The Finale of 'What If...?' Ties up the Series With a Neat Little Bow ... Almost (SPOILERS)

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Episode 9 of What If...?

We all thought What If…? was just going to be an anthology series, but by the end of Episode 7, we realized it was leading up to something much bigger. By the end of Episode 8, Marvel’s all-powerful Ultron delves into the multiverse, so we were sure that by the finale, something crazy was bound to happen. And we were right!

In the finale, the Watcher finally interferes and creates the Guardians of the Multiverse. (Can we get more of them, please?!) So we get to see a whole lot of world-crushing action … but what exactly happens and how does this saga end? Plus, what should we expect in Season 2?

Although in Episode 8 we see the Watcher and Ultron go tête-à-tête, Episode 9, the finale, brings us the war. The episode begins with Captain Carter on a rescue mission, and the Watcher appears out of nowhere. He says to her, “You’ve been chosen,” and continues on through the rest of the characters we’ve met throughout the series.

He selects Star-Lord T’Challa, who’s saving Peter Quill from his dad’s wrath at the DQ, and Killmonger, who was responsible for the death of Tony Stark.

He also picks up Gamora, who doesn’t have her own episode (it was pushed to Season 2), and Party Thor in the middle of saving Las Vegas, his favorite place. The Watcher brings them all to a sect of the multiverse disguised as a bar to unite with Strange Supreme in a bid to save the multiverse.

It’s a ragtag team that the Watcher calls the Guardians of the Multiverse. Together, they form a plan to get the infinity stones back from Ultron … and it kind of works.

They elaborately trick Ultron into getting his Soul Stone through force and theft and then implant Gamora’s infinity stone crusher with the stone to crush all the other ones. However, a fully formed Ultron rises from the ashes, reminding the Guardians that every universe’s infinity stones are different.

Eventually, thanks to the immense power of Strange Supreme and Natasha Romanoff, who joins in at the last minute, they’re able to implant the code of the Arnim Zola AI into Ultron to fight it off within the body.

Zola takes over, but then Killmonger, whom none of us trusted, to begin with, steals the infinity stone-imbued armor. In doing so, the infinity stones get pulled between him and Zola, and Strange Supreme realizes he can trap the two villains and the all-powerful stones in a pocket dimension.

Everyone else goes back to whence they came, except Natasha, whom the Watcher places in the Episode 3 universe in which she gets killed.

In a post-credits scene, the Natasha who's Captain Carter’s “BFF” finds the HYDRA Stomper with someone inside … but who is it?

Season 2 will likely continue on with a new villain (potentially whoever takes hold of the HYDRA Stomper), but it may not seem as much like an anthology. Or, it could go back to the same format and end with a multiversal threat that a whole new slew of alternate heroes needs to defeat.

We can definitely expect to see the lost Gamora episode, though. Due to network delays, an episode of Season 1 had to get cut, so we can’t wait to see what happens there.

It’s been set up that Thanos could become a good guy, so we’d love to see, “What If Thanos Had Joined the Avengers?” Another What If…? original comic we’d love to see? “What If Captain America Had Awoken in a Dystopian America?” There are over 170 comic books to choose from, so anything could happen in Season 2 of What If…?

For now, all of Season 1 is now available to stream on Disney Plus.