Summary
What If…? solidly adapts Marvel 1602 to exciting and energetic effect, updating the original story to feel more of apiece with the established MCU and previous episodes in the season.
Marvel 1602 is a well-liked limited run written by Neil Gaiman, so it makes sense that it’d form the basis of an adaptation in a show like What If…?. For all DC’s faults, its animated output has been exploring various Elseworlds stories and riskier one-shot adaptations for years, and most of them are pretty good. “What If… The Avengers Assembled in 1602?” – which is Episode 8 of Season 2 if you’re keeping count – doesn’t adapt the original story directly but instead uses its underpinnings as an excuse for a fun slice of swashbuckling cosplay that follows on from the cliffhanger ending of Episode 5.
What If…? Season 2 Episode 8 Recap
As it turns out, Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) was dragged into this universe by the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) to solve the issue of some angry green storms preceding the realm’s pending ruin. At no point is it explained how Peggy, of all people, was expected to do this, but she’s nonetheless resolved in the matter. That is until Hela (Cate Blanchett, with much less to do than in Episode 7) is dragged kicking and screaming through one of the rips, leading an incensed Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to decide Peggy is out of chances and order her to be arrested.
The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright), not really playing by the rules in this episode, explains to both the audience and Peggy herself that she’s stuck in a world that is doomed. No matter what she does, she cannot stop the impending calamity, and the Watcher even offers to whisk her out of there. Peggy, though, is having none of it. She’s determined to stick around and do whatever she can to help, even if that means consigning herself to the same fate as everyone else.
The Forerunner
This fairly quickly morphs into what is essentially a fetch quest. As Wanda explains to Thor, the storms are being caused not by Peggy’s presence, as he assumes, but by another out-of-time interloper who nobody knows how to find. Peggy, on the run and now aware of this, resolves to find this person herself with the help of Tony Stark (Mick Wingert).
By analyzing Yorick’s skull from Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) production of Hamlet, Peggy and Stark discover that it’s emanating a green-tinged energy of a type that the person they’re looking for would also be giving off, but the era’s technology isn’t up to snuff to trace it. Instead, magic will have to do, and the nearest sufficiently powerful item is Thor’s scepter. Naturally, Thor isn’t in a sharing mood, so Peggy turns to a band of thieves – Steve Rogers (Josh Keaton), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) – to steal it for her.
Prison Break
Of course, Peggy and Steve have an obvious romantic connection, since she reminds him of his lost love, and he agrees. The arrival of Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and his men throws a spanner in the works, leaving the Merry Men on their own and Peggy arrested and locked in the palace dungeon, where The Watcher once again tries to dissuade her from this perilous and perhaps pointless mission. Peggy, once again, only becomes more determined to find the Forerunner and uses an imprisoned Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) to escape the prison and return to Tony.
With Tony’s new invention, which will find the Forerunner and, with the help of the Time Stone, send him back home, Peggy, Hulk, Steve, and the Merry Men all descend on Thor’s court for a big blow-out battle. Happy turns into his Hulk form, as he did in Episode 3, which is a nice callback, Peggy duels Thor, and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Wanda nick the Time Stone to pop into Tony’s device. And, it works!
How does What If…? Season 2 Episode 8 end?
The Forerunner is revealed to be a roughly Infinity War-era Steve Rogers, who, during the battle with Thanos, accidentally struck the Time Stone with the point of his shield and found himself here in 1602. This triggers a personal crisis for Peggy since she is once again forced to deny herself and Steve the happy ending they long-since imagined with each other. Steve does the heroic self-sacrifice thing and leaves Peggy behind, though 1602 seems to be saved.
Since What If…? can never help itself, the episode is capped off by a last-minute cameo from Strange Supreme, who needs Peggy’s help just in time for the season finale.
What did you think of What If…? Season 2 Episode 8? Let us know in the comments.
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