Episode:Night of the Sentinels, Part Two

Picking up from the previous episode, the X-Men face their first failure. Although their mission is a success they face an embarrassing defeat and loose two valuable members.

Story
In Washington DC, the X-Men have broken into the Mutant Control Agency headquarters and are about to open a door on several heavily armed guards. Wolverine stops Storm when he smells the guards' gun oil. Storm then blasts the door open with a strong gust of wind that also knocks down all the guards.

Outside, several vehicles arrive to unload troops. Cyclops, Rogue, and Gambit attempt to keep them away from the building. Inside, Morph clears the file room of several guards by pretending to be their commander. Beast begins work on deleting the computer databanks while the others work on destroying the hard copies.

In Detroit, Michigan Jubilee wakes up in an abandoned factory of US Motors strapped to an assembly line. The man who was at her house, revealed to be Henry Peter Gyrich, interrogates her through the sound system about the mall. A man named Bolivar Trask enters and asks why they kidnapped a mutant so early. Gyrich is angry that Trask is building the Sentinels too slowly.

Outside the headquarters Rogue, Cyclops, and Gambit are subduing the guards without harming them. Meanwhile, the others finish destroying the files. As they are escaping several Sentinels ambush them in the forest. As one of them fires Jean Grey suddenly screams in agony as she is hooked up to Cerebro. When Xavier investigates why he realizes he cannot find Morph at all.

The Blackbird returns to the mansion without Beast and Morph. Cyclops disembarks. Wolverine follows and punches him hard in the gut. The two almost come to more blows when Jean interrupts. She tells them that Beast is still alive but Morph isn't. Wolverine leaves but before he does he rips the roof of Cyclops' car.

During a flashback, it is shown that the Sentinel was initially trying to hit Wolverine and Morph saved him. When coming to their rescue Beast is hit with another blast and knocked into the electric fence. Despite the best efforts of the X-Men, they are no match for the oversized robots. The X-Men retreat to the Blackbird. Wolverine tries to go back for Beast and Morph but Rogue stops him by using her absorbing powers.

Back in the present and at the headquarters, a weakened Beast is arrested. A Sentinel tries to take him but the guards tell it that it was sent to help, not take over. Later, Gyrich goes to Beast's cell to ask him some questions but Beast refuses. The President of the United States of America comes on and says that mutants attacked the Federal Security Agency headquarters but the attack was foiled by use of experimental robots.

While in a pool hall, Logan ticks off some of the locals and reveals that he's a mutant. Scott arrives and tells him that they can locate the Sentinel home base, which intrigues Logan.

At the White House, the President meets with Gyrich to congratulate him on his program and to stop his privately run mutant registration program. She says they were willing to sacrifice their lives to destroy their files and wonders if they had good reason. Gryrich angrily leaves and receives a call from Jubilee's father. Scott is there and tells the two parents that Jubilee might have been kidnapped by the Sentinels. The father tells him that he should leave because he was told to call Gyrich if anyone came asking about Jubilee. Outside, Scott is attacked by a Sentinel but damages it and it then returns to its home base. The Blackbird is tracking it on radar and follows it.

Back at the old US Motors factor, Trask takes a break from making Sentinels to hear from Gyrich that the government support of mutant registration has ending. They are moving the project overseas in case funding is cut for the Sentinel program. The broken Sentinel crash lands in the factory damaging a power generator. The loss of power allows Jubilee to escape. On her way out Jubilee gets caught between several Sentinels. Cyclops appears and knocks them all down. The rest of the X-Men arrive and begin destroying the Sentinels.

Finally back at home, Jubilee thanks her parents for all that they've done. But Xavier's school is the best place for her so she leaves. Jubilee arrives at her new home. Scott questions the decision he made to leave Beast and Morph behind but Jean says he did what he had to do.

Quotes
"Remember, no humans are to be harmed."
 * -Cyclops

"As Archimedes said when he discovered the principal of displacement…eureka!"
 * -Beast

"You've already made life miserable for your foster parents. And as your mutant powers grow you'll become a danger to everyone around you." "It's not my fault. I can't help the way I was born."
 * -Gyrich and Jubilee

"Don't mess with the X-Men!"
 * -Recording of Gambit

"Though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry. John Wesley."
 * -Beast

"''Hey! Tin Woodsman! I'm sending you back to Oz! In pieces!"
 * -Wolverine

"Wolverine! Pull back!"
 * -Morph's last words

"You know nothing little man. Next time, I use these." [pulls out claws] "I've taken about enough from you!" "Let's do it. Let's see how tough you are when you're not giving orders."
 * -Wolverine and Cyclops

"Soldier boy here left them behind! For all we know, Morph and Beast could still be alive!" "Beast is." "What about Morph!?"
 * -Wolverine and Jean Grey

"COWARDS! ALL OF THEM!"
 * -Wolverine

"What happened wasn't his fault. Wolverine! What happened isn't yours either."
 * -Jean Grey

"I go where I wanna go."
 * -Wolverine

"I'll avenge you my friend. I swear it."
 * -Wolverine

"You wouldn't hit a man with glasses, would you?"
 * -Scott Summers

"Surrender mutant."
 * -Sentinel

"THIS ONE'S FOR YOU MORPH!"
 * -Wolverine

"You guys are the best foster parents I ever had. But Professor Xavier's school is…the best place for people like me."
 * -Jubilee

Trivia

 * The title is most likely inspired by the movie Night of the Living Dead.
 * Names listed on the Mutant File include Michael Booton, Geri Bryan, Andy Hamilton, Chris Hamilton, Ray Sherman, Corbin Went, and John Wesley.
 * The robots are finally given the name of Sentinels.
 * First appearance of Cerebro.
 * Morph would probably have lived if he remembered that Wolverine could heal himself and the blast wouldn't have killed him.
 * Amazingly, one Sentinel blast killed Morph but Beast was hit with another and subsequently knocked into an electric fence and survived. Though this could be explained by saying that the Sentinels can increase the power of their blasts and they knew to use a stronger blast for Wolverine. Rogue is also hit but she has greater strength and endurance.
 * First mention of adamantium.
 * First use of Rogue's absorbing powers.
 * First appearance of the President, an unnamed woman. She would remain so until Robert Kelly was elected at the end of this season.
 * When addressing the nation, the President said that mutants attacked the Federal Security Agency, not Mutant Control Agency. It may be a goof, or the Mutant Control Agency actually part of the FSA, and not private as Professor X had thought.
 * Had Wolverine gone back Mister Sinister never would have healed Morph and he never would have come back at all.
 * The lisense plate of Jubilee's taxi is 5052 4.

Inconsistencies

 * When Morph tricks the guards he transform apparently into the outline of Gambit, but a second later he's his old self again.
 * Gambit never said the words that Gyrich repeats the Jubilee. Either this is an inconsistency or it was recorded at another time. But since Xavier previously said how they just became public the latter seems unlikely.
 * There are times when Gambit's eyes are normal (white eyeballs with black irises).
 * After Rogue absorbs Wolverine's strength the glove she took off is suddenly switched, and it would seem her body suit suddenly covers her whole hand.
 * In the factory one of the Sentinels fires a beam out the top of its hand several times.
 * At one point Wolverine appears almost as large as a Sentinel, then is the size of its torso.

Continuity
According to Trask, they have not yet made a hundred Sentinels, which Gyrich berates him for. This may be why they designed Master Mold.

Morph apparently dies in this episode. Although it would be revealed that Mister Sinister saved him. He would come back in "Till Death Do Us Part, Part One".

Trask and Gyrich eventually move the Sentinel operation overseas to Genosha.

Background
Morph was created specially for the series. In fact he was designed specifically to be killed off, in order to show how serious the show was. He does seem to be based on Changeling. Changeling was chosen because of his past ties to the X-Men, as well as his deceased status in the comics. The character proved to be so popular that he came back later in the series and a version appeared in the comics.

The original "preview" airing of this episode (which aired only once) featured many mistakes which were corrected with the version that aired starting January 9, 1993. The opening credits still had the same mistakes as the first episode; the perspective of Wolverine against the Sentinel made them both look the wrong size; Rogue's bare hand was green like her bodysuit instead of bare when touching Logan; Gambit's eyes were colored normal often; Gambit's expression when touching Wolverine's shoulder after losing Morph was less sad (and the background colored wrong); Beast still had a lack of shading; Storm's lightning attacks against the Sentinels were missing effects; Rogue smashed into the ground without leaving an impact crater; the guard taking Beast didn't talk back to the Sentinel; Wolverine stabbing the Sentinel in the back wasn't as long a scene; and the shot of Cyclops firing at a Sentinel was missing.

At some point following the original broadcast of the first season, Storm's voice actress changed from Iona Morris to Alison Sealy-Smith. This was the first episode known to be redubbed with that change.

Reaction
"Stu" of Marvel Animation Age felt the episode really picked up from the previous. The battle in the woods was brilliant. Losing two members in four minutes was memorable and killing a character in a Saturday morning cartoon show was unheard of at the time. Sending Beast to prison was well done and eventually paid off. It was good despite a few mistakes. The main problem being that Jubilee comes off as annoying throughout the entire series.

On TV.com the episode has a rating of 9.0 Superb.