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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