Another Installment of My Thoughts On “WandaVision”
Posted on February 16, 2021 Posted by Athena Scalzi 31 Comments
Since I posted about the first three episodes of WandaVision, I have decided to post about the next three, and in the future I will post about the last three! And that’s all you get because there’s only nine episodes. So let’s just jump right back in!
Of course, SPOILER WARNING.
In my previous post, I mentioned how frustrated I was with being in the dark for so long about what the heck was happening in the show. Well, episode four fixed that up right quick! We got a look at what was going on behind the scenes of Wanda’s world.
EPISODE FOUR
I liked episode four because it didn’t show anything new in the show Wanda is putting on. Instead, it explained everything that is happening outside of that world, and gave us tons of much needed information. It was a total info dump episode, and it was about time.
I found the very beginning of episode four — when people were “blipping” back into existence because of the events of Avengers: Endgame — especially interesting. Seing people blip in and out of existence is kind of horrifying, but also kind of… neat? The sheer confusion of not only the people returning, but those that have been around the past five years, is fascinating. For blipee Monica Rambeau to learn of her mother’s death in such an abrupt way, especially after her last memory before blipping is the doctor telling her that everything was fine, is deeply saddening.
(It actually took me a minute to realize who Monica was, just because I didn’t really remember character names all that well. It was only when I saw Maria Rambeau’s picture on the wall at the S.W.O.R.D. facility that I realized she was her daughter, all grown up. I kind of forgot Captain Marvel took place in the nineties.)
Episode four was basically a bunch of side characters you forgot existed, like Thor’s Darcy Lewis and Ant-Man’s Jimmy Woo, coming together to solve the mystery that is WandaVision.
EPISODE FIVE
Episode five is a blend of the real world and “Wanda” sitcom, and I think it works way better than the episodes that were purely sitcom. In this episode we finally get to see a glimpse of how the real people of Westview feel, when Vision frees minor character “Norm” of Wanda’s brainwashing. They’re all trapped. As S.W.O.R.D. Director Tyler Hayward says, she’s taken an entire town hostage, .
Vision knows something is very wrong, and he knows now that Wanda is the cause of it. Not only does this big development happen, but not much later in the episode, Wanda comes out of her simulation and confronts the agents. It’s clear to us now that she can leave whenever she wants, and she knows what she’s doing. This is an active choice she is making to keep the town the way it is and control everyone.
This kind of puts her in a bad light, doesn’t it? We as the audience love Wanda, and care about her a lot. But this thing she’s doing is terrible, and we know it, even Vision knows it. He mentions that he believed she was doing it subconsciously at first, but now he knows that she is keeping him and everyone trapped here, and he’s mad about it. Rightfully so! He’s trying, like the S.W.O.R.D. agents, to convince her that what she is doing is wrong. These people she’s turning into her cast have lives and families and don’t deserve what is being done to them.
Monica chooses to defend her, though, claiming that she’s just handling her grief in a WILDLY unhealthy way, and that she’s not doing it to be evil. Which is probably true, but does someone doing bad things suddenly become okay because they have a reason such as grief or mental illness behind it? No. It does allow for compassion to play a role, though, when you know the reason someone is doing something bad is because they are hurting.
And at the end of episode five, Wanda’s brother Pietro joins the cast. Another dead person who Wanda loves. I like that they address the recast of Quicksilver. It’s always bothersome to me when shows change a character and act like it didn’t happen.
Of course, this only raises more questions, doesn’t it? We know Wanda stole Vision’s body from S.W.O.R.D., and is keeping him alive manually. Vision is basically a zombie just walking around. In Pietro’s case, though, it doesn’t make sense how she could bring him back from the dead. Not only is he not a machine that can be manually powered, but she doesn’t have his body even if she could literally resurrect the dead.
On the other hand, is it that far out of the question considering she alters reality to the point that she created life, aka her two sons? Did she create an entirely new Pietro instead of resurrecting the old one? If so, what matter within the “Hex” (as Darcy calls Wanda’s area of influence) is she altering to turn into living beings?
EPISODE SIX
Moving on to the sixth episode, this is where shit gets real. Vision seems to be back to acting like things are normal, and everything seems a-okay in this Halloween special. Minus the arguing between Wanda and Vision that one of the twins, Billy, mentions.
Again, the show addresses that Pietro looks different. There isn’t a super clear explanation, but we as the audience know it’s probably just because of certain contracts and rights to characters. It’ll be interesting to hear what the show comes up with as a reason.
Another interesting thing about this episode is that all the side characters in Wanda’s world seem to be more meta than before, mentioning that if Wanda wants something done differently they can change things for her, or if she wants them to act differently. Even Pietro explains his character’s role to Wanda, and says that that must be how she wants him to act. The characters seem to be shoving the fact that Wanda is controlling them in her face.
In this episode, we get a glimpse at perhaps the most horrifying aspect of the whole Hex situation. When Vision wanders to the edge of Wanda’s town perimeter, we get to see what happens to the extras of the show. Brainwashing an entire town must be hard work, so it makes sense that not everyone can be the full-of-life, fun, and quirky neighbors or side characters.
These extras are just shells of people, unspeaking, barely moving, meant to appear in the background and nothing more. One of the extras, repeatedly acting as though she is putting up Halloween decorations, is seen crying. It’s pretty horrifying.
Not long after Vision’s encounters with these seemingly soulless extras, Vision talks to Agnes, who is for some reason at the edge of town as well. He frees her of the mind control, like he did with Norm, and much like Norm she ends up freaking out and Vision puts her back into character.
Vision clearly wants to help the people of Westview, but how can he? He doesn’t even remember who he was before Westview. He doesn’t know about the Avengers. How can he be a hero to these people when he doesn’t remember that he was a hero to begin with?
Wanda then has a scene with Pietro where again he mentions that she is controlling everything, and she doesn’t deny it. He asks how she does this and she says she doesn’t know how it happened, which again makes us feel sympathy for her and wonder, is she really as in control as we previously thought?
Then, as I think we all could’ve predicted, Vision tries to go past the barrier, and can’t survive outside of the town. Because of this, Wanda expands her barrier even further, taking the entire S.W.O.R.D. base and tons of characters into her perfect little town along the way.
So not only has she turned an entire town into her little fantasy playground so Vision could live and they could have their happily ever after, but now she has expanded it even further and taken more victims than before.
This really is a bad look for Wanda! Yes, Vision was on the verge of death, but he was only like one foot outside the barrier, yet she expanded it exponentially more than what was necessary.
One thing that really stuck with me was Vision pleading for S.W.O.R.D.’s help. Though it wasn’t to help him, he was asking them to help the people inside. Vision is truly a good person, synthetic or not. Vision has always been one of my favorite characters, and this is exactly why. He’s selfless and wants to help people. He is genuinely good.
Vision’s intentions and actions are in direct conflict with Wanda’s current self. She is acting selfishly and doing cruel things to these innocent people. They wouldn’t need Vision’s help at all if Wanda hadn’t started this maniacal fantasy.
This whole situation is deeply saddening, not only because Wanda is only doing this to keep Vision alive, but because Vision is realizing the only person in the world he has ever loved is doing something very wrong and more than likely he’s going to have to stop her, which we can guess will probably re-kill him. This whole show seems like set-up for heartbreak.
As we’ve seen from the clothes Monica was wearing when she was thrown out of Westview, things that Wanda changes inside the Hex stay changed when they leave. But this doesn’t apply to Vision, since he clearly cannot exist outside of the barrier. What does this mean for the other things she’s created? What does it mean for the twins and Pietro when her world finally comes crashing down?
I complained about the first three episodes being a little too slow, but these past three episodes more than made up for it. These three episodes were so informative, exciting, and even eerie at times. I can’t wait to see what the next three hold.
Are you enjoying it so far? Do you sympathize with Wanda? Let me know what you think in the comments, and have a great day!
-AMS
The thing about Pietro is that it was a surprise to Wanda herself. Did her subconscious bring him in from a parallel reality or is whoever is “really” behind this taking a more active hand? Or is it a wish fulfillment mechanism? Wanda misses Pietro and whatever forces helped her create the situation step in.
So, I think a lot more is going on than just actions by Wanda.
Looking forward to the 3 final hour-long episodes.
I haven’t seen WandaVision yet, but this line of your post resonated: “It does allow for compassion to play a role, though, when you know the reason someone is doing something bad is because they are hurting.”
My mother feels more compassion for a certain (very) recent President than I do because she thinks he is mentally ill. I think he may well be mentally ill, but find it very difficult to feel much compassion for somebody whose choices helped bring about so many thousands of deaths.
Yeah, it really took off episodes 4-6 – great pivot. Enjoying the series.
Another fun note about Pietro — he wasn’t just recast with a random actor. He was specifically recast with the actor who played Pietor in the X-Men movies, which are not part of the MCU.
Maybe it means something. Maybe it’s just another bit of extreme metastorytelling. But it certainly has interesting implications on what’s going on here…
I’m LOVING WandaVision and the way the show explores all the things hinted at and left unexplored in the movies–what life is like for the people who blipped out and back into existence, what is like for people who lost and regained people this way. It doesn’t shy away from anyone’s grief.
I love exploration of powered characters who don’t always make measured, careful decisions, but whose mistakes have larger consequences than those of more ordinary folk.
I’m anxious to see how the series continues and hope they find a way to redeem Wanda and bring her back to to the side of the light and through her own pain.
I was unsure at the beginning but now I’m absolutely loving it.
For me, yes I absolutely have sympathy for Wanda, because not only is she only recently a hero vs a villain, and not only did she have to forgive Tony Stark for his weapons killing her parents, she’s also lost everyone she loved. Plus I’m sure she has an inkling she was totally underestimated & then undermined by those who were supposed to be a family to her. In the Infinity War and Endgame movies I surprised myself at how astonishingly furious I was at how Scarlet Witch was manipulated by the team – even Vision! They made her think she only had one way to go, where there were several super-easy-obvious things she could have done to fight Thanos that wouldn’t have put her in this position.
So as wrong as she is, and she is very, VERY wrong, I totally have compassion for her.
Really enjoying the series! Somehow I’m managing to stay sympathetic to Wanda even though her motivations and everything seem pretty bad. Also, there’s enough questions about what SWORD was doing with Vision’s body that I think will make me even more sympathetic when they finally get answered. Hopefully they will anyways.
It’s really nice to have a show take a goofy / horrible concept and just run with it. Sometimes it feels more like a strange Doctor Who episode than the usual MCU where lots of fun action happens and the concept is pushed to the side and I’m there for this new approach.
I’m loving this from the first episode. I’m confident (or at least extremely hopeful) that they’ll come up with something to make Wanda not be a villain. We’ve got Hayward turning against Monica, Darcy, and Jimmy and then Darcy saying there’s still something big that Hayward is hiding, so I think that’ll be the thing.
Nice detail that one of the movies on the marquee is The Incredibles and then one of the twins turns out to have super-speed just like Dash Parr. I’m not sure how or if The Parent Trap ties in.
As far as the TV shows, I knew the first three (Dick Van Dyke, Bewitched, Brady Bunch), but I don’t know the last two, which I assume are shows from the ’80s and ’90s when I wasn’t watching shows like that. Does anyone know what shows those were supposed to be?
I have a theory. Potential spoilers?
I think Wanda found out she was pregnant with Vision’s children. Remember, she disappeared with the snap. It hasn’t been 5 years since Vision died for her. She’s still grieving and the timeline could add up to her being pregnant after End Game when she reappeared. I think she took Visions body and created the Hex as a way for her children to be born with a family in a nice town. This would also explain why Pietro was resurrected somehow. He is her closest family and she would want to share her children with her brother. Also, she never had a “normal” childhood. Modeling the town after sitcoms she may have seen as a child would fit perfectly.
” found the very beginning of episode four — when people were “blipping” back into existence because of the events of Avengers: Endgame — especially interesting”
Havent watched the show. But this is a huge redflag that the writers are fucking with the viewers. In endgame, Hulk snaps his fingers and brings everyone who was dusted back.
And within, maybe 15 minutes Dr Stramge and his followers open countless slingring circles to bring everyone who can fight to the battlefield.
Including Wanda.
Wanda is the third to last person to fight Thanos, and she was winning. She was kicking his ass. So much so that thanos orders “rain fire” to fire on the battlefield, including his own troops, to give him his only chance to escape wanda.
The reappearing took maybe 30 minutes at most, and then wanda was on the battlefield.
So after characters started to reappear, if Wanda is still NOT fighting thanos, then either the writers of wandavision are incredibly lazy, or the show is a simulation or dream or nightmare of some kind that is NOT driven by wanda.
I would wager that the simulation is being percieved by Vision and possibly driven by someone trying to reboot him.
If its really wanda, then the writers are fucking with prior known events.
The theft of Vision’s body is supposed to have taken place immediately after the events of Endgame. Wanda wasn’t quite as accepting of Vision’s death as she led Hawkeye to believe at Tony’s funeral. Originally, the footage of the theft we saw was meant to be a post-credits stinger for the movie. Monica being drawn into Westview is supposed to be about 2 weeks after the unsnappening.
Disney’s purchase of Fox Entertainment properties means that both the X-Men and the Fantastic 4 are back as part of the available stable of Marvel comic characters for the MCU to use. This version of Pietro knows he’s not part of her universe, but he doesn’t have a choice. Wanda didn’t expect him and hadn’t meant to bring her brother to life, so there may be other forces at work.
This is meant to be a setup for the next Dr Strange movie. The walls between the multiverse have been breached, and it will be up to Stephen Strange to address.
I also watched those black and white shows as a kid. A lovely blend of several sitcoms. My son found them cringe worthy. But I can see they were simple no stress funny situations. The exact opposite of Wanda’s life and a safe place.
I like the Pleasantville homage with the starkly colored objects in the otherwise B/W episode.
SSteve – The 80’s episode leaned heavily on the sitcom “Growing Pains” (which featured a SHOCKINGLY young Leonardo DiCaprio!) and the 90’s episode was very much a nod to “Malcolm in the Middle,” (starring the actor who’d later go on to play Walter White from “Breaking Bad.”) (Bonus nerd fact! The intro song for the 90’s episode was sung by the lead singer of an, er, ‘vintage’ punk band called Bikini Kill.)
The Halloween costumes that Wanda and Vision wore were the costumes they were drawn in during that time period (just…somehow even cheesier). Tommy and Billy were likewise dressed as their comic counterparts as well, “Wiccan” and “Speed” (their powers are/were basically similar to Wanda and Pietro’s).
This show’s reference-stacking is A+.
For some reason I’m getting a strong “The Usual Suspects” vibe from WandaVision. Like there will be a reveal or reorientation in the final episode that will put the entire series in a completely new light and, when you do a rewatch, see how all the one offs, hints, metas, etc. fit.
The episode 5 set is based on “Family Ties,” but there are references to “Growing Pains,” “Full House,” and others. Personally I love the sitcom easter eggs.
The blip scene at the beginning of episode 4 is definitely during Hulk’s restoration snap. The rest of the episode is 3 weeks later. The whole thing is set before “Spiderman Far From Home” which happens the following summer.
Given the Halloween episode, I’m trying to remember if they originally planned to air “WandaVision” beginning in September.
Lastly, I don’t think it’s coincidence that Vision finds Agnes near the SWORD camp. I think she led him there, and Wanda is not in complete control of the situation or her own mental state.
The Full House references in the 80s sitcom are interesting because that series starred the Olson twins as the youngest child. Wanda is played by the Olson twins’ younger sister.
Yes, WandaVision is taking place three weeks after the battle with Thanos.
And three weeks since Vision’s death for her, so that she’s barely had time to grieve.
And one week ago, she finds that SWORD has been experimenting with Vision’s body…DESPITE the possibility that he could have been revived with the Wakandan simulation of the Mind Gem (they were a few minutes shy of that happening in INFINITY WAR).
She has GOOD reason to be pissed.
But how can she be redeemed? Well, let’s see. We see her breaking into SWORD…but do we see her actually escape with Vision’s body? What if…she was unsuccessful in her attempt and was captured? By Hayward…who tries to use Wanda to revive the Vision…WITHOUT his memories…who would be much more useful to SWORD without them…..using a brainwashing machine to force Wanda t revive him….but it gets away from everyone and she truly escapes to form Westview. Agnes is one of Hayward’s handlers (notice she has no NJ license, but DOES have a CT car), but she was snared into Wanda’s dream…
I feel bad for how incredibly cracked Wanda must mentally and emotionally be to have done this, and I think she should be stopped – but there’s a lot of air between letting her keep on and killing her (and probably all the citizens she’s got under her control) like Hayward wants to do.
I don’t know what the answer is, but they’ve got the Best of the B-Team out there, and should be able to come up with…something….
A question for anyone–
The end credits (which I love) have the same artistic style as the credits on Star Trek Picard. Anyone know if it’s the same studio? And if so, who are they and is more of their work available to be seen online?
Thanks!
pax / Ctein
So, everyone who wants lots of informed speculation and a full accounting of all the references to pop culture, sitcoms, and the MCU, needs to head over to Tor where they’ve been blogging this.
https://www.tor.com/search-page/?s=wandavision
Our hostess’s father has written a few books for Tor, IIRC. ;-)
“The blip scene at the beginning of episode 4 is definitely during Hulk’s restoration snap. ”
Do they show wanda before that moment? Cause wanda was dusted by thanos and shouldnt exist just before hulk’s unsnap.
Maybe “an occurrence at owl creek bridge”. But its a simulation as they try to bring Vision back.
If wanda is really there then its either all a lie or a multiverse thing going on.
My favorite part about Pietro is that he is actually the actor that plays Pietro in the X-Men version of Pietro. Quicksilver/Pietro has appeared in the last two (I think) X-men movies from Fox.
My theory is that Wanda has subconsciously created Pietro because she needs someone to talk to about what is going on.
Greg Lynch:
Three actually. You may have forgotten “Dark Phoenix.” Most people did, though I liked it.
As a couple of people said, Evan Phillips played Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver in the Fox X-Men movies and seems on the surface to be a nod about how mutants are coming into the MCU.
Theory goes: As established in that show, Wanda can’t actually bring the dead to life (Vision is implied to be a special case) but she ALSO wants her brother back too, so her powers (the episode 6 established as being not entirely in her control) reached out across the Multiverse (do I really need to point out that that is going to be a major thing going forward) to find the closest possible equivalent…Peter Maximoff from et timeline where mutants exist. Thus Wanda is in the process of “merging” the two timelines.
Or he’s really Mephisto/Nightmare/any one of a number of mystical threats. Because we also know that WandaVision is supposed to lead directly into Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness with Elizabeth Olsen goes starring.
My current (fuzzy) theory is that the commercial in episode 6 was a huge clue. I’m thinking that “yo-magic, the snack for survivors” is indicating that someone is feeding off of Wanda’s magic and manipulating her. I also think that Hayward knows what’s going on – or at least a boatload more than he’s letting anyone know. He deeply dislikes and distrusts Wanda and, it seems, formed this opinion before Westview, so I’m thinking he’d be on board with something that was intended to control her but went horribly wrong (I’m reminded here, of Serenity/Fireflys Reavers and how they were created) and now he’s just trying to make her the bad guy to everyone to save his own ass. Or, perhaps he was just manipulated by whoever is manipulating Wanda.
And as for the recast brother – I think that that ties in with the multiverse that is going to be full blown in the next Dr. Strange movie – “The Multiverse of Madness”. Wanda pulled him straight out of the multiverse, from the different reality that is the X-Men universe. At least, that’s my guess.
In any case, I’m completely loving this show. I’ve seen sooooo many TV series over the years, I feel like I can predict most of them 10 minutes in. Here, I have no real clue in what direction it’s going to go minute to minute and it’s just freaking wonderful because of it.
@Jay Brandt
The commercials are linked to Wanda’s past traumas. I took the most recent commercial to be about Pietro’s death or Vision’s death. Wanda is guilty about her perception that her power wasn’t strong enough to save them. The snack part was probably because the writer really wanted to play off of Gogurt commercials.
In general, Disney+ was right to release WandaVision in weekly installments. I’ve watched every episode twice and some episodes four times.
This smells a lot like incorporating the House of M storyline from the comics into the MCU.
The episode 4 unblipping scene was when everyone got unblipped. That scene did not have Wanda in it at all.
I’ve seen a few comments here saying the scene must break continuity, since Wanda shouldn’t be there, but she wasn’t anyway. That whole episode was mostly about the people outside Westview. That first scene of ep 4 was set some weeks before anything else in Wandavision, and simultaneously with the scene in Endgame where Hulk undid the snap.
Kevin:”I’ve seen a few comments here saying the scene must break continuity”
Thanks for the clarification. I hate continuity errors. I also hate certain tropes like “it was all a dream/simulation/etc”.
Is this a single season planned or is there another year after this? If its all a simulation or mind control, then the real story doesnt start until the person wakes up. In “The Matrix” there was some “what is going on?” mystery at the beginning, but neo wakes up in his pod and that defines the end of act 1. Thats when tbe plot starts.
It feels like wandavision is stuck in the matrix/simulation and the season will end with her waking up. Which would be weird if there is only one season planned. Google says 9 episodes total and maybe a second season after that.
Feels like this is being paced like “the good place” where the big reveal happens at end of season 1 (theyre actually in the bad place) and the struggles of season 1 (characters thinking they are bad people hiding in the good place) is all part of the matrix/simulation/dream.
I’ve been watching with Great Interest. Opening it up to the outside world really kicked the show into gear and also released the kraken of WTF. Early on, I noticed most if not all of the ‘commercials’ referenced Hydra so I’m not sure how much of what Wanda is doing is free will. Can’t wait to see what they do with it, terrified they are going to kill Vision again.