‘WandaVision’ Finally Tosses Us Some Answers With One Heck Of A (Villainous?) Curveball

(Spoilers from Marvel Studios and Disney+’s WandaVision will be found below.)

WandaVision spent three episodes stirring up easter eggs that propped up HYDRA and Age Of Ultron references to remind everyone that Wanda Maximoff can’t escape her traumatic past. She can’t even do so while hiding in suburbia and, potentially, concocting an entire sitcom-y world to avoid reality. This week, we’re finally getting some answers, many of which were more than suggested in an advance clip, but let’s do this:

(1) Geraldine is, as suspected, actually the grown-up version of Captain Marvel‘s Monica Rambeau (who might become Captain Marvel one day), and she’s definitely an agent of SWORD (Sentient World Observation and Response Department), which is essentially a cosmic version of SHIELD that similarly deals with threats to humanity that would include HYDRA. She’s there in an attempt to “snap” Wanda out of whatever nefarious business SWORD has detected in Westview (and we also see how Monica went through her own trauma when she re-materialized from Thanos “snap” from Infinity War).

(2) Agent Jimmy Woo (from Ant-Man And The Wasp) is also a SWORD guy, and he’s the voice who was attempting to contact Wanda over the radio. At one point, he asks, “The universe created a sitcom starring two Avengers?” Oh sweet Jimmy Woo, there is so much more to that story coming your way.

(3) Darcy Lewis (from multiple Thor movies) is also assisting with the SWORD investigation on what’s going on with Marvel. She’s that figure who we saw peering into a monitor while the Westview events began to unfold earlier in the season. She’s essentially the audience POV but so much cooler than all of us.

So, that’s the setup. The episode is essentially an infodump that takes a break from the sitcom mold that it crafted for itself. Actually, there’s more to that because we’ve been wondering all along if Wanda created this world to enjoy one last, lingering hurrah with Vision after he died in Avengers: Endgame. He didn’t even just die, he had a damn hole burned into his head when Thanos extracted the Mind Stone. And after we’ve heard some “indestructible head” jokes from Wanda (who appeared to truly believe what she was saying), we got one hell of a reality check at the end of the episode.

Here’s how that went down. Wanda got nasty with Monica/Geraldine and ignited her powers, thereby hurling the SWORD agent through several walls and out of Westview.

This instantly clues Monica into exclaiming that this is “all Wanda.” From that, it sure as heck looks like Monica believes that no one else is pulling the strings in Westview. (This may not be the case, given that Darcy was shown to have uncovered everyone’s identities in Westview other than Agnes, meaning that Agnes is also up to no good.)

And, well, here’s the money shot of the week. Vision’s looking pretty damn dead here, which answers the whole “how on earth is he alive?” question.

So yes, he’s obviously dead now. No question about it. Even though he’s dead, Vision still seems freaked out by Wanda’s behavior, but since we don’t know if she reanimated his corpse or is simply imagining that he’s there (and can’t escape the “dead” thing), I have to wonder if Wanda’s thoughts from her subconscious or conscience are coming out of Vision’s mouth. Whatever the answer to that question might be, Disney+ gave us one heck of a jump scare, and worked on people.

All of this, really and truly, makes me scratch my head at the swirling rumors (that have not been discouraged by the show or cast interviews) about who the villain of WandaVision might turn out to be. It’s generally understood that this will be the greatest MCU villain of all, one who would rival Thanos in badness, but might we receive two major villains from this show? Clearly, Wanda’s losing her tenuous grip on sanity after a lifetime of trauma (she was a HYDRA test subject, lost her parents to a Stark Industries bombing, and witnessed Pietro/Quicksilver being killed by Ultron). While I’m thinking about Ultron, I do need to say that he was easily the worst MCU villain that we’ve ever seen, so that adds further insult to Pietro’s death. And I wonder if everything here might be building toward a major MCU villain actually being… Wanda/Scarlet Witch?

Wanda was introduced as the most powerful Avenger before being sidelined. She can bend reality and get inside of her enemies’ minds, and she nearly took out Thanos. Recall how she vengefully faced off against Thanos during the Avengers: Endgame final battle while snarling that he’d taken everything away from her. Kevin Feige recently confirmed that the moment does matter (a lot) in his mind. “I think it’s interesting, if you look at Endgame, Wanda Maximoff was going to kill Thanos,” Feige pointed out. “That’s as scared as I’ve ever seen Thanos, and if he hadn’t said, ‘Decimate my entire team to get her off of me,’ I think she would have done it.”

Wanda Maximoff as not merely an antagonist but a supervillain is definitely possible!

It’s worth theorizing about at the very least. A lot of the fandom still believes that, at some point, Agnes will be confirmed as Agatha Harkness, a sorceress from the comics who helped Wanda come into her powers while training with HYDRA. Her husband, Ralph, is suspected of being Mephisto, who fans are presuming will be the next big baddie. Hey, why can’t there be two big baddies? We know that Wanda will play a pivotal role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so let the speculation begin on that note.

‘WandaVision’ will stream new episodes each Friday.