Since I've somewhat established a pattern here of commenting on WandaVision every other episode, I guess it's time for another dive into what's become a fascinating mystery, wrapped in different era sitcoms, with all kinds of twists, turns, and questions upon more questions.
After spending the first three episodes without much information happening inside the sitcoms, Episodes 5 and 6 have dealt with the Westview Anomaly both inside and outside as Vision and a guest (more on that in a moment) are aware that things aren't what they seem and that Wanda is at the center of it all.
We're into a more standard format of pushing the plot forward on both sides of the Hex, and while the sledding has been slow, characters are starting to show their true colors, and there are more hints and probably feints suggesting where WandaVision is actually going.
For those who haven't yet seen WandaVision through Episode 6, which dropped yesterday—Friday, February 12—this serves as your warning. There be spoilers and speculation ahead.
Diving Right In
As I did last time, I'm just going to get to it and skip the recapping.
SWORD Did Have Vision's Body
In my last post, I guessed that SWORD might have Vision's body, and in Episode 5, that little tidbit gets revealed. It made perfect sense, given SWORD's name and primary function. However, it opened up a bunch of questions, such as, just what were the SWORD scientists doing with Vision's body? On the surveillance footage SWORD acting director Tyler Hayward shows his assembled staff and colleagues, Wanda barges in to find Vision in pieces on several different tables.
That's not how Vision was at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. So, clearly, they were up to something.
Talk About Burying Your Lead
When it comes to agencies tasked with patrolling and protecting different jurisdictions, a part of doing so requires some level of secrecy. SWORD is no different, obviously, but there's something more to Hayward's keeping things close to the vest than simply information being on a need to know basis. It seems obvious that Hayward knew Vision was at SWORD, that his body was taken, that Wanda was the person who did it, and that surely it would be a priority one assignment for somebody in SWORD to track them down.
But none of that gets mentioned to Monica her first day back. Instead, she gets sent off to chaperone a drone on an FBI missing persons case.
Right.
Hayward Is A...
Fill in the blank. With Monica, at least to begin with, he's cordial and understanding. Out in the field, scant yards away from the Westview Anomaly, he's anything but. Sure, he's the guy in charge, but as I said above, there's more to it than that.
Now, there are some folks believing he's someone else, potentially the main villain behind all of this. At this stage who knows, but I'm leaning towards him being more of the stereotypical guy in charge who prefers to neutralize threats with excessive force rather than negotiate or understand the situation. He basically says as much in Episode 6, when he verbalizes his disenchantment with the recently returned Captain Monica Rambeau, and those who have been assisting her, FBI Agent James Woo and Astrophysicist Dr. Darcy Lewis.
In fact, he has them booted out of camp because they think Wanda's more powerful than Hayward's "murder squad" (as Darcy puts it).
Hayward is showing his true colors, but aside from being a jerk and obviously not enraptured with superhero kind, I don't get any other nefarious vibes from him.
Even With The Hidden Cataract Files
As WandaVision rolls along, more tiny details, some subtle, a few not so much, keep appearing. Darcy stays behind in Episode 6 as Monica and Woo take off to meet her yet to be revealed aerospace engineer (could this be Reed Richards or even Ben Grimm? If so, who will play them?) She finds some hidden files under the name Cataract, which hints to some kind of director eyes only SWORD project. But for what, or for whom?
Cataracts are an eye condition, affecting vision, so it's not so a big flying leap to assume that it has something to do with Vision, even though it wouldn't be related to seeing, but more something to do with Vision himself.
Which, incidentally, according to Agent Woo, is against section 36B of the Sokovia Accords.
Maybe Wanda, after returning from being blipped, nearly singlehandedly taking out Thanos and then attending Tony Stark's memorial, decided to find out what happened to Vision. Maybe she was told SWORD had him, and she didn't take very kindly to it. Especially when she found out what they were doing to him.
That would explain a great deal of the conversation she had with Hayward outside the energy field when she brings back the drone Hayward sends in armed with a missile.
Vision Is Dead
It's looking that way more and more. His foray into the real world outside the Hex basically gets him falling to pieces, literally. I had surmised that it would be more definitive, though. He either walks through intact and works to free the townspeople without hurting Wanda and their sons, or he just drops inert on the ground.
Instead, he comes apart, the debris going back into the energy field, as if one with it. Which doesn't make sense unless that's how he's actually back together let alone animated. Wanda didn't have any problem getting in and out, nor did Monica, aside from her cells being rewritten each time she went through the barrier. So, there's something different about Vision's state of being versus that of the other two.
He tells Wanda in their brief shouting match at the end of Episode 5 that he doesn't remember who he is, and that it scares him. He has no recollection of where he came from other than his time in Westview. Whether that's a part of the Hex, or something deeper, like no longer having memory at all because it was plucked out of him along with the Mind Stone, is still a question.
Given his greater autonomy than a lot of the townsfolk, and his ability to bring them in and out of Wanda's control, my inclination is, he doesn't have memories because they're gone rather than simply being suppressed. Regardless, either way works.
Who Is Agnes?
Six episodes in, and we're still dealing with that. Because of her name, some have speculated she's Agatha Harkness, an old witch who mentors Wanda in the comic books. Unless she's been around all along and we just didn't know it (time passes in between movies, after all), it seems unlikely Wanda would have found her so quickly after the blip. So, that's something I'm not ready to commit to until there's something more definitive.
As it is, each episode has me leaning away from Agatha Harkness. Still, Agnes is a mystery, since they have yet to identify her.
In Episode 6, as Vision is reconnoitering around town on Halloween, he actually comes across Agnes, who is in a stalled car at the edge of town. She, too, is having a hard time functioning. Like he did previously with Norm, Vision wakes Agnes up, and they have a discussion about who he is, the fact that he's dead, and that Wanda is keeping everyone inside. When he puts her under again, Agnes turns around and drives away.
What was she doing out there? Was she trying to escape? Or did she simply make a wrong turn and get stuck? Very odd, and yet convenient for Vision to stumble upon.
Wanda Isn't Totally In Control
There's still something or someone else behind it all. She tells both Vision and (surprise!) the Fox X-Men version of her dead brother Pietro that she doesn't know how things got started, nor how she's able to do it. She just felt alone, and unending nothingness. For someone who's been through what she has in her life, as a child, then with Hydra and Ultron, it's not necessarily an unfamiliar feeling or place for her to be.
So, I'm thinking there's more to it. She may be able to control her environment, but there's someone pulling her strings, too.
Suggestions have been Mephisto, Nightmare, and lately, Kang, The Conqueror. All are potential good guesses, but I'm actually liking the latter the more I learn about him. He did have an infatuation/fear of Wanda in the comics, and he's rumored to be the big bad guy for the next phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This Is Not House Of M—Yet
People keep saying that it is, but so far, it's more of the lead up to it. House of M erased mutants. We need mutants to exist first, and so far, we don't have them yet. Yes, there is the theory that Wanda is the catalyst for their existence in the MCU, which I'm hoping against, but if it's going to happen, it's going to happen soon, as in WandaVision itself.
I'm Winging It Here
Wanda, I'm understanding, is supposed to be a nexus being, which means she's tied to, in this instance, the MCU's reality. But if she's under duress, having a hard time holding onto reality because of grief or her own mental state, that could explain the Hex. But how did she get there? And why sitcoms? Why broadcast them? Why New Jersey? Why not somewhere out of the way?
We know that WandaVision is leading up to two feature length films in the MCU directly—the yet to be named Spider-Man 3 movie, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The events of WandaVision will get us there, but there's got to be more to the story than what we know already. Things that have already happened.
We're being told by Monica that Wanda is grief-stricken, in the depths of despair, which isn't exactly where we left her after the Stark memorial. She seemed to be at terms with Vision and Pietro's deaths while consoling Hawkeye about the loss of Black Widow. So, what happened after that? Was seeing Vision in pieces enough to initiate that grief? That seems more like an anger thing to me, but who knows.
Regardless of how she got to that point, I'm wondering what Doctor Strange's involvement is in all of this. In the comics, he was actually the attending physician for the birth of Wanda's twins. It makes sense that he would have some role leading up to WandaVision since he certainly will after.
What If...
A couple of ideas.
Doctor Strange has been working with her. They've discovered some things about her, that there's more to her abilities than what was previously known. He's been detecting an amazing amount of energy, mystical force, whatever, emanating around her or through her, since she's the nexus being that she is. He'd naturally want to know that she was in a good state of mind and able to handle it all.
But what if she wasn't, or couldn't, and Doctor Strange was trying to help her keep it under control, and barring that, find some other way so that reality didn't rip itself apart?
Except, she finds out that Vision is with SWORD, only to discover that they've dismembered him in some quest to weaponize or reproduce or do some other thing, and she just snaps.
What would be the consequence of that? Would it be enough to cause her to descend into madness? What if in so doing, she opened up the door to other dimensions? A door or doors that weren't meant to be opened?
She's obviously plucked Pietro from somewhere. He's not her MCU brother, even though he's got his memories, or something akin to them. Maybe she's just plain crazy at this point, and we're only seeing things from her perspective, the way she wants them on some level to be.
Vision has autonomy to some degree, or maybe it's her own subconscious being represented by Vision. Since he was unable to leave the Hex without falling apart, maybe he's not really there. And neither is Pietro.
Or maybe they both are, just reanimated and or re-imagined.
The fact that she has something to do with opening up portals to other realms seems readily apparent. The question is how. If it's happening through a mental breakdown, that would explain madness in the title of the Doctor Strange movie. It would also suggest she's not necessarily intentionally doing it, and that she has become her own captive, too, with only limited control over things. Without actually dealing with whatever caused her breakdown in the first place.
Pietro more or less suggests this in Episode 6. He could be Pietro, the mysterious being behind her problem, or her subconscious, trying to get her to fess up. The mind is a powerful thing, even in madness and despair.
That damage done by her reality warping or dimensional door opening could be what leads to the unhinging of Spider-Men and villains in the next Spider-Man movie, which is rumored to have both previous Sony Spider-Men coming back, along with various villains and supporting actors. If such is the case, this could be how everything gets opened up and merged.
This could be the MCUs way of bringing all of the scattered Marvel properties together.
What Doesn't Fit Is The Broadcast
It's one thing to create the idyllic life. It's another to send it out as a television show. That suggests someone is watching. There's also the editing that's going on. She's preventing certain scenes from airing. Why? Is she trying to keep things from whoever could be behind this if turns out we're not already just all living in her world?
I think I'm leaning toward the fact that Wanda is some kind of destabilized mental state, that part of her is fighting against other parts of her, so that she's not fully aware of how she got there, or why. I think she's being fueled by something—other dimensions, some other being—and that it's a toss up as to just who Vision and Pietro are. I'm more for them being themselves, having autonomy, but it could easily be manifestations of Wanda's own mind.
The children have their own awareness, too, so I'm willing to go with Monica on this one and say that they're real.
Something's Going On Outside The Hex
There's a big old sign saying Westview at the edge of town. It was outside the Hex, until Wanda expands it to save Vision from disintegration in Episode 6. Back in Episode 4, Monica takes the turnoff for Westview from the freeway, meaning there was an actual turn off for Westview, too.
Yet, according to the local sheriff, Westview doesn't exist. Except it has signage that apparently non-locals can follow.
Why? If Wanda wanted to get away, as the Episode 3 ad states, why are there signs leading straight to her made up town outside the Hex? Why the broadcast? Why include real people to manipulate?
Three More Episodes To Go
There's not a whole lot of time to wrap things up, if it's going to happen in WandaVision. I'm sure many are wanting to know Darcy's fate, since she was handcuffed to a vehicle when the Hex grew and we didn't get to see how she might have changed.
We're still expecting some fireworks between Vision and a mystery guest that has yet to appear. Pietro probably isn't the only non-MCU character who will show. I think we're still waiting on the character Paul Bettany (the actor who plays Vision) stated is coming, played by someone he's always wanted to work with (meaning he hasn't yet), and that there are fireworks in their scenes.
A lot to accomplish, along with figuring out everything else that's actually going on, and already happened that we just haven't been privy to yet, in just three episodes. I imagine they will be chocked full with all kinds of details from here on out.
Or not. They might just leave us all hanging.
Either way, I'm still enjoying the ride. And the sitcoms. Those are still the funnest part of all of this.
All images source—Wandavision Media Kit at Disney.com