The final episode of What If…? season 2 brought back some Marvel characters from season 1 and set Captain Peggy Carter on a new path for season 3. Need a refresher to understand everything that went down?
The second season of the Disney+ series connected to the first in a few small ways, though What If…? continued to tell mostly isolated stories in other universes. There’s Captain Carter, of course, whose journey continued in a Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Black Widow mash-up, and then in both the “What If…The Avengers Assembled in 1602?” episode and the season finale. She’s the closest thing this series has to a protagonist.
There’s also Guardian of the Multiverse Gamora, who got a “prequel” of sorts in the season 2 episode with Tony Stark on Sakaar (which was supposed to be in season 1) as they battled the Grandmaster and Tony convinced her to turn on Thanos. But the finale of “What If…?” season 2 connected the two seasons in a major way and brought back one of the more controversial characters. Let’s start with him.
Strange Supreme visits Captain Carter in 1602
If you recall, the season 1 episode “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands?” posited a world in which Christine Palmer died in Stephen’s car crash, and that’s what caused Stephen to seek out mystical powers and ultimately become the Sorcerer Supreme. Because we don’t have enough stories about male characters motivated by dead female plot devices, right? Long story short: driven by grief, Strange Supreme becomes a bit evil. At one point, he’s split into two halves, one of which is a bit demonic. The Watcher recruits him for the Guardians of the Multiverse in the season 1 finale, but we discover in season 2 that he’s been collecting “universe killers” in the pocket dimension where The Watcher left him.
Captain Carter is tasked with capturing Kahhori
Strange offers to return Captain Carter to her universe but takes her to his pocket universe (a.k.a. the Sanctum Infinitum) instead. He gives her a mission: capture the “universe killer” known as Kahhori. Yes, the same Kahhori who got powers from the Tesseract and saved her people just a few episodes prior.
Kahhori reveals the true purpose of Strange’s forge.
You didn’t think these two heroes would really become enemies, did you? Peggy and Kahhori become allies when the latter explains that Strange Supreme is lying and feeding both villains and heroes to a forge to restore the world he destroyed after bringing back Christine. The sorcerer thought that Captain Carter would understand because she would do the same thing for Steve Rogers … so close! She actually would never do that! Peggy has always been more than her one romantic relationship.
Strange’s collection of variants escapes, Cabin in the Woods-style
Or Gremlins, Aliens, and Jurassic Park-style, as major cinephile Captain Carter points out. An array of characters join the chaotic fight, including Hela, Zombie Wanda, Cowboy Loki, and Surtur.
Captain Carter becomes so powerful!
Peggy and Kahhori then encounter Killmonger in the Infinity Ultron armor, which Peggy manages to get from him. Juiced up like never before, she squares off against Strange Supreme with Kahhori at her side. Peggy Carter never needed superpowers to become a hero, much less the power of the Infinity Stones … but I admit I kind of dug this. Then, for an extra oomph, Hela gives Peggy her helmet.
With Strange subdued, Kahhori can use her Tesseract power to create portals that send the variants back to their respective universes. She also wields Mjolnir, as she should! Strange Supreme’s demon returns, and while Peggy can separate them, Strange sacrifices himself and his darker half to the forge. This restores the universe as he set out to but destroys him in the process.
O Loki tree, O Loki tree! How lovely are your branches!
When all is said and done, Peggy and her pal The Watcher visit the universe that Doctor Strange’s sacrifice restored, where Christine is now alive, but Stephen Strange never existed, and they never met. (Good for her!) Now endlessly curious, Peggy asks that The Watcher show her the multiverse before taking her home. He agrees, revealing Yggdrasil—which, if you watched Loki season 2, you know is the structure holding the multiverse’s many timelines together with Loki at the center.
Now, does this mean that Peggy will continue to be the protagonist of What If…? season 3, or will she step back and becone an observer? Is The Watcher just showing her the branches of Yggdrasil from afar, or is he going to let her see the God of Stories? Can she go give Loki a hug for me? Please? He needs one.
(featured image: Disney+)
