The following contains spoilers for What If…? Episode 9 “What If… The Watcher Broke His Oath?”
The season finale of Marvel’s What If…? brings several pieces of the Marvel Cinematic Universe together for one big battle. The various universes of the first season are all nodded to - or pulled from - in order for a group of heroes dubbed the Guardians of the Multiverse to take on Ultron.
Throughout the episode, fans see nods to every episode of the season, but also, nods to the wider MCU. What If…? Episode 9 remains true to form by twisting the events of another MCU movie in a new timeline, but it also creates something completely new for fans. There aren’t quite as many scene recreations in this episode as heroes from across the multiverse haven’t teamed up before now.
Every episode of the series so far has led off with demonstrating how a timeline is different from a movie that fans recognize. In this case, it’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though it does that by taking the audience to a universe they’ve already seen, that of What If…? Episode 1.
Here, The Winter Soldier opening is revisited, but this time, it’s Captain Carter and Black Widow heading out to the Lumerian Star. Their banter is reminiscent of Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff in the same situation. Natasha even tries to set Peggy up with a date with another SHIELD agent, something she repeatedly teases Steve about in the movie. Peggy also fights Batroc the Leaper, the same character Steve fights, but also the same villain Sam Wilson fights in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier to start his journey there. Peggy even sees Batroc comment on whether or not she’s more than a shield, a line borrowed from him in the movie.
When the Watcher comes to take Peggy from her universe, he interrupts the events of her fight with Batroc. He also references her as “the soldier lost in time.” Fans frequently refer to Steve Rogers as a “man out of time,” but this line has been used in the MCU before now.
It’s actually how Ultron refers to Captain America, a nod to the fact that the Watcher is pulling this version of Peggy to fight a version of Ultron.
Since this episode brings together several heroes from different realities, it revisits several past episodes, not just the series premiere. One of those is Episode 2 as the Watcher recruits T’Challa to his team.
When he does, he arrives just as T’Challa is experiencing his version of the events of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2. Instead of him being attacked by Ego the Living Planet, he saves Peter Quill from his own father. The opening shot even recreates the shot from the movie of the Dairy Queen where Ego met Peter’s mother being destroyed.
The one character whose episode the audience doesn’t see before they become part of the team-up is the same character that’s been missing from all of the events that see characters from outerspace enter the show. This version of Gamora is also said to have survived Sakaar, the planet seen in Thor: Ragnarok, and defeated Thanos, evident by her wearing her own version of his armor.
This version of Gamora is also seen in a familiar location. She’s on Nidavellir with Iron Man, looking to be destroying the Infinity Gauntlet after the stones have already been crushed. That’s the same location Thor traveled to with Rocket and Groot in Avengers: Infinity War to craft a new weapon. Iron Man even references his “suit of armor around the world” line, but this time, it’s for the whole galaxy.
When the Watcher goes to recruit the party version of Thor for What If…? Episode 7, he’s a little busy fighting off Ultron’s bots. The Watcher has to call him several times.
One of the things Thor says to Ultron’s bots while swinging Mjolnir at them is, “I have a date.” This is a nod to him having to suddenly leave Jane, but it’s also a variation of a line used by Steve Rogers when he realizes he’s been woken up decades into the future. It’s a nod to Marvel’s frequent separation of romantic partners.
At the end of Episode 8, the audience knew the Watcher was going to have to bring several pieces of the multiverse together in order to fight Ultron. He does so in a familiar pub setting. Peggy recognizes it, and Doctor Strange admits to pulling the image from her biography.
While that’s a nice nod to the pub where she and Steve Rogers discuss dancing and the right partners in both her episode and Captain America: The First Avenger, it might also nod to another Marvel property. When Agents Of SHIELD came to an end after seven seasons, the group of agents met up, virtually, in a pub as well. It was a construct, just like Strange’s, of a pub they’d all been to before in multiple timelines.
When the team starts their fight against Ultron, Doctor Strange makes sure that there are plenty of things to keep the enemy distracted. Specifically, many versions of Mjolnir. He does this by using a spell straight out of Marvel comics.
Called Images of Ikonn, the actual spell has two comic book versions. One involves actually invoking the magical being Ikonn, which Strange doesn’t do here. The other is a projection spell, used to create multiple images of the same thing. The latter is what Strange does, and he’s done it in the MCU before, specifically when he went up against Thanos on Titan in Infinity War.
While the Watcher pulls heroes from several episodes (Peggy from 1, T’Challa from 2, Doctor Strange from 4, Killmonger from 6, and Thor from 7), those aren’t the only connections to other episodes of the series. It’s not necessary to call these particular connections Easter eggs, but it is a nice nod to how the multiverse is connected, just as the original reminder from Jeph Loeb about the MCU was, “it’s all connected,” as each movie and television series released.
Doctor Strange pulls zombies and the undead Scarlet Witch from Episode 5 to distract Ulton from the fight. The group of heroes end up on the world featured in Episode 8, adding that universe’s Black Widow to their lineup of heroes, and using the virus she and Clint planned to use against Ultron originally. That version of Black Widow also ends up in Episode 3 at the end of the story, replacing the Widow lost in that world, even as Nick Fury remarks, “You’re not my Natasha,’ when she saves him from Loki.
The mid-credit scene provides the audience another full circle moment. It is a return to the What If..? series premiere as Peggy is put back where she left the timeline - something the Watcher tells everyone he’s doing, just as the Avengers did with the Infinity Stones they borrowed in Avengers: Endgame. In the original Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it was SHIELD intelligence and property on the Lemurian star that Hydra was after. This time around, it’s the Hydra Stomper - with someone inside.
Presumably, that means Steve Rogers is in there, but it could also mean he’s that universe’s version of the Winter Soldier. It also means that Peggy doesn’t get Captain America’s Avengers: Endgame ending. There, he chooses to say in the past and live out a life with Peggy. The Watcher doesn’t allow her to return to an earlier time, explaining that her timeline needs her where she ended up. It’s a nice reverse of an Endgame moment that has fans divided on whether or not it should have happened, much like the previous episode flipping the script on the Endgame sacrifice Black Widow makes for Hawkeye.
One interesting nod to the wider MCU that the Watcher makes in the episode happens when he first brings the team together. He mentions that while observing the multiverse, he originally believed in the idea of there being one true hero, but he rejects it, calling them all heroes. Whether intentional or not on the part of the team behind the show, this actually feels like a nod to just why Iron Man and Captain America have been kept out of the action of the series.
Both characters are fan favorites, and equally responsible for the events of Captain America: Civil War, but the fandom as a whole chooses which one of them is the better hero with every project. It’s one of the reasons so many fans dislike Tony Stark being killed off in nearly every episode of What If…?, but the Watcher’s line makes it clear that there are plenty of other heroes to save the day in the MCU.
