Last time on WandaVision, our fav Avengers couple were finally beginning to address all the weirdness happening around Westview when Wanda’s brother, Pietro, dropped by. And not her dead brother who was gunned down by Ultron, no, her seemingly alternate reality brother. That’s right, the huge mic drop of episode 5 was seeing Pietro from the Fox universe on their doorstep. How exactly is he here? Will Vision ever remember anything from before Westview? And, seriously, where are all the children? Let’s dive into episode 6 of WandaVision: “Halloween Spectacular”.
Meaning Behind the Lyrics
Not gonna lie, watching a Halloween episode in the middle of February didn’t feel weird at all. Also, Marvel should definitely have more holiday-themed content (the Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special has skyrocketed on my list). Anyway, back to business. There were quite a few visual references in this episode, but many pieces of key information were found in dialogue, starting with the intro song. This episode of WandaVision is based on the 90s sitcom Malcolm in the Middle and the intro song settles briefly on each character as they’re introduced for the show. Notice what each verse says about the respective character:
Wanda – Don’t try to fight the chaos, don’t question what you’ve done
Vision – Some days it’s all confusion
Agnes/Billy/Tommy – Let’s keep it going, through each distorted day
Pietro – Though there may be no way of knowing who’s coming by to play
Let’s start with Wanda. It’s becoming more and more clear that Wanda has done everything on her own accord. Whether she’s received assistance from another source remains to be seen, it’s safe to say that Wanda is not under any spell or being forced to do anything. That’s why the song tells her not to fight it and don’t question the things you’ve done to get what you want. She’s always wanted her family, so just accept them no matter the costs.
Slowly, but surely, Vision has started piecing things together and noticing the life around him isn’t right. He’s confused, not just with recent interactions he has had, like with Norm last episode, but with his own being. He doesn’t remember anything from before Westview. When he tries to help Agnes in her car, she brings up the fact that he’s an Avenger. Vision has no idea what she’s talking about, but if that’s the case, how exactly does he know his name is Vision? Tony Stark and Bruce Banner created Vision, not Wanda. So either Vision’s memories are being repressed or Wanda re-built Vision herself like a soft reboot, but he isn’t fully alive based on how he reacted trying to exit the Hex. It’s all confusion for Vision.
The three wildcards of all of this: Agnes, Billy, and Tommy. A captain goes down with their ship, and that’s what I’m doing with Agnes portraying Agatha Harkness. When everyone dresses up for Halloween, each character is wearing something that identifies with who they are. Wanda and Vision go in their old school superhero costumes, Billy and Tommy are wearing their Young Avengers outfits, Pietro is in his Quicksilver get-up, and then there’s Agnes dressed as a witch. Agatha Harkness was a witch during the Salem Witch Trials. It’s too much of a coincidence to have Agnes dressed like that, so another point to the Agatha Harkness believers.
From the beginning, Agnes has been by Wanda’s side, influencing many of her decisions. She’s been an unofficial guide of hers in Westview, while the boys represent the town having importance toward Wanda. The birth and subsequent growth of her children makes this all feel more real for Wanda, either to help fill the void of grief inside her or for a more sinister plan in reshaping reality. But another thing on the boys. When Billy and Tommy run away to collect more candy, Pietro yells, “unleash hell, you demon spawns!” Out of all the things to call your nephews, why did he choose that? In the comics, a key ingredient in giving life to Billy and Tommy was a piece of Mephisto’s soul. Wouldn’t you say that qualifies as “demon spawns”? Even though Monica assured Jimmy and Darcy that the boys were real and Wanda’s, how can Monica be sure? Wanda makes Westview feel real, so Billy and Tommy can easily be illusions and never real in the first place.
Last, but certainly not least, we have Pietro. When Pietro is introduced, the lyrics say how we don’t know who might come to play, either making it obvious that seeing this version of Pietro is pretty wild or this is only the beginning. The lyrics could be alluding to other surprising characters popping up. He’s also the only character with “as himself” attached to who he is. I understand that sitcom intros sometimes end with an added character descriptor, but it’s notable that it was Pietro’s. Throughout the episode, it’s clear Wanda is confused as to why her brother is Evan Peters and not Aaron Taylor-Johnson Wanda goes as far as quizzing Pietro on memories they shared, but he ultimately brushes them aside saying “details are fuzzy”. He mentions how he got shot down in the street “for whatever reason” and then heard her need him. Is he somehow recalling the memories of MCU Pietro when he got shot down by Ultron? Speaking of being shot, why does Wanda see him dead? Could this be post traumatic stress disorder, which would also explain her seeing Vision dead? He continues that he’s “just doing my part”, like create tension with the brother-in-law and stir trouble with the rugrats and that’s what she wanted.
This isn’t the first time someone said something in relations to Wanda wanting things a certain way. When Wanda was talking to Herb after he told her that Vision wasn’t on duty with the neighborhood watch, he asks her if she wanted something changed. Then back in episode 5 when Agnes asked Wanda if she wanted to do the scene over again after Vision didn’t want her to hold the babies. Are all these people simply extensions of Wanda’s subconscious mind and it’s as if she’s asking herself if she’d like to change anything? Herb was acting strange in episode 3 when he was sawing into a side brick wall, so clearly there’s something off with him. And how does Pietro know so much about what’s going on in Westview? He uses the excuse of having a twin connection with Wanda, but he knows things down to the detail as if he’s reading her mind. He mentions how Wanda has taken the liberty of not harming the children of the town, kept families and couples together, given people better jobs, and done the best she could given the circumstances. How does he know all that, but still ask her how she did it? Based on Wanda’s reaction, she didn’t fill him in on any of these details, unless she repressed her own memories in doing so, and it’s unlikely Vision had a heart-to-heart with him. Someone brought “Pietro” to Westview and I’m not sure they want to “play”.
Off Limits
If the phrase is “curiosity killed the cat”, then Vision is our furry feline. In an attempt to unearth the mysteries of Westview, Vision just starts walking. He has a mixed look of bewilderment, amazement, and fear seeing all the children running around collecting candy. Assuming that his and Wanda’s home is the epicenter of the Hex, the further away Vision gets from there the more people he notices not doing anything. First it was people repeating the same action over and over, then it was people completely frozen in place. If Wanda is controlling everything, this is the first sign of a possible weakness in her powers. By freezing the people on the outskirts of town, Wanda can conserve more of her energy on the people Vision would most likely interact with. Also with freezing those people it’s a way to ensure nobody breaks the containment. The horror of the situation is some people were seen crying, so that tells us they’re aware that they’re trapped.
Before Vision reaches the barrier, he has an interesting conversation with Agnes. When he descends on her car before Ellis Avenue, it’s obvious Agnes is pretending to be confused and afraid like the other Westview residents. She tries telling Vision she got lost driving to the Town Square Scare, and he, rightfully, calls her out that she got lost in the town she grew up in. Vision tried speaking with other frozen people and none of them were responsive. Then, after Vision “un-frees” her mind when she starts screaming that he’s dead over and over again, she turns her car around and drives away. So, how exactly can Agnes freely drive away, while the countless other civilians are frozen stiff? Vision’s already starting to lose it and now Agnes throws a “you’re actually dead” curveball at him? She’s adding fuel to the fire.
When Vision breaks through the barrier, his body begins to decompose and get sucked back into the Hex. This proves that Vision is unable to survive outside the boundaries of Wanda’s altered reality, and ultimately, is still dead. Vision was born from the Mind Stone and before Thor decapitated him, Thanos told the Avengers at the beginning of Endgame that he grinded the Infinity Stones into atoms. It’s possible that Wanda could’ve magically reformed the atoms of the Mind Stone and bring Vision back or take another universe’s stone, but that’s the only way Vision has existed in a physical form. Now, Vision used the Mind Stone explicitly to change from his Halloween costume to normal Vision. Vision has changed his form many times before, but this was the first time we actually saw the Mind Stone being used. If the Mind Stone is real and Wanda did take it from another universe, that would be yet another reason why Doctor Strange will be involved. On top of that, if the only way Vision can survive is in Wanda’s altered reality, and because Vision broke the initial containment which forced Wanda to expand the range, what if Wanda decides to cover the entire planet so Vision is always safe?
Also, Wanda isn’t the only person “concerned” with Vision’s well-being. While hacking into S.W.O.R.D.’s network, Darcy discovers that Hayward is tracking Vision’s movements within the Hex. What exactly is Hayward up to? Since the beginning, his decisions have been questionable at best. He fires a missile point-blank at Wanda trying to kill her, then calls it a precaution. He openly ridiculed Monica and Darcy in front of everyone, and clearly has a newfound distaste toward “super-powered individuals” since The Blip. It seems Hayward blames the Avengers for what happened with Thanos and the five years time spent with half of existence gone. He mentions how he knows all about Monica’s relationship with Carol Danvers, suggesting that’s why she’s sympathetic toward Wanda and wanting to help her. So, at the very least, Hayward is another Baron Zemo.
But Darcy suggested that Hayward had some big secret hidden that she was trying to hack into, and we’re not sure if she succeeded before Wanda absorbed everyone into her reality. That secret might have something to do with Vision. Let’s say Hayward has been in charge of S.W.O.R.D. for the past five years since The Blip. Wanda stole Vision’s corpse from the S.W.O.R.D. facility, so that means they’ve been studying Vision since his head was destroyed by Thanos in Wakanda. And that raises another question: How did Hayward retrieve Vision from Wakanda? Steve Rogers could’ve gathered Vision’s remains, but he was being wanted by the government at the time, it wouldn’t make sense for him to gift S.W.O.R.D. Vision’s body. If anything, I’d expect Rogers to have taken Vision back to the lab where Shuri tried extracting his essence from the Mind Stone. So how did Hayward get Vision’s body and what has he learned from studying it?
The Inhumans Theory
Here we go! A big time swing on a theory that I think has some legs to it. Darcy tells Monica that it’s too dangerous for her to re-enter the Hex, because it’s altering her cells at a molecular level. Darcy says that it’s changing her. We know from Monica’s test results after being blasted out of Westview that Darcy’s right. So, if Monica’s cells were affected enough to where Darcy’s warning her about being exposed again, what’s happening to the cells of the people still in Westview? Due to film rights, Disney was unable to use certain terms, like “mutant” because Fox owed the rights to the X-Men. That was the explanation behind Wanda and Pietro being described as “enhanced humans” and that they received their powers from the Mind Stone. What if Kevin Feige decides to take it a step further and label Wanda as an Inhuman and she’s not ushering in the mutant race, but the race of Inhumans.
Up until this point, the main way for Inhuman cells to activate was through exposure to Terrigan mist. So for this theory to work, we have to accept that there are multiple ways for people to become Inhumans. What if the Mind Stone didn’t just give Wanda and Pietro powers, but it actually activated their own Inhuman cells? Because Wanda was affected by the Mind Stone directly, she also possesses the ability to unlock Inhuman cells and that’s what’s happening to Monica and possibly others in Westview. If Feige already had to tiptoe around the term “mutant” when he introduced the twins in Age of Ultron, why not keep that train moving? A popular theory is that Evan Peters’ Pietro came from the Fox universe and he’s blazing the path for the Fox X-Men to move over to the MCU, which also makes a tremendous amount of sense, but what’s the fun in that?
What also makes this theory even more interesting is the fact that Magneto being Wanda and Pietro’s father is no longer canon. In the 2015 comics event AXIS, Wanda casts a spell to punish her bloodline to harm Magneto, but he is unfazed by the spell, revealing that Magneto is not their father. So if the comics retconned the twins’ lineage, what’s stopping Feige from following suit? Agent Jimmy Woo said in episode 5 that Wanda and Pietro were born to Irina and Oleg Maximoff, and while they could easily be a front, they could actually be their parents and the twins aren’t mutants at all. It would be a colossal change in power with Wanda and Pietro being Team Inhuman, but it could also be for the best as Feige figures out how to properly integrate the X-Men and mutant-kind into the fold. Not to mention, if Wanda continues to expand the Westview borders, she’d be getting dangerously close to where Kamala Khan lives. According to the proposed Inhuman Theory, what if Wanda is the cause behind Kamala becoming Ms. Marvel?
But if we stick to Wanda and Pietro being mutants, just not children of Magneto, an interesting Easter egg was spotted to support mutants. Before Darcy warns Monica about her cells changing, the name “Ray Johnson” appeared among the medical records. Upon further research, Ray Johnson is an alias of John Wraith, a mutant teleporter. I suppose Ray/John could be an Inhuman teleporter to fit my above theory, but sticking to what’s canon it’s that he’s a pretty powerful mutant. He has the ability to teleport from basically anywhere to anywhere. At one point, he was part of Team X with Wolverine and Sabretooth. If the medical records of Ray Johnson happen to be *this* Ray Johnson, then S.W.O.R.D. might be assembling their own superpowered team, which could’ve been the secret Hayward was hiding.
With only three episodes left, the stakes are getting higher. Wanda’s reality has expanded and may continue if she feels threatened. Episode 7 should introduce the mysterious aerospace engineer that Monica contacted to get back into the Hex, and I’m sure when Vision recovers he’ll have some choice words with Wanda. And what’s Hayward’s next move after seeing his entire base get absorbed by Wanda? Based on the new sign in Westview, “Home: It’s Where You Make It”, there’s a chilling feeling that Wanda is fully committed to altering reality as she fits.
The Scarlet Witch has arrived.
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