Welcome back to the swingin’ 70’s with WandaVision at CXF, starring Mikey Zee and our very special guest star Tony Thornley! When we last left our favorite witch and android couple, Wanda was surprised to discover she was pregnant, and not just newly pregnant, but months along!
Mikey Zee: Welcome to my lovely home, Tony, I’m so glad you were able to come! Would you like some Jell-O salad? Or maybe some party meatballs?
Tony Thornley: My goodness Mikey, thanks for having me! I woke up early Friday to check out the episode, and I have to say this one was a bit of a trip. Have you been like me so far, pouring over everything, keeping an eye out for clues?
MZ: A little bit! I am trying not to treat it as a puzzle, but more trying to puzzle out the themes and narrative ties between media both from today and yesteryear. Because boy howdy does there sure feel like a lot.
TT: Agreed, and it definitely starts with the theme song/throwback opening. I mean we didn’t see as much stuff as last week’s animated opening (I’m still trying to figure out if there was significance to the hexagon of stars in the first shot last week), but it leaned into the pregnancy storyline from the episode pretty heavily. It was extremely disconcerting to go back to after watching the episode.
Thematically though, I thought this episode was extremely interesting, both with the 70’s homage and the bit of deconstruction we saw of the classic “magic pregnancy” trope.
MZ: Yeah, and we had more hexagons here this time! Very weird for that to be a recurring visual motif replacing the more traditional Brady Bunch squares this time. I feel like there’s something more to it than hex powers = hexagons, but only time will tell…
Before we get into that pregnancy, I know part of why you were excited to talk about this episode was the obvious Brady Bunch inspiration, and there was a lot of that this episode.
HERE’S A STORY OF A MAN NAMED VISION
TT: I’m trying to think of 70’s shows that involved a pregnancy storyline and I’m drawing a blank. But what the first half of the episode reminded me of was later episodes of Bewitched mixed with Brady’s. I mean, the Bewitched influence feels obvious to all three episodes so far, but Viz’s reactions to everything going on felt so inspired by Dick York and Dick Sargent. I’m struggling just a little to put it into words because it brought that Bewitched inspiration into the era they’re capturing.
But anyways, this first half of the episode, with Viz and Wanda struggling with comprehending what’s happening just landed perfectly for me. It was the weirdness colliding with the homage and it just set up the back of the episode just right for me.
MZ: Yeah, absolutely! I love how well they were able to combine both elements of it. I know for some folks the sitcom elements haven’t quite hit, but for me they’re note-perfect. Since I’ve been working from home more, I’ve been watching more soap operas… and having seen some of the old ‘70s episodes of The Young and the Restless that they re-aired during the pandemic, it honestly felt like a dash of soap opera mixed with the situational comedy aspect to lead to the rising tension of the episode.
Vis is clearly going through quite a lot this episode, and I’m glad we got to see a little bit more about how he’s feeling with this new and sudden addition to his world. What’s more, as far as I can find, he’s never had super-speed in either the MCU or the comics. It’s interesting here that we get to see both his powers change at the same time his world is changing. Even though I don’t have experience as a father myself, I still thought this mix of father/synthezoid anxiety gave me some empathy for the character, and helped me understand a little more about how he approaches a human world that’s, in a lot of ways, completely alien to him.
TT: Yeah, I have two young kids, and the way this episode is like a heightened version of both times I experienced new fatherhood… It was so accurate. I remember being in the delivery room with my first rambling about how my blood type was O-negative if my wife or the baby needed a blood transfusion. The adrenaline just gets going in that moment.
It’s good for the story as well, because frankly the series so far has mainly been about the homages and the mystery. It did a lot to make me care more about Vision as a person. And your mention of super-speed… With the mention of Pietro that comes up later, I can’t help but think there’s a link? Maybe?
MZ: That’s a great point about Pietro… I didn’t even put that together!
TT: I didn’t until I rewatched the episode myself! That adrenaline is a great set-up for the big plot advancements of the back half of the episode though.
WANDA’S BAB(IES)
MZ: It sure is, because as it turns out, Wanda’s pregnancy is progressing at a supernatural rate, and Vision is more than a little concerned for her, which is really sweet to see. Even though this doesn’t bear anything more than a superficial resemblance to the horror classic Rosemary’s Baby, I couldn’t help but sneak the reference in there. There doesn’t appear to be any demonic influence on Wanda this time around, though I am amused the LA Times had to explain Master Pandemonium’s demon baby hands.
Instead, we see Wanda’s powers both growing and going on the fritz, in ways that have me full of questions, frankly. Vision is also asking questions, it turns out… oh wait, sorry. That didn’t happen, everything is fine! (Ed. note: NO I SAW IT. I’M OUTSIDE THE SIMULATION AND I SAW IT)
TT: Oh the entire birth sequence was so great! From the moment Wanda started having Braxton Hicks to the birth of the boys… It was a roller coaster, not just of plot but also moods. This was just intense. However, we got probably one of the best Easter eggs of the series. Billy and Tommy?!
MZ: Tommy and Billy!! And, not only did we get the twins… Tommy was born first, just like he was in the original comics! I had to pause and squeal with excitement there, as all my latent Young Avengers fan energy rose up in that moment and just bubbled joy in my chest. All this energy I shoved into a box after I got burnt out on comics just snapped right back.
I love that we got the twins, and that we got that moment… and I guess we can thank Geraldine for getting us there.
WELCOME TO… WESTVIEW… GERALDINE?
Dr. Nielsen: “Small towns. So hard to… escape.”
MZ: We met Geraldine last week, but I feel like we didn’t really get to see much of her. This episode seems to know that, and just… throws us into the deep end. So, Geraldine. Oh my goodness.
TT: Oh my goodness, Teyonah Parris as Geraldine… in any other show I think she would have been the MVP especially for this episode. I kind of wish we didn’t know that Geraldine is actually Monica Rambeau, because I think trying to figure out who she actually is would have had a better impact down the line.
However, I do think the Geraldine/Wanda interactions gave us the forward plot momentum that the story needed. First, the temp job story just feels like it’s full of clues. Then we get the birth of the twins and their conversation immediately afterwards. Without that eerie conversation between them, this episode would have been WAY more frustrating. I think you and I both have theories about what Monica’s doing there and what might actually be going on now.
MZ: Yeah, and it leads into the biggest nugget we get this episode: Wanda’s Sokovian heritage and her mentioning of Pietro.
As far as I can remember, after his passing, Pietro has basically been a non-entity in the MCU. Wanda has brought it her backstory in small ways; cooking paprikash, throwing herself into life on the run. But never have we seen her bring it up like she does with Geraldine here.
(Also, how sweet and touching is the homage to House of M’s single tear panel, recontextualized here?)
TT: I thought “I’m a twin” was just going to be a sweet moment (and it was), but holy cow, it went dark fast. When Geraldine said “He was killed by Ultron, wasn’t he?” my stomach dropped.
So this was the moment that I thought a handful of points about the story. Monica must be a SWORD agent. She must be as scrambled up as Wanda and Vis. And she had to have entered Westbrook much more recently than Wanda did. What did you think?
MZ: I think you’re right on the money, because while the two women are having that conversation, Vision’s outside with the neighbors Agnes and Herb, who are acting equally suspicious. When Vision pushes them on why they’re gossiping about Geraldine, all the dogs in the neighborhood start barking as Herb tries to answer, the words clinging in his throat.
Herb: “She came here because we’re all–”
Vision: “We’re all what?”
Herb doesn’t get a chance to answer before Agnes interrupts. Honestly, as cliche as it sounds, I’m starting to think the answer, with the exception of Monica… is dead. There’s a lot of pieces here, so bear with me. We’re pretty sure this is post-Endgame, and like we said last week, Vision didn’t come back in Endgame that we saw, because he died before the snap. All of the commercials in this perfect vision of the “American Dream” reference something Wanda had a direct, negative relationship to–this week’s is for a bubble bath called Hydra Soak–and any time someone questions the narrative, or it doesn’t go in a stereotypical sitcom way, it resets to a positive version of events. And with Pietro subconsciously on her mind as we now see, I think Vision gaining additional powers he never had in the MCU or comics totally makes sense.
Like I said last week, it feels very Kubrick in a way, how all these small vignettes stack up to the general feeling of unease.
TT: Oh it really does. Your theory was what I was going with until this week. Now my theory is not dissimilar but it goes in a little different direction. I think what Herb and Agnes were trying to say is “trapped.” My guess is that Westview might be an alien crash site, and the occupant (or one of the occupants) is a telepath messing with Wanda’s mind in the same way you’re suggesting. Hell, everyone in Westview really, but Wanda is the powerful reality manipulator.
It would explain why Wanda was sent in the first place, and why Monica might have been sent in after her. The best part about it though is that at this point, either theory works. I think the only thing that’s clear is that something more is at play than just Wanda having a terrible Nightmare.
But holy crap, all theorizing aside for that last scene… As Vision walks back into Wanda serenely looking at the Twins…
Vision: “Where’s Geraldine?”
Wanda: “Oh, she left, honey. She had to rush home.”
MZ: And as we look at Wanda as the babies coo, the aspect ratio widens to a modern cinematic aspect ratio, electricity crackles… and “Geraldine” AKA Monica is sent flying out into a secured compound in what appears to be the modern day town called Westview. Jeeps and helicopters surround her… and friggin Daydream Believer starts playing.
What a PERFECT pick for outro music, especially because The Monkees were also their own 70s sitcom! Just… one way for a show to win me over is perfectly ironic music choice.
TT: I have never had an aspect ratio change make me gasp before watching this episode. This would have been the scene where it would have been absolute perfection if we didn’t know who Geraldine actually was!
It was such an eerie effect to see Monica catapulted out of an energy dome, over the Westview sign, and land in the midst of the activity she did. I’m really curious next week whether we’ll get purely the Family Ties homage that we’ve seen hinted at in the trailers or whether it’ll be a mix of Monica getting debriefed with that eighties sitcom homage.
And let’s look at that dome there. This is the shot that made me say that Wanda is not the source of what’s happening in Westview. The dome, with its heavily armed observers, appears to be doing the same sort of electronic glitching we’ve been seeing in the three episodes to date, which does not match Wanda’s flowing red energy signature at all!
MZ: Yep, I noticed that as well! Honestly, what the energy fluctuations at the edge of the ‘field’ and the installation itself remind me most of, is the Southern Reach installation perched next to the encroaching Area X/The Shimmer from Annihilation. If only in vibe if not actual aesthetics. Definitely getting the sense of some kind of anomaly, which I think fits in with the vibe you’re picking up no matter what it ends up being, Tony. Interesting to note that Monica was covered by Wanda’s energy signal when she was sent out, though…
As Billy Rae Cyrus would say, much to think about.
TT: Definitely and I’m excited to see things start to come together. After this episode, I really look forward to some plot momentum building too. Just what is Westview and what’s happening to everyone there? I think we’re about to find out…
MZ: Well thank you so much for joining me for this column Tony. And for you readers… until the next time period!
Mikey is a writer, graphic artist, and tabletop roleplaying designer based out of Columbus, Ohio. In his free time, he watches wrestling and indulges in horror media. Find him on Twitter @quantumdotdot.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
