Some lakes are forbidden for a reason.
Last time on What If…?, we
got a follow up to Captain Margaret “Peggy” Carter finding the HYDRA Stomper on
a cargo ship. The HYDRA Stomper powered up and tried to kill her and Black
Widow. After escaping, Carter learned what happened to Steve. He’d spent the 40s
and 50s destroying HYDRA bases with Bucky before disappearing in 1958. Natasha
and Fury speculate he was captured by the Red Room and turned into their version
of Winter Soldier. She learns of his next mission and goes to intercept him.
The mission? To kill US Secretary of State James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes. They
duke it out, Carter and Bucky both trying to break through Steve’s mind control
but to no avail. Carter and Natasha are able to capture him and reboot him. He takes
them to an old Soviet Era training city for the US. Carter and Natasha end up
battling Nat’s mom Melina and a squad of Black Widows, and a mind-controlled Steve.
Carter is finally able to break through his control by saying she doesn’t want
to fight any more, she just wants him, regardless of if that means she dies her
or not. Steve decides to sacrifice himself to destroy the mobile Red Room base.
Natasha ties Melina to a rocketing off Steve, the two seemingly dying in the
explosion. After, Carter tries to slip off to search for Steve, whom she
believes is still alive. Natasha wants to help her, but before they can leave a
portal of red energy opens up and sends her somewhere. A place that even the
Watcher isn’t aware of. She meets a Ye olde version of Nick Fury and Wanda
Maximoff, the latter assuring the former that Captain Carter will save their
whole world.
Ep 15: What If Kahhori Reshaped the World?
This episode opens with the big change:
Ragnarok happened. Instead of in the main MCU, where Ragnarok was held off for
centuries and in the time of peace Odin hid the Tesseract on Earth, this time
Surtur destroyed him and Asgard long before that could happen. Despite taking Surtur’s
giant blade to it, the Tesseract somehow survived the destruction of Asgard and
landed in a North American forest.
We cut over to a Mohawk village,
the people harvesting their crops. A young woman, Kahhori, and a boy named Wahta,
run off into the forest to shirk their chores. Kahhori and Mahta discover the corpse
rotten to the bone. Wahta reminds Kahhori that this part of the forest is
forbidden to them due to an old battle that cursed the land. Kahhori keeps
walking, saying it’s only cursed because no one cleansed the land of blood
after the battle. She mentions a blessed lake in this area powerful enough to
take them to the Sky World. She thinks that the lake should have brought people
together, but Wahta points out that according to their legends the lake also
ate people. I can understand some conflict there. They find the lake, it’s a
dinky little thing that ducks hang out in. They hear gunshots in the distance
and realize it’s happening at their village.
They return to the village to
discover it is under attack by Spanish Conquistadors. Most of their people seem
to have been captured and some of their homes are burning. A group of Conquistadors
spot them and chase the pair into the woods, they just barely escape by going
up a steep hill. They fall through a cave and discover the true forbidden lake.
Rather than the dinky thing topside, the real forbidden lake is an underground reservoir
glowing with tesseract light. A conquistador follows them into the hole and sees
the lake, saying that he has found what they were looking for. He hears Wahta
moving and goes to attack him. Kahhori throws rocks at the conquistador who
shoots her. She falls into the lake as Wahta is captured. She sinks to the bottom
and is pulled toward the tesseract at the bottom. She’s transported through
time and space to another world where she’s discovered by a man with glowing
eyes and skin that still speaks Mohawk telling her to relax and welcoming her
to Sky World.
The Watcher cuts in, explaining
that the Tesseract found a new home among Kahhori’s ancestors after the fall of
Asgard. It was split in to and released an immense amount of energy. Heroes,
elders and such from the Mohawk and other tribes came to the lake and disappeared
into it’s waters. A war was waged between the various groups over their lost
kin, peace only being reestablished once everyone agreed the lake was cursed
and to not go near it again.
Kahhori wakes up in the space Mohawk
village dressed in their clothes. She enters the village to find more glowing
people. The man who found her comes up to her and explains that the power of that
stone she saw at the bottom of the lake seeps into everything here, granting
the people unusual powers. We see some using telekinesis and one old woman manipulating
rain clouds. Kahhori and the man, Atahraks, introduce themselves to each other.
He explains that she got here through the lake, and when Kahhori mentions that
the lake is curse now, he says that’s a good call. Lots of people went missing in
the lake back when he was a child, including a cousin, whom is right behind
them. Kahhori remembers Wahta is in danger and runs to try to get back to him. She runs back to where she landed,
unfortunately the portal is floating in the sky too high for her to reach. Atahraks
joins her, saying that they were ‘meant’ to come here, that while they’re in
this place they don’t age or die, but they can’t go back.
Back at her village we’re introduced
to Rodrigo Alfonso Gonzalo, the Conquistador in charge of this attack, and he
claims the “fountain of youth,” in the name off Queen Isabella of Spain. He
claims their forbidden lake is the fountain of youth and demands to know where
it is. He pulls a gun on a woman and demands to know where it is, when his men
return with Wahta.
Kahhori climbs a tree to try to
reach the portal. Atahraks tells Kahhori that the land wants to help her and
that she just needs to slow down to feel it’s spirit. She notices she’s leaving
a trail of blue light and then takes a leap, she soars into the air to the next
branch, her eyes glowing blue when she lands. He’s impressed that she learned so
quick and asked “what sort of clay” she’s made of, she answers Wolf and he nods
that that makes sense. He says he has some turtle in him as the reach the top
of the tree. Kahhori is impressed with the powers they have hear and can’t believe
that they have limits. Atahraks says that many have tried to reach the portal,
but it’s always just out of reach. She responds that they didn’t try hard
enough and tries to telekinetically make a step with a branch. Unfortunately,
the branch drops the moment she puts a foot on it. He says maybe they just
accepted that this is their new home, but she refuses to do that. She lifts more
branches and walks across two before falling. Atahraks says the record is 14 steps.
She tries a few times, falling each time. A horn is played in the distance and
Atahraks says that a hunt is being called and she’ll love it.
They return to the village and
begin the hunt. The hunt is to capture a rare plant that grows slowly but
builds up a lot of the planet’s ‘spirit.’ One of the elders raises a blossom and
the plants awaken, revealing giant bison like bodies that start charging. Atahraks
tells her to not worry as no one gets one their first try. The trick, it seems,
is to jump over the beasts and pluck some of their scales. Kahhroi starts
running, outpacing all of the other hunters and the bison themselves. She loses
control, almost running into a wall, but then pitching to the side and almost getting
trampled. She uses telekinesis and flips it over her head, pulling scales from
it. She easily pulled the most crystals at the end of the day and celebrated.
Back on Earth, Gonzalo asks his men
who is the first to want immortality. They all leap into the water, but nothing
seems to happen. They start falling through, being pulled to the crystal at the
bottom. Gonzalo declares this place cursed and orders the tribe taken back to
Spain. His men decide they can plunder this place too and see the village in
the distance.
Kahhori and the others are dancing
to celebrate their hunt. Kahhori sees the conquistadors coming and stops their musket
balls with a thought. She takes their guns and captures all of them with her
mind, she sees Wahta’s necklace on one of them and rips it off him. She scolds
the tribe from being away from the ‘bones of their ancestors” for too long.
That this land gives them power and blessings but they’ve grown too comfortable
here. They’ve forgotten their origin, but she won’t. The land seems to respond
her desires, restricting the conquistadors in roots. She’s able to pull the
portal to the ground. The other’s are hesitant to join her, but she says if
they’re worthy of this place they will follow her. She breaches back to Earth.
She super speeds over to her village
to find it burning and then races to the coast. She appears as a blue blur in
the forest to the Conquistadors before attacking. She easily dispatches the conquistadors,
her telekinetic powers letting her throw these guys left and right. The only
chance they have is due to numbers as one person simply can’t stop hundred of
soldiers. Gonzalo tries to overwhelm her with his ship’s cannons. She blocks several
canon balls, but one breaks through and knocks her aside. Gonzalo draws his
sword on her, but the other tribesmen arrive and many super powered Mohawks
obliterate the Conquistadors. Kahhori finds Wahtan and returns his necklace to
him. She tells Wahtan to pay attention as they’ll need new songs for what is
done here today. Wahtan calls them Thunder People as they destroy the Spanish fleet.
The Watcher says that Kahhori changed
the world because of her unwavering conviction to do the right thing, in both
the face of miracle and devastation. He says it’s this very quality that makes
them unable to stop with one victory. We cut to Spain where an envoy is telling
Queen Isabella that it’s undeniable that they’ve lost their grip on the new
world. Isabella refuses to accept that, but then Kahhori and several warriors portal
into the throne room. Kahhori gives her a simple ultimatum, either they’ll have
peace, or the Spanish will have no future. She humiliates Isabella by throwing
her to the ground and then shattering her throne to make a point. Just before
the credits roll, Strange Supreme portals in and says that he has been looking
for her for a long time. Oh my.
The fact that this episode was done
exclusively in Mohawk and Spanish, aside from Strange, was a bold choice. I am
fine with subtitles; it just makes it a bit difficult for me to do a write up.
I can type without looking at my computer screen but errors compound. The idea
that the death of Asgard lead to such a fundamental change is interesting. Makes
me wonder if this timeline has legends about Thor, since he very well could
have been dead long before he and his friends came to Earth to party. Weird thought.
I need to give props to Kahhori’s voice actress, Devery Jacobs. If the name
seems familiar, she’s been in American Gods as Sam Black Crow and Reservation
Dogs as Elora Danan. I guess she’s advocating for Kahhori to be brought
into the mainline MCU and to play her in live action, which I say, yeah, give
this gal what she wants. While there are a few Native American Marvel heroes, James
Proudstar aka Warpath/Thunderbird, Danielle Moonstar aka Mirage, Forge, and Maya
Lopez aka Echo are the big ones that come to mind, but Echo thus far is the
only MCU character. Inclusion of Native characters played by Native actors is
the very minimum we, as a society, can offer after things like white boy Taylor
Lautner playing Jacob Black in Twilight and all the general horrible
things that has been done to the Native Tribes, First Nation Peoples, American
Indians, Indigenous Americans or whatever the most correct term for them is
currently. I’m not trying to be flippant; I want to use the most widely
accepted term for their peoples are but there isn’t really a consensus
according to the overlord that is google. Anyway, loved the look of the Mohawk village
on the other side of the tesseract portal. The electric blue goes well with the
native designs. The final battle was really well done, I thought, with showing
us how one sided the fight began but how quickly numbers and heavier artillery
can even overcome superpowers. But then a squad of superpowered people can
overwhelm heavier artillery. I’m curious as to why Strange Supreme is flying
around again and what he needs Kahhori for. I really can’t read this guy’s
vibe, if he’s still on the evil side of the spectrum or if he’s shifted to
villain seeking redemption, so his plan could be literally anything. So yeah,
good episode. Next time, 15.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/95575593
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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