What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?

The fourth episode of What If...? takes us on an emotional journey exploring how the world might be different had Doctor Strange lost his heart instead of his hands. You can find a synopsis of this episode below, as well as some of my brief thoughts! I'd also love to hear your thoughts, so make sure you sound off in the comments.

What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands? A grief-stricken Doctor Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto in a dangerous effort to change the past.

In the film Doctor Strange, Stephen Strange loses the use of his hands after a car accident crushes them. Unable to continue his career as a surgeon, Strange seeks out a miracle, only to discover humility and the gift of sorcery. But in this universe, his love, Christine, dies instead.

Similar to the film, Strange seeks out help and discovers sorcery, however, he hasn't developed the humility he did in the main timeline and is already harboring some anger and resentment. This pushes him to use the Eye of Agamotto to try and prevent Christine from dying. His attempts are futile no matter how he tries to save her. The only hope now is to turn to dark magic.

The Ancient One tries to intervene, but there is no stopping Strange. He begins his path down the dark arts and learns that he'll need to absorb other being's souls and power if he's ever going to be strong enough to save Christine. And thus, that process begins, but things may not be as they appear, and there's still a power out there that could stop him... himself.

In my opinion, this is the best episode yet of What If. The story is grounded and resonates emotionally in ways that none of the previous episodes have. I also feel that this story hints at very real possibilities for what we could see in the mainline MCU - maybe not with Dr. Strange, but we do know that Mordo is seeking out individuals with magic and stealing their power... It should be interesting.

Because of the emotional weight of this episode, I'm giving it a...

8.5/10 - Great

As a reminder, a full review for the season will post once every episode has aired. For now, we'll have to wait until next week to see what else Marvel has up their sleeves. Until then, follow us on Twitter @bypopped, and keep popping your culture!