Ryan Shoots First: WandaVision (S2 Ep6) “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!”

After some big revelations last week and the return of Evan Peters Quicksilver we finally get to the episode a lot of people have been waiting for since those initial trailers. The Halloween episode where Wanda and Vision are in their Golden Age Comic Costumes. Before we dive in lets look at some of the leading theories from last week. 

Wanda has broken the multiverse bringing in Peters from the 20th Century Fox X-Men series, this will tie in directly to Doctor Strange 2 titled “The Multiverse of Madness” leading many to believe Strange will likely intervene before season end to stop Wanda. 

Wanda mentioning last week she does not know how she got here once gain opens the door to some entity who is pulling the strings. There are multiple theories some maintaining Agnes is the witch Agatha Harkness, some think Dormammu is behind it which will further tie in Doctor Strange and some believe the head of SWORD Director Hayward is actually behind everything as the demon Mephisto. 

Also not really related but there has been a big ground swell over the last week for Agent Wu played by Randal Parks to get his own spinoff where he is a X-files like detective investigating odd happenings. Kinda what Agents of SHIELD started out as but Parks humble, mild manner delivery could bring something different. 

On with the show!

After last week’s recap and the big reveal of Peters we start with a home video opening that looks like Malcolm in the Middle with the boys running around the house. The boys are narrating to the camera and we even get the background music and cutaways. Pietro is staying with them and the boys think he is super cool despite his “rough around edges” personality. Vision seems to be playing along but as the boys mention things have been awkward with the two. Vision says he is going undercover for Neighborhood watch and Wanda seems perplexed as that is not what she had written for him. 

Back outside Monica is upset with Hayward after he pulled the stunt he did last week, he wants to take her out which everyone points out is probably a terrible idea. Hayward plays the Captain Marvel card to try to say Monica no longer can cut it and he kicks Monica, Wu and Darci out. Wu knocks out the guards showing he can get his hands dirty. 

Back in Wanda is testing Pietro on questions from their childhood and Pietro says he isn’t exactly sure why he looks different. Wanda finds out from Herb that Vision is not actually on duty and we see Vision just walking around and he finds a couple seemingly stuck in their loop as he looks on a tear is falling down the woman’s cheek. After this week’s commercial which is for a kids themed yogurt and is a disturbing stop motion animation that sees a child stranded on an island unable to open the yogurt and eventually dying and turning into a skeleton. Back to the episode Wanda confronts Pietro about being a bad influence and he tells her he is only doing what she wants to come and cause issues as the rebel brother. She asks him what happened to his accent and he asks her the same thing, he tells her everything is fuzzy one moment he is getting shot in the street for no reason and next thing he hears her calling for him. We see Tommy use his super speed for the first time. Wanda tells them not to go past Ellis Ave. 

Back outside the team is sneaking in to monitor the feed and have discovered Hayward found a way to monitor people inside and is tracking vision. It appears the people farther away from Wanda do not move much at all, showing some limitations to what she can control. Vision inside is attempting to talk to these people to no avail. Vision flys up to get a birds eye view of the town and finds Agnes sitting in her car frozen. Vision uses his ability to phase her out like he did last week and asks Vision for help and calls him an Avenger, Vision says he does not know what an Avenger is and Agnes tells him he is dead. She tells him no one leaves and Wanda won’t even let them think about it. Vision phases her back in and she drives off. We see she is at the edge of Ellis Ave where Wanda told the boys not to go. Vision walks forward into the field. 

Monica outside says she has someone coming who can get her back in and Darci tells her everytime she goes through the Hex it is changing her cells. Darci tells them she is staying back since there is something big she has almost cracked. Pietro seemingly having some more info on what Wanda is doing comends her on being as ethical as possible, protecting children, keeping couples together and things like that. He asks her how she did all this and she says she doesn’t know how she did it. She remembers feeling alone and empty, as she turns her head back Pietro is a corpse and riddled with bullet holes before briefly turning back. It seems Darci discovers Hayward’s secret but before we find out Vision reaches the edge of the Hex and attempts to head through. As he makes it out he slowly is being torn apart when we cut to Billy sensing what is going on, he runs and tells Wanda. Wanda freezes everyone and expands the Hex saving Vision and sucking in Darci and many of the soldiers making them all a out of town carnival. The episode ends with Wanda opening her eyes. 

Really enjoying the back and forth now with the two aspects of the show merging, having the more MCU like stuff mixed in with the Malcom and the Middle theme and background music. I think we have confirmed Agnes is not the big bad for the show. I am intrigued just what it was Darci found on Hayward and will she even remember now that she is in the Hex. 

Observations:

• Great Malcolm in the Middle call
• Wanda creating new universes every time she produces a cutaway? 
• Nice with the Quicksilver costume. 
• I am 100% on the Darci Wu spin off train. 
• The boys Wiccan and Speed costumes are an excellent nod to comic fans as well. Wanda’s seemingly awareness of comic lore in our actual universe is interesting. Reminds me of the old Spiderman cartoon where Spiderman met Stan Lee who created him. 
• Yikes, I look forward to people breaking down that commercial. Odd it is the first to not feature the man and woman. 
• Funny after last week Vision mentioned there not being other kids in West View now this week there are kids running around all over. 
• Funny Meta moment when Peters mentions he was killed off for no reason. 
• Monica’s origin story for her powers coming. 
• Vision can’t catch a break. For being made of the strongest material on earth he’s constantly being impaled and killed.