What If… 1872? — Season 3 Episode 6 Spoiler Review and Recap

Last season in What If…?, we went back in time to the 1600s. This season, we’re jumping back to an American West populated with Avengers. “What If…1872?” follows Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Kate Bishop/Hawkeye (Hailee Steinfeld) as they hunt for Shang-Chi’s sister. However, as they hop into trouble, The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) seems to have problems of his own. “What If…1872?” provides fun cowboy action set pieces and gets us back in line with the ethos of the show.

(L-R): Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) and Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) in Marvel Animation’s WHAT IF…? Season 3, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Animation. © 2024 MARVEL. All Rights Reserved.

“What If…1872?” Recap

In the year 1872, a bandit shoots a bell of a Spanish chapel. John Walker (Wyatt Russell) tells his man to hurry up, but growing impatient, he shoots the bell for the tenth time. He completes the “10 rings,” summoning Shang-Chi to the building. Shang-Chi arrives, with Hawkeye sneaking in the back to surround the bandits. When Shang-Chi tosses his hat into the air, he goes to work with his partner. Together, they eliminate Walker and all the threats before his hat can even hit the ground.

Shang-Chi grabs Walker and asks for the location of “The Hood.” The villain has been abducting Chinese workers and heading towards Point Pegasus. He tells Shang-Chi it will not be long until The Hood comes looking for him. Satisfied with the intel, Shang-Chi and Kate ride into the desert.

The Watcher tells us Xu Xialing (Meng’er Zhang) had come to America for freedom. However, Xialing found that The Hood had captured other immigrants and went looking for him. When Xialing goes missing, Shang-Chi picks up the trail and searches for his missing sister.

Shang-Chi and Kate come upon a settlement still smoldering from the fight. They also find Jun-Fan, a young boy who survived The Hood’s attack. He tells Shang-Chi and Kate that The Hood took the family on a “Ghost Train,” and Kate confirms there’s a hidden track in the dirt. Using the intel, the trio catches up with the train, and together they board the levitating train. The tech used to make the train float is Stark technology, which helps the train fly over a canyon.

In the train, all of the workers are seemingly hypnotized, unable to respond to Jun-Fan’s calls. He finds his father, but he too remains unresponsive. They move further up the train, and they find Sonny Birch (Walton Goggins), who greets them with a dozen black hats. He’s working with The Hood, and they’re building an army that’s going to “change the world.” Shang-Chi tells Jun-Fan to use his martial arts skills to escape, and the boy flees down the train.

Sonny keeps Shang-Chi and Bishop at gunpoint while ordering his men to go kill Jun-Fan. The boy gets captured, and The Watcher reveals that in alternate realities, he’s a hero in his own right. While it appears this Jun-Fan is going to die, The Watcher intervenes, and the boy escapes as the train goes into a tunnel.

After the train emerges from the mountain, the path is covered in snow. Jun-Fan hides on the train but has a clear view of the snowy platform. Sonny tells Shang-Chi that The Hood wants to speak with him alone. With Kate still on the train, Shang Chain disembarks. In the snow, The Hood offers Shang-Chi the truth about his sister if they join forces. When Shang-Chi refuses, the two battle.

As they fight, Sonny opens up a pocket watch, which begins playing a tune. The music affects Kate, who slowly begins to feel woozy. The tune, which Sonny Birch picked up in Russia, causes her to fall into a trance. As Shang-Chi continues to fight, Sonny reveals to Kate that he was the one who killed her parents.

Shang-Chi finally lands a punch on The Hood, but it’s not a monster under the costume: it’s his sister Xialing. She took his power, and she’s using it to remake the West. When Shang-Chi refuses to join her, she draws a blade on him and they fight to the death. When Xialing is about to kill Shang-Chi, Jun-Fan rings the bell of the train. This wakes Kate, who grabs a gun and takes out Sonny Birch and his train car.

Shang-Chi refuses to fight his sister any longer, and he drops his weapon. He does not believe Xialing will kill him either. He drops to his knees and tells her that he loves her no matter what. She readies to kill him, but before the blade hits him, Kate shoots Xialing. Shang-Chi’s sister falls to the ground, dropping a magic cloak (like the Cloak of Levitation) to the ground. Xialing returns to her former self before passing away. Kate apologizes for what she’s done, but Shang-Chi tells her she’s done nothing wrong. It was The Hood who killed her. As he does, the cloak floats away into the mountains.

Back in town, Jun-Fan tells the trio’s story to the townspeople. Shang-Chi and Kate listen from a distance, and they admit the kid has a lot of promise. They ride into the sunset, willing to fight for justice and continue his sister’s work.

The Watcher is happy with the result, but he’s interrupted by The Eminence (Jason Isaacs). He blames The Watcher for interfering once again and changing the course of the multiverse. He’s in violation of his oath, and they can no longer let his interferences continue. They use cosmic power to slam the Watcher into a multidimensional barrier, and shards of the barrier fly through space.

(Middle L-R): Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), and Kwai Jun-Fan (Allen Deng) in Marvel Animation’s WHAT IF…? Season 3, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Animation. © 2024 MARVEL. All Rights Reserved.

Is “What If…1872?” worth watching?

Much of “What if…1872” depends on your feelings towards Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Liu returns to voice the character, and while the accent is not particularly great, the sentiment is clear. Liu continues to gain traction as a star, particularly when it comes to comedy, and in “1872” he brings the correct energy for the role. We’d like to see Liu return in live action sooner rather than later. However, “1872” does not live up to the martial arts creativity of the movie, so Marvel needs to step their game up in that regard.

The inclusion of Jun-Fan in “1872” as an alternate Iron Fist is a fun touch. It’s not a huge stretch before Kate utters, “He’s got some iron fists,” but the confirmation was nice regardless. Jun-Fan is one of the Iron Fists that held the power during the 1800s, so his inclusion in “1872” is not just pulling a character out of thin air. It’s an excellent touch for Marvel to embrace this version of the character, and it’s a curious inclusion to watch. In the future, we may see the arrival of an East-Asian Iron Fist in the MCU.

Most of the comedy in “1872” stems from Walton Goggins. The actor he-haws his way through the dialogue, and he’s just a pleasure to listen to. However, his storyline with Kate feels like deus ex machina. There’s no real effort to tie Sonny back to Kate’s story, and the only reason for this choice seems to be based on having her fight an enemy that’s not “The Hood.” Even so, Goggins and Steinfeld’s interplay in “1872” is fun. We’d like to see Steinfeld actually get something to do in the MCU, and they continually drop the ball here.

Finally, the Watcher storyline has seemingly reached its rising action. It’s wild how flippantly he changed history in “1872” with a flick of his hand. It’s hard to disagree with Isaacs’ The Eminence in this case. However, there are now real questions about how The Watchers will respond to his actions and who else might suffer for his consistent rule-breaking. The shards flying into space have interacted with other characters in the past, so let’s keep an eye on who they touch.

What If… Season 3 releases on Disney+ on December 22. “What If… 1872?” aired on December 27. New episodes release daily through December 30.