What If…? Season 3 Episode 7 Review

‘What If…?’ season three episode seven begins its final multiversal arc as Captain Peggy Carter and her multiverse Guardians seek to free the Watcher from his imprisonment from the Eminence. Carter’s team is filled with several intriguing members, but in the end they need help from an unlikely ally. Meanwhile, the Watcher struggles against the Eminence. 

The first few minutes of the episode serve to introduce audiences to this new multiversal strikeforce, led of course by Captain Carter. She’s accompanied by Kahhori, Byrdie the Duck and Storm. Byrdie is significant as she’s also another original character, and is the daughter of Darcie and Howard the Duck from earlier in the season. While unintentional, Natasha Lyonne’ voice does sound like Rogue from ‘X-Men ‘97’, though that’s likely just the similar accent. 

Speaking of ‘X-Men ‘97’, Marvel Studios seek to draw a direct connection to the series with Storm appearing as the Goddess of Thunder, wielding Mjölnir. The ‘X-Men ‘97’ theme plays, Alison Sealy-Smith returns as the voice, it’s a majestic return for this character and her appearance in the MCU. It’s a brilliant introduction. 

The new Guardians of the Multiverse are fighting the HYDRA Champion, a monster audiences saw all the way back in the very first episode of ‘What If…?’. It’s attacking the reality where Nebula is Nova Prime, introduced in ‘What If…?’ season two. Marvel Studios are keen to tie all of the ‘What If’ realities together, even later in the episode audiences see the return of Infinity Ultron. It’s something that both seems like a celebration of the series, but also has the unintentional consequence of making the multiverse a place where there aren’t quite as many limitless possibilities as the Watcher would have audiences believe. 

The team easily dispatch the monster without breaking a sweat, showing the power of them fighting together but also how far Captain Carter has come since she first encountered it. It makes for a nice easy going opening, something that contrasts with the rest of the episode. That contrast begins immediately as shards from the Observational Plane come crashing down, with the crew realising that the Watcher is in trouble. 

Jason Isaacs’ booming Eminence takes over the Watcher’s traditional monologue about the nature of the multiverse, and it’s quickly clear from his patronising tone that he thinks the audiences are lesser than himself. He doesn’t care for the beings in the multiverse, a trait that’s reinforced later in the episode. He explains his role in the hierarchical system of the multiverse, saying he is the Watcher for the Watchers, and he despises the question of what if, something that again draws a sharp contrast between him and the Watcher, who cares more for the inhabitants of the multiverse. 

The scene immediately after sets up the stakes for the finale to come, that the Eminence and his cronies will hold the Watcher personally responsible for not just him breaking his oath, but also for empowering Captain Carter to do the same. It’s clear that because the Eminence thinks so little of the inhabitants of the multiverse, he is strongly against protecting it, or even making it slightly better than it could be. This idea of non-interference goes against what the Watcher has learned over the course of the show, setting up a clash of philosophies. 

Storm and Carter attempt to figure out what’s going on with the Watcher, as Kahhori and Byrdie clash in a light-hearted game of foosball. The grown ups conclude that the Watcher is in trouble, and need to find some way to use the shards to travel to the Observational Plane. Byrdie, clearly the techie of the group, attempts to wield the shards to Kang’s time chair (now multiverse?), though in a test run, the dummy explodes with the shard. Tech won’t work. 

Next, Storm tries a spiritual solution, boiling down to hitting one of the last shards with her hammer. It has to be said, the music that rocks up helps to make this feel like a powerful moment, and shocking when it doesn’t work. Desperately, the team form a plan to go after Infinity Ultron, and get him to take them there, though worried that it might go wrong, setting a multiversal menace free. 

Overnight, Carter reminisces over the team that first defeated Infinity Ultron, exclaiming that she doesn’t want to lose any of her current team, especially its younger members. Storm tries to comfort her, but it’s clear Carter wants to go face Ultron alone. Audiences get an ominous montage of Ultron’s ascent to power, which when framed like this is a devastating beauty. Carter visits Ultron eons after he decimates all life, saying she needs his help, and it cuts to black, naturally to hide the outcome. 

When Storm and the others realise what Carter has done, Storm immediately visits Ultron, and after seeing Carter’s broken shield, assumes the worst, and attacks Ultron. They eventually stop, and Ultron explains how he was wrong to decimate all life, as he says his programming was contradictory with life. It’s not meant to redeem Ultron, it’s far, far, too late for that, though it just gives an explanation as to why he turns. 

Ultron then explains that Eminence interfered to steal Carter away. This reveals the contradiction in Eminence’s logic, he can intervene after all, just when he wants to. Ultron consumes the shard, bathing in white light, and jumps the other Guardians of the Multiverse to fight the Eminence, a battle that will ensue in the finale. 

This episode of ‘What If…?’ felt like the send off episode that happens at the end of each season, revisiting what’s come before and tying it into the present conflict. This episode does that more than any other, sometimes to its detriment, but often not. It’s one filled with good but not outstanding action, a feeling that the visuals replicate.