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Marvel Entertainment's What If...? season 3 episode 6 aired via Disney+ on December 27, 2024. The segment, "What If... 1872?", explored the alternate storyline of heroes in the Old West, taking down a mysterious villain terrorizing the desert towns.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for What If...? season 3 episode 6.
At the end of the episode, Shang-Chi and Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) manage to take down the Hood and return the villain's prisoners to their homes. They decided to embark on an adventure of justice to make sure that the West remained lawful.
However, the Watcher had some problems after he interfered in their story to make sure it reached a happy ending. The Eminence, the Incarnate, and the Executioner came to remind him that he broke his oath, and took him prisoner.
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What was the folk story behind the Hood at the beginning of What If...? season 3 episode 6?
The episode began with the story of a reimagined Old West, with modern heroes and villains finding their place in the period setting. The scene was established by a confrontation between Shang-Chi, Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) and John Walker.
Walker rang a bell ten times to summon Shang-Chi into a trapped confrontation with gunmen. However, Shang-Chi and Kate made easy work of them, using them as informants to get to their true target: The Hood.
The Hood was a crime lord known for his supernatural abilities and cunning in the West. He used his forces to ransack construction sites and abduct workers from behind the rail lines. These workers, once captured, disappeared without a trace. This was something that Shang-Chi and Kate decided to track since they both had a vendetta against the villain.
The Hood was involved in the kidnapping and disappearance of Shang-Chi's sister Xu Xialing. On the other hand, the Hood and his forces were also responsible for killing all of Kate's family, which drove her spirit of vengeance towards the villain.
Also read: What If...? season 3 episode 5 ending explained: Is the Watcher in danger for helping Riri Williams?
How did Hawkeye and Shang-Chi get on the Hood's track?
In What If...? season 3 episode 6, after obtaining information from John Walker, the two heroes made it to a settlement near Point Pegasus to anticipate the Hood's attack. However, they were too late, since the town had already been ransacked. Luckily, they came across Jun-Fan, a young child who escaped the Hood's wrath. Jun-Fan pointed them in the direction of a Ghost Train that the Hood used to take captives.
Following the trail and accompanied by Jun-Fan, Shang-Chi, and Kate managed to locate the Ghost Train and climb aboard. They realized that the train was run by powerful but stolen Stark Industries technology, which is how it managed to move faster and cover more ground than horses in the West.
Inside the train, the three heroes came across an even more stunning truth: all the prisoners had been frozen in time, as though in a trance. They seemed to be a part of a subdued army, ready to spring into action whenever commanded.
The heroes were then apprehended by Sonny Burch who introduced himself as one of the Hood's "investors". He said that the Hood would like to meet Shang-Chi alone, and that was where the train was headed.
Also read: What If...? season 3 episode 4 ending explained: Who is the child of Darcy and Howard the Duck?
What happened in the fight between Shang-Chi and the Hood?
Shang-Chi reached an abandoned train station on the train and deboarded to face the Hood. Kate, Sonny Burch, and Jun-Fan stayed on the train, watching him. The Hood appeared and initially asked Shang-Chi to join their forces, which he refused. The Hood also refused to tell Shang-Chi the whereabouts of his lost sister Xu Xialing, which kickstarted a fight between the two.
Meanwhile, in What If...? season 3 episode 6, on the train, Sonny Burch had a scheme of his own. He opened up an old timepiece that started playing a tinkling jingle. In his vicinity, the jingle started to affect Kate's mind. Sonny then revealed that he was the one who had taken the prisoners' minds hostage and that the music was a persuasion earworm. Sonny also revealed, in what seemed to be Kate's final moments, that he was the one who killed Kate's parents.
Seeing both his heroes struggling in their fights, Jun-Fan took matters into his own hands. He sharply rang the train's bell to jolt them out of their stupor. Kate managed to fight the music and overpower Sonny Burch. Meanwhile, Shang-Chi gave his rival a powerful kick that sent the Hood's cape flying back. It was then that the Hood was revealed to be Shang-Chi's lost sister Xialing.
Xialing said that she took over the previous Hood's powers after defeating him, but realized that the American Dream she had been promised was a lie. She wanted to use hypnotized armies to correct America and restore her own dreams. Shang-Chi stopped fighting when he realized what his sister was doing, saying that he did not wish to fight his idol. However, even as Xialing lashed out with a lethal knife, Kate shot her from a distance.
What was the end of What If...? season 3 episode 6 for the characters and the Watcher?
After Kate realized that the Hood was Shang-Chi's sister, she felt incredibly guilty and apologized to him. However, Shang-Chi forgave her quickly, saying that Xialing's life and purpose had been taken away by the Hood, not by Kate.
When they returned to town and freed all the prisoners on the Ghost Train, Shang-Chi and Kate understood that there would be more battles to fight and more evil to conquer. They rode off into the sunset together to look for their next venture of justice, just like the end of a classic Old West story.
Meanwhile, the Watcher had some problems of his own to deal with. During the storyline, he interrupted with a little push when one of Sonny Burch's goons was about to kill Jun-Fan, thus saving the innocent child and even the heroes by extension.
However, this interference was unacceptable to the Eminence, the Incarnate, and the Executioner. They appeared in the Watcher's realm and chastised him for breaking his oath by interfering. As they captured the Watcher to give him the consequences for his actions, their energy surge broke a few shards of crystal from the dimension, sending them floating away into the great unknown.
Also read: What If...? season 3 episode 2 ending explained: Did Agatha turn against the Eternals?
Audiences can watch What If...? season 3 episode 6 streaming now on Disney+ and its associated regional platforms. The next episode of the season shall be released on December 28, 2024.
