Since its release on January 15th, WandaVision has revitalized Marvel fans still reeling after 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. But, as good as the production value of WandaVision is, it raises a lot of questions… with answers coming from below Westview?
SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION EPISODES 1-4
Personally, I was one of the former avid fans who felt disillusioned and betrayed by the final Avengers film, and it left me with a bad taste for the franchise in my mouth. With the hiatus imposed on the studio’s release of Black Widow due to Covid-19, my interest in the comic media waned. I wasn’t even planning on watching WandaVision based on complaints surrounding Elizabeth Olsen’s casting, the technical age gap between her and Vision, his non-human status, and (as a result of all of these) a lack of interest in their character arcs. However, the Disney Club hosted a virtual watch party for the first two episodes after our first general meeting, and maybe it was the just social atmosphere I’d been missing since last March, but I found myself really enjoying the show. While the criticisms surrounding the whitewashing of a Jewish, Romani character remain significant, I unexpectedly appreciated the explorations into Wanda’s character, alongside hokey gags and references to a lot of the classic TV I’d grown up watching.
Although I’d love for Disney/Marvel to rectify their mistake, their lack of concern towards Wanda’s race makes me unhopeful about any kind of recasting, especially given the popularity of this show with Olsen and Bettany at the head. While I don’t think Wanda or Vision are set to become characters I’d devote my attention to, it is nice to learn more about two Avengers I had no investment in. The mystery surrounding the events of the plot, complete with off-kilter cutscenes and Twilight Zone like diversions really drew me in, even as it left me wondering on the edge of my seat.
First off, why is Wanda in this TV fantasy world?
The most recent episode broke away from Wanda and her husband's sitcoms from the mid to late 20th century eras in favor of showcasing the outcome of Wanda’s throwdown with Westview resident, “Geraldine.” Wanda’s new friend was revealed to actually be Monica Rambeau, daughter of the late Maria Rambeau, the best friend to Captain Marvel and founder of S.W.O.R.D, a S.H.I.E.L.D. subsidiary organization. Rambeau, mere weeks after her revival from Thanos’ “Snap,” takes on a missing person’s case alongside FBI Agent Jimmy Woo, previously introduced in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Woo and Monica discover a small town in New Jersey surrounded by some kind of energy field, which sucks Monica inside as she investigates. Inside the forcefield, the town has been transformed into the setting for WandaVision, updating its aesthetics overtime and transforming any object brought inside to fit the growing narrative. In this episode, Dr. Darcy Lewis, one of my favorite characters from the Thor franchise, taps into the signal emitted from the field, allowing the giant base camp erected outside to tune into the classic style broadcast alongside all us viewers at home. How’s that for meta?
Lewis pinpoints Wanda and Vision, which leads the team to try and identify the rest of the cast of characters, eventually discovering almost all of them are missing townsfolk roped into false roles. But why? What’s the purpose for this show, besides the antics of Wanda and the rest of the cast being highly entertaining? The most popular fan speculation is that this Pleasantville-esque bubble has been manufactured using Wanda’s powers of mental creation, marking it as quite literally, a “Wanda vision.” Not only does the picture-perfect life she shares with Viz, previously “killed” in Infinity War, and their subsequent (but impossible???) two children lend credibility to this motive, but as Monica points out at the close of Episode 4, “It’s all her.” Wanda repeatedly displays the power to control environment, often rewriting the narrative to avoid outside intrusions. What’s more, the
commercial breaks in the first three episodes featured a beeping Stark toaster erupting hot bread, a Strucker watch, and “Hydra-soak,” referencing the bomb which orphaned the Maximoff twins, and their involvement in Hydra villain Baron Von Strucker’s experiments to create Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.
And yet to me, this doesn’t feel like the most plausible resolution, especially as it comes midway in the series from a person on a team only involved in this investigation for a couple of days. Although Wanda’s newfound reality-bending abilities can certainly influence the narrative, why would she bother doing all this just to get back Vision? It would definitely be much easier to create a mental version of him alone, without the effort of fabricating an entire town with scripted plotlines featuring kidnapped people. And why the changing retro aesthetics? Something about an impovrished girl in Eastern Europe who went from being an orphaned child to a lab experiment makes me doubt Wanda’s familiarity with the nuanced tropes of out-dated American TV that probably went off air before she was even born. And why New Jersey?
Secondly, just who are the unexplained characters?
As I mentioned before, with help from Dr. Lewis and Agent Woo, S.W.O.R.D. and Co. were able to discover the identities of many of the Westview Residents, keeping a running tally using state IDs alongside visuals from the “show.” But whether they ran out of time, Cup of Noodles, or coffee (or maybe hit a wall with Darcy’s facial recognition software), we’re left with real names for everybody but Wanda’s neighbor and close ally, Agnes, and the infamous Regina George of Westview, Dottie. While I do think Wanda is involved in the events surrounding Westview, it’s more likely someone else manipulating Wanda for her powers by taking advantage of her confusion and grief after returning in the Blip, what feels like mere "moments" from watching Vision die. Seriously, that freaky scene where everyone just watches as Mr. Hart chokes to death did not suggest Wanda was fully in control of the situation, or prioritizing the sustainment of the full extent of this fantasy world. I have to say, it feels more likely that someone else we don’t suspect might be behind it, and the nods to Wanda being the villainous showrunner are a red herring. Given that Marvel seems intent on bringing in the missing elements from Scarlet Witch’s comic book character, this could be the perfect moment to introduce from familiar enemies or allies.
While Agnes seems like just Wanda’s well-meaning, if nosy, neighbor, many fans think there’s more to her than meets the eye. Agatha Harkness was a comic book character influential in the House of M storyline for Wanda. Harkness was a powerful witch with many abilities and acted as a mentor of sorts for Maximoff, even erasing her memory to save her from the pain of losing her sons Billy and Tommy (yes that Billy and Tommy) when they turn out to be a figment of the imagination (No, not that Marvel Figment). If Agnes (Agatha Harkness), means to take young Wanda under her wing (this time sans pineapple), or more sinisterly, siphon her abilities to dominate an entire town, this seems like an effective way. All she had to do was offer Wanda a living husband, picket fence, and children to keep her complacent. The only thing that’s really missing is a breathing Pietro… Too soon?
Agnes also constantly brings up her unseen husband, Ralph, mostly to complain about how she “jokingly” wants to get rid of him. Based on a brooch she wore, along with a cartoon helm between the Visions’ floorboards, lots of fans believe this signifies a collaboration between Harkness and Vision’s comic book “brother,” Grim Reaper. Agnes’ mentions of the Devil, rabbit named “Senor Scratchy” (a reference to Nicolas Scratch, but not the one from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), hexagons, plus Wanda’s miraculous pregnancy, raise speculation about the role of Mephisto within the series, apparently masquerading as Dottie. This makes sense because Phase 4 of the MCU explores the “Multiverse of Madness,” with the Loki trailer seemingly depicting Mephisto, essentially an alt-universe Satan. Given Rambeau’s involvement, Harkness could either be a false psychologist or some kind of alien rather than an actual Salem witch and in cahoots with either of these two baddies. Hey, if her namesake Captain Jack got to return to his franchise in 2021, why can’t she? Hopefully, the next few episodes will answer all these questions and more... (And if the later episodes don't give us at least one Full House spoof then what even is the point!)
This makes me even more excited to see what happens next in the show