It's probably not fair to expect home runs week after week, especially when we've received such impactful revelations in recent episodes, but this week's episode of WandaVision, entitled "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!" seemed to do little more than further demonstrate what we've already seen and learned to this point.
The one fun bit of information that probably will have the longest-lasting impact on the show and the future of the MCU makes up for an otherwise uneventful episode. Darcy, Agent Woo, and Monica Rambeau have been banished from S.W.O.R.D.'s operation (more on that in a moment), but Darcy is trying to hack into their system to stay in the loop. During her search, she comes across Monica's files, which include bloodwork results. If you remember earlier in the season, Monica was having tests done to her after Wanda sent her flying out of the Hex. Turns out, there is more to her blood tests than initially thought.
Darcy reveals to Monica that her blood has changed. A lot. Probably to the point that we're watching the origins of Monica becoming the superpowered version of her character (she has energy powers in the comics). When Monica entered the Hex, Wanda change her physical properties (as we already knew), and apparently this change occurred even at the molecular level. What was interesting was Monica's reaction to this news. She once again shrugs it off as she did earlier this season, as if she doesn't want to accept what's happening to her. My guess is she's already feeling the ramifications of this metamorphosis off-screen (think Tony Stark dealing with the crossword puzzle on his neck in Iron Man 2). Or maybe she doesn't want to be sidelined with an injury, so to speak. Who knows.
With that in mind, it's not such a leap to think that Wanda's effect on Monica probably is happening to everyone in Westview. This could mean a lot of things (it might be hard to get into the doctor's office for a while!), but my hunch - and I suspect I'm not the only one who thinks this - is we are witnessing the catastrophic creation of the X-Men. All of these people could end up "mutating" into a superpowered person. I think this is as perfect an introduction to mutants that the MCU could've come up with. Rather than the stories we've seen in the X-Men movies (which include governmental experiments gone wrong, etc.), this feels far more natural and cohesive. From a broad perspective, the public outside of Westview could witness this change while watching in fear from afar as these mutants begin to terrorize the Earth (though the mutants are probably either being controlled or acting out of their own fear). This would perfectly adhere to my absolute favorite theme of the X-Men franchise: they are different, so they are unfairly treated, which creates an unsolicited animosity towards them. Think about it. We just witnessed Wanda extend her Hex quite a bit in this episode (more on that later). Who knows how much crazier this will get through the final three episodes of the season. Heck, maybe S.W.O.R.D. will need to call in some big guns to help stop her (hm, which Avengers are available for cameos? Maybe they bring in Hawkeye because he has a closer relationship to Wanda than the others!). The point is that this little town may catch the eye of the masses if a mutant outbreak is discovered.
The beginning of the episode felt very formulaic, which is kind of sad to say after only six episodes, but I suppose fitting into a generic TV mold was the point of the premise (this week, we get a "Malcolm in the Middle" homage). It's Halloween time, which gives everyone a chance to get into costumes. How meta of Marvel! Wanda dresses up in her true Scarlet Witch outfit, and her kids dress as they look in their comic stories. Pietro is the cool uncle who lets the boys run around (at high speeds, no less) and get into mischief. When they all go trick-or-treating, it was nice to see so many other kids for a change (Pietro says something about this, plus there was that conversation Vision had with Wanda a few episodes ago about never seeing kids on the playground). But for the most part, it was a pretty ho-hum story. I wish the humor was a little better during the sitcom portions of the show, but I suppose the audience has seen through the charade enough that even the writers are not all that concerned with investing in the illusion.
Vision further explores the existential crisis he's going through after breaking away from the group. He wanders to remote parts of town and witnesses some strange occurrences. Everyone is standing around locked in position as if they were the actors waiting for their queue on The Truman Show. Something wasn't right, and Vision starts to piece it together. Again, nothing new for the audience here, though a welcome shift in tone evoked sci-fi shows like X-Files.
The big event of the episode triggers when Wanda realizes that Vision actually escapes the Hex. In a visual stunt that evoked "The snap" imagery, Vision slowly started to disappear as he was fighting to escape the Hex; he was in much more pain than someone who was just getting snapped away. To keep Vision in her reality, she goes to such lengths as to expand the hex. When she does, everything in its path changes completely. The outdoor S.W.O.R.D. camp turns into a carnival. Armed agents turn into clowns. It was really fun to watch and visually appealing (reminded me of the scene when Thanos used the reality stone against the Guardians of the Galaxy in Infinity War). It's clear that Wanda is willing to do whatever it takes to keep control of her world as she knows it (even Darcy got caught in the Hex now! Will she become a mutant, too?).
The final shot of the episode showed Wanda's red eyes as she was causing all of this mayhem. Clearly she's toggling between herself and the more villainous Scarlet Witch. It'll be interesting to see where her allegiance lies at the end of all this and whether this turns into a struggle for her.
Time for some theories!
-Okay, here's the thing. Temporary S.W.O.R.D. Director Tyler Hayward seems to have it in for Monica, to the point that he's probably upset she's back. He views her as a threat to take his job (which is rightfully hers, anyway). He's probably hiding something, right? I mean, what exactly was S.W.O.R.D. doing with Vision's body before Wanda stole it? Is Hayward a bad guy trying to get away with something? Heck, maybe he's a Skrull who's infiltrated the agency at the highest level (this wouldn't be the first time we've seen something like this, of course). Whatever is going on, Hayward is turning into a villain in his own right, and he'll likely play a big part before the show ends. He's already starting to cover his tracks by kicking Monica, Woo, and Darcy off the project simply for questioning his decisions instead of immediately going into attack mode.
-It's curious that Pietro was asking Wanda how she was controlling Westview. It seemed like he was trying to fish for answers, as if he wanted to know the secret to her powers or something. And then Wanda has a scary flashback, then turns and sees Pietro's body appear to be dead from the bullet wounds he took in Age Of Ultron; visually, this looked eerily similar to how Vision looked when Wanda remembered he was dead. Again, Wanda is guilty of a lot of things going on in Westview, but I still think someone else is pulling the strings. We know from last week that Wanda did not bring back Pietro on her own, so is someone else controlling Pietro? Maybe that someone is trying to use Pietro to get Wanda to let her guard down. There was a moment when Wanda asked Pietro about a memory from their past, and Pietro played coy and dodged it entirely. If he isn't actually the same Pietro, his reaction would make sense. Maybe someone is manipulating the multiverse in secret right now (this potentially could tie into the Loki show, which references the Time Variance Authority) and using a version of Pietro from a different timeline/reality to get to Wanda.
-Okay, so more thoughts on the mutants: If we, indeed, are getting introduced to the mutants via this catastrophe, does that mean that we are not going to get already established actors reprising their roles from the previous X-Men franchise? If these people turn into the first mutants, that probably means it'll be a while before we see some of the most popular characters, like Wolverine, Nightcrawler or Psyclops, right? I suppose some of these people could turn into those more well-known characters, but surely Marvel would save introductions of the big characters for solo movies, right? If this is not the beginning of the X-Men, then I think casting Evan Peters as Quicksilver (he played the character in the X-Men movies) is a huge mistake. It just confuses everything. Maybe it's just an homage. Maybe they couldn't bring back Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who played Quicksilver in Age of Ultron. Either way, if Peters turns out to be nothing more than a misdirect, I'll be pretty disappointed. To get further into the weeds, if we are witnessing the beginnings of the multiverse (which would justify having Peters play the character again), then are the other actors from the X-Men series going to reprise their roles, and if they do, will Marvel bring those stories into the fold or start over? Because if they start over, it wouldn't make sense to bring back the same characters, but I really wouldn't want them to cannonize the X-Men movies into the MCU, either....Sigh, okay, even I'm confused now. Let's move on, shall we?
-The Yomagic" commercial was different from all the other commercials (that cool-talking shark was ripped straight out of the 90s). But I do think there's more credence to a theory out there that the commercials tie into the Infinity Stones. One of the previous commercials advertised for a watch (Time Stone). Another advertised a Hydra Soak, which was shaped in a cube with some blue around it (Tessaract). Last week, the spilled punch for the Lagos paper towels commercial looked an awful lot like Aether. This week, we see a kid all by himself across an orange sunset (as the child version of Gamora was when Thanos obtained all the stones - Remember the "What did it cost?...Everything" conversation?). In a rather grotesque Raiders of the Lost Ark shot, the kid on this island decays pretty quickly until all we see are his bones, as if he lost his soul, which, of course, ties to the soul stone. I'm pretty convinced the commercials tie into the Infinity Stones. This connection may not amount to anything, but it's still cool.
Notes:
-My wife wanted me to tell you all that she is extremely disappointed in this episode. She was looking forward to it all week, but we didn't get any answers. She feels like we're getting trolled a bit; we didn't learn anything significant other than maybe some people's blood might be changing. She's incredibly invested in this show and really hopes there's a satisfactory reason for everything that's going on (as we all do).
-Agnus seemed to be less threatening this episode. She was clearly under Wanda's control until Vision momentarily freed her, and she really didn't seem to know what was going on. At time earlier this season, it seemed like she was in on whatever is going on. Now I'm not so sure.