Marvel’s What If…? continued this week with its darkest episode yet. Coming off the heels of an episode that featured pretty much all the Avengers dying, that’s really saying something. Titled “What If Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands”, episode 4 explored a reality where Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) died in a car crash, causing Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to become obsessed with using the Mystic Arts to turn back time and revive her.
This resulted in a much more power-hungry variant of the Sorcerer Supreme who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. And, for the first time in the show, the danger presented by the unruly wizard caused The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) to consider interfering in events. In the first three episodes, The Watcher was depicted as a narrator, only interacting with the audience, not the characters in the story. However, Strange was so powerful he sensed the cosmic being’s presence and begged him to help out when his actions doomed his entire universe at the episode’s end.
Ultimately, The Watcher elected not to intervene, admonishing Strange for his short-sighted actions and allowing this reality to collapse. It was a cold move from the godlike entity, and despite the episode’s tragic nature, Marvel fans are here for the surprisingly sassy Watcher.
That was harsh.
Folks can’t get over how The Watcher just let an entire reality be destroyed to teach Strange a lesson.
It was payback.
First, Wong walked out on Strange in the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer, then The Watcher. When will they learn this guy needs to be kept on a leash?
Speaking of Spider-Man…
Though he kept out of it in this instance, episode 4 suggests The Watcher could factor into future episodes in a more direct way, Maybe the next time a reality is threatened, his conscience will get the better of him and he’ll aid the heroes.
Marvel’s What If…? continues next Wednesday on Disney Plus.