It's Modern Family time. This episode was so good. On a first look, not much happened in it, but on a closer inspection it was totally crazy.
So yeah, spoilers for WandaVision and the entire MCU
This episode has the famous direct to camera monologues that Modern Family is so famous for. I mean, Elizabeth Olsen is a brilliant Claire Dunphy. She's so good that even Julie Bowen wrote a touching post about this episode on Instegram. But this is still WandaVision and these are Wanda's problems. Most of Wanda's problems are mental.
The episode starts with Wanda still in bed and alone. Not a great sign. It's late in the morning, but she talks to the camera and admits her previous episode's doing. She's no longer wondering about the nature of what is around her, but admits that she controls it. She expanded the boarder of the false world out of fear and anger. This is also the first time that she is admitting that it is a false world, so that is some progress I guess. Unfortunately, that coincides with a deterioration in her mental state. Ignorance is bliss I guess.
It's not like Wanda has been Ms. Mental stability up until this point, but this is a new low for her. Her twins come to her asking for help and she simply ignores their requests and pleas. She is resting her eyes, and that's all that matters to her. We see what happened to them. Their console game accidently travels back in time, until it becomes a card game. Even when Billy says his head feels funny because it is noisy, she doesn't acknowledge his distress. Somebody better call Professor Charles Xavier because this kid has telepathic abilities that he needs to learn to control. But their mother who was so loving, warn and caring towards her children, suddenly just ignores them. Her depression is clearly getting worse.
Wanda doesn't know how to deal with consequences. She says that as a punishment for last night she is going to take a "quarantine-style staycation". Staycation is like a vacation, not a punishment. Also, I think that the creators of the show had no idea that using the word "quarantine" would be so triggering in a painful way these days. Also, Wanda darling, that is not how quarantine works, and quarantine is not a punishment, dealing with your actions is a punishment, something that Wanda is not willing to do. She's still wearing yesterday's clothe in bed, clearly she had a bad night. When she goes down stairs to eat breakfast she completely ignores her kids who are clearly not used to such a behavior. Wanda eats cereal for breakfast, "sugar snaps," which is totally not a reference to Thanos' snap. Wanda's depression seems to be affecting everything around her, her milk, like the children's game, goes back in time until it becomes a glass bottle in black and white. She admits that she's sort of down, when she says that she thinks she has a case of the Mondays. We know Wanda has it so much worse than that.
This intro is really interesting, not just because of the sitcom references, but the wording. Everything is just Wanda, no Vision, until the name of the show is shown. I also like that is says that it is created by Wanda Maximoff. Did she actually create the show that she is stuck in? We are still not sure who is behind what, but it does seem from the previous episode that Wanda has a lot more control over the hex then we thought. Maybe it is Wanda behind it all, it still wouldn't explain how she got the power to do all of it.
Back in the real world with S.W.O.R.D. I mean with director Tyler Hayward, I mean with director asshole. He is informed that S.W.O.R.D. can no longer see Wanda's sitcom, probably because everything inside the hex is falling apart. Or maybe because Wanda doesn't want anyone else to see that it is falling apart. Apparently he is going to launch an attack later that day. I don't think he can be more of an asshole. We don't know what sort of an attack, but it can't be anything good.
Back inside the hex we are now with Vision and Darcy Lewis. Vision wakes up in a circus after almost dying. One of the S.W.O.R.D. operatives who handcuffed Darcy to a car is now part of the circus. He thinks Vision is the new clown, which is hilarious. Apparently, Vision has to do a rehearsal with an escape artist, our beloved Darcy. Darcy is not impressed by Vision. She calls him a creeper. Vision speaks to her about last night outside of the hex and she thinks he is trying to hit on her. So Darcy just walks away from Vision. This is such a funny interaction.
Back in the coco house Wanda's breakdown worsens. Wanda asks the kids if they saw their dad and they say no. They want to go look for him, but she says if he doesn't want to be there then there is nothing she can do about it. Obviously, there is plenty she can do, she just doesn't want to. The kids look pretty freaked out. Then they ask about what their fake uncle Pietro said about rekilling their father. She says that that is a lie and Pietro is not their uncle. When they ask who is that man was, Wanda loss it. She says she has no answers for them. She actually tells her kids that everything is meaningless. Who the hell says that to their kids? Crazy people.
So, obviously, it's time to kick up the craziness. Wanda uses her magic to open the door when Agnes knocks. She cares nothing about hiding her magic at this point. She doesn't even have the mental strength to stand up. That's really heavy depression syndrome. In Agnes talking to the camera segment, Agnes says she got there just before Wanda went into cutting your own bangs mode. A familiar mode in the real world as well, but for us it's because we spent too much time in lockdowns. But Agnes is there to help Wanda, so she takes the kids to her own house to give Wanda some "me" time. Billy wants to take care of his mom, but he gets kicked out. Wanda is a terrible parent in this episode.
Me time is not a good solution. Wanda is sitting on the sofa, eating cereal and watching TV when the house starts glitching. Just like the kid's game is started moving back and forward in time. Wanda uses her powers to fix everything, but no one believes that she is fine when she says that she is. The house is falling apart along with her.
Then we see 2/3 of our favorite trio. Monica Rambeau and Agent Jimmy Woo. Woo got an email from Darcy before she tried to save Vision that Hayward was trying to bring Vision back to life. Because that always ends well. They need to warn Wanda that Hayward is trying to steal Vision back from her. Then we meet Rambeau's mystery engineer and no it's not Reed Richards or anyone that we know. How disappointing. I knew that it wasn't Richards because casting hasn't started for Fantastic Four, but I wanted someone we know. But I guess that cameos are more problematic now during the pandemic. But the vehicle that is meant to let her pass safely through the hex barrier does look impressive.
Things are less well in circus land. Vision tries to reason with Darcy, but again she thinks that he is trying to hit on her, this time she agrees to go on a date with him. But Vision is smarter than this, he uses his power to release Darcy from the sitcom's influence. Darcy looks like she had too much to drink. She says she secretly wanted to have a guess spot on the show, but it actually sucks to be in it. Mind control is a bummer. Vision recognizes Darcy's name from the email he intercepted at work once. Darcy and Vision steal a van and escape the circus. She is an escape artist after all. But Darcy has no real answers for Vision about his kids or about Pietro.
Back in coco land, the house continues to represent Wanda. Which means it glitches, gets out of control and Wanda's powers suddenly can't fix it. For the first time in her talking to the camera moment, a male voice answers her. Wanda says she doesn't understand why she can't fix the house with her powers and the voice responds with asking her that maybe she deserves it. Because even her sitcom format is falling apart. Considering what she is doing to the people of the town, her punishment should be a lot more severe. Her mental state is a punishment, it is just a symptom of her breakdown.
Then we get a commercial break. The commercial is basically a tease. It is for an antidepressant called Nexus. Wanda is a Nexus being in the comics. This is just another tie-in to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
For the first time we Agnes' house. She brings the twins juice and sandwiches. Billy is playing with Señor Scratchy and feeding him. Billy seem absentminded. Agnes asks him what he is thinking about. Billy likes being in her house. He likes that it is quiet. He likes the fact that Agnes is quiet, he suddenly looks suspicious about that fact. But Agnes seems disturbed when he asks her why she is quite. She sure knows how to keep herself safe and privet. When Tommy asks her about their mom she tells them that Wanda is fine. She is supermom. They seemed reassured, but then she tells the camera she can't tell 10 year olds that their mother is "cuckoo for cocoa puffs". We all know that Wanda is crazy, but her kids are too young to understand.
Back with Rambeau and Woo, they put the vehicle to the test. Well Rambeau drives it into the hex. Despite the impressive vehicle and her astronaut suit, the hex doesn't let her in. It changes itself to keep her out. It simply pours into the car and changes the half of it that is stuck inside the hex. Then the hex spits the vehicle out and Rambeau jumps out in the last second. Rambeau is the most stubborn person alive so against all common sense she just physically pushes herself into the hex. She gets torn into many versions of herself, and we hear voices from the Captain Marvel movie in the background. Mainly her own, her mother, Carol Danvers and Nick Fury. The scene of Rambeau wanting to meet Danvers half way and Fury says only if you learn to glow like your aunt. Which she does. She totally does. Then we hear Danvers saying that her mother is lucky, when they handing out children, they gave her the toughest one. That line is enough to inspire her. All of the different pieces of her connect and she manages to get inside of Westview. Man that hex is thick. When she lands on the other side, she does a superhero landing. Also, her eyes are glowing blue and she sees all of the energy around her. Rambeau is now officially, Photon, or Spectrum. The superhero she was meant to be and that she is in the comics. Just as suddenly as her power comes, it goes, but superheroes need to learn to control their power. Still, I think that she count as a mutant as her DNA mutated to this state, but I am not sure.
Darcy and Vision are driving around together. Darcy tells Vision the full real story of what happened to him and between him and Wanda. Man, Wanda has been through some serious terrible stuff. So did Vision, being a child of Ultron and Jarvis. But they have trouble travelling. Every traffic light is red, it rains even though when we saw the weather forecast it was perfect weather to no end, then the traffic light is broken and needs to be fixed. Vision is exasperated and so are we. Although I am not sure that Wanda is doing this. Clearly, someone wants to stop Vision from going to his home. I think Vision knows why he can't leave the hex, and so do we, even though we don't want to admit it. Darcy ends her observations on a positive note, maybe everything is fake, but the love Vision and Wanda share is real.
Rambeau has finally made it. She barges into Wanda's house just as Wanda is taking some pills. Crazy pills probably. Rambeau wants to warn Wanda about director asshole, but as soon as Wanda hears Hayward's name she becomes livid. She uses her powers to kick Rambeau out of her house. Wanda even thinks that S.W.O.R.D. sent fake Pietro. She blames Rambeau for lying, but Rambeau says Wanda made her lie. She is right. All of the things she said, weren't hers to be said. When Wanda drops Rambeau from the air, Rambeau uses her new supers to do a superhero landing. Wanda's face is priceless. She has a looks like she realizes that Rambeau's new powers are somehow her doing. Rambeau invites Wanda to kill her, damn that lady has also lost her mind. Rambeau doesn't want Hayward to success in making Wanda the villain. Wanda thinks that she might already be the villain. She might be right. She sure is villainous herself sometimes in the comics. And his hex is torture. We see Agnes watching this confrontation and boy is she not happy to see it. Rambeau uses her own pain to connect to Wanda, talking about going through the worst thing possible. It's actually pretty good writing. Rambeau says her pain is her truth. How Wonder Woman of her, but this show does it much better.
Just as it seems that Rambeau is getting through to Wanda, Agnes shows up and takes Wanda away. Because Agnes doesn't have Wanda's best interest in mind, only her own. When Agnes and Wanda leave, Rambeau tells her that she has to take it down. Wanda turns around and says no, and while pointing her finger at Rambeau, Wanda says "don't make me hurt you". This moment has been compared so many times to the "Woman yelling at cat" meme and I can totally see it. Damn Agnes, Rambeau almost got Wanda to see reason.
In a more comedic scenario, Darcy and Vision still can't make progress. After the traffic light is repaired now children from school are crossing the road. Darcy is all like, what's next? Puppies? When Vision talks to the camera he makes an important observation. Wanda has endured a lot of pain, but even though it has been five years since the snap, for Wanda it has been only a few weeks. I think that actually it's been even less time. I mean the show takes place just days after the blip. He doesn't feel bad for himself because he has no memory of what happened to him. Vision suddenly understands that this sitcom situation is absurd. He rips off his microphone and leaves. Then because of the sitcom format he has to leave again, flying out of Darcy's car. He realizes that he has to help his wife who is in pain.
Then we are in Agnes' house again. Wanda looks like she was hit by a car. She's looks distressed. Probably feeling, really feeling, some of her pain now. Agnes offers her tea and sympathy. But then Wanda snaps out of it. Her terrible mood that surrounded her all day is lifted when she sees two planet with unfinished sandwiches, two empty glasses and the TV has some creepy children television show on. While she was being miserable, she wasn't looking after her twins. Wanda realizes that Agnes' house is actually creepy and asks her where are the twins? To which Agnes replies that they are probably just playing in the basement. Not a horror movie trop at all. The creepy basement. Wanda messed up big time, and now her kids will pay the price.
Wanda goes down to the basement and we know it won't end well. There are vines growing on the walls in the basement. But this are her kids, so Wanda keeps walking. She walks into a room. There are markings on the celling, there are cabinets full of what looks like human bones and one shinny book bound. That is probably the Darkhold. There was an entire season devoted to that book in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., I wonder if it the same level of terrible here. Wanda does seem to finally realize that something is terribly wrong.
Then Agnes walks in with the bunny in hand and a totally different look. She asks Wanda if she really believed that she was the only magical girl in town. Agnes uses her magic to close the door behind her and her magic is purple. She introduces herself with the name we guessed correctly from the moment we were told that an Agnes will be on the show – Agatha Harkness. Her eyes glow purple, like Wanda's glow red sometimes. And she uses that purple to control Wanda. Suddenly it is Wanda's eyes that glow purple, showing that she's under Harkness's control. A taste of the medicine she gave the Avengers in Avengers: Age of Ultron. It's strange to see Wanda outdone, but it happens here.
Then Harkness reveals her true role up until this point – in a brilliant song. It is still stuck in my head, "it's been Agatha all along." This song should win an award or something. Like Rambeau realized that if you send a period appropriate object it won't be changed, Harkness did the same and changed herself to fit the fake time period. She was never under Wanda's control from the start. Wanda didn't lie about not calling fake Pietro, Harkness sent him, controlling him. The part that strikes me the most is that she was never under control, so Vision never released her from Wanda's spell. Which means she wanted to cause serious problems with Vision, maybe get rid of him. It was probably her stopping him from getting home in this episode. The song ends with her admitting she killed Sparky the dog as well. You can't get more evil then killing a pet. Basically, Harkness was doing a lot of naughty things to Wanda inside of the hex, but did she create it? I don’t think so.
Please stand by, for our first mid-credit scene in this show.
It was not what I expected. The scene is actually Rambeau trying to break into Harkness' house to get to Wanda. This lady just never gives up. She finds an opening to the basement and it is also full of vines, this time they are glowing purple. Suddenly, fake Pietro arrives telling her that she's a snooper, and we see that her eyes are glowing purple. Does this mean that now Rambeau is under Harkness' control as well? We will find out in the next episode.
This episode was fantastic. We are starting to get some answers, but this is the tip of the iceberg. Wanda just sank into depression like there is no fake world around her and no consequences to her actions. Everything is just falling apart around her, like she is falling apart on the inside and there is nothing she can do about it. She even lets her beloved children get into trouble. But from Vision and Darcy's conversation we get to realize that Wanda's trauma is a lot more severe then we imagined and it reminds us that it is more fresh. We feel terrible for her, just like Rambeau does. In the end comes the price for her sinking into this mood, she gets trapped by Harkness. Next episode should be juicy.
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