S01.E08: Previously On

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Wanda embarks on a troubling journey revisiting her past for insight into her present and future.

Dropping Friday, February 26, 2021.

[starri]

Wanda going to the empty lot in Westview and just collapsing out of grief was honestly heartbreaking.

It's late.  That's all I got right now.

[vb68]

Damn, that was painfully sad.  It's not surprising that her grief basically took over. Fantastic acting, though. Elizabeth Olsen continues to show her range. Hope she gets an Emmy nom.

Mid Credit scene again. That was really creepy.  It also kinda mirrored the credit scene where we first saw Wanda.

I liked that Agatha  acknowledged that her house is the Bewitched house. 

I'm not sure if the Westview version of Vision is still flying back to help save the day or not.

Wonder what happened with Monica and Fietro.

Edited February 27, 2021 by vb68

[Avabelle]

Wow how many episodes left? My only fear is that they finish to this series will just be a cliffhanger into dr strange and won’t do the show justice.

Ok so Wanda didn’t steal Vision - she created this version of him? How does that work, especially with the kids.

I have to admit, I thought Agatha all along would have been more directly involved in the Westview charade. She’s been more of a bystander causing mayhem to Wandas world.

[Lebanna]

A double misdirection! Those are rare. I was almost convinced that S.W.O.R.D weren’t actually bringing back Vision, but... not quite. Although, this one’s not going to be our Vision, is he? 

Wanda’s beautiful family life was ruined by the bomb and she learned then that grief was fear and anger, just destruction.

So Wanda went with HYDRA and found a group who represented her hate.

But then she absorbed her powers from the same Mind stone that Vision did. They both get their powers from the same place, and she had that vital piece of him inside her, before he even existed. She always contained a piece of his mind and his heart, as it were. They were soulmates, in a roundabout way.

We see here in this episode in their conversation about grief that, despite as he says, always being alone, Vision naturally understood Wanda’s better, deeper feelings and what lay behind them. He takes her anger, fear and hate that she had learned to recognize as grief and digs to find her true feelings underneath those easier emotions. He can bring back to her that hidden love that she pushes away because it hurts too much to feel it. She could give him the companionship, the laughter and happiness that he clearly craved. They knew each other’s mind. They had to be together, because they made each other better.

Did she remember that idea of the persistence of love as she broke her heart over their lost home, their lost love, and ripped out the part of herself that the Mind stone had put there, the part that was part of Vision as well? She made that bond and that dream real. But in doing so she ate up the lives of everyone around her, just as Stark Industries’ errant bomb ate up the lives of her parents and the lives that they should have lived together. 

She became the thing that she never meant to be, for the best of reasons. The road to hell is paved that way.

Edited February 26, 2021 by Lebanna

[Kromm]

I predict nobody likes this episode, because essentially nothing happened other than a Zombie Vision. 

[vb68]

8 minutes ago, Lebanna said:

But then she absorbed her powers from the same Mind stone that Vision did. They both get their powers from the same place, and she had that vital piece of him inside her, before he even existed. She always contained piece of his mind and his heart, as it were. They were soulmates, in a roundabout way.

Beautiful analysis.

19 minutes ago, Avabelle said:

Ok so Wanda didn’t steal Vision - she created this version of him? How does that work, especially with the kids.

I'm not sure if she conjured him completely from nothing or if some of the parts did get back together. Heyward was legitimately trying to get Vision back, I think. I also don't think he's ingenious enough to pull of a ruse that Wanda stole Vision if nothing actually disappeared.

Also,  I'm not sure what his own endgame is, but he's going to piss one or two very powerful people off when it gets out what he's been doing.

[Jeebus Cripes]

I could be wrong but it almost seemed like Zombie Vision looked at his left hand as though he were expecting to find a ring there. Perhaps he's linked to his consciousness in Westview? In which case, look out Head Dick In Charge. 

Man, I really got upset and almost did an ugly cry at the scene where she said "I can't feel you."

[Avabelle]

3 minutes ago, vb68 said:

Heyward was legitimately trying to get Vision back, I think. I also don't think he's ingenious enough to pull of a ruse that Wanda stole Vision if nothing actually disappeared.

But we’d have seen something if she stole him - she walked back to her car empty handed and later on vision seemed to be created from the yellow light coming from her.

so Hayes lied that she stole him but appears to have been working with a team in secret to rebuild him?

29 minutes ago, Kromm said:

I predict nobody likes this episode, because essentially nothing happened other than a Zombie Vision. 

I liked this episode but (and I hate to say it) I was expecting a bit more from the Agatha reveal. I thought she’d have been more involved in the westview mystery especially since it showed her behind the camera in the Modern family episode. 

[Jeebus Cripes]

Vision was so sweet in that Avengers Compound flashback. His shy interaction with Wanda while trying to comfort her was adorable. 

[Avabelle]

13 minutes ago, Jeebus Cripes said:

Vision was so sweet in that Avengers Compound flashback. His shy interaction with Wanda while trying to comfort her was adorable. 

There is nothing I want more in the world then for him to come back and him and Wanda to have a happy ending. Sadly though I feel there’s too much emphasis on how she’s running away from her grief etc for that to ever be a possibility.

[CharlesZZC]

Really incredible episode, thought it was the best so far in many ways. 

 

White Vision! 
 

Before I thought Elizabeth Olsen was one of the three or four best actresses working today, after this season and especially this episode I think she is the best actress working today. 
 

 

[Jeebus Cripes]

4 minutes ago, Avabelle said:

There is nothing I want more in the world then for him to come back and him and Wanda to have a happy ending. Sadly though I feel there’s too much emphasis on how she’s running away from her grief etc for that to ever be a possibility.

Really? I feel like that giant ass--whose name I never bothered to learn--rebuilding his body is the perfect opportunity for Wanda to just transfer his consciousness over. I just assume that will happen and will be devastated if it doesn't. 

[MagnusHex]

Me right at the end of this episode:

IT'S ABOUT TIME. LOL The Scarlet Witch is born!

I love the tone of this episode. The kind of grief exploration in this ep is what I've been watching this show for, so I'd already say job well done, customer satisfied. We finally get to see Wanda's past through her perspective as she reflected the meaning of her life and what role Vision played in that (being her last remaining connection to love).

Glad to see that Wanda at least tried to be civil at first though, but let's put it this way: it's probably a short time after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Her appearance in Avengers: Endgame was only 10 minutes (or less) after her traumatic experience happened. That's... not a lot of time to grieve (and trust me, speaking from personal experience, since I had to do that last week). That can really do a number on someone, so it's no surprise that Wanda lost control.

Edited February 26, 2021 by MagnusHex

[Bill1978]

9 minutes ago, MagnusHex said:

IT'S ABOUT TIME. LOL The Scarlet Witch is born!

That was my reaction as well.

I was kinda hoping for a cameo from real Pietro to be honest. Because I do prefer MCU's Pietro to Fox's Pietro.cThat was the only disappointment for me this episode. Other that that I really enjoyed all the backstory presented. As a non comic book reader it was great to see. Also very interesting that we have 2 people with very different agendas for wanting to know the truth behind Wanda's powers. I've wanted more of her story since she first appeared in the MCU. Amazing acting from Elizabeth in this episode.

Good to see the boys are still alive...for the time being.

Is there really only 1 episode left? I feel there is so much that needs closure.

 

[Avabelle]

7 minutes ago, Jeebus Cripes said:

Really? I feel like that giant ass--whose name I never bothered to learn--rebuilding his body is the perfect opportunity for Wanda to just transfer his consciousness over. I just assume that will happen and will be devastated if it doesn't. 

I would love that but I feel like it would be a bit of a cop out if after everything she did to avoid her grief - she just rebuilds him and doesn’t have to deal with the grief.. I want to wrong. My prediction is based on the lesson I feel the series is teaching about grief.

2 minutes ago, Bill1978 said:

 

Is there really only 1 episode left? I feel there is so much that needs closure.

 

I know I really hope marvel do it justice and don’t just leave it as a cliffhanger for dr strange.

[Peace 47]

29 minutes ago, Avabelle said:

I liked this episode but (and I hate to say it) I was expecting a bit more from the Agatha reveal. I thought she’d have been more involved in the westview mystery especially since it showed her behind the camera in the Modern family episode. 

I wonder how she ended up in Westview if it is as it appears, that she had nothing to do with the creation of the Hex.  Agatha said Fake Pietro was a “crystalline possession”, meant to be her eyes and ears.  I don’t know what that means:  he was just some random Westview resident that she possessed?  

Man that episode was super depressing.  Wanda has never been allowed to keep one good thing in her whole life.  And when she said she couldn’t feel Vision, my heart really hurt for her.

[Jeebus Cripes]

7 minutes ago, Avabelle said:

I would love that but I feel like it would be a bit of a cop out if after everything she did to avoid her grief - she just rebuilds him and doesn’t have to deal with the grief.. I want to wrong. My prediction is based on the lesson I feel the series is teaching about grief.

I know I really hope marvel do it justice and don’t just leave it as a cliffhanger for dr strange.

Steve Rogers got his do-over, so I demand Wanda gets hers. 

[phalange]

Agatha was like an evil ghost of Christmas past, guiding Wanda through her history. And I KNEW that Pietro was a fake.

It makes sense that Wanda created a sitcom world. They were a happy memory because she watched them with her family until the bombing.

If I'm understanding correctly, Wanda had dormant witch powers her whole life and it was contact with the mind stone that woke them up, as opposed to her powers entirely deriving from the stone. When she saw that Scarlet Witch version of herself, is that supposed to be her in the future or her from a different universe? 

Wanda and Vision watching a sitcom together in the Avengers compound is so sweet. He's so nervous and gentle with her. "What is grief, if not love persevering?" That's such a poetic way to put it. 

Honestly, I don't know what hurt worse: When Wanda says, "I can't feel you" or when they show the deed to the house in Westview that says "to grow old in." And Wanda's grief is so strong she's able to create this whole world, including Vision. When she told Vision she didn't know how any of this started, she was being truthful because she suppressed it all.

Scarlet Witch! Agatha said the thing!

So Hayward was, unsurprisingly, lying to Wanda when he said SWORD was dismantling Vision because he was a "sentient weapon." They were just trying to create their own weapon. 

I know the MCU loves making Wanda endlessly suffer, but I really need a happy ending for her and Vision. Like Darcy said, they belong together. 

[Llywela]

Just now, phalange said:

So Hayward was, unsurprisingly, lying to Wanda when he said SWORD was dismantling Vision because he was a "sentient weapon." They were just trying to create their own weapon. 

I've never really understood why any Bad Guy would want a sentient weapon in the first place, to be honest. A sentient weapon by definition is able to think for itself, which is surely the last thing anyone should want their weapons to do, because it if can think, it can also choose not to obey or to go off-mission. Mindlessness should be the ultimate goal for anyone creating a weapon they want to be able to deploy at will!

The reassembled Vision that Hayward re-animated using the power Wanda infused with the drone was really pale, a literal shadow of his true self. I assume his lack of colour will be important, since colour has been imbued with meaning throughout the show so far.

[cambridgeguy]

4 minutes ago, Peace 47 said:

I wonder how she ended up in Westview if it is as it appears, that she had nothing to do with the creation of the Hex.  Agatha said Fake Pietro was a “crystalline possession”, meant to be her eyes and ears.  I don’t know what that means:  he was just some random Westview resident that she possessed?  

Wasn't it stated that she sensed the creation of the hex and came over to check it out?  Then when she got there she slipped in to figure out how Wanda was doing it.  And if she was able to sense it then the Sorcerer Supreme should be stopping by soon. 

[absnow54]

Previously Hayward was tracking Vision’s location using the signature of vibranium decay. Does this mean that Wanda can also generate vibranium with her powers? Or is Westview sitting on a giant untapped vibranium source that will help the downtrodden town see better days?

[Jeebus Cripes]

2 minutes ago, absnow54 said:

Previously Hayward was tracking Vision’s location using the signature of vibranium decay. Does this mean that Wanda can also generate vibranium with her powers? Or is Westview sitting on a giant untapped vibranium source that will help the downtrodden town see better days?

I totally forgot about that! Agatha has no idea what she's really in for. You do not piss off a woman with this much power. 

[Kromm]

It almost looked like all she INTENDED was to physically build the house on the property Vision had somehow set aside, but didn't understand her own power.  Basically that this is a case of her intending to do something relatively minor, and WAY overdoing it. 

[notagain]

Did the infinity stone wake up the mutant gene? And if so does the snap have an affect on the genes of those Snapped?

I would like Hayward to die in a way created by his own stupidity. And I will laugh. 

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by notagain

[Jeebus Cripes]

1 minute ago, notagain said:

Did the infinity stone wake up the mutant gene? 

I sure hope so. I've never been a fan of how they rewrote their origins because they didn't have the rights to mutants at the time. 

[Featherhat]

They actually said the word "Fietro" I guess it wasn't hard to guess that's what fan theories would be calling him. 

That was a very sad episode. Incredibly well acted by EO and KH though. And I liked it even if it wasn't what I was expecting.

So Hayward's either a complete moron or he was pushing Wanda to do something because nowhere in her being at that point was "resurrect Vision/The Weapon". Maybe he wanted her to snap him because nothing else was working. But also if that's how Hayward sees the world and powered people then I guess that's how he sees her, as a weapon and a threat. And whilst a lot of people weren't going to let $3 billion dollars worth of Vibranium get buried in the ground (at least for long) he could have been about 1000x more sensitive about it. Again Wanda had plenty of opportunity to hurt people and she didn't take it so Hwayward is wrong to keep othering her as a terrorist, radical weapon, even with what happened in Westview and should have realised Monica was right from what he himself saw. 

I think something else is going on with Vision and he's not just a construct of Wanda's because he did seem to have autonomy and she couldn't control him after the first 3 episodes. Hayward was also tracking Vision via Vibranium decay. 

I'm not sure if I buy that Agatha just happened to sense the power of the Hex and stop by to find out how she did it. Seems a little convenient, even if she didn't have an actual hand in its creation she could have manipulated Wanda into it. We still don't know anything about Ralph or Senor Scratchy either. Wanda didn't seem to intend anyone harm in the creation, she seems to have just lost control of everything in her grief. 

Obviously the commercials were always representing her life but I didn't expect and explanation of exactly why the sitcoms in a time of loss and grief because it was literally the soundtrack to her world exploding *and* a lovely thing her family watched together. 

I like the scenes of real Westview, a little run down and neglected and melancholy but still has a bit of community and a sense of peace and quiet for her. 

If Paul Bettany was just excited to act scenes opposite himself I will laugh. 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Featherhat

[Peace 47]

That commercial from the other week had the shark feeding on “yo magic”, and this episode showed that Agatha absorbed the life force of the other witches, which made me think that Agatha would also try to feed off of Wanda’s powers (since she was so interested in how Wanda accomplished this).  But Hayward is a good candidate for the shark, too, in using Wanda’s powers to try to weaponize Vision’s body.

[phalange]

19 minutes ago, Jeebus Cripes said:

Steve Rogers got his do-over, so I demand Wanda gets hers. 

And not just Steve! A lot of the guys got second chances with their loved ones. Yeah, Tony dies, but he got to spend the last five years of his life happy with a wife and kid. Clint was so upset about his family getting dusted that he went full-Dexter but still got them back in the end. Steve straight up ignores the rules and creates a whole divergent timeline.

If the men get some version of happiness but Wanda's the one who has to learn a lesson about grief and letting go, I'm gonna flip tables, honestly. Especially because she's already learned it by dealing with the loss of her parents and Pietro. 

26 minutes ago, Llywela said:

I've never really understood why any Bad Guy would want a sentient weapon in the first place, to be honest. A sentient weapon by definition is able to think for itself, which is surely the last thing anyone should want their weapons to do, because it if can think, it can also choose not to obey or to go off-mission. Mindlessness should be the ultimate goal for anyone creating a weapon they want to be able to deploy at will!

Yeah, I think Director Dickhead is in for a rude awakening. 

[arc]

12 minutes ago, Llywela said:

The reassembled Vision that Hayward re-animated using the power Wanda infused with the drone was really pale, a literal shadow of his true self. I assume his lack of colour will be important, since colour has been imbued with meaning throughout the show so far.

It happened to Vision in the comics, where he died once and was rebuilt/revived but somehow turned all-white in the process. And (comics spoiler, also in that link)

Spoiler

when he was brought back, the colorless version also reflected that this version lacked emotion or humanity.

1 minute ago, absnow54 said:

Previously Hayward was tracking Vision’s location using the signature of vibranium decay. Does this mean that Wanda can also generate vibranium with her powers? Or is Westview sitting on a giant untapped vibranium source that will help the downtrodden town see better days?

If there's a big underground vein of vibranium, it still wouldn't move around like Vision did. Unless you mean she mined it to make her copy. I'm gonna guess she just transubstantiated hex-Vision's body out of air or something.

OK, so when Hayward showed the video of Wanda "storming SWORD headquarters", all of that video was real but he misrepresented it to the group meeting with a little deceptive editing.

I think the reason for the sitcom stuff is a little thin but I'll go with it. It was a delight to see the 1950s set in color.

The de-aging of Kathryn Hanh in the episode intro (and I guess of Olsen in the Hydra flashback bit) was absolutely perfect. No uncanny valley at effect all.

[Jeebus Cripes]

5 minutes ago, Featherhat said:

If Paul Bettany was just excited to act scenes opposite himself I will laugh. 

You and me both, and I wouldn't be surprised. That sounds like a very Paul thing. 

Just now, phalange said:

And not just Steve! A lot of the guys got second chances with their loved ones. Yeah, Tony dies, but he got to spend the last five years of his life happy with a wife and kid. Clint was so upset about his family getting dusted that he went full-Dexter but still got them back in the end. Steve straight up ignores the rules and creates a whole divergent timeline.

If the men get some version of happiness but Wanda's the one who has to learn a lesson about grief and letting go, I'm gonna flip tables, honestly. Especially because she's already learned it by dealing with the loss of her parents and Pietro. 

Yeah, I think Director Dickhead is in for a rude awakening. 

Totally agree with you! This poor woman deserves some happiness after a lifetime of being shat on. No wonder she snapped and created an entire fake-happy town. 

[notagain]

I thought I was getting out, but babbby I'm back in! I think this is the first time Marvel has made me ugly cry. I'm going to chop it up to suffering two major loses with in the last three months, and going through my own stages of grief. 

Edited February 26, 2021 by notagain
I am not a very good typer

[Keywestclubkid]

2 hours ago, Kromm said:

I predict nobody likes this episode, because essentially nothing happened other than a Zombie Vision. 

it filled in the gaps of what happened to visions body and how and why we are where we are ..Might have been a lot of exposition but a lot happened in this episode

[absnow54]

10 minutes ago, arc said:

If there's a big underground vein of vibranium, it still wouldn't move around like Vision did. Unless you mean she mined it to make her copy. I'm gonna guess she just transubstantiated hex-Vision's body out of air or something.

She previously altered Monica’s Kevlar into bell bottoms. So she either manifested vibranium, or she found $3billion worth of it in the ground. Maybe that’s what Vision built the foundation out of?

[arc]

Oh, you're right! They made a big point about her not changing the essential nature of something, only reshaping it. So hex-Vision really is made of vibranium??? Wow. The one vibranium thing we're sure she didn't reshape is Vision's actual corpse since SWORD still had it.

But then again, if Hayward could track vibranium like that, you'd think he would have mined it out of Westview long ago.

BTW, that moment in the mid-credits where Hayward just calls Vision "this thing", as in "we took this thing apart and put it back together again a million times" makes him the bad guy. I mean, I guess Agatha is choking two kids at the end of the episode, but still. Since the Mass Effect games I've always been sympathetic to the POV that synthetic life (as in, artificial, not organic) is still life.

[Spartan Girl]

1 hour ago, Jeebus Cripes said:

Steve Rogers got his do-over, so I demand Wanda gets hers. 

And Wanda deserves it more than Steve does! Vision died, he didn’t move on with his life like Peggy did only to have Steve hijack it! Sorry sorry, moving back to the episode.

Give Elizabeth Olsen the fucking Emmy! The whole “I can’t feel you” had a ET vibe and it destroyed me. No wonder the thing that finally broke Wanda was the reveal Vision was building a house in them in Westview (and the real town was kind of depressing).

Love how Wanda’s love for sitcoms played a role in dealing with her grief, including how she and Vision fell in love.

Even though Agatha was more of a bystander than the one controlling everything, she’s still a magnificent bitch.

I KNEW Hayward was lying! Zombie Vision was freaky. It can’t really be him though, right?

Only one more episode left!!!

[Kromm]

Mumble mumble James Spader possibly being the cameo, even though Bettany definitely worked with him already mumble mumble. 

[JessePinkman]

"What is grief, if not love persevering?"

Wow okay, Vision constantly dropping gems. That hit me hard.

Also Kathryn Hahn in one episode has established herself as a top tier MCU villain.

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by JessePinkman

[cambridgeguy]

1 minute ago, Spartan Girl said:

No wonder the thing that finally broke Wanda was the reveal Vision was building a house in them in Westview (and the real town was kind of depressing).

Now we need to know why Vision chose the place for their dream home.  I can't think of many people who would decide that a rundown town in New Jersey is the perfect place for domestic bliss.

I'm also assuming that Agnes is going to try to absorb Wanda's powers in the next episode and needs her to attack to do it.  Otherwise there was no reason to leave the creepy basement where she was completely neutralized.

[arc]

The mailman/delivery guy some of us have been speculating about turns out to have been just a regular pizza guy in un-hexed Westview. We got faked out. Nicely done, show.

[swanpride]

Don't buy it yet. There is still more to this imho.

[Ailianna]

3 hours ago, Kromm said:

I predict nobody likes this episode, because essentially nothing happened other than a Zombie Vision. 

I loved this episode, and even though it's been the longest yet, it flew past. A little Agatha and witch background and then seeing Wanda's before and after, and after, and after, and after. I wish she felt she had someone left after Endgame but I can see why she didn't feel that way, even though I'm sure the other Avengers would have tried to be there if they realized. But everyone is in the midst of their own emotional whirlwind and didn't see her hurricane.

And seeing how frankly evil Haywood was toward her, I think he always thought she could jumpstart a new Vision and tried to manipulate her into powering him up at SWORD. 

I'm not sure if she was able to actually recreate Vision with vibranium or if she gave him the *feeling* he had before, which would include the trace of vibranium decay. So he'd be emitting the signature but not actually made of it. She would do it so he would feel right to her senses, but it would also let Haywood track Vision inside.

Edited February 26, 2021 by Ailianna

[swanpride]

Also the whole thing with the house is weird to begin with. Who the hell just picks a house in a random place under the assumption that someone else might like it down the line?

[MagnusHex]

1 hour ago, phalange said:

If the men get some version of happiness but Wanda's the one who has to learn a lesson about grief and letting go, I'm gonna flip tables, honestly.

Adding to the fact of what happened to Black Widow... yeah, the female representation in the MCU, not so good so far. It's no wonder that Marvel has tried its hardest to stray away from Wanda's comic book history, considering how abused she was there.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

2 hours ago, Featherhat said:

We still don't know anything about Ralph or Senor Scratchy either.

Senor Scratchy must be her familiar.

4 hours ago, Avabelle said:

Ok so Wanda didn’t steal Vision - she created this version of him? How does that work, especially with the kids.

She unknowingly re-created Vision; it seems likely she unknowingly created the kids. Agatha keeps smirking about "your kids", because she knows they are just a construct.

1 hour ago, swanpride said:

Also the whole thing with the house is weird to begin with. Who the hell just picks a house in a random place under the assumption that someone else might like it down the line?

It was just a plot of land and a foundation.  They would have designed the home together.  Although, I don't imagine Vision would have actually grown old, so they would have had that whole "vampire/immortal being outlives his loved ones" situation.

As an aside, the grantees of the plot of land were Wanda and the Vision.  In order for that to be legal, Vision would have to be recognized as legally human in the MCU.  I can't imagine that actually happened.

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by ItCouldBeWorse

[tv echo]

Really good episode. But so heartbreaking!

WandaVision really should have been released last fall, right before Halloween.

[Pete Martell]

What a wonderful performance from Elizabeth Olsen in this episode - some portions, like the visions after the experiment performed on her, and her complete breakdown at her Westview home, had some of the evocative power of silent film in trusting the actor to get every agony and sense of awe across for us. I have never felt that the MCU could properly portray Wanda Maximoff, who is such a horribly complex and horribly treated character, but this episode did a lot of justice to making the MCU version a compelling and layered character in her own right. The MCU version has even more of a devastating sense of loss surrounding her (as in the comics, Pietro was at least alive much of the time, even if he was on the moon for many of those years), which was used to strong effect here.

And as a longtime comics fan who still remembers when these shows had the "no tights, no flights" type of attitude, it made me feel very happy to finally hear the words "Scarlet Witch." No more of superhero monikers being verboten, an eternal victim of winking and shame.

My only real complaint about this episode was the clunky way they utilized Wanda using sitcoms as an escape - it feels like they just came up with something to justify the sitcom-per-week format which was such a great hook to sell a show on. Only with the Vision and Wanda scene at the compound did the idea come together for me. I would have preferred if Agatha had whipped up the sitcom element of her own volition.

I prefer the Agatha Harkness of the comics (who is manipulative and did goad Wanda into power tests/expansions at times, but also cared about Wanda), but we got a more delicate take on her here than I would have expected - she's still a villain, but not as bwahaha as I had feared in the previous episode. She was genuinely fascinated by Wanda and how to use her, which served as a good mirror to Hayward's plans for Vision. I appreciated that as an Easter Egg they had her in her comics getup at the end of the episode, even though it must have been confusing for fans who don't know the comics version. 

I thought the opener with Agatha and her coven was very well done - it would have been easy to let the CGI just do all the talking there, but Kathryn Hahn and the woman who played the head witch were both great and made me feel a lot of the regret and pain and finally the complete transfer of power and loss of any sense of rationality. That whole segment really felt like a comic book panel come to life, which is not easy to do.

Good casting of Wanda's parents, especially her mother, who reminded me of Elizabeth Olsen. I was thrown throughout that whole sequence because the Maximoff living room reminded me so much of the set for David Lynch's "Rabbits" series. 

I know some fans were disappointed at the thought of Wanda being manipulated because it would have been another example of the MCU not wanting to dirty up superheroes too much. I thought they got the balance right here, fortunately - she meant well, she tried her hardest through some incredibly traumatic and cruel moments, and she just broke. This was treated much more humanely than the comics version, where, from what I remember of that trash (sorry to any fans), amounted to a quick flashback of another character reminding Wanda of her losses and then we learned she had blocked everything out and was now on a killing spree. 

I always thought the shift to White Vision in the comics, at John Byrne's apparent insistence because he felt that Wanda was basically in love with a toaster, was so depressing, and  soured many of my happier memories of the characters and their relationship, and was one of the first glimpses of the nihilist, overwrought tone of modern comics that I saw (I know it wasn't the first by any means, just the first that affected characters I was invested in). I have mixed feelings about seeing this again, but the idea works much better (or has the potential to, anyway) in this format. 

I'll be sorry to see the show end, but it's been a great ride - much more than I might have expected. 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Pete Martell

[Captain Carrot]

1 hour ago, cambridgeguy said:

Now we need to know why Vision chose the place for their dream home.  I can't think of many people who would decide that a rundown town in New Jersey is the perfect place for domestic bliss.

We are seeing the town post snap, so it's possible that it was in better shape before Thanos messed everything up. (remember the part of San Francisco with the trash piled up in Endgame).

[Cobalt Stargazer]

12 minutes ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

As an aside, the grantees of the plot of land were Wanda and the Vision.  In order for that to be legal, Vision would have to be recognized as legally human in this world.  I can't imagine that actually happened.

According to Hayward, Vision had a living will, which he claimed Wanda was violating with what she was doing with his body. Wouldn't that also require him being recognized as a person? Of course, Hayward also lied (surprise) about Wanda stealing the body, which they were taking apart to keep him from being used as a weapon again (another lie), so he's full of shit regardless and must have used only part of the footage to make it look like she took the body when she left. Dick. Dick. Dick.

It occurs to me that a good bit of this could have been avoided if he had just let her bury Vision, or if not bury him then have some kind of ceremony where she could have honored his memory. He died a hero, and then he ends up in pieces in some lab? And I'm pretty sure they weren't even going to let her see him, although we didn't see how she found out where he was. I'm shocked she didn't set the place on fire or something.

2 hours ago, Jeebus Cripes said:

Totally agree with you! This poor woman deserves some happiness after a lifetime of being shat on. No wonder she snapped and created an entire fake-happy town. 

Thirding or maybe fourthing this. As much as Elizabeth Olsen sells Wanda's pain, I don't like her being stomped on over and over again. I teared up at the scene where she remade Westview into the backdrop of her new happy life; all that love and all that sorrow and all that grief pouring out of her on red magic waves, so huge that she couldn't control it anymore because, as Agatha said, Vision was no longer there to pull her back from the edge. "I can't feel you." Just give her a damn award already.

 

23 minutes ago, Pete Martell said:

I thought the opener with Agatha and her coven was very well done - it would have been easy to let the CGI just do all the talking there, but Kathryn Hahn and the woman who played the head witch were both great and made me feel a lot of the regret and pain and finally the complete transfer of power and any sense of rationality. That whole segment really felt like a comic book panel come to life, which is not easy to do.

Notice the parallel: when Agatha is tied to the stake and the other witches are trying to destroy her, it turns out that the head of the coven is her own mother. Before she also uses her powers on her, Agatha says, "I can be good." And her mom replies, "No. You can't." That's Wanda's story too, although Agatha is genuinely evil and Wanda isn't. But Hayward's Othering of Wanda up to the point where he'll manufacture footage of her breaking into a government lab to steal "property" (ugh) is similar, because there might have been a point where Agatha could have been diverted onto another path, because apparently the coven had refused to teach her to harness her abilities correctly. Wanda's way overdoing it on making Westview over is because she finally snapped, and given everything she'd been through, it's a sign of strength that it's taken her this long.

One more episode. Whew.

[SeanC]

I mean, Hayward isn’t wrong that leaving a giant store of vibranium in the ground somewhere would not be safe.

This episode makes a lot of the outside-the-bubble stuff in earlier episodes feel even more padded; this would have sufficed as explanation.