Warning! Spoilers ahead for Marvel's What If...? episode 4, "What If...Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?"
In Marvel's What If...?, the animated series' all-seeing narrator known as Uatu the Watcher has begun to break his own rules. Whether it's in the comics or the MCU, the race known as the Watchers are only meant to bear witness and observe, forbidden from interfering in the events of the multiverse that unfold no matter how much they might wish to step in. However, a world in the multiverse featuring a dark and powerful Doctor Strange has motivated Uatu the Watcher to slightly deviate from his directives, potentially leading to more overt interference in future episodes of the Disney+ series.
In Marvel's What If...? episode 4, Doctor Strange's love Christine was killed in a car accident instead of the injuries sustained to his hands in the primary MCU, resulting in his search for magic being founded by a desire to bring her back. After the events of the first Doctor Strange film, Strange decides to use the Time Stone to go back and save her, but is unable to do so no matter how many attempts he makes, due to her death being an absolute point in time. However, this only motivates him to seek out darker magic and spells to break the absolute point and save her all the same. Once Doctor Strange finally gets all the power required and brings Christine back, all of reality starts to fade as a result with a void of nothingness closing in.
Furthermore, Doctor Strange had become so powerful that he was able to actually hear and see the Watcher himself, sensing his presence nearby. That being said, the episode's end saw Doctor Strange desperately trying to keep reality from disappearing thanks to his actions. This included Christine herself, who began to fade as well despite having just been brought back from the car accident. With everything almost completely gone, Doctor Strange begged the Watcher himself to help fix the universe and to punish him instead. While Uatu does nothing to prevent the tragic events of this universe from unfolding as they're apparently meant to, the Watcher does speak directly to Doctor Strange, a violation of his own rules that could hint at more direct interference later on:
"Honesty, if I could fix this, if I could punish you instead I would, but I can't interfere. You, more than anyone else, should understand that meddling when time and events only leads to more destruction."
While Uatu the Watcher sadly does nothing here in this episode of Marvel's What If...?, the fact that he spoke to Strange at all is a major deviation in how other Watchers operate if the comics are any indication. Breaking the fourth wall of his narration and speaking directly to those he's meant to simply observe breaks the rules, even though it didn't change anything in What If...? episode 4. That being said, it should be noted that Uatu has broken his mandates much more overtly and helped save the universe more than a few times in the comics, and the same could be happening here in the MCU now that there's evidence that he cares enough about the worlds he's witnessing that he's willing to break the rules.
While it might have been a small violation in this episode, who's to say Uatu couldn't be motivated to break the rules in a much bigger fashion if the situation called for it, like if the entire multiverse was in danger of collapse? In any case, while most beings don't even notice their cosmic observer, this dark Doctor Strange became powerful enough to realize he was being watched, prompting a rare and forbidden interaction to be had (though still being unable to convince Uatu the Watcher to interfere). However, perhaps that could start to change with future episodes of the new MCU series.
Marvel's What If...? releases new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.
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