S01.E07: Breaking the Fourth Wall

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Monica plots her return, Wanda navigates unsettling complications, and Vision forms a new alliance.

Dropping Friday, February 19, 2021.

[Avabelle]

Eeeek that ending!! 
 

Elizabeth Olsen does a brilliant Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy impression. The over gesturing was spot on. 
 

My biggest question remains - where is that sword/beekeeper guy. Surely they haven’t forgotten about him?

So what’s Agathas agenda here as now I assume it’s her that wants to keep Vision and Wanda within the town. 

Edited February 19, 2021 by Avabelle

[paigow]

Mid Credits Scene!!!

[Jediknight]

Holy crap!  That reveal at the end, fantastic.  And the buildup to it with the tension.  There's nothing this show can't do.

And there was a mid credits scene.

[Brn2bwild]

Had a thousand internet problems getting this episode to start, but the reveal was worth it.  And rewarding to all of the YouTube speculators!

[Featherhat]

2 minutes ago, Avabelle said:

Eeeek that ending!! 
 

Elizabeth Olsen does a brilliant Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy impression. The over gesturing was spot on. 
 

My biggest question remains - where is that sword/beekeeper guy. Surely they haven’t forgotten about him?

Yeah, all through it I was thinking I can see Claire Dunphy doing this exactly, she was awesome. 

And eeep! I knew it! Ahhh. They really did a good job of building up the Twilight Zone vibes and tensions even in a modern innocuous mockumentary. I knew when Agnes busted in at exactly the right moment to save Wanda yet again that they were indeed going there and boy did they!

I hope they go back to SWORD!Beekeeper he was such a big part of the early speculation between eps 1&2 and 3 it would be a shame if he was a never seen again early red herring that has just been absorbed into WestView. Hayward didn't seem concerned that they had missing personnel afterwards. 

[Dandesun]

Fucking brilliant. They left the reveal long enough that a lot of us were wondering... is Agnes a part of this? She has to be, right? But with the last episode that confidence was shaken.

Wnda was doubting herself, questioning herself, Vision was doubting... he had Darcy there to tell him some truths and even if I have no clue how Darcy knew the details, I don’t care. She flat out said what they had was real.

AND!!! We got Spectrum!!! Monica Rambeau is the Real Deal!!

That ending.

 

*screams in WandaVision*

[dmeets]

Of course she couldn't resist gloating with a theme song of her own. Love it!

I was expecting to see "Ralph" appear down there but depending on the motivation I wouldn't mind if Agatha ends up being the Big Bad.

[vb68]

Having a second sitcom as the reveal at the end was absolutely priceless. And we got that reveal that  a lot of us were waiting for with that character. "And I killed Sparky too!"

So what did Agnes do to the twins?  I was getting a really creepy Hansel and Gretel vibe off of her. No, I don't think she ate them, but it was that type of vibe. And then when Wanda saw the bug on the curtain, I was sure it was one of the twins.

Monica sure does have the spine of a superhero. She's awesome. I love that there was a mid credit scene, too. 

I also got a kick of the Modern Family/The Office structure, too. That worked much better than I was expecting. The Office theme intro was hilarious, too. On Agatha's theme, was the music set to The Munsters? I think that's what I heard.  

I was mildly surprised Wanda didn't rush out of bed  to find Vision. Not really sure why she didn't. After moving the border to save Vision, Wanda was weirdly not too concerned with where he was and what was going on with him.

18 hours ago, Avabelle said:

Elizabeth Olsen does a brilliant Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy impression. The over gesturing was spot on. 
 

I swear I saw a pinch of Pam from The Office, too. The resignation in the voice and eyes. 

Edited February 19, 2021 by vb68

[swanpride]

So, no idea which show was referenced in either intro, but both were fun. Considering that we are now doing a wild mix and match of the decades, I have no idea where to look first either.

But I am glad that my dedication to actually watch through the end credits finally paid off.

I suspect the postman more than ever. Did anyone else noticed that he followed "Agnes" and Wanda when Agnes lead her away?

[Cthulhudrew]

 

3 minutes ago, swanpride said:

I suspect the postman more than ever. Did anyone else noticed that he followed "Agnes" and Wanda when Agnes lead her away?

I noticed that. He was also carrying a parcel marked "fragile," not unlike the state of Wanda's psyche at the moment.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Cthulhudrew

[swanpride]

Quote

 was mildly surprised Wanda didn't rush out of bed  to find Vision. Not really sure why she didn't.

I think she simply wanted to delay the confrontation

[DanielMarvelfan]

How's no one talking about all the Office reference?? The intro was copied and pasted, the camera movements and anglws, people's awkward acting and tension, half of this episode felt like watching an Office episode lol. 

Btw, what was that book on Agnes' basement?

Spoiler

Is that a reference to Mephisto or just the fact that shes a witch? 

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by saoirse
spoiler tag added to spec based on comics

[phalange]

Episode title is "Breaking the Fourth Wall" and there was definitely a lot of that going on. 

I love the looks Billy and Tommy exchange as Wanda has a full-blown existential crisis. I am surprised she didn't go to Vision immediately after expanding the hex, but it seems like as soon as that happened it was an insta-fast-forward to the next morning. And I'm glad Wanda made it clear she's not buying Faux!Pietro as her long-lost twin. 

The talking heads really captured the mockumentary style of modern sitcoms. Wanda was surprisingly blunt about things and Vision just looked exasperated. 

Vision and Darcy's road trip is the best. I was in tears watching them steal the funnel cake van. Not sure how Darcy knows so many exact details, like how Thanos rewound time and killed Vision in front of Wanda, but I'm glad she filled him in. Vision looked so sad when Darcy said he can't survive outside the hex, and like, same. "I've been watching WandaVision for the past week and the love you two have is real. You belong together." Again, same. 

Monica's finally got her superpowers and they look awesome! 

That Agnes/Agatha reveal was perfectly creepy, despite the suspicions we all had about her. Of course she would give herself her own theme song. "I actually did bite a kid once." Um, foreshadowing?

Mid-credits scene! 

[Zahdii]

This show.  We're all trying to figure out what's going on.  Studying every frame, discussing it, speculating, just eating it all up.

Wanda is real, but is Vision?  After a few episodes he seems to be real, too.  (Last episode I thought that he couldn't live outside the Hex, but now I'm not so sure.)

Is Wanda being manipulated or just creating a reality to deal with her grief?  We go back and forth until Wanda admits she's running the show, but she doesn't know how or why.  

Are the boys real?  I guess the jury's still out on that.

Agnes is suspicious.  Is she being used to push Wanda along or is she doing it on her own?  We go back and forth, and now Agnes says she's doing it all, but not why.  But she makes sure to point out she's evil.  Is she also being manipulated?  At this point, I'm not sure.  But she got the boys away from Wanda and now they're MIA, and she directed Wanda to the basement/dungeon.  Then she shows up to tell Wanda she's really Agatha Harkness and provides proof via flashbacks showing how she's got her own show going and has been lying to Wanda (and her viewers) all along.  Oh, and she killed the puppy.  But who is watching Agatha's show?  Why have a show if you don't have an audience?

The people outside the hex provide more clues.  They have different views on what's going on and different motivations for how they react.  We get the bad guy and the plucky group of three who are working against him to try to find out why this is happening, and how to help all those inside the Hex.

And now I'm here along with others in the early hours of the morning trying to work it all out.  We're like a benign version of Q followers, obsessing about all the things we see and feel, and trying to figure it all out.  But we're not going to do anything except wait for Disney to finally tell us what's going on.  Then we'll pat ourselves on the back for the things we got right, feel chagrin about the things we got wrong, and look forward to the next season and the resulting spinoffs.

[Kromm]

Not much of a reveal, when we knew it all along. 

That's true for what happened with Monica every bit as much as Agatha. 

I will say I almost missed the post-credits scene.  I almost fell prey to ASSUMING there wouldn't be one. 

EDIT - Actually someone pointed out correctly that technically it's a mid credits scene. 

11 hours ago, dmeets said:

Of course she couldn't resist gloating with a theme song of her own. Love it!

I was expecting to see "Ralph" appear down there but depending on the motivation I wouldn't mind if Agatha ends up being the Big Bad.

I'm on the fence with that. 

It's a lot more with the times to create a female big bad, a lot fresher. Rather than her being manipulated or controlled by a male "boss", I mean. 

It does require a harder break with comics continuity. But maybe it's past time for that to be tossed anyway. 

The way this was portrayed Agatha also can manipulate the environment.  Leading one to believe that may be a general witchy power and not just a Wanda one. Or am I overthinking how that basement is like it is? 

Edited February 19, 2021 by Kromm

[arc]

1 hour ago, swanpride said:

So, no idea which show was referenced in either intro

I don't know about the "Agatha All Along", but the WandaVision intro this ep was pure Happy Endings with a nod to Modern Family's typography style at the end. (The Russo brothers, who've directed a bunch of MCU movies and have had a huge hand in the second half of the MCU to date, directed the pilot of Happy Endings and were executive producers on it. Also Community and Arrested Development but we can't have everything, esp in as 2000s-era shows kept shrinking title sequences as networks cut runtimes.)

I'm gonna assume that the Infinity War stuff Darcy talked about is either public knowledge or at least as an astrophysicist who consults for/is employed by (?) SWORD that she has had some classified briefings. But "part of me secretly wanted a guest spot on the show" was delightful.

Early on in this episode I twigged to how much purple Agnes has worn in earlier episodes, mostly because she dialed it up a lot this time. And then it turns out her powers are purple the way Wanda's are red.

The interviewer talking to Wanda reminded me of the couple of moments where the Office documentary crew broke the immersion and got involved. It also reminded me that other sitcoms with the mockumentary format, most of all Modern Family, adopted the concept that there is no real documentary crew. I found this an infuriating lack of commitment to the bit, but sigh. (Also, "you're not supposed to talk" is weird anyways because obviously documentarians ask questions. It's just that some of them edit their questions out and ask the subjects to include the question in the answer for seamlessness.) Wandavision has clearly decided the documentary is more "real" -- see also when Vision took off his mic.

Major Goodner isn't a pre-existing character, is she? Also, I guess a universe with a ton of other sentient spacefaring species necessitates it, but the armored space rover would be rather silly in our real world universe, and it gave me a little hiccup in suspension of disbelief.

super petty little goof: the TV the kids were playing had a Wii unit below the TV and two additional controllers (each decked out in protective black silicone cases) but there was no Wii sensor bar mounted on the TV.

BTW, in addition to having enhanced senses, Monica did a superhero three point landing! She's definitely gonna be a superhero by the end of this show.

Edited February 19, 2021 by arc

[Wolfprincess]

The appearance of the basement, dark and filled with ominous black "roots" made me get serious upside-down (from Stranger Things) vibes for a minute there.  Creepy. 

 

[Featherhat]

I think Ralph is going to be revealed as someone. She said "Ralph thinks I sugar coat things". Maybe creating a fantasy world for Wanda and playing the nosy neighbour *was* her idea of being nice about it whilst manipulating events for whatever purpose. Maybe Senor Scratchy is the Big Bad. He looks mighty suspicious and was left alone with those boys at one point. 

I loved the creep factor running through Agnes scenes, even though we only got the actual reveal and secret "evil" basement at the end. I would totally watch Agatha All Along, seems like a perfect cheesy magic show. She was literally running WandaVision and slipped into character every time it looked like it was going off course. And she was faking last week! Hah. I guess she wanted to separate Wanda and Vision when he was getting too suspicious and confrontational about everything. I do think that she's the "she" that Norm hears in his head. Although that could still be Wanda. 

Vision and Darcy was a pairing I never knew I wanted and it was awesome. I loved the trip around the outskirts of WestView with barriers being put in their way, probably by Agatha. Loved Darcy trying to explain the complicated events of IW and Vision being “right…” Loved the “I am Not Amused!” deadpan. Acknowledging that Wanda had been through a lot before breaking out of the mockumentary and storming off! I love that.

I suppose Hayward could have been trying to bring Vision back for altrustic purposes but given what we know of him it's more likely that he wanted a weapon SWORD could control. 

I think the twins were put into the TV as "the brightly coloured blobs" (tm Dead Ringers) of creepy kids TV. Actually no, they're in those two oven type/trophy case holes in the wall and it's "for the children!" that this is all happening. 

I loved Monica trying desperately to reach Wanda both literally and physically, interesting that the space truck couldn't push through the barrier but she could. And we witnessed her literally changing on a cellular level to powered being. However even without powers she would have been a hero for trying to talk Wanda down and showing her empathy. Feeling like her pain over loosing her mother is already part of her truth is a powerful statement only three weeks after she leaned of it, I'm not sure I'd get there that quickly and obviously Wanda hasn't yet. But Wanda doesn't really want to hurt people and threatens more than anything else. Even though she does seem to literally blank out whenever anyone mentions that other residents are basically her puppets. And she did seem to power down like a puppet herself when Agatha came on the scene and then reanimated again. Interesting. 

For someone who expanded the HEX last night Wanda didn't seem interested in doing very much. She was Modern Family deadpanning after zany chaos for a while and then simply reacting to whatever other people were doing. No trying to find Vision, not exploring what was going on or pretending this is her perfect "Shangri-La" as "Pietro/Peter" put it. Even when explaining that she had no answers she didn't get very animated about it, just went a little dark. She's coming around on the idea that its all meaningless and she's in a funk about it but also gets angry when someone tries to take it away from her. 

A Dottie sighting but nothing concrete either way about her involvement. 

UNO! I love that game, we used to play it at Christmas in the Before Times...

I think I need to watch the Nexus commercial about 50 times to unpack everything. Wanda is a Nexus and can control or change reality (but side affects also include more depression).

Edited February 19, 2021 by Featherhat

[Spartan Girl]

Y’all called it: it was Agatha all along! That Munsters-like theme song was fucking brilliant! “I killed Sparky too!” You’ll die for that, bitch!

So Fake Pietro was her doing too? I KNEW he was a fake. And he’s evil too...well, that’s not such a shock.

Darcy and Vision teaming up was great, but poor Vision. That’s a lot to take in. Cracked up admit his reaction to the wall breaks: “What am I doing here? Why am I talking to you?!” PB really nails that exasperated The Office look at the audience.

So Monica has superpowers/is a mutant now? Awesome. I really am looking forward to Captain Marvel 2 now.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Spartan Girl

[Lassus]

Sooooooo what have we learned?

Gen Xers old-schoolers?  HA HA HA REED RICHARDS BWAH HAH.  No.

This Agatha "reveal" plus Bettany's comments on "someone I've always wanted to work with" seem to point pretty specifically to Dr. Strange showing up.

[cambridgeguy]

10 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

So Fake Pietro was her doing too? I KNEW he was a fake but I honestly would have liked more of him.

Which begs the question of why (aside from messing with Wanda) Agnes would make him look different from the MCU Pietro.  He presumably has some autonomy or the next episode will start with him trying to kill Monica.

And now I'm really curious about how much the Avengers talked about Infinity War and Endgame. I thought everyone except Wanda was knocked out when Thanos killed Vision - maybe Wanda herself blabbed to the world to make sure Vision wasn't a forgotten casualty. 

Edited February 19, 2021 by cambridgeguy

[Lassus]

 

4 minutes ago, cambridgeguy said:

12 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

 

Which begs the question of why (aside from messing with Wanda) Agnes would make him look different from the MCU Pietro.

I'd imagine a multiverse of madness nod that might end up as nothing more than a nod.

[Kromm]

55 minutes ago, Featherhat said:

I think I need to watch the Nexus commercial about 50 times to unpack everything. Wanda is a Nexus and can control or change reality (but side affects also include more depression).

This is a comics thing, but the way they framed it and made it so obvious indicates to me that they're not really considering it something they want viewers to have to work all that hard to understand. It's practically on the level of putting the HYDRA logo on a watch. A reference meant to be obvious. But rules are rules I guess. Go look in the comics thread.

[Lassus]

1 hour ago, Featherhat said:

I think I need to watch the Nexus commercial about 50 times to unpack everything.

 

No?  😉

[Kromm]

48 minutes ago, Lassus said:

 

No?  😉

I really don't think it's that. I believe that is just an example of how over the years names get reused. That's not a Marvel Comics title anyway. 

I don't want to risk pushing the no comics rule here, but I suppose just giving the full name, Nexus of All Realities, isn't going too far. Then people can choose to Google it at will (or choose not to). 

Edited February 19, 2021 by Kromm

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Ha, of course Agnes was masterminding all of this! I loved her show's credits. Capping them off with her gleeful admission that she killed Sparky too was perfect.

[Lassus]

1 hour ago, Kromm said:

I really don't think it's that.

Joke.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

"She was one split end away from cutting her own bangs."

"You're....not supposed to talk."

"Go ahead, then. Take me out."

"Snoopers gonna snoop."

HOT DAMN.

So what has Agnes (Agatha) done with the kids? I was thinking Wanda would find them tied up or something, but given that the boys already have powers that probably wouldn't work for long, so where did they go?

I said out loud to an empty room, "Credits scene!" when Monica was poking around in Agatha's backyard. Did she leave the storm cellar unlocked on purpose? Seems careless. And "Pietro" is a real person, just not who he's been pretending to be. Maybe he's Ralph?

2 hours ago, Featherhat said:

For someone who expanded the HEX last night Wanda didn't seem interested in doing very much.

She did seem pretty listless, but she'd likely overextended with growing the Hex so much and so quickly. Also, fatigue is a common side effect of depression, and at this point Wanda's realizing that what she's doing isn't really helping. The furniture and almost everything else glitching randomly was a particularly nice touch. She can no longer hold the illusion together, and so the cracks are becoming more obvious.

I really do wonder what will happen to Vision. Darcy was right, he and Wanda belong together, but if he can't survive outside of the Hex I don't know what the solution is there. Somebody fix that, please, they deserve to  be happy!

[kay1864]

4 hours ago, vb68 said:

I was mildly surprised Wanda didn't rush out of bed  to find Vision. Not really sure why she didn't. After moving the border to save Vision, Wanda was weirdly not to concerned with where he was and what was going on with him. 

THIS.  WTF?

[ShadowHunter]

I could be completely wrong but I'm still thinking Evan Peters is the Quicksilver from the X-Men movies who is under mind control. This is probably a reach or over speculation but he has this necklace around his neck that he has not  taken off lol.  That or this was just stunt casting lol.

Not surprised about Agatha. 

Cool the mid credit scenes have returned lol. Lucky #7 lol.

Edited February 19, 2021 by ShadowHunter

[swanpride]

Yeah, for a short moment they threw me off with her fake breakdown, but then I remembered everything which was odd about it and how she still is basically driving the plot of the show. She was clearly off, even without knowing anything about Agatha.

But naturally I suspect the postman to be the big bad in the background still.

The commercial was interesting since it is now referring the current situation, the last of Wanda's traumas...interesting, though, that the commercial's basically skipped the two biggest ones, Pietro dying and Vision dying.

[steelyis]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Ha, of course Agnes was masterminding all of this! I loved her show's credits. Capping them off with her gleeful admission that she killed Sparky too was perfect.

I was shouting "Oh!" after each reveal until she got to Sparky and I literally screamed, "Oh, you bitch!"

And how she gonna say she bit a kid once and not a explain? I'm mad about that, too!

5 hours ago, Dandesun said:

AND!!! We got Spectrum!!! Monica Rambeau is the Real Deal!!

She gave us an epic superhero landing, too! Hell, yeah!

I think this episode is the funniest one so far. I legit burst out laughing at a lot of the humor. It's strange, because it had such a Modern Family/The Office vibe, and I never vibed with either show.

I'm hyped for the next episode!

[Capricasix]

3 hours ago, Wolfprincess said:

The appearance of the basement, dark and filled with ominous black "roots" made me get serious upside-down (from Stranger Things) vibes for a minute there.  Creepy. 

 

I thought the same thing.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

8 minutes ago, steelyis said:

She gave us an epic superhero landing, too! Hell, yeah!

Notice also that Monica's color scheme for her powers is blue, like Carol's.

[SeanC]

3 hours ago, arc said:

It also reminded me that other sitcoms with the mockumentary format, most of all Modern Family, adopted the concept that there is no real documentary crew. I found this an infuriating lack of commitment to the bit, but sigh.

As an aside, the original pilot script for Modern Family did actually have the crew as characters; they were supposed to be from a foreign country, one of whom had previously been an exchange student with the Pritchett family.  They ditched that because they felt it was superfluous; ultimately the format is more a new way of doing character narration.

[AimingforYoko]

3 hours ago, Lassus said:

Gen Xers old-schoolers?  HA HA HA REED RICHARDS BWAH HAH.  No.

A lot of spec lately was Adam Brashear. Nope, some anonymous S.W.O.R.D. friend of Maria. Not everything is an easter egg.

I don't know whose idea it was to hire the Frozen songwriters to do the themes, but give them a raise. The Agatha All Along theme was perfect.

[Mr. Sparkle]

"It's Been Agatha All Along" will be my favorite song for a while. 

[Featherhat]

3 hours ago, Lassus said:

Sooooooo what have we learned?

Gen Xers old-schoolers?  HA HA HA REED RICHARDS BWAH HAH.  No.

This Agatha "reveal" plus Bettany's comments on "someone I've always wanted to work with" seem to point pretty specifically to Dr. Strange showing up.

Bettany has already worked extensively with Cumberbatch (in Creation which he and his wife are great in) and for that matter Ian McKellan, (for people guessing Magneto). He's well aware of the Dr. Strange speculation and hinted it was someone different (and older because he added "I've wanted to work with them all my life". And he's been working with a LOT of people since the 90s. Not that I would be surprised if Dr. Strange did cameo in this either. 

I think people setting themselves up for Reed Richards might be disappointed, but maybe not. Since I'm not on the "John Krasinski or bust" train for RR I don't really care either way. 

Edited February 19, 2021 by Featherhat

[swanpride]

After some research I think that the Agnes Intro was a reference to the Munsters one...

[VCRTracking]

Well that's going to be in my head for a week.

[paigow]

How many A-List actors from U.K. has Bettany NOT worked with?? Likely that mystery cameo is from elsewhere...

[swanpride]

Btw, did anyone else thought "Daisy" when Darcy put the hula figurine on the dashboard? Okay, the last time with the blue soap I thought it was a coincidence, but that one was clearly an Agents of Shield reference….

[shantown]

We got a quick shot of Dottie looking concerned at the end when Wanda and Monica were fighting in the front yard. There's GOTTA be more with her, right?!

[tennisgurl]

CALLED IT! *Does the called it dance* Turns out it was...Agatha All Along!

I know that many people, including myself, had already guessed at Agnes/Agatha being the true mastermind, but holy crap what a reveal that was. A creepy basement, a creepy magic book, then Agatha shows up with a big awesome witch entrance complete with delightful Munsters Themed villain song where she gleefully breaks the fourth wall, showing us how she has been manipulating things from day one, including killing poor Sparky. "You didn't think you were the only magical girl in town did you?" 

What an amazing reveal. I think the writers probably figured that some fans would figure out who she was pretty quickly, or at least that Agnes was more than she seemed, so just decided to make the reveal as fun and over the top as possible. This is so great, I have already listened to the Agatha All Along song like three times in a row. 

"And I killed Sparky too." *Evil laughter* 

Edited February 20, 2021 by tennisgurl

[Eve93]

Could someone explain the theory behind the "Nexus" commecial? I did not understand what it was about.. What's the reference?

[swanpride]

In the comics the Nexus is apparently a place where alternate realities overlap. Though i don't think that this is what happens here, not quite.

[Chicago Redshirt]

8 minutes ago, Eve93 said:

Could someone explain the theory behind the "Nexus" commecial? I did not understand what it was about.. What's the reference?

There are links in the MCU/MU thread that might be helpful.

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by Chicago Redshirt

[Minneapple]

If Agnes/Agatha was behind everything, then why was she glitching in the last episode? Was that genuine or just one of her tricks to fool Vision?

[Chicago Redshirt]

Random thoughts:

Was it me, or did they not include the unbrainwashing visual effect with Darcy?

Agnes talking about a "suspicious mole" when all along she was the suspicious mole is something that the writers deserve praise for.

Did I catch it right and Wanda actually took some of the Nexus pills that were part of the ad? If so, is that the first time she actually used one of the products that was advertised?

I have rewatched "Agatha All Along" about four times and don't think I'm going to stop. I love the lyrics and the twist it has both on the WandaVision theme and on the Munsters. I can't wait for Wanda to go all John Wick on her ass. 

As fun as the song is, I don't think that she is the end boss.