While studying the orb that captured David, Cary says to himself "it's advanced, but not Shi'ar." This is a reference to the Shi'ar Empire in Marvel comics. They are an advanced alien race that uses technology to conquer worlds, and frequent enemies of the X-Men.
The first season was a little crazy, weird, but it was great! This is just hurtful how bored I am so far. What's going on?! What are the writers doing?!