Ryan Shoots First: WandaVision (S1 Ep8) “Previously On”
Welcome back to WandaVision and this week we have the penultimate episode of the first season fresh of the reveals of last week and that… It was Agatha All Along…you hummed the song there didn’t you?
Anyway there isn’t much to speculate on with the big reveals of Agatha and Monica getting her powers. There were a few eagle eyed viewers that caught when Wanda wandered into Agatha’s lair the Aspect Ratio changed signaling they are either not in Westview or not in the Hex. On with the show!
This week starts with a flashback to Salem in 1693… Agatha is being taken to burn at the stake. By people who appear to have powers? She is not being taken by commoners but by her own coven for taking sacred knowledge and dealing in dark stuff. She looks at the head witch and calls her Mother. The Coven takes her out but it doesn’t really work instead Agatha sucks all their lifeforce. We cut to modern times but Wanda’s powers don’t work in Agatha’s lair. Agatha is impressed with Wanda’s raw power, she wants to know how she made Westview but Wanda isn’t sure how she did it. Agatha takes Wanda back to her childhood home, it is her turn to pick which sitcom VHS they will watch, showing us why she holds them so close to her heart. There is gunfire going on outside. As the family is watching her favorite The Dick Van Dyke Show the bomb that kills her parents blows up the house. It turns out the bomb she mentioned isn’t actually due to a bad bomb but her early powers.
The next door leads to the Hydra facility where they were experimented on as we saw in Age of Ultron. She is supposed to touch the mind stone but instead she pulls it from Loki’s scepter and sees a brief image of herself in the classic costume. While in isolation she is watching the Brady Bunch again explaining the thread of the TV Shows. The next step is in the Avengers facility when her and Vision were neighbors. They share a moment watching Malcom in the Middle. Next we see when Wanda stormed SWORD and got Visions body. SWORD doesn’t play nice when they won’t give her Visions body so she takes it upon herself. Without the mind stone she can’t feel him there. She drives to Westview and we see it is a rundown poor town. It’s revealed Vision left her a deed to a plot of land there with the message “To grow old in”. She releases all of her energy and creates the Hex and Vision. Out in the street Wanda hears her kids screaming as Agatha has them. She explains to her this is called Chaos Magic which makes her the mythical Scarlet Witch. We get another post-credit scene where SWORD is using the magic from Wanda herself to bring the actual Vision body back to life and in all grey.
Man that is depressing watching all the grief Wanda has had to endure over the years but what we assumed is real is that Wanda in a burst of energy brought on by grief created the Hex. The question now is how strong is she as it seems they are now moving away from the whole “multiverse” breaking thing. I suppose we will strap in for a magical battle next week and a grayscale Vision joining the fray!
Observations
- De-aged Hahn here. Marvel loves to flex that.
- I don’t recall that being how Salem went down in the book in middle school.
- Wanda skipped Witch 101.
- Not sure I like the Fietro explanation. So just an Easter egg?
- Well the people from the commercials are in fact not her parents
- Mary Tyler Moore was FIIIIIIIIIINE
- I love when Superpowered people play by the rules when they don’t have to.
- Vision’s body is Vibranium. What does SWORD have that can cut it?
- Westview looks a lot like Middletown, Ohio
- So she ISN’T Weekend at Bernie’s-ing Vision after all.
- Dang this is sad.
