Marvel 'What If...?' Episode 1 Recap, Easter Eggs, Release Dates: Peggy Carter Transforms Into Captain America, Hydra Monster Revealed!

The MCU multiverse is now in full swing with the premiere of the first episode of "What If...?" Everyone knows Agent Peggy Carter, but now Marvel fans are introduced to Captain Carter. Find out how the series fits in the Marvel timeline.

'What If...?' Episode 1 Recap

Before diving into the exciting first episode of Marvel's new series, be warned that there will be spoilers ahead.

The first episode of "What If...?" set the stage for how the show will work, Screen Rant explained. The show reflects what happens to the greater MCU timeline after the end of "Loki" and the introduction of the multiverse.

Captain Carter

Fans are first introduced to the first alternate timeline version of Agent Peggy Carter. First introduced in "Captain America: The First Avenger," Agent Carter was asked to go to the booth when Dr. Erskine performed his super-soldier experiment on Steve Rogers.

In "What If...?" Agent Carter decides to stay in the room for the experiment. A Hydra agent tried to sabotage the experiment early and woundied Steve. Peggy jumped into the pod, taking Steve's place and becoming Captain Carter, shield and all, Cnet said. Except, her shield has the Union Jack on it instead of Captain America's huge star. A design choice that Howard Stark made.

Also, Steve was badly injured he needed to undergo intense physiotherapy. Their relationship did blossom, and Steve took on the role of her sidekick, Den of Geek added.

Hydra's Tentacled Champion

Captain Carter slayed a multi-dimensional tentacled monster summoned by Red Skull. The monster was inspired by the Ablisik from the opening of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," head writer A.C. Bradley said, and the manner it was slain by the Cap was similar to how Gamora did in "Guardians 2."

Present Peggy

As the "original" MCU timeline goes, Captain America was buried in ice only to wake up in 2011, recruited as an Avenger. In the alternate timeline, Captain Carter made a similar sacrifice to Steve's, pushing Hydra's champion into the dimension it came from.

When she returned to her world, it's 2011 and she encountered SHIELD Director Nick Fury and Hawkeye.

Although establishing quite a lot for Captain Carter, it's only the first episode and there are so many questions being made and left unanswered.

'What If...?' Episode 1 Easter Eggs

Here are a few Easter eggs hidden in the first episode. If you haven't spotted it the first time around, rewatch the episode while waiting for the next one to come next week.

The box containing Peggy's costume included the label "Howard's designer clothing" in a similar style to London's department store Harrods, Cnet pointed out.

Howard Stark also mentioned spending a weekend with Hedy Lamarr. The real-life brilliant Hollywood star is well-known for her invention of the frequency hopping system which became the basis for modern-day GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. She is referred to as the Mother of Wi-Fi.

Howard also got to use the Tesseract decades before his son does in the original MCU timeline. He created the Hydra-Stomper which does resemble the Iron-Monger suit in "Iron Man."

As a nod to the original MCU timeline, Steve said Peggy might be sent on a USO tour, the same one he was sent on.

In the train heist, Captain Carter pulled Bucky up back into the train. Bucky told her she "almost ripped" his arm off. In the original timeline, Bucky lost his arm when he fell off the train and Hydra fashioned him his metal one.

This fun episode is full of subtle nods to other MCU references and it is always an exciting thing to notice for Marvel fans.

The next episode will be available on Disney Plus next week Wednesday, August 18.