The much-anticipated finale of WandaVision provided us with a deep dive into Wanda’s grief. It was beautifully brought full circle to acceptance in her final scene with her Hex-created Vision. There have been some criticisms of the finale, which unfortunately did seem to suffer from cuts in plotlines for certain characters. That seemed to be mainly due to the production trying to finish up during a global pandemic while sticking to its premiere date on Disney+. However, I would like to tackle one criticism in regards to the White Vision’s behavior, which I will respectfully disagree with.
I don’t agree that it was wrong to have the White Vision just up and leave, and not join Wanda’s battle against Agatha Harkness. The main reason I feel it was the right choice, is that it was really Wanda’s battle to win or lose, not anyone else’s. WandaVision was centered around Wanda’s grief and her mourning. It was about how she handles or mishandles it, and so having someone swoop in to win the battle for her, or demand that she let those people go, or defeat her so that the people of Westview are freed, would have taken away from the overarching theme that the real “big bad” in this story was the profound grief she was feeling.
To “win” this very personal battle, especially in light of what she had done wrong as she’d processed her grief, it was incredibly important that Wanda herself decided to let this fantasy world go and at least try to move on with her life. A promise that she could have the kids or Vision with her in the end, would have undercut the bravery and strength it took for her to do the right thing finally. All this so she can let those people go.
As for White Vision’s sudden exit, it made sense to me that this cold and unemotional android would leave. Even if he consists of Vision’s original parts, he is not the Vision who we came to know and love during the WandaVision series. Yet he isn’t the Vision that we met in Avengers: Age of Ultron either. A sudden influx of memories from his life before Thanos led to an interesting change in his eye color. It went from a cold emotionless blue to the much warmer and human tint that reflected Paul Bettany‘s eyes rather than that of a machine. Even if memories and emotions transferred from the Hex Vision to his synthezoid psyche, it would certainly be a lot of “data” to process, even for him.
So, he took off, bursting through the glass of the library instead of phasing. It’s possible that the director just really liked the explosive and dramatic visual effects of this exit and that’s why. However, I think it’s also very plausible that Vision was distracted by these newly discovered memories and emotions – especially if you remember how the Vision has been distracted by thoughts of Wanda before, such as in Civil War, and Infinity War. My assumption when I watched the scene the first time is that White Vision simply needed to go somewhere to figure all of this out. Keep in mind, this exit and his status being unknown, leaves him in a really interesting place, full of potential for character exploration in the future. Here’s hoping this quote from the Hex Vision’s final scene is a hint that there is much more to come from Vision in whatever form.
I have been a voice with no body, a body but not human, and now a memory made real. Who knows what I may be next?
