This week, WandaVision feeds us a healthy dose of backstory in the form of a classic sitcom format. The clip show! Episode eight, this season’s penultimate episode, recaps Wanda Maximoff’s tragic history of guilt and loss while clarifying her powers at the same time. We also get a bit of backstory on our villain Agatha Harkness. She’s a witch with a taste for power and a chip on her shoulder. You wanted five thoughts. I have them for you. Spoilers ahead as I am wont to do.
1. Did Agatha decorate her basement in vines?
Throughout the episode, we learn that Wanda took over the very real town of Westview with her Chaos Magic. Agatha was drawn to the magical stink of the Westview and stuck around to figure out how Wanda pulled it off. In that time, did Agatha hand vines up beneath the home she took over? Why is that an aesthetic choice worth making. Do they serve a purpose for her magical mischief? We spend a few minutes in Agatha’s basement, and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why it looked the way it did. My guess is the basement is actually in another location and is somehow transported to Westview via hex treachery. Otherwise, those vines are local, and that’s got to be frowned upon by the Westview HOA.
2. Defective Stark Tech or probability hex
We witness Wanda and Pietro survives a Stark Industries bomb, the very crux of their backstory from Avengers: Age of Ultron. Agatha informs us that Wanda unwittingly used a probability hex to keep the bomb from detonating, leaving them to believe it was defective. Either Kevin Feige is playing quantum chess with the storytelling, or the writers are retconning a lot of our first mutant’s backstory. Either way, it’s a creative shift from Wanda merely being an “Enhanced” to becoming a latent witch who was awakened by the Mind Stone. Following that logic, Pietro was a mutant all along as well. Meaning their parents were potential mutants too. Or maybe just their father, as males carry the mutant gene. That is if you believe Pyro from X2.
3. Agatha, stop trying to steal my theories away
Well, this Pietro is not from another universe, if I understand correctly. It was a crystalline possession, whatever the hell that is. The real Pietro’s body is still pocked full of holes and buried in Sokovia, while Agatha controls whoever this is. He may be a resident of Westview from somewhere in the outskirts who happened to have silver hair. Maybe it’s Agatha’s son, Nicholas Scratch. I, for one, am going to slightly tweak my original multiverse theory. I believe this new Pietro is this universe’s version of the Fox Pietro. Maybe this is how he gets his powers and becomes the new Marvel Quicksilver. Ugh, even I feel like that is a reach. We have one more episode to go, Fake Pietro is with Monica, and we need closure.
4. Hayward, you lying sack of poop
Hayward told us Wando broke in and stole Vision’s body. I have been operating under the assumption that Wanda is simply animating Vision like a morbid puppet. Turns out, that S.W.O.R.D guy lied to us, and Wanda created her own version of Vision. You can’t trust anyone these days. In earlier episodes, S.W.O.R.D was tracking a vibranium signature inside of Westview. This means Wanda conjured up some of that sweet, sweet metal all on her own since Hayward had Vision’s original body all along. S.W.O.R.D was never trying to “get Vision back.” They were trying to score themselves Vision no. 2. All so they can suck out his color and turn Vision back into a living weapon. Hayward, you crafty s.o.b.
5. Namedropping Scarlet Witch
Is this the first time anyone has called Wanda the Scarlet Witch? It’s been so long and so many movies I can’t recall. The show makes quite a big deal about it as the episode ends with the name’s utterance. Not to mention quantifying her powers as Chaos Magic, some of the darkest, most powerful magic in the Marvel Universe. I mean, look back on all the stuff Wanda has done. Or just load up the beginning of the episode. She has magic running on auto-pilot miles away from its source. She created not only a new Vision but had two children, born entirely of magic themselves. Hell, she unwittingly grated Monica with her new electromagnetic spectrum powers. That is some high-level chaos. She has earned the name Scarlet Witch.
Continued belowThe wrap-up
This episode functioned as a recap of Wanda’s MCU history and a vehicle for some much-needed backstory. We get a better picture of Wanda’s awakening as a chaos witch and some context for often glossed over facts. For instance, what experiments did Hydra perform on her? Turns out, they just put her in a room and watched her for a minute. Those Strucker scientists are lazy. We still have a lot of storylines to close up and a single episode to do it. Strap in for episode nine, folks. Pale Vision is getting sent in to wreak havoc, Agatha has gone full witch, Wanda is in mama bear mode, Monica’s in a face-off with Faketro, and Darcy is still waiting at that damn light! One more to go. See you next week, you son of a witch.
Notables:
- Was Agatha really trying to convince her mom she was good or did she just want to kill all those ladies for that ugly broach?
- A probability hex is one of the strongest magic plot points ever written. It basically allows the caster to make anything happen or not happen by raising or lowering the desired outcome’s probability. Wanda once used it to make Thor appear during a battle, which turned the tide. It’s one of my favorite moments in comics. It’s also OP as shit.
- Still no clarity on the commercials. The theory that the actors were her parents is now debunked. I must know the truth.
- Did Wanda conjure the sitcom lights and cameras during all the episodes? Seems unnecessary. Also, how did she know which lights and cameras to even use? Probability hex to the rescue.
- Did someone leave that note for Wanda, or was she carrying it around this whole time and only went to Westview after seeing Vision’s dismantled body?
