Caution: Spoilers ahead for What If...?

The Sorcerer Supreme he may be, but What If...? episode 4 proves Doctor Strange is a terrible driver - here are the Easter eggs from Disney+'s latest episode. What If...?'s latest installment takes 2016's Doctor Strange solo movie as its foundation and twists the core premise. Instead of taking up mystic arts because he lost the use of his hands, what if Strange learned magic because he lost Christine Palmer? Predictably, the result is a darker Strange who's desperate to revive his girlfriend through arcane methods, and he'll defy anyone in order to succeed - even himself.

A typically time-twisting affair, What If...?'s Doctor Strange episode poses another curious wrong turn MCU history might've taken, and features a slightly more hands-on role for Jeffrey Wright's Watcher. Strange is the only What If...? character so far to actually interact with the mysterious cosmic onlooker. Joining Wright are the familiar voices of Benedict Cumberbatch (Strange), Rachel McAdams (Palmer), Tilda Swinton (The Ancient One), and Benedict Wong (Wong).

Related: Is Marvel's What If Canon? The Show’s MCU Connections Explained

As Strange messes up the timeline, What If...? gives fans plenty of callbacks and Easter eggs from both the MCU and wider Doctor Strange comic lore. There are knowing dialogue winks, familiar tentacles, and recycled rituals that audiences might remember from previous Strange adventures. These are all of theEaster eggs from What If...? episode 4.

Strange's Car Crash Copies His Solo Movie

What If...? episode 4 begins with Stephen Strange, master surgeon, traveling to a conference in honor of his medical achievements. This scene is lifted from Strange's 2016 solo movie, but with a few key differences. Firstly, Strange is being celebrated for a radical hemispherectomy, whereas Benedict Cumberbatch's MCU character was attending a general Neurological Society dinner. The bigger deviation, however, is that Strange has somehow managed to avoid pushing away Rachel McAdams' Christine. These alterations aside, the scene plays out more or less the same, with Strange's Lamborghini Huracán dangerously overtaking other vehicles on a mountain road, and landing upright through a fence after doing several rotations through the air. Strange isn't distracted by X-ray images like in the movie, because Christine has obviously taught him not to be so consumed with work.

Reused Doctor Strange Scenes

What If...? has already animated key moments from Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk, and episode 4 offers the same courtesy to Doctor Strange. We get depressed Strange during his "hippy traveler" phase, learning basic mystic arts at Kamar-Taj,testing the Time Stone on an apple, the Ancient One's death in hospital and, of course, "Dormammu, I've come to bargain." Naturally, some scenes play out differently, such as Strange being proficient with the sling ring because his hands aren't damaged in this reality.

Cagliostro

Strange mentions "Cagliostro" as the sorcerer who first discovered the Eye of Agamotto. In the main MCU timeline, the Book of Cagliostro is the tome Benedict Cumberbatch consults to learn the basics of time travel, and is also where Kaecilius swipes a few pages from before summoning Dormammu. This won't be the only occasion What If...? episode 4 expands upon the mysterious Cagliostro.

Related: Why Some People Are Bothered By Marvel's What If Animation Style

Strange IS The Sorcerer Supreme

The MCU can't seem to decide whether Doctor Strange is or isn't the Sorcerer Supreme. On one hand, he became the leader of Sanctum Sanctorum following the Ancient One's death; on the other, he doesn't seems to command the same authority as Tilda Swinton's character, and hasn't been officially referenced as theMCU's Sorcerer Supreme. While recapping the Dark Dimension fight against Dormammu, however, The Watcher confirms Stephen inherited the Ancient One's full title in the final act ofDoctor Strange.

"Something Reckless..."

As Strange sits ominously clutching the Eye of Agamotto, Wong suggests making a cup of tea before the Sorcerer Supreme does "something reckless." This line feels especially poignant after the recent Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer, where Wong warns his colleague not to cast Peter Parker's memory spell, only for Strange to wantonly ignore him. Obviously not an intentional Easter egg, Strange and Wong's What If...? dynamic is the best foreshadowing yet for Spider-Man: No Way Home's multiverse incident.

Christine's Deaths Replaces Strange's

In 2016's Doctor Strange, Cumberbatch dies over and over again in a multitude of different ways during the course of defeating Dormammu. He gets eviscerated, impaled, squashed and strangled, and each time undoes his death using the Time Stone. Strange does exactly the same in What If...?, but this time it's Christine who discovers 100 different ways to die. There's a car crash, a heart attack, a shooting and an explosion, withthe Eye of Agamotto once again used to run the same scenario back time and time again.

Christine Everhart

In one version of Christine Palmer's death, Stephen Strange tries saving her life by not showing up at all, but later watches a news broadcast of an explosion at her apartment building. The anchor confirming Palmer's demise in this short bar scene is Christine Everhart - the journalist who briefly replaced Pepper Potts as Tony Stark's love interest in Iron Man 2. Played by Leslie Bibb, Everhart later became a TV news anchor in the MCU's WHiH webseries. Bibb reprises her role in What If...?

Related: Who Is The Watcher? What If Narrator's Powers & Comics Backstory Explained

Strange's Time Travel Proves Hulk Right

If the MCU had doubts over whether Stephen Strange was the Sorcerer Supreme, the franchise is even more uncertain over its own time travel rules, asevery Phase 4 release seems to rewrite the existing guidelines. In this latest explanation of time travel, Doctor Strange discovers the universe will "course correct" should any significant deviations occur - like Final Destination, but with capes. This is broadly what Bruce Banner was arguing during Avengers: Endgame's infamous time travel conversation. Professor Hulk believed traveling back in time couldn't change the future, because the past then becomes your future. Though he didn't mention the universe finding a way to right itself, the outcome he predicts is more or less what Strange experiences in What If...?

The Ancient One's Return Copies The Comics

When theAncient One died in Doctor Strange, she siphoned power from the Dark Dimension to enjoy one last conversation with her successor before disappearing into the ether for good. In What If...?, Ms. One returns from the grave via a spiritual projection cast through a splinter in reality... or something. This might explain how Tilda Swinton could one day return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the idea actually comes directly from the comics. The original Ancient One (Yao) fell in battle to Shuma-Gorath (more on him later), but his spirit remained as a cosmic entity, and would later resurface to select Strange's Sorcerer Supreme replacement, thus giving Tilda Swinton's animated comeback a comic book foundation.

Marvel Does Doctor Who

In another bending ofMCU time travel rules, the Ancient One declares Christine Palmer's death an "absolute point" in time. One might even call it a "fixed point in time," which is a concept Doctor Who fans will be very familiar with. Though other time travel stories have used the idea, fixed points are key events in history that no one can alter for fear of rewriting history. In Doctor Who, this means the deaths of key individuals or civilizations coming an end can't be stopped - even by The Doctor. In What If...?, a different egotistical Doctor is held back by the same pesky law of fixed points.