In each Marvel’s What If animated sequence and the comedian books they’re based mostly on, Uatu the Watcher is dedicated to a lifetime of unceasing, eliminated impartiality and sworn to by no means grow to be instantly concerned with any of the occasions he witnesses throughout the multiverse. Episode 4 of Disney+’s What If was a reminder of the Watcher’s guidelines about trying fairly than touching, but it surely was additionally the sequence’ method of upping its multiversal stakes and bringing magic again into the highlight.

“What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” sticks to the sequence’ established formulation of remodeling the beats of an outdated MCU movie right into a largely new story about characters you’re already conversant in. Unlike its predecessors—which largely targeted on characters swapping thematic identities (see: Peggy turning into Captain Carter and T’Challa turning into Star-Lord)—the most recent story doesn’t really change all that a lot about its central hero’s station within the grand scheme of issues.

In most each telling of his origins, the lifetime of Stephen Strange (voiced right here by the MCU’s Benedict Cumberbatch) is marked by a profound loss which pushes him to pursue his magical research far-off from his life as a neurosurgeon in America. In many comics and Scott Derrickson’s 2016 Doctor Strange, it was the extreme accidents to his fingers after a automotive accident that put Strange on the trail to turning into the Sorcerer Supreme. That similar fateful accident performs out otherwise within the laboriously titled “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” and the Watcher expresses to himself early within the episode how the occasions of this explicit universe are all unfolding… nicely, “wrong.”

Moments after reintroducing Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) and her easily-forgotten romantic entanglement with Strange on what would have been the night time of his hand-ruining crash, What If goes off-script in an enormous method just by putting her within the automotive with him. Had Strange been driving solo, the crash might need merely left his fingers mangled, however on this universe, the collision ends in Christine’s demise whereas Strange solely suffers minor bodily accidents. The man’s emotional wounds, alternatively, depart him devastated and remorseful for not having been extra direct with Christine in regards to the depths of his emotions for her.

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As brief as these episodes are, there’s solely a lot time for any of the characters—and the actors portraying them—to essentially depart robust impressions, however the overwhelming majority of the forged right here confirmed up ready to make their time within the recording sales space depend. Though McAdams doesn’t get all that a lot to do, Christine feels rather more like an precise individual in comparison with her cinematic counterpart due to the handful of quiet scenes she shares with Strange that give you a way the intimacy they shared. In the episode’s first act, Christine’s heat is contrasted by Strange’s chilly vanity that reads extra like awkward aloofness due to Cumberbatch’s still-perplexing tackle prototypical American jerks. Though he delivers a largely all proper efficiency by way of conveying Strange’s feelings, What If’s sound design actually, actually attracts consideration to a few of the extra peculiar quirks borne out of Marvel’s refusal to simply let the MCU’s Strange be a mellifluous Englishman.

Aural wonkiness apart, the stiffness plaguing What If’s Doctor is a vital a part of his emotional arc this episode. Unwilling to just accept the permanence of Christine’s demise, he travels to Khamar-Taj the place he will get his first style of magic underneath the tutelage of the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) and Wong (Benedict Wong), who each sense the vastness of Strange’s potential and the way it’s buttressed by his grief. When this universe’s Strange first learns in regards to the Eye of Agamotto and its capability to govern time, each the Ancient One and Wong warn him that utilizing the relic to change occasions like Christine’s demise would result in cataclysmic penalties.

One factor the episode does fairly nicely is root Strange’s impulsiveness and irresponsibility in an comprehensible frustration along with his circumstance. To his credit score, Strange heeds Wong and the Ancient One’s warnings for 2 years as he continues to coach in hopes of discovering a strategy to deliver Christine again, and it’s solely after each different avenue is exhausted that he considers pivoting to darker magicks. The story glosses over a few of the highlights from Strange’s life featured in his film (like his confrontations with Dormammu) and, apparently, it explicitly names him as the Sorcerer Supreme in a method he hasn’t been within the MCU.

What If has typically felt hamstrung by its need to retell tales from the movies, however this episode’s reimagining of Strange’s creation of a time loop is considered one of its extra impactful moments up to now. Rather than endlessly needling Dormammu with the usage of the Eye of Agamotto, this Strange finally ends up utilizing the disguised Infinity Stone to journey again to the night time of Christine’s demise to be able to forestall it. No matter what number of occasions Stephen warps himself to the previous, although, he’s seemingly powerless to vary the truth that Christine was fated to die.

Though there’s an enormous motion set piece that meant to face out on this episode, Strange’s loop finally ends up being essentially the most fascinating bit due to the way it contextualizes the sorcerer’s descent right into a type of insanity we final noticed in WandaImaginative and prescient. While Wanda herself doesn’t present up this episode, you possibly can see shades of her in Stephen’s obsessive pursuit of a liked one he can solely be with by way of magical means. As Strange struggles to grasp why his plan received’t work, the Ancient One pops into being to elucidate how Christine’s demise is an “absolute point” that may’t be altered with out destroying their universe as an entire. This little bit of lore constructing isn’t expanded on additional, but it surely feels very very similar to What If gesturing in the direction of Loki’s Nexus Events and laying some groundwork for Marvel’s magic customers to have some troublesome conversations in Doctor Strange within the Multiverse of Madness.

Strange’s battle with the Ancient One results in him looking for alternate mystical avenues to resurrect Christine. In Marvel’s comics, Cagliostro is an historic sorcerer who Doctor Doom encounters throughout his travels by way of time in the hunt for somebody to show him the magic essential to deliver his mom again from the lifeless. What If introduces the character as O’Bengh (Ike Amadi), the librarian of Cagliostro’s interdimensional library, the place Strange travels on the lookout for magic that his former lecturers refused to coach him in. With O’Bengh’s assist, Strange step by step begins familiarizing himself with the assorted sorts of demons who exist on different planes, and mastering a really Agatha Harkness-like energy to soak up their essence.

As has been the case with all of What If’s episodes, “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” is a type of leisure for the Watcher, however on this episode, Strange’s flip to the darkish aspect offers with cosmic being purpose to specific a particular type of concern to the viewers… largely. Even although his energy grows, the extra demons Strange consumes, the farther off his supposed path he turns into. As simply the Sorcerer Supreme, he had no actual consciousness of the Watcher’s existence, however as this episode progresses, there are a handful of moments the place Strange appears to sense that he’s being watched by an unexpected presence, and it’s unclear whether or not the Watcher ever anticipated the void staring again at him.

The remaining stretch of this episode will get a bit messy because it remembers that it has greater than a little bit of plot to succinctly wrap up. After spending many years to grow to be a darkish, demonic model of himself highly effective sufficient to combat and devour components of a hydra monster much like the one from What If’s premiere, Strange finds himself stronger than ever however, unbeknownst to him, incomplete due to a spell the Ancient One forged on him. By harnessing the energies of the Dark Dimension, the Ancient One cut up their universe’s timeline in two, creating two Doctors Strange throughout the similar universe. On paper, this muddles up the MCU’s multiverse in methods which can be value discussing in-depth later, however for the sake of this episode all of it boils right down to there being two Stranges who’re fated to duke it out on the finish of the whole lot.

From the darkish Strange’s perspective, reuniting along with his “good” half, who selected to place Christine’s demise behind him, would lastly make them each highly effective sufficient to defy the legal guidelines of magic and be reunited with Christine. The different, extra smart Strange acknowledges his counterpart because the grieving madman that he’s, and in a narrative with a bit extra room to breath, the buildup to their battle might need been one thing really memorable. Of be aware: as an animated present, you’d assume What If would possibly serve up a few of the MCU’s extra spectacular magical motion sequences, however each Strange’s confrontation with the Ancient One and the larger battle towards the tip of the episode really feel like disappointing fast time occasions. As a lot as there’s to be mentioned about what What If portends for the MCU’s future narratively, what’s grow to be clearer because the season’s progressed is how protected the artistic group appears insistent on enjoying issues, visually. But whereas the battle itself isn’t a lot to jot down house about, what occurs after the Dark Strange overcomes his good half and truly resurrects Christine is value sitting with.

By tapping into each drop of demonic essence and wholly ignoring each warning he was given, the now-complete Strange is ready to “save” Christine, however is reworked right into a winged, Lovecraftian horror within the course of. To make issues worse, the truth the monstrous Strange and a confused Christine discover themselves is in a crumbling mess the place they look like the one beings left alive. Without Christine’s demise supporting the burden of the universe because it was meant to, actuality begins to break down in on itself, to Strange’s alarm. As he tries to carry the encroaching nothingness again, the Watcher lastly steps in to have a phrase with him.

Even if the Watcher might do one thing, he understands that it’d be each pointless and really harmful to the multiverse provided that the demise of Strange’s universe was assured by his personal hubris and unwillingness to take heed to everybody’s warnings about messing round with demons. In his remaining moments, Strange does come round to the concept that he tousled massive time, and that his errors have penalties that attain far past him, however he’s helpless to cease the void from consuming the whole lot apart from the small bubble of power he wraps round himself.

This episode ends fairly abruptly as if to underscore the gravity of the darkish Strange’s mistake. But a lot of this season has felt just like the buildup to disparate storylines intersecting, so this additionally simply feels just like the setup to What If’s spin on Marvel Zombies. If that’s the case, then it additionally stands to purpose that the sequence is about to get markedly darker and extra critical as the ultimate 5 episodes unfurl, which might actually be a boon for the present. But even now, What If nonetheless feels prefer it’s discovering its voice.

What If airs Wednesdays on Disney+

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