With each creature (or evil garden gnome) absorbed, Strange literally becomes more of a monster. Strange’s centuries-spanning marathon of summoning monsters to absorb their power is a great illustration of this, evoking his intense focus on bargaining with Dormammu at any personal cost. While our understanding of a nexus event’s importance to the MCU’s plot going forward is still growing, the concept is used wonderfully in this episode to represent the effects of tragedy, of loss so painful we’d unmake the world to reverse it. While Strange is able to time travel back to the night of the accident, nothing he does saves Christine from dying: it’s a nexus event, or an “absolute point in time” as this episode refers to it. He’s still able to defeat Dormammu and become Sorcerer Supreme, but the Time Stone around his neck hangs heavier and heavier as Strange’s power grows. Strange losing the use of his hands was already an understandable motivator for his journey to Kamar-Taj in his solo film, but Christine’s death puts him in an even more desperate state of mind by the time he gets there. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) in the passenger seat. And that ending!Įpisode 4 takes the foundation of Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) mystical journey - the car accident that took his hands - and twists fate by putting Dr.
The Sorcerer Supreme’s descent into grief-stricken madness is an effective cautionary tale about what loss can do to a person and furthers the argument that these more mature stories are What If’s bread and butter.
As the guardian of our reality, Strange’s cosmic perspective and access to the Time Stone has mostly been a blessing up to this point - the upcoming events of Spider-Man: No Way Home notwithstanding - but here, the consequences of Strange obsessing over his great power with no thought to the great responsibility that follows it are dire. Doctor Strange, with his limitless magical potential, has always felt like one the MCU’s most dangerous wild cards, and What If’s fourth episode makes clear why.
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