In the “WandaVision” recap for episode 6, Wanda and her family celebrate Halloween but Vision only wants more answers and S.W.O.R.D.’s true intentions start to be revealed…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Last week’s episode of “WandaVision” welcomed Evan Peters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as he appeared as Wanda Maximoff’s brother Pietro after he previously appeared as that character in several X-Men movies at FOX.
While it appeared Peters’ joining the series meant that Marvel was potentially introducing the multiverse (which we know is coming at some point), there were no additional answers given during the latest installment that adopted a “Malcolm in the Middle” theme that included the recasted Pietro as a wild uncle, who was still just as much a kid at heart as the pre-teen children being raised by his sister.
Instead, the new episode of “WandaVision” started to chip away at Wanda’s powerful hold over Westview as we got an idea of just how much strength she’s using in order to control an entire town where thousands of people are currently living.
The new episode also explored Vision’s own questions about his wife’s actions as he tries to understand what exactly is happening inside this quaint small town where nothing is as it seems.
Outside “The Hex” — S.W.O.R.D. leader Tyler Hayward continues to prove he’s definitely more villain than hero as at least some of his true intentions regarding this standoff with Wanda start to come into the light, especially as he clashes with a few people who down agree with his course of action.
With that said, let’s get to our recap for the latest episode of “WandaVision” titled “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!”…
The Outer Limits
In the wake of Pietro Maximoff’s arrival in Westview, we arrive at Halloween where Billy and Tommy are ready to go trick-or-treating while their parents are still stuck in a strange rut where they’re not quite fighting but not exactly getting along either.
To get in the spirit of the season, Wanda and Vision both dress in comic book accurate gear for their characters, which looks just hilariously bad when brought to life. Vision jokes that he looks like a Mexican wrestler while quietly jabbing at Wanda about how this was the only outfit left in his closet, which is a subtle hint at his wife’s total control over Westview.
As uncle Pietro is joining Billy and Tommy in household hijinks, Wanda learns that Vision won’t be joining them today to celebrate Halloween because he’s going to be working with the neighborhood watch to prevent toilet paper from getting stuck in tree tops. Wanda nearly insists that Vision comes along — perhaps about ready to exert her control again — but Pietro steps in and offers to serve as a suitable replacement before changing into his comic accurate outfit for Quicksilver, complete with the most ridiculous hairstyle that somehow looks even worse than Wolverine’s quiff.
While out and about in Westview, Wanda attempts to test Pietro’s knowledge about their past together growing up in Sokovia because despite recognizing her brother, she knows he doesn’t look the same. Numerous times throughout the episode, Pietro manages to subvert and change the subject whenever Wanda brings up too much history that would require him to address where he came from exactly or how he got here.
There is a funny exchange where Pietro races off with the kids to get candy and he says “kick ass!” which is a fun reference to the film version of the comic book “Kick Ass,” which starred Evan Peters and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who played Pietro Maximoff in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” See kids, it’s all coming full circle now!
With Pietro and the kids racing to get candy, Wanda spots Herb patrolling the neighborhood and much like Agnes last week, he comes out of character to ask if she wants something changed in the scene as if he knows he’s interacting with a false reality. Herb also reveals that Vision wasn’t part of the team working the neighborhood watch for Halloween, which makes her question what exactly her husband is doing.
As the day continues into night, Wanda is still confused by her brother’s return, which is only compounded by Pietro acknowledging his own death and that he arrived after hearing his sister call for him. This would all make sense if Pietro was from an alternate universe but again, that remains to be seen.
As for Vision, he starts exploring further and further out into the deepest reaches of Westview and that’s when he discovers a particularly strange anomaly. The farther away he gets from Wanda, the less people are actually interacting with each other and in some cases, Westview residents are just frozen in time.
One particularly disturbing interaction shows a woman literally crying as she glitches while attempting to hang Halloween decorations as if she’s realizing the torment she’s suffering under but unable to break free of Wanda’s control.
Vision eventually finds Agnes at a crossroads at Ellis Avenue — the street Wanda told her kids to never cross — and it seems his spunky neighbor has just frozen in place without any real recollection about how she got there other than saying she got lost on her way to the Halloween festivities. Never mind the fact that Agnes supposedly grew up in Westview but she apparently got lost while driving there.
Regardless, Vision eventually touches Agnes to release Wanda’s hold on her and she believes he’s an Avenger there to save the town. Sadly, Vision still has no memory of what it means to be an Avenger much less who the Avengers actually are. Agnes then asks if she’s dead because after all Vision is dead, too.
This comes as a harsh realization for Vision, who feels very much alive, yet we all know he died during “Avengers: Infinity War.” He tries to reassure Agnes that he’s doing everything possible to free the town from Wanda’s control but she shares some terrifying news with him.
“No one leaves. Wanda won’t even let us think about it.”
~ Agnes
Agnes really starts to lose control as more of her reality starts to seep in and it forces Vision to put her back under the Wanda-trance as she finally remembers her bearing while turning around to head back into town. Meanwhile, Vision decides to cross over Ellis Ave. to see what’s on the edge of town.
Back at the Halloween festivities, Wanda’s children are suddenly exhibiting powers of their own much like the comic book characters they are based upon. Tommy — known in the comics as Speed — develops powers much like his uncle Pietro while Billy — called Wiccan in the comics — eventually starts to gain the same kind of powers as his mother Wanda.
While the kids are off doing superpowered kid things, Pietro questions Wanda about how exactly she created this new reality because he’s impressed. Pietro isn’t under the same spell as everybody else but rather he’s playing the role needed of him after his sister called for help.
Wanda explains that she has no idea exactly how this all happened — and that may lead to some larger villainous figure at the heart of all this — but she does remember the extreme guilt she felt after Vision died. She felt so alone and lost in a sea of complete nothingness until this new sitcom reality was created. She’s then haunted by her own brother when looking at him riddled with bullet holes before his seemingly dead corpse is revived again.
Just as all this is happening, Vision finally reaches the end of Westview, which is marked by the giant reverberating energy field surrounding the town. Vision decides to see what lies on the other side so he begins pushing through.
Back in the real world outside the Hex, S.W.O.R.D. Director Hayward has deemed Wanda Maximoff as public enemy No. 1 and she needs to be eradicated. Monica warns him against that plan, especially considering the incredible amount of power that Wanda is obviously wielding to maintain control over the town. She admonishes him for sending in that drone armed with a weapon meant to kill her because ultimately Monica believes Wanda is the only one capable of stopping all this madness.
Hayward disagrees and then insults Monica for siding with powered individuals, which is a luxury she gets to enjoy because she didn’t have to live through the five year time span when half of people in the universe just disappeared following Thanos’ snap. He believes Monica is jaded by her own relationship with Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel and that even her own mother would be disappointed to see what she’s become.
Hayward then orders Monica, Agent Jimmy Woo and Dr. Darcy Lewis to be vanquished from the S.W.O.R.D. base as he continues to form a strategy that ends with Wanda Maximoff dead.
Of course, Monica and Jimmy get the drop of the agents tasked with escorting them out of town and they sneak back inside to search for answers. Thanks to Darcy’s hacking ability — a skill that she must possess as an astrophysicist — Monica says that she’s determined to go back into the Hex in an attempt to talk Wanda down and get her to stop all this.
While searching through S.W.O.R.D. files, Darcy warns Monica about going back inside the bubble because her previous time spent there ended with Wanda radically altering her DNA. It seems those scans taken last week where nothing was showing inside Monica’s body was really just a harbinger for the real damage done by Wanda because Monica’s been changed at a molecular level.
This could be a precursor to Monica gaining powers of her own because in the comics she actually becomes a version of Captain Marvel before eventually adopting the new nickname ‘Spectrum’ She’s able to manipulate and transform her body into any form of energy in the electromagnetic spectrum, which gives her all sorts of abilities. It seems possible that perhaps Wanda’s manipulation of Monica’s cells could eventually allow her to transform into a superpowered being.
As Darcy continues to hack into Hayward’s database, she finds that he’s actually had visuals inside the Hex for longer than he’s told anybody about publicly. It seems Hayward has been tracking Vision through a decaying Vibranium signature. As a reminder, when Vision was assembled, parts of him were made up of Vibranium, the nearly indestructible substance that’s mined out of Wakanda that also served as the element used to make Captain America’s shield and Black Panther’s suit and claws.
But why is Hayward tracking Vision? Not to mention he’s actually got a beat on all of the residents inside Westview, which means he knows exactly how many people are under Wanda’s control and he’s not telling anybody about it. To make matters worse, Darcy also discovers a secret file from Hayward for a weapon called ‘Cataract’ but no further details are revealed before she sends off the information to Jimmy Woo.
It would appear Hayward is attempting to gather Vision’s body again in order to build a new weapon of some kind but what exactly is still a mystery.
Still, Monica won’t give up until she helps Wanda and she receives a message from the friend she called upon for help in the previous episode and she leaves with Jimmy to rendezvous with this unknown person. Chances are this is somebody from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which could ultimately serve as the big reveal in one of the final three episodes.
Darcy decides to stay behind to finish hacking into Hayward’s files but soon after Monica and Jimmy leave, she notices that Vision is getting awfully close to the border where the energy field exists. Hayward obviously gets the same message since he’s tracking Vision and he mounts up with forces to head out to the energy bubble.
Vision finally pushes through the edge of the Hex but as he’s reaching to the outside world, his body begins being ripped apart and dragged back into the bubble. Vision is literally being torn apart as Hayward just watches while Darcy pleads for him to help. Instead of offering assistance, Hayward has Darcy arrested and handcuffed to a vehicle while they all watch Vision dying for a second time.
Back in Westview, Billy’s powers kick in because he senses that his father is in trouble and that requires Wanda to take care of the situation. After blasting Pietro with her powers when he jokes that her already dead husband can’t exactly die again, Wanda’s eyes go red, she initiates her abilities and the entire town of Westview comes to a standstill.
Wanda needs to assimilate all of her power in order to save Vision, which in this case means moving and expanding the Westview bubble to contain him back inside. As the bubble begins expanding, Monica notices it from the rearview mirror while racing away to ensure they don’t get caught inside. Hayward does the same as he races away with a few S.W.O.R.D. agents but the rest of the base and the soldiers are left behind to be enveloped inside Wanda’s magic. All of the S.W.O.R.D. vehicles are transformed once inside the bubble as well as the remaining agents, who are turned into funhouse clowns in this new reality.
Because Darcy was left handcuffed to a S.W.O.R.D. vehicle, she’s also swarmed by the Hex and taken inside Wanda’s warped reality. Will she appear as a broke waitress in next week’s episode? That remains to be seen.
In the end, Wanda finally opens her eyes as the Hex expansion stops because Vision is back inside but now Westview has gotten a whole lot bigger with a ton of new residents who used to be agents of S.W.O.R.D. as well as one sassy astrophysicist.
With only three episodes remaining, “WandaVision” is speeding towards a conclusion that will hopefully reveal how exactly the Hex anomaly was started in the first place — was it just Wanda’s grief stricken mind or something more nefarious at work? Where exactly did Pietro come from and how did he get there? And what kind of weapon is Hayward building that obviously has something to do with Vision’s body?
Stay tuned for next week’s episode of “WandaVision,” which debuts on Disney+ on Friday!
