RECAP
The first episode starts with a 50's style opening featuring newlyweds Wanda and Vision arriving at their new home. The next morning Wanda is using her powers to put away their stuff and they look at the calendar see there is a heart on the current day, but they cannot remember why. They think it must be important, Vision heads to work where he struggles to understand what the company he works for does. Vision's boss (Mr. Heart) reminds Vision that he and his wife will be coming over for dinner that night and Vision realizes the heart on the calendar was for Mr. Heart. Wanda at home meets their neighbor Agnes who drops off a welcoming gift, Agnes and Wanda talk about the day marked on the calendar. Agnes suggests that the day might be an anniversary of some type, and Wanda then plans a romantic evening for her and Vision. Vision comes home with Mr. Heart and his wife Mrs. Heart; Wanda then comes out wearing a nightgown and confuses Mr. Heart for Vision. Vision then explains that Wanda is European and that is her traditional greeting. Wanda not having planned to host a dinner party needs help from Agnes and while eating Mr. Heart chokes and Mrs. Heart keeps repeating "stop it" over and over again with each utterance taking on a different tone. Wanda then asks Vision to help Mr. Heart and Vision pulls the food out of his throat using his ability to move through solid objects. The episode ends with a pull away shot revealing someone is watching the episode on a small screen with the S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division) logo on it.
Episode two starts off with Wanda and Vision in separate beds at night when they hear a sound, Vision looks out the window and sees nothing but as he turns away, he hears it again and jumps in the bed. The next morning Wanda and Vision are preparing for a local talent show competition where Vision will be a magician who makes Wanda disappear. Visions goes off to hang out with the other men in the neighborhood and Wanda goes outside to see a red and gold (the episode is shot in black and white) little helicopter with the S.W.O.R.D. logo on it. As Wanda realizes the helicopter is what her and Vision heard the night before Agnes arrives and Wanda forgets about the helicopter. Agnes brings Wanda to a meeting of the talent show's planning committee. At the meeting Wanda meets the other women in the neighborhood including Geraldine played by Teyonah Parris who is Monica Rambeau (daughter of Captain Marvel's best friend who is now grown up). Wanda also has an awkward conversation with Dottie who is the head of the planning committee. The radio starts broadcasting a voice asking Wanda what is happening Dottie gets confused and acts weird until the radio blows up. There then is a weird commercial for Strucker watches, as in Baron Von Strucker who was one of the former heads of HYDRA who gave Wanda her powers. Vision while hanging with the men ingests gum which gums up his inner gears and he starts acting weird. Wanda and Vision go to do their magic act, but Vision is out of sorts and Wanda needs to use her powers to hide Vision's inability to hide his powers. The crowd loves the performance as it seems more of a comedy act than a magic act and they are awarded first prize. The audience says "for the children" at two different points during the show. Wanda and Vision are now at home and Wanda now says, "for the children" and gets up to get popcorn, revealing that she is now visibly pregnant. There is a noise outside and they go to investigate, and they see a man coming out of a manhole in a beekeepers outfit with a logo on the back that might be S.W.O.R.D. The beekeeper looks at Wanda and Vision and Wanda panics and reverses time to before the beekeeper arrives. Wandavision now goes from black and white to color, as the episode ends, we hear the voice from the radio say again "Wanda, who is doing this to you".
THOUGHTS AND THEORIES
The second episode was full of interesting moments, and I also thought it was a funnier episode. Episode one was good, but it had only a few weird moments and the funniest part was classic sitcom trope of a mix-up as Mr. Hart and Mrs. Hart arrive and Wanda is dressed up for a romantic evening not expecting to get guests. There are two particular weird moments that I found interesting, the first being that at Vision's work nobody could explain what they did there, and the second moment was Mrs. Hart repeating "stop it" repeatedly as Mr. Hart was choking. The first episode did not hold my attention upon my first viewing, but on the second viewing I was able to pay attention better and appreciate it. There is a lot of mystery to Wandavision and even though I want answers now, I know it the show will be better keeping the mystery under wraps and only offering small clues. The common logo that appears is the S.W.O.R.D. logo, and I am wondering if they are behind Wanda begging where she is. Where is Wanda is another relevant question, is she asleep and dreaming, has used her powers to construct this place in the real world or has she created or moved herself to another dimension or universe. There are two specific sources of comic book inspirations behind what is happening. The first is Avengers: Disassembled where Wanda is mind controlled by Doctor Doom and uses her powers to alter reality in an attempt to defeat the Avengers. The relevant source material is House of M which is where an unbalanced Wanda creates a world where her father Magneto rules the world and heroes either serve her father or don't remember who they are. Both stories focus on Wanda's ability to alter reality, something we have not seen in the MCU yet. Wanda is set to appear in Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which is also tied to Spider-Man 3 which is bringing back characters that appeared in the earlier Spider-Man films. All of that suggests the MCU is diving deep into the multiverse and what better person to open it up than Wanda. The voice on the radio definitely sounds like Randall Park who is reprising his role from Ant-Man and the Wasp as agent Jimmy Woo.
Episode two was the superior of the two episodes as there were several funny moments with a lot of weird teases to the future of the show. The funny moments were tied to the magical act that Wanda and Vision performed. Vision who earlier in the episode ingested gum which was gumming up his inner workings was acting like he was drunk. Vision kept using his powers and Wanda had to keep using hers to cover up Vision's use of powers. It was the funniest moment in the show and both actors nailed their performances in that moment. The weird moments were peppered throughout the episode. Wanda finding the little helicopter in her bushes has wondering if it was a real helicopter that shrunk down, I don't think it was a drone since it did not look like a drone. The mini copter had the SWORD logo on it, and I wonder if they were inserting Geraldine into the world, and she was on the helicopter. When Wanda was with Dottie after the planning committee meeting, the voice on the radio seemed to break Dottie from a trance. At the talent show, the audience said the phrase "for the children" which seemed very cult-like or that they were brainwashed. It seems that a lot of members of the community might be in a trance, the only member that seems to know what might be going on is Agnes. The man in the beekeeper suit coming out of the sewer also had the SWORD logo on his back, but the beekeeper outfit makes me think he is from A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) which is a group introduced in Iron Man 3. In Iron Man 3 A.I.M. was the company that was started by Aldrich Killian (the villain of the film) and I am curious if Marvel is going to use A.I.M. or if the beekeeper costume is a red herring meant to distract the audience. A.I.M. in the comics is made of a group of scientists who believe technology is the key to power, they are bad guys who want to take over the world.
I am curious what Wanda being pregnant means for the show, in the comics, she has twins who turn out to be mutants. Agness on the show might be the comic book character Agnes Harkness, who is a powerful witch who mentors Wanda and is tied to Wanda and Vision's twins. The comics involving the children is very convoluted and hard to explain. I am curious if Vision will be returned to life after the series or if this show will be Wanda getting to accept Vision's death and say goodbye to him. I will be covering each episode and as the story unfolds, I will do my best to breakdown the reveals as they happen. I could keep speculating for hours and I could still be totally wrong with my theories. There is something fun about connecting to a show or movie and then speculating about the future of the property you connected with. Marvel has been adept with making fans speculate for years and this show feels like Wandavision will be something special. Join me later this week for my review on episode three.
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