‘What If…? – Season 3’ Episode Three Recap: “What If…the Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier?”

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for episode four of What If…? – Season 3.

Last year, the second season of What If…? gave us a Christmas-themed episode on December 24, and an admittedly fun one at that. This year, the episode released on the same day doesn’t have anything to do with the holidays but is a relatively enjoyable buddy-type story focusing on the Red Guardian (David Harbour) inadvertently breaking Bucky Barnes’ (Sebastian Stan) HYDRA mind-control shackles as The Winter Soldier. 

Of course, we all know what happened on December 16, 1991, a consequential date that haunts Bucky’s past during the events of Captain America: Civil War. But what if it didn’t happen the way it was depicted in the film, and it was only because of the Red Guardian’s intervention that Bucky became a completely different person than he was for many years after Howard and Maria Stark’s assassination? 

Director Bryan Andrews and writer A.C. Bradley don’t fully answer this question, but they certainly point us in a specific direction. The two meet during that fateful day, where Bucky is sent to kill Tony Stark’s parents, while Aleksei is ordered by Dreykov (Piotr Michael) to retrieve the cases of super soldier serum that HYDRA is also after. However, the mission goes wrong for Bucky and the Red Guardian, as their fighting causes the vials of Super Soldier serum to spill, with only one left intact. 

Dreykov asks the two to return to Russia. But since their fight left trails, a manhunt ensues at the request of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne) and Ranger Morales (America Ferrera). The main characters meet Foster, which leads to a significant chase in which the doctor transforms into Goliath. While we had a glimpse of the extent of his powers during the second episode of season two last year, Andrews ensures Foster has time to shine in two major action sequences, proving himself to be a fairly good roadblock (no pun intended) for the two. 

How Aleksei and Bucky both defeat Foster during those sequences is relatively thrilling. The series has improved how action is captured through an animated form compared to how stale they were in the first season. Those sequences are a tad repetitive, but they at least ensure enough fast-paced movement to keep us engaged in the duo’s road trip to Las Vegas to meet their contact with the alias of “Rook.” However, and on the road, Dreykov calls Bucky and orders him to kill the Red Guardian, who has now become a liability to the Red Room’s operation. 

Bucky contemplates on this but still agrees to meet Rook, who turns out to be…Obadiah Stane (Kiff VandenHeuvel), whom we learned, hired The Winter Soldier to kill off Howard and Maria so he could take over Stark Industries. Honestly, this may have also happened in the ‘sacred timeline.’ Why did HYDRA specifically target the Starks? Perhaps someone wanted to get it done, which also explains why he eventually wanted to kill Tony as well. Sadly, this character arc isn’t developed to its fullest extent in the episode, but it interestingly gives us clues as to how this might have played out in the story we know. 

This leads to a climactic showdown between Foster, the Red Room, and the two vigilantes, which is as rudimentary as it may come. Stane gets humorously thrown out the window (and dies), but the most intriguing part of that whole sequence occurs when HYDRA agent Karpov (Gene Farber) attempts to control Bucky through the trigger words that brainwash him. However, he successfully resists after discovering a repressed memory he hadn’t seen since he was controlled by HYDRA – a fleeting glimpse of his true past self on Coney Island. 

Bucky is able to hold on to this sole image as the guiding force for his resistance and allows Aleksei time to escape before he is taken back to the compound. We may know what ultimately happened to him, but for the Red Guardian, he is now called upon by Foster to join the Avengers and fight beside the original six in the Battle of New York. Perhaps that shot was a bit on the nose, but it was a fun way to end a relatively decent episode to watch this Christmas Eve. 

The third episode of What If…? – Season 3 is now available to stream on Disney+.