What If…? 2×07 “What If… Hela Found the Ten Rings?” is a nice AU for a character that got very little chance to be anything other than a straight-up villain in the MCU – and a reminder of how bad a father and rule Odin is. The MCU and even Loki and Thor themselves, have handwaved some of Odin’s worst actions, but the truth is that if the MCU had an award for worst father, Odin would probably win it.
And there’s some stiff company, too.
Hela gets a chance to be more than just Odin’s daughter – Odin’s executioner – in this episode, and there’s a very nice arc for her in the short time the episode has to develop who she actually is. It’s especially fun that What If…? 2×07 “What If… Hela Found the Ten Rings?” does the same as other episodes of this show have, and manages that while putting her in contact with the most random people in the MCU.
It works, despite that, because the writing is strong enough to make it so. In fact, What If…? 2×07 “What If… Hela Found the Ten Rings?” continues the season that started okay, but not nearly as strong as the first one, in a way that makes us feel not just that the show is at its best, but that whatever is coming for us at the end of the line will be worth it.
The episode doesn’t take any narrative leaps – Hela’s whole journey towards becoming someone else has some shades of Loki’s, and though What If …? doesn’t explore Odin’s wrongs, it at least does a better job than the MCU ever did at pointing them out. Sure, Hela is a villain who makes her own decisions, just as this Hela chooses to be something else.
But we cannot discount the harm Odin did to his kids – all of them, if we’re being honest. And by giving Hela a chance at freedom, What If…? once again reinforces the biggest message of the show: everyone can make the right choices in the MCU – just like in life, even the bad guys. Because, in truth, it’s all about choices, nothing else.
Hela made hers in this hour. So did Xu Wenwu. And yes, so did the Allfather. The consequences of those choices – for themselves, and the universe at large are the interesting part.
Things I think I think:
- Odin has literally one playbook. ONE. It’s not even a good one. Has it helped with any of his kids?
- This episode needed no more than Cate Blanchett, in the recognizable voice actor category. But they, of course, brought in Idris Elba for like 7 lines. Go Idris!
- LOOK, we deserve to see some of the romance. We did. And as I said before, What If…? even had a few different places it could have chosen to go, romance-wise. Yes, there was Xu Wenwu, but, but …Jiayi too.
- The title feels a bit misleading, she didn’t do anything with the Ten Rings, just saying.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of What If…? 2×07 “What If… Hela Found the Ten Rings?”? Share with us in the comments below!
New episodes of What If…? will be released daily from December 22nd to December 30th on Disney+.
