‘What If…?’ S3 Episode 7 “What If… The Watcher Disappeared?” Review
The penultimate episode of What If…? arrives, bringing back some beloved and some not-so-beloved characters.
The second to last What If…? concept in a show pitched as an anthology that asks “what if?” in contrast to MCU concepts, brings audiences a concept that does not ask “what if,” or expands on any preexisting MCU concepts. Episode 7 is titled “What If… The Watcher Disappeared”, an action that happened at the end of the last episode.
Due to the lack of conceptual baggage, the writers have brought back two of What If…?’s original characters, debuted a new twist on a beloved character, and one of the most widely disliked MCU characters to date: Kahorri (Devery Jacobs), beastiality baby Byrdie (Natasha Lyonne), Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith), and Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell). The episode follows the four characters, attempting to find and rescue The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright), reaching out to the first season’s villain, Infinity Ultron (Ross Marquand), for help.
To get things started, the episode is extremely short for what is the first part of a series finale, coming in at only 27 minutes, a strong decrease from the rest of the season which averages a mean runtime of 32 minutes. On a second note, this episode wastes the abilities of many fine actors, including the likes of Jason Isaacs, Jeffrey Wright, Natasha Lyonne, and other aforementioned cast members.
The story of “What If… The Watcher Disappeared” comes off as rushed, a definite by-product of the short runtime and a lack of general direction in regards to the concluding story of the What If…? series. It was cool seeing season 2 Nebula again, a character I did enjoy in her Blade Runner-inspired episode, and a MCU character that I will always welcome. That being said, her character inclusion was not necessary for the story, something that can also be said for the characters that appeared alongside her, Korg (Taika Waititi) and Groot.
At this point, I can only hope that they don’t go the cameo route akin to last season, where many characters got shoved into one place in an incohesive act only describable as slop. Slop, would also be a valid term used to describe the muddy and murky visuals that have plagued this season, making for a hard watch only eased by an enjoyable score courtesy of Laura Karpman.
Episode 7 of What If…? Season 3, “What If… The Watcher Disappeared”, fails in many areas, only succeeding in some, but overall creates a weak instalment in what’s turning out to be one of the weaker seasons of the year.
“What If… The Watcher Disappeared” starred Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter, Devery Jacobs as Kahorri, Natasha Lyonne as Byrdie, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Jason Isaacs as The Eminence, Jeffrey Wright as The Watcher, and Ross Marquand as Infinity Ultron. The finale of the series, releases on Disney+ at 12 PM PT / 3 AM ET on December 29th.
Thanks for reading this review of Episode 7 of What If…? Season 3. For our review of the finale, and a series review, stay tuned here at Feature First.
