It is time for a trip down memory lane. This entire episode was dedicated to Wanda's past. It was an episode of show don't tell. We always heard about Wanda's traumatic experiences, but we didn't see most of them. Now we do. She has a terrible history. And that makes for a brilliantly crafted episode.
Obviously spoilers for WandaVision and the entire MCU.
Even the recap goes deeper into memory lane this time. We don't just see what Director Tyler Hayward showed us in one of the episodes when he presented Wanda's history, we see events from the previous movies. Like Wanda Maximoff in the post credit scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier where she looked totally crazy crushing toys in the air. When in the recap we see Darcy saying to Vision that he asked Wanda to kill him, we now see that scene in Avengers: Infinity War when Wanda says that she can't. We see Wanda kill Vision, and then we see her scream as Thanos rewinds time and kill Vision himself and takes the mind stone. Wanda has been through some terrible things in her past and she never really dealt with any of them.
It's so cool when the Marvel Studios logo fades away with purple magic. It is not the Agatha Harkness episode, but she sure as hell has a big part in it. Starting with a flashback to Agatha's past. In the Salem witch trials, only here it's not regular people who accuse her of witchcraft, but her coven accusing her of using the darkest of magic. At first she denies it, but then she says the rules bent to her power. And she has more power then they know. We see that the main accuser is her mother, but she has no mercy for her daughter, she know that her daughter cannot be a good witch. Her coven uses their blur powers on her to kill her, at first it works and she screams and glows with a red undertone. Then her screams disappear and the blue power becomes purple power that comes out of her and drains the life out of the witches that attack her. Her mother then attacks her after the entire coven has died, when she attacks she has a blue crown of energy on her head. Interesting. But her mother dies as well as she is drained of her powers. Well, at least Agatha cries when her mother dies. She then takes her mother's brooch, the one she is always wearing in the show. Probably not out of remorse, but as a reminder of how truly evil she is. Then she flies away, because now she is powerful enough to fly. And she flies away in a trail of purple. I wonder if the purple represents Dormammu. Whom does she serve in the end?
Enough background story for Agatha, it's time to return to the present with Wanda and Agatha inside of Agatha's basement. Also, Agatha talks to her bunny so I guess that that is an actual person who simply has been transformed into a bunny. Wanda tries to read Agatha, but she can't. Like Billy said, she is quit on the inside and her mind is closed. Wanda demands to know where her children are and tried to use her powers against Agatha, but fails. Agatha uses her powers to tie Wanda up in the air. Agatha makes Wanda notice that there is a protection spell in the basement. Protection runes. Only the witch who cast them can use her powers in that space, and that witch is Agatha. Also one of the runes look suspiciously like an M that stands for Mutants, but I guess it's just an Easter Egg. Wanda asks Agatha who is she, but Agatha is more interested in who Wanda is? That's the million dollar question I guess, who is Wanda? The real Wanda.
Agatha wants to know who Wanda truly is and how she got her power upgrade. She got close with fake Pietro, Fietro, but that didn't work out in the end. Wanda's self-doubt made her believe the lie so much. Agatha possessed fake Pietro because she couldn't get real Pietro and do necromancy because his body is far away and riddled with holes. Ouch. Agatha came to Westview because she was attracted to the magic. So many different spells cast at once leave a trail behind, a trial that she followed. Agatha uses magic to show just how much magic Wanda is using. She controls one ugly insect with an incantation, Wanda is controlling thousands of people who all interact with one another under Wanda's storyline. Agatha studied long and hard to achieve her knowledge and magic, Wanda did not. Agatha creates and illusion to turn the insect into a bird, but Wanda turn the entire town into what she wanted. Everywhere in town. Magic on autopilot. Which makes me think that Monica Rambeau was right when she said that if they will kill Wanda, there is no guarantee that the hex will die with her. I think that she was right, unless Wanda takes it down, the hex will stay even after Wanda's death. Agatha feeds the bird to the bunny, I don't want to know what kind of bunny eats birds. Agatha wants to know Wanda's secret to her powers. She calls her sister because they are both witches and witches are all sisters apparently.
Agatha is not there to play nice. When Wanda says she didn't do this, Agatha uses her magic to hurt Wanda. Agatha tried to wake Wanda up from the fantasy world but failed. Wanda will do anything to avoid the truth. And like what Wonder Woman said, the truth is all we have. Agatha plans on understanding on how Wanda created the Westview hex. She recalls what Wanda said to her fake brother, that all she remembered was the feeling of emptiness, sadness, endless nothingness. So Agatha is planning on doing a none-conventional version of therapy in order to get to the truth. The game of pretend is over. Agatha takes a hair out of Wanda's head, like Dr. Strange did with Thor to find his father. She uses the hair to create a real door to the past. It is time to looks at reruns from Wanda's life and not fake reruns of sitcoms.
Up until this moment we've only heard about Wanda's past, now we are going to see it. That has a different emotional impact, a stronger one. Wanda doesn't want to go into her past, but she has no choice, Agatha has her children. Billy and Tommy's cries for help is all the motivation Wanda needs to agree to Agatha's plan.
Door number one leads to Wanda's childhood in Sokovia. Her childhood home looks very Eastern European. It almost reminds me of my old home. Yes, carpets on the wall are a real thing. And yes, all Western culture items were illegal and were sold under the table. This is TV night for the Maximoffs, to practice their English and to watch sitcoms together. Yes, their father sold DVD's of sitcom and watching them together was a family event that strengthen their ties, but also helped them turn a blind eye to the suffering and dangers outside. That is where Wanda got her love, obsession and muse to create her own sitcom. We see "Bewitched," "I love Lucy" and yes, "Malcom in the Middle" inside the suitcase. Up until now we have been wondering why sitcoms and now we finally got our answer.
Wanda has to relive the past. She enters her own old body as a child as the young version of her twin brother calls to her. The way her father pulls the DVD's out of the wall is so old school and correct. Wanda gets to choose what they will watch and she chooses "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Her brother is not a fan of sitcoms, but Wanda clearly is. Everything always ends up fine on sitcoms, but in real life, not so much. The kids watch from the floor, while their loving parents are cuddling on the sofa. It's a lovely moment that ends abruptly. Wanda is fascinated by the lovely images on screen when the apartment explodes. This is Wanda's first big trauma.
We heard about this moment, but seeing it is different. Wanda and Pietro are pushed forwards from the force of a blast of a bomb falling in their house. There is a big hole where the sofa used to be and Wanda looks around bewilder at her destroyed apartment after she comes back around. The look on her face when she sees that her parents are gone is a mix of shock and devastation. But it's not over yet, her brother pulled her away just in time before a second bomb hits. It's the Stark Industries bomb that Wanda and Pietro talked about with Ultron. Feels very different to see it and not just hear about it. The bomb ticks just like the toaster in the first black and white commercial. It appears that the commercials where a subconscious way for Wanda to process her trauma. The twins are confused and bewilder, they can't escape from the ticking bomb and they don't know if help is coming.
But then something happens. Wanda looks around and we see that the TV is still on and it is still playing "The Dick Van Dyke Show." We see that Van Dyke says that he had a terrible nightmare and Wanda embraces it. She repeats the words, it was all a bad dream and none of it was real. Then we see her do a hand movement that looks like casting a spell, while her brother yells at her. It's not a dream, it's a memory. Wanda and Agatha are back and standing in the ruins of the house. Agatha explains that Wanda used a probability hex on the bomb, it wasn't defected like they always thought it was. That's Wanda's comic book powers, probability hexes, now it's MCU cannon. This is so cool! Comic book Wanda Maximoff is now almost officially part of the MCU, almost because it seems that now she is a full witch and not a mutant like she is in the comics.
Agatha is us in this episode. And also a therapist. She sees a young girl with magic powers, obsession with sitcoms and a lot of trauma who needs lots of therapy. It doesn't explain where Wanda got the power to create the hex. That means it is time for the next traumatic memory. Hydra. Wanda doesn't want to do this, but Agatha is right, "the only way forward is back". It's like a really good therapy session for Wanda which forces her to deal with her traumas.
It's time for a close encounter with an infinity stone. We never saw how Wanda got her powers and now we will. From her perspective. Not a few lines from another character. Agatha notes that Wanda's reaction to join an anti-freedom terrorist organization as a response to what happened to her and her parents doesn't make much sense. But Wanda still sees the sense, she wanted to change the world. Maybe she did think that a world with no freedom is a safer world.
Wanda steps into her Hydra past looking all Captain America: The Winter Soldier post credit scene crazy. She walks into a room made out of reinforced steel by the look of it, and Loki's Scepter with the mind stone is there. Wanda confirms that she is volunteering for this and she hears one of the doctors saying that no one survived. She is told to touch the stone, but she doesn't need to. The stone leaves the Scepter and flies towards her. After that she touch the stone that is flying in front of her and she has a vision. She sees the real infinity stone, the yellow one inside of the blue stone, and then the stone blasts her with power, but she takes it all in. Then, like the visions she gave the Avengers of the future in Avengers: Age of Ultron, she gets a vision as well. She sees The Scarlet Witch, or herself as The Scarlet Witch with a comic book accurate version of her costume, with the headpiece and all. So now we know she's going to get a massive makeover during this show or in Doctor Strange 2. Then the vision ends, the power blasts ends and she faints. The close encounter is over and Wanda is fully juiced up.
Hydra's response is almost comical considering our present day. They have no idea what she has become, so they put her in isolation. The word of the year during COVID. Now I really want to know what happened to her brother when he touched the stone, but I guess we won't ever find out. What does Wanda do in isolation? She watches "The Brady Bunch". It's nice of Hydra to feed her sitcom obsession. When Hydra looks at the footage from the experiment all they see in Wanda walking forward and then she is down on the ground. I don't think the stone did it, I think she used her powers to edit the footage like she does in the hex sitcom. Everyone sees only what she wants them to see. Then we get Agatha's take on the situation. She says that without the encounter with the stone Wanda's powers would have died, but now they are amplified. Her line of "I have a theory, but I need more" resonates with all the fans. The amounts of fan theories that are out there are just insane. People tend to forget that Marvel likes to keep it simple.
The next memory is a simple one and yet a deep one. It shows Wanda is the Avengers compound after she joined the team, which means right after her brother died. Even though no one particularly loved this version of Quicksilver, he was the only family she had left. His loss is a significant one. She was suddenly in a new country with a new responsibility and it seems like no one on the team was offering her emotional support. But Wanda has some nostalgic memories for this period as she lived there with Vision. Inside of the memory itself Wanda does what Wanda does best and that is watching sitcoms, "Malcolm in the Middle" this time. She senses Vision and calls for him to come inside. He walks through the closed door, yes, like he did in Civil War. He doesn't want to intrude, but he does want to offer company to which Wanda agrees to. I think she really likes his peculiar ways of looking at humanity. They both watch TV and inside the TV we see an outside roof falling on Hal (Bryan Cranston). Vision is concerned, but Wanda explains that he is not seriously injured, "it is not that kind of a show." Which makes you wonder what kind of a show WandaVision is. One that probably will have a really sad ending.
Vision is such a computer though. He tells Wanda that perhaps she should tell him how she feels as that might bring her comfort. He read about it, so it must be true. That is what we all call the "talking cure". It does help, just like this version of Agatha's therapy helps Wanda to cope with her past. She doesn't think it helps, she thinks that only seeing her brother will bring her comfort, which is perhaps why she accepts fake Pietro so quickly. Vision's face shows just how much he doesn't know how to respond to such a comment. She is tired, drowning in her own grief. Then comes the best line of this show, I mean give someone an Emmy for writing for this line: "what is grief if not love persevering?" There is good within the bad, there are the memories of the people we loved and there is the love itself we felt and feel towards are our loved ones. Vision with his innocent view of the world helps Wanda deal with her sorrow. She wasn't alone anymore in the world, she had Vision, a true friend and the start of something more. Now it is her love for him that is persevering.
Agatha is still not happy. She doesn't have her answer of how Wanda got all of her new and impressive powers. She edges Wanda who doesn't want to deal with her feelings anymore. Agatha recaps that Wanda's parents died, her twins died, and then Vision died. And Wanda wanted him back. We know from Director Tyler Hayward that Wanda stole Vision's body, so when we see that the next door leads to S.W.O.R.D. headquarters we assumed that that is what we are going to see. The live version of Wanda stealing Vision's body to revive him inside of the hex, or through the hex. Our big reveal is almost here. But we should have known that Hayward is a lying son of a bitch and Wanda will never disrespect the Vision's wishes.
Wanda marches into S.W.O.R.D. headquarter and we expect her to start destroying the place. Instead she argues with the man at the reception to let her see Vision's body. She doesn't want to bring him back, she wants to bury him. Give him a proper funeral, she deserve that closure. She does. The way she looks at the camera so creepily makes you think that here it comes. Especially since the man at the reception is so mean. But no, she plays by the rules. He gets a call to let her in and she goes. She doesn’t need to be buzzed in, her powers open all doors. She was being polite and playing by the rules. Remember that we saw her cry in Monica Rambeau's memories? She was wearing the same cloth from that memory so we know that today isn’t going to go well for Wanda. Especially since we see her walking into director asshole's office. He takes her to see the Vision's body. It has been taken apart, machines are working on it and people are experimenting on it. Head disconnected from body, it is super cruel and he know it. Also, this is what the Vision didn't want to happen. Director asshole even reference to Vision as "it". He even says that Wanda has the power to bring Vision back online, online! Asshole. That's what he wants though, Vision back and working for him. He is goading her and breaking her already not so great mind. Then he goes on a new asshole level and says he cannot let her take three billions worth of Vibranium just to bury it. He can, he just doesn't want to. This terrible place is her finale place of goodbye to him.
What a nightmare, but kind of what I expected from Mr. Capital asshole. Poor Wanda has to say goodbye to all that she has left while he is being torn apart. You have to start thinking that this is the part where she falls apart, kidnaps him and brings him back. Director asshole tells her that the Vision isn't hers while she is crying. We see her face expression change and go to full rage mode and she breaks the glass that she is leaning on with her powers. The medical/technical people leave and the armed people step in. We can see the fear in their eyes and the fierceness in hers, but director asshole tells them not to attack her. She walks towards Vision's head and uses her powers to read him like she did in Avengers: Infinity War. In Infinity War she would always tell Vision, "I just feel you" when she read him through the stone. Now she uses her powers on the same spot and she says that "I can't feel you." He is gone. And she just walks right out of the door and leaves his body behind. She never kidnapped him or brought him to Westview. She did everything right and by the book. We have even less answers now, just more questions. And more hate for director asshole who clearly wanted Wanda to bring Vision back. Also, I think that Wanda's mental state has never been worse.
Wanda seems dazed, shocked and full of sorrow as she walks towards her car. Inside the car there is an open envelope and we don't see what is inside of it. Wanda drives to New Jersey, a familiar route that we saw Rambeau take in episode 4. Wanda arrives to Westview and it is a pretty crumbling suburb. Nothing like the polished version it is now. We see some familiar faces down on their luck. Phil Jones is looking to give piano lessons, in the fake Westview he was fired from the company in which Vision worked in. We see Mrs. Hart sitting alone in a coffee shop. The mail guy is a miserable looking delivery guy. Everyone are sad and glum. Wanda drives around until she finds an empty piece of land. Then we see what the envelope contained: a property deed. Vision has bought them a land so they can build a house together. The deed has a hand written message which says "To grow old in V." which is a little ironic as he can't grow old, but theoretically Wanda spent decades living with Vision in the fake reality and they got married and had kids so in a really sad way they did grow old together. This place represents everything, the future that Wanda lost with Vision's death.
The loss is just too much. It has been simply days since Vision died for Wanda because of the snap and blip. She starts crumpling with tears and we see the reality of the vision that Rambeau had of Wanda's pain. Suddenly, the pain becomes too much and Wanda looks like she is giving birth and she does. Her powers bursts from her in a red haze and build the fake house from pixels. As she is done with the house and she stands of her feet it seems like the second burst that comes out of her is more consciously done and it changes the entire city into black and white and creates the hex. Then comes the last stage. While doing her bending really backwards brand move, the power that comes out of Wanda isn't red, but red that turns into yellow, meaning she is channeling the power of the mind stone. And with that she creates a new Vision of her own. She never stole his body, she created a new Vision. We see a television behind her that shows his creation, mirroring it, because it is all a TV show. One with a happy ending. Wanda is shocked at the creation of this black and white suburbia Vision. She steps forward and she walks into the role that she created for herself, a 50s house wife. She is also now a character in black and white. She created her own fake reality of a sitcom so she could live in a happy reality in which nothing bad can truly ever happen.
Fake Wanda is super happy. She has a dazed with joy smile and look on her face as she steps into the fake sitcom reality and her role in it. Vision welcomes her into the fakeness and says "welcome home." Which is not how episode 1 started. I guess she had to change a few things to make sense. They sit on the sofa and kiss and behind them the real Wanda from the present watches them, seeing how it all unfolded. Real Wanda looks around and sees how fake it is. She sees a studio in which sitcoms are filmed. The lights, the set, the camera it is all a set, props, not real. And Agatha is just there is the audience seat clapping. Sitcoms are as fake as the reality Wanda created. And now the real Agatha disappears.
When Agatha vanishes, Wanda hears the cries of her twins for help. Wanda runs out of the studio and into the fake reality. She sees Agatha in the air in her witch getup and she has the twins with a magical leash around their necks. She says that she knows what Wanda is and how dangerous Wanda is, you know the usual crap of women with too much power. Agatha says creator like Wanda are supposed to be a myth, that Wanda has a power of spontaneous creation. And Wanda is using it to serve breakfast for dinner, referencing episode 1. She says this whole little life is chaos magic, which what Wanda's power are called in the comics and then she does the name drop. Agatha calls Wanda "The Scarlet Witch."
Now that Agatha said it, it is official. The show turned Wanda into the Scarlet Witch. Which is apparently a title which people can occupy, but I'll take it. She is the Scarlet Witch with her chaos magic and this is an adaptation of "House of M" and it is perfect in the fake reality perfection. I love it.
There is a shocking mid credit scene. Because if we didn't hate director asshole enough. He uses Wanda's powers that were attached to the drone. The one she destroyed after it tried to kill her. He uses that power to power his Vision. It is a white, cold and lifeless Vision. The White Vision from the comics. I hate him already.
This episode gave us all of the answers. From why sitcoms to how did Wanda get the power to create the hex? She had it in her all along. Everything is her. The going back to the past is perfect. The show really feels like it encourages people to go to therapy, as therapy is going back to your past. Elizabeth Olsen's acting displayed in this episode is the best I've seen her do. She deserves an award for this show and episode. Just wow. This is perfection.
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