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The seventh episode of WandaVision enters the relatively modern genre of fourth-wall-breaking sitcoms, mashing together shows like Modern Family, The Office, Parks & Recreation and Happy Endings (which, not so incidentally, included Marvel’s Russo Brothers as producers). It was a pure delight seeing the cast in their ‘interview’ segments, and giving those glances directly to the camera in reaction to something going on around them. And we got a big — though not totally unexpected — reveal. Two or three, actually!
The episode finds Wanda waking the morning after Halloween, in sort of a ‘hungover’ state, Vision missing, and the kids complaining that their video game has gone crazy (a flashback to their game controllers changing to old Atari joysticks and then Uno cards was pretty funny). Wanda sends them away so she can ‘rest her eyes’ but she eventually crawls out of bed, still in her Scarlet Witch leotard, and makes her way to the kitchen to have a bowl of cereal. But, after taking the oat milk out of the fridge, she notices it shifting to a carton (with a missing child photo) and then to an old-fashioned milk bottle.
Joining the kids in the living room, Wanda just really wants a ‘quarantine-style staycation’ and who should conveniently pop in but Agnes who offers to take the kids to her place for a while so Wanda can relax and regroup. This is the first time Agnes has had that opportunity since Vision has prevented her from interacting with the boys in previous episodes. After they leave, Wanda’s living room begins to shift, furniture changing, the flat screen TV reverting to an old tube TV. Confused, Wanda uses her powers to switch them back, but she seems to realize that she is beginning to lose her grip in the ‘false world’ she’s created.
Vision awakens back inside The Hex and finds himself on the grounds of a traveling circus, the strong man assuming he’s the new clown (since he’s already in makeup). He’s to do his act with the new escape artist … Darcy! Vision recognizes her, but she has no recollection of him now that she’s under Wanda’s mind control. After a few infuriating moments trying to get through to her, Vision finally uses his power to release Darcy who tells him she secretly wanted to be cast in their show but not like this. And then she tells him all the dirt — he’s dead. Wanda did bring him back to life, but Thanos rewound time and killed him again, forcing Wanda to watch. And, it turns out, Agent Hayward and S.W.O.R.D. had Vision’s body to turn him into a new super-weapon … until Wanda stole him. But Hayward still has plans to breach The Hex and bring Vision in one way or another.
On the other side of The Hex, Monica and Jimmy meet up with her contacts — sorry folk, not Reed Richards as many had speculated — military personnel loyal to her, not Hayward. And they have a vehicle created to Monica’s spec to drive through The Hex wall so she can get to Wanda before Hayward does. Because Monica can see that Wanda isn’t the bad guy here, and suspects that she may be manipulated as well. But The Hex is stronger than Monica imagined, not able to sail right through. Instead, the front half of her vehicle is ‘rewritten’ into the front of a dirty old pickup truck and spat out into the field. Monica gets out just in time and decides the only way to get in is to run through, but her journey is much more difficult than the last time she was sucked in.
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Passing through The Hex wall, Monica begins to split into the various versions of herself from the past episodes of Wanda’s sitcoms. When they finally all come together again and she breaks through to the other side, Monica is definitely changed, her eyes now a bright blue, able to see all the colors of the spectrum. Yes, Monica has become the superhero she was destined to be, although which name she eventually takes probably won’t be known until her appearance in Captain Marvel 2. (She’s had three different names in the comics, including Spectrum.) While Monica makes her way to Wanda, Darcy and Vision are attempting to get home too, but they keep hitting one red light after another out in the middle of nowhere (let’s assume it’s the same light and they’ve just been misdirected around in a circle). The light turns green, but then a crew shows up to fix the light, blocking the intersection. That done, Darcy is stopped again by a crossing guard and children. Vision finally does what he should have done all along and flies off (through the roof of the funnel cake truck they’re in).
Monica gets to Wanda first and tries to tell her what’s going on and what Hayward is trying to do, but Wanda isn’t hearing it. But she’s also surprised when Monica demonstrates her own powers to protect herself and fight back. Before things come to a head, Agnes shows up and takes Wanda back to her house. Inside Agnes’ oddly ornate home, Wanda wonders where the boys are. Agnes suggests they may be playing in the basement. Why not, right? Wanda goes down the stairs into a cavernous room and sees a strange book. Agnes appears behind her with her rabbit Senor Scratchy, and then …
She reveals that her real name is Agatha Harkness, and this is really her show complete with a catchy theme song, ‘It Was Agatha All Along’, and an opening titles montage showing us that she was indeed manipulating everything, from Vision’s failed magic trick in Episode 2 to the appearance of Pietro. And she even killed Sparky! So, yes, fan theories about Agnes being Agatha were dead on, even after last week’s fake-out when she seemed to Vision (and us) as just another innocent victim (her montage even confirmed that she was just acting with Vision). And then the credits roll.
But … we get our first mid-credits scene of the series as Monica searches around the outside of Agnes’ house. Finding a stairway to the basement, she opens the doors but Pietro appears and says ‘snoopers gonna snoop’. Uh oh.
New episodes of WandaVision premiere Fridays on Disney+.
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