Marvel’s What If…? season 2, episode 9 is a significant cross-universal confrontation that pits Strange Supreme versus MCU rookie Kahhori and Captain Carter. The most tragic and sinister Doctor Strange variation has returned to tamper with the multiverse’s equilibrium, unable to find closure for his loss.
In this thrilling season finale, Carter and Kahhori must save all of existence and all of its variations. All Captain Peggy Carter wants is to get back home to her home world after she just saved one in the year 1602, right after a tumultuous reunion with her version of Steve Rogers, whom the Red Room had brainwashed.
But in the second-season finale of Marvel’s What If…?, Strange Supreme enlists Peggy for a new mission before sending her home. But Strange has more darker goals than he first admits, as the episode’s conclusion completely reveals.
What If Season 2 Ending Explained
Fan-favorite hero Kahhori joins Captain Carter in her quest to stop Strange Supreme. After Season 2’s “What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?” Strange made an appearance to her. She was apprehended by Strange Supreme along with several other “universe killers,” whom he intended to feed into the Forge.
Had he done so, the world he destroyed would have been restarted, allowing him additional opportunities to save Christine from dying in the car accident that claimed his life and set him on the path to becoming a sorcerer. In the end, Strange’s hero reappears at the last second, hurling himself into the Forge along with all the horrible creatures he had taken in to become more powerful.
Christine is saved, and his universe is restarted, but at the price of “deleting” himself from history. There isn’t a Stephen Strange in that branch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe multiverse. Captain Carter is saved by the Watcher, who promises to bring Kahhori back to her realm.
However, the conclusion implies that Captain Carter might wind up being the Watcher’s Doctor’s companion in Doctor Who. It was disclosed in the previous episode, “What If…The Avengers Assembled in 1602,” that Captain Carter was able to hear the Watcher’s narration.
The Watcher cautions her against interfering in multiversal issues throughout their conversation. He appears to be right when he cautions her that finding the solution would leave her stuck in the past of a different universe.
With the ability to traverse the multiverse on his own, Strange Supreme appears with a request. Before sending her home, he needed to ask for a favor. He tells Peggy that he has been apprehending those who kill universes to save other multiverse branches from the same fate as his reality.
However, he requests that Captain Carter recapture Kahhori as well since she is one of his prisoners. He has an addiction-like urge to save Christine at whatever cost, one that will kill others in addition to himself.
That someone as pure “good” as Peggy would choose a character like Kahhori over him, nevertheless, had to have worried some part of Strange Supreme. Both good and bad guys are cast into the Forge while they battle Strange Supreme.
They give the heroes their formidable relics, including Ultron’s Infinity Stone armor, knowing they are doomed. At the very last second, Strange manages to contain a monster that is forced to surface inside Supreme Strange. To save his universe, he gives himself up.
For better or worse, Kahhori returns all of the inmates to their original timelines in the interim. It’s possible that Strange Supreme intended Captain Carter to vanquish him rather than Kahhori, the universe killer.
The pocket universe that Strange Supreme inhabited is destroyed as he offers himself as a sacrifice. Once more, defying his guidelines, the Watcher steps in. He returns Kahhori to her universe after saving Peggy. But in his cosmic space, where he can see the multiverse, Peggy is left with him.
The Watcher acknowledges that Peggy eventually made it to the enjoyable portion of Strange Supreme after warning her about interfering. It seems that he has reconsidered interfering with her interstellar affairs. Significant ramifications for the MCU’s future may result from this.
Although Peggy is prepared to return home, she asks the Watcher if he would want to travel “the scenic route.” He looks thrilled to have someone to finally share the wonders of the multiverse with, much like the Doctor from Doctor Who.
He informs her that there is a lot to see and that their return trip to her home planet will probably involve several detours. Naturally, this might just refer to observation. After all, all the Watcher does is observe these branch universes.
He makes a vow not to get involved, which he violates in both of the season finales of What If…? When the multiverse as a whole was in danger in Season 1, Infinity Ultron pressed his hand. However, he might be willing to allow her to play a more active role as a Guardian of the Multiverse after witnessing what Captain Carter was able to accomplish in the last two episodes of Season 2.
In 2023’s most popular superhero series, Loki, the season (and maybe series) finale left the God of Mischief as the entity that held the multiverse together. The multiverse depicted in “What If…Strange Supreme Intervened?” is, in actuality, the same branch of the chronology world tree as the Loki finale.
Considering all the dangers the MCU multiverse is facing, the Watcher may have decided to guard it more actively. He won’t tamper with these worlds, but he could just point out an issue to Captain Carter, forcing her to solve it.
Naturally, this makes one wonder if Captain Carter runs the risk of becoming a Watcher-enabled character similar to Strange Supreme. Removing entities from branches of the multiverse before they could be annihilated must have seemed like a smart idea to him.
But total authority corrupts totality. It’s possible that Peggy did not absorb evil, dark forces to amplify her abilities. However, even the purest of souls may be impacted by choosing the destiny of the entire universe.
She might turn into someone who needs to be stopped, much like Strange Supreme, if the Watcher and Peggy ever disagree. She shares Steve Rogers’ moral purity from the prime timeline, although even he wasn’t perfect. After all, Steve prevented Wanda Maximoff from destroying the Mind Stone.
Had he not, Thanos would not have been able to snap half the cosmos away in five years. The Watcher and Peggy traveling around the cosmos most likely serves as a set-up for Season 3 and maybe a live-action cameo.
Captain Carter was already very strong before many of the other captured variations Carter had liberated gave Peggy and Kahhori their weapons during the episode’s climactic conflict. Carter had seized the Infinity Stones from the variant of Erik Killmonger from What If…? season 1.
As a result, Captain Carter and Kahhori were extremely well-armed with relics, including The Ten Rings, Hela’s crown, a sword used by the Hulk-Thor version, and more. Luckily, Kahhori was able to prevent Strange’s multiversal forge from consuming any of these variations by returning them all to their worlds.
With all six Infinity Stones gripped in her fist, Carter managed to momentarily subdue Strange Supreme, even though she had changed into a gigantic winged demon of utter darkness and grief. Peggy had a tiny window of opportunity to try to get in touch with Strange and the man he used to be.
It appeared as though Strange had let go just before he and his demon plunged into the forge; Uatu cites this as the reason his universe was restored, even though it did not include him. It was his sacrifice that ultimately restored the reality he had wrecked.
In the last scene of Marvel’s What If…? season 2, episode 9, Uatu has promised to bring Captain Carter home at last. However, Peggy wants to go back to her original world. Instead, Captain Carter advises that before the MCU’s new multiversal tree—first seen in the Loki season 2 finale—is revealed, they should take a scenic path to explore what else might be out there.
This is a powerful tease for the already confirmed third season of What If…? In light of this, a preview for a future episode featuring Red Guardian and Bucky Barnes has already been made public. It’s important to keep in mind that this clip is probably from the episode that was officially pushed back to season 3, so it may be some time before What If..? returns for a third season on Disney+.
After all, there were more than two years between the first and second seasons. But let’s hope that a third season showcasing more fascinating universes from the MCU multiverse will air sooner rather than later.