Marvel Cinematic Universe · What If...?: Season Three
What If... 1872? — S03E06
TV · 2024 · 30 minutes · Phase Five · alternate
In a Western-themed alternate reality set on the American frontier, Xu Shang-Chi searches for his sister Xu Xialing, who fled to America seeking a better life only to fall victim to an enslaver's scheme. By 1872 he partners with bounty hunter Kate Bishop, who believes she is hunting the outlaw known as the Hood for murdering her family. Joined by a young boy, Kwai Jun-Fan, the pair board a train to confront the Hood, whose enforcer Sonny Burch confesses that it was he, not the Hood, who actually killed Bishop's family. The Hood is then revealed to be a corrupted Xialing, who secretly murdered the original Hood and took his powers for herself. In the climactic confrontation Bishop kills Xialing without realizing her true identity until after the fact, a tragic irony that leaves Shang-Chi grieving his sister's death even as the freed captives, aided by Jun-Fan, are able to start new lives. The episode closes on the Watcher facing censure from his fellow Watchers for repeatedly interfering across the multiverse.
Follows on from
- Hawkeye: Season Onetimeline-branch · optional — Reimagines Kate Bishop, introduced in Hawkeye, as a frontier bounty hunter in this alternate 1872 reality.
Leads to
- What If... The Watcher Disappeared? — S03E07direct-sequel — Directly continues from the Eminence's capture and imprisonment of the Watcher in "1872," whose fate remains unresolved as the team seeks a way into the Fifth Dimension to find him.