Let’s Talk about What If…? Episode 3-5

What if The Watcher stopped watching and started interfering?

This concept has driven countless Fantastic Four stories over the years, and now it finally comes to the MCU.

Let’s talk about Marvel’s What If…? Episode 4-5, the one where Ironheart’s noble sacrifice never happens.

What If…Vision and Mysterio?

We’ve got a cyberpunk setting for this story, which involves the noble Riri Williams trying to save the day.

Alas, all the woman holds dear at this point is her Ironheart suit. She’s lost everything else and has no one to trust.

Riri visits the Power Broker and works a deal for an Easy Bake Oven, an analog one.

Not content with her score, Riri asks for more. The Power Broker isn’t interested in repeat business, though.

Peggy Carter’s niece is less heroic on What If…? than Riri, and we learn this quickly when killer robots appear.

The Power Broker has sold out Riri to Mysterio, the authoritarian villain of the piece.

Mysterio has sent his ultimate weapon, the pure white version of Vision, to capture Riri.

We quickly learn that Riri is all that stands between the dying Mysterio and his wish for a totally conquered society.

Mysterio wants to end all rebellion before he dies, but the nigh-invincible Vision fails in his quest.

An airship appears and sweeps Riri away from her would-be captor.

We quickly learn that a small group of rebels remain and that Riri, while their best hope, isn’t alone in her quest to topple Mysterio.

A few recognizable MCU faces want to help Riri with her quest. They include Wongers, Okoye, Valkyrie, and Ying Nan.

In case you’ve forgotten, Ying Nan was Michelle Yeoh’s character in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

So, this is a stout team, but Mysterio has an arm of robots he makes appear even larger due to his illusions.

Also, Vision can travel through solid objects and avoid all physical blows. This is a hard task.

The Noble Sacrifices

The larger story here, the one with ramifications beyond this episode, is that The Watcher narrates all these events.

We quickly learn that he has watched this story unfold countless times, with Riri always falling short of her goals.

In each universe, she fights the same battle, only to lose her battle with Mysterio at the very end.

The Watcher sounds weary and frustrated, driving home the point that his peers are punishing him.

This character is trapped in a purgatory where he watches endless suffering but can never interfere to stop it.

We quickly learn why this particular struggle haunts him. Riri redefines heroism and determination.

The prodigy lost her entire family at a young age. Now she seeks vengeance and desires a better tomorrow for others.

Her airship allies promise to help, but Vision disrupts those plans. Mysterio sends his watchdog on a hunting mission.

Vision takes on the entire airship of soldiers, civilians, and MCU heroes. And he’s winning.

Even though Wongers wears some mystical glow armor, he’s nowhere close to a match for Vision.

In a different part of the ship, Riri learns she has less than ten minutes to build a weapon that can stop Vision.

Despite the fact that she indicated it would take countless hours, Riri’s Easy Bake Oven attack somehow works. She kills Vision.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that everyone else on the ship, other than the heroes, dies. All of them.

Only five people in this universe have a chance to stop Mysterio from becoming an unquestioned tyrant.

Visionheart

Mysterio watches Vision’s death through a networked connection and appreciates the danger Riri poses.

However, Ironheart is just getting started. An Easy Bake Oven will weaponize her suit in a pinch, but she finds something better.

Riri hacks into Vision’s body and turns herself into a kind of Human-Android cyborg. The Watcher can barely watch.

Riri persuades the others to attack Mysterio at his fortress, which they all recognize is probably a fight they can’t win.

All of them agree to try anyway because they’re heroes. And Riri, in her Vision outfit, is a formidable sight.

For that matter, her new suit grabs Mysterio’s attention. He recognizes an opportunity.

We learn that Mysterio is slowly dying because he uses technology to extend his own life and network his cyber army.

This group is every bit as formidable as Vision because it’s impossible to identify how many of them are real.

Riri wastes shots firing at fake killer robots while the real ones, well, kill her. Okay, not really. She does get knocked from the sky, though.

Teammates assist Riri, and they head to the location of Mysterio’s nanites. It’s a trap, though.

Riri finds herself trapped in a prison as Mysterio drops the illusion. And he reveals that he keeps the network inside him.

That’s why he’s dying. He’s deduced how to save himself, though. He can steal Riri’s Vision-based android form.

Deux Ex Machina

Riri escapes her prison and battles Mesphisto in what becomes a videogame final boss fight. They’re even cliffside for some reason.

At this point, The Watcher narrates that this is the point where Riri always falls…and that he cannot watch anymore.

The Watcher turns away as Mysterio uses his powers to strip Riri of hers. Then, The Watcher makes a choice and speaks.

In a deus ex machina situation, The Watcher tells her to fight back…and she does!

Suddenly, Riri discovers newfound strength and counters Mysterio by stripping his powers instead.

Riri overcomes her impossible circumstances and fells a very confused Mysterio, who dies soon after losing his powers.

The last thing the villain sees is an Avengers symbol in the air, and the remaining people on this planet notice it, too.

Riri Williams has restored hope and given her people a chance to make their own future, one without Mysterio’s tyranny.

This sounds like a good thing, right? Well, the camera cuts to a faraway location where three other Watchers watch.

One of them, The Eminence, angrily asks, “What has he done?”

A counterpart replies, “He has broken his oath. Again.” Yeah, they said that a lot in the comics, too.

The point here is clear. Those who assigned The Watcher to his overwatch believe he has crossed a line.

We’re apparently getting a War of The Watchers during the final three episodes. That’s gonna leave a mark on the multiverse.

 

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