Hey! Hallie here!
I know this is a day late, but so much happened in the third episode of ‘WandaVision’ that I absolutely have to talk about it. As I said in my last post, for the future I was hoping that we’d get to see both Wanda and Vision outside of their television show personas, and I was hoping the plot would pick up fairly quickly considering the small number of episodes. Episode three did both of these and did them well. We still haven’t seen Vision and Wanda act completely themselves, but parts of them absolutely peaked through in this episode. This is particularly true for Wanda, who needs to act herself in order for the exploration of her mental health to be well handled. With those desires met, let’s look at what the episode did as a whole.
The Good:
Wanda. Wanda was a huge part of this episode’s mystery. Everything she did demonstrated just how much control she has over this reality. Wanda progressed her own pregnancy so that it ended after only a few days. When Vision noticed something was very wrong about her pregnancy and began to seriously question her, Wanda rewound the conversation to before he had made the discovery. This is extremely similar to what occurred when Wanda and Vision noticed the beekeeper in episode two. This time, however, there was no rewinding effect to accompany the reset of the scene. The conversation simply restarted as if nothing happened. Later on, once her twin boys were born, Wanda began a conversation with Geraldine. We already know that Geraldine is actually Monica Rambeau, another superhero from the comics who takes on the Captain Marvel title at some point. As of this episode, we now know Monica has been attempting to help Wanda leave the reality she’s in. However, Monica takes it a step too far when she mentions Pietro. Wanda is initially dazed by the mention of Pietro. She begins to reminisce and sings a song in her native tongue to her children. But when Monica mentions that Ultron killed Pietro, Wanda becomes both more herself and extremely angry. She instantly notices that Monica has a sword necklace around her neck. The same emblem that was on the beekeeper suit and the red toy plane, which seems to appear anytime someone attempts to snap Wanda out of it. Unfortunately, Wanda isn’t too happy to see the emblem and forces Monica out of her reality and into the outside world. She’s completely aware of what she did too, and she lies to Vision about what happened. Whether or not Wanda is fully responsible for everything that’s happening, she absolutely plays a hand in it. She’s determined to protect this reality, which will create problems later.
Monica Rambeu. Monica has a lot of time in this episode. She’s extremely likable as Geraldine, but her role as Monica is interesting. We know she’s part of SWORD now, and the way that she’s forced out of Wanda’s reality does give us a bigger glimpse into SWORD. When she’s forced out she’s instantly surrounded by cars and people, likely from SWORD. Monica is listed for all the remaining episodes, so it will be interesting to see what she does now that she’s outside of Wanda’s reality. This is only the start of her character.
The Neighbors. In this episode the neighbors are also acting stranger than normal. At the beginning of the episode Vision catches Herb carving into his wall while he’s tending to his plants, as if he’s glitching. The doctor Vision gets to see to Wanda’s pregnancy is also set to leave for vacation, but he doesn’t seem able to leave. Later on Vision sees Agnes and Herb having a conversation. When Vision joins the conversation the audience discovers that both Herb and Agnes are aware that they’re trapped. Agnes implies that Geraldine is different from the other neighbors and Herb attempts to explain to Vision exactly what’s happening. Agnes stops Herb from saying anything, but she does convey some urgency to Vision when she realizes Wanda is speaking to Geraldine alone. As the audience we know that Agnes is actually the witch Agatha Harkness from the comics, who mentors Wanda in her abilities and is killed by Wanda at one point. What role Agatha plays in this scenario is yet to be discovered, but I’m excited to see what will happen with her character next.
Vision. Vision seems to be more under Wanda’s control than the other neighbors in this reality. While the other neighbors seem to know what’s happening, at least to an extent, Wanda erases Vision’s memory whenever he discovers something so that he will continue believing the dream life she created for them. However, while Wanda does erase one of Vision’s discoveries from his memory in this episode, she isn’t present when he starts to notice their neighbors acting strangely. When he finally has a conversation with Herb and Agnes he becomes extremely concerned by the situation. He even rushes into the house when Agnes conveys to him that Geraldine shouldn’t be alone with Wanda. When he finds that Geraldine disappeared he’s somewhat frightened, and Wanda’s lie about her whereabouts doesn’t seem to convince him. I sincerely hope that Vision continues to put pieces together as the series goes on. While Wanda’s control over him is interesting, his new awareness is too good not to explore.
Bad:
The 70’s-Themed Episode. This isn’t to say I didn’t like the 70’s theming. The introduction was hilarious and everything from the costuming to the new interior for the house was perfect. The issue is that the more comedic format felt more out of place this episode. The reason behind this is it’s lack of commitment to the format. While there were fun parts, the only thing the episode wanted to focus on was the mysterious elements. The 70’s comedy was left to a smaller amount of scenes, which made most of them feel odd after the darker themes of other scenes. This isn’t a huge gripe, but I do think the show could strike a better balance between the sitcom aspects and the mystery of the show.
Those were my thoughts on episode three! This episode delivered exactly what I wanted. I definitely look forward to Wanda going back to the character I know and love, but for now I’m content with the small moments we’ve been given. And I’m more intrigued than ever to know what’s going on. I’m genuinely frustrated that I can’t binge the entire series at once. For now I’ll have to be patient and come back to this again when episode four is released.
Don’t do anything fun until I get back!
Hallie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 