'What If?' Season 2 Episode 1 Recap — Nebula Leads a New Team

Nebula with the Nova Corps in What If...? Season 2 Episode 1

Published Dec 22, 2023, 10:15 AM EST

Arezou is a writer for Collider. She has a wide-ranging knowledge of movies and TV, which means she almost certainly will start quoting something mid-conversation.

Arezou is passionate aboutStar Wars, particularlyObi-Wan Kenobi, Fennec Shand, and the Sequel Trilogy. Her TV interests are wide-ranging, with recent favorites includingBridgerton, the live-actionOne Piece, andVikings: Valhalla.

On the movie side, Arezou loves a good romantic comedy, from classics likeFrench Kiss andThe Holidayto more recent ones likeThe Lost City(yes, it counts) and the Turkish-languageLove Tactics, as well as every single one of those Hallmark holiday movies.

She is also an avid champion of Iranians working in the film and television industry. Arezou loves getting the opportunity to conduct interviews for Collider, including withAndy Samberg,Ming-Na Wen,Succession'sArian Moayed, andEwan McGregor (her first ever interview for the site!).

While she has always wanted to work as a full-time writer, Arezou's educational background is a little more wide-reaching. She has a Bachelor's degree from the University of Toronto in English Literature and Cinema Studies (with some Classics thrown in "for fun"), and a Master's degree from the University of Geneva in Specialized Translation. She is fluent in French and Farsi, and conversational in Spanish. She is also a graduate of the Second City Training Center sketch writing program, and holds a certificate in Producing from UCLA.

In addition to her Collider pursuits, she is also the Managing Editor of The Geeky Waffle, and co-hosts podcasts on their network. Arezou is also a member of the Writers Guild of Canada, contributes to Star Wars Insider, and writes novels when she can.

Add Us On

followed

Followed

Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:

Try something different:

Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for What If...? Season 2 Episode 1.

Summary

The first episode ofWhat If...? Season 2, titled "What If... Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?", explores a gritty and crime-filled version of Xandar.
Nebula takes matters into her own hands to investigate the murder of Yondu and discovers a plot to use Xandar's shield generator for nefarious purposes.
With the help of Howard the Duck, Korg, and Groot, Nebula forms a team to stop Nova Prime and Ronan's fleet, showcasing themes of hope and redemption.

Welcome back toWhat If...? Season 2, where everything is made up and continuity doesn't matter. Well, not really. It does matter a little. The new season of Marvel's animated anthology series once again presents the audience with nine (seemingly) standalone adventures that explore the multiverse under the purview of The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright), who oversees it all, and walks us throughversions of reality where one tiny choice spawns a whole new universe. As upbeat as the advertisements for Season 2 have been, emphasizing the Christmastime release window — where the audience can "unwrap" one new episode a night for nine nights! — Episode 1, "What If... Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?" kicks things off in very gritty fashion.

What If...?

Release Date: 2021 - 2024
Showrunner: Ashley Bradley
Directors: Bryan Andrews
Writers: Ashley Bradley, Matthew Chauncey
Franchise(s): Marvel Cinematic Universe

Cast

See All

Based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, this animated anthology looks at alternate timelines in the multiverse that would happen if specific moments in the MCU occurred differently.

Seasons: 3
Streaming Service(s): Disney+

ExpandCollapse

What Is 'What If...?' Season 2 Episode 1 About?

The episode opens on a gloomy, rainy Xandar, where Yondu (Michael Rooker) lies dead in the gutter.His luck, it seems, has run out. An inevitable fate for anyone unfortunate enough to be living on Xandar. At least, that's what Nebula (Karen Gillan) thinks, as she finds the body of her one-time friend and ally. She maintains Yondu was murdered, but her fellow Nova Corps officers, led by Garthan Saal (Peter Serafinowicz) don't share that assessment.

Saal reasons that Yondu had it coming, and is happy for that to be the official cause of death and orders the crime scene cleared.He bristles at Nebula's hesitation, and throws her former association withThanos back in her face as reason enough to doubt. Saal might be happy to write off Yondu's death as a "career criminal that got what's coming to him," but Nebula decides to take matters into her own hands.

The Wanderer — and in turn Nebula — then presents us with the context for this version of events:Ronan the Accuser betrayed Thanos, taking the Mad Titan down before he could assemble all theInfinity Stones. As Thanos fell, Gamora fell with him, leaving Nebula without her father or her sister. Alone in the universe looking for purpose, she's found by Nova Prime (Julianne Grossman) and enlists in Nova Corps. When Ronan the Accuser sets his sights on Xandar next, Nova Prime makes the decision to encase the planet in a planetary shield that will keep the planet cut off for 50 years. Being trapped on the planet for five years with nowhere to do has caused the population to go a little stir-crazy and turn Xandar into the world that made Nebula so cynical. Isolation bringing out the worst in people? Who'd have thought?

Nebula Starts Her Own Investigation in 'What If...?' Season 2 Episode 1

Nebula launches an investigation of her own, using an old recording she has of Yondu whistling to summon his signature Yaka arrow. She narrowly prevents the arrow from piercing her eye and is about to call it a nightwhen the arrow triggers a massive hologram of mysterious schematics. She tries to run it through her computer but turns up no results.

Nova Prime calls her and tells her to switch to a secure line. There, she tells Nebula that Yondu was caught up with some dark forces threatening Xandar, and that the planet won't survive past dawn. Terrified at losing her new home, the place that gave her shelter and purpose after losing everything, Nebula admits she found something at the crime scene, but doesn't know how it fits in with the threat Nova Prime is worried about.Nova Prime encourages her to follow that lead and see where it takes her.

Nebula ventures to an underground casino looking for someone she knows who can help.Korg (Taika Waititi), the bartender, directs her to the high roller's table where she finds her target:Howard the Duck (Seth Green), the casino's owner. He's awfully rude and abrasive to her, considering he's little more than a running MCU joke quickly overstaying his welcome, but after a not-so-thinly veiled threat from Nebula, he agrees to speak with her. Nebula shows him the schematics, which Howard can't identify, but fortunately, Korg recognizes it as an old city-wide mainframe core. According to Korg, the data contained within includes everything including a literal kitchen sink, but most relevant for Nebula's purposes — and the reason Yondu died to protect it — is thatthe core also contains the source code for Xandar's shield generator.Nebula reasons that someone probably wants to use the information to open the shields, and resolves to destroy the codes before they can.

Determined to protect her home at any cost, Nebula heads to the prison to bust out one of the inmates, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), to help her break into the mainframe. Nebula incites a prison riot and the two of them make a break for it. Busting into the data core, Yon-Rogg overheats it, causing the whole thing to flood and granting them easy access to the inside. With no buttons or panels enabling access to the core, Nebula prompts the core to plug in directly to her cybernetic brain, and uses her connection to the system to delete the data.

But since it really is everyone for themselves on Xandar,Yon-Rogg forces a data chip into her head and extracts the data for himself, promising to deliver it to Ronan, then leaves Nebula hooked up to a rapidly overheating data core. He leaves her to drown inside the core, and she barely manages to find her way out to the surface through another submerged access tunnel.

She's found above ground by Yon-Rogg — and, to her horror, Nova Prime, who was hoping the blast from the overheated core would kill Nebula.Throwing the Nova Corps oath in Nova Prime's face, Nebula is devastated that the woman she so looked up to is willing to sell out the planet to an invading force. Nova Prime doesn't see it that way, believing that closing off the planet made things irreparably awful and reasoning that Ronan will be able to improve things if they just surrender. It doesn't hurt that he also promised her a leadership position in exchange for her treachery. Nova Prime takes off with the data, leaving Nebula at the mercy of Nova Corps, though she just manages to escape their attempts to dismantle her. Thankfully, Saal is unbelievably lazy, and decides that Nebula falling off a ledge as she flees means she's dead. Great idea, no need to go double-checking for a body or anything.

Nebula Forms Her Own Team in 'What If...?' Season 2 Episode 1

what-if-season-2-nebula — Nebula standing inside a glowing green holographic map.

She stumbles back to the casino and is met by Howard, Korg, andGroot (Fred Tatasciore) who help piece her back together. Refreshed and wearing a coat that looks an awful lot like Yondu's — and eventually donning his Fin too — she recruits them to help her stop Nova Corps from letting Ronan onto Xandar. The mismatched group makes it to Nova Corps headquarters and takes out the sentries before heading up to confront Nova Prime, Yon-Rogg, and Saal.Though Nova Prime is confident the ragtag band is too late, Nebula has a last trick up her sleeve: the codes she let Yon-Rogg take from her were altered, and force the shield to open slightly, then close on top of Ronan's fleet, wiping them out.

CL Report: Subscribe and never miss what matters

Dive into the world of entertainment with Collider, delivering the latest news, reviews, and exclusive updates from movies, TV, and pop culture

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept ourTerms of Use andPrivacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

A gunfight breaks out as Nebula tries to bring Nova Prime and all the traitors in to face justice — whose justice, that much is unclear, unless Nebula is planning on taking over. Nebula chases Nova Prime out to the rooftops of Xandar, where Nova Prime can't pass up one last chance at bigotry, and would rather fall off a building trying to shoot Nebula than accept help from a "machine." Nebula mourns her mentor's passing, but unlike when she lost her father and sister, this time it feels different. More hopeful, as The Watcher suggests.After all, now she has her little squad.

The episode'sfilm noir, crime thriller vibe is something the MCU doesn't play around with enough, even though this episode did touch on a lot of tropes and locations — how many times have characters gone to a casino looking for information? — that we've definitely seen before. As far as season openers go, "What If... Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?" was a solid place to start, and it will be interesting to see if and how the season uses the theme of hope and redemption as a jumping-off point.

The first episode ofWhat If...? Season 2 is streaming now on Disney+

Watch on Disney+

Followed