WandaVision, 'Previously' - March 1

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Ergo, let us talk about the penultimate episode of ‘WandaVision’ instead. What it is all about?

‘Surprise twist’ – it was not Agatha all along! Until ‘Previously’, Agatha was content to practically prank Wanda through the episodes with Wanda succeeding no matter what was Agatha throwing at her…and she did not appear to be testing Wanda too hard. Yes, there is the matter of her killing Sparky, but whether evil or merely selfish, Agatha is clearly a liar – and then she takes Billy and Tommy hostage and crosses into outright evil category.

Pause. Yes, apparently MCU decided to do one better over the Marvel comics, where the original Billy and Tommy had been artificially created by Wanda, because the latter is that powerful and awesome; (when she had teamed with Rachel Grey, she was able to defeat the Phoenix itself in the comics, and we’re not talking about the capital of the state of Arizona here), so in MCU Wanda has created not just the twins in question, but also Vision himself…

Pause. Yes, apparently, the creation of a second, new, white Vision is a very clever twist and enjoyable Easter egg for the diehard fans of Marvel, but otherwise? Yes, it puts director Hayward into an odd position: like what is his villain motivation here? Throughout WV, it was logically assumed that Wanda has stolen Vision from S.W.O.R.D., reanimated him, and is now paying house with him, (let us put it down thusly). Now, however, it has been revealed that S.W.O.R.D. had held onto Vision, (or his deceased remains), all along instead, so why would Hayward want to fight Wanda now? Yes, given MCU’s tendency with ‘twists’, (that can be often seen all along these days – this isn’t the early seasons of AoS, you know), Hayward can always be revealed to be Hydra, or Agatha’s own long-lost son, or whoever, but there’s another reason, I’ve been told – WV is tying-in to ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ show, which depicts an MCU which is far more hostile to the Avengers-type heroes than it’d been in the first 3 phases, so maybe director Hayward is doing the biding of the U.S. government for real, in which case, ‘captain Monica’ and her friends Jimmy and Darcy are about to become renegades of some sort for real… Deep breath.

Let us try again. WV can be kind of confusing at times, but the fact that Wanda and Monica have interacted throughout the show’s run so far, and while Monica tried to be friendly to Wanda, (she even helped to deliver one of Wanda’s twins, cough), Wanda wasn’t, and no, it wasn’t Agatha all along – Agatha seems to be pursuing her own goal, probably to steal Wanda’s powers, (however that works), but she didn’t mess up Wanda and Monica’s relationship – Wanda did it all by herself.

Just as how she took over Westview by herself. Yes, her motives might be less evil than how they appeared in mid-season, but for the civilians of Westview this makes little difference, so they still might be crying out for Wanda’s head no matter what her motivations are, which will put Monica and her crew into an awkward position – what is the right choice here? The fact that they’re scattered all over – Monica and Darcy are in two different parts of the Hex, Jimmy is outside of it – doesn’t help their situation either: instead of coming to a resolution AoS-style, WV seems to be heading into something much more darker…possibly the upcoming ‘Multiverse of Madness’, and the still untitled ‘CM2’, movies. Therefore, odds are that WV, and ‘TFATWS’, and any other streaming series and co. of Disney/MCU for now, will end on an unfinished note, (or on a note that feels unfinished), so that the upcoming Disney/MCU movies/other shows/etc. will have something to work with from the start. What next?

People have been pointing out to me that Agatha’s color is purple, and the last MCU character with this sort of thing had been Thanos, but so far, there is nothing tying Agatha with Thanos or with anyone from MCU, she is a brand new arrival here, so yay! Go MCU! In the still dark and unwelcome times of 2021, we still need you.

…But for now though, this is it. See you all soon, instead!