The What If...? Episode 5 Moment That Went Too Far

Contains spoilers for Episode 5 of "What If...?"

"What If...?" continues to explore the many different potential realities in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As a result, fans have seen some truly radical reinterpretations of huge MCU movies so far. Episode 2 sees T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) join the Ravagers in a remixed version of "Guardians of the Galaxy," while Episode 4 looks at how Christine's (Rachel McAdams) death would have affected Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberatch) in his solo movie. Then there's Episode 5 ... which takes things to a particularly grisly place.

The episode reveals that a zombie virus was picked up by Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) while she was trapped in the Quantum Realm during "Ant-Man and The Wasp." When Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) rescues his lost love, he unleashes the virus on the world — and it quickly overwhelms Earth's mightiest heroes. Yes, you read that right, zombie Avengers. This isn't the first time Marvel fans have seen the undead, as Robert Kirkman helmed the "Marvel Zombies" limited comic series back in 2005 (via Fandom).

But it's a dire state of affairs for those who survived in "What If...?," since the zombies can still use their respective superpowers. Thankfully, the surviving heroes like Spider-Man (voiced by Hudson Thames), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), Okoye (Danai Gurira), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), and Sharon Carter (Emily Van Camp) find a signal coming from Camp Lehigh, New Jersey, that could lead to a cure. 

Unfortunately that isn't the case, and the episode takes things a step too far.

When the heroes finally make it to Camp Lehigh, they find a horde of zombies — and the Wasp sacrifices herself so that the team can make it into the base. What they find there is arguably more horrifying than the rest of the episode itself. Vision (Paul Bettany) survives the initial onslaught of zombies because of the Mind Stone embedded in his brain. This freedom allows the Synthezoid to try work on a cure — mainly to save his one true love: Scarlet Witch.

Bucky discovers Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) in a back room with a missing leg — because Vision has been feeding survivors to Scarlet Witch, whom he keeps locked away in the depths of the base. We even see a pile of clothes presumably left over from the various survivors unfortunate enough to seek shelter in the camp with Vision. Well, that's a disturbing thought. The hero is clearly doing everything he can to keep Wanda 'alive' after her death, much like Scarlet Witch does for her husband in "WandaVision." Their relationship seems to be doomed, no matter what universe we enter.

The idea of Vision slowly feeding survivors to Wanda is truly horrifying, and the glimpse of a de-limbed Black Panther definitely went a bit too far.