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The latest episode of What If…? is called ‘What If… Ultron Won?’ although it is more of a ‘and also what if we ignore a few things to have a fun season finale’ too. The episode starts on an odd note, as The Watcher tells us about a particular universe that ‘breaks my heart’ — certainly quite the ominous sign. But it’s also a bit weird, because it doesn’t fit with the end of the last episode, where an invading Ultron finds the Party Thor universe and the Watcher is surprised by the appearance.
Yet here he is (a) watching the way that Ultron gains his power and (b) is directly responsible (if unintentionally) for Ultron discovering the multiverse in the first place. So it feels like a mistake or if intentional, a poorly handled bit of continuity. Still, much of the episode works pretty well — we follow the lone survivors of the world (or the lone surviving Avengers anyway), Barton and Natasha (Lake Bell again). Impressionist extraordinaire Ross Marquand also returns to play Ultron with his James Spader impression, much like how he did a Hugo Weaving as Red Skull take in the first episode of the season.
Once again our Avengers are murdered (including Tony, who has yet to visibly survive an episode) but Hawkeye and Black Widow are the humans that are the closest to saving the day — and perhaps they might yet! The divergence here is pretty clear: Ultron manages to use the Vision body like he always planned and that’s enough to give him complete control over the Mind Stone — and then easily kill Thanos.
Although I suppose Thor got close to killing him too even when Thanos had all of the stones, so among the ‘really?’ moments I guess it’s justified enough. However, after Ultron kills everyone, I guess (except Natasha and Clint because … he doesn’t notice even with the Stones? Doesn’t make sense) the Watcher monologues in his way, and just like with Supreme Strange, this Vision actually notices the sounds and realizes the multiverse exists.
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Of course this also doesn’t really make complete sense, because the implication so far with Loki is that the Infinity Stones aren’t really relevant outside their own universe — although that may be open to interpretation since the TVA situation isn’t the same as is whatever the crystalline place the Watcher watches from. Despite that, it was fun to see the Watcher get more and more concerned, rooting for the humans to find Zola, and it was even more fun to see him and Ultron trade blows through many realities.
Eventually our buddy the voyeur/Watcher flees because I guess he’s in danger? I mean I don’t really see how Infinity Stone Ultron is theoretically too much for the Watcher, even if as a villain he’s pretty compelling — would’ve preferred a few more Spader-like jokes but I liked his dangerous, implacable AI energy.
Although I saw the ending coming, I enjoyed seeing the Watcher go to Supreme Strange for help — it means that the big team up is headed our way. If you look back at each episode, that would mean Captain Carter from episode one and Starlord T’Challa from episode two. No one of note from murder mystery episode three, antihero Dr Strange from episode four, and I don’t know, maybe Killmonger from episode six? That one might also be ignored, although I suspect we’ll see zombie Thanos show up in some way too.
So there are those inconsistencies I brought up but otherwise it was fun, sometimes quite tense episode — I found myself really rooting for the Watcher to figure something out and Infinity Ultron felt almost like he might break through the fourth wall entirely. Definitely excited for the last episode and perhaps they’ll even have a ‘How What If…?’ episode too.
New episodes of What If…? stream Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
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