I think we can all thank X-Men ’97 for dialing all the drama back a bit this week, especially after last week’s absolutely brutal chapter in this unfolding saga. Any episode of X-Men ’97 that doesn’t include mass murder is a feel-good romp to me!

That’s not to say that Disney+‘s smash hit series didn’t deliver the moments this week, though. Not only did we get the conclusion to Storm’s journey to the center of her soul and her battle against the Adversary, we got to visit outer space and catch up with a character that should absolutely be dead… right? Right?! I know the episode is titled “Lifedeath,” but this is ridiculous!

Below you will find a whole bunch of X-Men Easter eggs from Episode 6, “Lifedeath – Part 2.” SPOILER warning, obviously, but you knew that! What are you waiting for? Our deep dish — I mean deep dive into X-Men ’97 Episode 6 awaits you!

1. You know ’em, you love ’em, they’re the X-Men ’97 opening credits and they act as an extension of the “previously on” montage. First up in the re-animated segments from the original series, we get some time-travel-y, Sentinel-y action originally seen in the Season 4 two-parter “One Man’s Worth.”

   Master Mold summoning Nimrod (4×9, “One Man’s Worth: Part I”)

   Bishop blasting away Nimrod (4×10, “One Man’s Worth: Part II)

   I want to interject and suggest that both the arrival of Cable, a time-traveler, and these callbacks to two time-travel episodes could be a clue that the events of the Genoshan massacre last week may be undone by some time travel tomfoolery before the season is over. I’m just saying…

   Then because of all the Shi’ar antics in this episode, we get re-animated clips from…

   The X-Men vs. the Imperial Guard (4×17, “The Dark Phoenix Saga, Part IV: The Fate of the Phoenix”)

   Xavier and Lilandra’s first contact (3×4, “The Phoenix Saga, Part II: The Dark Shroud”)

   And on a more somber note, after the events of last week’s episode, Nightcrawler has taken Gambit’s place in the opening credits. I’m not just talking about Nightcrawler’s new spot on the X-Men’s roll call, either. Nightcrawler literally took Gambit’s spot in the opening credits.

2. This guy is such a big deal that he has his very own explainer article on Decider. And his origin is so f’ing complicated that I truly cannot handle explaining it all over again here. The TL;DR of it is that Vulcan is Cyclops’ long lost brother and a megalomaniacal mutant with nearly infinite energy powers and an incredibly bad attitude. None of that is established in this episode, though. He just has a non-speaking, blink-and-miss cameo! If you want even more info, you can click on the link above!

3. Surprise — Professor X is not dead! Okay, that actually won’t come as a surprise to anyone who remembers the original series finale episode from 1997. In that ep, Xavier’s life is saved following an assassination attempt by his space girlfriend Lilandra. The Shi’ar Empress arrives on Earth right after Xavier flatlines. She tells the X-Men that Shi’ar medicine can pull Xavier back from death, and then she whisks him away in her spaceship, never to return. Instead of diving into this in the X-Men ’97 premiere, the show instead treated him as dead, because he is dead to the X-Men for all intents and purposes.

   This episode reintroduces Xavier into the narrative with him wearing some funky, incredibly ’90s Shi’ar space armor. This is the armor that Xavier wore in the comics in 1991 when he was reintroduced into the narrative after a similar incident. After having been whisked away to the Shi’ar galaxy 75 issues prior, Xavier returned in Uncanny X-Men #275 as Lilandra’s consort… except…

   Look: I don’t think there’s a need to really get into it, but in the comics, this ceremonial armor was actually worn by a Skrull impersonating Xavier for coup-related reasons. There is no reason to think that this Xavier in X-Men ’97 is a Skrull. It would make absolutely no sense whatsoever. I am 99.99% sure this is just a cool design from the ’90s that the animators wanted to use. Please, please no one make a 3 hour long YouTube explainer about how X-Men ’97’s Xavier is a Skrull.

4. When Forge casts a spell against the Adversary, the demon haunting Storm, he pulls a spell from a book of magic. This is, for one thing, a callback to the comics wherein Forge turned his back on the magic he learned from his tribe’s shaman. And the bigger Easter egg? The magic that Forge uses looks identical to how magic is depicted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — specifically the magic used by Doctor Strange and his associates, like Wong. I don’t think there’s anything to read into this, of course, but this is a nice visual signifier that X-Men ’97 is made by Marvel Studios.

5. Upon overcoming her demons and reclaiming not only her power but her identity, Storm literally transforms before our eyes into the goddess we remember — I mean, she turns into the goddess that we remember from her debut way, way back in 1975! This is original costume that Storm wore in her first appearance, designed by artist Dave Cockrum. It’s also the costume that she wore until 1983 when she adopted the mohawk and leather look, the look that we saw adapted into animation in X-Men ’97 Episode 3. Whether or not Storm will keep this costume, tiara and all, remains to be seen. We are getting a lot of Storm looks this season, and that’s nothing to complain about!