‘What If…?’ Season 2 Episode 9 Summary and Ending Explained: What if Strange Supreme Intervened

‘What If…?’ Season 2 has finally come to an end. The second season has presented us with a multitude of insane scenarios, such as Hela turning into a Goddess of Life, but it also presented new superheroes to the MCU, some of which are completely original. But the point of the second season was always to stop the Multiversal danger from destroying reality, and this is why we’ve seen in several episodes Strange Supreme recruiting various members, all in an effort to stop it. Now that we’ve arrived at the final battle, let’s see what has taken place & how.

Strange Supreme and Peggy are reunited

The episode begins with a quick recap of what happened in Episode 8 as well as Strange Supreme’s and Peggy Carter’s stories so far. We learn that Peggy was, in fact, stuck in 1602, but Strange Supreme has a plan of reuniting Guardians of the Multiverse and needs her for something. Peggy asks whether Strange can teleport her back to her own time and accepts.

One of Strange’s “pets” has escaped

Before Strange Supreme transports Peggy back to the present, he has a favor to ask. He leads her to Sanctum Infinitorum and shows her his collection of Multiversal killers, such as Loki, Thanos, and Infinity Ultron. But as these things usually go, one of them has escaped and is now loose upon the Multiverse.

Initially, Peggy declines to get involved, citing the Watcher, but Strange mentions how she technically shouldn’t save 1602 going by that logic. Peggy is aware of this and ultimately accepts the task. Strange Supreme did not elaborate all that much. He said that Peggy’s target is a “she” and that he lost her trail somewhere in South Dakota Badlands. Peggy asks why he can’t fetch her himself, and he explains that “she” will see him coming a mile away while Captain Carter is unknown, and the target won’t recognize her.

Peggy is okay with this, and the terms are set: Peggy will fetch Strange’s escaped convict, and Strange will teleport her back to her own time.

Kahhori and Peggy have been tricked by Strange Supreme

Peggy arrives at South Dakota Badlands and sees a massive statue of Red Skull carved in at the face of the mountain. The Watcher appears and explains that this is a world in which both Peggy and Steve died, and there was no one to destroy Hydra. Since Hydra was never destroyed, they used Tesseract’s power, and as a consequence, the world was destroyed. The Watcher warns her once again that she shouldn’t interfere, but Peggy dismisses him.

After Watcher left, Peggy is attacked by Kahhori but after a brief fight Kahhori explains that she is not a Universe Killer, Strange is. Peggy realizes that she has been tricked as the yellow portal opens up underneath them, and both of them are sucked into it.

Strange Supreme is trying to resurrect Christine

Peggy and Kahhori are teleported back to Sanctorum Infinitorum, and Strange is trying to confine Kahhori to the energy field. Kahhori explains that Strange is not only collecting Universe killers, he is collecting righteous superheroes as well feeding them to “The Forge.” Strange Supreme is apparently trying to resurrect his own world and, with this, resurrect Christine.

Strange Supreme doesn’t even try to deny this; he says to Peggy that she would have done the same for Steve, but Peggy denies this, saying that the cost would be too high and Steve would never ask. Peggy attacks Strange but is powerless to stop him from destroying Kahhori. In a desperate attempt to stall Strange, Peggy destroys crystalline cages that hold the various Universe killers, and Strange is now doomed to deal with them while Kahhori and Peggy escape. Their next course of action is to destroy the Forge.

Kahhori and Peggy fight their way through Sanctus Infinitorum

Peggy and Kahhori manage to lose Strange Supreme from their trail but run into Zombie Scarlet Witch and her army of zombies; they are losing the fight when they are interrupted by Hela, who neutralizes Wanda pretty easily. Hela is making empty threats when, out of the shadows, Surtur emerges, and Peggy and Kahhori use him as a distraction to escape.

In the hallway, they are attacked by Thanos, who is about to snap them into nothingness when he, in turn, is snapped into nothingness by Killmonger in Infinity Armor. Kahhori has a plan, however, and uses her Space Stone-based powers to teleport Killmonger to the main hall, where a complete riot is taking place between numerous Universe killers.

Peggy takes the Infinity Armor and equips it, while in the background, it can be heard how Strange Supreme is starting up the Forge in order to feed prisoners into it.

Strange Supreme fights against Peggy and Kahhori

Peggy and Kahhori locate the Forge, and Strange manifests out of thin air to stop them from meddling with it. Strange points out that he defeated Infinity Armor once before, and Peggy retorts that she wasn’t in it before. After a long fight, Strange decides to copy himself into dozens of variants of Strange Supreme, and Peggy uses reality stone to do the same.

Peggy and Kahhori think they are winning while all around them, variants of Strange Supreme, Peggy Carter, and Kahhori are turning into butterflies. Peggy is transported back in time, and she sees Supersoldier being made; Steve is about to get the shot, and Peggy wonders whether that is real. Steve encourages her to stay and watch; they will win WW2, and then, they will finally be together. Peggy, however, notices a butterfly out of the corner of her eye, and Steve transforms into Strange Supreme. It was all an illusion. Peggy dispels the illusion, and Strange Supreme starts feeding both heroes and villains to the forge.

Kahhori managed to convert Strange’s teleporters into her own teleporters, and she utilizes her powers to teleport all villains home instead of to the forge. Strange is pissed and starts attacking Peggy and Kahhori once again.

They are playing ping pong with villains and heroes and going back and forth between restarting the forge and stopping it.

The villains turn the tide around

Strange Supreme manages to gain the upper hand, and the Forge is once again restarted; Hela is about to hit it when she throws her crown to Peggy and Kahhori to help fight Strange Supreme. Soon, plenty of other villains start doing the same, relinquishing their most powerful artifacts. Kahhori conjures up portals once again and sends all villains and heroes back home. The forge is stopped.

Peggy and Kahhori equip all those artifacts and are ready to continue the fight against the Strange when he transforms into a monstrous new form sprouting horns and leathery wings, taking on a demonic appearance. At some point in the fight, Strange manages to dislodge Peggy’s infinity stones from her armor, but she manages to reach them and uses them to melt off Strange’s new form. The forge falls apart, threatening to explode, and Strange is left in the ruins.

Strange sacrifices himself to destroy the Forge

One final fight between Peggy and Strange ensues, and both Strange in his demon form and Peggy fall down into the nearly destroyed Forge; at the last second, Strange gives up on the fight and lets himself be thrown down the shaft consumed by the Forge. The explosion is imminent, but the Watcher transports Kahhori and Peggy somewhere else to save their lives.

In the last scenes, The Watcher and Peggy are in New York and they can see reborn Christine, as it turns out Strange did manage to recreate his world and Christine but was not born in it, and never will be. The Watcher is ready to take Peggy back to her home Universe, but she asks to take the scenic route home to see as many wonders as she possibly can. The Watcher is amused and shows her the Multiversal Tree, the one Loki helped to create at the end of ‘Loki’ Season 2. This sets a new canon in the MCU that proves that Loki is indeed holding the Multiverse together at the moment.

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