Commentary: ‘What If…’ Finale Is An Unnecessary Story
by Frank Martin
The inciting incident may be the most important element in telling a tale. Without it, a story can’t take place. Because of this, sometimes an incident incident is forced in order to make the story plausible. The trick is to make it occur naturally and keep the story from being contrived. But then the question of “why” needs to be asked. Why did the story take place? And was there a reason the inciting incident could have been avoided? Which is true in the case of What If…?‘s season two finale.
(Spoilers Follow)
Titled “What If Strange Supreme Intervened?”, the episode follows the dark version of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) introduced last season. After destroying his entire universe, this version of Strange began searching for multiversal threats such as the Ultron from Season 1. He recruits Captain Carter (Haley Atwell) to help neutralize such a threat, which it turns out is actually the hero Kahhori (Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs) introduced earlier in the season. Strange was lying to Carter; he wasn’t just after villains but heroes, too, so that he could fuel the device he calls the Forge to restore his long dead universe.
The episode was filled with tons of different characters and crazy battle sequences. But it’s hard not to look at the inciting incident and wonder if it was ever necessary at all. The whole point behind the Forge is that Strange needed to feed it strong characters, and he recruited Carter to help capture Kahhori as the latest inclusion in his prison. But Strange activated the Forge before Kahhori was even captured. In fact, it seems his device had more than enough characters to fuel it. So why go after Kahhori? Furthermore, why bring Carter into the picture knowing full well that she would have stood against him? Strange’s actions towards the inciting incident don’t make much sense other than to give the episode a reason for being. This means the story was pretty much unnecessary from the start.
What If…? is now streaming on Disney+.
