Recap / What If…? S1E1 "What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?"

"What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?"

"Let's hear it for Captain Carter!"

Alternate take on: Captain America: The First Avenger

"Earth, June 1943. The Nazi army marches across Europe, leaving death and destruction. The Allied armies band together to create a new kind of soldier - a Super Soldier. At humanity's darkest hour, a skinny kid from Brooklyn became Captain America. After turning the tide of World War II, he made the ultimate sacrifice, restoring peace and saving his universe. But in another universe, a single choice created a whole new hero."

— Uatu

When Peggy Carter decides to stay with Steve Rogers during Dr. Erskine's experiment, Heinz Kruger gets nervous and decides to attack during the experiment instead of after. During the attack Steve is shot, leaving him unable to take the super-serum while the chamber is losing power. With few options left Peggy volunteers herself for the procedure, ultimately becoming the war hero known as Captain Carter.

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"What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?" contains examples of:

• Adapted Out:
  • The HYDRA Uber Tank is replaced by a Tiger I heavy tank during the Tonsberg raid. Consequently, all of the Tesseract-powered vehicles and weapons from The First Avenger don't make any appearance either, with HYDRA instead using common World War II German vehicles and weapons. The latter is justified, since the Tesseract and Dr. Zola are captured by Captain Carter before any research can be performed and any designs powered by it can be made.
  • HYDRA's upgraded uniforms make no appearance, with the organization retaining their SS uniforms throughout the episode.
  • Schneider and Hutter make no appearances when briefing Schmidt, with Roeder instead being accompanied by two SS soldiers.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Roeder isn't bothered with Schmidt's Norway incursion in this timeline and apparently turns a blind eye to it, instead being far more concerned with HYDRA's repeated failures against Captain Carter and the Allies. He also openly insults and taunts Schmidt when the latter claims he's a god and can summon a powerful being to turn the tide of the war.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed. In the Sacred Timeline, Schmidt was notorious for his poor treatment of his subordinates (including executing one for failing to stop Captain America and surviving the encounter) and was even planning on bombing Berlin as one of his targets. Here, he's simply content with letting Nazi Germany collapse on its own and have HYDRA continue in its wake. What's more, he's never shown executing any of his subordinates for their failures, never once forces any of them to shout "Hail HYDRA" (his men do so willingly when Schmidt reveals his plans for HYDRA to replace Nazi Germany after it collapses by itself), isn't shown ordering Tonsberg to be leveled and doesn't personally shoot the Norwegian Churchkeeper (his men do the deed instead, and execute the old man via firing squad), and is never mentioned or shown to be forcing any of them to ingest Cyanide Pills over being captured. That said, he's still a power-hungry tyrant and warmonger who's willing to kill millions just for a chance to conquer Europe and the world.
  Red Skull: (to the dying Roeder) The Third Reich will fall, and HYDRA will rise from its ashes!
• Adaptational Personality Change: After undergoing the transformation, Peggy is much more openly emotional, has less of a Stiff Upper Lip, and becomes a bit of a giddy Blood Knight at times, all much different than her Consummate Professional main universe counterpart. This could be the result of the Super-Soldier serum subtly altering her personality, her gaining confidence after becoming a One-Woman Army, or because Peggy had previously been surrounded by sexist men who don't take her seriously, so she has to compensate by being on her best behavior at all times, while Captain Carter has nothing to prove.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Roeder is sent by Hitler to call Schmidt back to Berlin for questioning and punishment, rather than to inspect the results of HYDRA's weapons research.
• Adaptational Weapon Swap:
  • Heinz Kruger, the HYDRA agent responsible for Dr. Erskine's death and botched theft of the latter's Super Serum, uses a Luger P08, rather than the Walther P38 his Sacred Timeline counterpart used in Captain America: The First Avenger.
  • Johann Schmidt, aka the Red Skull, wields a Mauser C96, rather than a Luger and later a HYDRA pistol. Justified, as he procures the tesseract at a much later date than his Sacred-Timeline counterpart, and thus without Arnim Zola to design his weapons, the purpose for the tesseract also changed.
  • HYDRA as a whole are subject to this. Thanks to discovering the Tesseract much later in the war and it getting stolen not long after acquiring it (with Arnim Zola getting captured as well), none of Zola's Tesseract-powered weapons and vehicles are developed. As a result, HYDRA is still armed and equipped with the same uniforms, weapons, and vehicles as the rest of the German Army and SS, from MP40 submachine guns to Tiger I Heavy tanks.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • The World War II incarnation of HYDRA lag behind technologically compared to their Sacred Timeline counterparts, with their arsenal still mainly consisting of the standard German weapons and vehicles of the time. This is justified on account that the Tesseract is found much later in this timeline, and Dr. Arnim Zola is captured by Captain Carter before he can create any new weapon designs powered by the Tesseract. This in turn justifies the change in plan by Red Skull; rather than using Tesseract powered weaponry and industry to manufacture his city-busting bombs and flying wing, he has a much shorter timeframe to work with, so he opts to open a dimensional breach to his "champion" instead.
  • Because HYDRA doesn't have the Tesseract nor Arnim Zola to upgrade their existing tech as well, Johann Schmidt's Coupe and the Schnellzug EB912 are powered by conventional means such as gasoline or diesel, rather than with Tesseract-based energy or tech.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Howard looked visibly horrified (along with Captain Carter) when the tentacled monster brutally crushes Red Skull to death.
  Captain Carter: Okay, maybe we need a plan!
• Allohistorical Allusion: Many, particularly to Captain America: The First Avenger:
  • When Peggy comes out of the chamber, Howard Stark takes his sunglasses off the same way he did in the film watching a now-jacked Steve Rogers.
  • When super-soldier Peggy is venting to Steve about not being allowed into action because she's a woman, Steve remarks that at least Colonel Flynn hasn't tried sticking her in a costume and making her do a USO tour.
  • Captain Carter bursts through a door with the Howling Commandos in the same way Captain America did during the On Patrol Montage.
  • Similarly, Carter's battle against HYDRA is shown via On Patrol Montage.
  • Steve says, "Let's hear it for Captain Carter!" in the same way Bucky did for him.
  • During this timeline's version of the train raid, Bucky misjudges his landing and nearly falls off the train, but unlike in the comics and The First Avenger, Captain Carter manages to grab his outstretched left hand and pull him up. For bonus points, Bucky then quips that the rescue "nearly pulled my arm off". Which arm is the Winter Soldier missing, again?
  • Peggy and Steve's Last Words to each other are about going dancing.
  • Just like Tony's scrap Arc Reactor not being able to fully power the Mk 3 Armor back in Iron Man 1, the power surge the Commandos give the HYDRA Stomper in the final battle can only power the suit for a limited time, with the lightning blasts draining the capacitors by a good portion. Furthermore, while powered by the Tesseract, the lightning is blue, while the generic charge is yellow.
  • When Peggy is brought into the present via the Tesseract, she appears in the exact spot where Loki did in the opening of The Avengers. Nick Fury and Clint Barton also appear here, with Fury calmly asking Peggy to put her sword down in a similar manner to the way he told the God of Mischief in the Sacred Timeline.
  • Once again HYDRA summons a tentacled Eldritch Abomination through a portal, and once again it kills their main leader. However, this monster is said to be HYDRA's champion, while Hive was meant to be their god. It is also far larger and more bestial, which allows Peggy and Steve to more easily defeat it.
• Almost Kiss: Peggy and Steve are about to kiss when Howard suddenly appears in front of the window they're sitting at and interrupts them.
• Alternate Universe:
  • In this timeline, it's Peggy Carter who became the super-soldier during World War II, while Steve became a proto-Iron Man known as the HYDRA Stomper, and Bucky Barnes was never turned into the Winter Soldier. The episode is essentially "Captain Carter: The First Avenger".
  • Additionally, HYDRA acquires the Tesseract much later than in the Sacred Timeline. In the Sacred Timeline they acquired it and began experimenting with it before Steve is even chosen to receive the super-soldier serum, but in this timeline they acquire it after Peggy has received the serum. The result is that "Captain Carter" is able to ambush the HYDRA convoy transporting it and steal it for the Allies. Without the Tesseract, HYDRA doesn't develop the advanced technologies it did in the Sacred Timeline, and Schmidt comes up with a very different plan.
• Age Lift: Roeder is noticeably older-looking here, apparently a good 10 years older than his Sacred Timeline counterpart.
• Alternate Self: Peggy and Steve are the most obviously different from their Sacred Timeline counterparts, but there are also more subtle changes, such as Bucky being more cheerful due to not having suffered the same tortures from HYDRA.
• Amazonian Beauty: Peggy Carter, after she becomes a last-minute substitute for Steve in Erskine's super-soldier process. When the chamber opens, she still looks beautiful and buff◊. Howard snarks that she won't be needing heels anymore. Despite the difference in physique and height, Steve is still very attracted to her.
• Artistic License – History:
  • The map at the beginning of the episode shows Nazi Germany invading most of Europe — including Sweden and Switzerland, both of whom were neutral during the war.
  • Similarly, Colonel Flynn expresses surprise that Germans would be in Norway. An officer of his rank should know that Germany has been occupying Norway since 1940 at this point.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: As with a great many English language World War II-themed works since the war itself, German soldiers actually don't speak much German, instead shouting gibberish and speaking Funetik Aksent English. The one exception is Zola's "Scheiße!" upon being captured by Captain Carter.
• Ascended Extra:
  • HYDRA's SS uniforms are retained throughout the episode, whereas in The First Avenger they only wore them during the Tonsberg raid, and then ditched them in subsequent scenes for the upgraded uniforms.
  • Flynn also has a larger role in the episode compared to his appearance in the Agent Carter short.
• Battle Couple: Captain Carter and Hydra Stomper Steve. It's a sight to behold watching them mow down HYDRA and German troops, whether a battalion of tanks and foot soldiers or an air division in flight.
• Battle Cry: The HYDRA soldiers declare their motto "Hail HYDRA!" after Red Skull declares his intention for HYDRA to replace Nazi Germany.
• Big Red Button: Subverted. When Howard is trying to figure how to reverse the time portal, he sees many colored buttons but none that are the obvious one. Lampshaded by Stark.
  Howard: Red, green, blue. Who paints a button blue?!
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • The book about the Tesseract is written in Italian, and while most of it is just filler, it says among other things: "Totally ordinary cube.", "Don't let the angry purple guy touch this.", and "The hypercube is the true shape of the space stone.".
  • The Viking runes in the Tesseract picture likewise spell out "Space Stone".
• Bittersweet Ending: Peggy returns from time and space decades after the war is won, but Steve's whereabouts are not made known to the audience, with the implication that he passed away while she was gone.
• Blade Brake: Carter plants the sword she found in HYDRA's dimensional portal's room in the ground to avoid being dragged into the portal by the giant squid-like monster.
• Bloodless Carnage: Throughout the episode, but it's particularly noticeable when Steve Rogers is shot and begins clutching at wounds that aren't actually visible.
• Brick Joke: Steve suggested to Peggy that things could be worse because they could have made her do USO tours, which she is first dismissive of, but shifts to horror when she considers that she could actually be ordered to do so. Later, Howard hands her a uniform based on the USO costume they were going to have her wear.
• The Brute: The giant HYDRA mook who finds himself on the wrong side of a beating by Peggy when he dismisses her abilities. Despite the evidence of said abilities laying beaten and broken all around her.
• The Cameo: Nick Fury and Hawkeye make a brief appearance at the end of the episode, being the ones who allow Captain Carter to return to Earth, and to inform her that 70 years have passed.
• Captain Patriotic: Peggy wears the Union Jack on her uniform, rather than the stars and stripes of the American flag like Steve (though it's still the same color scheme).
• Cast Speciation: Lampshaded by Howard, who tells Carter "Being a genius is my thing!" when she shows she understands his Reverse the Polarity plan.
• Combat Pragmatist: When a HYDRA mook challenges Captain Carter to Good Old Fisticuffs, she punches him in the knee and then punches him out as he falls down.
• Composite Character: Peggy obviously has the personality of her MCU self and her appearance debuted in Marvel Puzzle Quest, but her history also has much in common with that of Samantha Wilson, the Captain America of Spider-Gwen's reality. Like Samantha, Peggy was forced to take the serum after Steve was wounded^note For Steve of Peggy from Exiles, that would prove fatal, sacrificed herself to stop HYDRA from summoning an interdimensional threat at the end of World War II, and emerged in the present day having not aged.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: Colonel Flynn replaces Colonel Phillips (who is killed by Kruger), and proves to be a much poorer commanding officer. Philips, while gruff and surly, was a Reasonable Authority Figure who recognized when he was wrong about Steve, was respected by his underlings, didn't dismiss Peggy and was proactive in fighting HYDRA to the point of fighting on the frontlines. Flynn, meanwhile, is a misogynist, respected by no one and contributes nothing.
• Conveniently Placed Sharp Thing: When the hydra monster's tentacle smashes Captain Carter up against a stone wall and pins her there, there just happens to be a sword within arm's reach.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • The Red Skull in the Sacred Timeline was banished to Vormir to serve as the Soul Stone's guardian for all eternity until he was freed by Thanos during his campaign to bring balance to the universe with the Infinity Stones. In this timeline, the Red Skull ends up being crushed and presumably eaten by a huge space monster he tried to summon, not even getting to fight Captain Carter.
  • Downplayed with Colonel Chester Phillips, who survives World War II and passes away peacefully in the main timeline, but is instead shot and killed by Kruger during the botched Project Rebirth in this timeline.
• Demoted to Extra: Armin Zola only appears briefly in two scenes.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Carter single-handedly pushes the HYDRA monster back through the portal.
• Didn't Think This Through: Right as Captain Carter and the Howling Commandos are closing in on HYDRA's location, the Red Skull, in a last-ditch effort to win the war, decides to summon a tentacled horror as HYDRA's "champion" with no means to direct or control it. He's among the first things it kills, in the middle of him boasting about it.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • Dr. Erskine is killed in the explosion of Kruger's bomb instead of getting shot by the HYDRA assassin.
  • As explained in Death by Adaptation, Col. Philips is killed by Heinz Kruger during the botched theft of the super soldier serum, instead of dying peacefully in the postwar years.
  • Carter shoots Kruger dead before he can escape the SSR lab, instead of Kruger committing suicide by Cyanide Pill at the New York harbor.
  • The Norwegian churchkeeper is executed by submachine gun-wielding HYDRA soldiers, rather than getting shot in the chest by Schmidt. That fate befalls Roeder (see below).
  • Roeder is shot in the chest by Schmidt and left to bleed to death, while in the Sacred Timeline, Schmidt had him vaporized with a HYDRA cannon.
• Disney Death: Steve Rogers was presumed to have died after he investigated the HYDRA train that was filled with explosives, but due to him wearing the indestructible suit that Howard Stark built for him, he managed to survive the explosion (and the ensuing avalanche caused from it) without a scratch— although he was kidnapped by HYDRA shortly afterwards.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: When she throws a motorbike at another causing both to explode during her attack on the HYDRA convoy, a surprised Peggy tells herself that she's usually a bit more covert.
• Ear Ache: The Kraken lets out a deafening roar at one point.
• Eat the Summoner: The Red Skull summons a giant tentacled creature using the Tesseract. While he's boasting about using it for world domination, the creature kills him.
• Eldritch Abomination: Red Skull gets the idea to summon one as HYDRA's champion. It crushes him almost immediately after coming through the portal.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Peggy is as fighting-capable as she is in the Sacred Timeline when the episode starts, then she takes the Super Serum, which sends those stats skyrocketing.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Red Skull summons a multi-tentacled monstrosity to serve as HYDRA's trump card for world domination. He promptly gets crushed between its tentacles not ten seconds after boasting about it.
• Flashback with the Other Darrin: Ross Marquand, having played the Red Skull in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, now plays him in an alternate version of Captain America: The First Avenger.
• Foot Focus: We get a shot of Peggy's bare feet as she steps on a weight plate, causing it to flip up so she can grab it.
• Foreshadowing:
  • As Red Skull talks about his new champion for HYDRA before betraying the Nazis, he looks at an inscription of what appears to be a tentacled beast with a single eye.
  • Red Skull's hideout is known as Castle de krake. Krake as in kraken…
  • Captain Carter seems even more fond of flinging her shield at opponents with incredible force than main-timeline Rogers. Earlier, Peggy is shown hurling a weight disc into a gym wall in frustration, and a shot of said wall reveals it's covered in embedded weight discs.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • The notes in the Tesseract book are in untranslated Italian and are not visible for more than a few seconds.
  • When Stark sits next to Carter and hands her uniform to her, the logo on the box's lid is briefly shown: "Howard's Designer Clothing".
• Gilligan Cut:
  • After Peggy emerges from the vita-ray chamber, Howard comments that the experiment was a complete success. Cut to the briefing room where Colonel Flynn marks it as a complete failure.
  • In his cell, Zola defiantly tells Peggy that he'll tell her nothing. Cut to Peggy at the briefing saying that he told her everything.
• Glad I Thought of It: Colonel Flynn is dismissive of Agent Carter's abilities, Howard Stark's intellect, and the Tesseract's power. During a montage of Captain Carter cutting her way through the German frontline, it repeatedly cuts to Flynn on the phone with the President, praising all three of those things and claiming that the HYDRA Stomper had been his idea.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Subverted on multiple occasions when the camera carefully cuts away from a character being shot, only to cut back to a scene of Bloodless Carnage with no visible wounds at all.
• Hate Sink: Colonel John Flynn, Peggy's new superior who takes command after Colonel Chester Phillips is killed by Heinz Kruger, is an incompetent, misogynistic, condescending, Glory Hound officer who takes credit for everybody else's hard work. Peggy eventually stops putting up with his crap late into the war and tears into him about how lucky he is to still be a part of the S.S.R..
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Unlike Sacred Timeline Steve/Captain America, Super-Soldier Peggy never wears a helmet (it probably wouldn't be practical with her hairstyle anyway).
• Heroes Prefer Swords: In the final battle, Captain Carter grabs a broadsword from the castle wall to fight the Kraken. When she resurfaces in the present in place of Loki, Nick Fury demands her to "put down the sword", before Hawkeye informs him that he is talking to Captain Carter, hero of World War II.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Peggy shoves the Kraken back into the collapsing portal when it manages to wedge the portal open by force even after Howard reverses the polarity.
• History with Celebrity: Howard claims he had a weekend fling with Hedy Lamarr.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: After the Red Skull summons a kraken using the Tesseract, the very first thing it does is to literally hoist him aloft and then crush him to death.
• Huge Girl, Tiny Guy: Peggy and Steve, due to her getting the Super Soldier serum in this continuity. She's a tall and buff Amazonian Beauty while he's the "skinny kid from Brooklyn". Despite this, their feelings are mutual.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • The Super-Soldier still goes MIA for over 65 years and ends up recruited by Nick Fury for the Avengers Initiative, even with Peggy replacing Steve.
  • Peggy and Steve still end up falling in love with each other, then end up separated for decades after the war after having promised themselves a dance night and never getting to live it.
  • HYDRA goes rogue from the rest of Nazi Germany much later in this timeline, perhaps due to the organization lacking Dr. Zola and his advanced weapons designs.
  • Despite two of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s three founders being out of the picture by war's end, S.H.I.E.L.D. is still founded and is led in the present day by Nick Fury, who still starts the Avengers Initiative.
• Iris Out: This happens on Peggy and Steve when Howard and Bucky interrupt their date.
• Ironic Echo: Early on, Colonel Flynn dismisses everything Carter says out of sheer sexism, including calling the project a failure and how Peggy can't be a soldier because of her gender. After she proves herself on multiple missions and he becomes a professional ass-kisser taking credit for the various exploits, she sternly tells him the same comment about his usefulness as she explains their mission to avenge Steve's supposed death on the attack on the HYDRA Castle.
  Colonel Flynn / Captain Carter: You're lucky to be in the room.
• Knee-capping: The German Giant Mook who has the bright idea to take on Peggy gets painfully knee-capped by her before she takes him down with two more punches.
• Knightly Sword and Shield: Fitting the aesthetic of an old-fashioned British superhero, Captain Carter employs incredible close-quarters combat skills, which are augmented by her vibranium shield and later a broadsword.
• Language Barrier: When the climax calls for Howard's mad science skills to send a giant monster back to where it came from, he finds he can't understand the German-language controls. He mutters that he should have asked for some German lessons that time he met Hedy Lamarr.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Peggy acts this way in the final fight at HYDRA's Black Forest base.
  Howard: Should we not have a plan?
  Peggy: Who needs a plan? I have a shield.
  Howard: A shield is not a plan!
• Lightning Bruiser: Captain Carter is incredibly agile and powerful, taking out Mooks as quickly as they come.
• Limited Wardrobe: Likely for production reasons, the Howling Commandos, aside from Steve and Peggy, are shown in their Custom Uniforms from the movies while in prison, rather than starting out in regular uniforms.
• Literal Metaphor: During the On Patrol Montage, Flynn mentions while speaking to the president about Peggy being "a real knockout". All while she beats up HYDRA mooks and Nazi forces alike.
• Look Ma, No Plane!: Carter attacks several German planes while riding on the back of — and then jumping off of — the HYDRA Stomper.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Peggy gets the vibranium shield just like Steve in the Sacred Timeline and uses it in combat, but this time it's adorned with the flag of the United Kingdom.
• Lured into a Trap: The train is a trap set by the Red Skull to capture the HYDRA Stomper so they can use the Tesseract to summon HYDRA's champion.
• Match Cut: The drawing of the Tesseract in the book fades into one of the ice cubes in Peggy's drink.
• Meaningful Name: Castle de Krake, where Red Skull intends to summon a kraken.
• Mighty Glacier: The HYDRA Stomper (which Rogers is piloting) is powerful enough to stop trains, destroy tanks, and turn the tide of battles when it's summoned, but its large composition makes it glacial when not using its boosters. Even being caught point-blank in a train-obliterating explosion fails to damage it, though the force of the blast knocks Steve out and lets HYDRA capture him.
• Mini-Mecha: Owing to the more limited technology of the time period, the Hydra Stomper is one of these rather than a suit of Powered Armor. It bears a strong resemblance to both the Mark I armor and the Iron Monger armor.
• Moment Killer: Howard Stark interrupts Peggy and Steve as they're about to kiss by pulling up to the window they are sitting at. Upon realizing what's happening, Howard tells them to pretend he isn't there. Steve and Peggy just look away, embarrassed.
• Musical Nod: Alan Silvestri's score for The First Avenger appears in some parts, particularly Steve's theme, particularly when Peggy is inspiring the team when she is planning the attack on the Castle de Krake.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The idea of Peggy taking Steve's place originated in Marvel Puzzle Quest (when nearly all of Marvel's mobile games celebrated Captain America's 75th anniversary by coming up with a new alternate version) and was used in Exiles (2018) before appearing here.
  • Howard says that the gamma radiation around the area HYDRA attacked in Norway indicates a power source that could power London for a century, and Peggy adds "or blow it to kingdom come inside 60 seconds". This mirrors a conversation between Tony Stark and Yensen that the arc reactor could run his heart for 50 lifetimes, or power "something really big for 15 minutes", as the Howard's designs for the arc reactor were based on the Tesseract. The mention of gamma radiation is also a nod to The Avengers where the Tesseract was said to put out a gamma signature.
  • Captain Carter's costume is similar to the one worn by Union Jack, the costumed identity of Montgomery Falsworth in the comics.
  • The HYDRA banners used throughout the episode resemble the style of the HYDRA logos used in Captain America: Super Soldier.
  • Despite retaining their SS uniforms throughout the episode, several HYDRA soldiers can be seen wearing goggles very reminiscent to the ones worn by their Sacred Timeline counterparts.
  • Steve Rogers becomes an armored hero after missing out on Erskine's super-serum, which is taken directly from Bullet Points, a five-issue miniseries published in 2007.
  • This Peggy Carter from across the multiverse grabs hold of a sword to fight the kraken; the multiverse-spanning Captain Britain Corps draw their strength from one of two objects, one being the Sword of Might.
  • Peggy saves Bucky from falling off the train, though he notes that she "nearly ripped [his] arm off" in doing so.
  • The story of Steve Rogers getting wounded before receiving the super-soldier serum, resulting in a nearby woman (Peggy Carter, here) taking it in his stead and becoming the iconic hero of her timeline, is nearly identical to Samantha Wilson's origin in Spider-Gwen. Even their Heroic Sacrifice is very similar, with both of them going through a dimensional portal and finding their way back home decades later.
  • The World War II heroes teaming up to stop an alien monster from crossing over into our dimension is a nod to the 2010 comic Invaders NOW!
  • Peggy, as Captain Carter, at one point reassures Steve Rogers that he would still be a good man even without the Powered Armor he now pilots. Contrast that to the main MCU timeline, where in 2012's The Avengers, Rogers as Captain America pointedly questioned what Tony Stark amounted to without his suit of Iron Man armour (to which Tony replied "genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist", and fired back that "everything special" about Rogers "came out of a bottle").
  • This isn't the first time Zola's Swiss nationality was confused for German.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • Zola's "Oh, Crap!" moment from the normal online version of the official trailer was substituted in the Disney+ version with Captain Carter asking her shield where it had been all her life.
  • The first trailer showed Peggy receiving the Super Soldier serum in a calm environment, not unlike the main universe. Later trailers, and the show proper, depict the event in a fiery mess due to the attempted sabotage.
• No-Sell:
  • A shell shot from a tank bounces right off of Peggy's vibranium shield, emphasising the durability of it.
  • Steve, while in the HYDRA Stomper suit, takes a direct hit from a tank and barely even flinches, and then destroys the tank's cannon.
• No Swastikas:
  • No actual Nazi German symbols are used, with them being substituted for either generic markings, or in the case of HYDRA, their skull and tentacles logo.
  • The skull on Roeder's SS cap looks nothing like the SS Totenkopf symbol.
• Non-Action Guy: Howard Stark, in a departure from the original plot, ends up not only building the HYDRA Stomper for Steve, but also ends up in the field with Captain Carter in the attack on the Castle, and becomes instrumental in defeating the Kraken.
• Oh, Crap!: Zola mutters "Scheiße!" quietly to himself, cowering in fear before Captain Carter.
  • Steve's reaction when HYDRA Stomper's temporary power charge runs out right as he was about to help Peggy push the monster back.
• One-Woman Army: Captain Carter takes down several HYDRA platoons alone.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Steve Rogers is shot twice in the chest at point blank range, and yet is seen walking (weakly) and talking in the next scene.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Dominic Cooper has a fairly poor grip on Howard's accent here, reverting to his natural one at one point.
• Outside Ride: Carter hitches rides on the back of the HYDRA Stomper to move to where her missions take her and Steve, as well as to attack planes in mid-air.
• Percussive Therapy: After she takes the serum, Peggy is on the receiving end of Colonel Flynn's sexism about how women can't be soldiers and that the project is therefore a failure. She later vents by punching a heavy bag, eventually sending it flying off its chain and into a wall.
• Plot-Driven Breakdown: The HYDRA Stomper's temporary charge lasts just long enough for Steve to rescue Peggy when she's pinned, then fails before he can stop her from performing a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Point of Divergence: The new timeline arises from Peggy choosing to stay in the main theater rather than watch from the observation room, causing Kruger to get nervous and attempt to blow up the complex before the transfusion can even begin, even attempting to assassinate Steve. After killing Kruger and seeing that the chamber is losing power, Peggy decides to get into the chamber in Steve's stead before it shuts down completely, gaining the Super Soldier Serum effects and becoming Captain Carter. Steve himself survives the ordeal but remains skinny and gains a limp.
  Dr. Erskine: Agent Carter, wouldn't you be more comfortable in the booth?
  Peggy Carter: No, I'd prefer to stay.
  Uatu: There. That's the moment… that created a new universe. When asked to leave the room, Margaret "Peggy" Carter chose to stay. But soon it would be her venturing into the unknown, and creating a new world.
  • It's also possible that the nail stretches back even further: given that HYDRA was not able to obtain the Tesseract until much later in this timeline, HYDRA in this iteration is less technologically advanced and likely a lot more nervous in general about falling even further behind. Which would explain Kruger deciding to blow the theater early the moment Peggy decided to remain.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Colonel Flynn is on the side of good here, but is also horrendously sexist.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The Giant Mook that Peggy faces during her first mission mocks her gender, dismissing her as weak. She immediately takes him out in three moves.
• Powered Armor: A large suit of WW2-era Iron Man armor that resembles Tony Stark's Mark I suit is worn by the still-skinny Steve Rogers, and Captain Carter is seen riding on its back a few times throughout the episode. It's also given power from the Tesseract itself.
• Retcon: Colonel Flynn is shown to have been present when Project Rebirth went down.
• Reverse the Polarity: Howard does this to the portal so it will suck the Eldritch Abomination back in, with both he and Peggy quoting the trope name verbatim. A Heroic Sacrifice from Peggy is required because the monster is strong enough to hold itself on this side of the portal, preventing it from closing until Peggy shoves the whole thing through.
• Rogue Soldier: Schmidt and HYDRA eventually betray the Third Reich like in the main timeline, except this time they do so much later in the war, lack any Tesseract-powered weapons and vehicles, and pull it off when Nazi Germany is much closer to collapsing.
• Role Swap AU: This episode shows a world where Peggy took Steve's place and became the First Avenger instead, while Steve went on to become an Iron Man like character named the HYDRA Stomper.
• Sequel Hook: Peggy meets Nick Fury in the present day, presumably joining this timeline's version of the Avengers Initiative.
• Series Continuity Error: Events in the episode are possible for wildly different events that can't be chalked up to the point of divergence mentioned by Uatu. In the Sacred Timeline, HYDRA found the Tesseract long before the super-soldier experiment took place, while in this episode it happens 15 months afterwards.^note Although it is possible that HYDRA's failure to find the Tesseract may have influenced said point of divergence. John Flynn is also shown to be present while the experiment is being conducted here, whereas he isn't seen or mentioned until the war's end in the Sacred Timeline.
• Shipper on Deck: After Howard interrupts Peggy and Steve's kiss, he gives his approval by telling them to continue and pretend that he's not there.
• Shout-Out:
  • Captain Carter deflecting a tank shell with the shield is near-identical in angle to how Diana of Themyscira deflects a mortar shell on the No Man's Land during World War I.
  • The operation to break into the (decoy) train is called "Where Eagles Dare".
  • Carter battling the Kraken with a sword is reminiscent of the legendary Saint George, the patron saint of England, battling the dragon. The Cross of St. George represents England in the Union Jack flag, which Carter wears on her uniform and shield.
    • It's also more than a little reminiscent of the scene in the original Hellboy, when the titular character snags a statue's oversized broadsword to hack his way free of a similarly-huge tentacled Eldritch Abomination.
  • Howard spent a weekend with Hedy Lamarr, but she wasn't teaching him German. They were probably discussing her advances in radio frequency hopping.
• Shown Their Work: All of the World War II-era vehicles and weapons used by the Allies, HYDRA, and the German forces here are period-accurate and modeled correctly, ranging from small arms like the Thompson, M1911, C96, and MP40 to even Heinkel 111 bombers, Supermarine Spitfires, and Tiger I heavy tanks.
• Sickening "Crunch!": Heard when Peggy does the HYDRA Giant Mook's left knee in. Also heard when Red Skull is crushed by the Kraken.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Peggy loves Steve because he's humble, supportive, kind, and good to her, and doesn't care if he's short, sickly and asthmatic.
• The Stations of the Canon: This episode is mostly a beat for beat retelling of Captain America with Carter in Steve Rogers' place.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Colonel Flynn's attitude toward Peggy from the get-go. He calls the project an "absolute failure" despite it being a clear success simply because the serum's recipient was a woman, and makes a mocking comment about how women don't belong on the front lines because "they might break a nail".
• Strong Girl, Smart Guy: Peggy and Howard's dynamic, inherited from Agent Carter and modified by the premise. While he's still the supergenius providing her with equipment and tech support, she's now an Amazonian warrior.
  Howard: Should we not have a plan?
  Peggy: Who needs a plan? I have a shield.
  Howard: A shield is not a plan!
• Stupid Jetpack Hitler: A notable aversion, since this trope is the norm for the MCU. Thanks to acquiring the Tesseract much later (it gets stolen right after they first acquire it), HYDRA ultimately ends up sticking with conventional World War 2 German weapons and vehicles for the rest of the war.
• Summon Bigger Fish: Upon recovering the Tesseract, Red Skull opens a portal to call forth his champion, a Kraken whose tentacles alone are many times larger than the castle.
• Super-Speed: Peggy sprints as fast as a soldier riding a motorcycle.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Colonel Flynn replaces Colonel Phillips (who is killed by the covert HYDRA agent), and Flynn is just as skeptical of Peggy as a Super-Soldier as Phillips was of Steve. Though in the end Flynn proves to be very different from Phillips, and not in a good way.
• Thinking Up Portals: Examining the wood carving of Yggdrasil that the Tesseract was hidden in, the Red Skull is inspired to build a portal device to bring forth a tentacled monster seemingly depicted on it.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: The episode shows post-serum Peggy and still-skinny Steve leaning towards one another, demonstrating the height difference between them. Once Steve acquires his "Hydra Stomper" suit, the dynamic is inverted in battle.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Due to never being experimented on and never turning into the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes is much more lighthearted in this timeline than in the Sacred Timeline. He notably makes many more quips and is visibly happier throughout much of this episode.
• Underestimating Badassery: The HYDRA Giant Mook looks down on Captain Carter because she's a woman, as if she hasn't been flipping trucks and throwing motorcycles seconds earlier. It earns him a broken knee, a Groin Attack and a meal of pavement.
• The Voiceless: Col. Phillips and Heinz Kruger, despite being modeled on Tommy Lee Jones and Richard Armitage respectively, aren't vocally reprised by them here. The former in particular due to being killed in the attempted theft of the super-soldier serum.
• What If?: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. "What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?" The result of an inconsequential choice on Carter's part.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: For whatever reason, HYDRA keeps Steve alive after capturing him and the HYDRA Stomper suit.
• Would Hit a Girl: The HYDRA Giant Mook, despite dismissing Peggy as a “fragile fraulein,” still throws a punch at her. It doesn’t end well for him.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: Peggy spends 67 years (from Earth's perspective) in the dimension the portal sent her to, yet her reaction indicates she experienced almost no passage of time in that dimension when she's brought back to Earth in 2012.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: While having drinks with Peggy, Steve is busy lamenting how he can only be of help to the war effort while in the HYDRA Stomper. She responds by encouraging him that it's the armor that would be useless without him.
• You Are Too Late: Red Skull says these exact words to Captain Carter… right before getting seized and crushed by the Kraken.

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"Her one choice gave birth to a whole new history, and gave the multiverse a new hero. As for me, these are my stories. I observe all that transpires here, but I do not, cannot, will not interfere. For I am… The Watcher."

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