’What If…?’ Season 2, Episode 2 Recap: Peter Quill Unleashes Chaos

Warning: Spoilers ahead for What If…? Season 2 Episode 2.

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The second season of Marvel Studios’ What If…? is moving right along its daily release schedule, with episode two now streaming on Disney+. The series continues to bring more plausible scenarios, which feel like direct spinoffs of previous MCU events, and things that could have happened with a few minor tweaks.

The first episode focuses more on a singular character with Nebula (Karen Gillan), while the second dives into an alternate Avengers team. How does that team assemble, you ask? Let’s answer that question by reviewing what would happen if Peter Quill attacked Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in our What If…? Season 2, Episode 2 recap.

Yondu Kept His End of the Bargain in ‘What If…?’ Season 2, Episode 2

In the MCU continuity that fans are familiar with, Ego (Kurt Russell) sent Yondu (Michael Rooker) to kidnap Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) from Earth. But in What If…? Season 2, Episode 2, Yondu held up his end of the deal and actually delivered Peter to his father as promised. With Peter at Ego’s side, he now has everything he needs to complete The Expansion and shape the universe in his image.

As the episode begins, Peter arrives at Earth and havoc immediately follows. He attacks police officers and begins laying waste to the planet he once called home. Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Howard Stark (John Slattery) are the first line of defense against Peter, and they decide their best option is to put together a team. The team consists of Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne), King T’Chaka (Atandwa Kani), the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), and Wendy Lawson, also known as Mar-Vell (Keri Tombazian).

The group heads to Coney Island to put an end to Peter’s wrath, but he proves to be more difficult to subdue than they planned. The young boy sends the team into full retreat until Thor (Chris Hemsworth) shows up and saves the day. After apprehending Peter, Thor fills in the team on the happenings around the galaxy and reveals that Earth is the last surviving planet.

Peter Quill Is Earth’s Last Hope for Survival in the Fight Against the Celestial Ego

The Avengers believe they have bought themselves some time, but Peter’s imprisonment doesn’t last long. In all her youthful innocence, Hope Van Dyne frees Peter and sends him on his way to Missouri. She agrees to tell the team where he is heading on the condition that they help him, not kill him. After learning Peter has lost sight of his mission, Ego decides to head to Earth to finish what his son started.

When Ego arrives on Earth, a massive welcome party is there to greet him, and he demands they hand over the seedling that is the key to The Expansion. A massive battle follows, and the Avengers barely hold their ground against the Celestial. While they attempt to hold him off, Hank and Wendy head to Missouri to secure Peter, but the Winter Soldier has other plans. He is ready to assassinate the child, but fortunately, Howard talks him out of it.

After traveling back to the scene of the battle, Peter defeats his father Ego by using the seedling against him. The team, now safe from destruction, enjoys a nice victory dinner, and Bucky has been freshly liberated from his murderous Winter Soldier ways. Thor sets out to avenge everyone who died when Hank reminds him that they’re a team now. The Avengers theme plays, and the new iteration of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is born.

‘What If…?’ Season 2 Continues the Momentum With Another Great Episode

With another strikingly plausible premise in the second episode, What If…? is capitalizing on the daily release schedule over the holiday season. If Yondu had delivered Peter as promised, who’s to say this isn’t how things would have shaken out? There’s one sure-fire way to get people to care about the multiverse, and it’s putting familiar characters in dangerously unfamiliar situations; that’s what What If…? Season 2 is doing.

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