‘WANDAVISION’: Time in a Bubble

We’ve already seen how Wanda is in control of what happens inside the Alternate-Reality Bubble that envelopes Westview. From the way she almost unknowingly affects her surroundings, which then tend to mimic her emotional state, to how she manages to rewind certain moments so that the narrative doesn’t stray too much from the one she had envisioned. One of the times she decided to do the latter was in Episode 3, after the contraction-induced blackout, when Vision seemed to become a bit suspicious about their circumstances. But the most memorable one was during Episode 2 when, after returning home from the talent show, both she and Vision crossed paths with an enigmatic figure dressed as a beekeeper. We got actual graphics and sounds of film rewinding, as the couple returned indoors and the casual meeting was avoided, showing us just how in control of that reality Wanda really is.

Since the Bubble is exactly that, a bubble, Wanda’s powers don’t seem to have any effect on the outside world. We’ve already seen footage of the fields surrounding Westview and, besides the huge military presence, everything seems normal. What remains a mystery about those shots are the tall, floodlight-type devices directed towards the bubble that seem to be holding it back, preventing it from engulfing everything in sight.

And, by keeping the outside world unaffected by Wanda’s powers while Wanda herself is stuck inside the bubble rewinding her narrative at will, this could mean that the outside timeline would become dissociated from the bubble’s. All of this would indicate that even though it seems like mere days have gone by inside the bubble, that could translate into weeks or even months outside, in the real world. This would be a way to explain how everything seems to be moving so fast, from small events like the Hart dinner party to bigger, usually longer and more relevant occurrences like Wanda’s pregnancy.

Wanda’s rewinds only affect each person’s consciousness, so that each of them can forget the situation that prompted the rewind, not their physical body itself. One wouldn’t become 5 minutes younger after a 5-minute rewind, that sort of stuff. This would mean that both Billy and Tommy might have actually been carried to term after all, even if for everybody, us viewers and Vision himself included, it all seems to go by really, really fast. Having this be such a central issue of the show would also provide some context as to why the commercials shown at each episode’s intermission seem to have a common underlying theme: Time.

There are also a few other visual clues that hint at the passing of time not being as conventional as expected. On the “Story Featurette” released by Marvel Studios, we see footage of Geraldine/Monica coming into contact with the bubble for what it seems to be the first time. She’s just outside of town, in pretty much the same place we see her getting thrown out to in Episode 3, just by the town’s Billboard. Here we notice how the surrounding fields are empty, whereas when she gets expelled from the bubble, there’s this huge military compound already set up, something that might have taken more than a few weeks to do. If that early shot was when she first entered the bubble, this might hint that several weeks/months have gone by when she gets out, an idea reinforced by both how the military seem to react to her, as a stranger they don’t know aything about, and her own reaction, like she just woke up from a long dreamlike situation, not recognizing where she was.

Paul Bettany has recently tweeted out that Episode 4 will blow our minds, so maybe in four days, WandaVision will begin to shed a little bit of light on all of this. But having Wanda emerge from the slumber of Westview, years after she first entered it, realizing that the world moved on while she was stuck in time, both literally and metaphorically, mourning the ones she loved and still coming out of it empty-handed, would be something.

Total
0
Shares
Previous Post

Murphy’s Law: Episode 79

Next Post

Live-Action ‘Harry Potter’ Series in Development for HBO Max

Related Posts