Tear Jerker / Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Moments subpages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned!

As Karl Mordo forewarned years ago, the bill has finally come due. And it spells heartbreak for everyone involved in the events of the film.

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Trailers

• In the trailers, we see Christine in a wedding gown and veil with another man as the groom, not Stephen. It's literally the exact ending another version of Strange yearned so much for but was literally destined to never have.
• Strange's obvious guilt and inner turmoil about the catastrophe he's caused through his actions. While none of it was ever for selfish or sadistic reasons, many will no doubt suffer because of him, as they have before.
  Strange: [...] But I never meant for any of this to happen...
  • Another TV spot shows Wanda echoing Strange's sentiment about having the same dream every night...except for her, it's the same nightmare. The line plays in voiceover as we see what she's talking about: walking into her living room in Westview, seeing Billy and Tommy on the couch, and reaching out for them as they fade away in the same manner Vision did. It's a devastating reminder of the grief she's living with.
• Wong's depressed and firm delivery of this line, which also mirrors the Aesop from the first movie.
  Wong: You cannot control everything, Strange.
• In a shocking departure from her usual demeanour in the comics, America Chavez is seen frantic and terrified in various pieces of promo material, which reflects the horrifying fact that Gargantos, an interdimensional monster, is hunting her specifically.

Film

• The film opens with Defender Strange and America Chavez running from a mummy-like monster, trying to reach the Book of Vishanti. When that goal seems futile, Defender Strange betrays Chavez and tries to absorb her power, claiming to have better control over it. Her pleading by stating that Strange is her friend is met with Defender Strange's sad acknowledgment that even so, he will have to sacrifice her because her death is needed in the grand scale of the Multiverse.
  • The monster then impales Defender Strange. Chavez flees and is actually able to summon a portal, which spurs Defender Strange to distract the monster as he lays dying, allowing Chavez to escape.
• At Christine's wedding, Nic West sidles up to Strange and snarks that he lost his cats after being blipped. Then he says he lost his brother during that time as well, and asks if there really was no other way the Avengers could have handled the situation.
  • A few minutes later, Strange has a conversation with Christine where he woefully says he wishes he could've been better, before going on to lie that he's happy as he is.
• During his conversation with America, Strange briefly mentions that no one has seen Spider-Man's face, bitterly reminding the audience of Peter's sacrifice in Spider-Man: No Way Home, particularly this statement from Strange:
  [That] would mean everyone who knows and loves you, we'd... We'd have no memory of you.
• Wanda's entire story throughout the film. She's so desperate to get that small semblance of happiness she had with the children she conjured in WandaVision that she's willing to use the dreaded Darkhold to be reunited with them.
  • The lead-up to the reveal showing Wanda has taken on a more antagonistic part is somewhat saddening as well. Throughout the early part of their conversation, Wanda keeps up appearances with Stephen, a fellow Avenger she has fought with during Avengers: Endgame, projecting not only that she is ok but that she is trustworthy. Stephen also seems to genuinely believe she needs someone to look out for her after her rough patch in Westview, and being with fellow magic-users in Kamar-Taj might just be what she needs. When one slip of the tongue breaks that illusion, Wanda only sighs and dejectedly reveals her hand.
    Stephen: Given the choice between the archer with the mohawk or several bug-themed crimefighters, or one of the most powerful magic-wielders on the planet, it's an easy call. Come to Kamar-Taj. It'll get you back on the lunchbox.
    Wanda: What if you brought America here?
    Stephen: Here?
    Wanda: Yeah, I know what it's like, to be on your own, hunted for abilities you never wanted... I can protect her.
    (Stephen stops, realizing that Wanda shouldn't even know her)
    Wanda: You never told me her name, did you?
    Stephen: No. No I didn't.
    Wanda: You know, the Hex was the easy part. The lying... not so much.
  • Wanda bitterly reminds Strange about how she blew up Vision's head, whom she called "the love of my life", for nothing, all because Strange gave up the Time Stone to Thanos. It's pretty clear she's still traumatized by that.
  • Her fight with the Ultron Sentries can be seen as this. Wanda destroying the bots one by one and angrily smashing the head of the last one with her powers, instead of vaporizing all of them at once, reveals that she still hates Ultron for killing Pietro.
  • Of special note is just after she first dreamwalks. After an initially terrifying scene where she takes control of an innocent variant of her, she walks off to continue her plan...and then the variant's children speak up with normal kid stuff, and Wanda is visibly torn between charging forward with her plan and just spending time with them like a family.
  • Wanda crying as she finally gets to see her sons physically, and not in a dream. As they teasingly sing her a song about being good if she gives them ice cream, she looks about ready to drag them into a hug. It's only when the Darkhold is destroyed and she's dragged back to her reality that shatters this dream come true for her. As she flickers between that reality and her, she desperately calls for her sons before she opens her eyes back in her original body.
  • At the end of the movie, Wanda is reduced to a broken and depressed woman, so tired from a life of loss, grief and suffering that she is Driven to Suicide.
  • The true heartbreaking thing? The fact that, apparently, none of the remaining Avengers seemed to even try to make contact with Wanda after the Westview Incident, for one reason or another, which means that she was left to suffer her grief and depression all alone, not to mention the Darkhold taking advantage of all that in order to corrupt her between WandaVision and this movie. Things could've been different had Clint, Sam, or Strange reached out to Wanda earlier to check on her emotional state or at least convince her to visit a therapist, like Bucky did.
• Although heartwarming to see the memory of how Stephen got his beloved watch from Christine, it isn't for Strange himself. It's a reminder to him that he lost something so precious in his life without realizing it until it was actually gone.
• America Chavez uses a piece of technology on Earth-838 to view a memory of the first time she used her portal power. She was in a garden with her mothers when a bee tried to land on her hand. She got scared and unknowingly opened a portal that sucked her mothers away to some unknown dimension before America herself was pulled in too. America is convinced her mothers ended up somewhere dangerous and are now dead, and that it's her fault. Strange tries to assure her that she doesn't know her mothers are dead, but America seems reluctant to believe it.
• The Illuminati were genuinely torn up over having to execute their version of Doctor Strange after he grew consumed by the Darkhold, as seen in the flashback they show Strange (616). Professor X (838) mournfully states that he will miss him before Black Bolt utters a single phrase to kill him. The phrase in question? I'm sorry.
  • After the flashback is shown, the camera focuses on Black Bolt's face. He tries to maintain his regal, serious demeanor… and fails, closing his eyes and visibly trembling to hold back tears. It's obvious he's got a lot of grief and remorse pent up over having to Mercy Kill his friend, and he has to suck it up because he can't vocally express his emotions without destroying everything around him. Definitely gives perspective on how hellish Black Bolt's life is in any universe, having to practice near total and constant self-control to not make any vocalizations, having to render himself functionally mute just to live anything resembling a life.
  • Maria can be seen looking away as Black Bolt's power destroys him.
• Just before Reed dies, he briefly mentions to Wanda his own wife and children. All of whom will very likely learn of his gruesome fate.
  Reed: I have children of my own, I understand your pain.
  Wanda: Is their mother still alive?
  Reed: Yes.
  Wanda: Good. There will be someone left to raise them.
  • The sheer fact that Reed tries to talk down Wanda instead of just having Black Bolt instantly vaporize her as he could have; he genuinely wanted to avoid violence and maybe even help her. Just like in the comics, one of this Reed's greatest weaknesses is simply sometimes being too kind and charitable for his own good, and all of the Illuminati pay the price for it.
• Similarly, poor Professor X loses his psychic duel with Scarlet Witch because he lets his guard down to try and focus on saving the 838-Wanda from 616-Wanda's control, rushing to free her and distracting himself long enough for 616-Wanda to realize what's happening and destroy his astral self.
  • This one can be especially hard to watch for those who know that in other continuities, Wanda is the daughter of Professor X's oldest friend, Magneto.
  • It's also an extra-nasty blow for veteran fans who know that the Professor has, in some periods of his comic history, a modest degree of telekinesis as well as phenomenal telepathy. The way his real, physical neck snaps in the instant his mental self is overwhelmed can make you wonder: did Wanda hijack this long-neglected aspect of Charles's own power to use it against him?
• The Illuminati in general are built up as legitimately grand heroes and are all great cameos for long term fans (or the more recent What If...? fans in Captain Carter's case). This makes their shock and terror as Wanda virtually walks through them hit even harder.
  • This film also marks the third time we have had to see Charles suffer a gruesome fate.
• Strange asks Christine (838), "What were we to each other here?" She replies, "We never quite figured that out," and he just nods with "Yep, that sounds right."
  • Later, she clarifies they were together but Strange eventually "ruined" it, and he once more just accepts that as sounding like him. It's bittersweet for Strange to realize that in so many realities, somehow, he and Christine could never get on the same page.
• In order to prove to Sinister Strange that they are the same person, Strange (616) finally brings up his original trauma for the first time in the MCU.
  Strange (616): We had a sister, Donna. She died when we were kids.
  Sinister Strange: How...?
  Strange (616): [holding back tears] We were playing, on a frozen lake. And she fell, through the ice. I couldn't save her.
  Sinister Strange: Ah, sounds about right... but we don't talk about that, do we?
  Strange (616): No we don't....
• Despite the designation given to him in the marketing, Sinister Strange doesn't seem to be a malevolent figure when first introduced. He's soft-spoken and almost seems afraid when he meets his 616 counterpart, and he clearly shows genuine regret for accidentally causing the destruction of his universe and leaving himself its sole inhabitant. He's not an evil Strange, he's a sad, broken husk of the Strange we know and love.
  • Sinister Strange recalls attending his Christine's wedding, and her questioning his happiness the same way her 616 counterpart did. This heavily implies that, prior to his use of the Darkhold, this timeline's events played out the same way they did in the 616 timeline and, were it not for this film's events, the 616 Strange could have gone down the same path.
  • Even more tragic is that Sinister Strange used the Darkhold to look throughout the Multiverse to find a universe where he and Christine didn't break up... and couldn't find a single one.
• When Zombie Defender Strange arrives, Chavez assumes he's going to take her power, outright saying that it's okay. A fourteen-year-old girl is accepting the fact that her death may be the best course of action and agrees to it. While it's quickly mitigated by Strange refusing and giving an encouraging speech instead, it's completely tragic nonetheless.
• After Wanda attacks her, Chavez sends them both to Earth-838, right in front of Billy and Tommy sitting on the couch. Their reaction? To cry out in horror and call her a witch (they don't even seem to acknowledge her resemblance to their mother). This is the moment that serves as Wanda's Heel Realization.
  • After the twins won't stop screaming and throwing toys at her after she knocks their mother aside, Wanda yells at them to stop in a hysterical voice, after which the poor children do indeed stop screaming and whimper in fear as silently as they can while keeping themselves at a distance from her. They hide behind the staircase railings and seem to shrink back in fear as Wanda climbs up the steps and looks through the railings towards the twins.
  • Hearing Billy and Tommy begging her not to hurt them nor their mother is just heartbreaking to see, which is made worse when Wanda tries to reassure them she doesn't want to hurt anyone, especially them. You can see her fighting back her tears saying this. Then there's the slow building of shock and remorse in Wanda's eyes as she realizes she's become the monster she claims she isn't. Once the realization sinks in, she breaks down crying and slowly backs away from the boys, too tired and guilt-ridden to lift her head.
    Wanda: I would never hurt you. Never. I would never hurt anyone. I'm not a monster. I'm a... I'm... [sobbing] I'm sorry.
• Mixed with heartwarming is 838 Wanda walking up to and caressing her 616 counterpart's cheek. She understands 616 Wanda's pain and comforts her the best way she can. But they both know that in the end, Wanda will never have the thing she desires above every universe and every reality: her sons.
  Wanda (838): Know that they'll be loved.
  • The cherry on top? The way 616 Wanda looks away in shame as 838 Wanda approaches her.
• After her Heel Realization, Wanda decides it is better for nobody in any universe to possess the Darkhold, so she brings the Tomb of the Damned down with her inside, sacrificing herself.
  • Wanda dies not only heartbroken and guilt-ridden, but with her reputation and legacy as an Avenger (which had already taken a massive hit during WandaVision) completely destroyed, at least she gets to reunite with her Vis, her brother and, if they do exist in the afterlife, her children.
  • Her downfall and death is also yet another major blow to the hero community in the wake of Endgame. It leaves Sam Wilson and Rhodey as the only remaining New Avengers that Steve and Nat recruited at the end of Age of Ultron (YMMV if the White Vision counts or not) still alive and active (as well as being the last survivors of the team's roster at the end of Phase Two). Sam is also now likewise the sole surviving member of Cap's post-Civil War Secret Avengers. Between this, the struggles the other remaining/active heroes are all facing, and the deaths/retirements of the founding six Avengers, it's another sign that as the Infinity Saga recedes further into the rear view mirror, the more the era of Earth's Mightiest Heroes is fading into the mists of history with it.
    • It's also not just that Earth has now lost one of its most powerful heroic heavy hitters. Wanda's attack on Kamar-Taj (and the ensuing bloodbath) has crippled Earth's first line of defense against any multiversal incursions. Between these losses and the Avengers still disbanded, Wanda's quest to reunite with her children has left the Earth weakened in the face of the growing threats and crises building throughout Phase Four (from Kang the Conqueror to the Celestials).

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