Contains MAJOR Spoilers. Seriously, don’t read this unless you’ve watched the episode, it’s a doozy.
A big thing happened down in Westview today. Marvel’s first Disney+ show has already done a great deal to offer something that feels very different to anything else in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But as we move deeper and deeper into the series, it is becoming very apparent that WandaVision is going to have massive shockwaves for the very fabric of the MCU and its characters altogether. Episode Five ends with a truly WTF moment that is bound to leave fans’ heads spinning wondering just what it all means going forward, not just for the show, but for the entire franchise.
The episode kicks off with Wanda attempting to return to her fantasy of living out a happy life with Vision in the now 70’s/80’s sitcom environment of Westview. But the facade is starting to fall away. Their new twin boys are rapidly aging, residents of Westview are acting stranger, and Vision is starting to realise that Wanda is pulling the strings on, quite literally, everything. On the outside of Westview, Monica Rambeau joins in on the investigation after being thrown out of Westview by Wanda, as she starts to realise that the Director of SWORD is more keen on eliminating Wanda than he is helping her.
The two storylines playing alongside each other, outside and inside ‘The Hex’ as Kat Dennings’ Darcy is now starting to call it, flow incredibly well in tandem as Monica, Darcy and Jimmy continue to try and find a means of communicating with Wanda. It is revealed that only just nine days prior to these events, Wanda broke into a SWORD facility where Vision’s body was being kept, before then heading out to make a sanctuary for themselves in the town of Westview, manipulating the minds of the towns people at the same time. While Monica and Agent Jimmy Woo very much land on the side of helping Wanda deal with what they believe to be a reaction to grief, those behind SWORD see her more as a threat that needs eliminating, leading to simmering tensions within the operation.
Seeing Monica join the engaging pairing of Jimmy and Darcy in their investigation is thoroughly enjoyable, with Teyonah Parris’ charisma fitting perfectly in with the fun dynamic established between Randall Park and Kat Dennings in the previous episode. They continue to have the same sort of discussions that fans must be having week in week out as they wait for the latest episode, particularly when it comes to the fact that this level of power coming from Wanda is unlike anything we’ve seen her do before. They even discuss a fan favourite moment from Endgame where Wanda looked like she was about to finish Thanos off before he ordered his ships to rain down fire. There is also the hint of some tension between Monica and Captain Marvel, which certainly makes one raise an eyebrow in curiosity, even if it is a little heavy handed.
But the more mind-blowing developments come from inside The Hex, as Wanda seems to be losing control of the fantasy she has constructed for herself. Her ‘cast’ as it were are all starting to act strange, seemingly out of fear, making the moments where the studio audience laughter dies incredibly eerie and uncomfortable. Wanda herself comes across as incredibly intimidating, as the extent of her control over the town is laid bare when Vision is able to communicate with his co-worker Norm, who snaps out of Wanda’s control and is absolutely terrified of the situation he finds himself in. SWORD is certainly right to be cautious about Wanda, her level of control and power is on a frightening scale and the potential threat is undoubtedly a cause for concern.
But cracks also start to show in just what level of control Wanda really has in what is happening to her, as there are more and more hints that someone else is manipulating her in some way. That particularly becomes apparent in the final moments where Vision confronts Wanda as to the nature of their reality, when suddenly the doorbell rings. Vision believes it is Wanda conjuring up a distraction, but Wanda swears she hasn’t conjured anything. She opens the door, and with it what we think we know about the MCU is blown wide open, as on the other side of the door is her brother Pietro, aka Quicksilver. But it is not Aaron Taylor Johnson’s Pietro, it is Evan Peters’ from the Fox X-Men franchise. Darcy exclaims ‘Wanda recast Pietro!?’ but we as an audience of course know the bigger implication: is this the first confirmation of both the X-Men and a multiverse invading the MCU?
It is an absolutely wild cliffhanger for this episode to go out on, with Twitter already a flurry of shock, with fans quick to theorise as to what this can mean for the MCU. Coupled with the casting news for Spider-Man 3, the title of Doctor Strange 2 (In the Multiverse of Madness), the multiverse is most certainly going to be a massive part of the fourth phase of the MCU. Is Peters’ appearance here confirmation that the X-Men will be coming into the reality of the MCU via the means of a multiverse crossover, rather than a complete overhaul and recasting? There is simply not enough to confirm or deny any avenue of theory right now, But what is for certain is that someone else, not Wanda, brought this version of Quicksilver into Wanda’s cosy sitcom reality. He is a presence that’s bound to bring both that world, and what we know about the MCU, crumbling down. Bring on next week!
