What If Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: Happy Hogan’s Day is Here And It’s Christmas!

The last two episodes of the series covered the alternative storylines for Nebula and Peter Quill. In this one, we have Happy Hogan in the lead. Based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, this show gives us the other side of things that could happen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This season of the show is produced by Marvel Studios Animation, with A. C. Bradley serving as head writer and Bryan Andrews primarily directing.

Episode 3 is titled “What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”.

  • What If Season 2 Episode 3 Director

    Bryan Andrews

  • What If Season 2 Episode 3 Writers

    A. C. Bradley, Matthew Chauncey

The extensive cast for the series includes Jeffrey Wright as the Watcher, Cynthia McWilliams as Gamora, Mick Wingert as Tony Stark, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Lake Bell as Natasha Romanoff, Josh Keaton as Steve Rogers / Hydra Stomper, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym / Ant-Man, Kurt Russell as Ego, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster and Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis.

What If Season 2 Episode 3: Still
What If Season 2 Episode 3: Still

There’s also Cate Blanchett as Hela, along with Laurence Fishburne as Bill Foster / Giant-Man, Atandwa Kani as young T’Chaka / Black Panther, Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer and Jude Law as Yon-Rogg. A new addition to this season is a young Mohawk woman called Kahhori.

– Spoilers –

What If Season 2 Episode 3 Recap

It is Christmas and Happy Hogan, playing the security head for Stark is setting everything up for a Christmas party that is due later that evening. Darcy Lewis is interning under Happy. Meanwhile, Maria Hill is overlooking how Happy is making sure all the arrangements are right for Christmas; she is counting on him. A significant addition to the premise is JARVIS being offline for rework.

What If Season 2 Episode 3: Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer
What If Season 2 Episode 3: Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer

As everyone prepares for the upcoming Christmas party, we see Justin Hammer, the famous adversary of Ironman sneaking into the Stark Tower. In this timeline, Justin’s downfall resulted in him spending a lot of time in prison, giving him the opportunity to plan his next move- to take down the Avengers and become a hero of his own.

Justin gets hold of the robots programmed in the Stark tower and reprograms them to work for him. He gets hold of Maria Hill and sends his men to get the Hulk serum. Hammer’s plan is to rebrand his reputation from a villain to a hero and, what better thing than the Hulk-serum to do so?

Also Read: What If Season 2 Episode 1 Recap: Nebula and the Nova Corps, Sounds About Right

What If Season 2 Episode 3: Lake Bell as Natasha Romanoff
What If Season 2 Episode 3: Lake Bell as Natasha Romanoff

With Maria trapped, all the Avengers busy in their circles and Darcy out of reach, Happy Hogan is the only one who can save this Christmas day. Happy tries to get to the Hulk serum and remove it from anyone’s reach. But in the process, the serum accidentally injects itself into Happy’s bloodstream, giving him a Hulk form.

Thereafter, Hammer tries to thoroughly stop Happy, now Hulk, from running his plan. Happy reaches out to Darcy to reboot JARVIS online but, Hammer gets hold of her too. He even threatens to kill Darcy if Happy does not turn himself in. Strategically enough, Happy gets a hold of Hammer and initiates a fight. Although Hammer gets access to the Hulk-buster, Happy fights him off as much as he can. Happy is ultimately on his own because when Maria Hill and Darcy try to reboot a JARVIS AI they aren’t able to make the AI work as effectively as possible.

In the fight between Happy Hulk and Hammer, we see the former overpowering the latter and, pinning him down to surrender.

What If Season 2 Episode 3: Mick Wingert as Tony Stark
What If Season 2 Episode 3: Mick Wingert as Tony Stark

What If Season 2 Episode 3 Ending Explained

What If Season 2 Episode 3 ends with the entry of the Avengers- mainly, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Bruce Banner. The team finds Happy in his Hulk-like state, mistaking him as a monster. However, they soon realize it is none other than Happy in a Hulk form.

What If Season 2 Episode 3: Jon Favreau as The Freak
What If Season 2 Episode 3: Jon Favreau as The Freak

They also discover that it is Justin Hammer in the Hulkbuster suit. Once Tony dismantles the suit, we see Justin fall off the window as an impact of Happy’s Hulk-form shouting at him. As Hammer falls, our Happy Hulk grabs him, not letting him die because Christmas is the time to show goodwill, even to the bad guys.

Ultimately, the team heads for some food after celebrating Happy saving Christmas. The last scene shows Thor arriving, a little too late to the party.

You can watch What If Season 2 Episode 3 now on Disney+ Hotstar.

Also Read: All What If Season 2 Articles

REVIEW OVERVIEW

Overall

SUMMARY

What If Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: It is Happy Hogan's time to be the hero and we couldn't be happier!
Manjima Das
Manjima Das
Manjima Das has a writing experience of over 3 years, covering entertainment, fashion, lifestyle as well as community work. She has majored in Psychology with secondary specialization in gender studies and literature.

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What If Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: It is Happy Hogan's time to be the hero and we couldn't be happier!What If Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: Happy Hogan's Day is Here And It's Christmas!