WARNING: Spoilers for What If? Season 1 Episode 9 (and previous episodes)
On the whole the episodes of What If? have felt like stand-alone stories but in this finale the heroes from multiple universes were brought together to fight the infinity stone-powered Ultron.
Let's take one hero at a time, in the order the Watcher picks them up. First was Captain Carter (from episode 1). Here the Captain appears to be embroiled in the early events of The Winter Soldier- the last time we saw her she had just arrived in the 21st century. She fights her way onto a ship and comes face to face with Batroc and like in the film, is goaded to take him on at hand to hand combat. It's great to see here that this character is able to hold her own in exactly the same way as Captain America did.
Carter asks the Watcher if she can go back to another time in order to reunite with Steve Rogers but he refuses, saying that her universe needs her. The post-credit scene of the episode suggests that the Watcher knew something she didn't- that somehow Rogers was preserved in the Hydra Stomper and could be revived in the 21st century. It seems likely we'll see more of Captain Carter in Season 2 of What If? and it'll be interesting to see a modern world with both Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers in.
Next up was T'Challa, specifically the version we saw as Star-Lord in episode 2. This episode resolved the cliff-hanger from that episode where Ego had arrived at the Dairy Queen where Peter Quill worked. Before the Watcher transported T'Challa away he saved Quill from his father. I'm intrigued by what would happen next to this version of Quill, who surely now knows that there's is more to him than he thought. Star-Lord T'Challa is wonderful once again in this episode and we know that this the final Chadwick Boseman performance. Boseman was just so fantastic and managed to fill the character with warmth, even in an episode like this where it's a fairly brief voice role.
The next Guardian was not so familiar. We saw a version of Gamora who had apparently killed Thanos and taken his armour, somehow creating a device called the 'Infinity Crusher' to destroy that universe's infinity stones. She was also accompanied by a version of Tony Stark, meaning that Stark is not dead in every single universe (though he will need some recovery from the Watcher's great putdown "Not you Stark!"). This all came from a planned tenth episode which was cut due to the pandemic and will likely be moved to season two, focusing on what happened if at the end of The Avengers Stark didn't make it back to Earth and instead landed on Sakaar.
Next we see scenes set in the same universe as episode 6 as Pepper Potts and Shuri race to take on the victorious version of Killmonger. He's been taken by the Watcher when they arrive to his throne room however. The inclusion of Killmonger on this team is really interesting. For one thing it allows us to have another version of the relationship from Black Panther between T'Challa and Erik which works really well even if it's touched on briefly. The Watcher chose Killmonger knowing he would betray the team and using that as a way to trap the armour once and for all. It's less obvious but the Watcher has really interfered with this universe as he never returns Killmonger to it, allowing Pepper and Shuri to win without any bloodshed.
We last saw Party Thor in episode 7 coming face to face with the powerful Ultron. In this episode we see that he is waging war against the Ultron drones and appears to be fighting them in Las Vegas because that's the sort of god he is. I really liked how they kept this character's humour and Chris Hemsworth has even more fun with a bigger cast to bounce off.
Every episode from the series gets a callback in one way or another. The Zombies episode (episode 5) is the briefest as Doctor Strange Supreme opens up a portal and drops a load of zombies on Ultron, much to Thor's delight. We then see the Guardians end up in Ultron's original universe where they meet the last surviving human, Black Widow. There's a great moment as Captain Carter convinces Natasha they can be allies. Clint and Natasha's plan actually comes to fruition here with Nat able to fire the arrow containing the computerised Armin Zola into Ultron. It neatly becomes a tribute to Clint and suggests that Nat is a decent archer herself.
As the Guardians are returned to their universes, Natasha refuses to go. That's fair enough because her world is dead and she's the only surviving human. Instead the Watcher sends her to the universe we saw in episode 3 where Black Widow was killed by Hank Pym. In this universe a war is raging between Loki and SHIELD aboard a helicarrier which Natasha is able to quickly end by using the sceptre to take control of Loki. I thought this trick of moving Nat from the dead universe to a universe where their Nat is dead was really cool and was a really effective way of tying off both universe's stories.
The episode ends with Doctor Strange Supreme returned to his universe, or the small bubble that is left of it anyway. It's interesting that clearly the Watcher could send Strange to any universe but this is a version of the sorcerer whose selfishness has led to the destruction of a whole universe so clearly the Watcher feels an eternity alone is just punishment. Strange is left with the bubble contained Zola in Ultron's body and Killmonger with the Infinity Stones and is tasked with watching they don't escape.
I thought this was a fantastic episode which nicely rounded of the season. I don't think What If? has captured the attention of Marvel fans in the same way previous shows have. The MCU still works wonderfully in animation and though these stories don't matter for the characters in the main MCU they are certainly interesting takes on the characters we know. Personally I've got a lot of enjoyment from the series and I'm intrigued to see what season two will do.
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