WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
It’s that time of the week again, for the new episode of WandaVision to be released. Oh boy, did this episode have a handful of twists, surprises and a really special cameo that I didn’t expect to happen, all packed in this thirty-minute episode.
The episode begins with Wanda and Vision trying to quiet down their crying, newly-born twins. Wanda and Vision attempt to calm the twins down by giving them pacifiers, which incidentally doesn’t work, forcing Wanda to utilize her powers, which she has now grown used to doing. Her powers end up not being successful and Wanda, with a worried look, asks why she can’t control them.
“Auntie” Agnes comes in right when Wanda tells Vision that all they need is a little help, as if someone is telling Agnes to come in right on cue. Agnes offers to help the married couple with their problem, but the anxious Vision says that he is nervous about her handling the kids. Agnes then stops her acting, looks at Wanda with a confused look and asks her if she wants her to “take that again”.
It’s almost as if Wanda is the director of the show and is telling her “actors” what to do in it. After everything calms down, Wanda tells Vision that she didn’t see what just happened. The vexing crying disappears and it’s revealed that the boys have transformed up to five-years-old the a blink of an eye, literally.
Now how did they do this? Do both of them have the same powers as their mother? Well, I believe that Billy, AKA Wiccan, does have similar powers to Wanda in the comics. Agnes then says “Kids…can’t control them, no matter how much you try,” completely skipping the fact that the kids just skipped five years of their life.
The show then cuts to this episode’s intro which is an ‘80s-themed video showing pictures of the Vision family, as well as showing baby pictures of each of the family members. And yes, there are also photos of Vision as a baby. (Editor’s note: This intro is a mashup of the opening theme songs for both Family Ties and Growing Pains. I was delighted.)
We then cut to Monica in a hospital bed outside of Westview and she explains what was happening to her when she was stuck in there. She reveals that Wanda’s grief has engulfed all of the people in Westview and has forced them to conform to their roles in Wanda’s show.
Later, Tyler Hayward calls for a meeting with the other SWORD agents, and while Jimmy Woo is trying to explain the situation, Tyler interrupts him, antagonizes Wanda and calls her a “terrorist”. Monica asserts that Wanda isn’t interested in hurting anyone. Tyler counters with footage of Wanda breaking into SWORD, attacking the agents, and stealing Vision’s body, which all happened prior to the events of WandaVision. Wanda doing this directly violated the Sokovia Accords and Vision’s wish to not be brought back to life.
We come back inside Westview and see the twins trying to hide a dog who will later be named “Sparky”. Vision, who is starting to catch on with these unnatural occurrences, realizes that Agnes comes in right on cue again, and this time she “coincidentally” arrives with a dog house in hand. Wanda then utilizes her powers in front of other people, which upsets Vision because he believes that they should be hiding each other’s powers from everyone except themselves.
Agnes doesn’t seem to find anything weird about it though, which causes Vision to ask Wanda, “What aren’t you telling me?” The couple then makes a decision not to allow the twins to look after an animal until they’re both ten years old, so you can guess what happens next. We see the twins literally grow up in front of their parents’ and Agnes’ eyes. Another five years of their youths wasted (tsk, tsk).
Meanwhile outside, Jimmy brings Monica and Darcy coffee, while both of them are trying to figure out how to get into Wanda’s reality without getting mind-controlled or rewritten. Darcy labels Wanda’s “Maximoff anomaly” as a “Hex” due to its hexagonal shape. This is a reference to Scarlet Witch’s type of magic being called a hex as well.
After a debate on which Avenger would have been able to defeat the titan popularly known as Thanos, Monica realizes that the outfit she wore in her role as the person who delivered Wanda’s babies was the same one that she wore when she went inside Westview. Monica explains that Wanda is “changing things as they go into the Hex” and comes up with the bright idea to send something inside that doesn’t need to be changed.
Later at Vision’s office, his coworker Norm receives an email from outside Westview, and somehow everyone in the room unanimously reads the email in a monotone. Vision reads the email and senses something weird going on, so he uses his powers to turn off the computer and does the same thing to his coworker, Norm. He comes to his senses and begs Vision to “stop her” and that “she is in [his] head.” Vision then uses his powers again in order to bring Norm back to “normal”.
After a chat with her kids about her twin brother, who according to Wanda was “far away” at the moment, they go outside to see a drone that is being controlled by Monica outside Westview. Wanda, feeling threatened, uses her powers as Tyler tells the agents to “take the shot”. (Boy, did you mess up big time, sir.)
The feed cuts off and everyone runs out with their guns pointed at the entrance of Westview. Wanda comes out with the broken drone and threatens everyone to “stay out of my home.” When she says this, you can hear her Sokovian accent that has somehow disappeared since appearing in her first movie. Before leaving, Wanda demonstrates that SWORD is no match for her, by controlling the agents and forcing them to point their guns at the man who has convinced themselves that Wanda is one of the bad guys.
After a paper towel commercial, we come back inside the show to see that Wanda and her kids are trying to find Sparky, when they come across the mailman who reassures the kids that their mom won’t let the dog get away. Could this mailman be an important character in the future? I don’t think so, but nothing is impossible in the MCU.
The three find Sparky’s lifeless body wrapped in a blanket in Agnes’ arms. (Fly high, Sparky.) In despair, the boys explain that they want Wanda to bring Sparky back to life. Wanda resists and teaches the boys a lesson: that “we can’t reverse death, no matter how sad it makes us.” (This is quite hypocritical there, Wanda, seeing as you literally brought your dead husband back in the land of the living, when he didn’t even want to be brought back in the first place.)
Later, Vision explains to Wanda that he is now aware of what she is doing while Wanda plays dumb and pretends not to know. The credits start rolling to indicate that the episode is “over”, but once they enter the other room, the credits go away as Vision yells at Wanda exclaiming that “Norm has a family!” The situation isn’t looking good as Vision and Wanda launch themselves the air, looking like they are going to get into an actual fight with their powers, but Wanda somehow calms her husband down.
Vision begins to question Wanda about where the other children of Westview are, because as he explains there are never any children at the park when he goes to work. Wanda, frustrated, tells Vision that she isn’t in control of every person’s actions in Westview. This indicates that she isn’t the “director” that is telling everyone what to do, which would definitely make her really powerful.
Suddenly, a ring of the doorbell interrupts their conversation, and Vision suspects that Wanda is the person who caused this. Wanda walks up to open the door when she sees someone whom she hasn’t seen in a long time. Her brother Pietro is somehow back alive. But there’s a twist, the actor playing Pietro isn’t Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who played him in the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron. Instead the person playing Quicksilver in this scene is played by Evan Peters, who previously played this character in the X-Men franchise, previously owned by 20th Century Fox. Could this “recasting” be Wanda Maximoff’s doing? Even if it was only done subconsciously?
This twist really gets me excited for the future of the MCU. Could his appearance be the second step in introducing mutants into the MCU (with first step being Wanda’s twins)? Are they going to use Wanda’s powers to bring over previously existing characters from the X-Men universe into the Marvel Cinematic Universe? This will most definitely be revealed in future upcoming Marvel projects.