Watching WandaVision is all I be living for these days.C'MON DEPRESSION. You bedda work bitch.
WandaVision had a bit of an iffy start when it put out a first episode which gave us close to nothing on its own, then a second episode which gave a bit more, but still not much to chew on other than how amazing the production values were. But now 5 episodes in, WandaVision is in its stride. For the past 3 weeks each episode has managed to have me come away feeling as though nothing has happened, a lot happened, that I'm no closer to figuring out a damn thing, and that I have everything sussed, to wiping my entire whiteboard. All at fucking once.
I'm living.
After 3 episodes in sitcoms and an episode in the real world as so to speak, an additional question that many of us asked was what the format of WandaVision would be going forward, as there was no way we could just go back to being thrown full-time into a sitcom knowing that there's as much drama happening outside of Westview as within it, and that both are impacting one another. So episode 5 did the only thing the show really could do at this point. Hop in and out of the sitcom, and it works really well. It doesn't feel like the mess it had the potential to be, due to having two episodes weening us on how we tell the differences between what we're seeing based on the changing aspect ratios. If it's 4:3, it's the sitcom. If it's 16:9 widescreen then it's real shit, even if what you're seeing is taking place in the sitcom. But WandaVision is all about the details. So with episode 5 taking place in the 80s we're no longer in letterboxed 4:3. But even with this rule, there is still an uncertainty in regards to if all what we're seeing is what Wanda is allowing to be broadcast. And there's still the question of why any of this is being broadcast at all. Surely if Wanda didn't want to be bothered or found, she just...wouldn't broadcast anything. But the show is still keeping hush on the TV mechanics of everything, and quite frankly at this point, it's so far down the list of things I'd like to know.
Episode 5 is where we see things coming further apart at the seams and where many of our theories continue to be confirmed and / or teased, whilst others are debunked, and yet more new shit gets thrown into the mix. With Episode 4 being a bit of a wall breaker in terms of having Agent Woo and Dr. Darcy (Kevin Feige, please give them a damn spin-off where they solve mysterious cases) pretty much asking all of the same questions we've been asking, this continues in episode 5. The difference this time around is that we get answers, because Monica is able to contribute her experience of having been in Wanda's Animal Crossing town. First up, is that non-organic matter which goes into Wanda Crossing changes to fit the era of the sitcom at the time, but still retains the properties of what it was when it entered - as is shown by Monica firing a gun at her 70s get-up from her guest starring role in The Shady Bunch, and discovering that they're bulletproof due to her wearing a Kevlar vest when she was sucked in. Agent Woo also asks the question about Wanda and Vision's kids, to which Monica clarifies that they're hers and that everything in Wanda Crossing is real. Dr. Darcy then states that creating matter takes an incredible amount of power, which we can take in two ways. One, that it's another sign that Wanda is insanely powerful. And two, that even as powerful as Wanda is, and as feasible as it could be for all of the matter creation to be her doing, there may be another powerful force at play who is co-responsible. I say co-responsible, because I don't think it's all Wanda's and also don't think it's all the-yet-to-be-revealed bad guy. It's more than one person with a finger in the pic to make all of this shit happen, we just don't know whom. Although Agnes is high on everybody's list as being one of those people.
Many theories said from the start that Wanda wasn't alone in the creation of her Animal Crossing village, and episode 5 is the episode which nudges us into the case for her having not been, all the while giving us signs that she may have been. We see forces at work which indicate that there are certain things in Wanda Crossing that she can't control. A teachable moment with her kids reveals that Wanda cannot bring people back from the dead, which appears to shock Agnes. And then there's an admission to Vision that she couldn't possibly create an entire town and manage every single aspect of it. This could be Wanda trying throw Vision off, or it could be the truth. I think it's a little of both. Wanda may not be the one controlling every aspect of Wanda Crossing, but she is controlling parts of it, including Vision himself. And she also knows who could be controlling the rest. Or at least she did. Unless Wanda is giving Vision a Daytime Emmy award winning performance, then whatever hex is causing the amnesia of the poor folk who are part of Wanda Crossing could also be affecting her. Monica also implies that whatever magic of Wanda's created the field around Westview was done as a means to quarantine, which corroborates with Dr. Darcy retort of '...for now' when a S.W.O.R.D agent in episode 4 said that the CMBR field radiation within Westview is at a safe distance.But it gets juicier. Because Vision is becoming increasingly aware that shit in Westview isn't right and that he's being kept there along with everybody else. All the while Wanda is sat at the dining room table surrounded by flames, saying that it's fine. And in the real world, acting director of S.W.O,R.D Tyler Hayward drops a bombshell on everybody that Wanda robbed Vision's corpse from S.W.O.R.D, and he's got the receipts. So for those of y'all who were like 'Oh, that's not Vision's corpse in Westview' after that shock moment in episode 4, and figured that the show wouldn't go this dark because it's Disney - episode 5 said 'No bitch, Wanda is a necrophiliac'. But Tyler's reveal that Wanda stole a dead body had everybody so gagged, that nobody questioned why S.W.O.R.D had Vision's body in the first place. And why instead of just burying his ass, that they had Vision in pieces being experimented on. It also reveals to us that Tyler absolutely knows more than he's letting on. When everybody was crowded around Dr. Darcy's desk watching WandaVision for the first time in episode 4, she said very clearly 'That n***a is DEAD dead' and Tyler was stood right there acting like he never had Vision's dead body in some basement at S.W.O.R.D, and that he had no history with Wanda beyond what was public knowledge.
Meanwhile in the sitcom, which is now based strongly on Family Ties with a bit of Full House, Wanda and Vision's children are aging up, as we suspected they would based on the speed of Wanda's pregnancy and the time frame jumps between sitcoms. AND that based on the cast of upcoming films and the other Disney+ shows that Marvel Studios had announced, it seems like we're getting a setup to Young Avengers, which Wanda and Vision's kids are a big part of. But when we first see Wanda and Vision's kids, Billy and Tommy, they're still babies. However, during the episode, they age themselves themselves up at will. Or so it seems. Those who know of Wanda and Vision's kids in the comics will know that Billy and Tommy do indeed have powers, but neither of which have anything to do with accelerating passages of time. Billy (Wiccan) has his mother's powers, whilst Tommy (Speed) has his uncle's. So the children aging up isn't the fun, mischievous trick that it's made out to be. It has to be by design, just as Wanda's pregnancy was. 'For the children'. But by whom and why?
Something to note is that on both occasions when we see Billy and Tommy age up, Agnes is there and she's not in the slightest bit phased. In fact, Agnes has a history of being around Wanda in moments concerning conceiving and children in every episode. Agnes sits and helps plan how Wanda's gonna fuck Vision in episode 1. Agnes introduces Wanda to Dotty in episode 2, leading to her helping out at the talent show to raise money 'for the children'. And in the intro to episode 3, Agnes is accompanying Wanda to pick out baby clothes. Now here Agnes is in episode 5, babysitting the children and bringing them a kennel for their dog. A dog which is a mystery in itself. We also now know that Agnes has a completely different level of awareness to the other Wanda Crossing residents, and is fully aware she's in a sitcom, which means she always knew there was no damn kids to raise money for in episode 2, because there are no damn children in Wanda Crossing. Shit is up with Agnes. She a bitch with a secret.
Monica Rambeau is quickly becoming one of my favourite characters in this show, and it warms this crusty heart of mine to see that we've got another Black woman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe who is giving us a dimension and nuance in ways we haven't seen with some of the other (white) women in the MCU thus far, with the exception of Agent Carter. Teyonah Parris is perfect in this role and I'm glad she's playing a bigger part in WandaVision than I'd anticipated. And given the events of episode 4 and this here episode, she may play a bigger role in things to come. Ad we may even get the origin of her powers in WandaVision. Oh yeah. Monica Rambeau has powers in the comics, and was the original Captain Marvel.
At the end of episode 4 it seemed like Wanda was the villain according to Monica. But we see in episode 5 that this isn't how Monica sees her at all. That 'It's Wanda. It's all Wanda' moment was a slight fake out, but we knew it would be. To have a main character outright name the true villain at the end of the fourth episode of a show which is all about not giving you straight answers? C'mon now. So when Monica jumps to Wanda's defence when Tyler refers to her as a threat, it comes as a bit of a surprise. But it's also very much in keeping with what we know of Monica's character. Given the events of Captain Marvel and her interactions with Skrulls, what she knows of Carol Danvers, and God knows what else she's seen at S.W.O.R.D since then, Monica isn't the type to tar every race or powered being with the brush of being a threat, and feels strongly about those that do. This stance made her interjection of 'And allies' when Hayward said 'Space is now full of unexpected threats' in episode 4 all the more poignant. And whilst Monica's race doesn't play into this, the way that she's more understanding of certain situations in regards to people who are different could be seen as a commentary on race too - which also creates a really interesting dynamic when she challenges Hayward. It's honestly part of why growing up as a Black kid I adored and identified with X-Men, and how it dealt with storylines of difference, without always glossing them over.Monica is also the one character we've seen so far who has shown Wanda something that nobody else has shown her. Empathy. Monica knows what it's like to have somebody taken from you, as a result of Thanos no less, and I think this will be play a part further down the line, causing Wanda to truly see Monica as an ally and a friend in what will ultimately become a fight to save Westview and Wanda herself. In this episode we even see Vision question Wanda and come close to losing it with her, all the while Monica is going toe-to-toe with her boss defending her, saying that Wanda isn't the terrorist he's painting her as, and that she may still also be a victim in this mess - a theory many of us had from the start. Monica stands her ground and shows herself to have the mindset of what you'd consider a true S.W.O.R.D leader, upholding the same values and principles of her mother, who never would have villainised Wanda so quickly and deceived her team in order to put an attempt on her life. Yeah. We gon' get to that skullduggery.
I called it last week that the acting director of S.W.O.R.D, Tyler Hayward could be another Alexander Pierce type guy and I wasn't far off. I don't think he is Hydra or that he's even a main player in what's happening. But he definitely has an agenda, which is to either neutralise what he deems threats, or contain them and use them for his own means under this new direction he's taken S.W.O.R.D since being put in charge of it. We see him being very selective with details in a briefing, shooing Agent Woo from sharing unbiased intel on Wanda, and turn Monica's own words about her to create a narrative in the room that Wanda is a terrorist and a villain. One thing to note here though, is that whilst Hayward is being an absolute dick, he's not wrong and his points aren't baseless. Even if Wanda isn't solely responsible for all that's happening, she's doing a great job of making out that she is. And whilst Wanda is refusing to accept the past, she can't erase it. She was a product of Hydra, an enemy of the Avengers at one point, and also broke the law. It's not unreasonable to see why a person would look at Wanda as a terrorist, which she seems to be. And as a threat, which she 100% is. If you were missing the notes and cues so far, Wanda is POW- WUH-FUL.But Hayward is still a piece of shit. Not because of what he says, but what he doesn't say. And more importantly, what he does. He includes Monica on what seemed to be an operation to simply speak to Wanda, which was in fact Hayward's overt op to kill her, unknown to Monica. This leads to Wanda saying 'Fuck this shit' and leaving Wanda Crossing to speak to Hayward face to face, and tell him to stop fucking with her shit. We also see in this moment that Wanda clearly knows who Hayward is.
In many ways, Tyler Hayward is no different to the likes of Nick Fury, who was also as fearful of threats from outta space and folk with powers. And Fury also felt no way about experimenting on sentient weapon tech to either get answers or provide weaponry solutions. But even with all of this, Fury never seemed like a truly bad guy, and we never actually saw him put an attempt on somebody's life who we knew wasn't bad. So a clear distinction is being made that whilst Hayward is running S.W.O.R.D not completely unlike how Fury ran S.H.I.E.L.D, they are not the same.I keep going back and forth on whether we will see Monica gain and / or display powers in WandaVision or Captain Marvel 2. But after seeing the piece of shit Hayward is, I'm erring on the side of thinking we'll see some form of power manifestation in WandaVision. The seed is planted with all of Monica's test results showing up blank following her expulsion from Wanda Crossing. And Tyler being set up as the 'I hate people with powers / mutants' guy paves the way for a real conflict if he discovers that Monica is just like them, and what he'd do with or to her as acting director of S.W.O.R.D.
Whilst Wanda is heavily painted as a villain, we see flecks of this not entirely being the case. By the end of the episode you get the feeling that Wanda is the show villain at this point, but not the true villain. And you definitely get a sense that something is wrong with her and that if she's not paying a cost now, that she eventually will in the form of either Vision or her kids. And whatever deal she made, she's not telling anybody about it. Perhaps because she can't. Wanda's state of cognisance seems to waver quite a bit. At the end of episode 4 after she yeeted Monica out of her house and clean outta Wanda Crossing, she seemed surprised that she did it, and even regretful. After Vision confronts Wanda about Norm, she reveals to Vision that this hold isn't her doing and that she's not the one keeping everybody in the town. Norm said 'You have to stop her', but didn't specifically say Wanda, and it's not like she's the only woman in town who is a suspect. One being Agnes. Another potential being Dottie, who still has no photo or ID up on Agent Woo and Dr. Darcy's board.Also, when Wanda goes to meet Director Hayward at the front do' of Wanda Crossing, Monica talks Wanda down, and Wanda knows deep down that Monica has no ill will, hence why she allows Monica to even get that close to her, and why she has the S.W.O.R.D guards turn their guns on Tyler and not Monica. Because chile. Even Marvel knew that having a bunch of white men in tactical gear turning their guns on a Black woman would be horrendous optics in 2021.
So whatever is happening, Wanda isn't the true villain here. She's pulling Vision strings, all the while somebody else is pulling hers.
Every time the narrative pivots to Wanda being villainous we're reminded that what she's doing is out of grief and her love for Vision. But her unwillingness to grieve and accept Vision's death to an extent of bringing him back to life may cause her to lose him again. We learn in this episode that Vision had it as part of his will to not be brought back to life in the event he was killed. And here's Wanda, going against that. Bringing her boyfriend back from the dead and allowing an entire town to be held hostage in order to live her necrophiliac fantasy. Vision can't remember his life prior to his life in Wanda Crossing, which was clearly intentional on Wanda's part to ensure that he doesn't remember that he died. But it also raises questions as to if this is even the Vision she knew, when he can't recollect his life, which would include his time with Wanda pre Thanos ripping the mind stone out of his head. Which ultimately means his love for Wanda isn't genuine. It's a lie unbeknownst to him.
Whatever deal Wanda made and with whom, it's going to blow up in her face. There's no way this story can end with her riding into the sunset with Vision. Whether it's because he physically can't be alive outside of Wanda Crossing, or he's too aware to want to stay and play house, or he just feels that he can't be with Wanda because of the deceit, the lies and the selfish placing her own feelings over that of Vision's wishes. The latter would be far worse.
Wanda 'bout to be PISSED, do some real damage and have Director Hayward look into the camera like 'I told you so'.
Then we get a big ol' reveal at the end of the episode which doesn't answer most of the more pressing theories that we had, but gives a nod to what we can expect from Spider-Man: Working From Home and Doctor Strange and the Pandemic of Madness.So far, Wanda has mentioned her brother Pietro twice. Interestingly to characters who aren't regular residents of Wanda Crossing, which can't be a coincidence. Once to 'Geraldine', and once to her kids. So it was only a matter of time until we saw him turn up. And lo and behold, DING-DONG, Quicksilver turns up on Wanda's doorstep. Only it's not the Quicksilver we and Wanda remember from Age of Ultron. It's Quicksilver from those X-Men movies. So it's official. Marvel will absolutely be playing around with the idea of the multiverse and bringing in characters from other Marvel movies outside of the MCU. It's brilliant.
We don't know a damn thing about how Quicksilver even made it into WandaVision, if it's the Quicksilver we know, and why it's not the Quicksilver we saw in Age of Ultron. But just the fact he turned up is amazing. Wanda seems confused when she sees him, and for obvious reason. And when Dr. Darcy sees him on the TV, she says what we're all thinking 'She recast Pietro!?'. So there will be a twist. I don't think this shit will be as simple as it truly being Quicksilver. But the fact that it's Evan Peters in the role is of some significance. Whichever character or force he truly is, clearly has an awareness of this character existing somewhere else. And we know Doctor Strange 2 will explore the multiverse.
Episode 4 of WandaVision was great. And episode 5 took the baton and ran with it to give us another great episode. The brilliance of this show is in how its written and how it plants seeds in a way to herd us into fixating on certain things, just to then acknowledge that it knew we always would. Episode 4 touched on absolutely everything that we as viewers had been asking. Then episode 5 was full of responses from things we picked up on in episode 4. Even down to something ridiculous like Agent Woo bringing Darcy the coffee she never got in episode 4. And giving us confirmation that Hayward is the sneaky bitch we all thought he was. The amount of audacity, conviction and cleverness it takes to write something like this, and set design in such a way that your viewers all gravitate towards the things you want in order to set up future episodes is sheer brilliance. And in the instances where you may have missed anything, it's the perfect reason to go back and connect the dots. 
I've gotta mention some of these performances, because BITCH.We all know Kathryn Hahn is great. But once again, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany really shine in this episode. Every uncomfortable glance and nervous gesture is so pronounced and layered. And the way in which Elizabeth is able to shift between sitcom mom, Wanda trying to maintain sitcom mom in moments where things go off script, sitcom mom cracking, and just plain threatening Wanda is a [Looks into the camera] Marvel to watch. It's so cool to see Olsen and Bettany really get to show this level of range in a Marvel Studios release, and to see something from Marvel Studios where the performances are of such importance. Award shows will probably completely disregard WandaVision because it's Marvel and it's comic book shit. But there are some truly amazing performances in this show to match the top notch production design and the writing which started to truly show its brilliance from episode 3.
There are so many damn theories and ideas floating around in my head and on the Internet, that I can't even begin to form anything solid in terms of where the next episode will go, let alone how this shit is gonna end. But episode 5 was great.
Now to wonder what I'mma do for the next 7 days until the next episode drops. Because this is my life now.
📒 My Episode notes
- Agnes killed that dog
- Why does Wanda's magic not work on her kids?
- How the hell do Monica and Agent Woo have such detailed play-by-plays of Wanda and Captain Marvel's fights against Thanos?
- The notice board in episode 4 had described exactly what we see Vision do to Norm in this episode. How?
- What is up with the passage of time in Wanda Crossing?
- What beef does Monica have with Carol?
- How do Wanda and Vision's kids know that Wanda can bring people back from the dead?
- Why do Americans pronounces Lagos as Lah-ghos and not Lay-goss (the correct way)
- We just gon' forget about Dottie?
- The mailman's wig was terrible.
- Quicksilver from the Fox X-Men movies?! Bitch. How!?
- Where the fuck is Agent Franklin aka The Bee Keeper?