I know I say this at the beginning of every WandaVision post, but better safe than sorry! This is a reminder that the following review heavily includes SPOILERS and is meant to be read after watching the episode!

What was it about?

Inside Westview, Wanda and Vision struggle as new parents, especially as Vision’s suspicions grow. Meanwhile outside Westview, the assembled team comes closer to finding ways to communicate with people inside the anomaly. 

My thoughts?

After last week, it was clear that we could not simply go back to the sitcom style of the first episodes. We now knew too much and therefore, I quite enjoyed the split perspective of seeing both worlds/storylines unfold. On the one hand, we are now squarely in the 80s, but with an ever fracturing facade, and on the other hand, the S.W.O.R.D. agents outside of Westview are doing their best to figure out what happened and how to free the townspeople. It’s very clear that one of my new favourite trios (Monica, Darcy and Jimmy) are not as judgmental and hostile towards Wanda and still believe that this was not premeditated, whereas the current director of S.W.O.R.D. believes her to be an imminent threat. That can only backfire …

I found it a bit hard to sort through my thoughts this time, so I will share my observations and a summary of what we learned outside of Westview first:

• We have now learned that things from the time period Wanda’s show currently takes place, can go into the anomaly unchanged. Why you would send a drone with a missile to strike Wanda without really engaging in any other way first is beyond me, but hey, I am not in charge of S.W.O.R.D.
• At one point, Wanda actually leaves Westview to return the (now damaged) drone and is welcomed by a lot of guns pointed at her. I feel like, for the first time in a while, her accent was really strong in this scene. She was dressed the way she used to be as an avenger, seemingly not in her 80s outfit, even though Monica kept her sitcom clothes when she left town. Wanda made it very clear that she is not about to give up on what she has created and that her powers are still in full effect.
• Wanda stormed the S.W.O.R.D. headquarters to get Vision’s body nine days prior to our current time in the show. I don’t quite understand why she would not be allowed to have his remains, even if his last wish included that he didn’t want to be used as a weapon. I cannot imagine Wanda ever using Vision in a way like that. The fact that he was in a laboratory and not a safe or something suggests to me that they were not honoring his wishes at the agency anyway …
• When someone mentioned Captain Marvel in front of Monica, she suddenly became real cagey. I can’t help but wonder what happened there?
• As mentioned above, there’s a sort of schism forming inside the team tasked to handle the Westview matter. Some people still believe in Wanda, whereas others just want to get rid of her.
• I thought it was a fun little play with the dialogue, when Darcy called Hayward a dick just as he called Wanda a terrorist, the two words being spoken at the same time, making it sound like he could be part of the real danger.

Now, let’s talk a little bit about what is happening inside Westview! First of all, the twins kept growing as rapidly as they did inside the womb. First they are babies, then five years old and suddenly they are ten. They seem to have a modicum of power over their growth, however, were apparently immune to Wanda’s attempt at using her magic on them when she wanted to get them to sleep as babies.

Even more notable though is the fact that no one seems to care about the strange things that happen in the WandaVision household. No one mentions anything odd about the twins growing up so fast, or being there in the first place. Especially Wanda herself becomes quite reckless with using her powers in front of the townspeople (mostly Agnes), which makes Vision feel very uncomfortable.

Again, we learned quite a lot here, so, I am trying to gather my thoughts in a hopefully conclusive way. So, here are my “inside Westview” observations:

• Several people have now openly mentioned that Wanda is in charge. Whether it be the mailman assuring the twins that Wanda would not let their beloved dog stray far, because she is in control, or Agnes openly asking if she should redo a take, because it wasn’t quite right. It seems people really are aware what is happening to them, but maybe because of the pain the spell seems to bring along (Monica described it as being drowned/held down by grief) keeps them playing along.
• 5 episodes in and despite Agnes (which I still believe stands for AGatha harkNESs) mentioning her husband Ralph, we still have not seen him? Who is he? Where is he?
• In the comics, Vision actually has a dog called Sparky too (he is a synthezoid). The dog belonged to the neighbors, but died by digging up the Grim Reaper. That would be the second time that the show made a reference to the Grim Reaper, because in episode 3, Agnes wore a brooch that eerily looked like it featured the character on it if you looked really close.
• Vision isn’t the only one questioning their reality, as the twins keep finding holes in Wanda’s logic as well, when days didn’t add up.
• Throughout the entire episode, Wanda tries to teach her fast-growing boys some life lessons, including the following (slightly rephrased):
  • “Taking care of a living things is a big responsibility”
  • “You can’t run away from grief by aging up”
  • “You cannot reverse death”
• All of those life lessons seem very relevant to Wanda’s situation and hugely contradictory to what we believe to know (and yes, I just phrased it like that deliberately, because what do we really know for a fact?).
• But back to Vision, he actually made quite the significant discoveries this episode! At work, they now have computers, which seem to get interference/e-mails from the outside world, as he manages to read a report from Darcy about the Maximoff anomaly and the radiation. It prompts him to question Norm, letting his true self surface for a brief moment. I was a bit surprised he could do that, but then I never fully grasped the extent of Vision’s powers … especially considering that he technically doesn’t have the mind stone anymore.
• Vision later confronts Wanda, asking why she is doing this to the people of Westview, what is outside of town and why there are no other children besides their twins. All very valid and observant questions, because I didn’t notice that there were no other kids around, which is suspicious considering the whole “for the children” fundraiser a couple episodes back.
  He also made it clear to Wanda that she couldn’t control him, which she threateningly questioned, but later assured him that she wasn’t behind all of this. The thing is, I believe her? Wanda can lie for sure and Elizabeth Olsen is a fantastic actress, but in that moment, I honestly thought she was telling the truth. And then the doorbell rang and she again said this wasn’t her doing. I am still in shock of what happened next.

Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff is BACK! The funniest thing in that moment was Darcy proclaiming “Wanda recast Pietro?”, when we as an audience know that Evan Peters is ALSO Quicksilver, just in the X-Men franchise. This further strengthens my theory that we are already dealing with the multiverse at the moment. Wanda didn’t seem perplexed by Evan as Pietro, but just by the fact that he was here and alive in front of her. This is a huge maybe, but maybe we are dealing with more than one Wanda? Endgame messed up a lot of timelines and worlds, it was bound to have repercussions eventually. I adore how many new possibilities this opens up and that we might one day get a similar scene to this again:

We are back with another ad! This time it was for Lagos paper towels, suggesting they clean up any mess you make. Clearly, Wanda has created quite the mess now, but this was a heavy reference to her mission in Lagos where she accidentally killed several civilians and relief aid workers by redirecting an explosion too close to a building. It caused her severe distress at the time, questioning the destructive nature of her powers, while also causing one of the major discussions about the jurisdiction and accountability of the Avengers as a whole (ultimately leading to the Sokovia accords).

This was actually one of the longest episodes so far and I really think that WandaVision has found its groove with its pacing. You keep learning new things, but you are never overwhelmed with information. As the plot thickens, I am curious to find out what is truly going on, because I think we have only scratched the surface.

PREVIOUS WANDAVISION REVIEWS

• Episode 1 & 2
• Episode 3 “Now in Color”
• Episode 4 “We Interrupt This Program”

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Before I leave you here with a lot to think about, I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be able to watch and review next week’s episode in as timely of a manner as I did so far. Unfortunately, I am not sure I will make it on Friday at all, but I hope you will still stop by once I do (and that I will be able to avoid any potential spoilers until I can enjoy it myself)!

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What did you think of this week’s episode? Are you excited for next week? Only four more episodes to go!