ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Ironheart Episodes 4 - 5 - 6 BREAKDOWN - Marvel Easter Eggs You Missed

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Ironheart's first season concludes with Riri finally using magic to power her new suit--and we break down every marvel easter egg you might have missed. And, of course, he's finally here--Mephisto has joined the MCU. We explain what this means for this show, future MC projects, and the return of Wanda and Dr. Doom. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Mary Kill John, I want our head. Hey, welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie. And this is all of the Easter eggs references and little things you might have missed in Iron Heart episodes 4, 5, and 6. As always, we will be spoiler-free in each section. So, if you only watched episode 4 or 5, then you can watch our video, then come back for the finale.

And don't worry, everything is chapter marked below. Remember, screen crush is on all of your favorite podcast platforms, and this week we are launching a new podcast, The Crossover Universe, where we actually sat down with Iron Heart and Senors producers Seb Ohan to talk about this show, Centers, and how the hell my name ended up in this series. So we open on a heist from a few years ago, really Parker's first heist, where we see that John was initially the ringleader who was pushing a very nervous Parker into committing a crime. This shows us why, years later, John was the only person in the gang who felt like he could speak truth to power

and wasn't afraid of his cousin. Parker is living through a typical gangster storyline. In movies like Scarface or shows like The Sopranos, we see the gangster gather power through charm or brute force, and then slowly his paranoia leads him to losing friends, loved ones, and his organization falls apart. Now here, Parker kind of peaked with the tunnel heist, and without John to anchor him, the loudest voice in his head belongs to the hood. So the heist turns out to be Parker remembering John at his wake, when Parker notices how nervous Riri is. Now, last episode, the entity behind the hood showed him that it was Riri behind John's death. And moments like this confirmed that revelation. Now, the wake ends when he hangs

up John's picture on the wall among the photos of the Italian-American icons. Now, the photos on the wall are a remnant of a pizza parlor that is dead and gone. Long out of business. And now John joins them like a ghost looking down at the gang. Meanwhile, Riri and Natalie try to get to the bottom of the cloak's bad magic, which is the name of this episode. Oh, that's why they call it that. Notice that under a microscope we see red energy sizzling in between the fabric. And as I've pointed out before, this looks a lot like the chaos energy of the god Cothone. Now, he is the entity that created the dark hold and influenced Wanda to break bad in multiverse of madness. Maybe the cloak is a manifestation of Cthone, much like the Darkhold.

And maybe, though, unlike the dark hold, the cloak wasn't destroyed, and so Cthone can continue to influence Parker. Or maybe Cothone is just a name for another entity like Dormammu who owned the cloak in the comics. She says she tested it against several energy signatures. cross-referenced this heat signature with every known energy source. Wakanda, Kree, Stark, Pim. Now, Wakanda, Stark, and Pim are all pretty well-known technologies for her to compare it to. But the inclusion of the Kree is interesting.

So the Kree are the intergalactic empire that we saw in Captain Marvel and the Marvels. But for the most part, their presence on Earth has remained a secret. So then how does she know about all that Kree energy signature stuff? Well, that's a good question. I think it's because, in the movie Captain America, the Winter Soldier, Black Widow uploaded all of Shield's secrets onto the internet. Done. And it's trending.

Now, Shield would have had information about the Kree attack in the 1990s that Captain Marvel prevented. But also in the show Agents of Shield, which is like kind of MCU Canon, we learned that the Kree have been visiting Earth for millennia, and they created the inhuman race. So it could be that the Wakandans had knowledge of Kree technologies, and this is where Riri learned about them. Riri says, Energy doesn't just pop up out of nowhere. It defies laws and physics. Which reminded me of this.

That thing does not obey the laws of physics at all. And when Natalie asks why Riri can't get help from Shuri in Wakanda, she replies, Oh, what have I been up to since causing an interspecies war on both land and sea? Now, that's the justification that Riri is giving, but of course the real reason is because I don't think she wants Shuri to see how bad she has messed everything up, because Shuri's opinion means so much to her. That, or if the Wakandans came into the show, they would fix everything really quickly, and the show would be really boring. And then we learned that the biotech that Riri

left behind was immediately traced back to Ezekiel Stain. He's been arrested for domestic terrorism, he's in jail, and his public image is tainted. Rather, we have the justice moves swiftly in the MCU. They sure do. And we also learned that Obadiah Stain's crimes were never revealed to the public. Do you know there's a whole Reddit thread on Obadiah Sting's dating? Now at the end of Iron Man, Colson did reveal how they were going to cover Stain's death. He's on vacation. Small aircraft have such a poor safety race. But it's interesting that Ezekiel knew exactly how his father died. We went full supervillain.

He sued a lot like yours. And they also mentioned that they never did recover his body. Allegedly, nobody. Yeah, well, that's because it was all engulfed in flames. Now, a few episodes ago, we did see Obadiah's ashes, but there is still an open door that he is still alive. Now, we had a theory a while back that Obadiah Stain was secretly a Hydra agent based on this line. Weapons that will help steer the world back on concourse with the balance of power in our hands.

Like, whose hands were he talking about? The hands of Hydra. And maybe instead of shield faking a plane crash, Hydra agents actually took his body where he wasn't quite dead and her squirreled him away and he's keeping him in safety. Now, the theme of this episode is guilt and Parker expresses the theme best to reread. Poor guy's probably going to ride in jail for our crimes. He voices all of the reasons she is ashamed of herself following the death of John last episode. Now, both people in this room know the truth and they know that the other person knows, but they're both keeping it a secret for now. Just like Riri is avoiding the truth by shutting out her mom and Xavier. Instead, she tries to shield them from the truth by giving them

force-filled wrist watches that she designed for this student back in episode one. Then she seeks validation from Xavier. Say, do you think I'm a good person? And he gives an honest answer about how we perceive one another. Good, bad words don't really mean anything. It's all depending on who's labeling you. He compares her to Ambassador Spock from Star Trek. Now, Spock was, F Vulcan and the Vulcan society is built on compartmentalizing your emotions and ruling your life with logic, which is how Riri operates. She refuses to confront her grief and loss, and instead tries to create reason for everything. She lost her loved ones through a drive-by shooting, so now she has to make sure that EMTs can always respond faster by making a suit. But then she

says, I always think of myself as O'Hura. And this is a really sweet nod to the late great Nishel Nichols, who originated the role of Commander O'Hura Communications Officer of the Enterprise. Now, Nichols was a pioneer for black women on television. Unlike a lot of shows at the time, she was not a housekeeper or comic relief or a nanny. She was equal to all of the white men on the show and gave us TV's first interracial kiss. But Xavier is right. Riri is like way more of a spock than a new hurrah. So she acknowledges him with a Vulcan salute. Later, she is sleeping in her armor. Now, this is a defense mechanism against Parker, but it's also probably the only way she can sleep. And here we see yet another parallel with Tony Stark. After the Battle of New York,

Tony Shellshock meant that he couldn't sleep, and instead, he tinkered. But his armor was set to sentry mode, in effect meaning that Tony could not rest without his armor protecting him. And, like Tony, Riri's sleeping armor almost hurts the people she loves. Tower down. We're ready. Mom. What's wrong? You tell me.

Afterwards, her mom says, Girl, you just busted down my dough like the Kool-Aid ban. And I personally am very excited for the upcoming. Kool-Aid movie. Oh yeah, baby. And did this whole scene at the candy shop remind anybody else of the Wizards of Waverly Place? They're about a mother and daughter running a front that secretly hides a magic layer, and the dad also gave up magic to raise their daughter, although I guess this was also inspired by Samantha and Bewitched, who left the magical world to marry Darren. Her mom agrees to her by bringing her to Mrs. Stanton, who we met in episode one. And they passed by, Stan's

donuts, maybe a nod to Iron Man co-creator Stan Lee. And then we made a Marvel character we're probably going to be seen a lot more of, Zelma Stanton. Now, in the comics, Zelma first sought out Dr. Strange's help when she was infested with brain maggots, and there's a nod to that here. Once they get in your brain, they're kind of hard to get out. But later, she became Strange's librarian and a key member of the Strange Academy. That's the magical school that he founds in the comics. And, according to rumors, Disney is actively developing a Strange Academy series for Disney Plus.

Very exciting. She says they are in... The Western Cortex of Neverish. And this is where the Strange Academy is located in the comics. first appearing in Strange Academy, Issue 1, by Scottie Young and Alberto Ramos. They examine the cloak and determined that it is from another realm, and this is where we're like very slightly dipping our toes into the multiverse saga. The multiverse doesn't just encompass other universes, but also other dimensions.

The ancient one mentions it twice in Dr. Strange. Who are you in this vast multiverse? Drawn from other dimensions of the multiverse? So, the realm of Dormammu is part of the multiverse, and this cloak also came from another part of the multiverse. Now, I've always thought, for instance, that that weird hand dimension in Dr. Strange could be hell. And that dimension, also part of the multiverse. And then it was revealed that Madeline was a student at Carmar Taj.

The Nepal retreat that we saw in the Dr. Strange films were sorcerers trained. But she left the order to raise her daughter. And then she named her to Dr. Strange. Hell ever heard of Dr. Strange? That's interesting that Dr. Strange is super famous, but Wong, who is the actual sorcerer supreme, is not famous. But then again, Dr. Strange did fight an eyeball monster in broad daylight in the village, and he saved the universe while Wong was spending the entire time watching The Sopranos. We're really in an era of Pink TV.

And when Madeline reads that he leaves, her reaction, Oh, hell no. Everybody else. Reminded me of this Eddie Murphy joke about entering a haunted house. Being out underwear, I really love them. This is really nice. Get out. Too bad we can't stay, baby. And that joke inspired the movie, get out.

Hey, that's right, high five. and guys i am so excited to show you these new shirts that we just launched for our merge store now we made these special for the movies that are coming out next month first check out the july 2025 shirt showing two rockets passing each other the fantastic four and call ells and then we have brian from family guy as crypto who's a good boy and for the fantastic four we have this parody of them on abbey road but hey where's who storm at and then we have the fantastic four as the jetsons celebrating the retro future aesthetic of the film, as well as clobber in time, flame on, and this image of The Think as John Carpenter is The Thing. Right now, we're also running a

summer sale 20% off, and if you become a member, you can earn rewards and get free stuff. I just want to thank you guys so much for your support, and the links for those are below. And this is because, like Spock, she tries to cut herself off from all emotional connections because they're too painful, or in Spock's case, they're purged during the Pond Far. Parker recruits staying to be their new tech. guy, quickly giving him all of the bionic implants that he designed, just like the ones he has in the comics. And while staying is rising, Riri is falling. She can't figure out how to destroy the cloak, and she has to accept that there are some things that for her will just remain unknowable,

like Madeline said. Making the unknown known is the greatest magic. Now, when she flies away, I love this shot of the south side. It's all dark with the skyline of Chicago in the distance. It is a great way to show that people like her are locked out of this system of prosperity, and she felt like she had to turn to crime to get ahead. I also want to shout out the symbolism of these panic attacks, like panic attacks manifest in many different ways for different people, and for her, they come as a shortness of breath. And so you've got to breathe, okay?

Now, I Can't Breathe were also the tragic final words of Eric Garner before he was strangled by police officers in 2014, which sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, which we see a poster for in Riri's room. Breathing is literally what gives us life and attunes us to the earth. And Ree-Ree's inability to breathe is a manifestation of how she is cutting herself off from the rest of the world and from the people she loves. I can't breathe, knowing everyone I love is going to die.

And there's also a parallel here with Parker, learning not to breathe, deliberately cutting himself off in the bath so he can be better at using the evil magic cloak, which, remember, turns him invisible as long as he doesn't breathe. Riri is trying to reform her connections to the world, while Parker is gradually cutting himself off. So Natalie brings Xavier to Riri, but he is horrified by what she has made. Make her go away. Delete.

Now, like we talked about in our last video, bringing your loved ones back with AI is actually a whole ethical debate happening right now. But, in the case of this show, created a fake Natalie as a way for reread to avoid dealing with her grief and to not accept that she has to move on. Meanwhile, the gang is giving Stain his implants, and I like the small detail that Slug recognized the code for Madrepoor. I haven't seen Code DeCentric since Madrepoor. Madrepoor is, of course, where Slug is from, and it's the Anything Goes Lawless Nation, where, oh, I can't watch this clip enough. Barron Zemo did this. And then they drill into Zeke's brain, but without strapping down his head. That's a really good way to end up with your face looking like Dr. Doom.

And before we go into episode 5, let's talk about some of the Easter eggs that we missed in episodes 1 through 3. Some of these came from our staff, some from the comments, or from our free-to-join Discord server, links are below. Mosaic 210 on our Discord said, so in the opening sequence when R-Rei is locked out of her suit, I took it as a mirror of when Tony lost control of his first suit and landed in the sand, only this time she landed on concrete. The difference is that Tony was missing, and because of his status, he was given a ride to wherever he wanted, whereas Riri had to walk all the way back home and even pay 20 bucks to have a kid lug parts of her suit. I love those parallels. And Scarlett Rody called me out on a couple of mistakes, the obsession of talking about the Tony Stark AI, but never mentioning

that Natalie is comic accurate. And you're right, I forgot that she also made Natalie in the comics as well. Also, she does not live on Ironheart Avenue. That's clearly how the show titles work. Literally, it was mentioned in the episode one part of the video. You know what? I did wonder why they didn't have the title card in that episode, and now I know why. Thank you so much. And Will Terry said, I guess the Screencrush crew didn't grow up watching Sister Sister. In episode two of Ironheart, Rie says, Go Home Roger is a catchphrase from Sister Sister because Roger was their annoying friend who was always at their house.

Roger, go home. Actually, I did watch Sister Sister when it was on ABC, but then they moved it to the WB, and I didn't get that channel on like our cable package. So I just forgot that was a thing. Sister, sister, never knew how much I missed you. And Elias, one of our interns, pointed out a few cool details we missed the first time. Notice the Koki Frog on Parker's Stomack Tattoo. Now, this is the Puerto Rican frog that we heard about in Daredevil Born Again.

Doesn't croak, sings its name. And we also see Tainopetroglyph tattoos, like the writings carved into the rocks by the natives on the island. And now, let's move on to episode five. We begin with Natalie on the roof of the Science Museum, trying to recreate the smile and appearance of the real Natalie. Period. Mm-hmm. Period. Okay, what about you? What do you want? Now, like I said, this is the Chicago Science Museum,

which I think is the same place where Riri and Natalie recorded the selfie that opened up the show. This opening is heartbreaking because, in many ways, Natalie is like a little kid. She doesn't fully understand the world around her, and all she can do is copy Riri's memories or videos of the original Natalie. And it's fitting that this moment of emotional vulnerability makes her vulnerable to physical attack,

and the game captures her. Zelma talks Rewri through a suspect for the true owner of the cake. In the comics, it was owned by Dormammu, the giant sky head that we see in Dr. Strange. We see a comic-accurate drawing of his head and sketches of Cicilius, the villain from Dr. Strange that she mentions here. There was this rogue sorcerer and then Cacillius and used to stand Dormammu in his dark magic. And notice they are eating at White Castle. Now normally, I like to call out blatant product placement in superhero canon, like the cigarette truck in Superman 2, the I hop and man of steel, or the McDonald's in Loki. But genuinely, there is no better

place for the two of them to eat. I love White Castle. Just thinking about those tinting little White Castle burgers. Zelma demonstrates a little bit of close-up magic, like the greatest sorcerer in the MCU, Scott Lang. Close-up magic. And then she guesses why Dormammu wants to come to earth. To eat it? Which is basically what he wanted to do in Dr. Strange, to consume our reality. And then Zelma says a key line to the series. You're dealing with magic now and magic always comes at a price and sometimes it's a heavy one. We saw this in the hood's origin in the comics. Everything good that happened to him was encountered by something bad.

He gets the hood, he's all powerful, but a police officer dies, etc. But we're also seen this in this series. Every time something good happens to Riri or Parker, it is countered immediately by something bad or worse. Riri gets into MIT, but she loses Natalie. Parker pulls off the tunnel heist but loses John. And then when the gang shows up, Zelma runs away instead of teleporting Riri to the safety of another dimension.

Or maybe she can only teleport in the candy store. Sure, after we get the Iron Heart logo in a White Castle box, the show gives us my favorite fight of the series. Because this entire time, I was genuinely scared for Riri because she's felt so overmatched. Seriously, this was the most violence I've seen in a kitchen since the last season of the bear. 76 beefs, 34 chickens, okay? 12 French fries, 12 mash. But I need to point out something sinister here. In the kitchen, instead of fry cooks, this job has become automated by robots.

And notice, these look like Dummy, the robot that Tony Stark built at MIT that helped him build his first suit. For lack of a better option, dummy is still on fire safety. If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to City College. Now, in Spider-Man No Way Home, we saw the government seize Stark industry's assets, you know, like the Edith drones. So maybe post-tony's death, Pepper was forced to sell off certain technologies, like Dummy, to automate fast food restaurants. And I, for one, think this is unfair. When automation comes, they will immediately go for the lower wage workers, the people who are struggling and who need these jobs the most.

And in the post-splip economy, late-stage capitalism has only been accelerated, leaving the proletariat in the dust. And I, for one, think, Slur down, comrade. Just think about White Castle. Yeah, White Castle is great. Mm-mm. High five.

Now, just like in Ree-Ree's fight with John, I was genuinely scared for her in this scene. She is not a trained fighter, just a resourceful scientist. I always felt like she was a kid in over her head. The fight kicks off with a kick so hard I assumed that everybody got bionics. And then she has to fight without her armor, just like Tony Stark and Iron Man 3. Now, Riri plays up how people underestimate her, pretending to be afraid to lure a clown and to a trap. I thought we were cool.

Is this thing on? I'm actually surprised she didn't reprogram the kitchen robots before reuniting with Natalie outside. That would have been a really cool detail. And when Riri punches the truck, it's a scene straight out of her first mission in the comics. Now, when her suit is hit by lightning, it seems like an act of God, until we get the full. villain reveal of Ezekiel Stain. And just like in the comics, he has bionic updates. And notice how even after the White Castle sign is crushed,

there's still a delicious White Castle mural across the street. Mmm. Tasty White Castle. Now, Zeke is the rare superhero villain. He's layered, conflicted, and I actually root for the guy. All he wanted was to live a quiet, polite life, you know, to live, laugh, love. But, like the other characters in this show, he was tempted into wanting more, and he sold his soul in the process.

Now, when she scans his armor, she sees that he has an energy displacement network to distribute his electrical powers and augmented hypothalamus. That is the part of your brain that regulates temperature and other bodily functions, meaning he's not going to overheat from the electricity. And she can also see his biomesh and electrostatic repulsors in his hands. So his bioelectricity is rewired to continuously keep him powered up, while Riri's armor runs on solar and winds, so she runs out of juice almost immediately in this fight.

When he shocks her, it's terrifying because he is using her greatest strength, the armor, and then turning it into a cage. And this shot where she can only see the world through small eye lenses is claustrophobic, and you understand why she feels trapped in this armor and why she can't breathe. So Stain compares himself to his dad. Just find myself right where he left. Oh, taking down an iron break! And there's also a cool reversal here. Obadiah was killed by a massive amount of electricity pumping into his

suit. And now, his son is the one who's pumping electricity into the suit of a superhero. Now, when Joe says, Lisa will always have Alanis. This is a reference to them singing jagged little pill in the car, but also a nod to one of the most famous lines from Casablanca. We'll always have Paris. This brutal defeat leads to her finally accepting that she can't do everything alone. And she needs the support and love of her mom. It is my job to make you feel safe. Not the other way around.

It's a great scene that also echoes the comics, where Ronnie is always a constant that Riri can rely on. And it's also, finally, a watershed moment for her grieving process because accepting support is a key component of overcoming trauma. If you've ever lost somebody close to you, then Riri's struggle really resonates. So, they go back to her roots. She returns to the garage using Gary's barracuda for parts. Except now, she has the help of her loved ones. And this is similar to Tony Stark, who had to admit that he needed help of someone else, Jensen, to escape the cave. But here, Riri's cave is more metaphorical.

She is trapped inside of her trauma and needs her family to help get her out. Now notice that when R-R-R-R-Y goes back to Gary's shop, the only letters glowing are R-Y, because this is no longer Gary's garage, but R-Ree's. At the garage, we hear, this place took so much from us. Yes, but it also gave so much to us. And really, that's life, isn't it? I mean, it gives you all these wonderful moments with people you love, but the whole time, life is also a gracious thief.

It is slowly taking away everything when you're not paying attention. Riri's journey here is to accept that she has to accept that living isn't just about living through the good days, it's also about facing the bad. But to inspire Riri, Natalie shows her a flashback of the good times in the garage, so she can focus on the good memories of Gary and not just the loss. Actually, I wonder if this projection is made with some segment of the barf technology that Tony Stark used in Captain America Civil War. Remember, that was able to recreate Tony's memories in perfect holographic form.

And I did this with a device attached to his head. So this could be the same way Riri used her memories to create Natalie and how Natalie recreated these memories as a hologram, similar to how Edith works and far from home. During the flashback, Gary calls her Ironhead, which is what John calls her in episode two during the heist. Yo, Ironhead. Little Rie mentions Mae Jemison, an astronaut and engineer,

and the first black woman to go into space. And this incredibly sweet scene of Little Ree-Ree dancing with Gary shows us how, for Riri to succeed, she has to embrace her hometown of Chicago. In the show's opening flashback, she talked about how she was leaving and never coming back. In fact, she only returns home because she is expelled. But when Ezekiel gave her the ultimatum to finally leave town, instead, she embraces her family and her city. Meanwhile, Xavier's old headphones, the ones that remind him of Natalie, glitch out. And when he opens the new headphones, he sees Rearie's card with the symbol

of the Federation of Planets from Star Trek. Later, he tells us the quote that she wrote inside. Of my friend, I can only say this, of all the souls I've encountered on my travels, hers was the most human. Now that is, of course, taken from Kirk's eulogy for Spock in Star Trek to the Wrath of Khan. Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most human. Xavier said that she was cold and calculating like Spock, but she was telling him, I'm still a human being with human emotions, and the headphones are also symbolic of Xavier's grief for Natalie. He finally discards the old, analog headphones, and embraces the new digital pair, just like how he accepts the existence of digital Natalie.

And as Riri then starts to rise, Parker begins to fall. Like all gangsters and dictators, he sheds away all the people who really knew him and surrounds himself with an autonomous yes-man who has to obey his every order. I'm sorry. He takes control of Zeeks' bionics, and this is Zeeke's own devil's bargain. Parker promised to get him out of jail, but in exchange, he turns Zeeke's body into a jail. And then we find out that Parker this entire time was just motivated by his dad being a giant asshole. For one, this is in contrast with Riri, whose family is loving and supporting. And also,

Parker's dad has appeared since episode one when he showed up in this banner in the background. He calls Parker, you're a small time crook. Which pushes all of his buttons at once. He kept promising the gang over and over that they would no longer feel small. When his dad kicked him out at the age of 12, this stunted Parker's emotional growth and now he will always be that 12 year old kid. And he once again forces someone to sign a contract so he can take what he wants. And as he sits on his new throne, the demonic scarring starts to overtake his face, symbolic of how it is obscuring his identity and how the entity is taking control. Meanwhile, the montage to build Riri's new armor is coming along great. The painting that Zellma

is drawing on the ceiling is actually the same carving from the hood, issue one, when he still has the cloak. We see Reree testing her new gauntlet's repulsor rays, a lot like Tony Stark did for his Mark II armor in Iron Man. And also, Tony and Reh, read Hents a goat on an emotional journey to accept that they needed help from others. And the new armor looks awesome. It's almost worth tearing apart that sweet, sweet car. Zalma reminds her... Remember, magic is a mutual exchange. There's always the cost. And there's a big hint that there are dark forces at play here when she uses this red magical energy. Remember, the energy we saw from the witches and Agatha all along varied in colors,

but only Wanda's magic was red, symbolic of the chaos magic of the evil entity, Cathone. And this new power, like life, is a gracious thief, taking away Natalie and reminding Riri of her trauma all over again. Now, this magic stole Natalie for a specific reason that we're going to talk about in our episode 6 breakdown. All right, huge spoilers for episode 6. You have been warned. I warned you. Finally, we can talk about it. Sasha Barrett Cohen is Mephisto. Hell yeah.

Very nice. Now, the news did leak like a while ago, which is a bummer because it would have been such a cool surprise. When we talked to Iron Heart producer Seb Ohanian for our podcast, he told us how they tried to keep this a secret. And by the way, that full episode of the Screen Crush Crossover Universe podcast will be online soon. So subscribe to us on all your favorite podcast platforms. You can hear the whole interview. Seb also produced centers, Space Jam 2, Missing Searching, and we had a great talk about how on the hell my name ever ended up in the show and exactly who my character is in the MCU.

Did my character blip? Would Ryan area of blip? We're going to have the audio from that interview uploaded first on our podcast. platforms before you can listen to it on YouTube. Hey, sir, who is Mephisto? All right, so Mephisto is basically Marvel's version of the devil. He's a major villain for Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, and actually Dr. Doom. He made a bargain with Doom's mother, and Doom scarred his face, building a machine

trying to get his mom free from hell. So in the comics, Mephisto has also made deals with Spider-Man when he resurrected Aunt May in exchange for Peter Parker's marriage. And he's also tempted basically every Marvel hero at some point, even bringing Iron Man homebrew in a cave a million years. in the past. And we also brought up Mephisto when we were speculating about the Big Bad of Wanda Vision. In fact, some YouTubers really latched on to this idea that Mephisto could be behind everything. Although my money was always on the Chaos God Cathon, who was the Big Bad of Multiverse

of Madness. Although, I am starting to think that maybe Cothone and Mephisto were the same god using different names. And of course, we also heard him finally name-checked here in Agatha all long. Somehow Palpatine returned. Sorry, I meant here. Or an agent of Mephisto. So we find out that Parker met old scratch the night that he first broke the law and tried to take his inheritance from his dad. So this showed Mephisto Parker's true ambition and how he could be manipulated. So he takes him to a family restaurant so he can pretend to be the father figure that Parker always wanted. And notice these pictures in the wall behind them.

Now, of course, the Russo brothers are Italian-Americans. And if you look closely at this picture, you will see that's your mom. And I should also note that this fatherly attention is also how gangsters and terrorists often recruit people. They find young men looking for a strong authority figure and manipulate them into joining their cause. He says, You like a modern day Shakespeare. He was also a twat. Which implies that the bard also made a bargain with the devil to earn himself

universal worldwide acclaim. And the price that Shakespeare would have paid was the death of his son Hamnet, who died at the age of 14. Now, you probably notice that Mephisto changes accents, and this is because he is able to appeal to anyone. When did you get an accent? Similar to how Remik spoke Chinese to Grace and Ryan Cooghler's centers. Now, at the end of episode six,

when Rie Re meets with Mephisto, it plays out like the sunken place scene and get out. Mephisto stirs his drink and clinks the side of it in the same way as Miss Armitage. Now, sometimes that means that. And in both instances, the villain of the scene is manipulating the protagonist, luring them into a false sense of security

by helping them confront a traumatic death that they have left undelt with, when in reality, this hypnosis trick is all part of a larger, more sinister plot. Now, they have been hinting at the Mephisto reveal all season long, not just with like the scenes or the cloak whispers to Parker, but notice the show has this emphasis on contracts, on deals, and handshakes.

All along the way, the characters all fall into some kind of temptation and then choose to break a rule to get ahead. Riri takes away her armor. Joe agrees to help Riri. Riri agrees to commit crimes, all leading them straight into Mephisto's control. Notice that we actually do see Mephisto's true, comic-accurate face, and the reflection of the spoon, which inverts his reflection and shows his true self. Now, inversion is often seen as a sign of Satanism,

so this is a perfect tiny detail. And then we go from this devil's bargain to the rewards that Parker has gained. He sits at the head of a feast that is only for himself and his bionic slave. He tells Zeke, You're programmed to prevent anyone from harming me, even you. Which is kind of taken from the three laws of robotics

that says a robot may not harm a human through inaction or cause that human to be harmed. And I should also say this is appropriate because the root word for robot is the Czech word robata, meaning forced labor. And the word for slave comes from the word swathing. originating in the same region. And then we see that Parker, who despite everything that he's won, is still in that same pizza parlor, but now he's all alone. His sins and obsession have driven

everyone away, and now he's even tattooing himself, trying to cover up the sense of his past with more ink. Meanwhile, Riri is trying to undo her own magic bargain by bringing back Natalie. And I think that here, Mephisto is kind of like Palpatine. Like Mephisto never really wanted Parker, he wanted Riri. Like how Palpatine traded up from Duku to Anakin. So, Mephisto's set a sequence of events into motion to get Parker the hood, but then manipulated Riri into joining him. And the reason that the Cloak's power shorted out Natalie is so Riri would be desperate to have her back at the end of the episode, and she would accept his offer. Now, when Ree-Ree attacks Joe, she detects the same gear as before, except now she can see the admin override run by a voice

command program. She throws him into the lock-in, which frankly is the best place to calm down when you work in Back of House. Seriously, the Lock-in meltdown was like the most relatable part of the bear. And, much like Peter Quill, Joe's weakness is a shot to the pills. You missed the first time. Then you got him both the second time. Now, Joe also has an override port on the back of his neck, just like Dr. Octopus. And Spider-Man 2, this is where his control chip shorted out, but in No Way home, Peter worked out how to restore his cognitive control. It's so quiet.

Those voices inside my head, I'd almost forgotten. Bifisto tells Parker, If he managed to hold onto what I gave you, I'll consider giving you some more. Which is a brilliant bit of manipulation. He needs Parker to keep the hood, so he'll stay under his control, but also to test Riri. And notice Parker now keeps the hood up, further, obscuring his face in the shadows, showing how his old self has truly been lost to this darkness. All through the show, Riri has been telling herself that she was always breaking the rules for the right reasons.

It's not worth the cost. Parker sees her for who she really is. You're a criminal like me. And when he turns invisible, she's able to use the power of the cloak to see him, similar to in the Lord of the Rings. When Frodo wore the one rink, he was able to see the true forms of the Nosgul. And as Parker gives him to his rage, he physically transforms into the entity that he serves. And shout out to the sound designers here. His appearance looks like the Spider-Man villain, the Hobgoblin, after he was possessed by the demon Nerasty.

And I just want to say, side note, that it's nice to have an armor that is just pieces of metal that are attached together. I always thought the Tony Stark Natotech was like too close to magic, and it took away the grounded realism that made the character appealing in his first few movies. In fights like this, it also makes Riri feel more vulnerable, which is why I completely bought that barf illusion that she shows him. And this is actually the opposite of the finale from far from home, when the villain used holograms on the hero to hold them at gunpoint. Now, when she takes away his cloak, he wails in pain, almost like he's going through drug withdrawals.

You don't know what it's like without him. It hurts. It hurts. After all, the power of the cloak is like an addiction. And like drug abuse, it pulls you further from your loved ones and into the allure of the comfort that it offers. And downstairs, Mephisto is waiting for her in the same booth. Now, earlier, he and Parker ate pizza cut into squares, Chicago style. But now, the pizza is cut into triangles, New York style. It is a subtle way to show the Mephisto is slowly leading her away from her home and from the people she loves. He runs through the list of people that he's worked with. For example, out of the Forbes 100 Richest list, I've made a a deal with a hundred of them plus 14 kings, three popes. And this did make me wonder who else in

the MCU has made a deal with Mephisto. We actually have a video coming out tomorrow that's about exactly that, so subscribe so you don't miss it. And then he admits that he made a deal with Ringo from the Beatles, implying that Ringo was never good enough to be in the band. I mean, that's ridiculous. He was 10 times the drummer is Pete Best. I know, and the dude was in a band with three once-in-a-generation songwriters. It is not fair to compare them. I love Octopus's Garden. Yeah, it's okay. And then I loved his reaction when he heard the named Romamu. You know, the guy who almost ate our reality. That ugly pillick isn't fit to clean my glory's asshole.

This establishes that Mephisto is a way bigger threat, and honestly, Baron Cohn is so perfect in this part. I really want to see him return as a villain in a future movie. Maybe Doctor Strange 3 or The Champions or an Iron Heart film. This guy has the chops to be the big bad of an entire phase. And honestly, I've never been a huge Mephisto fan in the comics. He's kind of a one-note villain, but Sasha Baron Cohen makes him so much more interesting and charming than the demonic figure that we normally see in the comics.

He says that he wants to... Help the unseen, the unheard. And this is what really gets her on his side. All through the series, Riri keeps telling us who's showing others that she doesn't want to feel small or to be ignored, so he knows how to say exactly what she wants to hear. During the conversation, we keep cutting to Riri's fantasy, which we think is her imagining what it would be like to have Natalie back. Notice also that in the future here, Riri has comic accurate hair with an afro.

And we keep cutting back to her listening to Mephisto Talk. And I fully expected this cutaway to end with Natalie turning into a monster or telling Riri that she can't take the deal. I expected Riri to finally learn to say goodbye to her friend and to come full circle and reject the devil. But then honestly, what the f***, man? I was shocked by this ending. The way they cut away, like right before she takes his hand,

makes you think that she rejects the offer. But then, we see that little bit of a scaly vein under her shirt. Like, I'm sure we'll do a video about what's next, and frankly, they can go anywhere with this. Riri could join the Young Avengers team to Champions, which of course has Billy Maximoff, who's also a sorcerer. She could also appear in Black Panther 3, which could also be more attuned to the spiritual plane of Bast,

or she could be in Doctor Strange 3 or even a second season of her own show. Or she could appear in the spin-off series teased in the mid-credit scene. Parker, now powerless, finds Zelma. I'm guessing that without Mephisto's support, he lost his fortune and everything he gained. Notice, Zelma is wearing a Bronx hat, a nod to her home neighborhood in the comics. And he tells her, I mean, I need some heavy-duty magic. Which is setting up the spin-off series, Strange Academy, the school for young magicians that Strange establishes in the comics. Full disclosure, I've not read that comic, but I'm looking forward to it.

Leaker Daniel RPK has said that a Strange Academy show is in full development, hopefully with these to as members. So what do you guys think about the show? What do you want to see happen with Ree-Ree next? Where do you think this is going to be resolved? Let me hear your thoughts down in the comments below where you can at me on Twitter, Blue Sky Threads, or on our free-to-join Discord server. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe, smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie. Thank you.