Warning: The following article contains spoilers for episode 7 of WandaVision. For a catch-up on all that’s happened previously, click here.
After last week’s world-expanding cliffhanger, WandaVision returns with what is likely the last sitcom homage episode. This time, it takes the form of a pointed tribute to Modern Family and The Office‘s fourth-wall-breaking comedy. We dive straight into Wanda’s “destruction hangover” as she hides away in regret and grief. Tommy and Billy try to get her out of bed to fix the flickering reality of their video game controls and all the “noise” inside Billy’s head. But Wanda is resolute in avoiding the consequences of her actions.
There’s a back and forth between Wanda figuring out why she’s losing control of her surroundings and trying to prove she’s fine. Eventually, she also admits she can’t explain what’s happening. This leads to Agnes making her convenient entrance to see Wanda and swiftly takes the twins away to her own house. There, she attempts to dissuade the twins’ concerns about their mother. Furthermore, she confronts Billy’s realization that he cannot hear that everything is “quiet” with her.
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Cut to Monica and Agent Woo meeting up with the delivery crew of Monica’s requested hex-proof vehicle. We’ve yet to see any reveal for her mysterious aerospace engineer friend (assuming there is one at all). However, we do finally see Monica taking it upon herself to go through the hex after the vehicle’s expected failure. With this moment, Monica’s journey to becoming her comic book role of Spectrum officially begins. The hex attempts to pull her apart and the memories of Monica’s younger self resurface. The words of her late mother Maria Rambeau and Nick Fury come to her mind as she grieves the time lost with her mother.
As she seemingly pulls herself together, we hear the words from none other than Carol Danvers, reminding her that “when they were handing out kids, they gave your mom the toughest one”. Monica is able to survive her way into Westview. However, her glowing blue eyes confirm that the hex has mutated her. This just leads to one question: Will she be the only one mutated by the hex? Let the Fantastic Four and X-Men theories chaos ensue.
Meanwhile, Vision recruits Darcy Lewis in giving him answers on his past life. As they escape the circus military camp, the trip back into the Westview suburbia reaches a halt. As it turns out, comedic relief bits of red lights, construction, and even a children’s school crossing get in the way of Vision and Darcy. Even Vision is cut to an Office-style interview, where he expresses concern for his wife’s wellbeing. This leads to his frustrated realization that he’s still subconsciously going along with her reality’s sitcom antics. As a result, he flies off towards Wanda, abandoning Darcy to fend for herself against Wanda’s barrage of domestic inconveniences.
We finally pick up with Monica again, racing into Wanda’s home to warn her about Hayward’s plans to reacquire Vision for his own sentient weapons project (possibly the future of Sentinels in the MCU?). Of course, Wanda refuses to give S.W.O.R.D.’s presence another thought, much less the threat they pose to Vision. She’s still clinging to the idea that she is fully in control because of the surge in her powers. In what nearly turns into a full-blown battle, Wanda realizes that Monica is not as vulnerable as she once was. Monica pleas with her once again because she knows Wanda’s pain better than anyone else. She knows Wanda isn’t really a villain but will become one if she continues to let the pain of her grief control her.
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Despite this, Wanda’s next words reveal there is more yet to come as she contemplates that maybe she is the villain after all. This is in tune with this week’s commercial being a spin on an anti-depressant commercial. Not to mention, the commercial capitalizes on Wanda’s comment that “maybe everything is meaningless”. Right on schedule, Agnes intervenes in the conflict by telling Monica to leave. Wanda is continuing to lean on her threatening façade and angrily tells Monica to not “make me hurt you”. This is where the suspicions around Agnes’ character come to a head.
Per WandaVision spookiness, Agnes sits Wanda down on her couch and goes to fix her some tea. It’s here that Wanda realizes her twins were there in Agnes’ house not long before. Eventually, her attention goes toward two monsters in the Yo Gabba Gabba show playing on the television. Agnes plays off the absence of the twins in the living room by saying they’re probably playing in the basement. Of course, she says this while Wanda looks at the devil in the details of her own reality for the first time. As she realizes there is something amiss with her twins, she immediately goes to look for them down in the basement… which is is definitely an evil witch’s lair if I’ve ever seen one.
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The magically infused medieval-style basement/dungeon reels Wanda in as Agnes traps her inside. It is here that Agnes reveals herself as Agatha Harkness, a powerful sorceress that has been behind the anomalies within the anomaly the entire time. Cut to a perfectly quirky montage, we also find out that Agatha was the puppeteer behind “Pietro’s” strings. This doesn’t eliminate the possibility that this is truly the Fox X-Men Universe Quicksilver. However, it raises questions as to how or why she used this Quicksilver as a tool of manipulation rather than the Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
This episode of WandaVision also introduced a post-credits scene to really keep us hooked for next week’s episode. We see Monica sneak into Agnes/Agatha’s house and finds an entrance to the basement. Naturally, we are once again cut off as soon as we see “Pietro” make an appearance for the first time this episode, seemingly threatening Monica’s “snooping”. We last see her with her eyes filled with the purple magical energy that Agatha has also used on Wanda. Will this ultimately be her final bid for control over Wanda and her powers?
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Once again, WandaVision proves itself as one of the most intriguing and exciting entries into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With each episode, it gets to be the center of pop culture conversation. Though its pacing can be frustrating at times, it is definitely a fun way to watch such a big story that will definitely set the tone of the future era of Marvel films. Giving these often sidelined characters their own spotlight to breathe and grow on their own, WandaVision has certainly become a successful blueprint for future Marvel series to come. – Ileana Meléndez
Grade: 9/10
