‘What If…?’ Season 2: How Did Steve Rogers End Up in 1602? Forerunner Explained

‘What If…?’ Season 2 Episode 8 brought us a step closer to the finale episode that will see several heroes fighting with Supreme Strange against a new danger to the Universe, but for the most part, the season revolved around Peggy Carter and the fact that she can’t seem to get a happy end with Steve Rogers. Peggy met a variant of Steve in 1602, only for him to ultimately end up the problem that was threatening to tear reality apart. Let’s see how Steve Rogers became the Forerunner.

Steve was likely transported to 1602 during the battle of Wakanda

Not much is known about Rogers Hood’s past before he came to 1602 since he himself recollects only the big event that brought him into this predicament. During the battle of Wakanda, Rogers was set up against Thanos, who came to conquer the earth and presumably take the Mind Stone from Vision.

Rogers could remember that at some point, he struck Thanos’ “golden” glove, and by striking the Time Stone, he got teleported back in time. At some point, Rogers obviously took on the alias of Rogers Hood and teamed up with Scott Lang and Bucky Barnes and started robbing the royalty in 1602.

Why didn’t Steve Rogers tell Peggy sooner that he was the cause of the problems?

As soon as Peggy explained her plan to him at the tavern, Steve had plenty of time to tell her that he was the source of their problems and the cause of the reality collapsing; however, he didn’t do it. The reasons for this are several. First, it’s possible that he though that Peggy was talking gibberish. Second, he didn’t want to ruin his chances with her since he mentioned that his “Margaret” died “many moons ago.”

However, this complicates things further since it’s unclear how much time Rogers spent in 1602 that he managed to meet Peggy, fell in love, and lost her “many moons ago.” It’s also unclear how he managed to adjust to this new timeline so seamlessly and why he never mentioned he was actually from the past.

Lastly, if Rogers arrived in 1602 “many moons” ago, why didn’t “The Rips” start happening sooner? From the context of what Thor and Scarlet Witch were saying, it seemed like these catastrophic events started taking place relatively recently. Sadly, we don’t have answers to these questions.

How was 1602 reality saved?

Well, as soon as Peggy Carter spent some time in 1602, he figured out pretty quickly that 1602 and the 21st century were stuck together like two pieces of gum, and to save 1602, she needed to “unstick it.” The Watcher discouraged her, but Peggy decided to persevere.

She had Yorick’s skull that Loki was using as a prop and managed to connect the radiation that “The Rips” gave off with the leftover crystals on the Skull. The plan was clear: Peggy and Stark needed to construct a machine powerful enough to track down the “Forerunner,” the first person to step into this reality from the future and send it back to his proper place in time; otherwise, Incursions would collapse the reality.

Stark was, fortunately, able to construct such a device, but as it turned out, the only thing with enough juice to run it was Thor’s scepter that served as his badge of office while he was filling in as King in Hela’s absence. After they managed to get their hands on the scepter, all there was to do was to run the device and cast Steve from time, which repaired this timeline.

1602 wasn’t ruined as we could see Peggy Carter sitting in a medieval-looking inn when Strange found her, so we have to presume that things were restored to their proper order.

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