Once more into the breach, as we ponder the question one final time. The final season of What If… is officially debuting on Disney+ tonight, with an eight-night event gifting us an episode per day.

This underdog series has seen some high highs and low lows within the MCU, but how does the final season of Marvel Animation’s first series stack up against its prior two seasons? Let’s take a look and find out.

What If…, like many of Marvel Studios’ Disney + endeavors, has always been a mixed bag. The first season started out fairly strong but eventually found its way to some pretty tragically bad episodes (the “Party Thor” episode is a masterclass in excessive silliness). However, the second season thankfully saw more good than bad, and I’m happy to report the third season, while not without its own faults, keeps up the pace from its mostly good the second season.

Admittedly, my first experience with Season 3 came from a premiere event that happened in Los Angeles last week. We were “treated” to two episodes of this season; oddly enough the third and fourth episodes, which were the weakest this season. The third follows a silly buddy adventure between Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and The Red Guardian (David Harbour). The fourth followed (of all characters) Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) and Howard the Duck (Seth Green) — something of a follow up to the unpalatable Party Thor episode. And my initial impression was that the series had sunk to new lows.

Both episodes were among the very worst the series has ever offered us, prioritizing silliness and terrible comedy that fell shockingly flat, with an entire episode (the Darcy/Howard episode) devoted entirely to characters we couldn’t care less about. I was surprised about how low of the barrel Marvel was scraping in terms of talent to try and create episodes, with the storyline for that installment feeling like it was written in the “and then this happens… and then that happens… and then this character shows up… now this one” style of a Kindergartener. While the third episode was slightly better, it made me actually hate the obnoxiousness of The Red Guardian, which was something that I actually found endearing in the Black Widow film. Needless to say it left a very bad taste in my mouth, and caused me to worry considerably about the rest of the season.

Hilariously though, once I got the screeners, as I dove into the first two episodes of the series, I found myself actually surprised. The first two episodes were actually not bad. The first, a story about Sam Wilson and Bruce Banner, demonstrated a considerable amount of heart and pathos that I wasn’t prepared for, along with some really terrific mech vs. kaiju action. It helped a lot that we also got our first MCU appearance of one of my favorites — Moon Knight — outside of his own series, as well as Shang Chi. However, what made the episode actually quite compelling was the relationship that was developed between Bruce and Sam. There’s a lot this episode has to say about guilt and remorse, and how trauma and self-loathing can lead one to make the most destructive choices. It was surprisingly emotional, and yet, also very fun, especially given the well acted vocal performances for Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Mackie.

The second episode from there was less emotional, but still a huge blast. While on paper, the idea of an Agatha Harkness-led Eternals story doesn’t seem like it would work, the two Marvel projects seamlessly combined to create a fun and hilarious crossover between Agatha and Kingo, I suppose it helps that the comedic energy between Kathryn Hahn and Kumail Nanjiani matched each other perfectly. However, more impressive is how they took elements about the respective characters’ mythologies and created a story with cohesion that we wouldn’t ever think about, but completely makes sense. Agatha’s desires to absorb power meeting the energy a Celestial like Tiamut would produce absolutely works. How that conflicts with the Eternals’ mission also makes sense. The result is an episode that’s a real hoot to watch, and even includes an impressive dance sequence that would never be possible in live action given Nanjiani’s own hesitations about dancing in the actual Eternals film.

While the third and fourth episodes ended up being disappointments, I’m pleased to say the fifth episode of the season was arguably the best. Anchored by a POC operated Avengers team, consisting of two Asian characters (Wong and Michelle Yeoh’s Yin Nan from Shang Chi), and three Black characters (Valkyrie, Okoye, and Riri Williams) it was actually quite special to see a version of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes being formed by minority characters that wouldn’t normally get the spotlight. However, more importantly, this episode gave Riri/Ironheart an even stronger debut than the one we saw in Wakanda Forever. The fifth episode frames her as a whip smart, incredibly brave, but flawed individual. And frankly, if there was a character that could benefit from more exposure prior to the debut of her own live action spin-off, it’d be Ironheart.

This episode was hands down the most tragic, and most interesting episode from a narrative standpoint. Making the main villain of it Mysterio, of all characters, and centering it on Riri’s determination to do right by her family and the planet following a devastating apocalypse made for a very compelling storyline. And it served as the perfect episode to kick off what would be one of the biggest arcs of this season.

Which brings me to the final three episodes. The “1872” definitely was fun, and served as a great — semi sequel — idea for Shang Chi. Once more, it’s wonderful seeing POCs like Simu Liu take the spotlight in a story about the way immigrants in this country are treated, as well as the dangerous consequence of what happens when you put them down for too long. It’s not a topic I expected from What If… but it certainly is a welcome one given the climate of today, and the growing hostility towards immigrants due to lies and scapegoating. It also contained some fun action sequences and a terrific turn from Hailee Steinfeld.

However, the final two episodes find a way to conclude the story of Uatu, as well as all of the original characters that have been introduced in this series with grace and dignity. The first of the two-part finale is the stronger installment, reintroducing old favorites Captain Carter and Kahhori, introducing Birdie (Natasha Lyonne) — the daughter of Howard and Darcy, and reinventing Storm as Thor! We also get some surprising cameos, but for the most part, watching this team of powerful women work together to piece together a mystery behind what happened to Uatu is thrilling in and of itself. Seeing the strengths and weaknesses of this team makes them quite interesting, and figuring out how they were going to track down Uatu made for terrific tension.

The second part, and the finale of the series, is sadly a bit more lacking. While it delivers in action, I can’t help but feel underwhelmed that the denouement of the entire series boils down to a cliched overlong slam-bang action sequence that seems to be bereft of consequences. There’s moments that absolutely rock, which I won’t spoil here. However, it got to the point where I felt everything happening was monotonous and I grew impatient for the end of the series to happen already. When it finally does, at last, at minimum it feels satisfying enough.

What If… has certainly been a very interesting experiment. And while, like the series itself, the third season exhibits a bit of unevenness in the quality of its episodes, overall (also like the series itself) the good ultimately outweighs the bad. While I can’t personally say I’ll be missing the series (I do think Marvel Animation should think about focusing its efforts on shows like X-Men ’97), and I’ll be all too happy when The Multiverse Saga reaches its conclusion, I will say it’s been fun to see the MCU experiment with different genres and styles, even if it didn’t always pass with flying colors.

My hope would be that, perhaps, every once in a while we may finally see Uatu watching over the live-action 616 universe on occasion, or see live action versions of characters like Captain Carter, Infinity Ultron, Strange Supreme, Kahhori, and Goddess of Thunder Storm. And additionally, it’d be great for the live-action sector of Marvel Studios to learn from the bold genre experimentation this series showcased. After all, the only way to truly battle monotony, is if Hollywood becomes brave enough to actually truly ponder the question… “What If…”

Overall Score (on an entertainment level): B
Overall Score (on a representation level): A-