Hey! Hallie here!
The final episode of ‘WandaVision’ finally hit Disney+ yesterday and, as usual, there’s so much to talk about! Because it’s the end of the season, I’m going to stick to my original “What I Liked” and “What I Didn’t Like” categories to talk about this episode and the series as a whole. So without wasting any more time, let’s talk about this episode!
What I Liked:
Wanda: I was one of those people who was absolutely certain that Wanda was going to end the series a villain, or in the very least, an anti-hero. After all, she had kidnapped and mind controlled all of the people in Westview. I was also convinced that if she didn’t become a villain that would imply that the plot hadn’t held her accountable for her actions. The show surprised me by both holding her accountable and still keeping her as a mostly moral hero. While she and Agatha are fighting towards the beginning of the episode, Agatha frees the people of Westview from Wanda’s control so they can gang up on her. When they do, various people confess to Wanda the horrible things she’s been putting them through. It’s also revealed that while Wanda was maintaining the spell over them, she didn’t know how it was affecting them. She thought she was making them happier, or at least wasn’t affecting them in any harmful way, but instead she was projecting her grief into them and causing them pain. She also didn’t realize that they weren’t able to contact the family members Wanda hadn’t written into her storylines because those family members, such as their children, were stuck in their rooms. After being horrified by this information, she undid the barrier of the Hex to let them all escape before putting it back up once again to prevent Vision and her children from disappearing.
Wanda’s fight with Agatha was interesting. We got to see her use her mind manipulation powers mid-fight, the ones we haven’t seen since ‘Age of Ultron’. We also saw her outsmart Agatha by putting up runes within the hex, nullifying Agatha’s powers. She then turned into the Scarlet Witch, with a beautiful new costume to match that is not over-sexualized. By the end of all of it she turned Agatha back into Agnes, intending to keep her in Westview as the “nosy neighbor” until she’s needed again. With all of that out of the way, she finally got to the acceptance stage of her grief. She said a very difficult goodbye to Vision and her children, completely undid the Hex, and left to seclude herself. But not before cementing Monica Rambeau as a new friend. In an end credits scene we saw Wanda reading the Darkhold, the book Agatha possessed that had informed her of Wanda’s powers. She was also reading it in her astral form, so we already get to see some magic overlap between her and Doctor Strange that will help her fit in nicely to the next Doctor Strange movie. While reading, she could hear the voices of her sons calling for help. This could mean a few things. It could mean that the Darkhold, or whatever being created it, is tempting Wanda into darkness with her kids as bait. It could just mean that Wanda is simply planning to get them back at some point. We don’t know. Overall I think the exploration of Wanda’s grief was done beautifully in this series. I know more about her as a character than I ever did before, and I want to keep seeing her grow as a person.
Vision: We, once again, have two Vision’s to talk about. Westview Vision was absolutely endearing throughout this entire series, but never more than he has been in this episode. He was eager to jump to Wanda’s side every time she was threatened and he was very attentive of his sons anytime they were fighting. Despite the suspicions he’s had of Wanda before this episode, he showed obvious care for his family. He even forgave Wanda for everything she had done and helped her come to the conclusion that the Hex should be done away with permanently. His final moments were heartbreaking, but he left Wanda with the hope that they would meet again soon. For Wanda’s sake, I hope she doesn’t have to wait too long.
White Vision was fascinating in this episode. He spent the first half of it trying to kill Westview Vision, but Westview Vision brought up the Ship of Theseus. The argument here was, ‘is the ship the same if every piece of it is replaced?’ The conclusion White Vision came to was yes and no. It appears the same but no longer contains any piece of what it once was. With this logic, Westview Vision helped him see that both of them, and neither of them, are the true Vision. White Vision because he is made up of the old Vision but contains none of his memories, and Westview Vision because he contains many of Vision’s original traits without being made up of the original Vision at all. After this conversation, Westview Vision revealed that White Vision’s suppressed memories could be returned. He gave all of the original Vision’s memories back to White Vision, who left in a hurry immediately after they were returned to him. With his memories back, many are hopeful that White Vision will become, at least partially, the Vision we know and love once again. However, it’s worth pointing out that White Vision does have Vision’s memories in the comics. He simply can’t feel emotion. We could be dealing with the same problem here. If we are, I hope it’s a solvable one. I can’t say emotionless characters are very compelling.
Monica Rambeau and her team: Monica was locked up in a room for the first half of this episode, but when she emerged, she definitely kicked some ass. She saved Wanda’s children from some SWORD agents and helped them take out all the other SWORD agents. We even got to see her turn into pure energy which was a cool effect. She formed a very adorable bond with Wanda’ children during the battle. She also formed a friendship with Wanda. She expressed appreciation for everything Wanda had to let go of to fully free Westview and even confessed that, given the chance to bring her mother back to life, she would have done the same thing Wanda did. Which anyone who has experienced that kind of loss can agree with. In an end credits scene a Skrull revealed herself to Monica in the hopes of recruiting Monica to whatever project Nick Fury’s been working on. Monica has proved herself to be an extremely likable character and I’m excited to see Marvel already laying down plans for her involvement in the MCU in the future. Monica’s team didn’t get much screen time, but I still enjoyed seeing them. Jimmy Woo was awesome in this episode. He threw out some confident threats to Hayward, got out of a pair of handcuffs, and started leading a new group of SWORD agents by the end of it all. Darcy, to her credit, drove the giant truck she’s been in for two episodes right into Hayward’s car and successfully arranged his arrest. I wish I could have seen more of these two, but I was happy to see them all the same.
What I Didn’t Like:
Ralph Bohner: Let’s be honest, no one liked this reveal. I was one of those people who thought that Evan Peters’ involvement didn’t necessarily mean he was an X-Men tie-in, but I definitely hoped he was. Turns out he was just a set up for a bad dick joke. You can’t help but feel that Marvel did everyone a bit dirty with this reveal. They got all of the fans excited with the casting of Evan Peters only to ultimately troll all of us in the end. I understand that casting him allowed audiences to trust him and be suspicious of his presence at the same time, but they couldn’t have been oblivious to the fact that using Evan Peters meant that, if he was playing anyone else other than X-Men’s Quicksilver, fans weren’t going to be happy. This was just a bad move overall.
Agatha Harkness: This is a major character to put in the dislike section, but I really didn’t like what they did with this character. Kathryn Hahn made this character fun to watch, but the writing made her entirely uninteresting. The MCU is notorious for having many villains with no motivation other than to be evil. Agatha Harkness joins this list. Her motivations were simply to become more powerful by absorbing Wanda’s power, though why she wants this power is unclear. All we got for her backstory was her killing her coven and her mother by absorbing their powers, and being pretty ok with it all afterwards. She also didn’t serve the plot at all. As I said before “Agatha all along” was a bit of stretch. She mainly caused inconveniences. The most evil thing she did was kill a dog, which is messed up but not very plot relevant. Otherwise, Wanda was behind everything and Agatha was only there to lead Wanda through flashback sequences. In the comics Agatha Harkness isn’t even a villain. She’s Wanda’s mentor. Reducing her to what she was in the show is frustrating.
Overall, this finale was really good. I sobbed when Westview Vision died. I was fully satisfied with Wanda’s character arc. The show surprised me with how well they were able to keep one of their major female superheroes a hero and keep Vision alive, while still alerting us that changes have been made. I’m now very excited to see where they take the characters of Wanda and Monica next. I’m also very ready for the next Doctor Strange film, which is a bit of an issue because it won’t be out until next year. I guess it gives me an excuse to binge this series next year before the Doctor Strange movie is released! I’m sad that this series won’t be coming out every week anymore, but I’m equally eager to see the other Marvel shows Disney+ has cued up! I will absolutely keep reviewing those in the future!
Don’t do anything fun until I get back!
Hallie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 