Bright Eyes marks a return to the central narrative of the season, picking up after the harrowing events and repercussions of Remember It.

The episode is steeped in a tangible atmosphere that deftly captures the intricate blend of sorrow and anger that ensues after a significant tragedy. The X-Men grieve for their lost allies and cope with their trauma in various ways. Rogue, as our point-of-view character, embodies this grief, transforming it into a drive for revenge, a journey brought to life by Lenore Zann‘s evocative and flawless portrayal.

With a renewed sense of purpose, Rogue ventures into the darkness to face figures from her past. By the time her fellow X-Men find her, she’s crossed the Rubicon, grappling with the moral quandary of whether the old rules still apply, if any rules exist at all, and if the good guys should ever resort to lethal force after suffering such a loss. She’s shattered, desolate, having lost everything, and is overwhelmingly furious.

Meanwhile, as the X-Men confront their own loss and the ambiguity of their future, a new menace emerges. Sinister plots and secret manoeuvres threaten to destroy the tenuous truce between mutants and humans. A war is on the horizon, and it seems the X-Men might already be on the losing side.

In a sombre moment for the X-Men, they gather to mourn the loss of Gambit. Meanwhile, Rogue, fuelled by anger, is on a relentless quest for Gyrich and Trask. Her journey leads her to General Thunderbolt Ross and Captain America, who provide her with crucial information. Rogue tracks down Gyrich in Mexico, where she absorbs his memories, only for him to be found dead later that evening.

Amidst the chaos, the X-Men, while aiding Genosha‘s recovery, receive a distress call from a frightened Trask in Madripoor. They swiftly dispatch Rogue to intercept him. In a heartfelt moment, Roberto and Jubilee confide in Roberto’s mother about his mutant identity, which she implores him to conceal.

In Madripoor, the X-Men uncover a clandestine operation by Sinister and the UN’s covert “OZT” division, who are engineering an advanced Sentinel program. Rogue, in a twist of fate, causes Trask’s demise, inadvertently triggering a transformation that morphs him into a human-Sentinel hybrid. Just when all seems lost, Cable makes a timely entrance, neutralizing Trask with an EMP and revealing Sinister’s alliance with a more formidable adversary.

The mastermind behind the turmoil, Bastion, who is also responsible for Gyrich’s murder, discloses that Xavier is not dead but alive in space. Moreover, Magneto, believed to have perished in the Genosha assault, is very much alive and held captive by Bastion.

At the funeral, the guest list reads like a who’s who of Gambit’s past: the Thieves Guild is in full attendance, with brother Bobby making an appearance, alongside ex-wife Bella Donna, fresh from her last turn in X-Ternally Yours. Then there’s the mystery woman with white hair – is she Questa from the Assassin’s Guild, Aurora from Alpha Flight, or Felicia Hardy, the infamous Black Cat? My money’s on Questa, just to keep things logical.

Meet General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, the Hulk’s nemesis who’s about to get a Ford makeover – yes, Harrison Ford is stepping in to fill the big, angry shoes of William Hurt in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as soon as Captain America: Brave New World.

Genosha’s getting crowded with cameos as the mutant roster rolls out appearances from Blob, Forearm, Angel Salvatore, Mimic, Strong Guy, Brainchild, and Amphibius. They’re not just there for show; they’re on a mission to find survivors.

Amelia Voght, the mutant who once stole Charles Xavier’s heart and dabbled in Magneto’s Acolyte antics, is back. Last spotted trading her spandex for a nurse’s uniform on Muir Island in The Phalanx Covenant, she’s been around since the epic Uncanny X-Men #300.

And in the latest superhero misunderstanding, Rogue and Captain America, former teammates in the Uncanny Avengers, are proving that even super-powered beings can have super-sized tiffs. The Captain’s on a timeout trek after ruffling the feathers of our feisty Southern Belle. In a cute meta-joke, the licence plate of Cap’s jeep has a reference to Avengers Annual #10 – Rogue’s first appearance in comics.

Operation Zero Tolerance, or O.Z.T., is the ’90s X-Men saga where Bastion became the poster child for anti-mutant mania. The drama unfolded with a bang in X-Men #65, where Bastion made a grand entrance by blasting the X-Men’s jet from the sky!

In a twist that shocked no one, Callisto and Leech, our beloved Morlocks, were confirmed to have not made it out alive. Emma Frost, on the other hand, pulled a shiny move straight out of the comics, triggering her diamond form to shield herself from trauma as in New X-Men #116.

The family tree got a little more tangled with Nightcrawler and Rogue, as X-Men Blue: Origins #1 spilled the beans on their lineage. Nightcrawler’s the blue-skinned offspring of Mystique and Destiny, while Rogue’s the adopted branch of this mutant family tree. This series gets kudos for not shying away from this sibling revelation.

Bastion’s debut in X-Men #52 was just the start of his sinister plan to turn unsuspecting humans into Prime Sentinels, essentially sleeper agents that could go full murderbot at the flip of a switch.

After giving Bastion the slip in Wolverine #115, the X-Men stumbled upon a ‘clinic’ with a side gig of converting humans into these lethal machines. Poor Bolivar Trask, who we first met in Night of the Sentinels, became a ‘prime’ example of this.

For a change of pace, Morph decides to take a walk in Quicksilver’s speedy shoes, the son of Magneto and a member of X-Factor.

Lifedeath (Part 2) | Tolerance is Extinction (Part 1)