What happened to the villain at the end of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?
And what's up with that post-credits sequence?
These are the confusing moments in "Doctor Strange 2" explained.
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" opens with America Chavez and a variant of
Doctor Strange running from a fiery beast in a mysterious location.
It's an action-packed way to start the movie off, and as a result, it can be a bit difficult
your first time through to fully grasp what's going on.
With the information revealed later in the film, however, the film's opening starts to
make a lot more sense.
Presumably, America encountered this ponytailed version of Doctor Strange during her journey
through the multiverse, which she initially undertook in search of her missing parents.
At some point around the time of her meeting him America starts being pursued by various
monsters.
She and Strange manage to figure out that they're trying to take her powers, but they
don't quite solve the mystery of who's behind the attacks.
It's only revealed later that Wanda Maximoff is the one pulling the strings, as she needs
America's universe-hopping powers to find her children once again.
How exactly Wanda is able to reach across dimensions to summon beasts of such immense
powers isn't directly explained, but given how powerful she's shown to be with the Darkhold
guiding her Chaos Magic, it's not too much of a stretch to guess.
Of course, in the end, Scarlet Witch quits with the monsters and decides to do the job
herself.
For any MCU fans who missed "WandaVision" on Disney+, Scarlet Witch's transition from
Avenger to murderous villain might seem a bit abrupt.
Even for those who did see the miniseries, her turn to the dark side is far more severe
than anything glimpsed previously.
In "Multiverse of Madness," Wanda's evil ambitions are revealed when she's asked by Doctor Strange
to help America.
Little does he know that she's the one endangering the poor girl in the first place.
"I made mistakes and people were hurt."
Essentially, Wanda's obsessive use of the Darkhold since the end of "WandaVision" has
poisoned her grief over time and turned it into a violent need for control at any cost.
The film later reveals that her personality has practically been split in two between
her original self and her corrupted Scarlet Witch persona.
It might seem like a bit of a jump, but that's just the power of the Darkhold on display.
"That's the book of the damned."
There are some other interesting things about this particular scene, however.
For instance, Wanda creates an entire elaborate illusion of a thriving orchard to fool Strange
into thinking she's left her magic behind her.
He only notices the deception when she says America's name, which she should have no way
of knowing.
It's a baffling slip-up for such a powerful and cunning character, and it raises the question:
Was the mistake an instance of the real Wanda's personality shining through?
After arriving on Earth-838, Doctor Strange and America Chavez encounter a scanner that
recalls and displays important memories.
Stephen's memory scan involves his relationship with Christine Palmer, and America's shows
a tragic moment from her childhood — the first time her portal-opening powers manifested,
accidentally rocketing her mothers into an unknown dimension.
In the film, the memory is mostly used to build a bit more of an emotional foundation
for America, establishing both her grief and her drive to find her parents.
However, the context surrounding her upbringing isn't really touched on.
In the comics, America is born in a dimension called the Utopian Parallel — a world that
exists beyond the reaches of the multiverse and the regular timestream.
During a potential cataclysm that had nothing to do with America herself, her moms made
a noble sacrifice to help protect their home.
Obviously, the MCU is already diverging from that version of the story in some big ways,
but from what's glimpsed of America's old home in the movie, it seems like a lot about
her origin may be the same.
The Utopian Parallel's existence outside the multiverse could explain why America doesn't
dream or have any other variants.
Even more interesting is the fact that, in the comics, the Utopian Parallel is sustained
by the power of the Demiurge, an all-powerful being who happens to be the final form of
Wanda Maximoff's son Billy, AKA Wiccan.
It seems that America's connection to the Scarlet Witch could be just beginning.
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" spends a lot of time on Earth-838, a reality
in which the planet is secretly guided by the powerful Illuminati and Thanos was defeated
with the mystical Book of Vishanti.
There are a lot of little details and Easter eggs sprinkled throughout the alternate dimension
that are easy to miss, but they provide a lot of important context to the state of that
particular universe.
While 838 isn't a major designation in the Marvel Comics multiverse, the world seen in
"Multiverse of Madness" pulls a lot of details from previously inked storylines.
For instance, when Christine Palmer tells Stephen and America that she works for the
Baxter Foundation, it's an immediate clue that the Fantastic Four exist in her universe.
The Baxter Building has long been the headquarters of the iconic Marvel superhero team, and in
the 2015 Fox film adaptation, the Baxter Foundation is the research group that Reed Richards,
Sue Storm, and the rest of the group work for.
It seems unlikely that any major details from that particular movie will be brought into
the MCU, but the similarity is still worth noting.
"Say that again?"
Given that Black Bolt and Professor Charles Xavier are also present on Earth-838, it stands
to reason that mutants and the Inhumans are both present there.
In many ways, these details make 838 feel closer to the Earth-616 of the comics than
the main 616 universe of the MCU.
Arguably the most exciting part of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is the
introduction of the Illuminati to the MCU.
Simply having a group by that name in the franchise is a big deal, as the Illuminati
are important players in a number of major comic book storylines.
Even more intriguing are the specific members of Earth-838's Illuminati, each of whom has
a unique point of origin.
Baron Mordo seems to be a relatively simple variant of the character we saw in the first
"Doctor Strange," but the rest of the team have more complicated backgrounds.
Captain Carter is an alternate version of Captain America first glimpsed in the MCU
in "Marvel's What If...?"
Season 1.
In that story, Peggy Carter ends up taking the super-soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers
due to complications during the procedure.
Anson Mount returns as the Inhuman Black Bolt, though he seems to be a different version
than the one we last saw in the short-lived ABC "Inhumans" show.
The 838 version of Captain Marvel isn't Carol Danvers, but rather her 616 wingmate Maria
Rambeau.
Patrick Stewart reprises his role as Professor X from the non-MCU "X-Men" movies, but his
golden chair and presentation are closer to the version seen in "X-Men: The Animated Series."
"We should tell him the truth."
Last on the list is John Krasinski's Mr. Fantastic, who, while not part of the franchise previously,
has been a popular fancast for years.
The whole group also employs a version of Ultron that seems markedly less sinister than
the one from Earth-616.
As a whole, the Illuminati in "Multiverse of Madness" serve largely the same purpose
as their equivalent team in the comics — guiding the world in secret toward a future that they
deem to be optimal.
After her original copy of the Darkhold is destroyed, Wanda forces Wong to take her to
Mount Wundagore, the source of the ancient text.
Wong briefly explains that the mountain was once inhabited by a demon called Chthon who
carved his dark spells into the rock.
When Wanda arrives, she finds what seems to be a shrine erected to the Scarlet Witch and
a group of Cthulhu-esque monsters who bow at her feet.
In the comics, Chthon is an Elder God — one of the oldest and most powerful beings in
Earth's history.
Chthon eventually departs Earth for a parallel dimension, but before he goes, he inscribes
all the dark Chaos Magic he knows within the walls of Mount Wundagore.
As an infant in the comics, Wanda Maximoff is experimented on within the bounds of the
mountain, connecting her to Chthon's dark power.
It's still a bit unclear what percentage of Wanda's power in the MCU is due to her exposure
to the Mind Stone, and how much was latent magical ability.
Until more of the Scarlet Witch prophecy is revealed, it's hard to say for sure.
When Scarlet Witch dreamwalks into Earth-838's reality in pursuit of America Chavez, she
quickly begins ripping a bloody path through everyone who stands in her way.
Her body count includes the full roster of the Illuminati, each of whom dies in brutal
fashion.
The first to fall in the battle is Black Bolt, who also arguably suffers the most grotesque
fate.
"WHY?"
In trying to talk Wanda down, Mr. Fantastic tells her that Black Bolt could kill her with
a single word from his powerful voice.
In response, Wanda seals the hero's mouth completely shut, causing him to panic.
Overcome with terror at having his mouth glued shut, he can't contain his fear and appears
to scream in horror.
Because that scream has nowhere to go, it ends up blowing his own brains out from the
inside.
Scarlet Witch's kills on the other Illuminati members are similarly gruesome.
She slices Captain Carter in half with her own shield, shreds Mr. Fantastic's elastic
body into pieces, and fights back against Professor X's psychic invasion well enough
to kill him from within his own mind.
The Illuminati's last attempt at stopping Wanda comes in the form of Charles Xavier,
whose formidable telepathic abilities allow him to enter her mind in search of a way to
end her rampage.
In her mind, he finds a white void occupied by small piles of urban rubble in a clear
callback to the childhood memories we see in WandaVision.
Beneath one of these piles, Xavier finds a trapped Wanda — it's not made clear exactly
who this Wanda is; she could be the character's original, heroic persona that's been locked
away by the Darkhold's corruptive magic, or the psyche of Earth-838 Wanda, or something
else entirely.
Charles tries to free her from her prison, but before he can finish the job, the Scarlet
Witch's own mental powers find him and extinguish his life for good.
How exactly Wanda kills Charles is a bit unclear.
Her powers aren't explicitly psychic in nature, but it's feasible that her Chaos Magic could
manifest in more cognitive ways.
Fans of the "X-Men" movies may get some flashbacks to the Dark Phoenix storyline, which also
revolves around a red-hued hero who falls to the dark side due to a powerful alternate
persona.
Xavier's attempt to save Wanda and his subsequent death mirror the events of "X-Men: The Last
Stand," and it's doubtful that's a coincidence on the part of Marvel Studios.
As Scarlet Witch hunts America Chavez and Doctor Strange, they hunt for the Book of
Vishanti — an ancient tome of pure, good magic that stands in opposition to the evil
of the Darkhold.
America nearly claims the book in the opening sequence of the movie, but she's forced to
bail out into Earth-616 instead.
Later on, she, Stephen, and a variant of Christine Palmer end up finding the Book of Vishanti,
but just as they're about to tap into its power, Scarlet Witch destroys it.
For something that's said to be so immensely important, the Book of Vishanti certainly
doesn't get to do much in "Doctor Strange 2."
In the comics, the tome is crafted by three deities called the Vishanti, one of whom is
Agamotto — the same figure who forges Doctor Strange's Eye of Agamotto.
Not all of that lore has been officially canonized in the MCU, but a few things about the film
version of the book are made clear.
First and foremost, it's implied that there's only one Book of Vishanti, as Christine claims
that the dimension where they find it is a sort of nexus point between other parts of
the multiverse.
That would make the book fundamentally different from the Darkhold, which has numerous copies
across dimensions.
After Scarlet Witch seemingly destroys the Book of Vishanti, Doctor Strange and Christine
fall through one of America's portals into a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
They deduce that the realm they've entered is the result of an incursion — the cataclysmic
collision of multiple universes — and the only survivor they manage to find is another
variant of Strange himself.
This new sorcerer proves to be quite sinister, however, leading to a magical showdown between
the two doppelgangers.
The sequence can feel a bit confusing because it admittedly employs a lot of awfully convenient
coincidences.
How did that version of the Darkhold happen to be possessed by another Doctor Strange?
How did they manage to find that Strange so quickly and easily in what's essentially an
empty void?
The film doesn't really provide satisfying answers to these questions, preferring more
of a deus ex machina approach.
Though the evil Doctor Strange in "Multiverse of Madness" is a different variant, he shares
some similarities with the one seen in "Marvel's What If...?"
Season 1.
In that story, a version of the doctor becomes obsessed with saving Christine's life, ultimately
leading him to destroy his entire universe.
Knowledge of the "What If...?"
episode sheds a bit of light on the events of "Multiverse of Madness," as it shows how
most versions of the character can easily fall down dark holes of unhealthy fixation.
After defeating his evil doppelganger, Stephen takes his evil twin's copy of the Darkhold
and uses it to dreamwalk back into his home dimension, using the corpse of the Doctor
Strange variant brought there with America Chavez at the beginning of the film.
The doctor explains that dreamwalking allows the caster to inhabit a dead body, but such
a desperate move comes with its own unique set of consequences — condemnation by the
"souls of the damned."
As soon as Strange begins manipulating his zombified form, an army of ghouls appear and
try to drag him ... well, somewhere.
Presumably, the dead rise to confront Strange because he's essentially practicing necromancy.
Scarlet Witch receives no such visit from the damned when she dreamwalks into a living
variant of herself, so it stands to reason that the ghosts are only bothered by someone
spitting in death's eye.
Things get a bit more complicated, however, when Christine urges Stephen to use his mystical
powers to control the souls of the damned, which he does.
Whether this is an ability that's always been accessible to him or something made possible
by the Darkhold is left unclear.
Most likely, it's a combination of the two — something that only a powerful sorcerer
could achieve through the use of dark magic.
From start to finish of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," Wanda Maximoff
lives up to her potential as one of the most powerful beings in the entire MCU.
She lays waste to Kamar-Taj, uses the sorcerers' own containment spells against them, spreads
her consciousness across multiple realities, and calls an army of monsters and demons to
do her bidding.
In the end, the only one strong enough to defeat the Scarlet Witch is Wanda herself.
"Your power exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme."
America punches Wanda through a portal back to Earth-838, where she comes face-to-face
with the variant she previously possessed and her two children, Tommy and Billy.
Seeing the looks of terror on her sons' faces breaks something within Wanda, stopping her
bloody rampage dead in its tracks.
She then returns to Earth-616 and proceeds to bring down the entirety of Mount Wundagore,
burying the ancient dark magic within and destroying every universe's version of the
Darkhold.
Wanda's about-face happens pretty quickly, but it makes sense given what's established
earlier in the film.
It's made clear when Charles Xavier enters her mind that the Scarlet Witch persona has
basically imprisoned Wanda within her own mind.
Presumably, the sight of her terrified children is enough to break Wanda free.
Because the Scarlet Witch persona might quickly be able to regain power, Wanda wastes no time
in seemingly destroying herself and the Darkhold.
After defeating Wanda, saving the world, and returning home, Doctor Strange tries to get
back to something resembling a normal life.
That plan is upended, however, in the final scene before the first round of credits, in
which Doctor Strange collapses in the middle of the street.
The last shot shows a third eye open in his forehead, mirroring the one worn by his sinister
doppelganger earlier in the film.
Considering that Strange's evil Variant has his own third eye as a result of using the
Darkhold, it seems that our heroic Strange might have been corrupted during his use as
well.
"Open your eye!"
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" has a brief but significant post-credits scene.
While walking down the street, Strange is accosted by a purple-clad woman played by
Charlize Theron, who claims that he's responsible for causing a multiversal incursion.
She demands that he comes with her to fix it, and he readily agrees, opening his third
eye and following her through a portal that she slashes open with a mystical blade.
The credits identify Theron's character as Clea— a name that fans of the comics will
instantly recognize.
In the original Marvel stories, Clea is a resident of the Dark Dimension who fights
a constant battle against the evil of Dormammu, who is also her uncle.
Because the ancient being is also one of Doctor Strange's primary foes, he and Clea become
allies.
They even get married later on in the comics, though their union eventually meets a tragic
end.
If Clea and Stephen's MCU relationship is at all like it is in the comics, the doctor
has some big things coming his way.
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