What If… Thor Were an Only Child?

“The name is Thor, with a T, and an R, and an O. And a H. Not in that order.”

Well, this is a swing in the other direction. What an utterly goofy thirty minutes.

As a fan of the MCU in general, it was a ton of fun to see all these characters in one place. There were even non-line cameos from Heimdall and Executioner. I’ll go over as many of the bit part characters at the end as well as the absolutely bonkers cast list.

While very silly, and not even remotely serious, this episode does ask an interesting question: what purpose does Loki serve? As a Frost Giant bro, he only helps to facilitate Thor’s immaturity. As his actual brother, he is a catalyst for Thor to realize his purpose and step up to maturity after Loki rebels. Not great for Loki, but certainly good for Thor and arguably the world.

The thing is, if you look at who was at Thor’s party on Earth, things around the galaxy seem to be in a much better place. What happened to Thanos in this reality? It is hinted at in a couple of places that he isn’t on a quest to slaughter half of the universe. Not only that but Thor clearly made friends with the Grandmaster due to his party mentality. Could Thor’s partying antics spread over 1,500 years really cause the ripples for the better? That’s a fun little thought exercise in an otherwise thoughtless episode.

Ultimately, while fun, this episode amounted to a slugfest between Thor and Captain Marvel. It was a blast (pun intended) to see the two of them throw each other around the world. It was also pretty clear that this Captain Marvel was no-nonsense, and the fact she could take a hit from Mjolnir without obvious injury was clearly a jab at Marvel Fanboys who were all upset over the casting of Brie Larson (although she wasn't the voice behind this Carol).

It was also really great to see Jane again in such a prominent role. Here she seems to serve a similar purpose to her main MCU counterpart as both a romantic interest for Thor and to help start his shift into adulthood. This is the first major return of Natalie Portman in the MCU to date after leaving the Thor series after Thor: The Dark World. She was mentioned a couple of times, and was briefly seen in Avengers: Endgame with reused footage. (She is, however, slated to appear in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder; maybe that is why she showed up here, a refresher after her long absence.)

Lastly, I need to mention that final moment. More than just the Ultron/Vision with all six infinity stones, it was the Watcher's reaction to its appearance. He was notably surprised, and possibly frustrated that another universe was likely to be decimated. I do wonder if this is setting up something larger, perhaps some kind of season finale. Or not. This is an anthology, after all.

Cast, Cameos and Eggs (Easter):

First the cast list:

Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Natalie Portman as Jane Foster
Tom Hiddleston as Loki
Kat Dennings as Darcy
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster
Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
Clark Gregg as Coulson
Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow
Taika Waititi as Korg
Karen Gillan as Nebula
Jamie Alexander as Lady Sif
Seth Green as Howard the Duck
Rachel House as Topaz
and Clancy Brown as Surtur

The only two that didn't return were Rene Russo as Frigga and Brie Larson as Carol; instead, they were voiced by Josette Eales and Alexandra Daniels respectively.

Bradley Cooper's Rocket was in the scene the morning after. Cooper famously starred in a movie called The Hangover that featured a similiar wake up scene.

In a blink and you'll miss it moment, the fake Infinity Gauntlet can be seen in Odin's trophy room. Except this is the opposite glove that was shown in Thor, which matches the lefthanded gauntlet that Thanos would eventually wield in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Several Skrulls are shown prominently throughout the episode, mostly for comic relief, but their presence on Earth is a bit terrifying.

Several familiar ships could be seen over Paris, including several from Sakaar, Asgardian war boats and even some Ravager ships.

I absolutely love that Jane got a matching tattoos with Thor, and Darcy married Howard the Duck.

Drax, Mantis, Valkyrie, Yondu, Skurge, Heimdall, Ayesha (the Golden High Priestess from the Sovereign), and Miek to name most of the ones that I caught all made non-vocal appearances. There were also several Gladiators from Sakaar.

The leaning tower of Pisa gag was a homage to a similar moment in Superman 3.

Doctor Selvig, Goose and Thanos were all mentioned by characters in the episode. Rocket was called a rabbit again by Thor and it looks like Lady Sif and Volstagg hooked up. Fandral and the goat might be a reference to a comic from the 80’s featuring Fandral called Fandral's Follies where he goes on an adventure with a goat.

Quotes:

Thor: “Not the hair!”

The Watcher: “A world restored, love blossoming. As children, both human and Asgardian, say, together, they lived happily ever after. Wait, what?”
Thor: “Huh?”
The Watcher: “Oh, dear. Perhaps I spoke too soon.”

Thor: “Here, have a drink. It never runs out. You try to drink it all, but you can't because it's magic!"

Carol: “Hey, Whitesnake!”

There was a lot to like about this episode, it was lighthearted and a lot of fun, but Looney Tunes style ridiculousness may have been a bit too much.

3 out of 4 Alien Party Guests

Samantha M. Quinn spends most of her time in front of a computer typing away at one thing or another; when she has free time, she enjoys pretty much anything science fiction or fantasy-related.

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