What If... The Watcher Broke His Oath?

The genius of Marvel productions has, for the last few years, been giving you not just what you want, but what you didn't even know you wanted. I was prepared for "What If" to be what they said it was, a series of unconnected stories showing alternate takes on the characters and utilising much of the roster of talent we've seen in the MCU. That they've then provided more besides, a season arc and a resolution, is a cherry on top of an already impressive cake.

Unable to stand idly by anymore, The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) collects a team of heroes and villains from the previous episodes to make a stand against Ultra-Vision (Ross Marquand) and save the multiverse. His team, consisting of Doctor Strange Supreme (Benedict Cumberbatch), Starlord T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell), Gamora (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams), King Killmonger (Michael B Jordan) and Party Thor (Chris Hemsworth) attempt to coexist, in a world they barely understand and against a foe who seems to hold all the cards.

I feel like I keep saying this, but the show looks amazing. The battle against Ultra Vision, which cribs from the fights against Thanos in both Endgame and Infinity War, is a joy to behold. I'm not sure exactly why, the writing maybe, but this performance of Captain Carter worked a lot more for me than her individual episode did and there are strong returns for Hemsworth and Cumberbatch as well as a final emotional performance from Chadwick Boseman.

It's the writing though that is the most impressive, tying up what felt like loose ends from other episodes of the show, making a use out of the two episodes that this one doesn't lift a character from, the resurrection of Doctor Strange and the punishment for Killmonger. Brilliant stuff. Shame we didn't get a chance to meet this Gamora before, as her episode was cut (or perhaps shunted to season two) but still truly tremendous stuff and I can't wait to see if they can top it next time out.

Dude, after killing him half of the episodes, you could have given him some slack. On the other hand, it's nice to see some of the other characters involved with saving the multiverse.

I especially enjoyed Strange showing off some of the magic he literally ingested previously. Thor was screaming a lot which was funny but one would think after being friends with his brother from another mother he should be more immune against all kinds of magic shenanigans and not that easy to shock. Gamora was a bit underused, only there to explain her ultimately useless whatchamacallit.

All in all a fun episode, could have used some more screen time and some more plot, but all around a good finale.

This episode was good, but not as great as it could've or should've been. Episode 8 was amazing, so it's unfortunate that this episode somewhat suffers from rough dialogue like some of the other mediocre episodes. But it's still a good conclusion nonetheless.

This was a very good ending to, and by far, the best episode of What if..? This particular episode brings together everything that we saw earlier in the show and we finally get compensated for some of the bad/abrupt endings of the previous episodes.

Every single thing about this episode was enjoyable. It was fast-paced (not rushed), genuinely funny and packed with surprises. The action sequences were quite thrilling and the animation, as always, was top notch.

I can go on about these things but the real winner of the episode is the multiversal crossover and the chemistry which was created between the characters within a span of just 30 minutes. It was like watching a mini avengers movie. We get to see some character interactions that we only wished we'd seen in the live-action MCU projects. And that was very interesting to watch.

The episode did have a small issue where just one of the characters, feels completely useless and was unnecessarily present. You will know who it is when you watch it. But it wasn't like that particular character's presence was holding the show back.

Not only was this episode a fitting conclusion to the entire show but it also sets us up for season 2 and probably for the future of MCU. This show turned out to be a lot more important than I had exptected it to be.

This episode was amazing, while i do prefer 8, this was still an amazing episode with a great conclusion and makes the most sense, i wish we had more time with gamora though lol.