S01.E04: We Interrupt This Program

[bethy]

13 hours ago, WildPlum said:

Or, to add another layer, somewhere deep in the back of her head even Wanda knows this isn't real and is using what she remembers about Vision to be the voice of creeping doubt and rationalism/realism - hence the scene an episode or so back when Vision is trying to tell her something is wrong and she just "rewinds" the scene and edits that out.

This is my thought. The vision of Dead Vision isn’t Vision’s actual body; it’s simply a representation of that part of Wanda that knows Vision is dead. 
 

When Monica was poking at the boundary, I thought about Mulder always touching the slimy stuff he and Scully were investigating. “Is there any way I can get this off my fingers without betraying my cool exterior?”

Also, people: “Stop touching things.” Mando

[AimingforYoko]

11 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

But the Snap and the blip have somewhat different meanings I think.

The reason it's called the blip is that maybe a couple dozen people know about Thanos.

[paigow]

15 minutes ago, AimingforYoko said:

The reason it's called the blip is that maybe a couple dozen people know about Thanos.

You mean The Avengers + Every Wakandan???

[AimingforYoko]

Did the Wakandans know about Thanos? T'Challa and Shuri did and maybe the Dora Milaje, but the rest were busy with Thanos' army.

[Kel Varnsen]

11 hours ago, ShellsandCheese said:

Kat Dennings just doesn't do it for me as Darcy. I really don't buy her as this super smart doctor of astrophysics. 

I bought it. One thing about the MCU is they are good at showing how smart people have all different kinds of personalities. Tony Stark was one of the smartest people in the world. Paul Rudd's ant man had a master's degree in electrical engineering and he was the dummy of the Avengers. I am glad they didn't go the opposite route and make the expert some poindexter in lab coat.

9 hours ago, Cthulhudrew said:

While "Voodoo Child" is doubtless more recognizable to the average viewer, I  feel that "Gypsy Eyes" would have been a more suitable selection.

The funny thing is my first thought when I heard that song was Hulk Hogan.

19 minutes ago, AimingforYoko said:

The reason it's called the blip is that maybe a couple dozen people know about Thanos.

Where was that ever stated? How do people think Tony Stark died or Vision for that matter?

My interpretation is that is is called the blip because people disappeared and then 5 years later they reappeared but for them 5 years was instantaneous, like a blip.

[Chicago Redshirt]

10 hours ago, Peace 47 said:

It was the sitcom gimmick that hooked me on watching this show, but I obviously knew from moment one that things would get dark and twisty and tragic, and this ep sure took that hard turn (and was quite riveting).  The unsettling setup of Jimmy and Monica outside of Westview with those cops was great for building the dread that permeated the ep.  Kat Dennings was thoroughly enjoyable and everything else was suitably creepy. 

My very least favorite thing about the MCU is the whole snap business:  I can never suspend my disbelief about the fact that half the population gone instantly and back instantly years later would cause massive, massive economic devastation, probably some extensive nuclear and environmental disasters and incredible psychological tolls.  I know superheroes are flying around in this world, and I can’t explain why this one point ties me up in knots.  So it was even harder for me to think that just 3 weeks after Monica learns her mother is dead and that she has lost 5 years, that she would be back at work and ready to go.  But, even with all that said, it a tribute to the ep that it was done as well as I could imagine it being done.  I wonder if it is important that Monica be on the outs with SWORD, or if her being dusted and coming back was just a gimmick to get her to take a seemingly uninteresting case.

 

Monica has been made aware of weird stuff from the age of nine and pre-Snap was a member of an agency meant to deal with weird stuff. She is an extraordinary woman born of and raised by an extraordinary woman. For some people the way they process emotional trauma is to put it to the side and focus on work. It totally makes sense to me that might be the path that Monica would take here.

I don't think the aspect of Monica having been dusted is important vis-a-vis SWORD, and I don't think she's on the outs per se. I think it is important in that (presumably and with no spoilers) she is in a different position from the typical SWORD people. That position -- someone who was snapped and lost someone she lost dearly and hasn't really been able to fully process those events -- is likely to be the key to getting through to Wanda and putting an end to Westview.

9 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

Wasn't Vision a "robot" (for lack of a better word) created by Tony Stark in the first place?  I was also thinking that he could be recreated.  I never truly understood how the Infinity Stone played a role in bringing him to life when he was already "alive" when Tony entrusted it to him.  Maybe he wasn't and I'm misremembering... I'll have to go back and watch it again.

There was a lot that went into the creation of Vision. They could recreate hypothetically some of it. Nothing (seemingly) would stop someone from rebuilding a Vision body, re-uploading something similar to the JARVIS AI, and infusing it with a buttload of electricity. But the mystery ingredient was the Mind Stone. It is never fully explained how exactly the Mind Stone played a role, but it did. There's no known way to duplicate the effect of that, and although Shuri was futzing around with an attempt to extract the Mind Stone from Vision in Infinity War, it seems like it was just guesswork as to how Vision would be after, or if it would even work.

Even in a best case scenario, it still wouldn't be Wanda's Vision with a real memory of all the experiences they shared and his own growth. He would just look and talk similar to Vision but not be the real deal. 

7 hours ago, ProudMary said:

Great episode!

I was so glad to see the show finally address the blip in a meaningful way. Yeah, there was a small indication of it in Spider-Man: Far From Home, but it was mostly played for laughs. This showed the confusion, addressed that the blip's victims thought they were gone for about 20 minutes, not five years and most importantly, through Monica, showed the real-world consequences of losing five years of one's life. Sad.

Dr Lewis! So, obviously Darcy wasn't snapped and she used her time very well.

Speaking of Darcy, she explains to Jimmy Woo that the radiation she's picking up dates back to the Big Bang. 
In Infinity War, Wong explains, "The Big Bang sends six elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe."  We're definitely talking about energy from the Infinity Stones. 

I don't think it is clear whether Darcy was snapped or not, at least from what we know so far.

We last saw her IIRC in Thor: The Dark World. I don't know if either Thor or Thor 2 explicitly mentioned anything about her schooling status. She was described as an intern for Dr. Foster in Thor and had progressed to where she had an intern in Thor 2. If we accept that unless stated otherwise, a MCU movie takes place roughly in the year of release, she was last seen in 2013 and the Snap happened in 2018. Five years is plenty of time in both the real world and the MCU to earn a doctorate, especially when you have affiliations with genius level mentors like Jane and Selvig.

That the Infinity Stones are old and that there is primordial radiation being emitted does not necessarily mean that Wanda is somehow channeling the Infinity Stones or anything like that. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

6 minutes ago, AimingforYoko said:

Did the Wakandans know about Thanos? T'Challa and Shuri did and maybe the Dora Milaje, but the rest were busy with Thanos' army.

Presumably, the Wakandans knew generally that some figure was behind the massive army that was invading their borders, that his objective was to get to Vision and the Mind Stone, and when the Big Man showed up in person and snapped half of life out of existence then left, 

[swanpride]

I don't think that reversing the snap was necessarily egoistic...yeah, it comes with a lot of negative implications, too, but we have seen how "down" the world was. I think it is way easier to deal with the notion of half the population vanishing and then coming back than with the implication of them vanishing for good. I mean, we see how much people were hoping for their lost ones to come back, Maria even had a protocol in place, just in case. But reversing the snap just healed SOME wounds, not all of them. But all the parents who got their children back alone are a good reason (though naturally I am sure some parents are still searching for their children).

 

 

[Morrigan2575]

3 hours ago, arc said:

things the censor let through to the outside world:

• the helicopter
• the mention of Ultron

things that definitely got cut:

• Dottie’s injury
• Monica’s ejection from the house and town and the magical cleanup

Dottie's injury wasn't cut how it occurred was. I could be wrong but, i think the censor is Wanda. It happens whenever Wanda rewrites the script, it happened with Dottie (when Woo's voice broke through) and, with Geraldine. I think it even happened with the Beekeeper but, I'm not sure.

At this point I'm assuming Ralph is the missing WitSec person that Woo was looking for.  I have no idea why Agnes wasn't identified but, I'm sure it will be revealed.

After this episode, I'm going to be massively disappointed if Wanda is being "controlled" by someone else. That's a copout, IMO. Wanda isn't evil, she isn't a villain, she's doing bad things out of grief/loneliness, etc. It's a better story, IMO to explore her character rather than making her a victim.

[Featherhat]

1 hour ago, AimingforYoko said:

The reason it's called the blip is that maybe a couple dozen people know about Thanos.

Surely after the Snapture happened the Avengers would explain about Thanos? There's no reason not to, especially if they can say the killed him and also blame him for the BoNY as well as Loki. 

If they didn't explain what happened then there would only be even more wild conspiracy theories and terror. 

2 minutes ago, Morrigan2575 said:

Dottie's injury wasn't cut how it occurred was. I could be wrong but, i think the censor is Wanda. It happens whenever Wanda rewrites the script, it happened with Dottie (when Woo's voice broke through) and, with Geraldine. I think it even happened with the Beekeeper but, I'm not sure.

 

We hear the smash but we don't see Dottie's injury. It cuts out all of Dottie's reaction, the red blood and everything and goes straight to "pop quiz, Wanda!" It could be Wanda but we've seen when Wanda "rewrites the script" and she didn't here, she let that play out. I think it could be something else that's also editing the "broadcast". 

 

5 minutes ago, Morrigan2575 said:

After this episode, I'm going to be massively disappointed if Wanda is being "controlled" by someone else. That's a copout, IMO. Wanda isn't evil, she isn't a villain, she's doing bad things out of grief/loneliness, etc. It's a better story, IMO to explore her character rather than making her a victim.

They can do both. Tony's the antagonist of CW but we see his reasons and his own grief explored. There are still a lot of people who think he was wrong but see his POV and visa versa with Cap. I'm not sure she's being fully controlled but encouraged or manipulated in her grief by someone else for their own malevolent ends probably. 

Darcy changing majors makes sense to me. She met, made friends with and fought against actual aliens from another dimension/realm. Twice. She had contacts up the wazoo both with SHIELD/SWORD and Jane/Selvig and may have been helping Jane win her Nobel Prize. Even if you ignore everything else that's happened on Earth since then, it's more than enough for a clever, motivated person to change careers or be offered job opportunities. Until we hear otherwise I'm going to assume she wasn't Snapped and she carried on Jane's work but it works even if she was Snapped. 

[Morrigan2575]

1 minute ago, Featherhat said:

We hear the smash but we don't see Dottie's injury. It cuts out all of Dottie's reaction, the red blood and everything and goes straight to "pop quiz, Wanda!" It could be Wanda but we've seen when Wanda "rewrites the script" and she didn't here, she let that play out. I think it could be something else that's also editing the "broadcast". 

Yes but, she still has the handkerchief and the pop quiz is about getting blood out of white. IMO it's still there and definitely Wanda. 

[Kel Varnsen]

Watched this episode again and an interesting thing is that Maria set up SWORD well before Thanos showed up on earth and Monica was an astronaut. So I wonder what SWORD's response was when a giant spinning ship showed up over NYC.

[swanpride]

I don't think that Wanda does the editing...mostly because I don't think that Wanda is even aware that someone is watching the broadcast.

 

If I understood correctly, Sword was just in the process of getting a proper program together, though Monica herself has been in space. I don't think that at this point Sword had the equipment (yet) to do something about a spinning ship. Most likely the project was started in response to the battle of New York (because pretty much everything in this universe is either tied to the battle of New York, Sokovia or the Snap).

[bethy]

I liked Darcy in the Thor movies, and I liked her here. I can totally see her switching her area of academic interest after all she’d experienced on Jane’s team. One of the things I appreciated about her appearance in this episode is I felt her increased maturity. She’s still got her sass and sense of humor, but it’s toned down after 10 years and possibly the personal experience she had with the snap/blip, especially if she was one of the ones who didn’t disappear. I thought KD played that really well. 
 

[Kel Varnsen]

30 minutes ago, swanpride said:

If I understood correctly, Sword was just in the process of getting a proper program together, though Monica herself has been in space. I don't think that at this point Sword had the equipment (yet) to do something about a spinning ship. Most likely the project was started in response to the battle of New York (because pretty much everything in this universe is either tied to the battle of New York, Sokovia or the Snap).

That's not how I read it. Monica achieved the rank of captain in SWORD and was expecting to go on more space missions when she came back. The director ordered her grounded. Plus she had been around SWORD long enough that she should have been involved in selecting her mom's successor. So I read that as the agency being pretty well established by the time Monica disappeared.

[Jenniferbug]

8 hours ago, tkc said:

So inanimate objects like clothes and pendants can be expelled from Westview and retain their sitcom form.

How about synthezoids?

Or how about babies/children/teens...? (Billy and Tommy). 

2 hours ago, Morrigan2575 said:

At this point I'm assuming Ralph is the missing WitSec person that Woo was looking for.

As soon as Woo said that, I thought of Ralph. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 hour ago, bethy said:

I liked Darcy in the Thor movies, and I liked her here. I can totally see her switching her area of academic interest after all she’d experienced on Jane’s team. 

Wait, what is this about changing her area of academic interest? Jane and Erik are astrophysicists, and she was studying under them/interning with them in the Thor movies. She presents herself as an astrophyscist in this episode. 

[Kromm]

17 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

The fact that Hawkeye and Black Widow were still alive after facing armies of Chitauri, killer robots and Thanos minions despite no superpowers and no special suits speaks for itself.

In this specific context, we can fanwank that Wanda's expulsion hex cushioned the blow of going through all the layers of stuff and all the distance at that speed. 

I really DO hope that's the case, because it would be very bad for Marvel if the only two characters to be crippled in the MCU were people of color. While certainly not intentional the optics of the situation would suck. 

I spent another post discussing why I thought it was unlikely they'd cripple Monica, but I have to say more analysis is scaring me. When Monica is shown on the ground ONLY her head is shown moving.  When flying through the air AFTER bashing through wood, cement and brick walls, we can sort of see her hands move, but it might just be vibration. And promos show her in a hospital bed. And in the little we get she's unconscious, so we can't tell from that. 

[bethy]

4 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Wait, what is this about changing her area of academic interest? Jane and Erik are astrophysicists, and she was studying under them/interning with them in the Thor movies. She presents herself as an astrophyscist in this episode. 

If I remember correctly, when she was first working with Jane and Erik, she said she was a poly sci or history(?) major. So she changed from that academic interest to astrophysicist. At least, as I understand it.

[Kromm]

3 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Wait, what is this about changing her area of academic interest? Jane and Erik are astrophysicists, and she was studying under them/interning with them in the Thor movies. She presents herself as an astrophyscist in this episode. 

It's an actual plot point, outright stated in the Thor movies, that Erik THOUGHT she was a Scientist and she answers "Political Science". That said, I do believe it's established at some point she knows hacking/computers. 

[Morrigan2575]

18 minutes ago, Kromm said:

It's an actual plot point, outright stated in the Thor movies, that Erik THOUGHT she was a Scientist and she answers "Political Science". That said, I do believe it's established at some point she knows hacking/computers. 

Wow. I honestly thought she was in the same field as Jane. I only watched the first movie once (didn't like it) and only parts of the second. I guess I never paid attention.

[whiporee]

On 1/29/2021 at 3:38 AM, Dani said:

That was new. I think it has been confirmed because there were details written on the white board that we haven’t seen. (I wouldn’t recommend reading those details if you don’t want to be potentially spoiled. The one I saw was significant.)

On 1/29/2021 at 3:02 AM, phalange said:

 

I thought there were a lot of scenes we hadn't seen on the monitors (I almost said screens) that everyone was watching. I get the feeling there were a lot of episodes of WandaVision that were less important than the ones we saw. 

[swanpride]

Yeah, and after the political science explanation, Jane adds something about having trouble to find interns. This is all my head canon, but Darcy comes off as one of those rich parents students who view university as some sort of playground, but I can imagine that Jane eventually inspired her to dive really deep into a new field and succeed. It's not that unusual that people discover their calling later in life, most of us just don't have the opportunity to follow them to their fullest.

[blackwing]

Monica Rambeau is one of my favourite comic book characters.  I wonder if she has her Captain Marvel / Photon / Pulsar / Spectrum energy powers here?   Would love to see her in a movie as an Avenger in the next Phase.

I HATE the way they say her name though.  Since I was a kid and since she is from Louisiana I’ve always said the name in my head as ram-BEAU, with the stress on the second syllable (much the same as Gambit, Remy Lebeau).  I hate how they say the name like Sylvester Stallone Rambo.

I was looking forward to a 1980s sitcom Family Ties / Growing Pains / Cosby Show style opening credits... maybe next week?

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 hour ago, Kromm said:

It's an actual plot point, outright stated in the Thor movies, that Erik THOUGHT she was a Scientist and she answers "Political Science". That said, I do believe it's established at some point she knows hacking/computers. 

A plot point is a development that is important to the plot. In Thor, the exchange you're talking about comes when Erik and Jane are geeking out about an Einstein-Rosen bridge, and Darcy does not know what it is. Erik says he thought she was a science major and she says political science. Jane says she was the only applicant.

That's not a plot point. It's a throwaway joke. 

At any rate, it seems that between Thor and Thor 2, Darcy has become interested in science enough to have followed Jane to London to study strange phenomena there. I would assume that Darcy was a college junior or senior in Thor and was a graduate student in Thor 2 (which presumably is about two years later based on Thor coming out in 2011 and Thor 2 coming out in 2013),

[Chicago Redshirt]

15 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Monica Rambeau is one of my favourite comic book characters.  I wonder if she has her Captain Marvel / Photon / Pulsar / Spectrum energy powers here?   Would love to see her in a movie as an Avenger in the next Phase.

You may or may not have noticed that her mother's pilot code name was Photon.

I don't think that she has powers yet. That she seemingly could observe the border might mean that she does, though, or has some predisposition to having powers.

I suspect futzing around with going in and out of the barrier Wanda's set up could trigger her powers, though, if they don't want her to develop them in CM2 instead. 

[Kel Varnsen]

1 hour ago, swanpride said:

, but I can imagine that Jane eventually inspired her to dive really deep into a new field and succeed. 

She met and hung out with an alien who basically teleported from another planet years before the Chitauri invasion. If anything would inspire someone to study science that would be it i think.

2 hours ago, Kromm said:

I spent another post discussing why I thought it was unlikely they'd cripple Monica, but I have to say more analysis is scaring me. When Monica is shown on the ground ONLY her head is shown moving.  When flying through the air AFTER bashing through wood, cement and brick walls, we can sort of see her hands move, but it might just be vibration. And promos show her in a hospital bed. And in the little we get she's unconscious, so we can't tell from that. 

Watching again as Monica is flying through the air her torso at least is wrapped in Wanda's red glowing magic field. So I can see that it was Wanda's magic that broke through the wall not Monica's back.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Kel Varnsen

[paigow]

Maybe another super buff Asgardian surfer dude arrived on Midgard (pre - Ragnarok) and hooked up with Darcy. He actually took her to different planets so she learned everything about Astrophysics from travelling. Then Hela killed him...

 

[swanpride]

Quote

That's not a plot point. It's a throwaway joke

It's in any case something which was established regarding Darcy. No matter how stupid the notion was (frankly, it always frustrated me that they made her a political science major but then didn't have one single scene in which she discusses politics with Thor).

 

Anyway, it has been 15 years since then. Time enough to change major and become a doctor.

[foxfreakinmulder]

Really good episode! I enjoyed it a lot.

I know nothing about the comics but I'm learning more about comic book Wanda and Vision and others from watching people breaking down the episodes on youtube and reading post on here. I used to do that after each LOST episode, I'd tune in and listen to a podcast also there was a website dedicated to the theories and mysteries, and trust me there was a lot of mysteries, lol.

I think WandaVision is show that you can watch and enjoy without knowing anything about the characters.

[Kate47]

I also wanted to add that I loved the scene where they were identifying the residents--"John Collins as Herb!" It felt very in line with a casting call and very appropriate for the surreal meta that is this show.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Kate47
Misspelling

[johntfs]

10 hours ago, Captain Stable said:

I have this same issue. Married people, where one partner was snapped, the remaining one has to deal with the grief, then in that 5 years, maybe they find someone new. Then the original returns...

What about politics? Take Wakanda, for example. Ignoring the real life implications of Chadwick, but T'Chala was snapped away. Presumably Wakanda gained a new King (or Queen). T'Chala returns. Who is now the legal ruler? 
So many questions... 😄 

"So yeah, we have the means to undo the mass murder of 3.5 billion people, but the paparwork from this is gonna be a stone bastard - so let's just forget about it."

[Ailianna]

10 hours ago, Captain Stable said:

I have this same issue. Married people, where one partner was snapped, the remaining one has to deal with the grief, then in that 5 years, maybe they find someone new. Then the original returns...

What about politics? Take Wakanda, for example. Ignoring the real life implications of Chadwick, but T'Chala was snapped away. Presumably Wakanda gained a new King (or Queen). T'Chala returns. Who is now the legal ruler? 
So many questions... 😄 

Manifest is a show kind of dealing with those issues, but on a smaller scale since its a single passenger airliner that disappeared then reappeared. They also deal with what caused the disappearance but a lot of the first season was about trying to fit back into lives that had moved on without them, on both sides.

[Kromm]

2 hours ago, Ailianna said:

Manifest is a show kind of dealing with those issues, but on a smaller scale since its a single passenger airliner that disappeared then reappeared. They also deal with what caused the disappearance but a lot of the first season was about trying to fit back into lives that had moved on without them, on both sides.

Heck, even non-science fiction has had this theme.  Castaway, for example. 

[paigow]

27 minutes ago, Kromm said:

Heck, even non-science fiction has had this theme.  Castaway, for example. 

Anybody that is legally declared dead but returns, should be routed to Witness Protection for a new ID and origin story....

[Kel Varnsen]

5 hours ago, paigow said:

Maybe another super buff Asgardian surfer dude arrived on Midgard (pre - Ragnarok) and hooked up with Darcy. He actually took her to different planets so she learned everything about Astrophysics from travelling. Then Hela killed him...

 

The important thing to remember about Darcy is that she called Mjolnir "Mew-Mew" which for me at least is probably one of the most memorable things about Thor:the Dark World and easily one of the funniest jokes associated with Thor pre-Ragnarok.

[Silver Raven]

I hope the people who come back from the Snap get explained to them what happened.  See, there was this guy named Thanos ...

Any possibility that the head of SWORD is a Skrull?

It's also cold on the outside, you can see their breath, but the temperature inside is always nice.

I wonder who the people whose names are in the TV show credits are.

I'm still suspicious that Dottie is Arcanna. She has the power to control alternate universes.

 

 

[paigow]

15 hours ago, Kate47 said:

I also wanted to add that I loved the scene where they were identifying the residents--"John Collins as Herb!" It felt very in line with a casting call and very appropriate for the surreal meta that is this show.

Several "real" names of Westview residents are actual WandaVision crew members...

[ProudMary]

10 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

Any possibility that the head of SWORD is a Skrull?

I'd say 70%-30% that yes, he is. JMO

[johntfs]

10 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

I hope the people who come back from the Snap get explained to them what happened.  See, there was this guy named Thanos ...

Any possibility that the head of SWORD is a Skrull?

It's also cold on the outside, you can see their breath, but the temperature inside is always nice.

I wonder who the people whose names are in the TV show credits are.

I'm still suspicious that Dottie is Arcanna. She has the power to control alternate universes.

 

 

I think that three weeks out from the Blip we can take that as read - at least we can take that as read for Monica, who is a SWORD agent.

There is a possibility that the head of SWORD is a SKrull, but I do not think that is the case.  For one thing, given my take on his likely role in the story ("guy who keeps pushing for the nuclear/force option") I don't see a useful story purpose in making him a Skrull.  Remember that unlike in a lot of the comic books, the Skrulls here are Earth's friends (so far).  They're aren't infiltrators or spies as such.

Of course it's always nice inside.  IIRC most of those sitcoms were filmed indoors on soundstages.  Unless a script required specific weather (rain, lightning, thunder) it was sunny and/or clear.  This is Wanda's Sitcom Paradise.  The way those things were back then is the way they are now. 

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by johntfs

[Kel Varnsen]

1 hour ago, johntfs said:

Remember that unlike in a lot of the comic books, the Skrulls here are Earth's friends (so far).  They're aren't infiltrators or spies as such.

Well a group of Skrulls that we have met are friends. With a planet full of shape shifters I assume some are evil or jerks.

[Snapdragon]

So after thinking about this episode for a day, I've come up with a new theory.  Everyone keeps on concentrating on Agnes having a bigger role because she's basically the third lead in Wandavision world after Wanda and Vision.  But you know who else has also been in all the episodes?  Jones (I think that's his name, anyway).  In episode 1, he gets fired at Vision's job, episode 2 he's at the all guy get together and in episode 3, he's shown with Dottie when the blackout happens.  He's been used as comic relief but the fact that he's the only person besides Wanda, Vision and Agnes to appear in all three "episodes" makes me think that he's going to turn out to actually be the Big Bad who's flying under the radar but upon rewatch, you realize was there all along.  Also, while they identified the other "actors", I'm pretty sure SWORD hadn't identified him yet, along with Agnes and Dottie.

Or I'm completely wrong and he is just the comic relief.  Could go either way.

Edited January 31, 2021 by Snapdragon

[swanpride]

I am still suspecting the mail man, even though I don't think that he turned up in episode three...have to check again….

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Snapdragon said:

Also, while they identified the other "actors", I'm pretty sure SWORD hadn't identified him yet, along with Agnes and Dottie.

They have identified him. 

[Cthulhudrew]

On 1/29/2021 at 11:58 PM, arc said:

hey, I just realized: the heli drone was sent in a whole real world day before Darcy arrived. And Darcy ended up watching the 1950s episode first. But the helicopter drone was only discovered by Wanda in the 1960s episode, which wasn’t even the first 1960s episode the SWORD camp watched. There was one earlier where Monica as Geraldine appeared as an extra.

Maybe Darcy caught a rerun? 😄

[Snapdragon]

5 minutes ago, Dani said:

They have identified him. 

They did?  Well drat, there goes my theory then.  

[Kromm]

I don't think there's any real "hidden in plain sight" aspect to who's most important to the story in Sitcomland.  Unlike countless others here, for example, I don't think Dottie is all that important, for example. I truly think Dottie only wasn't on that board because we were in a gap where we'd seen most of the others but not yet her.  Remember, that Images on the Wall sequence happened before Darcy dropped her coffee cup at seeing Monica on-screen, and that view of Monica was in some unseen 1950s footage suggestive of a missing episode we didn't get to see.  We know Dottie wasn't in any of those missing episodes, because the 1960s episode had Agnes introducing Wanda to her.

There's a clear hierarchy of involvement, with Agnes clearly on top, but I think everyone else is at a co-equal level below that as whatever they all are, be it dead, trapped, or whatever.  It's not yet clear when they're able to act on their own and when not, but usually it seems to do with Wanda's level of distraction.  So seeing Herb act independently (if weirdly) with the wall cutting, and then his later almost-reveal to Vision, doesn't for example, make him special. Wanda was VERY distracted at that moment. Dottie's intense attitude came when the radio distracted Wanda, although the role she was cast was already an antagonist of sorts. Mrs. Hart had less agency that the others with her "Stop it" but Wanda was less distracted--more confused really.  

Agnes seems to manage to communicate her own agenda a lot more consistently than the others, even if more subtly.  Thus the confusion on if she's being controlled or doing the controlling.  There's no real confusion like that with the others, at least that we've been allowed to see. All we know for sure is that when Herb was briefly free to speak that there's enough mutual knowledge between he and Agnes that he understood her indication that telling Vision wasn't a good idea. 

I think we will soon see WHY Vision not knowing was, at least in Agnes' head, a good idea.  I have lots more on this in the Speculation thread, specifics on why I think this, but there's a CLEAR conflict between Wanda and Vision coming. It's indicated by subtle stuff in the preview I detail there, but also by stuff right in this episode.  There may not be in my opinion "hidden in plain sight" stuff relative to most of the neighbors, but this show DOES love to hide clues to the mystery in plain sight, but hidden behind other more obvious things.  What do I mean?

Go back and rewatch the sequence AFTER the Dead Vision reveal, but before the sitcom credits roll.  Pay close attention to Vision's eyeline.  Pay REALLY close attention.

There's a very odd progression to his eyeline after Wanda assured him she's handling everything.  He stops really looking directly at her.

Then there's a second really odd thing with his eyeline after he sits on the couch.  Wanda is looking slightly down at the TV that's off screen.  Vision is looking dead straight into the camera.  At US.  As if asking whoever's watching "What do I do?"

15 minutes ago, Cthulhudrew said:

Maybe Darcy caught a rerun? 😄

We see another drone sent in at a different point. It's just not highlighted in the forefront of the action.

[Cthulhudrew]

On 1/30/2021 at 8:53 AM, Kel Varnsen said:

That's not how I read it. Monica achieved the rank of captain in SWORD and was expecting to go on more space missions when she came back. The director ordered her grounded. Plus she had been around SWORD long enough that she should have been involved in selecting her mom's successor. So I read that as the agency being pretty well established by the time Monica disappeared.

A tend to agree with this view. I kind of assumed that Maria worked towards building SWORD at some point after her reunification with Carol in Captain Marvel, as a direct result of learning about this wider world of extraterrestrials out there. So somewhere post-1995.

That said, we don't know precisely how large SWORD was (or currently is); SHIELD was (presumably) a division within the Department of Homeland Security by the time we first see them (having doubtless bounced around from the War Department to other areas over the years). My guess is that SWORD would be a division of the Air Force, though it's unclear.

In any event, back to the OPs question about what they were doing during the Thanos invasion: I'm not sure they would necessarily have done anything at all. Monica seems genuinely surprised that they are apparently in the process of building weapons when she returns, suggesting their mandate was really only as a research and exploration operation (and I believe the MCU acronym is something like "observation and research division"). It also appears that their original objective has changed a bit from extraterrestrial research to any sort of hostile sentients.

[johntfs]

3 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Well a group of Skrulls that we have met are friends. With a planet full of shape shifters I assume some are evil or jerks.

You're forgetting that

Spoiler

there isn't a planet full of them.  At least there wasn't one at the time of Captain Marvel.  The Skrulls were a refugee civilization.  They had no home planet and were actually looking for one.  If they have a home planet now, that will be due in largest parts to help from Carol Danvers, Nick Fury and quite probably Marie Rambeau, three Earthlings.  While I'm sure that individuals Skrull might be evil or jerks, as a society the Skrulls own Earth a serious solid, so unless information comes to light that says otherwise, the Skrulls are probably not trying to screw Earth over.

There's two aspects of that Jimmy and Monica scene that don't get enough appreciation.  First is the cop car leaving.  We don't actually see it leave, but we hear it leave.  After Woo said his "we'll take to from here" we see the officers heading to their car.  Then we hear the cop turn around, approach and pass Jimmy and Monica and head back the way it came.  I mention this because I read a post on this board wondering about the "disappearing" police car and why it was never mentioned.

Second, we need to take a moment to recognize just how low-key smart and savvy Jimmy Woo was in his initial approach.  First let's consider the circumstances.  We're three weeks out from "The Blip."  SWORD is basically the "Alien Wierdness" agency.  So three weeks after the Blip everybody from the President on down thinks they just saw Thanos floating with their morning shit.  They're probably getting deluged like the FBI was after 9/11 with alien versions of "There's a Muslim looking at me funny, I think he wants to crash a plane into my house!"  Which means that if Agent Woo calls them to report a "possibly missing town" they're going to blown him off as another hysterical crank.  So he doesn't do that.  Instead, he makes a very sane, reasonable request to use some of their hi-tech surveillance gear to look for his missing federal witness.  Woo, probably doesn't care that much about their gear.. However he knows inter-agency protocols well enough to know that SWORD is going to send one of their agents to chaperon and use that gear.  And that's what Woo really wants - a SWORD agent to recognize that yeah, there's a whole small town missing.  Figure Woo made is calls to the known associates of the witness (and probably got through the As in the Westview phone book) before he called SWORD.  But he didn't tell SWORD anything about that, preferring to wait until an agent got there to see the weirdness for herself.

The whole thing demonstrates that not only has Jimmy Woo become skilled with close-up magic, he, like Scott, has internalized its philosophies enough to apply them to real-world situations.  He used the "distraction" of a normal inter-agency request to bring SWORD to the point where he could reveal the "missing town" part and be believed.

Edited January 31, 2021 by johntfs

[peachmangosteen]

2 hours ago, Snapdragon said:

Also, while they identified the other "actors", I'm pretty sure SWORD hadn't identified him yet, along with Agnes and Dottie.

Is he the one that looks kinda like David Schwimmer? If so, they did indeed identify him.