'VisionQuest': Why Does Tommy Seem To Remember More Of Westview Than Billy Did?

WARNING! SPOILERS for VisionQuest 1x03 'Reboot' and 1x04, 'Malware'.

Episodes three and four of VisionQuest have, among other things, furthered the growth of Vision's bond with his reincarnated son Thomas Shepherd/Tommy Maximoff. A big recurring question for fans over the series early episodes has been why Thomas seems to remember more of Westview and his life as Tommy than his twin brother, Billy, remembered upon his own reincarnation as William Kaplan.

Thankfully, the most recent episodes have provided a few more hints as to why this might be.

Billy's reincarnation

Billy Maximoff's reincarnation into the body of Eastview teenager William Maximoff is first seen in 'Familiar By Thy Side', the fifth episode of Agatha All Along. William Kaplan's Bar Mitzvah is interrupted by the end of Wanda Maximoff's hex over the neighbouring town of Westview, and while heading home, the hex causes the Kaplan family to crash their car. William is killed, but the surviving soul of Billy Maximoff latches onto his vacant body.

Apart from feeling Tommy's presence, Billy/William has very little memory of Westview. It is only three years after the Westview incident, following an extensive amount of research, that he begins to develop some idea of who he is, although the love he has developed for the people in William Kaplan's life at this point (his parents, etc) leads to an enduring identity crisis over whether he is Billy or William.

This issue isn't fully resolved by the end of the series, but he begins the search for Tommy anyway.

Tommy's reincarnation

In Agatha All Along's penultimate episode, 'Follow Me My Friend'/'To Glory at the End', Billy, with the help of Agatha Harkness, reincarnates Tommy into the body of a boy being drowned in a prank gone wrong. In VisionQuest, we learn that that boy was Thomas Shepherd, a boy raised by a series of foster parents, and that the reincarnation triggered the awakening of Tommy's speed powers within Thomas, which is implied to have possibly injured the boys pranking him.

Unlike Billy, who remembered very little about his life within the Westview hex aside from a vague recollection of Tommy's existence, and does not remember William Kaplan's memories, Tommy, on the other hand, seems to remember almost everything about Westview, while also retaining at least some of the memories of his host body, Thomas Shepherd. He also finds comfort in old sitcoms, perhaps an inherited attribute from his Mother, Wanda Maximoff, or because of his birth in a sitcom world.

Unfortunately, Tommy's insistence that his Westview memories are real led to him being diagnosed as mentally ill and almost locked up in St. Mabyn's Sanitarium, where he was briefly imprisoned in VisionQuest's second episode when Paladin uses him as bait for Vision.

Tommy's Greater Memories May Be Tied To A Particular Piece Of His Heritage

One of the most important scenes in WandaVision's finale is when what begins as a battle to the death between Hex Vision and White Vision instead evolves into a philosophical debate over which of them is the true Vision. White Vision claims not to remember the original Vision's life due to S.W.O.R.D's reprogramming, until Hex Vision explains that a Synthezoid's memory is not so easily erased, and helps him unlock said memories.

This leads to White Vision fleeing Westview, and eventually the story we are following in VisionQuest.

During Wanda's rapidly progressing pregnancy back in episode three of WandaVision, Wanda considers the possibility of the baby being a synthezoid, like his Father. Later, in the seventh episode, Wanda jokes that Tommy and Billy have literally inherited thick skin due to Vision being made of Vibranium.

While in regular circumstances neither of these things could be possible, considering the twins' magical conception and the fact that Wanda's chaos magic means she can warp reality, the possibility of the twins inheriting synthezoid attributes becomes very real.

Billy, as seen repeatedly throughout Agatha All Along, favours his Mother in his abilities.

Meanwhile, although he may appear and function day-to-day as human, VisionQuest seems to be leaning into the possibility of Tommy's synthezoid heritage. When Tommy gets his hand stuck in the door of a vending machine while accidentally using his powers in VisionQuest episode three, Vision notes that the incident is similar to phasing, an ability of the original Vision. In addition to this, Tommy's speed abilities appear to work via a combination of electrical pulses and high speed vibration. Holding vibrational energy is a key property of Vibranium, the rare Wakandan metal that makes up a large portion of the MCU Vision's body.

If, as appears to the case, Tommy favours Vision genetically, this may explain why Tommy retained more memories of both himself and his host body. Tommy's soul brought with it an at least part synthezoid mind, and as we learned in WandaVision, a synthezoid's memories are not easy to erase.

Will likely learn more about the functions of Tommy's powers as he continues to master them over VisionQuest's second half.

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