three episodes left. Episode 7, “Strange Land Savage Heart,” airs July 29. “The Dead Man’s Hand” follows on August 5. The finale, “Survival Of The Fittest,” closes the season on August 12.
Xavier’s still grieving Magneto, and now Gambit’s back as a Horseman of Death. The back half has a lot to answer for, and critics have been kind so far. Rotten Tomatoes users gave “Danger.exe” a 9 out of 10, with most praise going to the way the episode sets up the Horsemen storyline without dragging its feet. Whether the show can stick the landing over its final three episodes is the actual question now.