In the “WandaVision” recap for episode 7, Wanda’s powers are on the blink and Monica wants to get back inside the Hex as a new threat is finally revealed…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It was Agatha all along!
Weeks of speculation ultimately led to the closing moments in “WandaVision” episode 7 as Agnes’ true identity was finally revealed as none other than Agatha Harkness.
Ever since the series began, Kathryn Hahn’s nosey neighbor of a character seemed to have more going on than the rest of the residents of Westview but nothing was ever confirmed. Rumors swirled that Agnes could actually be a famous witch from Marvel Comics known as Agatha Harkness but it took until Friday’s episode to finally confirm that character has crossed over into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Now, the Agatha Harkness in “WandaVision” may not share many traits as the original character but just a little bit of history for those unaware of her past connection to Wanda Maximoff.
In the comics, Agatha Harkness is an ancient witch, whose lifespan dates back hundreds upon hundreds of years. She was a powerful magician, who settled into Salem, Mass. where she began gathering additional witches in order to build her coven. When the Salem witch trials began, Agatha actually encouraged some of her own witches to be discovered and burned at the stake to cull the ranks and force those remaining to learn to protect themselves.
Years later, Agatha became a governess to Franklin Richards — the son of Fantastic Four members Reed Richards and Sue Richards — and that’s when she finally revealed her true powers as a witch while protecting the child. Agatha had also secretly started a new town in Colorado called New Salem where along with her son, Nicholas Scratch, they began training a new coven even more powerful than any that came before.
Agatha eventually ended up at odds with her son, who turned the town of New Salem against her and she was burned at the stake. That’s when Wanda Maximoff got involved to stop Nicholas and his new coven called Salem’s Seven. She defeated the new coven and banished the entire town of New Salem into a different dimension.
During this battle, Wanda captured some of the energy and magic from the town and used that to create her own pregnancy where she gave birth to twin boys named Tommy and Billy. In reality, Wanda had drawn that power from Mephisto, the Marvel Universe version of the devil and he eventually reabsorbed those pieces of his soul, which meant the children were no more.
Agatha returned from the dead where she wiped Wanda’s memory of her children in order to spare her the pain of what really happened to them. Agatha then became a true mentor to Wanda as she taught the Scarlet Witch how to harness and use her “chaos magic.”
Sadly that friendship ended after Wanda realized that her children had perished and Agatha wiped her memory that they ever existed. In a fit of rage, Wanda kills Agatha Harkness just before she creates a new alternate reality, which set up the infamous Marvel storyline called “House of M.” That particular event series took place after Wanda reshaped reality (sound familiar?) and at the end she screamed “no more mutants!” and nearly the entire mutant population on Earth was eliminated.
Judging by the first appearance of Agatha Harkness in “WandaVision,” she doesn’t exactly seem like a friend to Wanda, especially considering the reveal that she’s been secretly pulling the strings behind the scenes including the arrival of Pietro Maximoff. There’s no need to speculate on what Agatha’s true intentions are right now because with only two episodes remaining, we’re certain to find out soon enough.
Obviously, Agatha has had greater influence and control over what’s happened inside the Hex since the very beginning but why did she decide to trap Wanda and Vision in this weird alternate sitcom reality? We’ll have to stay tuned until next week to hopefully find out more about that.
With that said, let’s recap “The Office” inspired episode of “WandaVision” titled “Breaking Down the Fourth Wall”…
Witchy Woman
In the wake of expanding the Hex in order to save Vision from being destroyed, Wanda wakes up in a reality that looks like something out of “The Office” where she’s constantly addressing the audience directly. She’s no longer in the mood to do much of anything so she kind of wanders through the opening moments in her bathrobe, uninterested in the multitude of questions from her children like what happened to uncle Pietro and she answers back forcefully that he’s not their uncle.
Billy and Tommy continue to question their mother but Wanda decides to go dark on them by saying that she’s come to the recent conclusion that everything is meaningless but she encourages them to explore that theory further in their own minds. Thankfully just when it looks like Wanda is about to go over the waterfall, Agnes shows up to lend a helping hand by offering to take care of the children while their mom gets a much needed day off staycation.
The problem is Wanda is struggling to control her own powers after expanding the Hex to further reaches. Everything in her house is switching and changing to past iterations of the show like her modern flat screen TV turning into the old tube television from the 1960’s not to mention her ever-transforming milk that goes from almond to 100 percent pure cow juice.
Wanda can’t seem to figure out exactly what’s happening but that will be explained later.
As for Vision, he wakes up fully formed again, no longer suffering from his body being ripped apart while trying to escape the Hex. He finds himself in the middle of a carnival, which is made up of S.W.O.R.D. agents transformed into clowns and sideshow performers.
There Vision finds Darcy, who has also been turned into an escape artist for the carnival but thankfully a touch on her head helps her step back into reality. Darcy knows they need to get to Wanda to stop this so she steals a truck with Vision and the two of them head back into the middle of Westview.
Along the way, Darcy recaps Vision’s life and death from his birth in the wake of the creation of Ultron to his demise first at the hands of Wanda when she destroyed the mind stone and then a second time after Thanos reversed the clock and literally ripped the mind stone from his head. Darcy tries to make Vision understand that Wanda saw him murdered right in front of her eyes and that likely explains why she’s lashed out with so much grief and anger while living inside this bubble of her own creation.
While driving, Darcy and Vision are constantly impeded by one obstacle or another, which is proof that somebody is trying to prevent them from getting to Wanda. Vision finally realizes that he can travel there solid material and fly so he exits the truck and begins the journey back to his wife. Before leaving, Darcy reminds Vision that she’s been watching their “television show” for more than a week and one thing is abundantly clear — Wanda loves him with all of her heart.
Outside the Hex, S.W.O.R.D. director Hayward has set up a new base of operations much to his chagrin as many of his people were swallowed up by the expanding Westview anomaly. With no time to spare, Hayward decides today is the time to strike and he begins to put a plan into motion.
Meanwhile, Monica and Agent Jimmy Woo are bound for a rendezvous with her contact to see about getting back inside the bubble. Jimmy retrieves the email sent from Darcy about Hayward’s shadowy project codenamed ‘Cataract’ and he discovers that the S.W.O.R.D. leader has been experimenting on Vision’s body in an attempt to bring him back online.
It turns out Hayward has been attempting to activate Vision in order to create more sentient weapons just like him.
Remember, an important distinction in the new version of S.W.O.R.D. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the group now stands for Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division, which is different than the comic book version which is Sentient World Observation and Response Department. In other words, weapons are baked right into S.W.O.R.D.’s very existence and Hayward is doing his best to live up to that reputation.
As for Monica and Jimmy, they finally make it to the other side of the Hex where she finally meets up with her contact but it wasn’t some gigantic reveal as first expected. Instead it’s just a loyal friend from inside S.W.O.R.D., who has gathered soldiers and scientists to build the vehicle Monica designed with hopes of breaking through the Hex walls without being transformed into one of Wanda’s mind-controlled Westview residents.
Monica knows the dangers that stepping back inside the Hex could have on her body, especially considering the previous trips have altered her DNA at a molecular level. Still, she’s determined to get inside so she can warn Wanda about Hayward coming for Vision not to mention try to talk her down from this destructive plan that has trapped more than 3,000 people inside her sitcom reality.
After suiting up and boarding the vehicle, Monica prepares to drive it through the Hex but there’s one problem — the outer wall is literally transforming matter to match the vehicle, which prevents it from actually making it through the bubble. Monica leaps out of the rover just in time as the vehicle is spit out from the Hex.
Desperate to help Wanda and stop Hayward’s pending attack, Monica decides caution be damned and just runs at the Hex as she forces her way through to the other side.
When she finally arrives, Monica sees more than just Westview — she’s seeing the entire electromagnetic spectrum inside, which seems to confirm that her powers have finally been revealed.
In the comics, Monica Rambeau eventually becomes a superhero named Spectrum with powers that allow her to transform herself into any form of energy within the electromagnetic spectrum. She was previously known as both Captain Marvel and Photon so it’s unknown which of those names she’ll adopt in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Once she realizes she’s inside and not transformed into one of Wanda’s zombies, Monica darts for the center of town to confront the wayward Avenger.
When she finally arrives at Wanda’s house, Monica bursts through the front door and she tries to explain what’s been happening. Wanda wants nothing to do with her explanation and she lifts Monica up and tosses her from the house while blaming her for the attempted missile attack not to mention the Pietro double that showed up at her front door.
Monica attempts to explain that Hayward is coming for Vision but Wanda isn’t interested in listening and she instead tries to throw her to the ground but something interesting happens instead. Monica’s powers kick and she lands on the ground without a hair harmed on her head much to Wanda’s shock.
Monica then explains to Wanda that this is all happening because she’s dealing with severe trauma from the grief and loss over both Vision and her brother Pietro. Wanda gets fueled up to unleash another blast at her but this time Monica invites her to do it because she believes deep down, there’s still a hero inside.
Just when it looks like Monica might be getting through to Wanda, Agnes interrupts them and pulls her neighbor away because she looks very stressed.
Agnes takes Wanda into her house where Billy and Tommy are mysteriously missing. Agnes explains that perhaps the children are playing down in the basement so Wanda goes down there to investigation.
That’s where Wanda finds something very strange — a lair covered in vines and trees, twisting and contorting around the basement. She sees a book encased in a purple light — a spell book of some sort we imagine.
Agnes finally joins Wanda in the basement before closing all of the doors behind them to reveal her true identity.
“Wanda, Wanda — you didn’t think you were the only magical girl in town, did you? The name’s Agatha Harkness. Lovely to finally meet you, dear.”
As Agatha’s powers come to light, she zaps Wanda with a bit of her mind magic and it’s clear that she’s had a role in everything that’s happened inside Westview since this anomaly started.
Cue the theme music — a catchy Munster’s like them called “Agatha All Along” as we discover she’s been behind almost every strange occurrence in Westview since “WandaVision” started. She helped pull the strings at Wanda’s magic show back in episode 2 and she was also responsible for bringing in the recasted Pietro, who arrived just in the nick of time to help Wanda when she needed it most.
Agatha has been the puppet master for this entire ordeal but what exactly is her endgame (no pun intended) with Wanda? That remains to be seen.
The end of the episode comes as Agatha reveals that she also killed Sparky the dog and she closes with a maniacal laugh that will haunt your dreams for days. It was a deliciously devilish ending that sets up the final two episodes of “WandaVision” as we seek to find out what exactly Agatha has planned for Wanda and Vision and the entire Hex.
Unlike past episodes there is also a quick post credits scene so make sure to pay attention to that as Monica goes to investigate “Agnes” house and just when she looks in the basement to see the weird strange purple glow from inside, she’s interrupted by Pietro, who catches her snooping.
One more note — the commercial in this week’s episode was called “Nexus’ and that could be a larger hint to Agatha’s role in the series. In the Marvel comic book universe, there’s a point called the Nexus of All Realities — where all of the many dimensions inside the multiverse come together. It’s possible, although not yet confirmed, that perhaps Agatha snatched Pietro Maximoff as played by Evan Peters from an alternate reality and brought him to this world in order for him to reconnect with Wanda. That would begin to explain the eventual inclusion of the multiverse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but again, nothing has been confirmed at this time.
For now, prepare to have that “Agatha All Along” music stuck in your head for days while waiting for the next episode of “WandaVision” to debut on Friday on Disney+.
