Season 1 / Episode 8: What If… Ultron Won?

@Pennywise

Season 1 / Episode 8: What If…

 

So this episode is a direct continuation of last week's episode.
They'll probably use this episode to establish the threat that is Ultron Prime and i guess they go back in time to show how Ultron got his Vision body, his army and the infinity stones. Also what are his motivations and why did he specifically target Thor?

Ultron Prime seems to be based around the events of Age of Ultron.
Ultron, Ultron Sentries, Vibranium, Vision, Mind Stone...

Spoiler

The creation of Ultron Prime actually lines up with the leaks of armored Gamora hunting Tony Stark in Sakaar. In the main timeline it was Hulk who, after the events of AOU, ended up in space and was sucked in to Sakaar. So in this reality it was Tony Stark in the Hulkbuster armor who ended up in Sakaar, maybe the fight against Hulk sent the Hulkbuster into space.

So in reality this episode should be an alternate origin story of Ultron Prime and an introduction to armored Gamora.

 

I actually opened a thread for this episode last week. It doesn't matter though.

 

So what if Ultron got the Infinity Stones from Zombie Thanos?
Since zombie Thanos was missing the mind stone from his gauntlet... And even Vision himself said that robots where not in the menu for zombies so that could've been the perfect opening for Ultron to completely take over.

 

So Ultron went rogue and the Avengers where powerless to stop him. Seems like he took over the world’s nuclear weapons and launched them all over the planet. That’s as bleak as it gets.

 

One of the better episodes for sure.
A few pacing issues but otherwise good stuff.

I thought the runtime was too small which made the episode feel rushed, specially the first half where a lot was established a bit too quickly and the latter half also suffer a bit of the same issue with it almost feeling like we where sprinting towards the end. It just needed more time to breath overall in order to give these massive moments more substance and depth.

Regarding the story itself I thought it was interesting and somewhat predictable of Ultron managed to take over Earth while the other stuff with the Watcher was much more mind blowing. Loved seeing the Watcher let loose and it was pretty epic when he armoured up. The way they did the whole breaking through realities was a bit weird but I’m ok with it since it’s such an out there and otherworldly concept.

Ultron was ruthless and relentless. So OP with the Infinity Stones, him realizing the Watcher’s presence and hunting him down was pretty amazing. The way the Watcher interacted with the whole situation was very interesting, he almost felt like a totally different character in this and I hoped there was a better and smoother transition.

The Black Widow and Hawkeye pairing worked well and his sacrifice worked in the context of the story and as a not to what happen in AEG.

I thought it was overall one of the better episodes but with some familiar flaws that have plagued the series so far, like the irregular pacing, a lack of a smoother transition between different moments and better world building with more connective threads.