Contains Spoilers
The penultimate episode of WandaVision reveals much about what it is that has been happening this whole time, as it sets the stage for a final episode where pretty much all bets are off the table. Using the theme of finding truth within grief, it is an episode that allows for a fuller exploration of who Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) is and where she has come from, giving a deeper sense of her origins than her cinematic appearances ever allowed for. What we think we might already know about Wanda is also very much thrown into question.
At the end of last week’s episode, it was revealed that Wanda and Vision’s (Paul Bettany) neighbour Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) was not just another resident of Westview under Wanda’s control. She was in fact a witch, real name Agatha Harkness, who has been manipulating elements of Wanda’s fantasy the entire time. But she is not the one responsible for said fantasy. As a witch who has been on the Earth for hundreds of years, Agatha was drawn to the magic conjured by Wanda to create the sitcom world within Westview. Now that she has revealed herself to Wanda, Agatha is determined to get Wanda to reveal just how she managed to pull off magic on this scale, and that means taking her back across her life to revisit her most painful memories.
This is something of a ‘clipshow’ episode if you will, as Wanda and Agatha take a trip into Wanda’s timeline, from her childhood in Sokovia (where we are shown just why Wanda has been drawing upon sitcoms this entire time), to her being granted powers by the Mind Stone when working for Hydra, to her dealing with the loss of Vision after returning from The Blip.
In these moments, Wanda is given a fuller sense of an origin, with the suggestion being made in this telling that the Mind Stone awoke something that was already within her rather than simply granting her these powers. We see the moment where she lost her parents dramatised, after hearing her tell the tale in Age of Ultron, but we also get a sweet moment between her and Vision at The Avengers Compound following her brother’s death. It is moments like these that we only got a few of in the films, and seeing more of them played out here helps strengthen the relationship with the characters that had otherwise largely relied on the strength of the two talented actors to fill in the blanks. It is a particularly touching scene, one that does very well to build on the show’s theme of grief, and how it is unfortunately an inevitable byproduct of love.
The greatest reveal in terms of plot though comes as we witness a post-Endgame Wanda leaving SWORD HQ, without Vision’s body, demonstrating that SWORD in fact fabricated a lie that she stole his remains. She heads to Westview, where we learn that she and Vision had bought a plot of land there to build a house before everything went Thanos-shaped in Infinity War. It is here that some fans might think that a deal with a certain comic-book devil would be made, but the show doesn’t play to that theory. Instead it is revealed that the fantasy has been what Moncia said it was from her first exit from The Hex: it’s all Wanda. Her grief manifested itself in a great show of power that created this reality bending world for her to hide within, as well as creating a full bodied Vision to exist within it, not reanimating his remains as SWORD led us and Monica to believe (they’ve held on to those, for what could be something more sinister). That’s all Agatha needs to see, deeming Wanda’s power set as chaos magic and revealing that she believes her to be a myth come to life who goes by a certain name: The Scarlet Witch.
It has been feeling like this series has been building to a way to have Wanda’s comic-book name uttered, and it is very intriguing that it is done so in such a way that makes one reconsider her character’s origins. It may be a stretch at this point, but part of the fun here is to speculate, but if the Mind Stone did indeed awaken powers (or, even, a mutation!?) that were already within her, one can see a potential means for Marvel to introduce their own versions of the X-Men characters into the MCU (the question around Pietro’s re-casting is one that remains slightly cloudy heading into the finale, so alternate realities may still come into play).
These elements make this a fun episode for both thinking about the future, both immediate and long term, while also reassessing the past for the franchise. But it is also an episode that helps deepen the greater theme at play here, one which is dealing with grief. Olsen once again delivers the goods, presenting a Wanda who is driven to such a display of power by sadness, not anger, as the world and people around her continue to fear her through their misconceptions. She has revelled in the chance to make audiences connect more with Wanda, and it has undoubtedly proved to be very effective. Will the final episode allow her some sense of closure and happiness? Time will tell, but this is perhaps one of the strongest character driven episodes of the bunch, leading to much excitement and anticipation for next week’s finale. Please stand by…
