What If Season 3 Episode 6 Review: Emotional and Action Packed

What If Season 3 Episode 6, titled ‘What If… 1872?’ and follows Shang-Chi and Kate Bishop who team up to find the legendary The Hood in the threatening Old Wild West.

The episode has a runtime of 30 minutes.

What If Season 3 Episode 6 Recap

The sixth episode of What If Season 3 is set in the old Wild West and starts off with John Walker summoning Shang-Chi with the help of 10 bell rings. As Walker and his men try to end Shang-Chi’s life, he and Kate Bishop light the place up, defeating their enemies with ease. The two of them later ask Walker where The Hood is since he has been abducting workers and ransacking construction sites that are in charge of building the rail lines. John Walker tells them The Hood is heading towards Point Pegasus and the two of them run off to meet The Hood and end his reign of terror.

The Watcher then proceeds to discuss how the Hood came to be – he used the people’s fear to cause a war between the locals and the foreigners with Shang-Chi’s sister, Xu Xialing, being caught in the crosshairs after she emigrated to the US in the late 1860s. However, she didn’t back down due to the Hood’s fear. She fought back and was eventually never heard from again. After others refused to look for them, Shang-Chi took it upon himself to find out whether his sister was dead or alive and joined hands with Kate, who had her own bad blood against the Hood.

Anyway, the duo pass through a town that is destroyed by the Hood and his men and surprisingly finds a young boy who is still alive. Jun-Fan tells them what happened the night before and the three of them get ready to follow the trail left behind by the entourage. The three of them are able to catch on to the train that seems to be running on magic and after jumping over a canyon, they go inside and find one of Stark’s arc reactors that is seemingly running the train. Further into the train, they find a bunch of people sitting motionless and glassy-eyed and after not getting any reactions from them, Shang-Chi realises that the only way that they can save these people is by facing the Hood.

in the next compartment, Shang-Chi and Kate Bishop meet Sonny Burch, who is an investor in the Hood. Shang-Chi instructs Jun-Fan to get out of the compartment and as they are about to get into a fight with Sonny’s men, the latter tells them that the Hood is equally interested in meeting them. As they move to the next compartment in search of the Hood, Jun-Fan is almost killed by Sonny’s men above the train but the Watcher intervenes and saves him just in the nick of time.

Also Read: All What If Season 1 Articles

Arriving at a beautiful lodge in the middle of nowhere, Shang-Chi is instructed to meet the Hood without Kate and outside the train, he comes face to face with Hood, who proposes that he join him. A fight ensues between the two, while Sonny hypnotises Kate but just as he confesses to killing her parents, Shang-Chi realises that the Hood is none other than Xialing! She confesses that she had defeated the Hood and taken all of his powers long ago. Xialing implores her brother to join her quest and save the people, but he tells her that she is only enslaving them and refuses to give in.

She immediately attacks him while Sonny threatens to kill Kate with her mother’s gun. Just as it seems like things are about to end, Jun-Fan rings the bell on the train and wakes everyone up from their slumber. Kate shoots and kills everyone around her in an instant, the people under Sonny’s spell wake up, while Shang-Chi tells Xialing that he will not fight her and he confidently tells her that she will never kill her brother. Unfortunately, Kate ends up shooting Xialing after seeing her attack him, without realising that she is his sister.

In a tragic turn of events, the two siblings make up their differences and embrace one last time. Kate apologises for shooting Xialing but Shang-Chi assures her that she didn’t kill his sister, the Hood did.

As the two ride away into the sunset, hunting down some new adventure, the Watcher must now face the wrath of the Incarnate, the Executioner and the Eminence for meddling in another tale. Enraged, they attack him. Will this be the end of the Watcher?

Also Read: All What If Season 2 Articles

What If Season 3 Episode 6 Review

Another absolutely fantastic episode that will leave viewers engaged and hooked throughout. Setting Hawkeye and Shang-Chi in the Wild West calls for adventure that the series delivers flawlessly and viewers will get a taste of the possibilities that this series brings forth. The action sequences in this series are some of my favourite and it’s done extremely well. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode – it was entertaining, and emotional and had a solid ending that leaves me waiting with bated breath to figure out what happens next! A great cliffhanger and, just like episode 5, this one is a true keeper.

What If Season 3 Episode 6 Ending Explained

At the end of season 3 episode 6, Shang-Chi finds out that his sister, Xialing, whom he thought was kidnapped by the Hood, was in reality the infamous and feared Western villain! Corrupted by the trauma and the experiences that she faced and her version of a perfect life shattered after coming to the US, she took it upon herself to create the perfect world, forgetting that it is people’s freedom that makes them happy and fulfilled. Unfortunately, before he can get through to his sister, Kate shoots and kills Xialing, unaware of the Hood’s true identity, but Shang-Chi is aware that his sister was long gone before then.

Meanwhile, the Watcher is attacked by the three powerful celestial beings who are thoroughly unhappy with his meddling ways. Although we don’t see the consequences of his actions yet, by the looks of it, it’s not going to be good!

Also Read: What If Season 3 Reviews