WHAT IF Season 2 Episode 5 Breakdown | Ending Explained, Post Credits & Marvel Easter Eggs

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host Paul, and in this video, we’re breaking down What If.

Throughout this video, we’re going to be going through all the Easter eggs, hidden details, and things you might have missed in it. Now obviously, the both of you who religiously follow the channel, you’re probably like, “Why are you doing episode 5 mate, where are 1-4?”

Just want to offer my sincerest apologies, but man had to swap theory time for family time at Christmas. My editors also requested the week off to be with theirs too, and thus your boy’s going solo on this one. I write the videos, host the videos, edit the videos, but yeah, I just didn’t have time to do those first four. However, I will try to cover as much as I can and hope you guys are with me so we can watch them together and hit the thumbs up. I have to say I’ve really enjoyed the season so far, and I think it’s been leaps and bounds above season 1.

Anyway, I hope you had an amazing Christmas, and what I wanted was the same thing that Steve Rogers wanted.

That is Peggy Car… I mean the Hydra Stomper, which this episode centers around.

WHAT IF SEASON 2 EPISODE 5 BREAKDOWN

Now, Peggy is, of course, a returning character, with her being what kickstarted the first episode of What If. She, of course, also featured in Multiverse Of Madness and showed that she couldn’t do this all day.

Still, though, it’s nice to see a variant back as she’s genuinely one of my favorite spin-off characters in the MCU. Man’s even got the T-shirt, and I also own both steelbooks of Agent Carter.

She’s like the bloody Queen to me, and we see in her world how important she was to The Avengers.

Kicking off with a scene pulled directly from the film, we watch as the group fights it out on the bridge in the lead-up to Central Station. Several shots here riff off the moment in the movies, including Black Widow taking out the Chitauri with their own weapons. Widow also mentions her childhood in Moscow, foreshadowing several of the events that will happen in the episode. From here, we cut to both Iron Man and Hawkeye, but there’s a different member instead of the Hulk. Here we can catch The Wasp, with her being a member of the team originally in the comics. She, of course, featured earlier in the season, and it’s nice to get one of the Marvel mainstays here.

You, of course, can’t play on stuff like this without doing the Avengers assemble moment, which actually appears twice in this entry.

We then see as the Leviathans descend from the sky, with Carter’s lines riffing off Steve’s in the movie.

Rather than saying “Hulk Smash,” though, he and Widow go for a ride. This, of course, builds off the back of what happens in the film, with Carter also using the shield to boost her up.

At Avengers Tower, they take down Loki, and you better hope man doesn’t wipe his arse with this timeline.

Anyway, I was surprised at some of the voice cast because it sounded like a lot of them were just doing impressions. But no, Sam Jackson, Atwell, Frank Grillo, Sebastian Stan, Rachel Weisz, and Elizabeth Olson, they’re all in it, and maybe I need to get my hearing checked or something.

Anyway, after the title sequence, we cut to the Watcher, where we see him in between the multiverse. This is similar to what showed up in the Infinite Ultron episode, with the Widow shard coming from the setup to that.

There’s also Thanos from Episode 2 and Iron Man when the Avengers were killed by Hank Pym.

Focusing in on Peggy, he replays clips from her episode, while we can catch the zombie episode clip and also Gamora one too.

Lastly, we get moments from the finale and see that assemble moment before them heading out of the limbo bar.

Seeing Peggy driving along, we then get a flip on the start of Winter Soldier. In that, it was Natasha picking up Steve, whereas here Nat’s the one that’s been jogging. In the back, we can catch the Washington Monument, which is, of course, the route that Steve used to take. Nat… she was bloody calling Steve a Fossil, and then we dive into another moment from the end of season 1.

That is at the Lemurian Star, which is, of course, also from the Winter Soldier.

In the film, this was where Project Insight was supposed to launch satellites, but the ship was hijacked by George Batroc. This order came from Fury himself due to him trying to find out what was going on. However, here he doesn’t have that issue as Bucky Barnes is now running SHIELD. This is instead of Alexander Pierce, so Insight isn’t happening… unless that Agents Of SHIELD timeline’s still going down where it was made in the 70s.

Also, I love how Peggy’s suits more in line with how Steve’s was in that film. I know that it has been before in the series, but here it just makes way more sense.

WHAT IF SEASON 2 EPISODE 5: THE HYDRA STOMPER EXPLAINED

Now the reason they’re here instead is to investigate the Hydra Stomper, which has been found inside a storage container. I was thinking right… ah, I’m sure the season 1 finale didn’t have the red rockets and Soviet stuff, but nope… went back and yep… it had it in.

So yeah, they had this ready to go, but what I wasn’t expecting was it to turn bad. Whereas Peggy became Cap, Cap became The Winter Soldier, which means he’s been brainwashed to be a Soviet asset. The Hydra Stomper designs also changed too, so now it looks more in line with the Iron Monger.

Anyway, Nat calls him Robocop, which Peggy says she hasn’t seen. This is riffing off the Winter Soldier when Steve kept a notepad of all the stuff he needed to catch up on. Peggy, however, isn’t that interested because she’s a different person. This is also why she wasn’t jogging either, and ey… I appreciate them sort of being opposites to each other.

Still, though, she’s got feelings for Steve, as we get a slow-motion fly-by when the pair lock eyes.

Steve ends up flying up to the sky, and I was wondering if they were going to have it icing over. Guessing the Soviets dealing with the cold figured it out before the Americans, and he ends up reigning down from the sky. Now, from here, we cut to Nick’s office, which is also pulled directly from the film.

Legends of the Hydra Stomper have been whispered through the ages in the same vein that Bucky was said to be out there. However, they’ve added in a curveball with this being caused by the Red Room. Hydra has been likely stomped out by the Hydra Stomper… ey… so instead, it’s the Red Room that brainwashed him. We also have Bucky in charge… so yeah, they didn’t infect him and use him to take over the world. Pierce is missing, and ey… you get it, you get it.

Now at this point, we get a wide shot of the Triskelion, which in many ways is an opposite to the Red Room. The Red Room’s sort of a dark mirror of it, in which it operates from the skies, hidden in the clouds. This is using Helicarrier tech, which helps it to remain in orbit undetected.

Inside, we also catch other characters from The Winter Soldier: Councilman Singh, Councilwoman Hawley, and Councilman Rockwell.

They also mention the Sokovian Aid packet, and Bucky mentions Civil War.

The Sokovian accords, of course, showed up in Civil War, which ey… it’s a nice little line.

Now at this point, Crossbones pops in, but due to him not being Hydra, he’s actually there to help.

They’re then attacked by The Hydra Stomper, and we also see the command center from the Winter Soldier.

Things are broken up by Steven arriving, though, which also takes us into the Lobby that Steve bust into. Pulling off moves similar to Stark, we see as Bucky uses his back to take down a jet.

This is similar to what happened in Iron Man, with us getting another Avengers reference in the next shot. When the Hulk bust free, a Jet put its sights on him, which appears similar to how it does here.

Now Bucky tries to appeal to their past, but Rogers refuses to lower his arm…s.

This is something that happens later with Peggy showing how much she means to him. Peggy’s the one that can break the hold and make it so that he lets go.

Knocked out, they’re picked up by Widow, and at this point, they fly out to St Hilda’s. Going to St Kilda’s in Scotland, this is somewhere that hasn’t popped up in Marvel before, and it’s completely off of SHIELD’s books. Guessing that this was a retreat for Widow back in the days when she worked for the Red Room.

WHAT IF SEASON 2 EPISODE 5: ENDING EXPLAINED AND CONNECTION TO FUTURE EPISODES

We also learn that it’s that suit that’s preserving Steve and that this is what has kept him alive. However, removing it will kill him, and thus he’s sort of become a monster trapped in the machine.

Described as Bio Tech, each time he’s deployed, the odds of his survival have dropped drastically. To me, this is why they want Peggy instead, so they can replace this soldier with something else. Also, there’s no Red Guardian in this universe because the Russians weren’t inspired by Steve Rogers. Instead, all the girls apparently used to look up to her growing up which has led to somewhat inspiring the Widows.

Anyway, it leads to it all kicking off, and we see Widow taking on the Widows while Peggy faces off against Steve. We get him shooting her with a Gatling gun, which leads to a similar shot to what we got with Steve against Bucky. This is, of course, a similar situation with both having to deal with someone from their past.

In the end, she manages to convince him by bringing up the date that he owes her, which is, of course, what the man traveled through time just to do.

The man was desperate…but to be fair, I’d do it too…goddamn.

However, he decides to sacrifice himself and basically Independence Day the Red Room.

This pulls in Melina along with it due to Widow lassoing her to Steve.

Though it seems like he’s lost, Peggy still holds out hope. Hitting up Tony’s garage, she goes to head out, but at this point, she gets pulled through realities. Now, this is likely to 1602, which we know is going to be coming in the season. It seems like both Wanda and Nick here are in ye olde timely clothes, and they tease something going on in their reality.

Now, I will, of course, be back for that, and I hope you’ve enjoyed us going through this. If you have, then please hit the thumbs up, and hopefully, I’ll see you tomorrow.

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With that out of the way, a huge thank you for sitting through the video. I’ve been your host, and I’ll see you next time. Take care, Peace.