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WandaVision reveals a villain, upgrades a hero, and advertises an antidepressant gateway
Welcome back to WandaVision (WandaVision!) where we've caught up with modern sitcoms. The latest episode features Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) going full Modern Family, testimonials to the camera included. Who is she even talking to? We know by the end of the episode.
We’ve all been there, right?
Several characters got to break the fourth wall in the latest episode, fittingly titled "Breaking the Fourth Wall." One of our heroes got a major upgrade, and an antagonist revealed themselves. Who killed Sparky? We found out.
***WARNING: From this point forward, there are spoilers for the WandaVision episode “Breaking the Fourth Wall.” If you haven’t watched yet, OK it’s happening! Stay calm, and as always, get OUTTA here Dewey!***
It was Agnes all along! Fans have long theorized that Wanda’s neighbor Agnes (played to utter perfection by Kathryn Hahn) is actually Agatha Harkness. Everyone was right. Agatha is a big part of Marvel Comics, though she doesn’t always act as an antagonist. She has a history with Wanda (as well as the villain Mephisto), and she’s a witch. More witches!
Agatha may not really be a villain in the comics (not really), but her son Nicholas Scratch is another story. Is the rabbit, Señor Scratchy, that Agatha holds while stroking it like a Bond villain at the end of this episode — the same one who was part of Wanda and Vision's magic act in the second episode — actually Nicholas? We don’t know yet, but it’s WandaVision (WandaVision!) so maybe.
The Agnes reveal comes after Wanda slowly breaks down and her fictional world changes time periods all around her. Wanda is depressed, she’s not letting Vision return home, and she’s having much more than a case of the Mondays. Agnes/Agatha “helps” by watching Tommy and Billy, the latter of which senses nothing from her when stretching out with his proto-Wiccan powers.
When Wanda goes looking for them, she finds Agatha’s basement of witchery, complete with a glowing book that would look right at home in a library next to the Darkhold from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agnes follows her and gives her a lovely reveal: “You didn’t think you were the only magical girl in town, didja? The name’s Agatha Harkness.”
Wanda’s show stops being Wanda’s show. It gets replaced by a new show called “Agnes All Along” (complete with catchy theme song), which shows all of Agatha’s secret actions behind the scenes since moment one. We see clips of her playing around in every era, all before seeing her behind the camera of the testimonials in a director’s chair bearing her name. Anything Wanda couldn't explain? It was Agatha.
The neighbors' distrust of Monica? Agatha. Pietro's Evan Peters-y arrival? Agatha. When Vision caught her freaking out in her car in the previous episode? It was all an act. Oh, and she killed the twins' dog Sparky! She gleefully lets us know that. (It's hard to picture anyone doing these bits better than Kathryn Hahn.)
We don’t yet know her true agenda or how responsible she is for what's going on, but we do know that as her darkness rises, there’s light to meet it.
Enter an upgraded Monica Rambeau.
Monica (Teyonah Parris) is determined to get to Wanda, especially after she and Jimmy go through Darcy’s notes and find that Hayward wants to capture Vision. It turns out Hayward had been trying to bring Vision back to life to use as a superweapon. So Monica tries to break a wall herself, this wall being the wall surrounding the Hex. When a space rover fails (and winds up turning into half of a pickup truck), Monica decides to break through on her own.
In nothing but a S.W.O.R.D. jumpsuit, Monica pushes through. Her eyes turn blue, she hears multiple lines from Captain Marvel as she's seemingly ripped apart — and she makes it. Her eyes glow blue and she sees waves of power emanating from power lines. When she gets to Wanda’s house, Wanda tries to toss her out once more… but Monica can no longer be dealt with so easily.
The change in her cells (detected by Darcy last week) and this latest trip into the Hex have made Monica even more super than she already was. It’s clear that she’s about to take up one of the mantles her comic book counterpart has taken: either Photon or Spectrum. When Monica first enters Westview this time, she sees flashes of the magical color that's keeping the place together, and that makes us lean a bit towards Spectrum. Also possible? Ghost Rider or Steppenwolf. (Not really, and we're sorry.)
Monica definitely looks the part in her jumpsuit, and she’s everyone's best bet when it comes to getting through to Wanda... who has confided to the camera that she may deserve all of the pain she is going through. She doesn’t deserve it, but that’s how depressed people feel.
Driving this point further is this week’s faux commercial, which is for an anti-depressant called “Nexus." It promises to anchor you to a reality of your choice. “The world doesn’t revolve around you…” the commercial says before adding, “… or does it?”
The term “Nexus” is not without connections to Marvel lore. In the comics, the Nexus is a gateway to all existing realities, as well as realities between other realities. It’s a multiverse hub, it’s a big deal, it’s a headache, and now it’s an anti-depressant. We don’t think that this is the last time we’ll hear the word.
While Monica (Spectrum? Photon?) flashes her blue lights and Wanda checks out Agatha’s basement o’ witchery, Vision is trying to get back to the house with Darcy in a stolen funnel cake truck. He’s freed Darcy’s mind (she thought she was a circus performer), and he even starts to do the testimonial act before realizing how silly it is.
Darcy gives him a crash course on the events of Avengers: Infinity War, as well as Vision’s Avengers: Age of Ultron origin. Vision remembers none of it, and his biggest question is: If he’s not that being anymore, then who or what is he? Darcy knows one thing for certain, though, because she is a fan of this show: Wanda and Vision’s love is real.
We don’t get to his arrival back at the house yet, because right after the Agatha reveal the show cuts to the dreaded “Please Stand By.” However, we got a post-credit scene featuring Monica snooping around Agatha’s basement and Pietro (Evan Peters) catching her. Who knows who he really is... Wanda has now dismissed him as the real Pietro entirely.
Did John Krasinski show up as Reed Richards as many people thought he might? He didn’t. This casting has never been confirmed and at this point is only the stuff of rumors and wishes. Still, the Krasinski smirk to the camera (used by him liberally on The Office) was in overdrive by several characters this week. Aside from that, who has big comic book connections to Reed Richards? Agatha Harkness. Agatha all along!
WandaVision premieres new episodes every Friday on Disney+. It’s all falling apart and we can’t fix it.
