X-Men '97 season 2, episode 7, "The Dead Man's Hand," finally reveals the full backstory of the X-Ternal, a mysterious villain who first appeared in a 1993 episode of X-Men: The Animated Series but was never fully explained. The reveal matters because it demonstrates how the revival series draws on decades of Marvel comics published since the original cartoon ended, allowing writers to enrich half-forgotten plotlines with material that simply did not exist when the source episode first aired.

The X-Ternal was originally introduced demanding a tithe from Louisiana thieves' guilds every ten years in exchange for power, but her true nature was left unexplained. X-Men '97 identifies her as Candra, one of the Externals, a group of immortal mutants tied to Apocalypse who were introduced in the 1992 comic X-Force #10. Earlier this season she appeared, unnamed, as a priestess to Pharaoh Rama-Tut (Kang the Conqueror) in Ancient Egypt, with Kang telling her before fleeing that Apocalypse "can only be challenged by a force that is External" — setting up her arc, which connects directly to Gambit's story in the new episode.