It’s not as gruesome as episode three but What If…? “Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” has a grimmer ending. Episode four’s conclusion is inevitable from the moment the Ancient One says “Absolute Point in Time.” As Doctor Who has shown, messing with a fixed point in time never ends well.
What If…? “Dr. Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” is the first episode that felt like a chore for me to watch, even with Benedict Cumberbatch’s excellent voice work. It’s not so much the dark ending as it was the uninteresting execution of the idea. Here’s why:
1. The Fridging.
It absolutely has a woman in the refrigerator as the center of the episode and nothing the episode does redeems the use of this tired trope. Christine was somewhat sketchily drawn in the Doctor Strange movie but there at least had a role as a doctor and a life that existed apart from Strange. Here, she’s only a prop, representing a victim to his repressed and grieving self.
Putting even that aside, the whole premise of her demise being unalterable seems ridiculous because we know that in other alternate realities, she lives! The Eye of Agamotto can see multiple realities. Strange could head over to the reality where she lives, hang out with her, and, presumably, and have the life he might have had. This probably would lead to him still having to return to his own universe to save or destroy it but the trope would be subverted. But this use is so straightforward, so predictable, that her death had me rolling my eyes, not investing in Strange’s grief.
2. The premise doesn’t suit the character.
The premise, reads, to me, as “What If Strange was a completely different person?”
The version of Dr. Strange we first meet in his MCU origin is too arrogant to commit to Christine. He’s an arrogant…well, you fill in the blank. The only thing that forces him to change is the loss of his ability to do what he does best. If he cares deeply about Christine, he won’t admit it.
Her death would likely have him retreating to the coping mechanism he loves best: his surgical career. A search for enlightenment that ends in him taking responsibility for the whole world is highly unlikely without a wake-up call to his central self, his work, not his heart. (Or, if you prefer, his career is his heart.)
I can’t see this Strange doing the things that would elevate him to sorcerer supreme in the first place. He’s not been humbled enough to become the guy who defeats Dormammu. There’s a terrific comic “What If?” Doctor Strange story with a similar premise, in that Strange becomes Mordo’s disciple after Mordro heals his hands. This version of Strange is arrogant and uncaring until he’s forced, in the end, to choose between ultimate good and evil. But he has to be pushed hard, with the fate of the universe resting on his choices, to actually care.
3. The Artwork Isn’t Weird Enough.
I wanted more psychedelic Steve Ditko-esque touches in this story. Animation offered a chance to take us further into a strange (forgive the pun) universe where everything is topsy turvy and nothing is familiar.
Instead, the episode is a show of lights and shadows, rather than the wonderful kaleidoscope of Ditko’s artwork. Perhaps the budget wasn’t big enough to produce something like the collider sequences in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s also possible that the restricted color palette was chosen to reflect Strange’s grief but there were still chances to do something a little more out there, particularly during Strange’s studies.
The end result is a visual style that lacks the sense of oddness that seems essential for a Dr. Strange story, even a dark one.
4. The Tentacle Monster Is Back Again.
I made fun of the tentacle monster (squid?) in my episode one review. Since then, it keeps re-appearing in What If…? so I’m forced to conclude that it is part of an overall plot running through the series. Every time someone taps in this creature, something horrible happens. One wonders if the final episode will be a confrontation between the Watcher and this nemesis of realities.
Continued belowThe Watcher certainly seems to be getting closer to interfering, tempted by Strange’s plea as the universe collapses around him. But “Honestly,” says the Watcher, he can’t interfere. In the Marvel comics, he does. Perhaps we’ll see the formation of Exiles next season if he chooses to act.
5. MCU Doctor Strange is better as a supporting character.
The main problem with the Doctor Strange movie is that it fails to give Stephen Strange a true character arc. He moves from being an arrogant surgeon who believes he knows better than everyone to being an arrogant sorcerer who believes he knows better than everyone. What If…? “Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands” gives him nothing but a variation on this theme, moving him from an arrogant sorcerer to an arrogant villain.
This episode could be read as a condemnation of the toxic arrogant white male who believes he’s entitled to everything and that events that occur to other humans, like the loss of a loved one, should not affect him. Yet I doubt that’s what the writers intended. Instead, I believe it’s meant to be read as “grief will turn you into a villain.” There’s no hint of how Strange should have healed or how he should have faced his grief either. That makes it a much different story than WandaVision, where Wanda faced head-on the result of her grief mixed with her powers, and finally let it go, even if it meant losing her children, which were real for her.
In any case, MCU Dr. Strange has been more interesting in Thor: Ragnarok and other supporting appearances than when he’s at the center of a story.
Next up, episode five with a “Party Thor.” I’m sure that will not end well either. Is What If…? trying to tell us something about the Sacred Timeline from Loki?
