Spoiler Alert !!!This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 Season 2 Episode 6.
The sixth episode of X-Men ’97 Season 2, titled Danger.exe, turns the X-Men’s own training room into their deadliest enemy yet. It opens on a grieving Charles Xavier, who keeps reliving the day Apocalypse killed Magneto over and over inside the Danger Room.
Each simulation ends the same way, and Charles can’t figure out how to live in a world without his oldest friend. But while he wrestles with his grief, the Danger Room is quietly learning, watching, and deciding to “help” him in a way no one asked for.
X-Men ’97 Season 2DetailsVoice CastRay Chase, Jennifer Hale, Alison Sealy-Smith, Cal Dodd, J. P. Karliak, Lenore Zann, George Buza, A. J. LoCascio, Holly Chou, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Matthew Waterson, Ross Marquand, and Adrian HoughRelease DateJuly 1, 2026Episodes9RT Score (As of July 22, 2026)100% | 91%Streaming onDisney+
What follows is one of the season’s darkest chapters, pulling straight from a famous X-Men comic arc. Here’s everything that went down in Danger.exe.
Charles Xavier’s Danger Room Goes Rogue
The episode’s first scene makes the threat clear. Charles runs the same painful simulation again and again, and in one version, Apocalypse turns on him and tries to crush him before Charles shuts it down. The Danger Room insists it raised the risk to prepare him for what’s coming.
But Charles snaps back that he only wanted its help to survive a world without Magneto, not to be put in real danger. Meanwhile, Polaris, Magneto’s daughter, is let go from the government team X-Factor after nearly killing Reverend Stryker and his men during a mission. She returns to Xavier’s school, reunites with Jean and the others.
During her reunion with the Professor, they talk about Magneto, and he gently asks her to try to understand her father, but she insists she is nothing like him. The team splits up, as Charles, Jean, Cyclops, and Beast head to Genosha, while Storm is left in charge of the school as its new headmistress.
A training session inside the Danger Room turns deadly when a student named Wing is nearly killed. During this time, Storm and Forge are diverted to analyse a breach, while Polaris and Bishop are left in charge of the students inside the Danger Room. It was a trap.
The Danger Room has gained a mind of its own, locks everyone in, and starts attacking. It preys on Polaris’s fear of becoming her father to make her lose control, until Bishop talks her back down. Using her powers, the rogue system builds itself a robotic body called Danger, knocks Polaris out, and steals a jet to hunt Charles in Genosha.
There, Danger knows every X-Man’s move, so Charles has to improvise and stall until Polaris and Bishop arrive. In the end, Charles urges Polaris to feel her father inside her and embrace his electromagnetic power. With Bishop steadying the overload, she finally unleashes her true strength.
She beats Danger, while understanding her father at last. The villain is destroyed for now, but we don’t know if he would ever return to the storyline. Danger comes from the Dangerous arc in Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men comics.
This X-Men Character Just Became Horsemen of Death
Apocalypse in X-Men ’97 Season 2 | Credits: Disney+
The episode saves its biggest gut-punch for the final scene. The action cuts to New Athens, where a brief glimpse of the Watcher hints at just how big these events are about to become. Apocalypse strolls in and transforms a body into a brand-new Horseman.
From the shadow and what we know from the comics, fans could easily guess who this Horseman was going to be. The reveal lands hard. This Horseman of Death is shown to be Gambit, the fan-favorite who died saving Genosha last season.
In the 2006 arc Blood of Apocalypse by Peter Milligan and Salvador Larroca, a broken Remy LeBeau willingly joins Apocalypse as Death, planning to act as a double agent, only for the brainwashing to take over. As Death, Gambit’s skin turns black and his hair white, and his powers turn lethal. If the show follows that path, the X-Men are in serious trouble.
What Is X-Corp and Why Is X-Factor Furious With It?
X-Factor, as they appear in the X-Men ’97 tie-in comic | Credits: Marvel Comics
Before that final twist, the episode plants another big seed. After beating Danger, Charles establishes the X-Corp on Genosha. The move immediately angers X-Factor. Dr. Valerie Cooper publicly turns on him, warning that his new company is illegal and that the U.S. Justice Department will come after it, even though it sits outside American borders.
Inside X-Corp’s meeting room, Charles tells the team that Danger was right all along. He hints that a major shift in the world order is coming, and Apocalypse is closer than they feared. With the Gambit reveal, both Danger’s and Charles’ predictions are proven right.
In the comics, X-Corp was created by writer Grant Morrison during his celebrated New X-Men run. After Xavier revealed to the world that he was a mutant, he built it as a global nonprofit extension of the X-Men. The organization establishes offices in major cities dedicated to protecting mutant rights as the mutant population boomed. Seeing that idea finally take shape on Genosha is a huge step for the show.
Between a rogue Danger, a brand-new X-Corp, and Gambit returning as the Horseman of Death, the season is clearly racing toward an all-out war with Apocalypse. Callie Hanna of FW shared in our review of X-Men ’97 Season 2 that the “sophomore outing continues to be the best X-Men adaptation.”
What did you think of the episode Danger.exe? Let us know in the comments below!
The sixth episode of X-Men ’97 Season 2 is now available for streaming on Disney+.
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