What If...? Ep. 03: Review and Major Details Explained! (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS AHEAD! STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE THIRD EPISODE!

What If...? Episode 3 aired today with some shocking variances from the Sacred Timeline, leading that universe's Earth to a dark future. The dark future with no protectors is set to be ruled under Asgard by none other than the God of Mischief, Loki.

The Story-view

The whole episode revolves around the mystery of the killing of Avengers candidates like Tony Stark, Thor Odinson, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff. Natasha pushes a syringe on Tony's neck which was seen in live-action movie Iron-Man 2 which helped Tony fight against Palladium Poisoning. But in this universe, he is killed by the syringe though the antidote was not released. Natasha is hold under captive as probable assassin for the assassination.

Again, we see the next day where Thor comes to retrieve his hammer, but he seemingly gets shot by Clint Barton. He defends himself but he is also hold under captive. Then he is seen found dead, even in his cell being in full observation. Next day, Natasha goes to Virginia to safeguard Bruce Banner but General Ross comes to shoot him down. Someone shots Bruce which makes him rage into his Hulk form. Later on, he dies a gruesome death by blowing his body due to unknown reason. On the other hand, Loki and the army of Asgard comes to Earth to avenge Thor's murder. Nick Fury makes a deal with him to find the assassin within next day.

Natasha trues to get into S.H.I.E.L.D database in a secret building but she is met by an unknown person trying to kill him, which he/she is successful is doing. Before dying she gives a voice mail to Nick Fury, "It's Hope, it's all about Hope." Nick Fury gets the idea of who it could be and goes to Loki for help. Later on, he goes near a tomb but the name written is Hope Van Dyne. In this universe, she has died way too early due to S.H.I.E.L.D mission. There Fury sees an Antman-Yellowjacket hybrid suit worn by none other than Hank Pym who is the person behind the killing of these Avengers candidates. He tries to kill Nick Fury but he seems to have some different powers. After that, it was revealed that it was Loki's illusions and tricks. In this way, Hank Pym was captured but this led to Loki taking over Earth leading the future of the planet to darkness with Captain Marvel left alive.

Major Details

At the very start of the episode, we see Natasha and Fury going to Randy Donuts to see Iron-Man. The way Natasha points her finger to the reflection of the donut, perfectly lines up with Iron-Man sitting on it. As Iron-Man is killed after the use of injector by Natasha, she is captured by S.H.I.E.L.D Strike Force. The fight she starts in the moving van is quite similar to the Captain America fighting on the elevator. Even the agents are the same ones from the elevator fight from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Thor is killed and Coulson tries to sniff his corpse, similar to the one from Avengers: Infinity War where Rocket Raccoon sniffs Thor's body not knowing what or who he actually is. Natasha goes to Culver University, Virginia where she meets up with Betty Ross who is wearing the same outfit which she wears in The Incredible Hulk. On a table, she founds a Stanley's Pizza Parlor cap and uniform. Bruce Banner used to work there and wear the uniform to get into the university to see Betty. Also, the name was used to cameo Stan Lee and also owned by someone with the same name.

When trying to get to the cabinet door, Natasha intimidates Betty but Bruce Banner comes out intentionally to avoid violence as he says it won't be good for any side. This is similar to the first meeting of Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff in Avengers where he also said the same thing. Bruce Banner also wars the same outfit here in this episode, which he also wears in his solo movie.

Loki comes to Earth through Bifrost to avenge his brother. He calls himself Crown Prince of Asgard. This is because Thor is killed which makes Loki unchallenged for the role of King, the next worthy. Loki uses the Casket of Ancient Winters to turn almost everything into ice, but Nick Fury tries to talk a deal with him to find Thor's assassin. The Casket of Ancient Winters first appeared in Thor, where Loki finds out he is actually the descendant of Frost Giants and actually adopted by Odin.

On the other side, Natasha with Bruce Banner gets meet up by General Ross. Bruce Banner gets shot and that rage turns him into Hulk. Natasha jumps through the glass window with a superhero landing, which was thoroughly brought up in Black Widow, where Yelena used to taunt her for her landings and terming her as a "total poser".

Phil Coulson reveals his password to be #SteveSteveSteveIHeartSteve0704. Now this is because he is a huge fan of Steve Rogers' Captain America. He also put Steve's birth date 07/04 in his password,which is July 4th.

Taking a look on the Avengers Initiative document, Fury is reminded of Captain Marvel from whom he got the idea of naming it Avengers. He tries to get into contact with her using that upgraded pager but before doing it, he gets to pinpoint what Natasha's voice mail was about.

Hank Pym comes with his Yellow-Jacket suit, which he is the one who wears in Marvel Comics. But instead of him, in MCU it is worn by Darren Cross. He reveals that he thinks of S.H.I.E.L.D to be the reason of her daughter's death in Odessa, Ukraine. This could have been the incident disclosed by Natasha in Captain America: The Winter Soldier where she was put into for a mission. There she was targeted by the Winter Soldier and the person the mission was entrusted, was killed. In this universe, it could probably be Hope Van Dyne who could have been killed by the Winter Soldier leading to Hank having grudge against S.H.I.E.L.D.

Hank also pulls off the famous line "You took everything from me" of Wanda Maximoff from Avengers: Endgame when she was confronting Thanos, the Mad Titan.

Final Verdict

Episode 3 is a pretty suspenseful and mysterious entry to the animated series, with some interesting twists playing with the audience's pre-existing knowledge about the movies. The dark ending of the life of the Avengers provided a whole new future with Loki being the ruler of the world. As a result, Avengers never got to unite and fight against Loki which occurred in live-action Avengers movie. This Nick Fury centric episode leading to mysterious deaths makes fans dive into the darker parallel universe. To conclude, this has been the most audacious story in the series so far providing great suspense and unique story-telling method as usual for the Marvel Studios.

Rating: 8/10

What If...? Episode 3 is streaming exclusively on Disney+ with more episodes airing every Wednesday.