"What If...?" season 3 was the final season of Marvel's "What If..? and here is my review. Obviously there will be a heavy amount of spoilers for the season. Enjoy!
The season started out strong with an episode about Hulk and a different set of avengers from the one we know. It walked us through what happened in a battle with the Gamma Monsters and how the new team defeated them all. The episode ended with Bruce Banner sacrificing himself to end the war. In my opinion, the episode was ok and had a reassuring end.
On the other hand, episode 2 did not end off like that. The episode was about Agatha Harkness and what if she found about the celestial growing in earth's core. The episode took us through the process that Agatha needed to cast the spell to get to Tiamut. She eventually reached out to Kingo for help. The episode's climax was quick but engaging with Agatha growing in size and fighting of Arishem, the prime celestial, and eventually taking his power. The episode finally ended with a cliffhanger as we never saw what happened when the remaining celestials came to find Agatha. This episode had a good mix of action and humor but the cliffhanger was never completed and thus the episode was never revolved.
Episode 3 had much more humor with the Red Guardian and the Winter Soldier. The episode started off with the Red Guardian leaving Russia and following the Winter Soldier to the USA . We saw a quick fight beetween the two before they were chased off. The Red guardian and the Winter Soldier were on the run from police. The two started off enemies but soon became more freindly with each other and we finally saw the Winter Soldier saving the Red Guardian at the end. Finally, we saw the Red Guardian being recruited by SHEILD and he became a part of the Avengers. This episode was very humorus and action packed giving us a good mix.
Episode 4 was a chatic chase with Darcy Lewis and Howard the Duck trying to save their baby from many cosmic groups. The episode started with the couple getting invited to the Grandmaster's cruise ship. Their excitment is short lived as they find out their baby is on the menu! The two enter a chase to save their baby. Turn's out, not just the Grandmaster wanted their baby but many other groups wanted it as well. They finally tuen to Nick Fury to find out why their baby is wanted by so many. Turns out, their baby was enhanced with cosmic powers. The episode had a simple story yet it was still chaotic and fun.
Episode 5 was more dark and sad. In the start we see that the emergence destroyed the world and only a select few survived. We saw that there were 2 different sides of survivors that seemed to be in a war. We see that the Vision is on the opposing side to our heros and that our heros are trying to create a weapon to destroy it. We saw Riri Williams defeat the Vision and everything seems to be solved. That is until we see the main villian of this episode, Mysterio watching what just happened. Riri then seems to implament the code of Vision into herself. We then see our villians supposedly winning until it is revealed that it was all an illousion and that our heros are dead and Riri Williams is face to face with Mysterio. Mysterio then attempts to take her power until the Watcher intervenes and helps Riri win. The episode was not great and it was hard to follow.
Episode 6 had a very straightfoward plot and it was about Shang Chi and Kate Bishop looking for a dangerous figure called the hood. Both of them had sad connections to the Hood that involved dead or missing family members. They find a kid who has a dad who was kidnapped by the Hood. The 3 eventually find a train that leads them to the Hood. Inside the train there wre hundreds of brainwashed people including the kid's dad. There is a man in there who seems to be leading all of this. He lets Shang go into the Hood's lair, orders the kid to be killed and keeps Kate with him. The Watcher then intervenes again, stopping the kid from being killed. We then find out that the man is the one that killed Kate's parents and not the Hood. We also find out that the Hood has been defeated and the real Hood is Shang's sister. The kid saves the two from being brainwashed and inturn the Hood and the Man are killed. This episode was sad but also intriguing and easy to follow.
In Episode 7 we see that The Watcher is captured by three beings called: The Eminence, The Executioner, and The Incarnate. We then find out that The Watcher made an oath to always just watch and he had now broken it several times and he must be stopped. We then see Captain Carter, Kahori, Byrdie, and Storm have all found 3 fragments from the Watchers home. They try to get there but two of there attempts fail until the idea of using Infinity Ultron to gt there comes. The episode ends with us seeing Captain Carter's broken sheild with Ultron. This episode left us of on a cliffhanger but it was ok and had a little bit of humor. Now, for the last episode.
Episode 8 started with the rest of the team finding Ultron and Captain Carter's sheild. We then find out that it was actually the Eminence who stole Captain Carter and destroyed her sheild. We see that the three beings (Eminence, Execcutioner, and Incarnete) are very angry that the Watcher also talked to mortals like Captain Carter. We then see a flashback of the Watcher and the Eminece talking before the Watcher became a Watcher. Then, cutting back to the future, we see Ultron and the rest of the team arrive where the Watcher and Captain Carter are being held. The team frees the two while Ultron holds off the big three. The Team tries to get to Supreme Stranges universe where the big three cannot use their powers. The team failed as they were two slow and the big three caught up to them. The Watcher then helps the team become powerful beings so that they can all fight the big three. The fight did not go as planned though and the big three one. As they were slowly erasing the team, Captain Carter was able to defend the rest of the team which resulted in her death. She was able to get the teamk and the big three to Stranges universe, resulting in the big three being powerless. We then see the Watcher and the Eminence talk and the fight is resolved giving "What If...?" a final end.
In total, season 3 was in my opinion the worst season of the show as they left episode 2 on a big cliffhanger and it didnt really make sense. I feel like Marvel could have done much more to the show but the show itself was ok. This is my ranking of each of the episodes from worst to best:
Episode 7
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 8
Episode 5
Episode 1
Episode 3 & Episode 2
I hope you enjoyed my review and summary!!