WHAT IF...? Season 2 Finale Unleashes A Major Multiversal Threat In "What If...Strange Supreme Intervened?"

WHAT IF...? Season 2 Finale Unleashes A Major Multiversal Threat In "What If...Strange Supreme Intervened?"

The season 2 finale of What If...? just hit Disney+ and it reunites Captain Carter with Strange Supreme when a major Multiversal threat is unleashed...the question is, can the Sorcerer actually be trusted?

By JoshWilding - Dec 30, 2023 03:12 AM EST
Filed Under: What If

The What If...? season 2 finale begins with a brand new Marvel Animation fanfare mostly comprised of footage from this latest batch of episodes. However, we also get to see T'Challa Star-Lord and, weirdly, Red Guardian (who doesn't appear in this show but is expected to be a major part of Marvel Zombies).

It concludes with Captain Carter taking Captain America's place, a fitting decision seeing as she's key to "What If... Strange Supreme Intervened?"

In 1602, Doctor Strange tells Peggy about a threat to the Multiverse like any other before transporting her to his Sanctum Infinitum. He's been collecting universe killers such as Infinity Ultron, but one has escaped and Strange needs Cap's help tracking them down. 

We then visit a world where HYDRA won the war and laid waste to the world (Red Skull's image even adorns Mount Rushmore) and it's there we find Kahhori! She's stranded in the wrong reality and tells Peggy that Strange is lying, capturing righteous heroes as well as universe killers to feed them to a forge which will rebirth the reality he destroyed. 

Discovered, Strange shows his true colours and Peggy frees many of those trapped Variants, including a bizarre-looking Hulk, a monstrous Rocket, and the returning zombie Scarlet Witch. We see a version of Hela take control of those zombies before clashing with Surtur and Cap and Kahhori later encounter the Killmonger who stole Infinity Ultron's suit in What If...? season 1. 

Kahhori teleports him out of the suit and sends him into battle with all those other Variants, giving us a taste of what Avengers: Secret Wars could look like (we even see some Thor vs. Thor action). 

Peggy then takes control of the Infinity Stones and battles Strange; he tries posing as Steve Rogers to throw her off guard and, while she sees through it, the distraction allows him to begin feeding those Variants into the forge. Luckily, Kahhori can counteract him and, using her powers to wield Mjolnir and the Ten Rings (Peggy, meanwhile, dons Hela's crown and wields The Hulk's sword), they're all sent back to their respective realities. 

Strange is no longer able to hid his monstrous true form as his grief has grown too powerful. Captain Carter dispatches him with a well-placed Infinity punch and, as he falls into the forge, the Sorcerer Supreme pulls his grief in with him and finally accepts his fate by conquering his demons. 

As a result, Strange's world - and Christine Palmer - are reborn...without him. The Watcher explains that he was never born in that reality and never will be. He saved Peggy and Kahhori before Sanctum Infinitum blew up and shows Cap the Multiverse which has now taken on the same tree-like form we saw in Loki

Peggy suggests they take the scenic route home, suggesting there are more Multiversal adventures to come...we just hope it wasn't this Variant on Earth-838!

In terms of the cast, we have Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter, Benedict Cumberbatch as Strange Supreme, Devery Jacobs as Kahhori, Cate Blanchett as Hela, Clancy Brown as Surtur, and Stanley Tucci as Dr. Erskine. The major recasts are Josh Keaton as Captain America and Feodor Chin as Wenwu.

Did you enjoy What If...? season 2's finale?

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bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 12/30/2023, 3:06 AM
I'm not really impressed by the serialised episodes of What If like this one. It's pretty much just the Captain Carter show now.

Anyway, guess well see Captain Carter and Kahhori in live-action. Or maybe finally we will get an actual Captain Carter mini-series like Zombies.
Kurban
Kurban - 12/30/2023, 3:41 AM
“we just hope it wasn't this Variant on Earth-838!”

God, I do. She was mid from the beginning and the fact that she’s the de-facto “main character” in what’s supposed to be a multiversal anthology series is so stupid.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 12/30/2023, 12:43 PM
@Kurban - I don't understand why people think the What If... Captain Carter is the one from 838 when the entire premise of that movie was preventing an Incursion and having a being from another universe walking around destabilizes the two realities. What If...1602 also uses that formula to find the "forerunner" who doesn't belong because an Incursion was about to happen. So Peggy from Universe 838 is just another Captain Carter variant.
Kurban
Kurban - 12/30/2023, 1:23 PM
@SonOfAGif - I don’t actually think it is. I’m just sick of Captain Carter as a concept anymore and actively want her to die so we can move on.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 12/30/2023, 4:26 PM
@Kurban - To each their own. I have no issue with Captain Carter being the main hero of the What If... Series. She's just an alternative possibility. What If... Needed a continuous hero because The Watcher can't intervene. And we know Marvel Studios won't downgrade one of their superstars to be in an animation as the primary lead. Maybe it's just me looking at the concept as a whole and not just for Captain Carter.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 12/31/2023, 1:00 AM
@SonOfAGif - Having no issue with it doesn't mean it makes sense to have her be so prominent.
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 12/30/2023, 4:07 AM
As someone who believes they don’t take the what if stories far enough, there was some really cool visuals and surprises in this episode.

Also such an all star cast they had. I’m shocked so many of them came back. I was a fan of the 9 days straight and overall i liked season 2 better than 1, but it’s still not a world breaker series. 7.5/10
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 12/30/2023, 5:20 AM
Just started these yesterday. I liked the Nebula one.

I enjoyed Happy Hogan Saves Christmas, but it wasn't really a What If. It's basically just an Untold Tales.

Just got up to the Captain Carter episode and I'm really glad they did a sequel to that, but I would've much rather seen more of the Avengers stuff than the black Widow stuff. But I guess they wanted to do their version of Winter Soldier.
Always good to see Captain Carter and I'm intrigued that she's gonna be in 1602, since the 1602 comics all started because of Captain America going back in time.
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 12/30/2023, 6:10 AM
This season has been a vast improvement over the first.

That said, this episode made me laugh out loud. When they shoved a bunch of attire and weapons on Carter it felt like a kid accessorizing her doll with her brothers action figures.

While the visuals were cool it acted like a kid knocking his action figures together, coalesced with adolescent dialogue (eg. “You need to listen to me!” “NO YOU!”).

There’s so little character development in this show (with a few exceptions) that the big fights are not the payoff they’re trying to make it out to be. This is the same problem as Secret War, with that final fight being a big meaningless jumble.
Origame
Origame - 12/30/2023, 8:30 AM
@JustAWaffle - I really don't get why they're trying to do arcs in these. They only work with proper character work, which they clearly aren't interested in.
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 12/30/2023, 10:27 AM
@Origame - Exactly. None of the payoffs are earned, so it just feels like the example I used above of a child clinking action figures together. It probably has a deeper meaning to the writer, but the audience is just walking into a conflict and not understanding why.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 12/30/2023, 11:09 AM
@JustAWaffle - You mean Bendis' Secret War?
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 12/30/2023, 11:22 AM
@ObserverIO - if Bendis made that potato of a show then yes.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 12/31/2023, 12:59 AM
@JustAWaffle - I think moreso similarly.
Drace24
Drace24 - 12/30/2023, 8:39 AM
I really enjoyed this season. A big improvement over the last, where I liked maybe three or four episodes. Here almost every single one was a banger. The Kahhori one was my favorite - god, she's fun. I hope she shows up in the MCU like Captain Carter did. I love that Captain Carter is such a pivotal part of this show. Really cool how this show manages to carve out its own identity but also just has fun smashing all these characters together. Reminds me how I played with my action figures as a kid.

Looking forward to season 3. This show is just a good time!
Drace24
Drace24 - 12/30/2023, 8:43 AM
I really enjoyed the release model. One episode per day. Something to look forward to every day of the week. That should become the norm, if you ask me. Feels like a good compromise between the classic weekly release and the binge model. Hope it worked for Marvel. I'd love that to become the standard, honestly.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 12/30/2023, 11:12 AM
@Drace24 - Almost like a 12 days of Christmas thing, except they started before Christmas and there was only 9 of them.
harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 12/30/2023, 8:47 AM
I saw clips of s1 on youtube, will not be doing the same for s2, the show is wet dog sh1t.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 12/31/2023, 12:58 AM
@harryba11zack - You can't know that.
Drace24
Drace24 - 12/30/2023, 8:48 AM
Was anyone else reminded of "Cabin in the Woods" when Peggy released all the universe killers?

That was awesome. Wish there had been an actual fight with Killmonger tho.
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