In this shocking finale, Doctor Strange's new arch-enemy forces him to make an impossible choice between saving millions of lives or the life of Strange's best friend.

Plot Summary

Wong lies near death in the arms of the Night Nurse. She tells Stephen that he no longer has a pulse. Strange puts a binding spell on Nicodemus as he looks at Wong. As he turns back, they discover that Nicodemus is gone. He went to destroy the Panacea. Getting it back is Wong's only hope.

Nicodemus is in the washroom ready to pour the potion down the drain as Stephen arrives. He questions why he hasn't destroyed it before now if he's had it all this time. Nicodemus says that the potion is a poison. It's not natural to cure all sickness in the world. Stephen then tells him that he forgives him for the surgery that failed to save his hands. He admits it was his own recklessness that caused it.

Nicodemus tries to leave again through a portal to the roof of Timely Pharmaceuticals, but Stephen shows up an instant later. Nicodemus finally decides to cast a spell he can still recall. It prevents both of them from using any sorcery for three minutes. Nicodemus claims that while Stephen has spent decades relying only on sorcery while he has been keeping his body in shape. As Stephen slowly takes off his gloves to reveal his old scarred hands, Nicodemus begins the pummel Stephen. Stephen was merely waiting for Nicodemus to waste his energy and delivers a hard kick to Nicodemus' midsection. He then informs him that while Wong is his servant, in other ways, he is his master. Stephen has spent time studying the martial arts along with sorcery.

Knowing he cannot beat Stephen, Nicodemus takes out the container with the Panacea. He screams at Stephen to get away and slips off the roof.

The three minutes are up so Stephen can now levitate down to where Nicodemus' bloody remains lie on the ground surrounded by the broken vial pouring down the gutter. Nicodemus' astral body appears then. He cast it the moment before impact. He will not be able to project it for too long. He tells Stephen that with a drop of the Panacea, he can spend a few hours studying it and replicate it or he can use that drop to save Wong. Stephen is torn, save his friend or save the world. Before Nicodemus' form disipates, he reminds Stephen that part of his oath was to never withhold treatment from a patient under his care.

Back at Strange's Sanctum Sanctorium Wong awakes. As Night Nurse tends to Stephen's gunshot wound, she tells him that she found an internal memo from Timely that incriminates all those involved. Stephen then makes Night Nurse an offer to open up her hospice there at his Sanctum to make up for the destruction caused during their fight against the Marrakant demon. She accepts and they embrace and kiss.