What If…?: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 4

Even more rules about time travel

Since this version of Doctor Strange still has the Time Stone in his possession, of course he’s going to use it just like he did in his solo film. Except here, Strange not only manipulates the apple like he did in the movie, he uses to stone to go back years, even centuries, into the past – all to save his beloved Christine. And no matter how many times Stephen changes events, Christine keeps dying over and over and over. Almost as if the universe was conspiring against him.

It’s here we learn, according to the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), about “absolute points in time.” This is a common trope in time travel stories. Basically, no matter how much you try to change the past, time course corrects itself because there are certain events which cannot change without causing a temporal paradox. For their reality (as opposed to the main MCU timeline), if Christine never dies, then Stephen would never have pursued his study of the Mystic Arts. And if Stephen didn’t study the Mystic Arts, then how could he obtain the Time Stone, go back in time, and prevent her death? Hence why doing so ends up erasing his entire reality.

But wait? Doesn’t this contradict Professor Hulk’s explanation of time travel in Avengers: Endgame? And the entire first season of Loki, if not the entire premise of the series? For a refresher, the (sort of) simple version of Marvel’s law of time travel is this: Going back in time and changing the past doesn’t change the future; it only creates a new timeline instead. Hence why we had all those variants running around and the TVA pruning timelines until Sylvie kick started the “multiverse of madness” by killing He Who Remains.

Well, it seems this law of time travel can be subverted by the one who possesses the Time Stone itself. And this episode of What If…? wasn’t the only time we’ve seen this happen. When Stephen in Doctor Strange, used the Time Stone to rewind and loop time to defeat Dormmanu, it didn’t result in a branching timeline. Same goes for when Thanos rewound time to prevent Wanda from destroying the Mind Stone in Avengers: Infinity War.

So yes, you can change the future by changing the past, but only with the Time Stone. Which also allows for more potentially universe ending paradoxes to happen. No wonder the Sorcerer Supreme was tasked with guarding it with their very lives.