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 with the sixth episode, we get an answer to the question, “What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?”
The episode opens with The Watcher narrating the fall of Asgard at the hands of Surtur. In other words, it begins with Asgard. The Tesseract, which Odin had not yet hidden away, falls to Earth and lands somewhere in the woods.
After the title sequence, we meet Kahhori, a young Mohawk woman, who runs off into the woods with her brother, Wahta. As they run off looking for fun, they stumble across an old battlefield, riddled with skeletons. Kahhori talks about a forbidden lake and Wahta explains that the stories say the lake swallowed people up. They reach what is supposed to be the lake but, as Wahta says, it’s just a puddle… with ducks.
They hear gunshots in the distance and run back to their home to see that they’ve been attacked by Spanish conquerors. They get spotted by one of them and are chased back into the woods. In their panic, they fall into a cave which leads them to the real forbidden lake, which is glowing a bright blue. The conquerors find the cave and one of them corners Wahta. Kahhori tries to distract the man but she is shot by another and she falls into the lake. The men grab Wahta as we see Kahhori sink into the water. As she approaches the bottom, a portal opens up and drags her closer to what we see now is the Tesseract.
Kahhori finds herself in a mysterious new place, glowing with vibrant colors. She is approached by a man who welcomes her to “Sky World” before she passes out. The Watcher then lets us know that the Tesseract broke on its impact with Earth and unleashed its energy into the lake.
Kahhori wakes up in a hut, completely healed from her gunshot wound. She sees the people of Sky World practicing some kind of magic, their hands glowing blue. The same man she saw earlier explains that the portal that brought her here seeps into the land the water and their food and when they take it in, they get some of its powers as well. The man introduces himself as Atahraks.
Kahhori explains that her people were under attack and that she needs to get home. She runs off to see that the portal that brought her here is way up in the sky and out of her reach. Back on earth, the leader of the conquerors introduces himself as Rodrigo Alphonso Gonzolo and explains that they are looking for the Fountain of Youth. As he threatens Kahhori’s people, some of his men return with Wahta and tell him they’ve found it.
Kahhori tries to climb a tree to get as close as she can to the portal while Atahraks tries to explain they are meant to be there. He also explains again that they have special abilities while they’re here and she uses them to bound up the tree more easily. She questions the limits of these abilities and tries to use them to create stairs to the portal. She falls from the top of the tree and Atahraks explains she’s not the first one to try that. She fails again and again as she tries to reach the portal before they are interrupted by the horns of “the hunt” which excites Atahraks.
He explains to Kahhori that they hunt for kind of fruit that is packed with the powers of the portal. She’s confused until she sees that these fruits apparently grow on the backs of massive animals that begin to stampede away from Atahraks’ people and the hunt begins.
Atahraks, Kahhori and the rest chase after these animals and Atahraks tells Kahhori to show them what she’s got. When she embraces the power of the portal, she runs faster than anyone else there and even runs right past all of the animals. She accidentally finds herself in front of the stampede and, out of instinct, uses the power to lift one of the animals before it could trample her.
Atahraks counts up the fruit he and his people collected after the hunt before noticing Kahhori is missing. She arrives using the power to levitate dozens of the fruit before dropping them into the hands of the people. They are clearly impressed by her abilities and seem to have completely accepted her.
Back on Earth, Gonzolo invites his men to test the waters of what they believe to be the Fountain of Youth. Some of his men walk into the water only to be pulled down one by one. Gonzolo orders his mean to get Kahhori’s people in chains and tells them they’re heading back to Spain. The men who were pulled into the lake hear the chanting of Atahraks’ people and go off after them.
Kahhori seems to be enjoying her time in Sky World now and may just be embracing the idea of staying there. That doesn’t last long those as she notices the men trying to sneak up on them to attack them. She uses her newfound powers to stop them and notices these are the same men who attacked her people. Enraged, she tries to hurt the men before Atahraks points out that the land is helping her to do so. Kahhori looks to the portal and begins using the power to draw it closer to her. She tries to convince the people of Sky World to return to Earth to help their people, but none of them want to return to a life of war, so she goes alone.
Kahhori emerges from the lake before we see the conquerors loading her people onto ships. Kahhori runs to find her home in flames and she follows tracks to the water. The conquerors hear a sound coming from the woods and see a blue light darting back and forth between the trees. Kahhori emerges, glowing blue and Gonzolo orders his men to open fire, dubbing her a witch. They charge at her but, with her powers, Kahhori makes short work of the soldiers.
Gonzolo orders the men on the ships to fire the cannons at her and Kahhori creates a forcefield to block the cannon balls but one eventually forces its way through and knocks her to the ground. Gonzolo approaches her and holds his sword to her throat before looking up to see the eyes of all the other people of Sky World in the trees. They run into battle with the conquerors, freeing all of Kahhori’s people and sinking their ships in the process. Kahhori finds Wahta and shows him her new friends in action before the battle is won.
The Watcher explains that Kahhori’s story didn’t stem entirely from a choice, but also her conviction, which makes her a hero. He also explains that she wasn’t willing to settle for just this one victory. We then see the Queen of Spain wondering how it’s possible her unbeatable army and unmatched fleet cannot conquer the “New World.” A portal opens and Kahhori and some of the people of Sky World enter. Kahhori tries to explain they want peace and uses her powers to stop the guards from attacking her people. The Queen continues to threaten them until Kahhori uses her power to smash her throne before presenting her with gifts. The Watcher describes the peace Kahhori brought in this exchange before they are interrupted by Strange Supreme who says he’s been looking for Kahhori for a long time.
This episode was a truly impressive accomplishment for a number of reasons. First, the introduction of a new Mohawk character and the majority of the episode being in her native language is a major step in representation. Second, aside from the opening and closing seconds of the episode, there was not a single familiar Marvel character (apart from The Watcher) involved in this story. And yet, at no point does it feel any less important stop commanding your attention as you watch these brand new characters. Kahhori is likely in for some more adventures in the future and I can’t wait to see them.
New episodes of Marvel’s What If…? season 2 will debut daily between now and December 30 on Disney+.