The mystery surrounding Westview and Wanda’s mini-alternate reality is slowly unfolding. Somehow her infant twins, the infant twins that she conceived and gave birth to in about 24 hours, have grown to 10-years-old within mere hours. The agents of S.W.O.R.D. are finding new data to analyze what exactly is happening within Westview, or “the Hex” as Dr. Darcy Lewis calls it. We also might have a new superhero on their way, and let’s not forget THAT cameo at the end. There’s a lot to unpack in Episode 5 “On a Very Special Episode…” so let’s dive in.
Growth Spurt
If you were a bit confused seeing Wanda magically become pregnant in episode 4, you must be in a whirlwind after the first few minutes of episode 5 like that Mr. Krabs meme. The episode started with Billy and Tommy as infants, but that lasted maybe three minutes? Vision and Wanda look away for one second and suddenly the boys are about four-years-old. Then about another 10 minutes into the episode, the boys make another jump to 10-years-old in order to keep the stray dog they found, Sparky. So, what’s behind the twins rapid growth spurt and why is this important?
Billy and Tommy are (one of) the keys to this whole thing. Being the offspring of Wanda and Vision, the boys are presumably oozing with power. Whoever is behind the scenes orchestrating the events of WandaVision almost certainly has their eyes fixated on the boys. With both Wanda and Vision’s powers originating from the Mind Stone, Billy and Tommy are also somewhat connected to the stone. Infinity Stones wield massive amounts of power, and with Billy and Tommy eventually becoming Wiccan and Speed in the comics, it’s not surprising for someone wanting to possibly control the boys.
It remains to be seen if the boys are actually “real”. During a brainstorming session with Jimmy and Darcy, Monica tells them that “everything in the dome is real, those are Wanda’s children.” I don’t doubt that Monica believes that, given that she helped Wanda deliever the babies, but whoever is mind controlling the people inside of Westview could’ve easily made it look that way. On the other hand, the boys are real, but they can only exist inside the dome. When Wanda confronted S.W.O.R.D. outside of Westview, she told them that she isn’t bothering them, so don’t bother her. Wanda’s very protective of her makeshift quarantine and I have to think it’s because either Vision and/or the twins might be harmed, or worse, cease to exist if the dome is breached.
Monica also mentions that she knows of an aerospace engineer who might be of help. Honestly, I’m not exactly sure who she can be referring to. Maybe Reed Richards or Sue Storm? Hayward mentioned sending a young team into space to study some cosmic energies back in episode 4, which could be pointing toward the future Fantastic Four. Riri Williams also comes to mind. The Ironheart show isn’t slated to start filming until next year, but with the character already cast (Dominique Thorne) maybe she appears here? Riri is one of the smartest people on Earth, so who knows if S.W.OR.D. has been monitoring her? I mean, she did build her own Iron suit and we saw what happened the last time someone accomplished that. But whoever it is, Monica immediately sent them a message, so it’s entirely possible we see this mysterious engineer soon.
Before the S.W.O.R.D. briefing, Monica gets tested following her time in Westview. The tests come back “faulty” as all they show is bright white. To me, this means only one thing: Monica clearly has her Spectrum powers, and I think she’s had them for a while. The last we saw her in Captain Marvel, Monica was 11-years-old, so there’s a large gap of time where Monica could’ve been exposed to something, especially working with S.W.O.R.D. and her relationship with Carol Danvers. Regardless, we could be in store for an epic showdown between Wanda and Monica.
Vision Wants Answers
Isn’t it odd that the only children we’ve seen so far have been Billy and Tommy? Well, Vision thinks so. When trying to get answers from Wanda about all the weird stuff happening in Westview, Vision asks her why there aren’t any other children in the town. Obviously, Wanda doesn’t have an answer for this and tries to brush it off, but Vision has a point. In episode 2, the slogan for the talent show was “For the Children.” Was the talent show some sort of ritual that resulted in Billy and Tommy’s birth? Which would put the twins right in the crosshairs of the show’s mystery villain.
As if Vision wasn’t confused enough about the lack of little humans running around the place, his interaction with Norm just adds fuel to the fire. While assisting him with setting up the new computers in the office, everyone starts to read an e-mail in unison from S.W.O.R.D. regarding Dr. Lewis analyzing the “Maximoff Anomaly.” The “Maximoff Anomaly” might just be a fancy way to call the current situation with Wanda hijacking a town and whatnot. Now, after they’re done reading it, Vision uses his “Vision powers” to seemingly break Norm from the spell of Westview and he starts to freak out. In a panic, Norm asks Vision what day it is and how long he’s been there. He says his sister is taking care of their sick father and tells Vision, “I hear her voice in my head.” Right away, you’re probably thinking he’s referring to Wanda. Not so fast. I believe the person Norm’s referring to is Agnes.
Agnes is one of two people that doesn’t have a “real” identity, according to the S.W.O.R.D. investigative board (the other being Dottie, last seen in episode 2). I’m fairly confident that Agnes is actually Agatha Harkness, a fellow magic user and mentor of Wanda’s from the comics. She’s aware of the sitcom format of WandaVision, always happens to pop in at the most opportune moments, and has witnessed Wanda use her abilities. Since the very beginning, Agnes has been at Wanda’s side, influencing many of her decisions. And like I mentioned before on someone targeting the twins, it’s a bit strange to think the first conversation Agnes and Wanda had was about seduction techniques. Agnes was also present when the twins had their first growth spurt and was the one who “found” poor Sparky. Who’s to say she’s the one who killed Sparky as a way to get the boys to grow up again?
Dead or Alive
Vision is dead, but also, kind of, alive? Hayward shows video of Wanda busting into the facility to steal his corpse. So, first, we can conclude from that intel that the events of WandaVision have occurred within no more than two weeks. That also means that Thanos was defeated in Endgame about two weeks ago, so Wanda’s emotions about Vision dying are still extremely raw. I still don’t think Wanda was the one who resurrected Vision, and whoever did help her is probably the villain pulling the strings. Wanda is merely putting a “fresh coat of paint” on Vision’s grey, hole-in-the-head body, but because she’s not controlling him and it appears that he possesses free will, he’s technically alive, right? Or is Vision being controlled by the person who revived him?
In the comic Avengers: Disassembled, Vision tells the other heroes that he basically can’t control himself and begins to vomit Ultron bots. Turned out it was Wanda who made the Avengers think Ultron was behind the attack, and Wanda hexed She-Hulk into tearing Vision’s body apart. Now, I don’t think MCU Wanda is going to resort to all of that, but this is important. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who you are, if Wanda loses too much control over herself anyone is in danger, including her husband. If Vision proves to be a liability in Westview, Wanda might consider doing something dark. Vision’s memories of his “previous life” before Westview have either been erased or forcibly suppressed, something that Agatha Harkness (whom I think Agnes is) did to Wanda to protect her from the fact that her children disappeared, which led to Wanda completely losing it when she found out the truth.
But what might be a more important question is what happens if and when Vision leaves Westview? Is he only alive within the town? If he’s able to break through the barrier would he just collapse in a dead heap? It’s unknown if S.W.O.R.D. was going to try to revive Vision themselves, but remember in Infinity War while Thanos’s army attacked Wakanda to retrieve the Mind Stone, Shuri tried extracting the Vision’s essence so he could survived without the stone. It wasn’t determined whether or not she succeeded, but that’s a way to bring Vision back without dealing in whatever nefarious methods Wanda seemingly chose to revive him.
Multiverse Madness
Throughout the show, Wanda has been asked about Pietro from both Monica and the boys. Since her brother’s death in Age of Ultron, Wanda hasn’t really healed from that wound. She managed to somewhat get distracted when she became romantically involved with Vision, but we all know how that ended(?) in Endgame. Because WandaVision goes directly into Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, what if Wanda figured out how to travel between universes? Or the mystery villain?
If you remember from the end of Doctor Strange, Mordo declared war on users of the mystic arts. Now, if Doctor Strange understands the concept of the multiverse, maybe Mordo has too. Wanda is in an extremely vulnerable state following the defeat of Thanos, it would be easy for Mordo to either convince Wanda to alter reality or do it himself. It would make sense from a familiarity standpoint if Mordo was somehow involved, especially with Doctor Strange seemingly coming to Wanda’s rescue. Mordo would be a familiar foe to Strange, and it’s been reported that he will be in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
Will Fox’s Pietro stay in the MCU? That remains to be seen. This could be the first baby step in combining the Fox universe with the MCU in order to bring the X-Men into the fold. There hasn’t been any reports on the Fox actors reprising their mutant roles, but I’m guessing Kevin Feige understands the idea of continuity. Given that he’s not only bringing back Charlie Cox as Daredevil, but possibly the rest of the Marvel Netflix characters, it’s not out of the question he’d bring some, if not all, of the Fox X-Men characters. He may not want to completely reboot the X-Men franchise again, and instead have these characters grow more in the MCU. If there was a time for Feige to pull the trigger on merging the two universes together, this is it.
No. 6
Episode 6 has the potential to really bust this whole thing wide open, and here’s why. Remember when Darcy nicknamed Westview “the Hex”? A hexagon has six sides. People noticed that in Hayward’s office his diplomas and certificates on the wall are in a hexagonal shape, as well as having hexagons on the rug. Also during episode 2, the phrase “For the Children” was said six times. The devil’s number is 666 and a popular theory of who the villain could be happens to be the devil of Marvel, Mephisto. Could Hayward be Mephisto? (For what it’s worth, even if Hayward isn’t Mephisto I still think he’s not a good guy.)
In addition to the significance of the number six, the next episode will also be the last in the sitcom format. Based on the trailers of WandaVision, this next episode should be the Halloween-themed episode set in the 90s where Vision and Wanda dress in their classic costumes. But what we should look out for is where all the children come from. The trailer showed kids trick or treating and walking the streets of Westview in costume, so where did they come from? Did Wanda “kidnap” kids, because Vision noticed there weren’t any in the town? And was Pietro the “Luke Skywalker” level cameo that Elizabeth Olsen mentioned? There’s still plenty more that needs to be explained and this week’s episode looks to be a big one.
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