What If? Season 2, episode 8, is the continuation of episode 5 of this season. In episode 5, we saw Captain Peggy Carter was portaled back to the year of 1602. This universe of the medieval Avengers was on the brink of destruction, so Scarlet Witch was assembling Avengers from different universes to save their existence, but the Watcher had made it clear that nothing could stop this universe from getting destroyed. Still, Captain Carter decided to remain in this universe and do whatever she could to protect it, but in this universe as well, she would eventually meet one significant person, called the forerunner, who would hold great importance in the multiverse of Avengers.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Thor Want To Capture Peggy Carter?
The episode opened with Loki playing the titular character from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with a skull in his hand, while a giant portal opened in the sky, blinding everyone with the lights. In this universe, Hela, who was not a god of death, was the queen of the kingdom. But the portal took the queen, even though Captain Carter tried her best to rescue her. Hela was swallowed by the portal, while her scepter fell to the ground. As Thor picked it up and expressed his grief for his sister, the people around him announced him as the new king. Carter apologized to Thor for not being able to save his sister, but Thor didn’t accept her apology and commanded his soldiers to capture her. Peggy ran for her life and managed to evade capture. In hiding, she met with the Watcher, who told her that she had no purpose staying in this universe, which was already on the brink of death, but Carter was stubborn, and she wanted to stay here till the very end. Meanwhile, we saw that Happy Hogan was actually the army general of Thor. Hogan was acquainted with Nick Fury as well as the Scarlet Witch, who were all aware of Carter’s whereabouts. Fury was even in contact with Carter, who tried to save her neck from Hogan. Meanwhile, Carter met with the mad scientist of the universe, Tony Stark, who had already built a microscope-like instrument in 1602. Carter had managed to take the skull, which was in Loki’s hand, and show it to Tony, who then examined the green-colored substance stuck on it. He concluded that the substance was something very powerful, just like the one in the scepter, which would be a necessary tool to save this universe from its destruction. Carter aimed to steal the scepter from Thor’s possession but to achieve that, she had to reach Thor through Loki.
Meanwhile, when Loki was in his carriage, he was attacked by a group of thugs led by Rogers Hood (Steve Rogers), who was the Robin Hood of this universe. Rogers Hood, Lang, and Bucky were the thugs who used to steal from the rich and distribute the wealth among the poor. While Rogers attacked Loki, Carter arrived there and met with Rogers. Both Rogers and Carter were stunned to see each other. Rogers had lost his Margaret, who looked like Carter, in this universe, so Carter thought she should stay in this world to get closer to her love of life. Later, in a tavern, she explained the concept of the multiverse in detail to Rogers, who finally realized that Carter had come from a different universe. However, in the meantime, the tavern was attacked by Hogan’s army. In the midst of a raging fight, Carter decided to surrender herself, to stop the battle, and to grab the scepter from Thor’s possession. Rogers asked her to reconsider, but Carter had made up her mind. She surrendered herself in front of Thor’s army and was brought back to Thor’s castle. However, she didn’t stay there for long and unleashed another prisoner, Bruce Banner, from a prison cell. Carter managed to anger Bruce by inciting the prison guards to irritate him, so Bruce turned into Hulk and knocked all the guards down. Carter fled the prison with Hulk and went straight to Tony’s place.
Who Was The Forerunner?
Backed by her army, including Tony, Bruce, Rogers, Lang, and Bucky, Carter arrived in Thor’s castle in disguise. Hulk began to create a scene to distract the soldiers, while Carter was about to confront the king, but in the meantime, another giant portal appeared in the sky. The Scarlet Witch did her best to stop the portal, while a massive fight ensued between Carter and Thor over the scepter. As Carter finally managed to get a hold of the scepter, she pulled out the time stone and gave it to Tony. Tony had already built a gadget that would harness the Time Stone and alter the destiny of the universe. Only with the help of this gadget would they also learn who the forerunner was, the man from a different universe, holding great significance in the multiverse of the Avengers. As Tony quickly put the time stone inside the gadget, time stopped for a while, and it was finally revealed who the forerunner was. The forerunner was Captain America, Steve Rogers, from the actual universe of Avengers. Steve Rogers, aka Rogers Hood, didn’t belong to this universe of 1602, but he had portaled into this realm after he had fought against Thanos in Infinity War. During his fight against Thanos, the Time Stone in the gauntlet had taken Rogers back to this universe and made a huge change in reality. As of now, in this 17th century universe of the Avengers, Steve Rogers would have to perish in order to bring balance to the multiverse. Carter had to say her goodbye to Steve once again in this universe, which shattered both of their hearts. Carter asked Rogers if the two of them would ever have a happy ending in any of the universes, to which Steve replied that they would surely end up together in an alternative realm, as depicted in the concluding scenes of Avengers: End Game. Carter finally said her goodbye to Steve, and with the help of the Time Stone, the entire existence of this universe was destroyed.
In the ending scene of episode 8, we saw Peggy Carter, with her broken heart, sitting in a bar drinking her sorrows away while Dr. Strange Supreme approached her to take her back with him. Just like Scarlet Witch had assembled the soldiers for the universe of 1602, Dr. Strange Supreme was doing the same. Let’s see if the final episode of What If? Season 2 will provide some satisfactory answers to our queries.
