The second season of Marvel’s What If…? is here. The animated series will once again take us through various hypothetical situations that put some of our favorite characters in completely new circumstances. And in the fifth episode, we get an answer to the question, “What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?”
This episode opens with the battle of New York from Avengers, only this time, instead of Captain America, it’s Captain Carter calling the shots. The team also doesn’t have the Hulk in this universe, but instead has the Wasp. Carter and Black Widow get the drop on Loki and take him out.
After the title sequence, The Watcher explains that he doesn’t like to revisit stories when there are infinite to be told. However, he counts Captain Carter as a friend and wants to tell her story after she was returned from serving as a member of the Guardians of the Multiverse.
We rejoin her as she pulls up in a car to pick up Black Widow, mirroring the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Since we first met Captain Carter in an alternate version of The First Avenger, it’s only fitting that we get The Winter Soldier next.
Natasha brings Peggy to a shipping container on a ship. She looks inside to find the Hydra Stomper, which activates and fires at the two of them. Peggy, who was hoping to find Steve inside the suit, tries to avoid being killed by the Stomper. In their fight, he flies past Peggy with his helmet open and she sees that Steve Rogers is in fact in the suit. Eventually, he flies high above the ship and fires missiles back at the ship, blowing it up at Peggy and Natasha jump into the water to escape.
At SHIELD headquarters, Peggy tries to get information from Nick Fury. She was told Steve had died on his final mission. Fury sticks to that intel but informs her that the Stomper remained active ever since and had killed countless agents over the years. Natasha reveals that the Red Room, the organization of Russian spies that created the Black Widow, might have been the ones to brainwash Steve and control the Stomper.
We see that Bucky Barnes is now the Secretary of State, in the Alexander Pierce role. Brock Rumlow and a group of soldier arrive to protect him from what they think is an imminent threat on his life. They’re right as the Hydra Stomper shows up and immediately begins shooting into the building. Peggy shows up just in time and Bucky and the soldiers escape.
Fury gives Widow the order to use lethal force to take down the Hydra Stomper. Peggy clues Bucky in on what’s going on and then fights off the Stomper again. This time though, it gets the better of her and drops her on the first floor while going back after Bucky on the roof. The Stomper corners Bucky and the soldiers but Widow arrives in a quinjet and gets a shot at Steve. Bucky stands in her way though and tries to snap Steve out of his trance. Amazingly, Steve doesn’t utter the line “who the hell is Bucky,” which would have hit perfectly in this spot. Steve does draw his gun on Bucky again but Peggy shows up just in time to save him again.
The Stomper takes off with Peggy on it’s back, flying up into the air. Peggy knocks Steve out and they both fall from the sky before Natasha catches them in the quinjet. Together, they fly to a remote island in Scotland where they can hide from SHIELD. In a safehouse, Widow explains that the suit is keeping Steve alive and tries to convince Peggy to bring in Tony Stark or Bruce Banner to help. It’s interesting that they’re aware of Bruce Banner in this universe but he was not a member of the Avengers in the battle of New York.
Peggy refuses any help and they continue to discuss it before Steve wakes up, now seemingly himself again. Steve offers to get them to the Red Room, which is where Peggy wants to take him to figure out how to get him out of the suit.
Peggy, Natasha and Steve arrive at an old Soviet training facility that has been taken over by the Red Room. The facility is a horrifying town populated by robots posing as American citizens. As they wait for a Red Room transport to show up, Peggy and Steve get caught up. Their conversation is scored by “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” by Kitty Kallen, which was first played in the MCU in The Winter Soldier before returning for Steve and Peggy’s dance at the end of Avengers: Endgame.
Their discussion is interrupted when one of the robots hits Peggy with a Widow bite. Suddenly, they find themselves surrounded by the robots, all of which fire more bites at them. They try to fight them off but eventually the Stomper powers down. When Peggy tries to reach him, Natasha, who joined the fight, gets overwhelmed. Peggy also gets hit by too many bites to withstand and she too is taken down.
Both Natasha and Peggy look up to see the Red Room hovering above them before Melina arrives with a group of Widow’s behind her. We met Melina in Black Widow, as the adopted mother of Natasha and Yelena. Here, it appears she is in charge of the Red Room. The Stomper informs her his mission has been accomplished and she reveals that Bucky was never the target. Instead, Steve’s mission was to bring Peggy to them. Milena references a “Captain Carter” movie, which surprises Peggy. Natasha explains that it was a musical, which I have to imagine is a reference to “Rogers: The Musical.”
Peggy and Widow square up to fight off Milena and her Widows. Steve flies off with Peggy, leaving Natasha to take on all of the Widows. Eventually, both fights lead to a water tower coming down, which allows Peggy and Natasha to hide for a bit. They try to use the element of surprise to even the odds, but they end up in the same fights they were in before.
Natasha eventually gets the better of the Widows before Milena attacks her herself. Meanwhile, Peggy puts down her shield and refuses to fight Steve any more. Milena gets her hands around Natasha’s throat and begins to choke her. Peggy talks to Steve and eventually he steps back and looks up at the Red Room. Despite Peggy’s protests, he takes off with the intention of sacrificing himself to destroy the Red Room. Seeing this, Natasha launches a grappling hook at the Stomper, getting a cable tangled around Milena and pulling her up into an explosion along with the Stomper. Peggy arrives to shield Natasha from the falling debris and the two make it out just in time.
The Watcher sees their escape and explains that this is not the end of Peggy’s story. We cut to later when Peggy is preparing to head out to look for Steve and Natasha agrees to join her, again mirroring the events of the Winter Soldier. The Watcher narrates again but is surprised to find some kind of rift open in the floor and swallow up Peggy. He makes it clear that he can no longer see her, which is certainly not typical for him.
Peggy awakens to find a different version of Nick Fury standing over her. He is then joined by a version of the Scarlet Witch, who says Peggy can save their world. Peggy yells out for The Watcher before the episode comes to a close.
It appears this season of What If…? will once again tie its episodes together for a bigger story. As for this episode, it’s always fun to see Marvel put a twist on one of their old projects, especially when that project is arguably still the best Marvel movie to date (with some Black Widow sprinkled in). The spy thriller genre is yet another new one for this series and it was just as fun as you might expect.
New episodes of Marvel’s What If…? season 2 will debut daily between now and December 30 on Disney+.