Maxance Vincent
Warning: the following article contains spoilers for episode seven of What If…? – Season 2.
We are now at the penultimate episode of What If…? – Season 2, which directly sees Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) interact with The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) after being teleported to 1602 by Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) in an attempt to save their universe. The Watcher tells Carter that their world is destined to die, as Steve Rogers (Josh Keaton), while fighting Thanos (Josh Brolin), grazed the Time Stone and created a rift that transported him to a brand-new universe that was not supposed to exist.
Because of this, the time stone keeps removing people from the universe, including Hela (Cate Blanchett), the Queen of the 1602 universe, who has now perished after Carter fails to save her from another rift storm. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is named King and immediately sets out a search party to bring Carter to justice. Whilst Wanda and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) tell Thor she is not responsible for this and that a Forerunner is causing the chaos, or, more aptly named, incursion, in this world, Thor still refuses to listen.
To find who that Forerunner is, Tony Stark (Mick Wingert) tells Carter he has built a machine that will allow him to be revealed if the Time Stone is placed on it. However, Thor has the Time Stone on a scepter, giving him full control of the universe. She then assembles a team comprised of Rogers, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) to steal the Time Stone away from Thor and save the universe. For those who were disappointed in how Marvel has been treating the Hulk since Avengers: Endgame, we finally get Ruffalo’s most comic-accurate portrayal of the big guy in What If…? – Season 2. He’s as brutal as possible, and the fight he shares with Happy Hogan/The Freak (Jon Favreau) is quite fun to watch.
The rest of the episode is also loads of fun. The Avengers team up in a different timeline with director Bryan Andrews and writers A.C. Bradley and Ryan Little making the most of the medieval setting, with plenty of swashbuckling action and references to other period figures like William Shakespeare and Robin Hood. In this timeline, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is one of Shakespeare’s most revered actors, while Steve Rogers is known as Rogers Hood. These are fun little references to keep the viewers on their toes as the show imagines what would the main Avengers be like if they were in another period. Still, the most interesting aspects of the episode have to do with the reinvention of Marvel deep cuts to make the world feel more exciting.
For instance, Yellowjackets are Thor’s royal guards, who attack the Avengers as they are ready to enact their plan. That scene alone is worth the Disney+ detour, with Andrews also repurposing the now-famous Rogers like “No…I don’t think I will” after he asks Carter if she would be kind to describe the Rogers in her world. It was the right answer. Speaking of, Rogers’ arc in 1602 mirrors the sacrifice he made in the HYDRA stomper episode, where he took his life for the greater good of the universe, and for this world to survive. Rogers tells Carter he’ll never have his happy ending with her (clearly, he hasn’t lived through Avengers: Endgame), and his death completely erases the Avengers’ presence in this universe.
At a bar, Carter reminisces about the world she has saved while Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) magically appears and tells Peggy that she wants to hear what he says. It’s been two episodes with Strange acting like the Nick Fury of the Multiverse (The Watcher has taken more of the backseat this season), recruiting Kahhori (Devery Jacobs), and now Carter. However, we still have no definitive answers about why he travels the universe. Of course, all will be revealed tomorrow (how great is it that we don’t have to wait long for episodes), but I suspect he is not to be trusted…
The eighth episode of What If…? – Season 2 is now available to stream on Disney+.
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