Viewer Log: WandaVision ep 7

 The cracks engulf the happy sitcom that Wanda has tried to wrap herself up in. 

Oh my, with these two extra posts this month I’ve gotten through my first theme week in about three years. Go me!

 

Last time on WandaVision, the Maximoffs celebrated Halloween. Wanda spent time with the boys and spent time getting to know this new Pietro. Turns out, while he remembers a fair number of things from back in the day, there is still something about him that just seems off. Meanwhile, Vision explored the rest of Westview without his family. He sees that without Wanda nearby or him being in an area that she is aware of, people are on autopilot, moving in the same repetitive motions waiting for Wanda to come by so they can act out their scene. After speaking with Agnes, whom he freed from Wanda’s trance, Vision decides to leave Westview. He made it to just outside the Hex, but his body began to fall apart outside the radius. Outside the Hex, Monica and her crew were removed from the SWORD base for insubordination, but they elected to not go. Monica and Jim left to meet with Monica’s contact whom had thrown together the vehicle she’d need to reenter the Hex. Darcy stayed back to get more of Hayward’s files decrypted. So, she was in the blast radius when Wanda, warned by Billy that Vision was dying, expanded the Hex, engulfing most of the SWORD camp. Oh, and Wanda blasted Pietro for making a crass remark about Vision dying. Enough recap, let’s get to it.

 

Simple opener this time, and it has me concerned.

We find Wanda in bed with the covers up to her neck. She seems exhausted, probably from expanding the Hex, and just wants to veg. The boys come in to ask her what is going on, as their game system keeps changing. It swaps between pretty much every major console before setting on Uno. Weird. Billy also complains of hearing voices. Wanda tells them to give her a few minutes and sends them away. In one of those cutaway interviews, Wanda says that she’s going to have a Quarantine style Staycation to reset. She gets out of bed, and it’s revealed she’s still in her Scarlet Witch costume. While the boys are fighting over their game, Wanda comes down and gets breakfast going. As she fills a bowl of cereal, we see the milk she grabbed shift between multiple incarnations, from plastic jug to milk carton to glass bottle. Perhaps the field is too big?

 

The action breaks for just a minute to give us a, I don't know, The Office? style opener. Sorry, that's the one Sitcom that I've never watched. 

Outside, the not captured SWORD agents have set up a new base of operations eight miles out from their old basecamp. Hayward asks about the broadcast, but it’s gone off the air since the expansion of the Hex. He tells his assistant that they’ll launch something today.

 

Darcy as an escape artist? Yeah, that actually makes
total sense.

Back inside the Hex, Vision wakes up. He apparently shut down just outside the SWORD camp, which has since turned into a Circus. The strongman comes up and assumes that he’s the new clown. He tells him that he’s late practicing with the escape artist, whom is Darcy.

 

Back at the house, the boys ask their mom about what happened last time, both the events and what Uncle Pietro said about their dad dying. She claims to not remember and is adamant that that “Man” isn’t their Uncle so they should stay away from him. She explains to her sons that, while they assume that she as an adult should have all the answers, she has no answers. Agnes comes over, she offers to take the boys for the day to give Wanda some me time. Wanda enthusiastically agrees. Once she’s alone, Wanda tries to relax, but the house keeps randomly shifting between the various eras that it’s existed in.

 

Meanwhile, Monica and Jim are driving to the rendezvous with Monica’s engineer contact. They get the data from Darcy, giving them access to Haywards files. They find out about Project Cataract. The point of the project is to get Vision back online, not study the corpse. They’d been trying to get him online up until Wanda “stole” the body. They meet with Monica’s contact, Major Goodner and her team. Goodner was able to whip up the mobile bomb shelter Monica thought she’d need to get back into the Hex.

 

At the circus, Vision is trying to tell Darcy what happened, but her character isn’t listening. She thinks he’s weirdly hitting on her, and agrees to go out with him but she’s getting lobster. He distracts Darcy for a moment with a mine and breaks Darcy’s trance when her back is turned. She agrees to help him and tell him what’s going on, and the two make to steal a funnel cake truck. The strongman tries to stop them, but Darcy bops him on the nose and knocks him on his ass. They drive off. Once they’ve gotten going, Vision asks if his sons are okay and who Pietro is. Darcy doesn’t know.

 

Elizabeth Olsen playing Wanda Maximoff acting
like Claire Dumphy is disturbingly good.

The Maximoff house keeps shifting despite Wanda’s efforts. The stork also comes back. If I were Wanda, I’d be scared that is a sign that I’m pregnant again. In an interview cutaway she doesn’t know why it’s falling apart and she can’t fix it. The interviewer asks her if she thinks she deserves it, which confuses the heck out of Wanda since he’s not supposed to talk.

 

The Commercial this week is for Nexus Antidepressants. “The World doesn’t revolve around you, or does it?”

 

Over at Agnes’ house, the boys have gotten comfortable. Billy is playing with Agnes’ rabbit. He likes it at Agnes’ house, says that it’s “quiet” there. They ask if their mom is okay, and she assures them that Wanda is, even though her face says otherwise. In a cutaway she says her husband Ralph tells her she sugarcoats things, but she has no idea how to tell a ten-year-old that their mother is coocoo for coco puffs.

 

Life Before Death, Strength Before Weakness,
Journey Before Destination!
For my Stormlight Archive readers.

At Monica’s camp, she is in a full space suit and about to get into the truck. Jim wishes her good luck. She straps in and drives at the Hex. The rover hits the barrier, but it resists her passing through it. Monica bails out as the rover pitches backwards. It’s half transformed into an old van. Monica drops her space helmet, and still believes she can get through. She runs at the barrier and forces her way through. While traveling through it, things get trippy. Like multiple Monica’s appearing, energy sparking all around her, that sort of thing. Monica looks like she’s about to drop, but then she hears the line that Carol Danvers told her as a kid. About how her mom lucked out because she got the toughest kid in the world. She’s able to get up and force her way completely through. On the other side, Monica’s eyes are now a vivid blue, and she seems to be able to see into the electromagnetic spectrum. She drops off the outer most layer of her space suit and runs off.

 

Back at the Funnel Cake truck, Darcy has just finished explaining to Vison how he died, that Wanda killed him to destroy the Mind Stone, but then Thanos used the Time Stone to rewind time and ripped the stone from his skull. Wanda had to watch both times. They hit a red light, which is then beset with a construction crew. In a cutaway, Vision says that he thinks Wanda is trying to keep him from coming home. While they wait, Vision muses on his existence, that he’s mentally based on Jarvis’ code in the body Ultron built for his plan of global genocide, and wonders what he is now. Darcy isn’t sure, as she thought he was the OG Vision that Wanda somehow figured out how to power back up in the Hex, but him coming to pieces outside the Hex suggests otherwise. Despite his worries, she reassures him that she thinks his and Wanda’s love is real.

 

Monica runs into the Maximoff house. She tries to warn Wanda, who was popping a few pills, about Hayward, but Wanda isn’t listening. She telekinetically lifts Monica and marches her outside. She yells at Monica to leave and ties to slam her into the concrete. But Monica is able to hit the ground on her feet and absorb the impact. Wanda claims she’s a liar, but Monica points out the only lies she told were the ones Wanda put into her mouth. She tries to warn Wanda, to not let Hayward make her the villain, but then Agnes comes over and interrupts. She convinces Wanda to come to her house. Monica tries to follow but Wanda warns her off, telling her to not make Wanda hurt her.

 

It Was Agatha All Along!

At the Funnel Cake truck, the construction finishes up, but then a long parade of school children starts to crossing the street. Vision starts another interview cutaway, realizes that all of this is absurd and ends up flying off to make it home. Darcy calls out that she’ll just meet him there.

 

Agnes sits Wanda down. She sees her boys stuff laying around and that the TV is turned to a kid show. She asks where they are, and Agnes tells her that they’re probably playing in the basement. Wanda goes down to check it out. Rather than a slightly cluttered basement of the modern suburbanite, she finds what looks like to be an evil and creepy looking sanctum. Complete with a Necronomicon looking book. Agnes comes down and reintroduces herself with her real name. She’s “Agatha Harkness and it’s lovely to finally meet you.” She disables Wanda with some purple energy, and then we get the weirdly catchy song “it was Agatha all along” where it showcases all the times she, just off screen, manipulated things to complicated Wanda’s life. She was controlling Pietro from his arrival, caused many of the randomness that complicated their lives, and also killed Sparky. The witch.

 

Yeah, this is either really bad or really good.
There is no inbetween.

In a mid-credit scene, we’re shown Monica looking around Agatha’s house for an entrance. She finds a door to the cellar that she opens, but then suddenly Pietro is beside her and says “Snoopers gonna snoop,” before the credits roll for real.

 

And, ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have our villain. Agatha Harkness, one of the original Salem witches, a powerful magic user and devious mastermind. She’s trained Wanda in a few realities, but in this one, she seems to want something from Wanda. If you haven’t seen it, look up It Was Agatha All Along, the song weirdly slaps. It’s still not completely clear what she wants from Wanda, but it can’t possibly be good. We also have the debut of an underappreciated Marvel hero. Yep, in the comics Monica Rambeau is a cosmic superhero like her friend Carol Danvers. She goes by Photon and is one of those characters that could probably destroy planets if she wanted to. I think? I’m actually not that well versed in her, either. Maybe she should be the subject of a Hero Profile soon to correct that. Just know that she’s immensely powerful and that that will probably play into the finale. I liked that during her final transformation, it was that memory of Carol that seemed to push her fully through the Hex. Good symbolism there. For Vision, like how last time I really appreciated that his first concern was getting SWORD to help the people in the Hex, when he’s back his first concern is figuring out how his children are and who that guy is pretending to be his brother-in-law. Man has strong priorities. Oh, and I just need to give props to Elizabeth Olsen’s Julie Bowen impression. I think Elizabeth has been great throughout, but her playing Wanda playing Clair Dunphy is weirdly perfect. Hell, Julie Bowen seemed to agree, she posted that it was a real honor to see Modern Family being slightly parody in WandaVision along side greats like the Dick van Dyke Show and The Brady Bunch. That’s good TV right there. We’ve only got two episodes left for WandaVision, and I can tell you the penultimate episode is heartbreaking. Just so you’re aware. See you then!

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Viewer Log: WandaVision ep 6

 Halloween and a visiting sibling, what could possibly go wrong?

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, I’m doing more than five posts this month. I’m trying to get all caught up for Falcon and Winter Soldier next month. Enjoy the added content. 😊

 

Last time on WandaVision, the Maximoffs went through some growing pains. Your infant twins rapidly growing to five and then ten-year-old’s count as growing pains, right? They also found a dog they dubbed Sparky. Outside, Monica, Darcy and Jim try to find a way back into the Hex (Darcy dubbed it as such) so Monica can help. They land on sending an 80s era drone into the Hex, as they realized that items brought into the Hex seem to be transformed into something era appropriate. Monica’s 70s pantsuit being bulletproof because it’s technically Kevlar taught them that. Hayward tried to ice Wanda with rockets on the drone, but that didn’t help. Wanda left the Hex to tell them to back off and leave her and her family alone, and flexes her girlboss powers by getting all the SWORD guards to turn their weapons on Hayward. Meanwhile, Vision is beginning to notice more problems in Westview. He is temporarily able to break Norm’s trance, but resents it when Norm can’t help but scream about the agony he’s feeling from Wanda. The dog dies from eating Azaleas, much to everyone’s heartbreak. Vision starts demanding that Wanda tell him what is going on, but their argument is interrupted by the arrival of… Pietro. But not HER Pietro. No, this is the Evan Peters version from the Fox films. Weird. Enough recap, let’s get to it.

They look so happy, it's a shame that said happiness
is causing so much misery.

 

We open on a mid-2000s era sitcom opener, inspired by Malcom in the Middle were I to hazard a guess. This episode features a bit of narration from Billy, who appears to be taking on the Malcom role for this episode. He talks about how much he and his brother love Halloween, even though this is their first one. Billy is dressed in a very simplistic version of his Wiccan costume, and Tommy is just dressed normally, claiming to be the “Cool Twin” when asked. Pietro is passed out on the couch. It’s clear the boys are quite taken with their crazy uncle, as demonstrated when he wakes up and superspeeds around them to play-scare them. Wanda comes down in a red costume, like Billy’s it’s a low budget DIY version of her costume. Pietro says it reminds him of the year they got typhus on Halloween. There’s a pretty funny cut away of the two of them receiving a fish as a Halloween gift, the two dressed oddly like Black Widow and Nick Fury. Wanda claims she doesn’t remember that, but Pietro shrugs and says she’s “Probably suppressing a lot of the trauma.” Huh. Billy notes that there’s been a lot of weird moments like that between his mom and Pietro, they chalk it up to being apart for so long, and a part due to Pietro being a bit more of a man-child this go round.

 

Something about these two seem familiar...

Vision comes down in his DIY costume, they don’t even bother trying to claim he’s dressed as anything besides himself. He makes a comment about how this was the only thing in his closet, but then switches back to the flirty husband he’s been for most of the show. For a second anyway. Vision then says he’s going to work with the neighborhood watch tonight, much to Wanda’s evident displeasure. She clearly wanted him to play the part of Dad tonight, but isn’t able to force him to do so. Narrator Billy says that the have been “not-fighting” like this for a while. Pietro offers to fill the role while Vision is out, defusing the situation. Wanda gives Vision a kiss as he leaves. Wanda turns around and almost runs into Pietro, who asks her for water balloons, and complains about not being able to fill them with shaving cream when Wanda says they don’t have any. He blames Tommy, but calls him Billy, for the idea when Wanda gives him the “You’re an uncle, set an example” look. What? I was 14 when my older sister had kids, I got that look a lot. When Wanda points out he doesn’t have a costume, he grabs Tommy by the hand and Superspeeds away, the two returning in their own DIY versions of their costumes.

 

Outside the Hex, the barrier is glowing bright red now. Hayward wants the drone analyzed and for them to prep another plan to eliminate Wanda. Monica once again comes to Wanda’s defense, pointing out that if she’s the problem, then she can be the solution too. Hayward tries to use Monica’s disappearance in the blip and her dead mother as evidence that Monica isn’t thinking clearly. He has her and the sidekicks removed from base. Or tries to. Once they’re outside, Monica and Jimmy beat up the guards so they and Darcy can sneak back in using their uniforms.

 

Think Vision feels left out neither of his children
are cyborgs? Maximoff genes are... technically
the only genetics present, I suppose.

Both sets of Maximoff twins enjoy trick-or-treating, with Pietro doing his best to encourage his nephews to ‘Unleash the hell.’ Wanda asks Pietro about their time at the orphanage after their parent’s died, testing him. Pietro knows this and deflects her question. She asks the obvious question of why he looks different, and he deflects it again. He says the word Kickass which seems to surprise Wanda for some reason, before he grabs the boys and high speeds them around to get more candy. Wanda sees Herb and goes to talk to him. They do the bit where he tells Wanda about weird reports of All the candy disappearing, jack-o-lanterns being smashed and silly string being sprayed everywhere, and showing in the background that it’s Pietro and the boys doing all of it. She asks where Vision is patrolling, but Herb says Vision isn’t on duty tonight. How odd.

 

Vision, meanwhile, is wandering around town. It seems that when Wanda isn’t directly in the area, her control shifts to more of an autopilot. We’re shown a really creepy couple of scenes of people doing repetitive tasks like forever waving, putting up a single piece of laundry before putting it back in the laundry basket and doing it again, sort of thing. Very creepy.

 

This week’s commercial is for an “extreme” yogurt, Yo Magic. This one gets pretty dark, with the Claymation character dying because they couldn’t get the thing open and withering away to a skeleton. The tag line is that it’s Yo-magic, the snack for survivors.

 

Back with the Maximoffs­², Wanda is forcing her boys to return the candy. She’s quizzing Pietro more. He claims that this is part of his “role” the quirky brother-in-law showing up, to annoy her husband, rile up her kids, and generally shake things up. She presses him for more information. The Details to him are fuzzy, he remembers being shot and dying, then nothing for a while, and then feeling Wanda calling out to him. They’re distracted by Tommy superspeeding over, seems that he’s taking after his uncle quite a bit. Wanda tells him to grab his brother and Tommy and Billy speed off.

 

At the SWORD outpost, Monica’s team sneak into the surveillance area. Darcy begins hacking into Haywards stuff. She’s able to discover that Hayward has a means of seeing through the Hex wall. They figure out that Hayward’s tech is somehow tracking the Vision via the atomic decay signature of Vibranium. They see that Vision is currently at the edge of town, and that people around him are barely moving.

 

Vision makes it to this super creepy cul-de-sac, where people aren’t barely moving at all. No one even reacts to him when he talks to them. The only motion is a flickering lamppost. Vision decides to transform transforms into his MCU costume and flies off. He sees a car stopped at a stop sign. He lands and finds out it’s Agnes. She talks about making a wrong turn and how hard it is to keep going. Vision “wakes her up” with his touch. She freaks out upon seeing him, revealing to Vision is dead. She cackles about no one ever leaving. Vision reactivates her trance, promising that he’ll fix this. Vision keeps walking to the edge of the barrier.

 

Outside Monica is going to go meet with someone who can get her back into the Hex. Darcy reveals that might not be the best idea, as Monica’s tests suggest that her multiple trips through the barrier are rewriting her DNA. Monica still wants to help Wanda, so she’s going. Jim is going with her, but Darcy is staying behind to get through the last few firewalls on Hayward’s computer. While it’s a dangerous spot to be in, she’s right that that info is worth the risk to her personally.

 

I see either of my brothers or my sister like this,
and the scream I let out would shatter glass.

The two sets of twins make it to the town Halloween party. Pietro seems to know that Wanda is controlling everything. He’s not judging her, he claims to be impressed by how many people she’s controlling. He asks her how she’s doing it, but she doesn’t know. Claims she just remembers feeling alone and empty before things changed. She looks at Pietro, and like Vision a few episodes ago, sees him as a corpse.

 

The men in Wanda's life have a bad habit of dying.
Just sayin'.

Darcy is able to get through the last fire wall and uploads the data to Monica and Jim. She then sees that according to his signature, Vision is right at the barriers edge. Vision passes through the barrier, but his body starts falling apart the moment he’s on the other side. He screams at the nearby guards that they need to help the people of Westview. Darcy runs over to try to help him, but the guards grab her and hold her back. In the Hex, Billy senses that his dad is crumbling apart. He has Tommy speed them over to Wanda and he explains what he’s feeling. Pietro makes a jibe that her dead husband can’t die twice, to which Wanda magically slaps him across the street and into a sign. Wanda stops everything in her Hex and forces it wider. The barrier surges outward, engulfing Vision, Darcy and the SWORD camp, turning it into a car dealership and a circus as it goes. Jim and Monica, and Hayward in another vehicle, are able to escape the radius of the Hex just barely. Wanda opens her eyes just before the credits roll. Damn.

 

Lots of things are happening in this episode. We’re shown that Hayward is definitely hiding things, what with his hidden means of tracking Vision. No good comes from having a means of tracking someone that you keep hidden from the rest of your team. Vision is clearly at wits end about being stuck in the Hex. I like that he’s not being overly aggressive with Wanda, but he’s done just playing the role for her, too. The bit where he actually makes it through the barrier but starts getting ripped apart was especially well done. I loved that even while he was being shredded to bits, his primary concern was helping the people stuck in the Hex. He is really worthy of Mjolnir.  And on a similar note, I like that even when she’s shown that trying to help Wanda is probably bad for her health, Monica is still set on doing it. Doing the right thing is often difficult, but when one’s own life and career are also put in jeopardy by doing so, it adds weight to it. Very similar to how Darcy ran over to try and help Vision even though she knew she’d probably get arrested when she got involved. Selflessness at its best. I also liked how they handled the new Pietro in this. I like how they made it clear that something hinky is going down with him, besides with the obvious clue of him being played by an entirely different actor. His mannerisms are different, his personality is wildly different, and yet Wanda seems to still feel some kind of connection to him. At least until he makes the dead husband crack. Oh, Pietro, there are some wounds you don’t poke. Seeing Tommy and Billy start developing their powers are also neat. Either by coincidence or via Wanda’s mystical meddling, her boys ended up with powers identical to her and Pietro. In their teens, they’ll go on to join a hero team called the Young Avengers, where young heroes related to or inspired by the early Avengers band together. Tommy will go with the simple moniker of Speed, and Tommy goes by Wiccan. He originally wanted to be called Thorite, but was told that might not be the BEST idea, what with him being in a known relationship with Teddy “Hulkling” Altman. The jokes about Hulk and Thor doing it would have been insufferable. Much like in the comics, I have no idea if Wanda intentionally gave them powers, or if something about the environment they were in triggered latent abilities that just so happened to mirror their mother’s and her brother. Maybe they’ll explain it someday. I also liked how Wanda is clearly not happy with Vision increasingly deviating from her script. While the setting might keep changing, she very obviously liked the sitcom they’ve been living in the last few weeks and disruptions to it are getting to her. Oh, and I think the production delay actually helped with the increased feeling of unreality. Had the show premiered late last year like had been planned, I believe the Halloween episode would have aired the week of Halloween. Not having it do so just highlight that Wanda is just playing with how time moves in her sphere of influence. Makes for an increased sense of unreality. With this episode, we’ve only got three left. It’s the home stretch, and it’s about to get really weird. I’m looking forward to talking about it. Have a good night, everyone.

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Viewer Log: WandaVision ep 5

 Maximoff boys go through a growth spurt, and Vision starts seeing the cracks. 

Last time on WandaVision, we got to see the “behind the scenes” bits. We learned that the woman hastily dubbed Geraldine in her introductory episode is in fact Captain Monica Rambeau, SWORD Agent and daughter of Captain Marvel’s bestie Maria. After coming back from Oblivion with roughly half the world, she was assigned to investigate the Westview Anomaly as a means of getting her feet wet again. She meets FBI Agent Woo just before being sucked into the anomaly. SWORD gets more involved, sending in Dr. Darcy Lewis whom discovered the WandaVision broadcast. Their attempts on studying the anomaly beyond watching the broadcast proves less than useful. Monica is eventually forcibly removed from Wanda’s sitcom, and realizes that she’s the one doing all of this. Enough recap, let’s get to it.

 

I actually really love these domestic moments.

We open on the Maximoffs doing their best to calm their son’s down to sleep. Unfortunately, Tommy and Billy prove to be rather fussy boys. Wanda goes so far as to try to calm them with her powers, but they seem resistant to her powers, how odd. They seem to laugh at their mother’s frustration, but start crying again after she tries to binky them and they spit them out. Agnes comes in and offers to help Viz and Wanda out. There’s a bit of an awkward pause, where Agnes turns to Wanda and asks her if she should do the line again. There’s a blip and they run the line again, with Wanda turning her infant son’s over to Agnes. Vision pulls Wanda aside and ask what the hell that was, cutting between bits of Agnes being weird. The baby’s eventually stop crying, at first, they think they’ve gone to sleep, but no, it’s revealed that they’re not baby’s anymore.  Somehow, they’ve rapidly aged to about five. Agnes muses that you can’t control kids, no matter how hard you try.

 

The opener this week is based on late 80s, early 90s sitcoms. Lots of family photos and aging cast members, sort of thing. The images of Vision as a baby are particularly cute.

 

Outside the anomaly, Monica is getting debriefed. She explains how she felt in the anomaly, that somehow Wanda projected her grief into everyone she controls, it’s all pain and misery in there. She gets some brain scans done when Darcy and Jim come to visit her, and tell her that they have a briefing in 10. The doctor tries to keep Monica from going, as her scans are coming up completely blank, but Monica isn’t sticking around. They make it to the meeting. Woo is tasked with giving a brief history of Wanda Maximoff, born to Sokovian parents (Maybe, I’m still holding out hope Magneto shows up), survived them with her brother after their house was bombed, radicalized and given powers by HYDRA, you know the rest. Hayward clearly has some negative views on Wanda, seems to think they need to take her out. Monica doesn’t think that this was premeditated, and that if Wanda is the cause, she’s also the solution. They’re shown a video of Wanda breaking into the SWORD Lab where they were examining the Vision’s body, Hayward says she stole the body and seems to have revived him. Which went against some statute in the Sokovian Accords and Vision’s own Will. The plot thickens.

 

I know they say kids grow up so fast, but this
is ridiculous.

Back in the sitcom, the boys found a puppy and are cleaning it in their sink. Wanda comes in and they try to convince her they should keep him. Vision walk in, already human faced. He says it’s because he predicted Agnes will be coming over any second, which she does, with the exact thing they needed. In this case it was dog stuff. They dub the dog Sparky, after an electrical outlet shorts out near it. Kay. Wanda magics up a collar for Sparky, much to Viz’s shock. He’s not a fan of her using her powers in front of Agnes, but Wanda claims she’s tired of hiding. Viz convinces Wanda that a dog isn’t a good idea, that the boys need to be at least ten before they can have one. Hearing this loophole, the boys somehow magic themselves to ten. So… I guess they’re keeping the dog.

 

Outside, Monica, Darcy and Jim are trying to figure out a way to get Monica back into Westview. Well, the ladies are, Jim just brought coffee. Basically, Monica needs a mobile nuke shelter to do it. It’s a tall order, but she knows an aerospace engineer that might be able to do it. Jim notes that if the Maximoff boys keep aging this fast, Wanda and Vision will be empty nesters by dinner. Darcy calls the anomaly the Hex, given its hexagonal shape and because they’re setting up that Wanda is the damned Scarlet Witch. Darcy asks if she really wants to go back in, and she says she does. Jim asks who Tommy and Billy actually are, both the ten-year-old’s and the babies.  Monica says that they’re hers, that everything in the Hex is real even if she’s forcing people to act the parts. Jim and Darcy are doubtful, claiming that it would require way more power to manipulate matter and energy like this. They think she’s just making everyone in the Hex to hallucinate. Monica points out she could have taken out Thanos if he hadn’t unleashed a carpet bomb, the only one to do it, Jim points out that Captain Marvel also came close, but Monica clearly doesn’t want to talk about her. She has a lightbulb moment looking at the picture of the helicopter drone. They go to check on her “costume” from her time in the Hex. She shoots it to prove a point, namely it’s bulletproof. It looks like 70’s chic, but it’s made of Kevlar, like the vests she wore when she got sucked in. Wanda manipulates anything that goes into the Hex to match her fantasy, so they think they’ll need something that would require no change.

 

Breaking someone out of a trance, what could
possibly go wrong?

Back in the Hex, Vision is at work. While he’s typing on his computer, he somehow gets one of Darcy’s emails. Norm and the entire office read it off in a creepy manner. They laugh like it’s a joke. Vision touches the computer, but it just cuts out. He does the same thing to Norm, breaking his trance. He starts freaking out, wanting to find his phone to call his sister, his dad is sick. Talks about feeling Wanda’s pain, begging Vision to make it stop. Viz puts him back under, as it seems less cruel, I guess.

 

Back at the house, Wanda and the boys are playing with Sparky and teaching him tricks. Both sons seem to note the logical inconsistency of their father going to work on a Saturday. Wanda tells them that he needed to put his mind on other things so sent him there. She turns it into a life lesson, complete with schmaltzy music, about how family fights but is forever. Tommy asks if she had a brother, and she tells them about Pietro. She tells them that he’s far away from her and she misses him. While they talk, Sparky starts barking. Wanda is drawn outside by whatever seems to be making Sparky freak out. She tells the boys to stay inside, but the dog goes out, so that’s not happening. Where’s Pietro when you need him? … oh, right.

 

It's actually kind of cute that they think a bunch
of guns is in anyway a deterent to the woman that
went one-on-one with Thanos and has altered
reality for an entire town. So cute.

The thing Wanda felt was an 80s era drone they sent into the Hex. Picture isn’t great on it, but it’s functional. They locate Wanda, but find that the drone is cropped out of the footage, Wanda seems to be controlling what’s broadcast. Monica tries to make contact with Wanda, but Mama Maximoff’s eyes start glowing, and Monica loses control. Hayward tells someone to take the shot, revealing the drone is armed. The video cuts out and an alarm starts blaring. Wanda leaves the Hex, coming out in her combat gear and with her Accent back. She tells everyone to back off and leave her alone, or things get nasty. Monica tries to talk to Wanda. She knows that Wanda knows she didn’t know the drone was armed, that she sensed that Monica is there to help. It’s why she telepathically drew Monica to her when she was in labor. Monica wants to help, but Wanda claims to have what she wants, and that no one is taking it from her again. She mind controls the guards to point their guns at Hayward as she walks off. As she reenters the hex, it turns bright red. Or scarlet, maybe?

 

Commercial this week is for Lagos brand Towels. “For when you make a mess that you didn’t mean to,” in reference to the inciting incident in the Civil War in Captain America 3. These Commercials are getting weirder and weirder.

 

Maximoffs are looking for Sparky. A passing Mailman assures the boys he’ll turn up, as Wanda won’t let him get far. They do find the dog with Agnes… unfortunately, he ate some of her azaleas, got poisoned by them and died. Damn, dark turn. The boys start freaking out. Wanda sense that they’re going to try to age themselves up again, but talks them down, saying that running from the pain won’t help… kay… They ask her to bring Sparky back, but Wanda can’t, telling them that somethings are forever. Vision walks up, learns the dog is dead and tries to comfort his family.

 

Looks like Pietro has gotten a little nip and tuck
since we last saw him...

The Maximoff’s return home. Wanda tells Vision that the boys are heartbroken but will be alright. Vision seems depressed by the dogs death, he reveals to Wanda that he spoke to the real Norm. Wanda tries to brush it off, but Vision isn’t going to let her have them go to bed so she can change everything in the morning. Vision tells her that he’s figured out that she can’t control him like she does everything else. She tries to force the argument to end by playing the credits, but Vision isn’t having it. He demands to know what the Maximoff anomaly is, and tells her that he HAS to believe that she isn’t doing this on purpose. Wanda keeps trying to play dumb, but Vision is losing his temper. He tells her that Norm has a family that Wanda is keeping him from. They both start flying in anger. Vision wants to know what’s outside Westview, but Wanda refuses to tell him. Vision can’t remember his life and that’s got him scared. She tries to talk him down by asking if their life is enough. Vision asks why there are no children in Westview. Wanda starts freaking out, admitting she doesn’t know how this all started. Vision starts telling her that this is wrong, but they’re interrupted by the doorbell. Vision gives her a look, she denies that she did that, and Vision points out if he believed her, he’d be ignoring statistics entirely. Wanda goes to the door. Outside, Darcy gets to her computer just in time fore the reveal of… Pietro. Not the MCU Aaron Taylor-Johnson version, though, no, this one is Evan Peters version from the Fox X-Men movies. Darcy is rather shocked that Wanda somehow recast her brother. Pietro asks if a long-lost brother is allowed to hug his stinking sister. Wanda is clearly shocked but hugs him. Pietro asks who the popsicle is, pointing at Vision, as the credits roll. Damn

 

So, there’s a lot to unpack with this episode. I liked seeing the Vision begin to see more and more of the cracks in Wanda’s illusion. Him noting how odd it is that Agnes always stops by with whatever is needed, and seeing the email and even realizing how to break people out of Wanda’s trance were all very good scenes. The boys make a nice addition to the series too. They both are a product of Wanda’s sitcom, but clearly have the same level of… immunity or maybe resistance, to Wanda’s control that Vision has, so that they can start questioning why she’s doing things the way she is. If you think rapidly aging them up to ten was probably at least in part to use child actors that might have some talent, you’re probably right, but Tommy and Billy have gone through seemingly random magic growth spurts in the comics as well. I think technically they’re five in universe but through magic time shenanigans are physically in their late teens or early twenties. Billy just got married to his teammate and longtime partner Teddy in the comics (yep, he’s gay), so at least that old. Wanda seems to be not handling Vision’s growing autonomy super well. It’s clear that she loves him even now, but clearly preferred the version of him that kept playing along with her daydream. The plot on the outside is super interesting too. Monica and her crew trying to find peaceful solutions while Hayward continually tries the most aggressive option, love that conflict. And then kinda subtle, kinda obvious point that Monica has conflicting feelings about Carol was neat. And then there’s the reveal. That crazy, I didn’t see it coming reveal of the Fox Pietro. Blew my mind. What? Oh, no I totally expected Wanda to do something involving her brother, I just assumed it’d be the Taylor-Johnson one. What? Infinite power in her fantasy world, OF COURSE she’d bring back her twin. No spoilers, but his presence in their lives will be as jarring as his arrival. Looking forward to talking about the Halloween episode next time. Have a good night, everybody.

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: WandaVision ep 4

Who's ready for some backstory? No groaning, it's interesting. 

Last time on WandaVision, Wanda broke the record for quickest pregnancy. She squeezed all nine months of a typical pregnancy into 24 hours, which was capped off with the reveal that she was carrying twin boys. While her little sitcom had a few “glitches” during her labor, thing went off relatively well, thanks in part of Geraldine helping her through the labor. Things turn sinister, though, after Wanda offhandedly mentions her deceased brother Pietro, which causes Geraldine to ask if he’d been killed by Ultron. When Vision returned to his family, Geraldine had suddenly left. Outside the city limits of Westview, Geraldine was thrown out, just outside a military compound of some kind. Who’s ready to get some context for some of this insanity? Let’s get to it.

 

First question: Where have I been all this time?
Second question: Bathroom?

We open on a bunch of random particles coalescing into the woman that we know as Geraldine. Turns out, she was one of the 3.9 billion people blipped by Thanos. She reformed in a hospital, which is probably the worst place for a ton of people to randomly just appear in. She finds a doctor and asks about her mother. The doctor revealed that her mother, Maria Rambeau, had died of cancer in the five years she’d been gone. In case that name doesn’t ring a bell, Geraldine is in fact Monica Rambeau, her mom was Captain Marvel’s best friend. Yep, she’s the original Captain Marvel fangirl all grown up.

 

We cut to the headquarters of SWORD, the Sentient Weapon Observation Response Division. They’re basically what would happen if SHIELD and NASA had a baby. Monica is rather annoyed to find out her badge doesn’t work, but is saved from an awkward moment with security by Acting Director Tyler Hayward coming to collect the Captain. He leads hers to his office, on the way she passes a plaque dedicated to her late mother. Hayward mentions that Monica is the first agent to report back in after the blip, despite it occurring three weeks ago. Thanos’ insane plot fundimentally changed the space program, as half their astronauts vanished and the remaining half lost their nerve. They shifted over to using “sentient weapons” instead of manned space exploration. Hayward mentions that space is full of enemies, but Monica points out it’s also full of allies. There’s a bit of awkwardness between them, as it is heavily implied Monica was being groomed for the director spot before her disappearance, but she’s cool with his appointment. She’s less thrilled with the news that she’s grounded, as part of guidelines her mom put in place in case agents returned. He gives her an assignment that the FBI sent them.

 

These two have great chemistry, I want more of them.

She drives out to Westview, New Jersey, and meets with the FBI’s Agent James Woo. He was Scott Lang’s probation officer in Ant-Man and the Wasp, if you don’t recall him. Apparently in the last five years he’s master close up magic, which he demonstrates when he flips out his card for Monica. Time well spent, I guess. He explains that he’d been out here to check on a witness in Witness Protection, someone who not only stopped checking in but everyone he knows and loves can’t remember him. It’s even weirder as the local cops from Eastview, New Jersey, claim that Westview doesn’t exist… despite sitting in front of the damned sign and you can see the town behind them. Woo has tried to contact locals, but hasn’t been able to reach anyone. So, it’s not a missing person, it’s 3892 missing people. Monica asks why they don’t go into check themselves, but some “force” seems to be keeping them out. Thankfully, Monica brought a drone. She asks why they can remember Westview when everyone else can’t, but Woo has no idea either. Her drone enters the city limits, at which point its signal cuts out and it completely disappears. Monica approaches and notices some kind of technicolor barrier around the town. She reaches towards it and is sucked through into Westview.

 

The next day, a group of scientists are being shipped out to a SWORD base, one of them is Darcy Lewis, the former student of Dr. Jane Foster now PhD physicist herself. She and the other members o the team have very specific fields of specialty, which tells her that SWORD has no idea what they’re dealing with. Darcy is brought into the observation area. She sees another drone being sent in and vanishing, intuits that drones aren’t getting anything from a smug soldier claiming information is highly classified. Darcy’s sets up her gear and her instruments start picking up CMBR, Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, and another signal mixed with it. She asks that someone get an old TV for her.

 

Good to know that Darcy just got... more Darcy
in the time she's been away.

Meanwhile, SWORD sends in Agent Franklin in a full hazmat suit to investigate. He’s being sent in through the sewers to see if the anomaly extends below ground. Woo tells Hayward that he’s worried. He questions the decision to send another agent in before they found Monica, and Hayward tries to blow him off and send him back to Quantico, but apparently after softball season Woo is a free agent. How odd. Hayward asks for a damned visual and hears a laugh track. Darcy got the TV working. She ‘tuned in’ during the Maximoff’s conversation about dinner in their kitchen. She confirms that Vision is definitely dead but is still walking around. She explains to Hayward what she knows, which is basically her equipment picked up CMBR, which is basically left-over Big Bang radiation, and that it had a broadcast signal mixed into it. Woo sums it up best, “The universe created a sitcom staring two Avengers?” Hayward tells his people to start analyzing this, but no one get’s Darcy her coffee. But she sees the closing kiss between Vision and Wanda, so she’s cool.

 

Woo sums up the mission for his team and us. They’re looking for Captain Rambeau, and are going to use people they identify to figure out who is currently inside the anomaly. They’ve got Wanda and Vision, reveal that the Harts are Todd and Sharon Davis, Norm is Abilash Tanden and so on. They realize that everyone is playing a part. Darcy eventually finds Monica in a scene that we weren’t shown before. Woo asks what the hell they’re watching, and Darcy shrugs and says it’s a 1950s sitcom. Darcy has an idea. She set up a device to send a broadcast into the anomaly, and hopefully they’ll be able to talk to Wanda through a radio she often uses. Another agent comes up with a picture of the copter Wanda found, they conclude it’s a SWORD drone but aren’t sure why it was altered. They’re even more puzzled as to why it is naturally colored in a black and white world. They finally see the scene with Dottie and try to make contact. On Darcy’s TV, a bad edit occurs right as Dottie is about to ask who Wanda is and cuts to her question about white linen. Weird. It cuts to the Strucker Watch commercial, and Darcy calls Woo back in.

 

Franklin is crawling through the sewers and crosses the barrier. His hazmat suit turns into a beekeeper outfit and his safety line gets cut. He crawls out of the Sewer just as Wanda says “No.” And that’s the last we see of him. Spooky.

 

The team outside has gotten newer antique TV’s to keep up with Wanda’s sitcom eras. Darcy asks the obvious question, why the eras keep changing, as it can’t be for her amusement. Woo is more surprised by the baby. They’re shocked when Wanda somehow produces children. “Twins, what a twist.” They got to Monica mentioning Ultron and the start of her and Wanda’s confrontation. Another bad edit occurs as Wanda walks with hostility towards Monica. They try to find Monica, but can’t in the footage. They start getting an alert about the barrier getting breached.

 

Well... this is horrifying.

In the show, Monica tries to tell Wanda she’s just her neighbor, but she’s not buying it. She tells the “stranger” and “outsider” to leave, and literally blasts her out of Westview, through her wall. She magics it back to normal before Vision walks back in. Outside the barrier, SWORD agents surround Monica. When Wanda looks at Vision, she sees him as he “really” is, with his skin grayed out and the mind stone ripped from his skull. She focus on him and sees him back to normal. He tells her they don’t have to stay there, but Wanda tells him that this is their home and that everything is under control. Outside, Monica starts saying that it was all Wanda. The show ends on the Maximoffs sitting to watch TV.

 

I am so glad that we finally got some context about how the in Universe WandaVision is happening. I have to tell you, I was legit shocked to find out that “Geraldine” was an adult version of Carol Danvers’ sort-of-niece when we heard her name for the first time. Makes sense, it’s been about 25 years or so since when Captain Marvel happened, so that girl would be a thirty to forty something by now. The fact she was erased just as she found out her mother’s cancer was in remission, only to reappear two years after she died when it returned was a gut punch. Why ya’ll gotta do Monica dirty like that? Teyonah Parris is phenomenal as the adult Monica, hell if I didn’t know it was impossible I’d say she was Monica’s child actress Akira Akbar all grown up. I also really liked the return of and expanded roles given to Randall Park’s Jimmy Woo and Kat Dennings’ Darcy Lewis. They were both great supporting characters in the movies they appeared in, so them having more to do and being so damned delightful is great. I like how even though Darcy is now apparently a respected Physicist, she’s still bitingly sarcastic and, again, just delightful. She’s going to have some kind of role in Thor 4, so this show won’t be the last outing for her. People also seem to really love Randal Park’s Woo, as rumors are already circulating about him starring in an X-Files style show of him investigating weird happenings in the Marvel Universe. I’m all for it, regardless. The reveal the Wanda is on some level in control of the situation wasn’t too shocking, I think anyone who is familiar with the character knows that her powers are virtually limitless. That all said, it’s clear to a lot of fans at this point that it’s not as open and shut as Wanda doing everything. But more on that later. So, yeah, good background info episode. I’m looking forward to next episode. Have a good night. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: WandaVision ep 3

Think it's official that Wanda is the envy of every mother, ever. Imagine getting 9+months worth of misery and discomfort over with before dinner. 

Last time on WandaVision, Wanda and Vision progressed to the 1960s. Their attempt at being a normal couple participating in a local talent show For the Children by hijinks. Namely, that Vision swallows some gum and it screwed up his system. Oh, and Wanda noticed a helicopter with a sword logo, and received a creepy message via a radio asking “Who is doing this to you?” So yeah, creepy. The episode culminates with the Maximoffs keeping their secret despite some hiccups, but when they make it home, they get hit with a double whammy. Whammy one, Wanda is very noticeably pregnant. We’re talking like 3 months, baby bump pregnant. Whammy two, a random beekeeper climbs out of the sewers and kind freaks them out. Wanda rewinds time to when they realized she’s pregnant, and replaces whammy two with the decision to add color to their black and white world. Neat. Enough recap, let’s get to it.

 

They seem to be taking the sudden pregnancy really
well, all things considering.

We start with a 70s style opener, in the vein of the Brady Bunch and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. After the opener, we’re shown that the Maximoffs have called a doctor to examine Wanda… condition. They obviously don’t say directly that this pregnancy is quite possibly the most miraculously since the conception of Jesus H Christ. The doctor notes that she’s physically four months pregnant, which noticeably freaks Vision and Wanda out, as that’s off by like 3 months, 29 days and 12 hours. Depending on what month this is. Viz walks the doctor out to his car, and he politely asks the doc to keep this under wraps… because Wanda getting pregnant in hours is kinda a big deal. The doc drives off, and Viz notes his neighbor Herb is literally trimming his brick wall. Clearly something is wrong.

 

Herb, buddy, you need to turn 90 degrees.

Back in the house, Wanda is clearly even more pregnant. The baby book tell them the fetus is papaya sized… huh, wonder how big they’d be if two were in there… hoho, would that be nuts? They go into the former office of their house and Wanda magics the crib together, puts up a mobile and otherwise does the activities an expecting mother does when she’s nesting. Vision cranks the numbers and calculates that the baby will be due on Friday, given that they developed about six months in 18 hours. They playfully argue whether they’re going to dub their son, neither seems to question the likelihood of this, be Tommy (Wanda’s suggestion) or Billy (Vision’s).

 

The Maximoffs do more baby prepping, with Vision practicing changing diapers. His record is about 18 seconds. They have a brief scare when Wanda starts having Braxton Hicks contractions. Not just because Wanda’s in pain with intense not-labor inducing contractions (not fun, my sister had them almost constantly for a month before her oldest was born) but because the pain caused Wanda’s powers to flare and she caused a blackout. They get things under control and Vision and Wanda take a breath. Vision notes that they’re always on the verge of being discovered, and yet never do… he clearly thinks something is wrong, but Wanda causes an edit and seems to change what Vision says to “truth is we’re in uncarted waters.” Wanda starts having real contractions, causing Vision to literally fly up in shock. They have a minor freak out about how early this is, “You said Friday afternoon!” “Well, I didn’t consider that the timings between developmental benchmarks could be quite random!” is particularly funny. Wanda and Viz are able to calm down using her labor breathing exercises. Things are calm for about 3.5 seconds before her water breaks, and so do their pipes. Whoops.

 

We get another add break, this one is for HYDRA Soak, a soap that’s tagline is “Find the Goddess Within.” Huh.

 

I mean, how does she NOT see it?

The Maximoffs are waiting out the rain under their kitchen table. It finally stops and Wanda magics everything dry. The phones are out, so Viz literally has to run to get the doctor. While Wanda is left alone, huh that feels like a horrible situation for a lady in labor to be in, she hears some kind of noise in the nursery. She’s distracted from the noise by the doorbell. Wanda throws on a coat and opens to see Geraldine. She stopped over for a bucket; her pipes had also burst so she needs to bail herself out. Wanda tries to help her friend out and to get her out of the house immediately, looks for a bucket. The contractions seem to be causing her powers to fluctuate even more, turning her overcoat into several different coats as she looks. Wanda finds the bucket while hiding her belly, but Geraldine wants to stick around and gossip a bit. As Geraldine talks, the noise maker from the nursery walks in, it’s a stork. Huh. Even weirder than the bird associated with delivery of human infants, is Wanda’s inability to get rid of it. Geraldine does start hearing a noise, but Wanda plays it off as their newfangled Ice Machine. Thank God for the sitcom characters infamous lack of peripheral vision. Geraldine finally gets to the point of her story, that she needs office supplies for her new job and she makes for the office before Wanda can move her very pregnant self. She finally notices that Wanda is pregnant and in labor. Better late than never.

 

Outside, Viz has grabbed the doctor, interrupting his attempt to leave on vacation and leaving his wife in the car, and starts hurrying back to his house.

 

Wanda’s labor is causing everything to freak out of control. Their chandelier falls, a painting tarts spinning in circles, a fire erupts in the fireplace, that sort of insanity. Props to Geraldine for just rolling with the sheer insanity of the situation. “I maybe late to the party, but I’m sure there is a logical explanation to this.” Wanda’s contractions get intense enough that the power shorts out. Geraldine does her best to psyche Wanda up before her big push. Geraldine gets the baby out, and somehow cleans him off in about .5 seconds. I know, television. Viz and the doctor arrive a moment later. Geraldine pulls the doctor into the kitchen so the Maximoffs can meet their son. Wanda encourages Viz to introduce himself to his son, and, after checking everyone is gone, Viz turns off his camouflage and meets his son. They dub him Tommy. They have a nice moment, but it’s kinda ruined by Wanda… she’s going into labor again. Shoot. Well, at least they get to use both names.

 

A little while later, after confirming that the babies are both fine and healthy, Viz shows the Doctor out while Wanda spends some time with her babies. Viz apologizes for delaying the doctor’s vacation, but he doesn’t mind, saying that small towns are hard to escape. Viz notices that’s odd, he turns to go back inside, but sees Herb and Agnes chatting at the fence. He goes over to them, asking if they also experienced the outage, but clearly everyone is uncomfortable, so he tries to go back inside. Agnes calls him back, asking if Geraldine is inside.

Wanda isn't amused...

 

Geraldine and Wanda are just watching the babies. Geraldine points out how crazy it is that they’re twins. Wanda mentions that she’s a twin, and her brother was Pietro. She starts singing to her sons what I assume is a Sokovian lullaby. Either the mention of Pietro or the song seems to shake something loose from Geraldine’s head, and she asks if Pietro was killed by Ultron. Back outside, Herb and Agnes point out that Geraldine is weird, she’s new in town, no family, no home or anything. Inside, Geraldine tries to take back what she said, but Wanda clearly isn’t interested in the lies. She tells Geraldine to leave, but then notices that she’s got a Sword pendant. Outside Herb can’t tell Viz why Geraldine came to town, Agnes cuts him off when he almost spills the beans. Wanda asks Geraldine who she is while her children cry. When Agnes leaves, Herb bails too. Viz goes back inside, asking where Geraldine is. Wanda tells him that Geraldine is gone, had to rush home.

 

I've heard of being ejected from a show, but this
is ridiculous.

We’re shown the city limits of Westview. It’s the dead of night. Geraldine is thrown out of a red barrier and crashes into a grassy hill. Music starts playing as several trucks and a helicopter arrive around her. We’re also shown some sort of perimeter around the field Geraldine was thrown out of. Well, that’s bonkers.

 

This was a great episode. It’s clear that Wanda’s world is growing more and more unstable. Sure, being pregnant definitely didn’t help the situation, but the fact she immaculately conceived at all seems to suggest things are not totally in her conscious mind’s control. Vision is clearly noticing more and more things are wrong two, what with everyone giving him vaguely cryptic hints like Herb being unable to finish his thought about Geraldine or the doctor’s line about how hard it is to escape a small town. Oh, and Tommy and Billy are a thing now. As I mentioned last time, those two are the canonical son’s of Wanda and Vision, having been magically created by Wanda to give her and her robotic husband the full family experience. I liked how seeing her twins got Wanda talking about Pietro. I’m not 100% sure, but I think this is the first time he’s been brought up since he was killed during the finale of Age of Ultron. The part where Wanda sings her boys a lullaby from Sokovia was a beautiful if incredibly creepy moment. Geraldine’s reveal as being some kind of interloper was fairly obvious, what with her making her name up on the spot last time and the comments about her having no home in town. She’s a fairly important character, but I’ll get into that next time. Though it should be fairly obvious that she’s tied into SWORD with her Sword pin and the group of armed guards coming to check on her. Wanda’s little sitcom is about to take a hard left turn into crazy town, but more on that later. Have a good night, everybody. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: WandaVision ep 2

 The cracks begin to widen in Wanda and Vison's sitcom world. 

Last time on WandaVision, the Maximoffs had a comedic misunderstanding over a heart shaped symbol on their calendar. She thought it was for their anniversary, he found out it was for dinner with his boss, Mr. Hart and his wife. Over the course of the day, it’s clear that there’s something hinky going on, with neither Maximoff remembering details of their lives pre-Westview, New Jersey, and other details of their lives not really making sense. They decide to ignore it, though, with Wanda magicing up some wedding bands for them before the credits roll, and we see someone is watching this show somewhere else. Spooky. Enough recap, let’s get to it.

 

So, do you think Vision actually sleeps, or does
he just sit quietly until morning to humor Wanda?

The Maximoffs wake up in separate beds, guess they haven’t shaken off the 50s just yet, due to a loud thumping they hear from outside. Vision goes to check the window, sees nothing, claims they’re just hearing things, but jumps back into bed when another thump occurs. Dude, you can lift Mjolnir, have some backbone! Wanda pulls there beds together in shock. They double check and sees that it’s just a tree thumping against their house. They have a laugh at this as Wanda makes their two double beds into a queen with her magic and then turn down the lights. Isn’t that sweet?

 

After a Bewitched style animated opening, (What? I watched Nick at Nite growing up.), we’re shown that the Maximoffs are prepping to perform a magic act at the local talent show. Huh. Wanda misses her initial cue but then rolls out the cabinet of mystery. They do the trick, with Wanda “disappearing” into the box. She comes back out and Vision wonders if the neighbors might see through their charade, but Wanda laughs it off. Oh, Wanda, you fool.

 

Color? In a black and white world? The insanity!

The two Maximoffs head out to their community duties, Vision going to a meeting of the neighborhood watch and Wanda to a planning committee meeting for the talent show. As they go, Wanda hears another bumping noise. She looks down and sees a bizarre thing in this world of black and white, a splash of color. Said color is on a toy helicopter, the red and gold copter has a logo of a sword on it… oh my… More on that later. Wanda is distracted by Agnes whom had brought over her pet rabbit for her and Viz’s act. They end up going to the committee meeting together, with Agnes warning that the planning committee run by Dottie is a super big deal for housewives. Wanda asks if maybe she should just be herself, but Agnes laughs at that. The committee meets by the pool and discuss topics, with Wanda copying Dottie’s motions exactly. The group has got a creepy, Stepford wives vibe as they discuss inane topics. Wanda gets distracted chatting with another lady, whom introduces herself as Geraldine (clearly made up on the spot B T Dubs). She asks how anyone is doing this sober before being snapped at by Dottie and forced to pay attention.

 

Meanwhile, Vision goes to the library where the neighborhood watch meeting is. Everyone is clearly uncomfortable with his arrival, but Norm is also there and he vouches for him. After sitting down, the watch is clearly a men’s gossip group more than anything. He ingratiates himself with the group by jokingly claiming Norm is a communist. Haha, the 60s. One of the other guys offers Viz a bit of gum, which he tries. I mean, it’s not really food, right? He gets slapped on the back, accidentally swallowing the gum and it literally gums up his works.

 

Not exactly ruby slippers, but just as vibrant.

Back at Dottie’s, Wanda is helping Dottie clean up. They get confrontational, with Dottie clearly feeling threatened by Wanda, whom doesn’t mean any harm. As they argue, the nearby radio starts picking up someone asking “Wanda, Wanda, who is doing this to you?” This seems to cause Dottie to ask who is that and then looks at Wanda and asks who she is. Wanda shorts out the radio and the glass in Dottie’s hand shatters, cutting her hand, and her bleeding vivid red blood. Wanda gets a cloth to stop the bleeding. Dottie blinks and asks Wanda how a housewife get’s a bloodstain out of white linen? By doing it herself, and walks off. Yeah, that’s really weird.

 

We get another commercial, this one advertising a line of watches, the Strucker. It has the HYDRA logo and makes me uncomfortable.

 

At the talent show, Wanda is in costume and freaking out that Vision isn’t there yet. He does wander over at the last minute. He’s stumbling, uncoordinated and showing all the signs of being drunk but no one seems to want to say it… Wanda tries to explain the weirdness she’s seen today, but he’s too loopy to understand. They get the call that their act is up. In his basically drunken state, Vision decides to go off script and show off some of his powers, Wanda quickly altering things to give people plausible explanations to his tricks. He flies, she creates a pulley system to look like it’s holding him up, he lifts a piano, she turns it into a cardboard cutout, he passes his hat through his body, Wanda adds mirrors… okay, I don’t get how that one would work as a plausible solution, but whatever. Vision does the trick with the cabinet of mysteries without Wanda in it, so she magics Geraldine into it. Geraldine is clearly confused by being teleported without her knowledge or consent, but rolls with it. The three take a bow, and Wanda leads her husband backstage.

 

Love how Viz and Wanda look about as confused
as Geraldine.

Realizing that something in Vision is probably messing him up, she magics the gum out of his system. He immediately sobers up and realizes that them *might* be in trouble if people realize what happened. They try to slip away before the crowd starts crying for their blood… and motor oil, I guess, for ruining the show. Dottie sees them, though, and calls them over. They’re given an award for Comedy Performance of the Year and given a standing ovation. As they make a bow, Geraldine has to ask how the hell that happened, but Wanda and Vision distract her with that “A Magician never reveals their secret” bit. The crowd keeps saying “For the Children,” which is just as creepy as it sounds.

Now in full technicolor!

 

They return home and start doing the wrap up on the couch. When they mention that they did all this “for the children” Wanda realizes that she’s noticeably pregnant. Oh my. There’s another bumping noise and they go out to investigate. Really not sure how any noise could distract me from the subject of my wife being noticeably, suddenly pregnant when I am in fact a machine and logically incapable of reproduction, but there ya go. They don’t see anything outside, but then a manhole cover moves. A man in a beekeeper suit comes out, surrounded by bees. The suit also has a Sword as its logo. Wanda says “no,” and rewinds back to when they realized she was pregnant. They kiss, and color gets added to their show. As the credits roll, we hear that message again “Wanda, who is doing this to you, Wanda?” Spooky.

 

This was a step up from last time. The cracks in the sitcom that is the lives of the Maximoffs are growing more noticeable. The things like the helicopter, the message, the blood, and the bee keeper at the end are all spooky and indicative that something very wrong is happening there. The color being added to a black and white medium was a really simple and effective way to show these things don’t belong here. You know why the sword logo is important? There are several agencies within the Marvel universe that handle different specialized fields. The Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division is one that handles things planet side. And the Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division, or SWORD, is another and their purview is typically space threats. The W in the comics is “Worlds,” and they handle guys like Ego or Skrull/Kree invasions. This version’s change of W will be made clear. The point is that the Sword logo on the copter and bee keeper suggest that something is really wrong here. Oh, and there’s the obvious one of someone sending her a distress call. That’s a kind of a big deal. And this is all without mentioning Geraldine, a woman that roll with everything just like the rest of the citizens of Westview but also very obviously made up her name on the spot. Super weird. When I first saw that Wanda was pregnant at the end of the episode, I was shocked. Sort of. Wanda and Vision do canonically have children due to Wanda’s magic powers, a pair of twins named Tommy and Billy whom have identical powers to Pietro and Wanda respectively, but I sure as hell wasn’t expecting them to be brought in so… abruptly. It’ll be interesting to see where the show goes with Wanda’s pregnancy. I say, being on episode 7 and thus know where they’re going with. Such is life. Have a good night everybody. 

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