What if…? episode 3 has just been released and boy was it a tad bit dark. The twist they put on the story revolving around The Avengers' first team-up was crazy. With that being said, check out this week's What if…? Episode 3 Easter Eggs and references.

Warning, major spoilers ahead!

What if…? Episode 3 Easter Eggs and References

The What if…? episode titled “What if… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?” was just an emotional roller coaster throughout compared to the previous episodes. Although, one of the best parts about the series is the amount of Easter Eggs and references scattered throughout its episodes.

Fury's Big Week

What If…? Episode 3 gives us an alternate reality of 2012's prelude comic series to the Avengers movie. The comic titled Fury's Big Week, just like Episode 3, established that the events of the MCU's Phase One. Starting with Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, and then Thor. Events that all happened within a span of a week.

In this reality, Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow went to Betty Ross at Culver University with the injector that seemingly killed Stark. In the original MCU Phase 1 timeline, according to the comic, Natasha originally went to Culver University to monitor Bruce Banner on Fury's orders.

In the comics, Widow was also present during the Harlem duel between Hulk and the Abomination.

What If…?episode 3 shows us Fury's crazy experience from Monday to Friday.

Monday- Tony Stark is killed and Black Widow gets framed.

Tuesday- Thor Odinson is seemingly killed by Hawkeye and is framed for it. Later on, Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye gets murdered as well.

Wednesday- Bruce Banner a.k.a. the Hulk is killed. On the same day, Loki arrives on Earth. Later on, Natasha gets killed by the mysterious killer who we learn is Hank Pym after learning his identity.

Thursday- Fury makes a deal with Loki to help stop Hank Pym.

Friday- Loki takes over the Earth as its new supreme ruler. He also makes the same speech he did in the first Avengers film.

Fury was later seen going into the Arctic, where Captain America was buried. In this alternate reality, the return of Captain Marvel and the discovery of Steve Rogers in cryostasis occur slightly earlier than in the original MCU timeline.

The Hydra Agents

When SHIELD captures Romanoff for the killing of Tony Stark, we see Brock Rumlow a.k.a. Crossbones, and Jack Rollins. Both Frank Grillo and Callan Mulvey returned to voice their respective characters.

Even SHIELD director and Hydra sleeper agent Alexander Pierce was referenced in the scene. A bit sad we didn't see him in the episode.

Civil War II Reference

The third episode of What If…? includes Hawkeye getting framed for Thor's murder. The scene is quite similar to the Civil War II Comics where Hawkeye kills Bruce Banner with an arrow.

Coulson's Patriotic Password

It's no secret that Agent Coulson is one of Captain America's biggest fans. Marvel played around with this concept more in the episode when Natasha asks for Coulson's password in order to gain access to SHIELD's database. The password also included Steve's birthday, July 4th.

Did The Winter Soldier Kill Hope Van Dyne?

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Natasha claims that the Winter Soldier attacked her in Ukraine, and killed the engineer she was assigned to protect.

In What If…? Episode 3, Fury mentions that Hope was killed on a mission in Ukraine. This suggests that Hope was the SHIELD agent who went on the mission instead of Romanoff in this alternate reality.

Hank Pym's Yellowjacket

In the comics, after gradually falling into mental strain, Hank Pym adopted his fourth superhero identity “Yellowjacket”. Pym occasionally appeared as Yellowjacket in the 1980s. After battling mental and emotional issues, Pym would temporarily abandon a costumed persona.

In the What if…? episode 3 climax, we see Pym as the true villain. He killed off almost all of Earth's mightiest heroes in an attempt to avenge his daughter Hope. It's also clear that he was mentally unstable in the episode. His Yellowjacket costume also resembled the one in the first Ant-Man film. It seems like in this reality, Scott Lang never even got the chance to be Ant-Man.

So there you go, all of the What if…? Episode 3 Easter Eggs and references. Did you catch all of these?

Marvel's What if…? is available for streaming on Disney+ and releases new episodes every Wednesday.

In other Marvel news, some folks claim that they saw The Lizard in the Spider-Man: No Way Home Trailer. Check it out here.