WandaVision WandaVision: Season 1, Episode 5 “On a Very Special Episode...” (spoilers)

[WhiskeyKnight]

What a good episode!
Got a Working theory in my head. There’s still some other force at work here. Maybe mephisto using her to take her kids, he likes taking kids. Foxsilver, vision and her kids get taken from her at the end of the show she gets so mad she does some weird hex on him to give her, her family or some wording that isn’t very specific. he tricks out her wish/hex and says something about “her family, all of it, her sisters and brother(hood)s” she’s like what? Show ****s off and we now have mutants start popping up in the MCU. We get a nice nod to the foxmen being it’s own universe and they get to recast new mutants as they go, buying them time and getting us excited without committing to anyone yet.

 

[Holy Slapper]

John Rocha also picked up that the engineer Monica was talking about was referred to in Spanish as a female and he suggested it might be Abigail Brand.

 

[pixen]

John Rocha also picked up that the engineer Monica was talking about was referred to in Spanish as a female and he suggested it might be Abigail Brand.

That’s what I was thinking too. She could be the one that could replace the head of SWORD should it need a replacement.

 

[kguillou]

I wonder how much of the viewership shrugged their shoulders when Evan Peters showed up. Those recent FoXmen films werent nearly as popular as the MCU so i could see a lot of people being like, “who’s this guy?”

Although i suppose on its own the reveal still kinda works even if you dont know who Evan Peters is or who he played.

 

[JB-the-Hunter]

To be fair, does a Luke-level equivalent even exist in the MCU? That character's been around since the late '70s. lol

Lizzie herself didn't even bring up Luke in The Mandalorian, she just responded "yes" to the person who posed the question about it, so I think this whole thing is a bit hyperbolic.

That said, Jackman as Logan, Stewart as Xavier, McKellen as Magneto and Tobey Maguire as Peter would all qualify as a near Luke-level reveal. Maybe even RDJ as Tony. I don't think any of those will happen though. It's possible she's referring to an actor and not a character.

 

[ernesth100]

Lizzie herself didn't even bring up Luke in The Mandalorian, she just responded "yes" to the person who posed the question about it, so I think this whole thing is a bit hyperbolic.

That said, Jackman as Logan, Stewart as Xavier, McKellen as Magneto and Tobey Maguire as Peter would all qualify as a near Luke-level reveal. Maybe even RDJ as Tony. I don't think any of those will happen though. It's possible she's referring to an actor and not a character.

Its either gonna be Doctor Strange or Captain Marvel.

This show is easily setting up possible plotlines for both.

 

[ArmsHeldOut]

Lizzie herself didn't even bring up Luke in The Mandalorian, she just responded "yes" to the person who posed the question about it, so I think this whole thing is a bit hyperbolic.

That said, Jackman as Logan, Stewart as Xavier, McKellen as Magneto and Tobey Maguire as Peter would all qualify as a near Luke-level reveal. Maybe even RDJ as Tony. I don't think any of those will happen though. It's possible she's referring to an actor and not a character.

Yeah, I honestly wouldn't be all that surprised if she was just referring to the Pietro reveal. The slightly perfunctory nature of her response suggests that. Or... maybe not. It's hard to say. Eh, I suppose we'll find out in due time.

An appearance from Maguire would be huge.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I wonder how much of the viewership shrugged their shoulders when Evan Peters showed up. Those recent FoXmen films werent nearly as popular as the MCU so i could see a lot of people being like, “who’s this guy?”

Although i suppose on its own the reveal still kinda works even if you dont know who Evan Peters is or who he played.

Haha, yeah I could see a lot of people watching it and being like, “Hey, it’s Lobster Boy from American Horror Story!”

 

[Dark Raven]

Maybe it will be Mark Hamill showing up as the Joker.

 

[Gladius Nova]

I wonder how much of the viewership shrugged their shoulders when Evan Peters showed up. Those recent FoXmen films werent nearly as popular as the MCU so i could see a lot of people being like, “who’s this guy?”

Although i suppose on its own the reveal still kinda works even if you dont know who Evan Peters is or who he played.

Yeah, that's exactly what my wife said and I had to explain it to her. She still looked confused. But since she is a fan of American Horror Story, she did recognized EP as one of the actors.

 

[Mike Murdock]

I think this was overshadowed by everything else, but they announced Wanda's parents and they weren't Django and Marya Maximoff but two new names I didn't recognize. Anyone think that was odd?

 

[Dark Raven]

For many viewers it would be a simple recast because they couldn't get the original actor back (or didn't want him). It's like Don Cheadle as Rhodey or Mark Ruffalo as Banner. In sitcoms and soaps there were recasts all the time without anyone batting an eyelid, especially if it had been some time since the character was last seen.

No-one really said anything about Howard Stark's recast as played mostly by two different actors.

 

[SirStrangefolk]

I think this was overshadowed by everything else, but they announced Wanda's parents and they weren't Django and Marya Maximoff but two new names I didn't recognize. Anyone think that was odd?

Yeah, I noticed. Oleg and Irina. Not Django and Marya, not Natalya, not Magda, but completely new names.

For many viewers it would be a simple recast because they couldn't get the original actor back (or didn't want him). It's like Don Cheadle as Rhodey or Mark Ruffalo as Banner. In sitcoms and soaps there were recasts all the time without anyone batting an eyelid, especially if it had been some time since the character was last seen.

No-one really said anything about Howard Stark's recast as played mostly by two different actors.

With the key difference between this and Banner, Rhodey or Howard of course being that it was pointed out in-universe this time and part of the story that it isn't right. I'm pretty sure even a casual viewer would pick up on that.

 

[metaphysician]

Holyyyyy moly. I mean, I knew he was coming but for a quick second based on the hair, I thought it was going to be ATJ.


can we talk about how scary Wanda was when she exited the energy field?!?!

I suspect it might be better phrased as "How scary 'Wanda' was". After all, her demeanor and actions when "she" left the energy field were almost completely alien to her behavior inside it, vis a vis ruthlessness, knowledge, and intentionality. In particular, Evil!Wanda acted as if everything was under her absolute control, while Sitcom!Wanda. . . knows that things are weird and is trying to ignore it, but also clearly has things that are *not* under her control at all.

Which is to say, combine the weird disjoint between Wanda's behavior and motives, and the meta-level structural hints ( things like the timing of the "reveal", and the whole "******* boss wants to shoot her, heroic supporting cast still believe something is up" dynamic )? My money is still on "It ain't all Wanda", aka "Theory Mephisto". *cough*

Other comments:

1. So, I am 95% sure that Jerkass SWORD Boss is hiding stuff. I mean, hiding *more* stuff rather. He knew Wanda had broke into a SWORD base and stole Vision's body, and he kept that to himself until fairly late, only pulling it out to better justify going hard against Wanda? Rather than mentioning it upfront the moment Wanda clearly was in play? If I had to guess, she entirely did steal Vision's body. . . only SWORD wasn't being quite so benign and uninvolved with it. Most likely scenario, Wanda busted in and took his body when she found out they were trying to copy him. Long shot scenario: the video recording was faked, she was *given* the body. . . because Jerkass Boss is part of the Mephisto Cult/etc.

2. Pietro, sigh. Look, I 100% understand the use of Evan Peters to set off a literal cheer in the live studio audience, and a figurative one elsewhere. I liked him too. But people are *totally* going to interpret this to mean all kinds of crazy X-Men theories for which the evidence simply does not exist. Replacing a character who already existed and had ties in the setting, with a new actor who also has played a different version of the character? Does not at all mean that WandaVision is a back door X-Men pilot, nor does it mean anything about Fox canon somehow getting incorporated.

 

[metaphysician]

I predict some previous beef between Monica and Carol, which will faced in Captain Marvel 2.

I still dont want the previous X-characters in the MCU so I am kind of underwhelmed by the surprise at the end. I wish they could bring us the Aaron instead and that is just a meta joke. Peters being quirky didnt help either but I hope its just his "role" in the comedy.

Wanda was very scary outside Westview, I was in shock. But it seems she was controlled by herself from something else, even stealing Visions body. I droped by idea that Dottie could be all behind this so I have Agnes and Sword Director left.

Honestly, the video footage we saw of Wanda's attack on the SWORD base was so limited that it could mean all kinds of things. I lean to that actually being Wanda of her own volition, but Jerk SWORD Director was hiding that they were totally trying to reverse engineer the Vision. Things only went south for Wanda later when whatever ultimately caused Westview to happen happened.

Also, consider the demeanor when she confronted the SWORD forces, versus her demeanor inside Westview. Her behavior inside the town ( even when acting to protect her new home ) is almost incompatible with the degree of implied ruthless control when she confronted SWORD. It really could only work if she had almost completely mindwiped herself. . . except if she were that ruthless and that precise, a lot of the other stuff inside the town wouldn't make sense. Hence why I think the Evil!Wanda who confronted SWORD was either puppeteered, or just a flat out imposter/duplicate.

 

[metaphysician]

From her perspective, it was only a few days since Vision had the mind stone ripped from his head.

She was probably mourning, found out where Vision was, broke him out and took the body, repurposed him and then once she'd created her little world, everything just seems perfect for her.

I don't think it's a case of her cracking. It's just her picking up the pieces and continuing on with life, as strange as this new life and circumstances are.

Most likely, with the proviso that she probably didn't *intend* to envelop a whole town in an altered reality. That was probably, directly or indirectly, the result of whatever Secret Big Bad has hijacked the whole affair. If I had to guess, her original intent was either a house-sized "bubble", or a *subtle* mental illusion on the town to simply conceal their presence as being perfectly normal. Either way, whatever added means she was using to fix the Vision jacked the process, cranked up the gain, and thus you get full-town-sized altered reality.

 

[Iceman]

Most likely, with the proviso that she probably didn't *intend* to envelop a whole town in an altered reality. That was probably, directly or indirectly, the result of whatever Secret Big Bad has hijacked the whole affair. If I had to guess, her original intent was either a house-sized "bubble", or a *subtle* mental illusion on the town to simply conceal their presence as being perfectly normal. Either way, whatever added means she was using to fix the Vision jacked the process, cranked up the gain, and thus you get full-town-sized altered reality.

Yeah, no way there can be intent on extending it to the whole town or she steps into proper villain territory.

 

[metaphysician]

Well, a lot of them are likely still wanted for not signing the Sokovia Accords so a lot of them are in hiding and may not be aware of what Wanda has been doing. I do think

Spoiler

Dr. Strange or at least Wong

show up leading to Doctor Strange 2.

That should have been rendered *spectacularly* moot post-Infinity War. The Avengers were acting as public heroes for five years without any legal problem.

 

[metaphysician]

Well I mean if you just need to talk her down...you can call him up. Cap's old, not dead. I suppose it might be less effective unless Wanda was brought into the loop about him still being alive.

Also wouldn't the first person you call up in this situation be Clint? He's been her effective guardian/parental figure since Age of Ultron. Of course he's probably in no position to lecture someone considering the rampage he went on...But I'd probably call him before Banner.


Honestly I had less issue with the character assassination than his overall tone and behavior. The guy just screams suspicious. Which I mean could still turn into a twist that he isn't evil. But the direction Sword has taken since he took over seemed to throw off Monica. Besides the fair argument that him showing up to escort her around the base after her pass card failed was a major power move. He knew she was coming and had time to either re-activate her security or meet her at the entrance before she failed to get in on her own.

Honestly his reaction to Monica getting caught up in that field felt off. Heck, sending Monica on that mission in the first place could reveal him being up to something. Either he knew Wanda was involved in it and didn't warn her, or he didn't know and sent her off on what looked to be a pretty minor case at first glance.

His attempt to kill Wanda could go either way. Either a very extreme response to an extreme situation, or trying to get Wanda killed before anything that looks bad on him comes to light. What was he really doing with Vision's body? Maybe nothing particularly nefarious, but worth looking into.

I'll just hope you weren't putting words in my mouth as an excuse to go off on your own tirade.

Huh, thinking about it. . . so a close coworker and associate, who used to be one of the top people in the agency, returns from the dead and comes back to work. And pretty much the first thing Hayward does is. . . send her out on a wild goose chase mission to help the FBI? Grounded or not, in retrospect that seems really suspicious. The kind of thing someone would do because they wanted Monica *away* from the office. And then it blew up in his face, because she didn't spend a week or two chasing leads for the FBI, she instead wandered into a superhuman disaster site. Oops.

 

[metaphysician]

I agree, but read some discussions elsewhere which were convinced otherwise

I'll be honest, most of those discussions are majority motivated reasoning, starting from the premise of "Okay, I really want the X-Men to be introduced, either the Fox version or new MCU versions. . ." Which strikes me as kind of absurd in this case, since this is a situation where we *literally know peoples' thoughts and perceptions and the local reality are being screwed around with*. You literally can't take *anything* at face value.

 

[Flash525]

I've been doing some thinking regarding Vision; I know it was speculated previously that he was an illusion or fabrication of some sort, but we now know that he is Vision, and that he's just been placed back together and reanimated somehow..

If there are demonic forces at play here, is it not possible that Wanda made a deal with the devil, Visions life for a slightly altered reality where souls can be fed upon or something?

If Wanda can't actually bring back the dead, then how is Vision alive? Wanda is fully aware of the outside world and has threatened them to leave her be, but I'm wondering whether that's not only for her sake, but theirs too?

Just seems a bit far fetched that she's gone from that scene with Barton to suddenly breaking into a SWORD facility and throwing an entire town into an illusion. We know she can't possibly be playing all the cards, and I think she knows that too.

 

[Holy Slapper]

Its either gonna be Doctor Strange or Captain Marvel.

This show is easily setting up possible plotlines for both.

I have some doubts about that. Brie Larson has said that during lockdown she really "let herself go" as in didn't train. She's only began doing that again for a couple of months, most recently with Tegan Nox from NXT (WWE). I'm leaning toward's a character, not necessarily an actor, being the surprise appearance.

 

[Holy Slapper]

I'm also not completely ruling out that this Monica is a Skrull.

 

[Dark Raven]

I have some doubts about that. Brie Larson has said that during lockdown she really "let herself go" as in didn't train. She's only began doing that again for a couple of months, most recently with Tegan Nox from NXT (WWE). I'm leaning toward's a character, not necessarily an actor, being the surprise appearance.

Well they had fat Thor before, so how do you know we can't get fat Captain Marvel?

 

[Holy Slapper]

Well they had fat Thor before, so how do you know we can't get fat Captain Marvel?

She didn't get fat, she just lost muscle mass due to not training. Basically she got skinny.