One of the most memorable (and meme-able) scenes in Avengers: Infinity War was the ghost of Gamora asking Thanos what it cost to make his mission complete and him responding “Everything.” Fast forward to last week and the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer posits the idea of Doctor Stephen Strange altering the timeline for “the right reasons.” The latest episode of What If…? combines the two ideas into a classic tale of hubris and heartache.
In the MCU original timeline, Dr. Stephen Strange injures his hands in a car accident and finds himself searching for a remedy in mysticism. In this reality, Doctor Strange is in the car with his love, Dr. Christine Palmer, who does not survive the crash. Despite numerous warnings at every step of the way, Strange uses and reuses the Eye of Agamotto to go back in time and attempt to remedy that night. He discovers that Christine’s loss is a cosmic linchpin for his reality… and is undeterred. The lengths that he will go to in order to bring back his love will sacrifice not only himself but potentially all of existence.
The good of this episode is that the show is in full effect. The art is on point. The writing is solid. Stephen Strange and Christine Palmer are voiced by Bagel-Bite Cabbage Patch (sorry, couldn’t resist) and Rachel McAdams, reprising their roles from the 2016 film.
The bad is that it feels like filler despite the fact that it ties directly into MCU Phase Four which seems to kick off with Peter Parker asking Strange to do something just as potentially dangerous.
When it comes to the ugly, it’s a trend in the What If…? DNA thus far: happy endings aren’t to be found here. “Captain Carter” was a push. “Star-Lord T’Challa” was huge until the end reveal. Episode 3 saw Nick Fury working hard just to shed the concrete shoes, never mind treading water. All thought-provoking. All well done. But c’mon. We’re looking for one. Just one. But maybe that’s another inevitability: we have to wait until the second season and some of the new extended MCU for that.
