In the latest “WandaVision” recap, Wanda’s grasp on her new reality begins slipping but a game changing ending could alter the Marvel Cinematic Universe forever…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Nothing happens by accident in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
A world meticulously crafted together by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige spent more than 20 films building towards the epic conclusion in both “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame” but the events that have already taken place are still shaping the future.
In a post-Tony Stark/Thanos world, the biggest clues about what’s going to happen next have been revealed throughout “Spider-Man: Far From Home” but perhaps even more importantly in the first few episodes of “WandaVision.”
The latest episode could potentially serve as the biggest game changing moment yet after Wanda’s perfect sitcom reality world started to crumble down around her until a mysterious ring at the door. Wanda protested that she had nothing to do with that doorbell, which came after Vision began to realize that his darling wife was controlling every single aspect of this world they’ve been living in lately.
When the door was finally opened, Peter Maximoff stepped into greet his sister, much to her surprise.
Of course Peter Maximoff in this case was played by Evan Peters — the actor who portrayed the character in “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “X-Men: Apocalypse.” His reveal at the end of the episode could spark all sorts of changes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe because in theory, Peter Maximoff existed in an alternate reality — one previously owned by FOX that was recently acquired by Disney — where he teamed up with the X-Men.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wanda’s brother was Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver and he was played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but only for two films in total because he was ultimately killed by Ultron during the events of “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Pietro’s death coupled by Vision’s murder at the hands of Thanos have left Wanda in a fragile mental state where grief is outweighing any morals she might have left.
But introducing Peters’ version of Peter Maximoff might signal this as the start of the larger Marvel multiverse, which we all know is coming. Peter’s random appearance could also serve as the biggest sign that the multiverse will help explain the introduction of mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which means we are one step closer to finally meeting the new X-Men.
With that said, let’s get to our full recap of the latest episode of “WandaVision” for episode 5 titled “On a Very Special Episode”…
Family is Forever
The show within a show takes plenty of odd turns in the latest episode as Wanda and Visions happy sitcom life moves into a “Family Ties” style 1980s show where their twins, Tommy and Billy, are crying non-stop as the new parents attempt to navigate what it means to raise a couple of children.
Things take a turn for the weird when perpetual neighbor Agnes — who has not been identified by another name outside the Westview Anomaly yet — shows up and her lines seem to contradict what’s happening as Wanda and Vision are arguing. Rather than just continue on with what’s happening, Agnes actually stops and asks Wanda if she should reset and do that scene again.
In other words, Agnes realizes that she’s just playing a part in Wanda’s twisted reality show.
Agnes quickly brushes off that request as Wanda looks utterly confused and before long she’s helping the new parents take care of a pair of five-year-old kids after Tommy and Billy suddenly age right before our very eyes.
As the series has continued, there have been more and more questions about Agnes’ real identity with many speculation that perhaps she is Agatha Harkness — a famous character from Marvel Comics, who serves as a mentor to Wanda in many ways before the Scarlet Witch snaps, loses her mind and kills one of the original witches to survive the Salem witch trials. While Agatha was typically seen as a hero in the Marvel Universe, even serving as a nanny to Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four in his childhood, it’s possible the character is undergoing some changes if that’s really who is hiding underneath Agnes in this world created by Wanda.
Later, Tommy and Billy decide they want a dog and so suddenly a little pup named Sparky is introduced — keen comic book readers will deduce the relation to that name from an android dog created by Vision when he’s attempting to live a happy suburban life alongside Wanda. Once again, Tommy and Billy age themselves up in order to convince their parents they can raise the dog but it all ends in tragedy after Sparky eats fruit from a poisonous plant and he dies.
Agnes is the one who discovers Sparky after his death, once again connecting her to strange events that keep happening around Westview.
Sparky’s death creates a different kind of drama at home for Wanda after her twin sons beg her to bring the dog back to life. She attempts to explain how it’s wrong to manipulate life and death, but they are keen to understand that their own father has been resurrected from the scrap heap after Vision was killed by Thanos during “Avengers: Infinity War.”
It doesn’t help matters much that Vision is beginning to wake up more and more to what’s actually happening around him. Each passing episode has seen the fog begin to raise from Vision’s mind as he begins to realize that not everything is as it seems in Westview.
He’s questioned this reality before but each time Wanda has been able to reset the scene or assure him that nothing is wrong. The cracks at the seams begin to pull apart when Vision goes to work and he sees an email arrive on the new computer systems just installed and it’s a note from Dr. Darcy Lewis about the radiation levels at the edges of the Westview anomaly.
Vision then touches his pal Norm and suddenly Wanda’s control over him is broken. The man locked inside his own head has been tortured for days already as he succumbs to Wanda’s will but in reality he’s been terrified about what’s happened to his family and how they must be worried about his whereabouts. As Norm continues to panic, Vision is forced to put him back under Wanda’s spell as he continues to search for answers.
Outside the Westview Anomaly, Captain Monica Rambeau is undergoing a series of tests to see how she’s doing after being tossed out of Wanda’s hexagon shaped alternate reality. Darcy wants to call Wanda’s playground ‘The Hex’ — and that’s definitely a catchier name that Westview Anomaly.
Anyways, Monica soon finds out that the brain scans conducted don’t return any results because the images just show nothing. They quickly move beyond that bit of information but that would seemingly speak to the larger problem — Wanda is mind controlling the people in Westview and her control is so strong that even after its released, the remnants of her power remains behind.
A briefing led by S.W.O.R.D. director Tyler Hayward begins to paint Wanda in a very villainous light as he interrupts a history lesson from Agent Jimmy Woo about her origins in Sokovia, the relationship with her brother Pietro, how she gained her powers from experimentations by HYDRA with the mind stone and the fact that she used those powers against the Avengers.
Jimmy’s attempt to point out that Wanda eventually joined the Avengers doesn’t sway Director Hawyard as he’s more than happy to mention her disastrous mistake in Lagos, Nigeria where she accidentally killed 11 people while trying to save Captain American and stop Brock Rumlow and his mercenaries. Coincidentally, the “commercial” this episode was for Lagos paper towels — when you really need to clean up a mess you didn’t intend to make.
Hayward also reveals footage from a secret S.W.O.R.D. facility from nine days earlier that shows Wanda breaking into a lab and stealing Vision’s body. It seems Vision isn’t just living in Wanda’s head but rather she actually resurrected her dead lover and brought him back to life.
Of course, Vision was created in part by an Infinity stone (the mind stone to be exact) and once that was ripped out by Thanos he died. It would seem that Wanda used her powers to bring Vision back to life but not quite the same version initially created to help stop Ultron.
It’s clear from this briefing that Director Hayward intends to treat Wanda as an enemy of the state but Monica isn’t so fast to dismiss that there’s more going on here than just an Avenger gone mad.
As she continues to discuss ideas about how to break into the Hex, Monica theorizes about a vehicle of sorts that could drive into the town that would hopefully prevent Wanda from invading the mind of the people inside. She even mentions an aerospace engineer who might be able to help them — and that could reference a couple of potential people in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The more obvious choice is James “Rhody” Rhodes, aka War Machine, who was an aerospace engineer but it could also reference Reed Richards — better known as Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four.
Monica fires off a text message to this mysterious person but we don’t find out the identity in this particular episode.
Regardless the idea to build a vehicle to get into the Hex sounds great but it’s all just a guess at this point because they truly don’t understand the depth of Wanda’s true powers.
They remark how Wanda was nearly able to topple Thanos by herself if not for the Mad Titan raining fire down from his warship in the sky. Agent Woo and Darcy mention that Captain Marvel also possesses similar powers but the mere name seems to disturb Monica despite the fact that Carol Danvers was her mother’s best friend and co-pilot. It appears there’s some kind of rift in the relationship between Carol and Monica, although that doesn’t get explored any further.
What we do know for certain is that if Wanda can mind-control thousands of people in Westview, create a bubble capable of blocking anyone from getting in or out and still maintain this happy sitcom world then she might possess unspeakable amounts of power than no one has even realized to this point.
Kevin Feige has previously noted that Wanda is the most powerful person in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so it stands to reason that her abilities are only now beginning to truly bubble to the surface.
The discussion about getting into the Hex finally gives Monica an idea after Darcy notes that everything that exists inside Westview isn’t a hologram or just the mind playing tricks on you. Monica confirms it by discovering that the outfit she was wearing while living in Westview was just the bulletproof fest she was wearing at the time transformed into some 1970s clothing.
Wanda has created a physical world complete with people, places and things, which means she can not only control the minds of her victims but she’s literally reshaping reality and changing matter inside that bubble.
That does give Monica the idea that perhaps they can break into the Hex by sending something that would fit right into the current 1980s motif. So they retro-fit an old style drone plane that flies directly into Westview but it’s not long before Wanda realizes something has broken into her protective bubble.
While Monica treats this a reconnaissance mission, she soon finds out that Hayward had different ideas after he orders soldiers to fire on Wanda with the weapons fitted on the drone.
A few seconds later, Wanda emerges from the Hex with drone in hand as she tosses it at the S.W.O.R.D. army that has amassed outside the bubble. Wanda tells them to leave her alone — she’s just trying to live in this little pocket of happiness that she’s created.
Hayward reminds Wanda that she’s taken thousands of hostages by kidnapping all of these people and turning them into residents of Westview. Wanda isn’t interested in hearing Hayward say much of anything, especially as he orders all of his soldiers to have their sights set on her.
Wanda issues a final warning to leave her alone before using her mind control to force the soldiers to point their weapons at Hayward instead as she wanders back into the anomaly.
Back inside, Wanda’s reality begins to crumble even further after she’s confronted by Vision about her control over everyone inside the Hex. He notes that he talked to Norm and he’s in pain from the control being exerted over him. Vision lashes out at Wanda’s refusal to acknowledge the world she’s created.
Wanda answers by telling him that all of this was created for them — but that doesn’t settle Vision’s own questions about his personal reality where he can’t remember anything from before living together in Westview. Obviously, Wanda bringing Vision back to life didn’t necessarily resurrect the life he lived as an Avenger or his death at the hands of Thanos.
As Vision’s questions continue to dig deeper and deeper into Wanda’s false reality, the doorbell rings and she promises that it wasn’t created as a distraction to their conversation. Again and again, Wanda has told Vision that she didn’t create this world but she’s morphing it to their benefit — and is there possibly a deeper threat at work that put Wanda and Vision into the Westview Anomaly before unleashing her to take over?
More on that for another day.
For now, Wanda answers the door and she’s stunned to see the person staring back at her. It’s her brother — Pietro Maximoff played by the actor who portrayed the same character in the FOX X-Men films.
Back in the real world a stunned Darcy watches and says “she recast Pietro?” but it seems more likely that this has more to do with the multiverse than Wanda finding somebody to portray her dead brother.
Instead, it’s almost certain that Wanda — or whoever created this alternate reality — has pulled Peter Maximoff from another part of the multiverse and planted him into Westview as a way to keep this farce going. We know that Wanda plays a major part in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and a tear in the universe that has now allowed Peter Maximoff to travel over to be “reunited” with his sister might be the first real example of what’s about to happen.
Is it possible that somebody is doing this to Wanda in order to keep her off the playing field while something much more nefarious is about to unfold? Perhaps somebody knows that Wanda is the only one powerful enough to stop them — and keeping her occupied by playing house with Vision in the Hex is the best way to negate her abilities. Then again it still seems like Wanda’s own break with reality following the death of her brother and Vision’s murder has put her in a place where even she doesn’t understand how this sitcom world was created because it’s a defense mechanism that sprung into action to prevent her damaged psyche from being damaged even further.
Hopefully we’ll find out more once “WandaVision” returns for a new episode next Friday on Disney+!
