‘What If…?’ Episode 9 Recap: Meet The Guardians Of The Multiverse In An Action-Packed Season Finale

By
Admin
-
0
647



And the curtains have been drawn on the first season of Marvel’s first ever animated series What If…? and boy was it something! In other words a MCU-scale goodbye with a mid-credit scene even. But one doesn’t reach there without going through a fair share of twists and turns that frankly nobody saw coming! As you already know, the last episode ended with The Watcher seeking out Doctor Strange from one of the previous episodes to fight the infinity stones-welding Ultron. It is obviously more interesting than ever because even though the series followed the anthology style story-telling, jumping to newer universes and realities, head writer A.C. Bradley and director Bryan Andrews tied the loose ends towards the end and raised the stakes by merging said realities and bringing more heroes together. And just like the eighth episode, which brought back Ultron from the seventh episode, the ninth episode opens up with the premise of The Watcher going back on his words and interfering in putting a team together because the cyborg who has turned into a cosmic entity has to be stopped. And Strange Supreme will need help to get the job done!

SEE ALSO: ‘What If…?’ Episode 8 Recap: The Party Is Over As Ultron Wields Infinity Stones For A Thanos-esque Purpose

Avengers Assemble then? Well, kinda sorta! The Watcher actually goes around different universes to recruit heroes and while he is no Nick Fury but he manages to bring Captain Carter, Thor, Gamora, Star Lord and Killmonger. After dissing Iron Man in the process that is and completely ignoring Spiderman at that. Now the team, christened as Guardians of the Multiverse, gets thinking on how to defeat this all-knowing, powerful machine. They even come up with a plan but it somehow gets fast tracked because Party Thor can hardly keep calm and is infamous for drawing unwanted attention, by his own admission. Which in turn alerts Ultron and makes him land at the place of showdown. And showdown it was! From Strange Supreme’s protection spell to a well-thought plan by the entire team that gets to work only after raising a glass to the new Guardians and feasting on Chinese food.

And can you blame them? Because what follows has Avengers: Endgame feels throughout; an action-packed sequence that sums up the epic finale that the season deserved. It is jaw-dropping and eyebrow-raising at the same time thanks to the slick action and the unpredictable sub-plots. Amidst all, T’Challa manages to steal the soul stone with his sticky fingers and the team teleports to another dimension. And Ultron did not bother? He didn’t because they dumped an army of zombies and the ultimate zombie bride, Wanda to fight the AI that took control over Vision’s framework. Poetic, I know!

And it isn’t the only one because then the writers introduce Black Widow from episode eight who has really no purpose living in a lost world. She steals the soul stone but then ultimately joins the Guardians in their quest and proves rather helpful. Because by this point, Ultron has tracked them to the other dimension and another round of battle ensues which is more graphic and stylised. Giving one all the feels of Avengers: Endgame! A little more even as Gamore has an Infinity Stone crusher that they deploy to destroy the shiny pebbles. Alas, after a brief cinematic pause, it turns out the tool didn’t work because stones are unique in every realm and the crusher that Gamore has is not meant to destroy stones in her reality. As you can imagine, Ultron gets back up on his feet and begins to tear apart everything around him, attacking the Guardians with more anger.

However, in another stance of poetic justice, Natasha realizes that she still has Clint’s arrow with the consciousness of Arnim Zola uploaded in it. With the help of Captain Carter and for her partner Clint, she aims it at Ultron’s eye and voila! Zola takes over Ultron and corrupts his AI, defeating him in the process. But the battle isn’t over! An overly ambitious Killmonger, however, had a different plan altogether! He uses an Ultron bot’s head that he had picked and in turn builds a suit to wield the infinity stones next.

He is obviously challenged by Zola who isn’t averse to the idea of new legs to take him places. But while they fight it out, Strange traps them in a pocket dimension, leaving the stones in a limbo and realizing that they weren’t meant to win. This is as good as a victory as they’re going to get but like The Watcher nobody from their respective world’s will get to know about it because they are indeed going to the time, back in their realities. And while Thor is happy to return to Jane, and Peggy is pestered by The Watcher to go back because what would be the world without a Captain, Natasha simply refuses to go back to hers. And in another twist, The Watcher takes her back to a world without Black Widow. In fact, they land right in the midst of an ongoing battle happening on a Helicarrier with The Avengers fighting Asgardians led by none other than Loki. NGL, it teared me up a bit because at first I thought it is the Endgame again but it is actually the aftermath of Episode 3 where Hank Pym had killed them all.

While that is that, the makers included the first and a great mid-credit scene for the viewers to give it a more Marvel treatment. A sequence that traces Peggy’s return back to her world where Natasha (who she immediately hugs) takes her to a container and guess what’s in it? A HYDRA stomper with Steve Rogers still inside it! We don’t how he survived and the math behind it but something tells me that is What If…? Season 2’s problem.

Needless to say, the makers have enough grounds to cover for the second instalment and it will be fascinating to see how they top the work of the first! Cause I’m curious- what happens The Watcher for breaking his own rules? Guess, we will found out ! All the episodes of What If…? are now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

SEE ALSO: Marvel Fans Have The Same Thing To Say After Watching ‘Hawkeye’ Trailer Apart From The ‘Die Hard’ Part

Cover Image: Screenculture/ YouTube





Source link

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR