WandaVision Review

When I first found out they were coming out with this show, I wasn’t sure how I felt. I’ve never been much of a fan of Vision and have gone back and forth on Wanda. While I respect her as an incredible strong individual, I’ve never felt any strong emotions towards her like I have the other Avengers. I was also a bit disappointed to find out that this show was going to come out before the Falcon and Winter Soldier show. However, because everything in the MCU is connected, I had to watch this show to keep up with everything. This review was written week-to-week, so each episode review is written right after the episode comes out. I did it this way because I think it’s better than trying to review the season as a whole. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

Episode One: Overall this episode was full of humor and interesting moments. It was set in the 50’s and had a cute intro song. Wanda clearly has control of her powers on a basic level, but the question is where are they? It appears to be an illusion created by her, but is she aware? The show acts as a normal show and has a commercial in it that features a Stark toaster (which makes the same noise as the arc reactor on his suit). This seems to be a break from their reality and connects her external reality into theirs. It was a Stark bomb that destroyed her home and killed her parents, which is most likely why the toaster was from Stark Industries.There is also a moment at dinner where Wanda seems to become somewhat aware of the illusion, but that moment breaks (or is corrected) and the illusion returns. Finally we see a notepad in front of the old TV playing her show.

Episode Two: This episode is set in the 60s and has a cute animated intro. It maintained the comedy from the first episode, but had more going on. During their magic show Vision is referred to as “Illusion” which I believe is meant to be ironic. Wanda also has to make great effort to conceal their true nature. The commercial in this one featured a Strucker watch with the HYDRA symbol on it. Remember, he is the one who conducted the experiment on Wanda and Pietro which gave them their abilities. Wanda comes across a colorful helicopter that has the S.W.O.R.D. logo on it, but tries to dismiss it and go about her day. However, her day continues to be peculiar as someone is trying to reach out to her on the radio. The impression is that someone has trapped her in this universe, but I wonder if she trapped herself there. Later in the show there is a moment when a peculiar man in a bee suit climbs out of the sewer. However, she says no, does her famous little head tilt, and rewinds the episode to change what happens. She clearly has some control over this universe she’s created, but to what extent? And how long until she loses control?  The episode ends with her becoming pregnant and the world turning to color. Are we getting some version of House of M here?

Episode Three: I’ve determined that she has control over this world she’s created. Once again she rewinds, or starts over, because she doesn’t like that Vision was gaining awareness of things not making sense. I thought my TV glitched at first though the way she did it so casually. The world is starting to break and she’s trying to fix it but I imagine she won’t be able to soon. The episode starts with another intro fitting to the time period, which is now in the 70’s. The commercial this time featured HYDRA soak, which leads me to believe everything is connected to her past pain. Wanda is heavily pregnant and the episode features her pregnancy journey and delivery of Billy and Tommy. Her friend, Geraldine, was present for the delivery but we learn that she is a S.W.O.R.D. member who somehow made it into Wanda’s universe. Herb nearly tells Vision that they’re trapped, but is unable to and Vision quickly forgets as Wanda regains control. Wanda discovers that her new friend doesn’t belong in her world as she mentions Pietro being killed by Ultron. We see a slight darkness from Wanda now as she sees the S.W.O.R.D. logo and feels threatened. She kicks Geraldine out of her universe and we get our first glimpse of it from the outside. It seems she has trapped everyone inside a bubble that S.W.O.R.D. is trying to get into. My guess is that Vision is still dead and Pietro may make an appearance because Wanda remembers him well enough to create a version of him in her little universe. 

Episode Four: Things really took a turn in this episode as my theories were proven correct: Wanda is in full control of this world (where she has kidnapped and brainwashed people) and has taken control of Visions dead body. We see his dead body briefly before she regains control of what she’s seeing. This episode is an outside view of her little bubble, with S.W.O.R.D. coming to investigate and set up. It also shows the chaos of everyone coming back from the snap and we know this is set shortly after Endgame and before Far From Home. We learn that the helicopter was a drone that was sent in, Agent Woo was on the radio trying to communicate with her, and the bee man was an agent sent in to investigate. Darcy is also the one who discovers the TV stream, which is pretty cool. The live stream of the episodes, however, get cut whenever she changes something. Finally we learn what happened to Captain Rambeau when Wanda kicked her out, and how dark Wanda is in this world (is this actually spawned from House of M? It seems to be…but that’s not good for her children if it is). Clearly this is all from grief and she is aware of what she’s doing, but at the same time has she processed exactly what she’s done? Now that S.W.O.R.D. knows all of this is Wanda’s doing, who are they going to call in for help?

Episode Five: The boys are adorable when they’re 5 and Wanda has lost her goddamn mind. This 100% has to be inspired from House of M because there’s no other explanation! She literally goes outside the barrier to tell the S.W.O.R.D. to fuck off or else. Director Hayward is a dick and sent a Stark missile ‘just in case.’ Her Sokovian accent returns when she’s angry, which is nice to hear again. We see the footage of her stealing Vision’s dead body (which was in PIECES BTW), and Vision becomes aware that she is controlling everything. He’s trying to tell her what she’s doing is wrong but she’s so lost in grief I don’t think she’ll ever realize what she’s done. Also, I believe there’s more at work here than just her powers. Someone had to influence her to do this because this is extreme, even for her. The commercial was extremely real too: “Logos. For when you make a mess you didn’t mean to.” It’s referring back to the mistake in Logos which lead to the accords and Civil War. I can only imagine the next commercial will be about Civil War or Infinity War. I also want to know what happened between Monica and Carol? And how does Vision still have the abilities of the Mind Stone if it was destroyed and he is dead? There’s no way she could have made a new one, is there? The end of the show kinda blew my mind, but I somewhat saw it coming. Pietro kept getting brought up and her kids said she could bring the dead back, so I started to wonder if that was going to be the cameo. It was, but it was the Quicksilver from the X-Men movies! Not the Pietro from Ultron! WHAT THE FUCK IS MARVEL DOING. 

Episode Six: I’m absolutely loving the new Pietro, or Peter as I know him, in this show. I’m pretty sure the boys are aware of this false reality to a degree as well, because Wanda can’t control them like she does everyone else. We saw Wanda expel a great amount of energy at the end! Last episode Vision figured out she was in control, so I was a bit surprised to see him going along with everything suddenly. However, he made his way to the edge of Westview to try and figure out what was going on so he was seemingly faking it for her. He does manage to get out, but it somewhat kills him in the process. Both their children get their powers, another speedster and a magical individual like Wanda, and that is how she’s able to find out Vision got out. Also, doesn’t this make them the first mutants born in the MCU since they were born with powers rather than given? In order to return him, she froze everything and expanded the barrier. By doing this she absorbed most of the S.W.O.R.D. and FBI agents who were there, including Darcy! I’m curious to see how Jimmy Woo and Monica plan to get in because she has made reference several times now to an individual who I am hoping is Reed Richards! This episode was far less stressful than the previous one though, which I found odd because she somewhat confirmed herself that she did everything. However, she doesn’t know how it began so I still wonder if someone else set this up for her and she just took control. 

Episode Seven: This episode overall felt more like what I expected the show to be. Things are making more sense and it immitaed The Office which is one of my favorite shows. It was actually inspired by The Office, which can be seen throughout the episode, NOT Modern Family! They said so! The commercial I didn’t understand but after doing some Googling it’s to my understanding that the Nexus is her, and she is now the bridge to the multiverse. So, there’s that. Vision and Darcy are the chaotic duo we didn’t know we needed, and it’s interesting that she told him everything about his past and he didn’t freak out. Obviously Wanda’s not in control anymore, as things around her are starting to act up without her knowing why. Billy also seems concerned because I think he can hear all the chaos going on in her mind. I was a bit worried that we didn’t see Peter during the episode, but this episode had the first end credit scene and he was there thankfully! I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see Reed Richards (the presumed aerospace engineer) but Moncia got her powers which was really exciting! I’m looking forward to seeing what she’s capable of. Something that wasn’t as shocking, because it fits in with the House of M theory, is Agness being Agatha Harkness and revealing this in the end, with a glorious song. The concerning bit is where are Wanda’s children? Because they’re missing and Agatha clearly has confidence that she can overpower Wanda to expose herself like that. Next episode I’m hoping we see Monica’s powers, Reed Richards, and Wanda fight Agatha (or Mephisto if he shows up). 

Episode Eight: Alright so a lot to cover here from a very emotional and informative episode. Hayward is a complete dick who has been manipulating Wanda. Not only did she NOT break in and steal Vision’s body, he showed it to her! She said goodbye and was ready to move on it seemed, but grief and her power won. She went to the plot of land that Vision had purchased them to have a family in where she unleashed the full brunt of her power, creating their home, turning the depressed little town into the sitcoms she loved watching, and made an all new Vision! She meant no harm and didn’t even know how she did it. But before we got to all that, we went through all of the traumatic moments of her life and saw her nearly lose herself in grief over and over again. We also learned that she was a baby witch whose powers were unlocked by the Mind Stone where we got a glimpse of all she could be: The Scarlet Witch. Fun Fact: the MCU couldn’t use the name Scarlet Witch until after they purchased Fox because it was an X-Men property. I’m a bit unclear on the role Agatha is playing but I imagine she sees Wanda as a magical threat right now since she can’t really control her abilities. Now as for the end, is she going to have to kill her Vision again? And what will happen to this new Vision? And her children? And Peter??? I’m stressed!!!

Episode Nine: I have to say overall I’m content with how it ended, but am fairly disappointed in several aspects. We never found out who the aerospace engineer was, which is deeply disappointing because I really wanted to see Reed Richards. I understand that not everything gets resolved in the MCU, but to mention the character as much as they did and not bring them in is kinda bullshit. Fake Pietro, or Peter if you will, wasn’t actually Peter from X-Men but some random dude who was Wanda’s real neighbor. This was disappointing cause it would’ve been a great opportunity to bring the X-Men into the MCU. And there was no Dr. Strange cameo, which I think was a missed opportunity to really connect Wanda to his next film. Even if he just showed up for a few seconds in the end credit scene, it would have been better than him not showing up at all! I did learn that Kevin Feige doesn’t want the shows to have too much going on so that people who only watch the movies aren’t lost. However, I think this is bullshit because these shows are part of the MCU so they need to have important information! Overall, I’m glad Wanda grew as a character and now has access to all her powers, also that she isolated herself to learn to control them, but it still feels a bit odd. There were two end-credit scenes: one that set up Monica in the next Captain Marvel movie and one that showed Wanda isolating herself and using astral projection to read the Darkhold. I’m also glad that this version of the Darkhold eliminated the one from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., hopefully that show is left untouched in the MCU because I have no interest in forcing myself to watch it just to have background on the characters (i.e. leave Quake out of the MCU for fucks sake).

General things I noticed throughout the series: references to the Hex were riddled throughout the intros and items on the snow and her “previously on WandaVision” got less enthusiastic each time. This show ended up being far more emotional than I anticipated and honestly, Marvel should just make high-quality shows like this from now on! Here is my ranking of the episodes, best to least best:

• Episode 8
• Episode 9
• Episode 7
• Episode 5
• Episode 6
• Episode 4
• Episode 3
• Episode 1
• Episode 2

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