WandaVision Review

Episode 5

Wanda discovers that she can’t use her magic on her kids, and Wanda expresses her need for help which summons Agnes. The kids age up to about 5 or 6 and after the theme song we get to visit the world outside of Westview with Monica, Darcy, and Woo. Monica talks about feeling Wanda’s grief and the X-ray machine can’t get a read on Monica as her body is now made of energy. During the debrief Hayward reveals himself as a giant douche racquet and Woo does his best to tell the whole truth about Wanda and her trauma but he is dismissed by Hayward. Monica also comes to Wanda’s defense but her words are twisted and Hayward continues to push the narrative that Wanda is a terrorist and a threat sharing some very doctored footage of Wanda in the sword facility claiming that she stole Vision's corpse to resurrect him. Also these two little boys are the world's cutest children and the scenes with them are just too adorable. The boys are told that they cant have a dog until they are 10 years old so they age themselves up (by they I mean we’re gonna go with Wiccan). Darcy calls Wanda’s world of Westview “The Hex” which for those who don’t know is a very subtle comic book reference to the original definition of Wanda’s powers, hex magic. Vision is at work when SWORD sends in a message that prompts Vision to unlock the consciousness of one of his coworkers revealing that Wanda is very much in control of these people and their minds. Of course there was speculation that the big bad controlling everyone was Agatha, people so desperately wanted a bigger villain and I said from the beginning that should that happen that would completely detract Wanda and her character arc and I could not be more grateful to Jac Schaffer for only telling Wanda’s story and not allowing her development to be overpowered by an unnecessary villain introduction. SWORD decides to send in a drone to Westview, and Hayward (being the twat that he is) decides that it's a good idea to shoot Wanda with a missile...Wanda, ya know the rewriter of reality, yeah lets shoot at her and see what happens. Well what happens is my baby girl comes out of the hex to confront the SWORD agents, she tosses their little drone at them and very clearly tells them to leave her alone, Hayward continues to provoke her and she turns his agents guns on him until she is safe in her hex. This is the second time we see her respond violently and emotionally. Back in the Hex, the boy's dog Sparky runs away and Agatha finds him dead and the boys are visibly upset. Wanda gives them a very powerful and motherly speech about facing grief and not running away from it. The boys express that they want Wanda to bring him back to life, prompting Agatha to question Wanda and her abilities. Vision starts questioning Wanda and how they came to Westview and who he is. Wanda so desperately wants Vision to be content with their life the way that she is and we find out that though Wanda is probably aware that she created Westview she doesn’t remember how, nor does she know the extent of her control over this town. In the middle of their argument the doorbell rings and we watch with Darcy as we see the Fox version of Quicksilver greeting his “sister”, Darcy of course calls out the recast and Wanda is visibly confused.

Episode 6

Speed or Tommy thinks his uncle Pietro is super cool which tracks because they have the same powers. Obviously the highlight of this episode is everyone's comic book accurate halloween costumes. Vision has developed his own consciousness enough to defy what Wanda wants and this causes tension between the two. I know everyone really wanted this show to lay the groundwork for the X-men and were rather disappointed when that turned out to not be the case, however I’d argue that it actually did that. Those who know what the majority of the X-Men's conflicts are know that mutants are seen as an abomination their stories are often allegories for racism and I think Haywards reactions to super powered individuals, his disdain and hatred for them does in fact lay the groundwork for the X-Men and how they would be received in the current state of the MCU. The fans that cried Mephisto got one more little nugget and ran with it in this episode when the boys are out trick or treating and uncle Pietro yells after them “Raise hell demon spawn” nice try but it was nothing more than a throwaway line or a simple call to the comics. Pietro and Wanda’s conversation made it clear that Wanda is not the one that brought in her brother, we also see the boys use their powers for the first time. Vision encounters the townspeople at the edge of the hex bubble and they are barely moving, he is observing until he encounters Agnes who asks him for help. Woo and Monica form a plan to make their way back into the hex. Pietro is provoking Wanda, seeing right through the magic, mind control and illusions he asks her how she did it, trying to find out what the source of her power is. She then sees the dead version of Pietro just as she did with Vision before. We see Vision try to leave the hex just as the SWORD agents arrive at the border, as he was created by Wanda within the boundaries of Westview, he starts to rip apart. It looks like he is being sucked back into the hex piece by piece. Wiccan can feel his fathers pain, and hear what is going on outside of the hex so the boys run to their mom for help. Quicksilver lets it slip that Vision is already dead, causing Wanda to blast him into some hay, then we get to see Wanda’s real power as she stands in the middle of town square and expands the boundary of Westview, it grows fast and wide as Wanda tries to engulf Vis back into her magic bubble. In doing so the hex pulls in Darcy and quite a few SWORD agents.

Episode 7

This episode starts to really deal with Wanda’s depression and grief. For the first time we start to see what is really going on with her emotionally. We are also seeing little bits of Wanda’s world making time jumps, signifying that the more emotional Wanda gets the more she loses control. Meanwhile Woo and Monica find out that Hayward has been trying to get Vision back online, to use as a weapon. They meet up with Monica’s engineer, and she tries to make her way back through the hex. And as all that is happening Darcy and Vision team up and try and make their way back to Wanda. Wanda is having her 4th wall moment and the “director” asks her “do you think that this is maybe what you deserve?”This is where Wanda starts questioning herself and what she's created. The commercial in this episode is specifically relevant as it is a commercial for a depression medication called Nexus which for those of us that don't know is a comic book reference. In the comics there are Nexus beings, each in charge and control of tying down a certain aspect of the universe and Wanda is a reality Nexus being, she is the very crux of reality. Now this could simply be a call to the comics or it could turn into more than that, we’ll have to see how the MCU grows in order to answer that. We start to get an itchy feeling about Agnes when Wiccan tells her that she’s “quiet inside”. When Monica can’t get through the hex in the tank like vehicle she decides to go in on foot and when she does, we see her being rewritten, we hear her memories and she comes out the other side of the hex with her eyes glowing, and able to read energy signatures. Darcy starts filling Vision in on the things he missed when he was dead, including how he died. Monica finds Wanda and Wanda responds by throwing Monica out of her house by force, causing Monica to land hard, she tells Wanda to “Not let them make her the villain” at which point Agnes comes out to usher Wanda away. Wanda enters Agnes’ house and she goes into the basement looking for the boys, Agnes’ true identity of Agatha Harkness is finally revealed and we get to see a glimpse of the Darkhold. We then get a banger in It Was Agatha All Along.

Episode 8

The best episode of the series thus far, we retrace Wanda’s trauma with her and Agatha, at Agatha’s control and we see what led to the creation of Westview. The first scene of this delightful episode is an intro into Agatha’s backstory, in which she absorbed all the power (and life) from her coven, including that of her mother. This episode is really about Agatha trying to find out what the source of Wanda’s power was, considering that Wanda never used any spells or incantations. The first trauma we live through with Wanda is the night her parents died, they used to watched VHS tapes of old TV shows, they are her last happy memory with her family which explains why the world of Westview resembles a new TV show and decade every episode. After the explosion Agnes mentions that the reason that Wanda and Pietro didn’t die wasn’t because of a defective bomb but due to Wanda’s probability manipulating abilities. The second trauma we relive with Wanda was the true activation of her powers when she encounters the mind stone and is met with the image of the Scarlet Witch, the Hydra experimentation center was very bare and it's clear that the twins weren’t exactly treated well in the experimentation facility. Next we see Wanda at the Avengers compound just after Age of Ultron, right after Pietro did. Her and Vision share a moment together, and Agatha helps force Wanda into unlocking another traumatic memory, this time the one that led to her creation of Westview. Wanda saw Hayward and SWORD ripping Vision apart, and her inability to feel Vision’s consciousness is what set off her trauma spiral, and her forgetting how she created Westview and Vision was a trauma response because she wanted to believe that this world where she was happy and loved was actually real. Also the scene where she collapses in grief on the plot of land Vision bought for them just before she explodes in power was so beautifully acted, Elizabeth Olsen is magical. Of course us comic fans get a wildly satisfying moment when Agnes finally refers to my Wanda as the Scarlet Witch. And in the end credit scene we see Hayward reanimate Vision using Wanda’s magic.

Episode 9

The climactic season finally was beautifully constructed and excellently executed. The majority of this episode is a fight scene, focusing on Wanda and Agatha. The beginning of the episode also gives us an interaction between Wanda and White Vision, who tries to hurt Wanda but is stopped by Hex Vision. Wanda and Vis then share this loving moment where they decide to fight for their home. Wanda and Agatha’s confrontation brings them to the townsquare and Agatha quotes the Darkhold to her; “The Scarlet Witch is not born, she is forged. She has no coven, no need for incantation. Your power exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme, it is your destiny to destroy the world” now obviously the important bit there is that her power exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme (Doctor Strange), this has been an ongoing debate among comic fans for decades and though this little fact has always been true it's nice to have actual dialogue to shut down the side who doesn’t pay enough attention to the comic books they claim to read. Then we see the townspeople, who are themselves again due to Agatha cutting Wanda’s mind control over them, confronting Wanda and overwhelming her until she lashes out, choking them, she realizes what she's doing and lets them go. This causes Wanda to start to take down the Hex giving Hayward the opportunity to storm in and results in Vision and the boys disappearing (the way they CGI’d it by the way is very reminiscent of the House of M art after she says “No More Mutants”). Wanda closes the Hex in order to save her family and Agatha absorbs more of her power, then we have White Vision and SWORD surrounding the family, and we get a very sweet super family group shot. Vision takes on White Vision and Hex Vision takes advantage of White Visions very literal programming, Hayward really tries to shoot the boys but Monica blocks them, the bullets passing right through her with no damage and Wiccan catching the solo stray bullet. Hex Vision unlocks all of real Vision’s memories for White Vision and with new information White Vision decides that his job is no longer to destroy Vis and Wanda, and he flies away. Wanda tries to get into Agatha’s head but Agatha turns it around on her, Wanda blasts Agatha wither power, allowing her to absorb it, but occasionally Wanda misses and when she does she very brilliantly creates runes on the edge of the hex allowing only herself to use magic and rendering Agatha useless. She then absorbs Agatha’s power, becoming the full version of the Scarlet Witch, new costume and all. Elizabeth Olsen is unbearably gorgeous and the new costume suits her perfectly. The final thing we see is Wanda closing out the Hex and therefore letting go of her family.

Overall the show was amazing, the slow burn really didn’t work and I recognize that there was supposed to be another episode and COVID messed up production but the end of the season was drastically better then the first half. It ended with a beautiful starting point for Wanda, it set up many new possible storylines and it allowed Wanda to grow into her full power so in conclusion the show earned a 20.2/25 (see the YouTube video for point system explanation)