What If…? Season 1 Finale Recap: The Watcher Assembles the Guardians of the Multiverse

Warning: This piece has spoilers for Marvel’s What If…?

Marvel’s What If…? season 1 finale fantastically brings together characters and story threads from previous episodes in the series to execute a great conclusion. It feels satisfying to see some of the storylines get resolved in the action-packed episode 9.

What If…? season 1 finale cast includes Jeffrey Wright, Ross Marquand, Benedict Cumberbatch, Hayley Atwell, Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Chris Hemsworth, Cynthia McWilliams, Lake Bell, and more. The first season of What If…? is directed by Bryan Andrews and AC Bradley served as the head writer.

What If…? Season 1 Finale Recap

What If…? season 1, episode 9 begins with the Watcher recruiting various characters from the multiverse including Captain Carter, Star Lord T’Challa, Party Thor, Killmonger, and Gamora. This is Gamora’s first appearance in the season so far and she has the Infinity Crusher that can destroy the Infinity Stones. The Watcher and Doctor Strange Supreme brief them on their mission to kill Ultron, who is trying to destroy the multiverse. The new team of heroes is called Guardians of the Multiverse.

The Guardians of the Multiverse begin executing their plan and lure Ultron to a planet with no intelligent life. Doctor Strange Supreme protects everyone with a powerful spell. Meanwhile, Killmonger is in the background fiddling with one of Ultron’s sentry head. Ultron locates the Guardians and an epic battle begins. While fighting Ultron, Star Lord T’Challa manages to steal the Soul Stone from him. They escape using a portal and give the Soul Stone to Gamora to have it destroyed using the Infinity Crusher. But, Black Widow from the universe of episode 9 steals it from T’Challa. Fortunately, Captain Carter convinces her to work with them to take down Ultron as they are “BFFs” in Carter’s universe.

Ultron finds the team and manages to save the Soul Stone from being crushed. The Guardians and Ultron fight against each other to get their hands on the Soul Stone. Gamora somehow manages to retrieve the Soul Stone and crushes it using her Infinity Crusher, seemingly destroying Ultron. However, the Infinity Crusher was built for her universe and not for the universe that Ultron comes from. Hence, she was unable to kill Ultron and he gets the Soul Stone back. Ultron is now back with vengeance and he is trying his best to kill the Guardians of the Multiverse, but they are protected by Doctor Strange Supreme’s spell.

Since Ultron is focused on breaking Doctor Strange Supreme’s spell, Black Widow and Captain Carter manage to execute a different plan to take down Ultron. Black Widow shoots the arrow with Arnim Zola’s artificial brain from the previous episode, which pierces through Ultron’s right eye. Zola infiltrates Ultron’s brain from the inside and takes over his body. Taking advantage of this situation, Killmonger gets all the Infinity Stones and plans to use them to fix their own universes. However, Zola stops him from doing so and they are stuck for an eternity trying to get the Stones. Doctor Strange Supreme imprisons both of them in a small dimension and the Watcher pulls them back to where Doctor Strange Supreme was. Doctor Strange Supreme vows to watch over them to ensure that they don’t escape.

The Watcher meets the Guardians of the Multiverse one last time and the team starts going back to their respective universes. However, Captain Carter is reluctant to go back to her universe as she misses Steve. She asks the Watcher, “Haven’t I earned my happy ending?” The Watcher assures her that she is needed in her universe. There’s a mid-credits scene in this episode where Captain Carter discovers that Steve is alive inside the HYDRA Stomper from the first episode.

Black Widow refuses to go back to her universe as it is destroyed by Ultron and she is mad at the Watcher for allowing Ultron to murder all of her friends. Since the Watcher cannot bring back her universe, he puts Black Widow in a universe that lost her. She sees Captain America and Captain Marvel fighting against a horde of enemies. Black Widow jumps right into battle to save Nick Fury and take down Loki. As the episode ends, the Watcher breaks his oath and promises to protect the Multiverse.

What If…? season 1 ended on a great note, where cliff-hangers from previous episodes finally paid off. The season finale delivered an action-packed episode and a happy ending for the characters. What If…? is getting another season with characters like Captain Carter, Black Widow, Shang-Chi, and Eternals.

Marvel’s What If…? season 1 finale is now streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar.

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