The following article contains spoilers for What If…? Episode 7.
The last few episodes of What If…? have explored the darker possibilities contained within the Marvel multiverse — heroes falling to the dark side, villains achieving total victory, and beloved characters being slaughtered left and right. While the episodes themselves have been consistently excellent, it can be a little emotionally draining seeing so many bleak stories one after another.
Thankfully, What If…? Episode 7 takes a break from all the death and suffering to provide some much-needed comic relief. Titled “What If… Thor Were an Only Child?”, the episode explores what sort of life Thor would lead if Loki never grew up in his shadow. The answer, apparently, is that he would he a carefree party animal who first comes to modern Earth not because he’s been exiled there, but because he wants to live it up in Las Vegas.
This episode takes several cues from the original 2011 Thor film directed by Kenneth Branagh, depicting Thor’s first meeting with Jane Foster and the courtship that soon ensues. But unlike the emotionally charged Shakespearean melodrama of Thor’s MCU debut, the tone of this episode skews more towards that of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok — Waititi himself even makes a brief appearance as Korg, as does Jeff Goldblum reprising his role as the Grandmaster. But unlike Ragnarok, there’s no world-ending threat to stop or hard-hitting character drama to be found to balance out the comedy. The entire episode is one massive comedic farce, and it’s the exact change of pace fans needed after these last few episodes.
At the center of the episode’s comedy is of course Thor himself, portrayed once again by Chris Hemsworth, who is essentially depicted with a combination of his upbeat, wisecracking attitude in Ragnarok and his immature recklessness from the beginning of Thor. Instead of a noble, chivalrous hero, he’s a hedonistic man-child. Instead of saving the world, he’s mostly concerned with throwing the biggest party he can without his mom finding out — it’s a plot that feels pulled right out of a sitcom rather than a superhero story. But even with his less-than-altruistic goals, this Thor is nevertheless shown to be a fundamentally good person. He causes trouble mostly out of ignorance rather than any real malice, and ultimately corrects his mistakes by the end of the episode. This Thor may not be the sharpest hammer in the Nine Realms, but he still has a heart of gold deep down.
But of course, Thor is far from the only character supplying comedy in this episode. Plenty of punchlines are provided by comic relief characters from past MCU films — most prominently Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, who gets some of the best lines in the episode. Whether she’s fangirling over Captain Marvel or getting married to Howard the Duck in Vegas, Darcy feels right at home in the wackiest What If…? episode yet. Korg and Grandmaster also show up as mentioned earlier, but they’re certainly not alone. Several unexpected characters show up as guests to Thor’s party, from Rocket Raccoon and Drax to Nebula and even Surtur of all characters. Voiced once again by veteran character actor Clancy Brown, the harbinger of Asgard’s destruction makes a brief cameo in New York City, flirting with the Statue of Liberty.
Even Captain Marvel gets in on the jokes in a surprise appearance. While she mostly appears to act as a more responsible foil to Thor’s wild antics — and to provide one of the most spectacular fight scenes in the entire series — she also supplies plenty of snark of her own as she banters with Thor and Darcy. But of all the characters to show up at Thor’s party, the most surprising of all was none other than Loki himself, once more portrayed by Tom Hiddleston. Since this universe’s Loki was raised on Jotunheim instead of Asgard, he appears not as a scheming trickster with an inferiority complex, but as a towering Frost Giant with an easygoing delinquent-like personality. And most shocking of all, he and Thor aren’t brothers-turned-nemeses, but rather best friends. It’s strange to think that Thor and Loki would have gotten along infinitely better if they were never raised as brothers, but it’s definitely an interesting alternative to explore within the endless possibilities of the multiverse.
But speaking of the multiverse, the episode’s final scene shows that things are about to get much less funny for Thor very quickly. The story ends on a cliffhanger, with a portal opening up — seemingly from another reality — to reveal an army of Ultron drones led by Ultron himself, who has not only gathered all the Infinity Stones, but has taken over Vision’s body, just as he planned to do in Age of Ultron. Only time will tell what happens next now that Ultron has entered the story. But with dark things in the past and even darker threats on the horizon, it certainly seems like Episode 7 of What If…? came at exactly the right time to provide some desperately-needed levity.