Entertainment
WandaVision Changed the MCU Forever
Warning: Spoilers
WandaVision’s season finale released last Friday, leaving fans trying to wrap their heads around what they just saw. The first Disney+ installment of the MCU was strange, to say the least and may have taken a little while to get some momentum, but delivered an impressive story from beginning to end. Unlike most new television series, WandaVision already had the trust of fans that the show would be worth the watch. It did not disappoint.
After a long year and a half hiatus from the MCU, fans sat down and watched WandaVision – Marvel’s first real foray into television (no, we’re not counting Agents of Shield or Agent Carter). There was a lot of buzz about how WandaVision could advance the story of the Avengers. Now that we’ve all had the chance to watch the season finale let’s unpack what WandaVision did (and did not) deliver.
Plot Breakdown
As a show, WandaVision offers two big things at once: a crafty, ever-changing format and a cryptic, slow-burning (at first) plot. The impressive feat is how the strong suit shifts from the style to the story. Each episode is modeled to look like a different era of American television. The early episodes are black and white with a laugh track and cute little jingles à la I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show. The set design, format, even dialogue shift throughout the season, emulating shows like The Brady Bunch, Step by Step, Malcolm in the Middle, and Modern Family.
The show even includes classic tv tropes like nosy neighbors, pets that come and go, and babies that grow up overnight. Even the fake commercials between scenes look like they were ripped from time. It seems poetic that as the MCU helps usher in a new TV era, it does so by paying an homage to all the eras before.
The story is not easy to wrap your head around at first. And if you haven’t seen any of the Marvel movies, forget it. Wanda and Vision are husband and wife living in a New Jersey suburb. They have their powers, Vision is still a synthezoid, but they masquerade as a normal American couple when around their neighbors.
Oh, so many questions.
First of all, why are we watching in black and white? Why is there a laugh track? More importantly, how is Vision alive? Thanos killed him. In the first couple episodes, WandaVision does little to explain itself – only dropping little hints that things aren’t exactly how they seem. For example, within two episodes, Wanda discovers she’s pregnant, gives birth, and then has two twin 10-year-old boys.
A few episodes in, we meet characters who live outside of Wanda and Vision’s cookie-cutter town. Monica Rambeau, who we last saw as a young girl in Captain Marvel, is now a woman working for the government agency, S.W.O.R.D. We are reintroduced to FBI agent Jimmy Woo who we last saw in Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Darcy Lewis from the Thor movies.
The audience learns that Wanda and Vision’s hometown of Westview is under some kind of spell. Later, we learn that it is Wanda who controls the spell and everyone inside. While S.W.O.R.D. and the FBI work to end the hex around Westview, Wanda pushes back.
What the…?
Jaws hit the floor at the end of episode 5 when Wanda’s dead brother, Pietro, knocks on the door. However, the actor is not Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who played Pietro in the Avengers movies, but Evan Peters, who played him in the X-Men movies. (more on that later)
The big bomb drops at the end of episode 8. It is revealed that the lovable, meddling neighbor Agnes played by Kathryn Hahn, is really Agatha Harkness, a rival witch and the true antagonist in WandaVision.
The 8th episode is the big payoff that puts all the pieces together. Agatha explains to Wanda that they are both witches, and Agatha wants Wanda’s powers for herself. She takes Wanda on a trip down memory lane. This is when we learn that growing up in Sokovia, Wanda was a big fan of American sitcoms – thus the reason for her spell. We got an intimate look at the love between Wanda and Vision. After Wanda lost her parents, her home was destroyed, and her brother dead, Vision was there for her, and she fell in love. Before Thanos killed vision, the two had plans to retire in Westview. Grief-stricken by Vision’s death, Wanda went to Westview, altered reality, recreated Vision, and put a spell on all its inhabitants.
The showdown in the finale pitted Wanda against Agatha, launching spells and mystic energy at one another high above Westview. Meanwhile, Vision fought against a replica made by S.W.O.R.D. The two synthezoids were too evenly matched until finally, the original Vision mind effed the duplicate with an existential dilemma. The all-white copy took off and disappeared, but only after the original Vision uploaded his thoughts and memories into him.
In the end, Wanda defeats Agatha and holds her prisoner under a spell as the nosy neighbor in Westview. After a heartfelt goodbye to her two boys and Vision, Wanda removes the Hex on Westview, and her family disappears.
No Mutants
There was speculation about whether or not WandaVision would introduce mutants into Marvel Cinematic Universe. The movie rights to the X-Men have belonged to Fox since the early ‘00s. When Disney officially acquired Fox in 2019, X-Men could legally join the MCU. In the comic books, Wanda was both a mutant and an Avenger. Fans have anxiously wondered how the MCU would introduce the X-Men. It was a popular theory that Wanda’s reality-bending abilities would be the mutants’ ticket in. Evan Peters played Quicksilver, aka Wanda’s brother Pietro in the X-Men movies. When Evan Peters showed up as Quicksilver in WandaVision, fans cheered as surely this meant they were blending the universes.
Nope
Evan Peters was a red herring, and he was merely a townsperson named Ralph Bohner, who Agatha was controlling.
WandaVision did not introduce any mutants (that we know of), but that doesn’t rule out that she will be the instrument the MCU uses in the future.
Powers Unleashed
When we first saw Wanda in The Avengers Age of Ultron, we didn’t really know much about her abilities. “He’s fast, and she’s weird,” says Maria Hill summing up Wanda and Pietro. She did some hypnotizing spells on Iron Man and the Avengers. We also see she can levitate create force fields. But in the comic books, Wanda’s abilities were expansive. Each installment after Ultron, we got a little more. She held her own in Captain America: Civil War. In Avengers: Endgame, she almost single-handedly defeated Thanos. WandaVision put a spotlight on just how powerful Wanda’s powers were and could grow to be. Says Agatha Harkness: “Your power exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme (Doctor Strange).”
Big Plans for Monica Rambeau
Monica Rambeau, played by Teyonah Paris, will play a big part in moving forward in the MCU. In WandaVision, she gets some cool powers by crossing through Wanda’s Hex. In the comic books, she can turn into any form of matter; she can travel at the speed of light, and of course, super strength and durability.
If you are a loyal fan of the MCU, you know that just because the credits are rolling doesn’t mean it’s over. WandaVision delivered plenty of mid and post-credit scenes. In one of the finale’s mid-credit scenes, a Skrull alien tells her she’s needed in space. She will be a key component in upcoming movies – most likely Captain Marvel 2.
What About Agatha
Agatha Harkness is one of the most interesting side characters in the Marvel comic book lure. She has spanned all different comic storylines, having ties to Wanda, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Ghost Rider. She points out that Wanda will need her in the future. To which, Wanda responds, “Then I’ll know where to find you.” And then Wanda turns Agatha into a suburban mind-slave. Harkness’s character has Loki-level potential to be a repeat offender.
MCU Can Make TV Shows
No other movie franchise has reached the peaks that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has. They managed to tell a 20 part story with dozens of dynamic characters and intricate plots. While some movies are better than others, the MCU standard has been, above all else, awesome. Now using the Disney+ platform, they have moved into the television scene. If WandaVision showed fans anything, it’s that the MCU can crush that medium as well. With high budget visual effects, complex plots, and consistent fan service, fans should have every bit of confidence that future MCU TV shows will be a level above ordinary programming.