IR TV Review: WHAT IF - EPISODE 4 (“…Doctor Strange Lost His Heart?”) [Disney+]
The fraught peril of that which cannot be corrected in an interesting irony in the scope of someone who is not bound by the normal laws of space and time. Doctor Strange has always had the texture of perhaps being the loneliest man in the universe. As his great moment from The Avengers showed specifically to Tony Stark, there is only one correct path that saves the universe...all others fail. But here in Episode 4 within the universe of "What If" entitled "...Doctor Strange Lost His Heart" lurks a story of such immense caution and heartbreak which makes it one of the more darker entries in Marvel lore that never happened but that is what makes this episode one of the most brilliant of this series (if not much of Marvel -- which is saying something considering the scope of "Wandavision" and "Loki" recently). But the reason this works so undeniably well is that it doesn't go off the rails, even when it goes off the rails. Most large Marvel movies as a core have to serve an Endgame to move the story forward. There has to be a glimmer of hope, of redemption...not absolutely but mostly.
Here it is almost the exact opposite. Certain aspects of the superego, the yin/yang, the hubris...all of which are inherent in the character of Stephen Strange become a pathos of ruin...because of love. Like "Somewhere In Time", the push and pull of logic and emotion and its consequence continues down a black hole, forever spinning...and though it is tragic, it is beautiful, especially when the meta enters in. Like a 4th wall breaking, the aspect of regret does not solve the problem. To say anymore would ruin it. Needless to say, "What If...Doctor Strange Lost His Heart?" works undeniably because of its medium, its length, its form, its artistry and the talent of everyone involved, especially Cumberbatch. You can hear the essence of darkness as if Smaug still lived deep inside him. This is an episode not to miss...which, even as "The Multiverse Of Madness" is coming, offers a distinct coda in its endgame (because of the way this episode ends of course) that can't or might not be matched. A+
By Tim Wassberg
