Marvel Studios' What If...? (Disney+) - All S2 Eps now out! S3 teased!

[The Letter M]

How can a Hawkeye's arrow kill Thor?

How could being hit by an RV put Thor in the hospital?

Simple- he was stripped of his power and weakened when he was first banished to Earth. He was weak and unworthy, and Hawkeye aims to kill.

-Marc.

[lonestar]

How can a Hawkeye's arrow kill Thor?

At that particular time, he was a mortal after being banished by Odin.

[MinistroRaven]

How can a Hawkeye's arrow kill Thor?

At that particular time, he was a mortal after being banished by Odin.

Yes, I forgot. It's been ages since I saw the movie.

[ZirconBlue]

There was a lot of good Coulson stuff in episode 3.  He's so adorkable.

[The Letter M]

Wow... this may be my favorite episode so far. If you've found yourself a bit underwhelmed by the first three episodes for retreading familiar ground, this episode will certainly fix that for you by taking Doctor Strange into new territory, both literally and figuratively. The journey he takes in this episode is wild, and a bit heart-wrenching, especially the ending, which did NOT go the way I expected it to.

The main cast of Doctor Strange all returns, including Tilda Swinton, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams, and of course, Benedict Cumberbatch, who did a wonderful job at portraying a very different Stephen Strange than the one we saw in the main MCU timeline. This might be the most emotional episode yet, at least for me, especially if you enjoy Doctor Strange.

And even though this episode reunites the MCU cast, the story itself is very much like a comic book, even down to the sorcerer battle at the end. This one, of any of the four episodes, is a must watch, in my opinion. None of the episodes thus far have been connected in any way, so if you haven't seen any of them yet, definitely at least check out episode four!

-Marc.

[ariich]

That was bloody brilliant. I was pretty emotionally drained by the end even though it was only half an hour.

[lonestar]

That episode was fucking amazing. Talk about delivering, the rest of What If can be ordinary as fuck for all I care

[jingle.boy]

Agree with everything said already.  That was dark, and completely original and innovative.  The Cap episode, and Fury's Bad Week episode felt a little bland and/or predictable, and/or formulaic.  This was anything but.

[lonestar]

Agree with everything said already.  That was dark, and completely original and innovative.  The Cap episode, and Fury's Bad Week episode felt a little bland and/or predictable, and/or formulaic.  This was anything but.

Yup...this pushed the edge of what this show is capable of. I dearly hope we get a lot more of this, and a lot less of the puff pieces.



One minor issue I had...they made a very big deal in Endgame of saying that time travel didn't work a-la Back to the Future, yet this episode was centered around that exact thinking, that changing her death would create a paradox that would destroy the universe, instead of just creating another branch in the timeline. Please correct me if I'm off in my thinking.

[ZirconBlue]

One minor issue I had...they made a very big deal in Endgame of saying that time travel didn't work a-la Back to the Future, yet this episode was centered around that exact thinking, that changing her death would create a paradox that would destroy the universe, instead of just creating another branch in the timeline. Please correct me if I'm off in my thinking.

I think we're going to learn that there are different rules for different types of time travel.  The Endgame rules may only apply to the scientific quantum realm version of time travel, but may not hold for mystical time travel via the Time Stone, for example. 

[jingle.boy]

Agree with everything said already.  That was dark, and completely original and innovative.  The Cap episode, and Fury's Bad Week episode felt a little bland and/or predictable, and/or formulaic.  This was anything but.

One minor issue I had...they made a very big deal in Endgame of saying that time travel didn't work a-la Back to the Future, yet this episode was centered around that exact thinking, that changing her death would create a paradox that would destroy the universe, instead of just creating another branch in the timeline. Please correct me if I'm off in my thinking.

I think in *these* series' of universes/realities, Christine's death was this 'absolute' event such that it would always happen, and therefore preventing it would cause a cascading series of events so catastrophic any resulting universe/reality would implode on itself.  I think it's just another way of introducing a new concept - "absolutes"... though I don't think too much of any events in What If... ? will be repurposed in the theatrical releases.

Or what Zircon said.

[hefdaddy42]

Wow, that was some dark shit.

Loved it.  My favorite episode thus far.  Interesting to see the Watcher do some actual communicating.

[bosk1]

Based on the reactions I am seeing in the thread to this episode, I guess I just have to resign myself to the fact that I am not the audience for this show.  First episode was "good."  All other episodes, including this week's installment, just all felt tedious and unnecessary.

[Stadler]

Wow... this may be my favorite episode so far. If you've found yourself a bit underwhelmed by the first three episodes for retreading familiar ground, this episode will certainly fix that for you by taking Doctor Strange into new territory, both literally and figuratively. The journey he takes in this episode is wild, and a bit heart-wrenching, especially the ending, which did NOT go the way I expected it to.

The main cast of Doctor Strange all returns, including Tilda Swinton, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams, and of course, Benedict Cumberbatch, who did a wonderful job at portraying a very different Stephen Strange than the one we saw in the main MCU timeline. This might be the most emotional episode yet, at least for me, especially if you enjoy Doctor Strange.

And even though this episode reunites the MCU cast, the story itself is very much like a comic book, even down to the sorcerer battle at the end. This one, of any of the four episodes, is a must watch, in my opinion. None of the episodes thus far have been connected in any way, so if you haven't seen any of them yet, definitely at least check out episode four!

-Marc.

I'm all over this.

[lonestar]

Agree with everything said already.  That was dark, and completely original and innovative.  The Cap episode, and Fury's Bad Week episode felt a little bland and/or predictable, and/or formulaic.  This was anything but.

One minor issue I had...they made a very big deal in Endgame of saying that time travel didn't work a-la Back to the Future, yet this episode was centered around that exact thinking, that changing her death would create a paradox that would destroy the universe, instead of just creating another branch in the timeline. Please correct me if I'm off in my thinking.

I think in *these* series' of universes/realities, Christine's death was this 'absolute' event such that it would always happen, and therefore preventing it would cause a cascading series of events so catastrophic any resulting universe/reality would implode on itself.  I think it's just another way of introducing a new concept - "absolutes"... though I don't think too much of any events in What If... ? will be repurposed in the theatrical releases.

Or what Zircon said.

I'm not expecting any concepts to be mainstream MCU fodder either...it just irked me a bit. I mean, they made a REALLY big deal of it in Endgame, made it very plain that the BTTF concept of time travel was "bullshit"

[jingle.boy]

Agree with everything said already.  That was dark, and completely original and innovative.  The Cap episode, and Fury's Bad Week episode felt a little bland and/or predictable, and/or formulaic.  This was anything but.

One minor issue I had...they made a very big deal in Endgame of saying that time travel didn't work a-la Back to the Future, yet this episode was centered around that exact thinking, that changing her death would create a paradox that would destroy the universe, instead of just creating another branch in the timeline. Please correct me if I'm off in my thinking.

I think in *these* series' of universes/realities, Christine's death was this 'absolute' event such that it would always happen, and therefore preventing it would cause a cascading series of events so catastrophic any resulting universe/reality would implode on itself.  I think it's just another way of introducing a new concept - "absolutes"... though I don't think too much of any events in What If... ? will be repurposed in the theatrical releases.

Or what Zircon said.

I'm not expecting any concepts to be mainstream MCU fodder either...it just irked me a bit. I mean, they made a REALLY big deal of it in Endgame, made it very plain that the BTTF concept of time travel was "bullshit"

I just had a thought... maybe because Endgame's was "invented" time travel, as opposed to Dr. Strange using the Time Stone??  Just musing...

Or maybe Banner didn't know what the fuck he was talking about, and it was just a scene for giggles.

[lonestar]

The sorcerer Supreme stated pretty much the same thing in Endgame though.

[countoftuscany42]

This episode breakdown does a good job of explaining the different time travel methods, this channel is great at really diving into the MCU to explain plot holes or complicated concepts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buki9lJOAyM

[jingle.boy]

I've come to very much love the Screen Crush vids.

[PetFish]

I remember thinking that everything we know about Stephen Strange's personality and attitude says that he'd never do this.

He wouldn't even tell Tony what the one way they beat Thanos and save the universe so there's no way he'd do what he was doing to save one person if it meant risking his entire reality.  Like when he tells Tony that he's "protecting your reality... douchebag" (awesome line).

I'm just glad they explained it with what Sorcerer Supreme did when we all thought she kaboomed his ass wasn't what actually happened.

[Adami]

That was a really great episode. Really great. Was pretty meh on the others, but this one was what the show needs to be.

[jammindude]

One thing I'm not sure I understand. He was looking for any reality in which she lives. But doesn't she live in the primary universe that ends with endgame?

[The Letter M]

One thing I'm not sure I understand. He was looking for any reality in which she lives. But doesn't she live in the primary universe that ends with endgame?

Strange wasn't jumping between realities or timelines, he was sliding back and forth within his own timeline, trying to course correct the death of Palmer, but because her death is an Absolute Point in his timeline, she couldn't be allowed to live. In his timeline, her death is what sends him on his quest to become Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer, whereas in the main MCU timeline, it was his crash and losing the use of his hands that sent him on that path to Kamar Taj/becoming a sorcerer.

In all of episode four, we only saw one timeline, even after the Ancient One split Strange in two, the darker one went back in time to the library of Cagliostro and spent centuries learning and absorbing new powers while the other one went on about his business as usual and learned to let go of Palmer, but both Stranges existed within the same timeline, just two halves of the whole Strange, which is why Strange Supreme needed to re-absorb him at the end.

-Marc.

[jammindude]

Ah... 

[The Letter M]

Episode 5 has arrived, and with it, a zombie virus outbreak that has overtaken the Earth, as well as its Mightiest Heroes. I was quite surprised at the high number of returning actors in this episode. I think Spider-Man/Peter Parker was the only main character with speaking lines* to not be voiced by their MCU actor.

*Cap is credited by Josh Keaton again, but he  had one line near the beginning,, and then just some zombie growls.

While last week's episode focused its grim and depressing storyline on to one character (Doctor Strange), this one pours all of that darkness onto the whole world, and if you're at all familiar with zombie apocalypse stories, this is just about the same, but with the MCU heroes we all know and love, with Peter Parker as a bit of the central hero here, which kind of makes me sad that they couldn't get Tom Holland to voice him, but his voice actor here is a fairly good voice match IMO.

There were some great bits of action and fun match-ups throughout the episode, some funny, some sad, and some that will probably never happen in the MCU proper (my favorite being the ones at the Camp Lehigh). And WOW that ending!!! I really hope they revisit this universe in the second season because I need to know what happens next!

I'd say this is tied with my favorite of the season so far, episode four, both have been very interesting and unique divergences from the main MCU. While episode 1 was just CATFA almost beat-for-beat in parts, and episode 2 was a fairly small and self-contained story about T'Challa, episode 3 at least branched out to other moments within the MCU that didn't all happen in one film. But the whole concept of What If...? definitely was explored much further with these past two episodes. I'm really glad the series is getting better with each episode, and now I am more hyped for this series as we reach the back-half of season one.

Based on promotional material, there's a "Party Thor" episode, something with Gamora in Thanos' armor, an episode where Killmonger saves Tony Stark from being captured by The Ten Rings, and a version of Vision in Ultron-armor with the Infinity Stones in his chest, so I think we've got the remaining four episodes right there, and some sort of Guardians Of The Multiverse team-up as well (probably the finale), which I hope has a good set-up and is a bit longer than 30-ish minutes.

-Marc.

[Adami]

Definitely an interesting episode.

Would've preferred it to be closer to an hour? The ending felt super rushed.

Tone wise I actually really liked it, but when my main man Paul Rudd came in, that was the biggest example of comedy not fitting the tone that I've seen. The jokes were legit funny, but just felt SO out of place given what was happening. Hoping this one gets revisited.

[bosk1]

To me, this episode was such an odd blend of dark and silly that it somehow managed to work really nicely.  Could be the best one so far, or #2 behind episode 1.  Those two are at the top in "okay, that was actually kind of fun" territory.  The other three are pretty far behind in the "okay, I saw it...what's next on the schedule?" zone.

[hefdaddy42]

Wow, what a dark episode!

I liked it, and the child loved it. My wife HATED it lol

[Adami]

Wow, what a dark episode!

I liked it, and the child loved it. My wife HATED it lol

I do appreciate not having to end everything on a resolved happy ending note. The site of zombie Thanos with the infinity gauntlet was pretty insane and I did not expect it.

[jingle.boy]

Totally. But why did Thanos even go to Wakanda?

[The Letter M]

Totally. But why did Thanos even go to Wakanda?

That's like the *only* "plot hole" that bothers me, but I guess we could say that he found the safest place on the planet to land, or the place with the highest level of tech, to try and assert his dominance there. Maybe he surmised that if the Mind Stone was still on Earth, it would find its way to Wakanda because of its technological superiority.

What's more, how did he get the Time Stone? Did he stop off in NYC before going to Wakanda? Maybe after getting the Time Stone, he found the hanging-homebase of the survivors and saw that there were communications with Wakanda (because of Okoye), and decided to go there. Who knows!

-Marc.

[Adami]

Totally. But why did Thanos even go to Wakanda?

For the healthcare.

[bosk1]

Not knowing the answer to something does not make it a plot hole.

[jingle.boy]

Not knowing the answer to something does not make it a plot hole.

If no one knows the answer, then in my mind, yes... it does (especially for the audience)

[ariich]

Not knowing the answer to something does not make it a plot hole.

If no one knows the answer, then in my mind, yes... it does (especially for the audience)

Only if it actually matters to the plot.