Tag: WandaVision

‘WandaVision’: Feige Fulfills His Promise as Wanda Faces Her Destiny

“Wanda is in fact the Scarlet Witch.”

In December 2019 during CCXP, Kevin Feige promised fans that WandaVision would see Wanda Maximoff become the Scarlet Witch, a moniker that had not been associated with the MCU version of the character. The-One-Above-All told us that Wanda’s transformation into the Scarlet Witch would be scary and he told us that it would have repercussions for the rest of Phase 4. With one episode left of WandaVision, it’s clear that Feige has kept his promise to fans and that while WandaVision is coming to an end, Wanda is just beginning her journey down the witches’ road.

Episode 8 took Wanda and the audience on a harrowing journey down memory lane that not only showed us how Wanda’s past grief led her to her present situation in Westview but also what the future holds for her. Agatha spelled it out pretty clearly: Wanda’s a witch (and a thumpin’ good’un), has always been a witch and she’s only just now coming into her powers. Agatha’s reveal that she believes Wanda is the Scarlet Witch of myth, a being so dangerous and powerful in her ability to wield Chaos magic that she shouldn’t exist, works so well because both the audience and Wanda have waited a long time to find out something we probably should have known all along. We finally have a clean and complete origin story for Wanda in the MCU, something that’s not always been so easy to accomplish in the comics.

Few Marvel Comics characters have suffered through more complex and confusing retcons than Wanda Maximoff. Mutant or not? Magneto or the Whizzer? High Evolutionary or Django? It goes on and on but what’s relevant here is that Feige, Jac Schaeffer and Matt Shakman chose to avoid all the mess and turn to James Robinson’s 2016 Scarlet Witch for inspiration. Robinson’s book follows the 2014 retcon that revealed that Wanda and Pietro are not mutants. For decades, their mutantness defined them as characters and to readers and Robinson cleverly turned Wanda finding out who she isn’t into a way to explore who she is. Wanda meets the specter of her dead mother and learns that the Scarlet Witch is a title that has been passed on through generations of her family, firmly anchoring her to the mystical corner of the Marvel universe.

It would seem that Feige and company have chosen to take Wanda down that same witches’ road here. Unless they’re planning to complicate what right now is a very clean origin by later explaining that her ability to use magic comes from her being a mutant (something that’s entirely unnecessary at this point), it seems that Wanda is simply a witch, albeit an incredibly powerful one whose power was made greater after exposure to the Mind Stone and one who seems to have experienced a full psychotic break and unleashed her power to create a new reality. The flashbacks show us a witch so powerful that she seems to be converting energy into matter as she builds a house, a neighborhood and a Vision. Now that Wanda has learned who she is, it’s clear that the answers to the questions of how she’ll handle her grief, her power and her destiny are going to shape the MCU in Phase 4.

WandaVision‘s final episode is set to stream this Friday.

February 28, 2021
Final ‘WandaVision’ Episode Length Longer than the Last

It looks like the runtime for an upcoming episode of WandaVision has leaked online again. Last week, the eighth entry got revealed by Reddit user, Plenty_Echidna_544, which confirmed the 47-minute episode. Of course, that was including the credits, which showcase the massive talent behind these ongoing series. The previous length of the “Breaking the Fourth Wall” episode also got leaked in advance to airing. Well, as you assumed by the title, it has happened again. In another moderator-approved post on the subreddit, the last episode will have a 50-minute runtime. It will also include the credits as with previous leaks.

WandaVision Episode 9
by inMarvelStudiosSpoilers

It is rather curious that these runtimes are finding their way online. The post also points out that we shouldn’t expect a tenth entry for the series, so the series will sadly be coming to an end next week. It has been a crazy ride, especially with a lot of speculation on how much more we can expect. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has been very vocal that they aim for around six-hour runtimes for all future shows.

We are going into the final episode with a lot of speculation on where the show might be heading. There are a lot of story threads that will get wrapped up, especially if we can expect a major battle, as teased on the approved Reddit posting. It makes sense that the final episode would be the longest, especially as we get ready for the next entry with Falcon and the Winter Soldiers in a few weeks.

Source: The Direct, Reddit

February 27, 2021
‘WandaVision’ Episode 8 Recap: This Is Your Life

The story of WandaVision when it’s all said and done is about the tragedy of Wanda Maximoff. She lost her parents, her brother, and the one person, and yes Vision counts as one, who connected with her. If you add up all of those things with her powers, you get what we saw in the eighth episodes. It was a “This is your life” moment forcing her to revisit the worst moments of her memories. Let’s talk about it!

Agatha Harkness is that Witch!

We go back to the late 1600s and see Agatha about to be destroyed at the stake by her coven. Apparently, she’s been practicing too much dark magic. The witches blast her with their magic, which at first makes it seem like Agatha’s in huge trouble. Instead, it seems as if she has learned how to absorb the power and she does, killing all of the witches.

Wanda Reliving it All

We get a little insight there that Agatha’s goal might be to harness Wanda’s powers for herself. She reads Wanda for creating a reality so powerful that she’s basically on autopilot throughout. Wanda remains confused about this. For Agatha to find out the truth, she decides that Wanda must relive the most traumatic moments of her life.

The first trip down memory lane is to Wanda’s childhood in Sokovia. We see her parents and Pietro, as there’s a war going on outside. Her father brings in DVDs of old sitcoms, which clearly inspired the reality she’s created in Westview. Clearly, this family bonded through this which makes the explosion that comes next a definitive moment in Wanda’s life. As her parents are killed, we’re taken back to the explanation in Avengers: Age of Ultron that Wanda and Pietro waited two days for a Stark drone to detonate. It never did, as we find out that Wanda was always a witch and the Mind Stone just amplified her powers. Speaking of the Mind Stone, our next pitstop is a revisit with HYDRA.

We revisit when Wanda volunteered for the HYDRA experiments with Loki’s scepter. No one prior had survived the experiments, which is funny to say. Didn’t Pietro survive too? So what did that mean for him? Once Wanda gets close to the scepter, the Mind Stone reveals itself. It shows a vision to Wanda and not the scientists, as she’s engulfed in its energy. As she looks into the light. In it, there’s Wanda in her Scarlet Witch costume. Is this her future? We don’t know yet but Agatha needs more answers.

The next thing we see is Wanda at the Avengers compound. She’s watching Malcolm in the Middle, still grieving the loss of Pietro. Vision phases through the wall in a nice call back to Captain America: Civil War. Wanda then unloads her sadness and grief onto Vision. He acknowledges that he’s never experienced the type of loss that Wanda has as he’s always been alone. He then says the seminal line of the series.

But what is grief, if not love persevering?

The bond between him and Wanda is formed there and there’s the context for everything to come after. Paul Bettany again delivers in spades in this scene. Agatha still doesn’t have her answers yet so we need one more look back.

We take one more trip to S.W.O.R.D. after the events of Avengers: Endgame and Wanda want to bury Vision’s body. There’s a lot of “I need to see your manager” energy here before she meets with Director Hayward. You can feel her desperation to see Vision. Hayward acquiesces and we see the same scene from the fifth episode, as Vision is being taken apart by the scientists. He states to Wanda that he can’t allow her to walk out with three billion dollars worth of vibranium. Wanda horrified by this zooms down to get a look for herself, which Hayward strangely allows. She can’t feel Vision anymore as their connection is gone. This is a call back to Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame with Wanda and Vision stating their connection. Overcome with grief, Wanda leaves the facility.

We see Wanda driving into Westview, and we get a look at a lot of the characters from the previous episodes in their normal setting. Wanda pulls up to a vacant property. She opens up an envelope and reveals a property deed. It reads: “To grow old in,” with a signed V. Reading this, Wanda’s emotions overcome her and her powers manifest completely. The house is created, Westview, as we know it now, is created, and she creates a new Vision. She retreats to the same sitcom worlds she finds comfort in. Agatha cuts the trip down memory lane and we see her magically choking Billy and Tommy. Wanda gets ready to fight for her kids, and Agatha states the line we’ve been waiting for. Wanda is the Scarlet Witch. Roll Credits!

Hayward Has A Vision

We luckily got another mid-credit sequence this week. We cut to Hayward’s big launch. Right outside of the hex, we see at the facility that he has successfully rebuilt Vision after multiple attempts. Using the Stark drone that we thought was sent after Wanda, the CMBR was absorbed and powers the new Vision, who is white. The White Vision, which in comics lore we know from West Coast Avengers issues 42-45 is born. It’s also clear now that Tyler lied to Monica about Wanda stealing Vision’s body. What a clever diabolical plan. What else Tyler has in store? One more episode remains, and this was a good one for contextual purposes for Wanda’s backstory. Could we have learned a little more about Agnes? Sure, but there’s one more installment of WandaVision remaining. You can appreciate the writers allowing us to sit with Wanda and absorb her tragedy, Elizabeth Olsen stands out again in her performance.

Instead of the theory board this week, let’s ask some questions that need to be answered in the finale.

1. Who is Pietro, or Fietro, like Agatha, called him this week, really?. Is it the Fox X-Men’s version of Quicksilver? Is it someone close to Agatha? Or is it something we’re not expecting? It’ll be fascinating to see how it unfolds.

2. Will we see Monica’s power set on display? Monica Rambeau showed us that the hero within her is out now. Are we going to get a light show? Or will she be more of the moral center of the show that’s she’s been so far? I reckon we’re due for the former.

3. Does Hayward have any more tricks up his sleeve after project Cataract? Is there someone that he answers to? Has S.W.O.R.D been infiltrated by him? Or is he just incredibly ambitious? After the appearance of White Vision, we can’t make any assumptions.

4. What about the children? We know that Young Avengers is something that the MCU wants to set up. Will Tommy and Billy survive the finale? Are they energy to be absorbed? Are they real? Will we get another age up? They might be a huge key.

5. What happened to Dottie? Agatha called her the key to everything in town during episode 2. Is Agatha trying to reconstitute the coven she destroyed? Is Dottie a hero in disguise? Remember there was no information on her on Jimmy Woo’s board.

6. There’s an assumption that White Vision and Vision are going to lock horns. Who’s more powerful? Will Westview’s Vision make the ultimate sacrifice? Explosive things are ahead.

7. That’s a lot of questions and we still also need to answer if Agatha’s the only big bad. We’re expecting a Dr. Strange cameo in the finale, but to what nature? Is he fighting, or cleaning up a mess? The image of Wanda in her Scarlet Witch costume could be a harbinger of things to come?

8. I have a prediction, as I think the Westview version of Vision will die protecting his family from Cataract Vision. This show filled with tragedy probably won’t end without another tragic moment.

WandaVision has been quite the roller coaster through the last eight episodes, particularly emotionally. The finale will be no different. Kevin Feige & Co. have taken a mighty swing at something different, and let’s see if the conclusion is as ambitious as the series itself.

February 27, 2021
‘WANDAVISION’: Meet Wanda Maximoff

All the initial weirdness surrounding its approach to storytelling hasn’t stopped WandaVision from coming through with a big part of what the MCU Disney+ shows set out to accomplish: Substance-filled deeper dives into each character they decide to focus on. Something that the runtime of the movies never seemed to allow. At least not at this scale.

Even with the hexposition-heavy episode we got this week, that some might not enjoy, it’s hard not to acknowledge that every sequence was carefully set up so we, the viewers, got the payoff of all those years of either only getting glimpses or only hearing about Wanda’s tragic youth, and not less painful adulthood. But for that to happen it took slowing things down, spending time with the character every week, seeing her go through a somewhat mundane hexistence (I’ll stop), living her life, as we took it all in, sometimes not even fully understanding that what initially might have seemed to be holding back the plot of the show, is what made it even more meaningful in the end.

We all got to know characters like Tony Stark or Steve Rogers pretty well. Each had its own trilogy of films and was the central focus of more than one Avengers movie. As for Wanda and Vision, like most other MCU characters, they seemed to inhabit a smaller space where their own interests were rarely under the spotlight, where context was often lacking and their paths seemed to follow along with the story being told have little say in which steps to take next. But WandaVision, in that regard, is a gamechanger, to a point where one could argue that Wanda has now become one of the most examined MCU characters, something that served her well. We were given the chance, and the time, to follow her most profound life experiences that are just now culminating in was is sure to become a character-defining season finale, propelling The Scarlet Witch into Phase 4 of the MCU.

Taking into account how the character-study WandaVision ultimately became, making it clear how Wanda now has the potential to be one of the most interesting and complex inhabitants of the MCU, it’s perhaps safe to assume that other shows might follow its lead. Previously established characters that weren’t given the time to be properly presented to audiences, in all their intricacy, may get that change down the line, and new ones will use the combined runtime of their own show’s episodes to make the usual MCU origin-story something of the past, turning it into something bigger.

All it took for us to get here was for audiences to allow themselves to take things slower, not to rush to the end, and not to seek that every single question should be answered as fast as possible. Just like some great meals, if you leave it simmering you might just end up getting the best out of each ingredient. In Wanda’s case, we can now safely say we got to meet the real her, and not just the flashy Avenger we had grown accustomed to. Here’s hoping that the streaming side of the MCU lets us continue to do the same with others.

February 26, 2021
‘WandaVision’ Episode 8 Primer

That last episode of WandaVision was CRAZY!!! All of the previous episodes had been very wild, but this episode was the most revealing so far. For instance, Vision met Darcy and now he knows that he is actually dead. Wanda was having a really bad day, so Agnes took the twins off her hands, we later see that Agnes has LITERALLY taken the kids off of Wanda’s hands as they are gone! That discovery led to the big reveal where we learned that Agnes is Agatha Harkness and was behind EVERYTHING. We also see a tiny glimpse of Monica’s powers. With only two episodes left we finally get an actual idea of what’s going on in Westview.

The first few episodes were told almost entirely from the perspective of Wanda and Vision, with a little bit of S.W.O.R.D’s perspective mixed in. As the series has progressed, we have seen more and more of S.W.O.R.D’s perspective. At this point, it is obvious that these two perspectives are about to collide over the next 2 episodes. When Agent Woo hacked into Hayward’s computer system, there was a project called Cataract which obviously has something to do with Vision. Since cataracts cloud your vision, Hayward definitely has something up his sleeve and may somehow be willing to use Vision to hurt Wanda.

Arlyn’s Assumptions

I have some thoughts on how Hayward might use Vision. I think he might have done something to Vision when they had him in the S.W.O.R.D. lab, like placing some device in his head that will flip a switch and allow Hayward to control him. Or maybe he could’ve taken out the “Jarvis” parts of Vision from Tony Stark making him “more” like what Ultron had in mind for him. Maybe Hayward’s whole purpose with Vision is to destroy Wanda.

Now we HAVE to talk about the twins. What happened to them? I believe that Agnes is going to try to take away Billy’s powers for herself. Maybe she plans to take all of the magic out of both of them. Tommy might not be as powerful as Billy, but given how they were born, he is still “magical.” About a year ago, my super awesome dad broke the news about Doctor Strange showing up in WandaVision. With all of the magic things going on in Westview, what kind of Sorcerer Supreme would he be if he didn’t show up? There are only two episodes left so something BIG has to happen very soon.

The next episode of WandaVision streams tomorrow!

February 25, 2021
Marvel Studios’ Future Disney+ Shows Will Stick to a Six-Hour Runtime

We’ve been wondering for some time what the future of Marvel Studios’ venture into Disney+ would look like. The release of WandaVision is our first real glimpse, as we anxiously waited between episodes for how the series would unravel. One of the many questions we wondered about was the length of these series, as different shows will run for a specific length. Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be around six hours long with six episodes. WandaVision will consist of nine hours and was also predicted to have a similar running time. It looks like future projects will stick to this series length according to Kevin Feige, who was presenting at the TCA event.

Feige sees six hours as the sweet spot for these stories. Whether that’s Six, one-hour episodes (Falcon and Winter Soldier) or nine, shorter episodes for WandaVision

— Aaron Couch (@AaronCouch) February 24, 2021

Interestingly, they are going to set a specific length for their series. The advantage of releasing series on streaming platforms is that you aren’t restricted to your show’s lengths or episode count. Interestingly enough, Marvel’s run on Netflix followed a similar structure, where they restricted the shows to a 13-episode runtime. However, they did not set a specific overall runtime, so episodes ranged from 45 minutes to over an hour. So, the choice to restrict the show’s overall runtime might be a reaction to ensure that the story being told doesn’t overstay its welcome. We’ve seen these complaints with the Netflix series, which seem to drag on at times. It will be interesting to see if they start mixing it up in the future, but for now, we can expect this six-hour run to be a connecting factor between all upcoming shows.

Source: Twitter

February 24, 2021
‘WandaVision’ Gets Soberingly Real With its Last Sitcom Era

With only two episodes of WandaVision to go, reality has finally caught up with Wanda, in more ways than one. Yes, the show finally reached the present day this week, just in time for the excitement and allure of Westview to disappear and become a much more cynical place.

With a couple of exceptions, WandaVision has used its sitcom structure to effectively highlight and/or subvert the feel of whatever time period Westview happens to be experiencing during the current episode. Long gone are the carefree days of the 1950s, and even the difficult lessons of the 1980s are too sugar-coated for the town by “Breaking the Fourth Wall.” All of these eras have had their blissful bubbles burst by one incident or another, and now Wanda is ready to give up on this one before it even starts. She’s not going to bother attempting to maintain hope and optimism in her children, either. She just wants some time to forget about everything, and it’s even sadder to think about when you remember that this was her whole motivation behind creating Westview in the first place.

This cynical attitude isn’t the only modern sitcom trope present in this episode. The documentary style of television that was largely popularized by reality TV eventually made its mark on sitcoms like Modern Family and The Office with characters frequently breaking the fourth wall as if they’re speaking to an interviewer (the term “mockumentary” has been coined in reference to this) and there’s plenty of that to be found here. Even characters who are trapped in “real life” are somehow able to magically pop over to an interview location to speak to the audience this week, and of course this is eventually lampshaded before the episode is over. There’s even a point at which Vision simply looks into the “regular”, non-interview camera; also a common trope of the times.

The lack of lyrics – or even character shots – also fits in with modern-day sitcoms. But those disappointed by the final Anderson-Lopez theme tune being…uneventful were surprised when a theme song for a whole different side of the story capped off the episode.

After much fan speculation, “Agnes the Neighbor” was finally confirmed to be Agatha Harkness, a character lifted from Marvel Comics but considerably changed for WandaVision (most notably in that Agatha isn’t a villain in the comics). A montage of her evil deeds throughout the eras of Westview was accompanied by her very own theme song, which was very reminiscent of the one for The Munsters, a 1960’s sitcom about a family consisting of various types of monsters (not to be confused with The Addams Family, which ran during the exact same years and had nearly the same number of episodes).

“Breaking the Fourth Wall” was the last episode of WandaVision to focus on emulating a specific era of sitcoms, but as Agatha’s theme song demonstrated, that doesn’t necessarily mean all the references are done quite yet. This episode showed the magic maintaining Westview’s eras going haywire, and it’s very likely this will escalate as WandaVision hurdles toward its March 5 finale.

February 22, 2021
‘WandaVision’ Episode 8 Will Be Longest to Date

Much debate and speculation has been going on the past few weeks about the episode lengths of upcoming WandaVision shows, with people wondering when Disney+ might give us a significantly larger weekly bite of this marvelous magical apple. Well now that the “big bad” not-so-surprise reveal at the end of episode 7 has us on the edge of our seats and wanting even more answers, a Redditor who was right about last week’s running time has posted what they believe is the running time for the crucial episode 8. Plenty_Echidna_544 posted that the upcoming episode will be 47 minutes long.

As the redditor points out, they were indeed correct about last week’s episode runtime.

Source: Reddit

February 22, 2021
‘WandaVision’ Episode 7 Recap: The Woman Behind It All
If Episode 7 was any indication, we are arriving at the heights and very best of what WandaVision has to offer. The chess pieces have moved and the stakes are high. Monica Rambeau does what heroes do, Vision sorts through his feelings while Wanda loses it, and Agnes is exactly who we thought she was. Let’s examine where we are.

Vision gets caught up on everything.

Vision wakes up after the hex expands to being right in the middle of the circus. He recognizes Darcy from the previous night in the confrontation with S.W.O.R.D. and Hayward. Inside the hex, Darcy has become an escape artist who thinks Vision is a creep. Kat Dennings continues to be really awesome in all of her appearances and this is no exception.

Vision catches up to bring her mind back to reality. Darcy then catches Vision up on everything that’s happened prior to Westview, AKA Infinity War. He’s frustrated with Wanda but Darcy assures him that Wanda and Vision belong together. They later find out that Wanda is keeping Vision from getting back home, or perhaps someone else is? The seeds of doubt have been sewn so it will be interesting to see how these two reconcile.

Monica Rambeau at her very best.

Monica and Jimmy Woo are driving towards the hex so Monica can get back in there. We still don’t know the identity of the aerospace engineer but I’m sure when we find out it will be quite the surprise. Jimmy receives the info Darcy hacked from Hayward’s firewall. The intel shows that Vision is the focus of their operation, as they plan to bring him back online as their own sentient weapon. More on this later. As they arrive Monica meets with her contact, Major Goodner who brings a small unit to Westview with the vehicle Monica requested.

Outside of the Hex, Monica suits up to cross over the CMBR-filled static on the rescue mission. As she drives the vehicle in the barrier turns out to be too powerful and transforms the vehicle halfway into a truck. As Monica gets out, that hero factor or whatever motivated her to keep going kicks in. She forces her way through the barrier and while struggling through we see four different versions of her split. As she holds it together we hear dialogue from Captain Marvel including Carol Danvers and Nick Fury. As she breaks through the barrier we see her eye color change to purple and a new hero is born. Is it Spectrum, Pulsar, or Photon? We have plenty of time to find out but this show has done an exemplary job of giving us Monica Rambeau’s back story the necessary treatment. Even before the series ends, we know who Monica is, her motivations and what she’s capable of without her powers. With the powers? One can only wonder.

Monica then confronts Wanda at her house and Wanda immediately becomes very angry. The prior interferences from Hayward are referenced and she can’t trust anyone. Wanda then yeets Monica outside again but this isn’t the same Monica that got thrown like a rag doll in episode 3. She gathers herself and lands in a pose that only a superhero can pull off. Monica pleads with Wanda to not make herself the villain of the story. They argue and Wanda threatens to end Monica and when Monica replies, “Do it then.” you felt the tension go up another notch. Monica attempts to calm Wanda down and it feels like she’s getting somewhere until Agnes shows up and whisks Wanda away. That Agnes is something else.

Wanda is losing her mind, and she might be losing more.

Wanda starts her day waking up in bed confused about what happened the night before. We get a replay of the hex as she narrates in a Modern Family-style as she seems a bit overwhelmed. Billy and Tommy then come up as they complain that their games are changing form. Their controllers turn into older models, and finally Uno Cards. Billy hears voices in his head but Wanda is having none of it. She wants to be left alone. As the kids are arguing about the video games, Wanda comes downstairs and her powers are on the fritz. Before she gets cereal she seems content with Vision being out of the house for now, and calls Pietro an impostor. It was a nice touch for the cereal to be Sugar Snaps, referring to Thanos’ snap at the end of Infinity War.

Eventually, Agnes shows up and insists on taking the kids off of Wanda’s hands for a bit. Wanda is more than happy to and as she thinks she’s going to have a simple time watching tv her powers go out of whack again. Everything around the house switches time periods and she continues to be confused. A voice offscreen then asks, “Do you think maybe this is what you deserve?” Wanda is losing it.

We cut to a commercial advertising Nexus, an anti-depressant that’s “a unique anti-depressant that works to anchor you back to your reality or the reality of your choice.” That’s another big easter egg. In Marvel Lore the Nexus is a cross-dimensional gateway which provides a pathway to any and all possible realities, this also includes realities between realities. The Multiverse! Wanda Maximoff in the comics is a nexus being, one that is always a constant in all universes.

We get to Agnes’ house which looks really nice on the inside by the way! Billy notices that Agnes is “quiet on the inside.” which is a heck of a red herring for what’s to come. After Wanda’s confrontation with Monica, Agnes brings her into her home presumably to see the kids. As Wanda sits she senses something eerie. She goes to the basement where Agnes says to check for the children. As she goes down a very dark hallway she reaches a room with a cabinet full of bones and a glowing book. Once she reaches this room Agnes shows up and locks the door. We then learn that Agnes is actually Agatha Harkness, the witch from Marvel comics Lore. As Wanda seemingly is under Agnes’ control the episode closes with a brilliant montage with the song “Agatha All Along”. We see how Agatha has been influencing Wanda and Vision the entire time concluding with us finding out that Agatha killed Sparky. Roll credits! Man, that was a lot. Let’s take a look at the theory board with some questions.

Theory Board
1. We only see Hayward briefly at the beginning of the episode talking about a launch of something as he’s outside the hex. A secret operation to retrieve Vision? Who’s he working for and who is he actually? Is he a Kree taking part in trying to get a weapon online for a war against earth? Is he Hydra or Aim? We will find out soon enough.
2. With the mention of the Nexus and that glowing book and that really funky, dark room in Agatha’s basement, is this the door to the Nexus Of All Realities? What is the nature of that book? That holds the key to everything, including potentially who Agatha is working for. There’s no way that she’s doing this on her own. Did she use the Wundagore Everbloom flowers and that’s why she killed Sparky? The Everbloom flowers allow a person to have visions to the future by lying a petal of an Everbloom on their tongue. This requires the person to consume the flower twice, once after hunger and second after murder. This may have allowed Agatha to be one step ahead this entire time.
3. We’re left with our first mid-credits scene! Monica arrives at Agatha’s house and as she heads to the basement, Pietro makes his first appearance of the episode with, “Snoopers are gonna snoop.” and we fade to black. We saw that Agatha influenced Pietro showing up, but is that Fox’s Pietro, or is that our villain of the story? We’re getting tantalizingly close to the answers to that.
4. Are Billy and Tommy ok? We don’t see them as Wanda is taken back under Agatha’s control. They are crucial to the story going forward especially the type of power that Billy has as a telepath.
5. Mephisto, or Nightmare? The devil references have been rampant throughout the series to this point, but has that been a throw-off to the rumored villain in the upcoming Dr. Strange film? Will we find out who Ralph is? Sounds like with Ralph our answers will be found.
WandaVision has been a delight through seven episodes, and the weekly releases has allowed us to digest this differently than if we were binging. With two left we have so many questions still to be answered, and it’s shaping up to be a wild ride down the stretch.
February 20, 2021
‘WANDAVISION’: Back to Your Regular Programming

After Episode 7 we are most likely done with the sitcom-based chapters of WandaVision. Even if we’re still getting an Agn.. Agatha Harkness-centric flashback that might shed some light on both her past and how Wanda retrieved Vision’s body (or did she?), the TV tropes that were so masterfully used to develop the show’s narrative so far should now take a backseat and, in the words of Paul Bettany:

(…)in the end, you end up in full, MCU action movie.

For many, this will be seen as a welcomed pacing shift as WandaVision begins to resemble the MCU theatrical releases more and more, as it approaches the series finale and propels some of its characters into future Phase 4 appearances. There is no way around it, as WandaVision proudly advertised for everyone to see: this is a show that meant to break from the MCU mold and everything about it, either purposeful or not, made it so that a segment of fans would have a bit of trouble adjusting to the way a Marvel Studios project is usually enjoyed.

From the episodic format, something that inherently makes the narrative flow differently than in feature films, to the fact that it’s available on a streaming service, meaning it’s not bound by runtimes associated with shows of this magnitude, and not forgetting the obvious thematic approach that caught many off guard, WandaVision not only proved to not be your regular MCU property, it wasn’t even your regular TV show. But even though it might have been seen as a bit of a gamble by taking some obvious risks, it knew full well it had the MCU label as a safety net that would make audiences stick with it through thick and thin. And that is the right way to approach built-in fanbases, not by continuously giving them what they want, but by giving them what they might need once you have their full attention.

What other way would we get to experience such incredible performances by the show’s amazing leads, as both Olsen and Bettany thrived when asked to move these characters outside of their comfort zones. We also got to recognize and pay tribute to what made the referenced sitcoms so timeless paving the way to the shows we enjoy today, how TV itself has evolved through the years to the point of it being such a meaningful part of everyone’s lives, both past, and present, making us the consumers (not in a bad way) we all are today. Pertaining specifically to the MCU fandom, we’ve seen an incredible increase of engagement throughout the community directly associated with the fact that we’re getting weekly MCU content. The number of theories developed by a single episode rivals the ones surfacing after a theatrical release and even though a week seems like a lot of time to wait before the next episode when you fill that time with all of this content, it’s hard to say it isn’t time well spent.

We still have a couple more episodes until we reach the end of this season of WandaVision, but leaving the sitcoms behind feels like we’ll be indeed returning to our regular MCU programming, which will be followed by The Falcon and The Winter Soldier a month from now. That will also be a good thing, as it is the variety of approaches that’ll be helping the MCU move forward in the coming years. But may WandaVision‘s legacy be the one developed so far, that challenging audiences with interesting content, full of heart and respect towards the source material, is truly the way to go.

February 19, 2021