X-Men ’97 is in the endgame now — and this show is holding nothing back! Not that X-Men ’97 was ever restrained, mind you. We’ve been getting mile-a-minute, pulse-pounding, in-your-face action ever since the premiere. But the first part of the three-part finale, “Tolerance is Extinction,” really delivered in every way possible. SPOILERS — You want a Summers family reunion? You want Nightcrawler buckling multiple swashes? You want Wolverine going full airborne berserker rage? You want Spider-Man? You want it, you got it!

On top of all that, you know that “Tolerance is Extinction: Part 1” was jam-packed full of deep cut comic book references, Easter eggs, and foreshadowing. There’s a lot going on here, including one truly mind-blowing reveal! Below you will find a whole bunch of X-Men Easter eggs from Episode 8, “Tolerance is Extinction: Part 1.” SPOILER warning, obviously, but you knew that! What are you waiting for? Our deep dish — I mean deep dive into X-Men ’97 Episode 7 awaits you!

1. This show — ! I am floored. Okay: so, no, there’s nothing new in the opening credits this time. No old sequences have been re-animated and no new cast members have been added. But I’m not floored by anything new; I’m floored by the reveal of what’s been in the opening credits all along.

   Prime Sentinels.

   This damn show hid Prime Sentinels in the opening credits from the very first episode!

   The original X-Men series from the ’90s also had humans running between the clashing heroes and villains at the climax of the opening, so this was never worth pointing out before this episode. But now we know: those people were Prime Sentinels all along!

   Not only that, one bad dude in particular has had quite a journey from the opening credits to Episode 8.

   This guy went from chasing Roberto in the opening credits to attacking the UN during Episode 2’s January 6th allegory to becoming a Prime Sentinel in Episode 8. What a… makeover. I wouldn’t call this a glow up, even though his eyes are certainly glowing (behind those shades).

3. When Cable explains to the X-Men that he’s been unable to alter the Genoshan genocide, despite using his time travel tech to make countless attempts. That’s when Beast chimes in and mentions that “the mystics of Kamar-Taj speak of absolute points,” a.k.a. points in time that are so pivotal, across all of the multiverse, that the timeline actively fights against all who try to change it. In the MCU, Kamar-Taj is where Doctor Strange learned of the mystic arts. And in the What If…? episode “What If Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?,” the Sorcerer Supreme comes up against an absolute point in time whilst trying to prevent the love of his life from dying.

4. While at Roberto’s mom’s penthouse apartment, Jubilee gets a brief earful from William Stryker via the WHiH news network. This is a big deal because Reverend William Stryker is one of the leading anti-mutant zealots in the Marvel Universe. His sermons of hate first stirred up a lot of trouble in the landmark X-Men graphic novel “God Loves, Man Kills.” Published in 1982, “God Loves, Man Kills” — written by Chris Claremont with art by Brent Anderson — caused a bit of a stir. Having the X-Men — superheroes — fight a nefarious Christian evangelist didn’t sit right to people who missed the whole point of the X-Men.

   For 2003’s X2: X-Men United, the character of Reverend Stryker was updated to be a man of military instead of a man of a twisted faith and played by Brian Cox.

5. First up we have Cable’s flash-forward to the future — or I guess it’s a flashback to his past. Whatever — we see the “utopia” that Bastion built by “upgrading” humans with Sentinel technology. The few remaining mutants are put to work doing slave labor. Those mutants include two still unnamed mutants who debuted way back in X-Men Season 1, “Days of Future Past Part 1.”

   Also shown are Polaris and Rachel Summers.

   Then during Bastion’s conference call, we get speaking cameo appearances from Fantastic Four villain Doctor Doom and Captain America antagonist Baron Zemo.

   And last but not least, we get a trio of cameos as Magneto’s EMP wave engulfs Earth, shutting down all electronics. Those cameos are Spider-Man in Manhattan, Silver Samurai in Japan, and Omega Red in Russia.

   Spider-Man is, duh, Spider-Man — and he’s the same Spider-Man from the 1994 animated series. Silver Samurai is primarily a Wolverine antagonist, and he appeared in the X-Men Season 4 episode “The Lotus and the Steel.” And Omega Red just hates everybody, especially Wolverine and Colossus, and he debuted in the Season 2 episode “Red Dawn.”

6. These writers pulled from nearly 30 years of X-Men comics in order to make this episode happen. Here are just some of the references that I clocked!

   X-Factor #38 (March 1989) — Jean Grey’s memories are now merged with Madelyne Pryor’s

   X-Men #25 (October 1993) — Magneto creates an EMP wave to disrupt all of Earth

   X-Force #28 (November 1993) — Roberto uses his powers to fly for the first time

   X-Men #65 (June 1997) — Bastion rolls up to the under siege X-Mansion

   Generation X #28 (June 1997) — Meet Bastion’s Sentinel sidekick Daria

   Machine Man/Bastion ’98 (June 1998) — Bastion’s origin — and “mother” — revealed

   New X-Men #115 (August 2001) — A wild Tri-Sentinel destroys Genosha

   X-Men #13 (June 2014) — Jubilee gets a new look. Also she’s a vampire and a teen mom — it’s an incredibly long story that I hope X-Men ’97 never touches.