5.4. Korvac War
We open in Peggy Carter's bedroom, where Steve Rogers is talking to a frail elderly Peggy about what he’s going to do next in his life, as he increasingly feels like the ever-expanding Avengers don’t need him. When Sharon comes to tell him it’s time for Peggy's medication, Steve rises to leave. Peggy tries to get him to say goodbye, in case this is the last time they see one another, but he refuses, insisting instead on “see you later”.
On AIM Island, Michael Korvac is in the laboratory where Avengers Idea Mechanics is studying the Reality Stone. His colleagues leave for lunch, inviting him along, but he insists he’s got a hot date. They clearly don’t believe him, and start talking about how stupid the idea of having a date in the lab is before they’re out of earshot.
However, as soon as they’re gone, a beautiful woman in office wear arrives. She’s wearing a security pass, which says her name is Carina Tivan.
Korvacs tries to apologise for their date not being somewhere more romantic, suggesting they could have a picnic instead, or go down to marine biology to watch the dolphins, but Carina insists she likes the lab.
Korvacs unpacks a picnic onto his desk, awkward, and trying too hard for a first date, but Carina doesn’t seem to mind at all. Complementing the food gets them onto the topic of parents, since it was his dad who taught him to cook, and Carina tells him about her own father, how he’s never been the same since her mom died, and nothing she does is ever good enough. She says that that’s what she’s doing here, trying to impress him.
They eat, make some small talk about stuff like favourite foods, and whether they live on AIM Island (neither of them do, although Korvacs says self-deprecatingly that with the hours he keeps he really ought to), and then she steers the conversation towards the Aether, in its multi-layered containment unit. She comments on the level of security, and asks if he’s ever touched it. When he says that it’s too dangerous, she says he’s probably right, but just imagine it, touching something that’s as old as creation itself, even if only for a moment. That’s the sort of thing that would impress anyone. Even her father might be impressed by that.
Late that night, Korvacs is still working in the lab. He says goodbye to his colleagues as they leave for the night, ignoring their teasing about his date. After they’ve gone, he approaches the Aether containment zone. Telling himself, “Just once. Just once can’t hurt”, he lowers the layers of security one at a time, until there’s just the Aether, held in some kind of forcefield.
Takes a deep breath, he reaches out, and touches it.
If only he’d throught to ask Jane Foster, he would have been prepared for what happens next. The Aether rushes up his arm, red light lifting him from the ground as it sinks into his skin, and he collapses in a dead faint.
On board the Benatar, the Guardians of the Galaxy are in a hyperspeed jump. Rocket confirms they’ll reach Terra soon.
Peter Quill calls a crew meeting, saying it’s to brief them on their mission. Rocket points out that “get in, get the stone, get the flark out of there” isn’t exactly a complicated plan, but Quill points out that he’s the only one of them who’s ever been to Earth before, and he’s not having them embarrassing him.
He tries to brief them on earth culture, but Rocket and Groot are making jokes about him, Gamora is checking for sightings of Nebula on the computer, and Drax is obviously distracted by something.
When Peter tries to call Drax on it, Drax storms out, and Mantis angrily tells Peter that today is the anniversary of the death of Drax’s family, before going after him.
Back on AIM Island, Korvac is woken by the sound of alarms going off. As he staggers to his feet, a squad of AIM security runs in and demands he give back the Aether. When he tells them he can’t, they try to arrest him, but the moment they touch him, a burst of scarlet light explodes out of him, knocking them out. Convinced no one will believe him now he’s apparently attacked guards, he makes a run for it.
A meeting of the Avengers is called to brief everyone on the Aether and Korvacs.. While they wait for Thor and Steve to begin the briefing, Clint Barton asks Wanda Maximoff and Vision how their attempts to adopt are doing, to which the answer is apparently ‘not well’. “It appears having an affidavit signed by three psychiatrists and two doctors declaring me a fully sentient person is not sufficient to prove I would be capable of loving a child.”
Korvac, looking increasingly unwell, tries to go home, but finds Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, and a squad of AIM guards are waiting outside his flat. He manages to get away unnoticed, but has to lean on a wall to keep from collapsing. Something is very seriously wrong.
Carina Tivan is at home, drinking coffee and watching the news. (Eagle eyed viewers may notice she’s dressed identically to how she was when we first saw her, every detail of her appearance completely unchanged). There’s a knock on the door, and she opens it to find a white and shaking Korvac in her doorstep. He apologises for bothering her, says he has no where else to go, and collapses at her feet.
The Guardians arrive on Earth. In order to help them blend in, Quill has made them all disguises based on his memory of Earth fashion in the 1980s, which are both comically out of date and do absolutely nothing to hide the fact that two members of the team are green and one is a walking tree (although the blonde mullet wig honestly kind of suits Drax).
We get exactly one shot of them all dramatically walking in slo-mo like they’re on the opening of a 90s cop show before normal speed resumes and they all start complaining about their costumes. Rocket in particular is pissed that he doesn’t get a costume, and even more pissed when Peter tells him that’s because everyone needs to think he’s an animal.
Despite their bickering, they’ve come prepared, and Rocket has a macguffin that detects energy, which he’s tuned to look for the frequencies the Power Stone emitted, which should allow them to track down the Aether’s energy.
Korvacs wakes up strapped to Carina’s kitchen table to find her injecting him with something she says will “stabilise him”. Carina looks a little different than last time we saw her, her clothes alien and a tattoo on her chin similar to the one the Collector has. He asks her how she’s touching him without getting blasted the way everyone else has, and she says dismissively that it would take more than a simple energy blast to stop an Elders of the Universe, although it had damaged her image inducer. Korvacs has no idea what any of that is, but he realises that she must be an alien, and interested in the Aether.
As she prepares another needle, he begs her not to hurt him, and then begs the Aether to protect him. For a moment he glows scarlet, and when she goes to inject him, the needle snaps.
She tries again and the needle snaps again, the tip of it flying up and scratching her face. Realising what has happened, Korvacs asks the Aether to untie him, and when Carina stops clutching her injured face and turns back to face the table, he’s gone and her door is open.
Korvac runs out into the street, and smack bang into the Guardians. Peter initially apologises for scaring him, trying to explain why his friends are so strange looking (“we’re on our way to a halloween party. Wait, what time of year is it? Summerween party, that’s definitely a real thing, we’re going to a summerween party”) but Rocket realises the energy he’s track is coming from Korvac.
Gamora and Drax both try to grab Korvacs, but get blasted. Mantis tries to use her powers remotely to make him sleep, but she gets blasted as well, so Quill pulls his gun on him.
Natasha and Bruce arrive, followed by the rest of the Avengers, James Rhodes and Clint pull weapons on the Guardians, Natasha tries to talk Korvacs down, but he’s terrified and confused, and begs the stone to get him somewhere safe. Tony Stark arrives just in time to see Korvacs step into a portal and vanish. (“Well shit. Wait, Quill?! What the fuck are you doing on this planet?”)
The wish takes Korvacs to the house where he grew up, now abandoned. He uses a wish to restore it to how he remembers, wishes for no one to be able to find him there, and falls asleep on the sofa.
Back at the New Avengers Facility, the Guardians and Avengers are briefing one another on what the fuck’s going on. Tony finally finds out what the hell a Gamora is, which he says has been bugging him for years. The Guardians explain that they’ve been hired by the Collector to retrieve the stone, and The Collection is probably the safest place for it. Rocket says that he could read the energy generated when Korvac portalled out, and knows he’s still on Earth.
Steve starts to brief the Guardians on Korvacs, and his known associates, and Gamora recognises the picture of Carina.
(“Why the hell do you know an admin assistant?”
“Because she’s the Collector’s daughter.”)
While they’re talking, Steve gets a call. Seeing it’s from Sharon, he excuses himself.
“Hi, Sharon. Look, this isn’t a good time, but if you need me to pick anything up for you I can-”
“She’s gone, Steve. I’m sorry, but Auntie Peggy died this morning. I thought you should know.”
Steve breaks down in tears, and when Bucky Barnes comes to find him, he just keeps repeating, “I didn’t say goodbye, Buck, I didn’t say goodbye again, I didn’t-”
Korvac wakes up, and decides to go and get some food, feeling safe now he knows he can use the Aether to protect himself. He goes to a diner down the street and orders a burger. While he’s waiting, he sees a woman being derated by her aggressive controlling boyfriend. Looking around to see if anyone’s listening, he wishes for the man to leave her alone, and he immediately stops talking. Excited, Korvacs tells the waitress he’ll have the burger to go, and walks out with a spring in his step.
As the door falls shut behind him, the asshole boyfriend collapses.
Korvac walks through the city, granting wishes and solving problems as he goes, and in his head he’s gone full Bruce Almighty, but every time, as soon as his back is turned there’s some unexpected monkey’s paw consequences. He resets a parking meter for a woman about to be fined, but the meter falls on her car. He gives a little girl staring sadly into the window of a pet shop a puppy, which she turns out to be horribly allergic to.
He goes back to his house, and finds Carina in the middle of the street waiting for him. She apologises for scaring him. She explains that she had come to earth looking for the stone to impress her father, but she hadn’t intended him to get so involved, and she hadn’t expected to like him.
He accepts her apology, and asks if he’d like to go on a real date, which she accepted. They head back to the diner he’d visited earlier, but the waitress tells him that the guy he’d wished would shut up had a stroke.
While he’s trying to process that, the Guardians and Avengers arrive outside.
He comes out to face them, and they try to explain that they don’t mean him any harm, but the Aether is dangerous, but he refuses to accept it. He tries to prove that it’s a force for good - that he’s a force for good - by granting their wishes. He tells Wanda she can have the children she wants, and she’s instantly heavily pregnant. He tells Drax that his daughter is still alive, and Gamora she can have the sister she’s always wanted.
Finally he tells Steve, he’s giving him the chance to say goodbye, and a portal opens under Steve’s feet and sucks him in.
Everyone freaks out, especially when Rocket says that the hadn’t just taken Steve off-world, it had taken him out of this universe entirely, and Bucky realises it must have sent him to a universe where Peggy is still alive.
Bucky gets blasted when he makes a grab for Korvac, but Gamora manages to grab Carina, holding her gun to her head and telling Korvac to stand down.
Korvac wishes that everyone would stop trying to fight him. As soon as the words are out of his mouth, Sam Wilson steps on Rocket’s tail, and Quill makes a joke about Vision being the Tin Man, and less than a minute, the two teams are at one another’s throats, fighting like they really mean to kill one another.
Carina tries to persuade Korvacs to use the distraction to run, but he’s just staring at the fight, eyes wide and shocked. He says that he never wanted this, any of this, that he wishes he could just go somewhere where the stone couldn’t hurt anyone else.
Behind him, a portal opens. Tony tries to tell him it’s a bad idea, that all the wishes have gone wrong, but Korvac says that that’s even more reason for him to leave.
“Carina, would you come with me? I can’t promise that what’s on the other side of that portal won’t be terrible, but I can at least promise it won’t be your father. And what ever it is, we can face it. Together.”
Carina takes his hand, and with one last backward glance, they step through it.
Instantly the fighting stops. Wanda’s belly shrinks back to normal. They all look expectantly at the spot where Steve had been standing, only moments ago, but nothing happens. Sam squeezes Bucky’s shoulder, tells him he’s sorry, and Bucky crouches and wordlessly picks up the Shield, lying where Steve had dropped him when the portal sucked him in.
Rocket checks his device and confirms that the Aether isn’t in this universe anymore. Wherever it had taken Korvac and Carina, it’s not somewhere any of them can follow.
The Guardians say goodbye to the Avengers. Before they leave, Gamora pulls Tony to one side, tries to warn him that seeking out the stones will end badly. (“Believe me, I know. More than you could imagine.”)
As the Benatar leaves Terran space, Groot asks what they’re going to do next. Gamora tells them they need to find Nebula.
“We’re going to find my baby sister, before Moondragon gets to her.”
“Since when is she your baby sister?! And who the flark is Moondragon?”
“What do you mean? Moondragon’s my sister.”
“Wait, you have more sisters?! Oh god, is this one an insane Cyborg as well?”
“I’ve always had two sisters. And she’s a Kylosian, like Drax. You know this? Why don’t you know this?!”
“Maybe because you’ve literally never mentioned her before?! Which seems like kind of a massive oversight, given how many times Nebula has tried to kill us all!”
“Why the hell would Nebula try to kill us?”
“Because she hates you?”
“No she doesn’t. Moondragon is the one who hates me.”
“Oh cruthark. Gamora, remember what Korvac said? That you could have the sister you always wanted? I think… I think he wished you a new sister.”
“What about Drax then? He said he’d wished his daughter back to life, but I don’t see her anywhere, do you?”
“I would know if my daughter was alive.”
“Would you though? What if someone had hidden her from you? Gamora, what species did you say your new sister was again?”
“Kylosian. Like…”
“Like Drax.”
"Oh flark."
As they talk, back on earth, Wanda Maximoff is watching the retreating ship, when she suddenly throws up.
In our post credits scene, Steve Rogers, still dressed in his modern uniform, walks up the path of a cute little 50s prefab house. He knocks and the door is opened by Peggy Carter, young and fit again. The two of them stare at one another, too shocked to find words, romantic music swelling, as it slowly dawns on Steve that maybe Korvacs has given him another shot, another chance to have that dance he never got to have…
And then Peggy’s husband leans out of the kitchen to ask who’s at the door.
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