What's Next?

we have it in tas when wolverine comes looking for morph - what morph specifically calls back to this episode, that wolverine didn't give up on them when they'd been turned against their friends and not themself, so they're not giving up on him - and that time, morph is pushing wolverine away, challenging him on why he'd show up at all - and they do the 'maybe it's love you're missing' (the. Implications.) and shapeshifts into Jean and wolverine freezes at the sight of Jean, so morph makes a run for it

then the end of s1 of 97 picks up the thread with wolverine being unconscious from his injuries, and morph has the 'she can't say it but I can' and shapeshifts into jean for the *i love you stay with me*

so morph shapeshifts into jean deliberately knowing wolverine's response, and wolverine freezes at the sight of jean, are both parts of an established beat

so that morph shapeshifts into jean and that shocks wolverine out of the brood control and he freezes in his attack is entirely predictable to the audience, and also to morph

what makes this devastating is that's not the first thing morph tries, that it comes after morph tried to talk wolverine down themself - and they don't just switch strategies when it looks bad, no. Wolverine literally stabs them and shows no sign of stopping, it is emphatically clear that they can't get brood-infected wolverine to stop. but jean can. it's not that brood wolverine is too far gone for anything to reach him, morph is not able to reach him.

and it's so well set up for morph to do this, and not turn to their previous move of shapeshifting into jean, because all episode people have been needling at morph that oh, you're tagging behind wolverine, you're loyal to wolverine and it's not going to work out for you. when morph is insisting they go back for wolverine they're getting this from the others again, and that's when they specifically bring up that wolverine had come back for them. the 'look, he cares about me too'. that's what morph is set up to try and prove.

so of course when it comes to it they try to talk wolverine down themself! of course! they trust that wolverine will stop himself, and that's what we the audience are primed to expect !! that's the trope, that the character being mind controlled either stops at the last second it comes back to themself upon realizing what they've done, and neither of those is what happens! wolverine stabs morph and is still ready to keep attacking until morph shapeshifts into jean

which in its own way is such a good mirror for the tas case that morph specifically references! there wolverine is showing up for morph and the sight of jean knocks him off course, deliberately on morphs part, because they're trying to push wolverine away when wolverine is trying to show up. here morph is trying to get wolverine to show up for them, to prove that he will, and wolverine, brood infection and all, freezing at the sight of jean, like morph has seen him do before, is the line of 'he could have showed up but he didn't for you'.

and whatever else happens, as long as morph has that memory they're always going to know wolverine would stop for jean and not for them!!! just. a+++ everything is so fucked there is no way through this that isn't painful

also it's especially interesting in the context of what the show's done with wolverine and jean. because it's clear that it's not strictly an unrequited thing. before we even get end of season 1 morph shapeshifting into jean at wolverine's hospital bed we get cyclops saying 'don't you dare break her heart' and telling wolverine to live. It's never been wolverine has feelings for jean and jean has none for wolverine, it's been that jean does have feelings but she's always going to choose scott. and that choice will be enforced by wolverine. jean kisses him in season 1 and he's like nope! you are doing a thing in a low point and that isn't who you are, who you are is the jean grey who chooses scott summers.

all of which is especially interesting because of like. wolverine's general deal, right? are you defined by the "animal instinct" or are you the person? are you actually defined by what you react to instinctually and reflexively, by your gut feeling, by what you do on impulse in your lowest or darkest moments, what reaches you when your brain is full of alien parasite, or are you who you are when you're fully present and make choices?

because the way morph tells the story of what happens in tas is not about wolverine getting briefly, reflexively distracted by the image of jean, it's that wolverine tracked them down into the jungle in the first place because he wasn't going to give up on them

and it's especially interesting because the show hasn't really had space to delve much into de-adamantium'd wolverine going feral like in the comics, but the details, the design and body language,have played to that feral, instinct, 'animal with claws' you could say. and it seems like instead of it being a wolverine struggling to find personhood again kind of arc through that, it's not gotten that far, it seems like wolverine has taken whatever he was experiencing in that state as the 'animal with claws' being what defines him - so if that's what's defining him, he has to make himself the best weapon an animal with claws can be, by getting back his adamantium. The 'some of us gotta be one thing' - it's not 'some of us are one thing', it's a have to, it's an obligation or a duty. wolverine's response to morph's 'and you're only what? an animal with claws?' isn't 'yes' it's 'it's what I'm best at being' he knows there's more! but he thinks he's gotta be just this!

AND what's especially interesting with this juxtaposed with morph specifically goes back once AGAIN to that same bit of tas! because morph has specifically struggled with the 'is what comes out of you at your worst what defines you' through struggling with sinister's brainwashing and what of that was playing on genuine anger that was theirs. morph has HAD their 'i'm too fucked up to be around' arc, that's why they were pushing wolverine away during the tas arc!

and they couldn't come back until they were ready. it mattered that wolverine tried and it didn't bring them back.