Solid structure, combined with an overwhelming amount of character development. Mostly, I feel regret and a sense of lost opportunity. Critical Notes at the end.
ONE
A ranch-style house. Inside, Wanda holds one of the crying babies, begging it to go to sleep. Vision jiggles the other twin. I’m not sure what sitcom era we’re in, but he wears jeans and she has big Pebbles hair. A magic gesture won’t stop the crying, and neither will binkies. The laugh track, mysteriously, finds all this funny.
TWO
Here’s Agnes, wearing atrocious ‘80’s workout gear. Auntie Agnes, she calls herself, ready to help with the babies. Vision, for some reason, worries she’s not clean enough (?) to care for the twins. Smiling, Agnes looks at Wanda and says, “Shall we take that again?” When Wanda and Vision share a confused look, Agnes reiterates: Shall we take it from the top? Now Wanda gets it, and nervously laughs. Vision, though, doesn’t understand. What was that about, he asks. Did you really not see what I saw, he wonders. Wanda deflects: she’s just being neighborly. (Meanwhile, Agnes is chugging alcohol in the kitchen while exercising, lol.)
THREE
The room goes suddenly quiet. The babies fell asleep? No, they’re gone. Turn to the staircase and there they are, now five years old. Agnes knocks back a slug and shakes her head: Kids, amirite? Wanda and Vision give the boys hugs and say hello to their new children.
FOUR
Credits for the fake show run. (Sorry, I’m not up on the era and don’t know what sitcom is being mimicked.) Whatever it is, the theme song is painfully saccharine.
Cut to Monica in a hospital bed. She remembers pain, Wanda’s voice in her head, and an overwhelming sense of grief. Wanda kept her down during her stint in Westview. The medic, looking at the test results, says we’ll need to do them again. They’re all blank. No, we’re done, Monica says.
Everyone at military camp — Monica, the Director, Woo, and Darcy — attend a briefing. They now have intel on the Westview anomaly. Wanda is not, as assumed, the victim. She’s the victimizer. We get some backstory on Wanda’s life: she was radicalized by Hydra, they experimented on her with the mindstone. Monica tries to defend Wanda, but the Director has a pretty good case. Thousands are held hostage. Then he shows top secret footage from nine days ago. Wanda broke into their facility and stole Vision’s corpse, going against government accords and Vision’s own will. What happens when the resurrected Vision learns the truth?
Back to the show. At the kitchen sink the boys wash dishes. No, they wash a little dog. Laugh track and “awww” noises. First Wanda says no, then she falls for the doggie cuteness. Vision enters, as does Agnes with a kennel, out of the blue. This convenient prop sets off alarms for Vision. When Wanda magics a dog collar, he becomes upset. I’m tired of hiding, Wanda defends herself. What aren’t you telling me, Vision asks.
SWITCH
The boys interrupt, turning the conversation back to the dog. You must be ten years old to care for an animal, Wanda says. The twins exchange a look and morph into older children. Agnes just laughs.
FIVE
At the military camp, Monica, Woo, and Darcy brainstorm. Monica wants to go back into Westview, and she thinks she can do so safely. The Hex might mind-wipe you, Darcy says. They discuss Wanda’s children, who are not kidnapped townsfolk. Even as they age up, they’re still hers. Monica wonders about the clothes she wore when Wanda ejected her. When she entered, she wore a Kevlar vest. Her groovy bell bottoms from Westview are also bullet proof. Wanda is rewriting reality, changing things as they enter the Hex. What happens, Monica speculates, if something requires no change to match the timeline?
Vision’s work now has computers on the desks. They have this new thing called internet, and we hear the dial-up buzz. His colleague, Norm, opens this electronic mail thing. All of the office suddenly has a top secret communique sent from “reality”. They laugh, but Vision worries. When he touches the computer it phases out. Then he touches Norm’s temples. Immediately, Norm changes. “Please help me. Stop her. She’s in my head.” On it goes, an agonizing testimonial from one of the kidnapped. Vision touches him again, resetting him. Norm makes an inane joke and the laugh track runs.
At home, Wanda sits on the couch with the boys. They wonder why dad’s at work on a Saturday, and Wanda has to think fast. He needed a distraction. From us, the twins ask. No. In sitcom-mom mode, Wanda tells them that family is forever. Do you have a brother, Mom? “He’s far away.” Sparky the dog barks at the door and Wanda lets him out.
Here’s Monica’s plan to see into the Hex. She pilots an ‘80s drone through Westview. Wanda stands outside her house. Can you hear me, Monica asks over the drone speaker. On the view screen, we see Wanda’s eyes go red. From behind Monica, the Director says, “Take the shot.” Monica knows nothing about this. The screen goes to static.
The camp scrambles to the Hex wall. Out comes Wanda, dragging a missile. All the rifles paint a target on her chest. “Stay out of my home,” she says. You took the town hostage, the Director accuses. Monica says, you trusted me to deliver your babies. I’m an ally. Charging up her hand, Wanda redirects the guns onto the Director. He yells, “Stand down!” Wanda returns into the Hex.
Jump to commercial: juice spills in a kitchen, and the mother wipes it up with Lago brand paper towels. “When you make a mess you didn’t mean to.”
In Westview, Wanda’s returned to her boys, searching the street for Sparky. The mailman says, “Your mom won’t let him get far.” However, Agnes at her house cradles something wrapped in a blanket. It’s Sparky, dead, from eating her azalea bushes. The boys are devastated.
SIX
“Don’t age yourself up,” Wanda begs. The urge to run is powerful, I know. The boys say she can fix anything, even the dead.
SEVEN
Wanda answers that she can’t reverse death, no matter how sad. There are rules, and some things are forever. Bring him back, Mom. Arriving, Vision asks, “Who?”
EIGHT
Nighttime. Wanda packs away the dog toys as Vision enters and washes up. It’s not often you get a dog and bury it in the same day, he says.
Then Vision talks about Norm. He was in pain, and his personality was suppressed. Wanda tries to deflect. Will we watch TV, Vision asks bitterly. Will you change everything again?
“You can’t control me,” he says. Can’t I? The audience track claps, and credits roll at breakneck speed over the scene. “We’re not done!” Vision says. He brings up the mysterious email: “the Maximoff Phenomenon”. The two end up facing off, midair, with Wanda charging up her red hands.
But Vision backs down. “I’m scared,” he says. He knows Westview isn’t right, but he can’t put it all together. “Do you really think I am controlling everything?” Wanda asks. Vision can only answer, “It’s wrong.”
NINE
The doorbell rings. “I didn’t do that,” Wanda says. Vision is doubtful as Wanda answers the door. Her face goes into shock when she sees who’s there.
Cut to Darcy watching the episode on TV. We see the back of someone’s head.
Reverse angle to the reveal. Clapping on the audience track. “It’s your long lost bro,” the man says.
Back to Darcy: “She recast Pietro?”
Wanda hugs him. He points at Vision and asks, “Who’s the popsicle?” The real credits roll.
CRITICAL NOTES
This episode drops a lot of information. Structurally, it’s well done. It’s still a bit of an overload, though.
One thing I like is that the sitcom story — we found a dog — is only there to serve Wanda’s overarching story. They didn’t do this in the beginning episodes, which made them clunky and boring. I guess my one criticism would be: Why didn’t they integrate their story sooner? So much about Vision’s journey could’ve been planted earlier and more gently. This episode is a sledgehammer of feelings and content. All of the townspeople break character, either overtly or with nuance. Why now? Why not earlier? If I looked at an Enneagram breakdown of just the townspeople and their journey, I don’t think it would flow smoothly. It’s a jagged arc that doesn’t let us appreciate their discoveries. All of our “Aha!” moments hit like an avalanche in this one episode. That’s not satisfying.
Also, I haven’t watched whatever Marvel show has Pietro. I only know the movie version of him. Darcy’s line is hilarious, yet its humor falls flat for me until someone explains the joke. This tends to be a problem throughout the show. If you aren’t a stanner, you miss things. Your Eight, your pow, shouldn’t rely on an Easter egg.