What If...? Season 3 Episode 3 recap: An unexpected duo is introduced 

The third episode of What If...? season 3 "What If... the Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier?" might just be the strongest one of the season yet and here's why. What If...? Season three episode three presented an unlikely duo to the audiences, of Alexei Shostakov, also known as the Red Guardian, and Bucky Barnes, also known as the Winter Soldier.

Together, the two of them are sent on a mission that eventually ends up being a long-drawn game of catch across multiple state lines, after the original plans of the duo were foiled.

The third episode of What If...? season 3 establishes December 16, 1991, as the jumping point. This date is particularly significant in Marvel lore as it is the same date on which Tony Stark's parents were brutally murdered. This time, however, What If...? takes the audience on a journey to the same day and presents an alternate situation in which the Stark couple doesn't die.

This is in keeping with the whole idea behind What If...? as the animated show centers around events and narratives that serve as alternate detours to the original Marvel canon. Instead of furnishing new plot points, the makers of the show depend upon the possibilities for alternate storytelling provided by the Marvel canon. Here's everything we know about the latest episode that aired on December 24th.

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What If...? Season 3 Episode 3: Red Guardian and the Winter Soldier are sent to a high-profile mission

The ball is set rolling What If...? season three episode three right in the Red Room, where a high-ranking leader of the Soviet Armed Forces named General Drykov enlists the services of Alexei Shostakov or the Red Guardian, who is ordered to travel to Ohio in the garb of a Senior Data Input manager and work undercover.

The blandness of the mission bores the Red Guardian and as is typical of the character, he undermines his orders. He eventually learns that General Drykov has also ordered the Winter Soldier to be defreezed out of his slumber and he is to be sent on a mission to murder Howard and Maria Stark.

In order to prove his worth to his superiors, Red Guardian shows up at the scene exactly when the Winter Soldier is about to put an end to the Starks. The Red Guardian reasons with the latter about leaving with the supersoldier serum and granting the Starks their lives.

However, being the brainwashed killing machine that he is, the Winter Soldier remains unrelenting and a fight breaks out between himself and Red Guardian. Their plans are eventually foiled as the police quickly arrive on the scene and they have to beat a hasty retreat.

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What If...?: An unexpected bond develops between the Red Guardian and the Winter Soldier

Fleeing the scene of the crime, both the Winter Soldier and the Red Guardian are out of options when they realize their only course of action is to locate a character by the name of The Rook, who had given the tip about the Starks carrying the supersoldier serum. They travel towards Las Vegas in order to locate him and are chased by S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Dr. Bill Foster and the superhero Goliath who are hot on their trail for the attack on the stars.

In a heartwarming moment when the two are nursing their wounds, the Red Guardian connects with Bucky Barnes, asking him to remember his former memories before he was brainwashed. Eventually, when the Red Room task force once again tries to brainwash Bucky, the latter resists. The latest episode of What If...? ended on the note that the Winter Soldier was recaptured by Hydra while the Red Guardian went on to work for the Avengers.