Red Alert! Red Alert! Spoilers and speculation from here on out!
Well, did you find out something you didn't already know before last Friday's fourth episode of WandaVision?
Sure, a lot of things were confirmed, but were there any major reveals?
For the first time since WandaVision began over two weeks ago on Disney+, Episode Four took the viewing audience outside the warped sitcom reality bubble (or should I say hexagon) for a longer than a few seconds to catch us all up on what's been going on outside of it. Essentially, synching up both sides of the energy field thus far.
What We Now Know Definitively. Maybe.
S.W.O.R.D. Are The Good Guys—Probably
I'm diving right in without a whole lot of explanation of who or what things are, so if you're reading this far after my spoiler alert, I'm presuming you've seen all the episodes of WandaVision available to date.
There's been some confusion as to just what S.W.O.R.D.'s role might be regarding Wanda and Vision's altered states, given that the S.W.O.R.D. logo keeps showing up in mysterious ways.
The toy helicopter Wanda finds in her roses in Episode Two? A S.W.O.R.D. drone, altered to fit the sitcom reality (except, it remained red and yellow despite everything else being in black and white). Monica Rambeau is the one who flew it in there. We met her as an 11-year-old girl in Captain Marvel. She's now in her 30s, recently returned from the blip, and a captain in the S.W.O.R.D. ranks.
Monica Rambeau discovers the energy field in WandaVision.
After the drone goes missing, it's Monica who discovers there's an energy field surrounding the town. When she touches the field, it starts to alter her hand. When she pushes further, she gets entirely sucked in. So, her entrance to the reality warp is accidental.
The beekeeper guy who climbs out of the storm drains at the end of the aforementioned Episode Two is not an agent of A.I.M. wearing the S.W.O.R.D. logo on his back, but an actual S.W.O.R.D. agent. He's put in a hazmat suit and sent in through the sewer systems after Monica disappears to see if he has better luck. Since he's the one Wanda rewinds the show on at the end of Episode Two, I think it's safe to say he didn't fare any better than Monica.
In fact, his fate is, possibly quite literally, in limbo right now, as Episode Four doesn't shine any light onto his potential whereabouts. After the rewind, he isn't shown returning to base camp. For all we know now, he's been erased from existence on either side.
The Characters of WandaVision Are Actual People
Various citizens of Westview are identified. Notably, one of the ones who isn't yet known is Agnes. She's been one of Wanda's friends since the first episode. Since it's speculated that she's Agatha Harkness, a very old witch that helped hone Wanda's magical powers in the comics, the fact that she's not yet confirmed as an ordinary human being still leaves the door open for something far more sinister, even though her character has been nothing but pleasant so far.
Radio Voice Confirmed
The mysterious voice that cuts in over the Beach Boys on the radio in Episode Two is indeed FBI Agent James Woo from the second Ant-Man movie. He's on the case chasing down a missing person who's actually in the Witness Protection Program. The witness has apparently disappeared into Westview. He meets Monica at the edge of town, to bring her up to speed, and is there to see her get sucked in.
A Darcy Sighting
Joining Woo, and the one who came up with the idea to transmit to the radio in hopes of reaching Wanda, is Darcy Lewis, Jane Foster's intern from Thor, who now has her doctorate in Astrophysics. She's also the one who discovers that the sitcom broadcast exists, and she's the one sitting at the desk with the older television putting down the notebook at the end of Episode One.
Westview Doesn't Actually Exist
For some reason, the local Sheriff can't see the big sign at the edge of town. He probably doesn't even see the buildings of the town in the near distance. The Sheriff is from Eastview, which is a real life town in New Jersey. So, as far as he's concerned, Westview doesn't exist at all. This leaves Monica and Woo to wonder why they can both see things, but the Sheriff, and presumably other locals can't.
It Was Definitely Wanda
Wanda getting ready to serve up some of her red magic.
At the end of Episode Three, Monica comes hurtling out of the energy field after a rather disturbing confrontation with Wanda. In Episode Four, we see how that happens. Wanda, summons her red energy magic for the first time and basically blasts Monica through the living room wall, out the baby's room wall, and across a sizable distance of open field. After that, Wanda seems befuddled by the holes in the walls, but quickly uses her powers again to fix them.
The Townspeople Know Something Is Happening
But for some reason, they're not telling. At least, not to Vision, who finds both Herb and Agnes talking about Geraldine (Monica's name in the sitcom reality). They know she's not from Westview, which makes Vision concerned (again) that something isn't quite right.
The Sitcom Broadcast Is A Thing
So, you're saying, the universe created a sitcom starring two Avengers? Classic.
Dr. Lewis and Agent Woo wonder why Wanda and Vision are in a sitcom, why the decades are changing, etc. Instead of just being in an idyllic town like in an early sitcom, it's acknowledged more than once that this is an actual sitcom, with its own theme songs, title sequences and post credits.
Potential Timeline For When WandaVision Takes Place
In Monica's return to S.W.O.R.D., she is told that it's been three weeks since everyone came back from the blip. If so, that would put the events of Episode Four before what happens in Spider-Man: Far From Home, which was the last feature length film Marvel Studios released.
That means it can't be more than that since we last saw Wanda, who was commiserating with Hawkeye at Tony Stark's Celebration of Life gathering. At that point, she seemed to be in a good place as far as Vision was concerned. Obviously, quite a bit has happened in the intervening time.
What We Don't Know Still
The Writing On The Board
Agent Woo puts four questions on a whiteboard while the townsfolk are being identified.
Why hexagonal shape? The reality field has six sides to it that extends below ground level, and high above it.
Why Sitcoms? Personally, I'm glad this is a main concern of the task force, which I hope means it will be eventually answered. It's a rather elaborate and laborious plot device to end up unexplained.
Same Time And Space? What's referred to now as the Westview Anomaly might not even be on Earth, but in another dimension entirely. As far as time goes, it seems to be day, though possibly early evening, when Monica is expelled from Westview, but obviously after dark outside of the reality hexagon. So, if nothing else, there's a difference of a few hours.
It's more likely that time travels faster inside the anomaly than outside it, since all three episodes seem to take place within a matter of hours, even though at least a couple of days have passed inside sitcom world.
Is Vision Alive? I'm glad this question is being asked, too, because it's something that has been bothering me since the beginning. The last time we saw Vision was at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, when he was destroyed first by Wanda (at Vision's own insistence), and then by Thanos, when the latter rips the Mind Stone out of the synthezoid's head.
It seems well established (though I'm not counting it as 100 percent certain yet) that Wanda is who we think she is. What's completely up for grabs is just what Vision's actual condition is. Is he truly alive? If so, how? Magic seems the likely culprit. Did Wanda bring him back?
At the end of Episode Four, his state of being is still in doubt. When he returns from talking to the neighbors, as he did at the end of Episode Three, we see more in Episode Four than we did before. After telling Vision Monica had to go, Wanda looks up to see a dead but animated (walking, talking) version of him. She lowers her head again in dismay. When she looks back up, he's back to his normal, albeit sitcom self.
What's Troubling Me
Vision has scenes where he's without Wanda throughout all three episodes. He acts independently of Wanda. If he is merely a figment of her imagination, or of the reality she's in, I'm not sure I like him having his own separate scenes. It leads the viewer to believe he's actually there, when he very well may not. It would obviously be misdirection, but in my way of thinking, it's kind of lazy storytelling.
Where's Vision's body been all of this time? We don't know when S.W.O.R.D came to be, exactly, other than it happened early enough for Monica to grow up in it (more on that in a bit). Did S.W.O.R.D. have his body? If so, it's not been revealed quite yet, but that could mean that maybe the agency is not as innocent at it currently appears.
When he finds out Wanda and Vision are in a sitcom, Acting S.W.OR.D. Director Tyler Hayward abruptly calls for transport back to HQ. Why? What could be more pressing there than what's going on at the base camp? Other than S.W.O.R.D. had Vision's body under lock and key? It's not much to go on, but if that's where Vision's body has been all this time, and it's whereabouts is director level only, Hayward would be the only one who knows. And he wants to check to see if the body is still there because he can't just make a phone call to find out.
Maybe Wanda finds out after her own blip return that Vison's been stored away or being experimented on and doesn't take kindly to it. She has reality bending powers, so she not only could sneak into a heavily guarded facility undetected, she could also wipe anyone's memory of her being there should she be caught. She then takes his body and sets up the Westview Anomaly on her own, out of grief and a desire to be left alone.
That seems more than a little morbid to me, and not my personal preference for how this will play out, but it's certainly a possibility.
Regardless of how the sitcom reality came to be, Vision's place in it is of particular interest to me.
Some Hints Of His Status And More
In a couple of the trailers and clips showing bits of coming episodes, Agnes can be seen being awakened in her car by Vision. She wonders aloud if she's dead. When he says no, then asks why, she says, "Because you are."
We don't get to see how he reacts to that, but in other scenes, he's flying over the town, presumably in an attempt to get outside. In yet another, he seems to be pushing on the energy field before collapsing to at least his knees outside of it.
If any of those visuals are actually what's happening, and not just misdirection, then the possibility that he is actually there, with Wanda and the other real people, increases quite a bit. Unless, of course, what we don't get to see when he falls outside the barrier is him dematerializing, since he really wasn't there there at all. If he falls down inert, looking like he did at the end of Infinity War, then his body was reanimated somehow.
Some more interesting tidbits. In a couple of the later trailers, there also appears to be a scene where Wanda goes around revealing what the town actually looks like in it's modern form. It's too early to know what that's all about. She and Vision could be on the verge of fighting each other, too, perhaps to prevent him from leaving.
That's Why I Said What I Said
Despite Monica muttering, "Wanda. It's all Wanda," at the end of Episode Four, I don't think we have enough information yet to know how our why the Westview Anomaly came to be, or who or what else might be behind it. If it is all Wanda, well, so be it. In the comics, she did all kinds of bad things in an altered state of mind. Controlling her type of power has taxed her to the limit and beyond in the comics. She's killed Avengers. In House of M, it was thought that the only way to deal with her was to take her life, since her mind had been irreparably damaged by anger, grief and the enormity of her abilities.
So, how Wanda got where she is, and why, who might still be behind it, and what Vision's ultimate role in all of it are still huge questions yet to be answered. That's why the catching up on the other side we were given in Episode Four doesn't really fill in a whole lot. In fact, it may have just created more questions.
I believe we'll be returning back to the sitcom format with this Friday's (February 5) Episode Five being set somewhere in the 80s. I for one am looking for to that, though we'll probably be bouncing back and forth between inside and outside of Westview from here on out.
More Questions And Speculation
Who is Agent Woo's missing witness? What significance does he have, other than to draw Woo to New Jersey and thus Monica, S.W.O.R.D., et al? That would be enough, but what if the witness actually has a larger role to play in all of this.
Why can't locals see or remember Westview? Since they're the ones most likely to come nosing around, it could be a defense against them doing so, set up by whoever created the anomaly. Proximity to the spell when it was cast could explain why Monica and Woo see and know something is wrong (along with the task force responders), but the locals do not. It seems like a rather weak spell for whoever might want to keep the place a secret, but even magic can have its limits.
Which could mean its a very localized anomaly.
Why New Jersey? Is it only to pay homage to the Scarlet Witch and Vision miniseries where the couple settles in Leonia, a real life New Jersey suburb, to live out post Avenger life, and as it turns out, to have twins? If indeed as I've speculated above, S.W.O.R.D. did have Vison's body and Wanda found out, it's relative proximity to S.W.O.R.D. HQ could answer those questions. Otherwise, there needs to be another explanation for the location. It's a secret, but not so secret place to be.
Who or what is behind all of this? As I said, I'm not ready to give up on Wanda yet, though it does appear she's okay with the false reality and is fighting to keep it going, regardless of what she needs to do. So far, that's meant rewinding episodes in a couple places and sending Monica flying, but we don't yet know what else she may have done to create it, or what she's capable of doing to maintain it.
I'm still of the mind to believe that someone or something else is involved, either imprisoning her or aiding her to create the reality. Her own powers seem to be on the fritz at times, so either they're being affected by the sitcom reality, except when she really exerts herself or comes out of her self-delusion, or this other involved entity is trying to maintain dominance.
Otherwise, she's holding a town full of people hostage, not only against their wills, but forcing them to maintain her illusion. It's one thing to create everything out of thin air, quite another to take over real people.
Why broadcast the sitcom? Among the questions regarding the whole sitcom idea is why is it being transmitted in the first place? How far is it going? What's the strength of signal? Who else might be watching and why? If someone magical or with reality bending powers wanted to keep tabs on what was going on, why not just pop in when desired or peer in with some kind of magical looking glass? Television broadcast waves is a pretty specific means of viewing anything. And, obviously, it's pickup isn't limited to just whoever might be behind this.
If Wanda is indeed running the show, why go to great lengths to keep locals from knowing, but then bother to transmit it outside so someone else can see it and potentially conclude she's in trouble? What's the motivation? Is a part of her concerned that she might go too far so she has a built in fail-safe running in case she goes too far?
What's Wanda been up to since we saw her last? Did she take time off from the Avengers to try to build a new life? Without family. Without Vision? That would put her awfully alone. Would three weeks be enough time for her to come across Agatha Harkness, and the two of them help her develop her powers?
I don't know. As far as I'm concerned, nearly defeating Thanos by herself tends to tell me she's got quite a bit of control over her powers. More so than she had before the Sokovia Accords. However, her power is supposed to be hard to manage, and maybe she went seeking guidance. Did she talk to Dr. Strange and get referred to Agatha? Did Strange want to keep better tabs on her? Since there's a tie-in between WandaVision and the next Dr. Strange movie, is the Sorcerer Supreme already involved somehow?
I'm trying to figure out Wanda's motivation for taking over a town when, as Vision says to her, they could go anywhere. Which means somewhere much more secluded where they wouldn't hurt anyone.
Why the need to fit in? This is something else perplexing me. A recurring theme throughout the sitcom episodes so far is keeping their identities or powers a secret, even though, that's probably difficult in a normal situation, given they have global awareness as Avengers, even if Vision disguises himself as human. It could be a sitcom trope used in such shows as Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie, but it seems to be at odds with the townsfolk, who know something is wrong.
Why go to all the trouble to blend in if it's just not going to work? More of Wanda's self-delusion? Or again, is someone behind it, trying to retain control over everyone.
Does the Mind Stone play a part? In the trailers, there are scenes of either the Mind Stone or Wanda being bathed in a yellowish glow. What's that all about? Is the Mind Stone being used to create the sitcom reality. If so, again, by whom or by what? Did Wanda not only get Vision's body, did she go after the Mind Stone to help put him back together?
And where the heck did S.W.O.R.D. come from? I've mentioned in a previous post that it wouldn't be so difficult to introduce mutants into the MCU. Just say they've been around all this time, we just didn't know it. That might take some explaining, but it's much easier than multiverses (which by the way, got created to explain stories that Marvel Comics decided shouldn't be canon, or from the main reality, which finally got so unwieldy, they needed to come up with a way to consolidate), or popping them into existence through magic.
Well, along with the way Spider-Man came into the MCU, we now have S.W.O.R.D. We don't know when Monica's mother Maria (Carol Danver's former Air Force buddy) started the Division, but it sounds like it's been around for quite some time. In fact, it could have started shortly after the events in Captain Marvel, which occurred in 1995. Current MCU events are in 2023. That means S.W.O.R.D. could be 28 years old, and nary a mention?
Oh, no, what will we do?!
I do admit, it's rather jarring, especially since the FBI is aware of it. It's not been hiding. Just like folks might ask about mutants, where was S.W.O.R.D. during the whole invasion of New York? Did they not have a space station monitoring things like they do in the comics. And what was Nick Fury doing at the end of Far From Home? Is that related to S.W.O.R.D.?
Maybe we're already in an alternate reality where S.W.O.R.D. exists, but didn't in the other movies. I'm shaking my head just thinking about it, but again, the main questions are still unanswered and now new ones are popping up.
More Clues Await!
Like Darcy says, "I'm invested," so waiting for Episode 5 to drop in a couple of days is like watching paint dry. But I'm enjoying the ride, including the week long intervals and all the anticipation. Which I think means, at least in my case, Marvel Studios is doing their job.
Images source—Disney media page