What If...? has managed to take us on quite the ride over the past nine weeks, but the season has now reached its end, and we got what proved to be a surprisingly satisfying final episode.
There are plans for a season 2, but all those big cliffhangers were addressed in some way in "What If...The Watcher Broke His Oath?" The lack of closure has certainly bugged fans to some extent, and we still don't know what happened in the Marvel Zombies reality. Despite that, everything from Ego confronting Peter Quill to Loki conquering Earth was touched on.
Some resolutions received more screentime than others, but we walked away pretty happy for the most part, and we're sure many of you guys are curious about what happened (especially if you've not made it as far as the finale or just need a refresher).
It goes without saying that some major What If...? SPOILERS do follow from this point on!
7. Loki Is Finally Defeated
At the end of "What If...the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?", Loki conquered the Earth in the wake of his brother's death and Nick Fury turned to Captain Marvel for help.
They found Captain America on ice, and that's where we left things until The Watcher takes the Black Widow from Infinity Ultron's reality and drops her on a Helicarrier where an epic battle is playing out. The last line of defence, Fury and the two Captains are taking on the God of Mischief and his army of Asgardians. Natasha manages to turn the tide when she uses the Mind Stone on Loki.
While the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director knows this isn't the Black Widow that Yellowjacket killed, he's pleased to have her on his side and Natasha has found a new home where she continue fighting the good fight.
6. Doctor Strange Returns To His Cage
The Watcher left Doctor Strange Supreme to his fate in the depressing final few minutes of "What If...Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?", and while he was the first member of the Guardians of the Multiverse, the Sorcerer Supreme is ultimately returned to his cage.
He seems fine with that, but now has a new job: to stop the Infinity Stones from ever being used again (whether it be by the now Arnim Zola-controlled Ultron/Vision hybrid or Killmonger).
Strange is in a cage guarding a cage, but a small smile that crosses his face makes us wonder whether he has something else planned that would allow him to escape to another reality or restore his own. The Infinity Stones could certainly do that, so don't be surprised if his story isn't quite over.
5. Peter Quill's Destiny
In "What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?", it was T'Challa who was abducted by the Ravagers instead of Peter Quill. That led to the Wakandan becoming Star-Lord, while Peter was left on Earth working a regular job...and left to the mercy of his father, Ego.
This Ego wastes no time in attempting to take control of Peter's Celestial powers and that leads to an all-out war on the planet with Star-Lord's Ravagers attempting to put an end to the villain. He blows up his vessel and takes Peter to safety just moments before being taken by The Watcher.
In the closing few minutes, we see T'Challa and Peter teaming up, a sign perhaps that the latter has a bright future working alongside Star-Lord. We know Chadwick Boseman only recorded enough dialogue for this first season before he passed away, so this was a fitting farewell.
4. Thor Reunites With Jane Foster
It appears Marvel Studios is doubling down on the fact Thor and Jane Foster are meant to be prior to them reuniting in Thor: Love and Thunder, and when Party Thor heads back to his version of Midgard, he wastes no time in locking lips with the human woman he's fallen in love with.
It feels like this God of Thunder has probably turned a corner in terms of how he'll behave moving forward, and while he's definitely a bit of a dope, Jane could be the good influence he needs.
Will we revisit this Party Thor? Honestly, we're not sure there's any real need to do so, but this was a satisfying story arc for a Thor who grew up without Loki by his side in "What If...Thor Were an Only Child?" Now, there are other Thor Variants we'd enjoy seeing in action.
3. Killmonger's Just Desserts
At the start of the finale, we learn that Shuri and Pepper Potts successfully managed to reveal Killmonger's true nature to the world and that appears to have led to war in Wakanda.
The Watcher plucks the new Black Panther from his reality at the right time, and he's oddly quiet during the fight with Infinity Ultron. He's clearly plotting something, of course, and we ultimately learn that it's to steal the Infinity Stones for himself. Before he can reshape reality as he sees fit, the villain is confronted by Arnim Zola in the Vision/Ultron hybrid body.
Their battle for the Infinity Stones is put on pause by Doctor Strange Supreme, and that cage feels like an appropriate punishment for Killmonger after he murdered Tony Stark and T'Challa.
2. A Happy Ending
Poor Peggy Carter asks The Watcher if she can be sent to a reality where Steve Rogers exists, but he seems pretty insistent that she return to her own timeline.
After returning to her battle with Batroc during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Black Widow directs Captain Carter to a shipping crate that HYDRA was protecting and inside is the HYDRA Stomper. However, Steve Rogers is still alive and well in the suit after seemingly been kept on ice all these years until he can be weaponised.
We're not even going to consider the possibility that he's this reality's Winter Soldier; instead, HYDRA probably just spent decades trying to figure out how to remove him from that armour and gain the Tesseract. We never see it, but they clearly captured him at some point during WWII.
1. Uh, Gamora And Iron Man?
Sooo, this is awkward...
Thanks to the pandemic, Marvel Studios had to delay one episode of What If...? and that was the instalment taking us to a reality where Tony Stark ended up on Sakaar. Somehow, he'd have met a Gamora who had managed to defeat Thanos and destroy the Infinity Stones years before he came to Earth. Heck, she'd even managed to create a device to wipe them from reality!
Unfortunately, the way she was shoehorned into this finale meant we had no background and caused Gamora to feel like something of a spare part. By the time all is said and done, she and Tony have been reunited at Eitri's forge where they're destroying the Infinity Gauntlet. Spoiler alert, eh?