The seventh episode of Marvel's WandaVision, "Breaking the Fourth Wall," somehow manages
to be even more chaotic than what's come before. Here's how far we are down the WandaVision
rabbit hole by the end of its seventh episode, and where it could lead us from here.
"Breaking the Fourth Wall" puts a Modern Family- and The Office-inspired spin on WandaVision
— complete with candid interviews with the "cast." But behind the playfulness, there's
a certain uneasiness in the air.
After last week's boundary-pushing affair, Wanda elects to engage in a "quarantine-style
staycation," largely ignoring that certain pieces of furniture in her home are shifting
from era to era. Also, Wanda's telepathic son Billy is having problems with his mind
— he says it's "really noisy" in there — but she writes him off and leaves her boys with
Agnes for the day, and doesn't seem all that bothered that her husband Vision is still
missing.
"Do you want to go look for him?"
"If he doesn't want to be here, there's nothing I can do about it."
There's a lot to make of Wanda's subdued mental break in this episode, especially in relation
to her unruly surroundings. Now that the borders of her spell have expanded even further and
have even been strengthened, she's pushed her reality-warping abilities harder than
ever before.
One would imagine that this test of her mental limits is exhausting, and is likely causing
her world to shift and change outside of her control. Not only that, but Wanda seems highly
uninterested in maintaining her perfect illusion, going as far to admit to her sons that their
"Uncle Pietro" wasn't actually related to them and pawning them off onto her neighbor
just to get herself back in-check.
If Wanda can't get her abilities under control soon, the consequences could prove catastrophic.
Shifting back outside the Hex, we receive an update on S.W.O.R.D.'s efforts to break
in — and they're not planning to politely knock on the front door. Director Hayward
isn't even considering reasoning with Wanda and is prepared to unleash a full arsenal
to annihilate her illusion if he must — much to the dismay of Agent Woo and Captain Rambeau.
Thanks to Darcy Lewis' hacking skills, they're able to access Hayward's classified information
about his true intentions for Westview, why he's so gung-ho to obliterate it, and what
he hopes to gain from doing so.
Hayward's plan is known as Project Cataract, and Vision is firmly at the center of it.
As we know, after Thanos killed Vision in Avengers: Infinity War, S.W.O.R.D. recovered
Vision's corpse and began studying it for mysterious purposes.
Apparently, Hayward wanted to bring Vision back to life, likely as some kind of weapon
for the organization's use. He didn't think it was possible until Wanda made it happen,
which explains why the shifty bureaucrat was so dead-set on keeping an eye on the reanimated
synthezoid.
What other details may hide underneath the surface of Project Cataract remain to be seen,
but it's pretty much a given that the next two WandaVision episodes will provide some
clarification.
After being immersed in Wanda's Hex in the closing moments of Episode 6, Darcy Lewis
is now firmly within its grasp in Episode 7. Taking on the occupation of an escape artist
with the local circus, she has no idea who she, Vision, Wanda, or anyone is — or that
she's under someone else's influence.
Thankfully, Vision awakens Darcy from the trance, allowing her to see what's really
going on. The duo hijack the circus's funnel cake truck and hit the road, finally giving
Vision a chance to figure out what's actually happening.
Over the course of their brief yet insightful road trip, Darcy lays everything out for Vision.
She explains his origins as Ultron's tool for world domination and details his two deaths
to him in explicit detail, filling the gaps in his memory.
Vision plans to go home ASAP, but he and Darcy encounter roadblock after roadblock — which
he suspects is Wanda' efforts to slow him down. In the end, he comes to the realization
that maintaining this sitcom-esque pretext is irrelevant, and he simply flies away, leaving
Darcy to drive the rest of the way back to the house.
Spearheading an operation of her own to help Wanda evade Director Hayward's wrath, Captain
Monica Rambeau prepares to reenter the Hex by any means necessary. In doing so — just
as Darcy Lewis warned in prior episodes — the barrier has altered Monica's physiology. Of
course, the effects seem pretty positive by MCU standards: she comes out the other side
with glowing eyes, a resistance to the Hex's effects, and some as-yet undefined superpowers.
To longtime Marvel Comics readers, this is a clear sign that Monica is on the fast track
to super-heroism. On the page, Monica has gone by the names Photon, Spectrum, Pulsar,
and even Captain Marvel, utilizing energy-based abilities to fight for good.
This is teased during her standoff with Wanda inside of the Hex. Holding Monica up with
her powers, Wanda throws her to the ground, and Monica uses her newfound powers to stick
the landing with a brief blue glow. Before their confrontation can continue, though,
Agnes swings by and escorts Wanda away.
The closing moments of "Breaking the Fourth Wall" appear to reveal what many fans have
theorized for a while: that Agnes was the one pulling the strings all along. In fact,
her name isn't even Agnes — she's actually a witch named Agatha Harkness, who has influenced
Westview and its residents from the moment she arrived. From bringing the fake Pietro
to Westview, to killing Sparky the dog, Agatha has seemingly done it all.
“The devil’s in the details, Bev.”
“That’s not the only place he is.”
Many fans guessed that Agatha Harkness was Agnes' true identity, looking back at the
character's history in the Marvel comics — from her tenure as a Fantastic Four villain to
her time as Wanda's mentor — for evidence to back up their theories.
Let's not forget that in the comics, Agatha ends up zapping away some of Wanda's memory
in a bid to help her move on from the trauma of learning that Billy and Tommy aren't completely
real. Could something similar happen in WandaVision, where Agatha is the key to a reset of everything
if Wanda is unable or unwilling to let Westview go?
In the post-credits scene of "Breaking the Fourth Wall," the imposter Pietro confronts
Monica for snooping around Agnes' home. This may seem like a bad omen for the next episode,
with Agatha seemingly primed to become a major player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe going
forward. Unless …
Unlike previous WandaVision commercials, this week's isn't exactly subtle in its messaging.
An antidepressant ad clearly represents Wanda's ongoing mental struggles and how she chose
to try to overcome them with her Hex around Westview..
"Nexus: Because the world doesn't revolve around you. Or does it?"
Of course, the name "Nexus" holds special meaning for longtime Marvel Comics readers.
For one thing, The Nexus of all Realities is where all the various alternate dimensions
of the Marvel Universe intersect.
And given what we've seen on the show so far — the comic-book accurate Halloween costumes
for Wanda's family, the arrival of a Pietro from Fox's neighboring Marvel Cinematic reality
— it's entirely possible that "Nexus" is more than just a wink and a nod to something
in the comics.
In the Avengers West Coast comics, it's ultimately revealed that Wanda is being manipulated by
Immortus, an immortal being and timeline manipulator hellbent on becoming the "absolute master
of time." He's the future self of Kang the Conqueror, a time-travelling villain who battled
the Avengers early on in the original comics.
This relates to WandaVision in general and to the Nexus antidepressant commercial specifically
because Wanda in the comics is a "Nexus Being" — a person who exists in all realities in
the multiverse. So, through her, Immortus can control the timelines of every multiverse
simultaneously.
The person who ultimately saves Wanda in the comics is her mentor Agatha Harkness, causing
the Time Keepers from the Time Variance Authority, or TVA, to show up and shut Immortus down.
We got a peek at the TVA in the trailer for the upcoming Disney+ series Loki.
"How long have you been here?"
"I don't know. It's hard to say. Time passes differently here in the TVA."
"What does that mean?"
"You'll catch up."
Is Immortus — or his younger self Kang the Conqueror — the next Thanos-level villain
in the MCU? Is this week's "Agatha All Along" reveal just a clever misdirect? Is Agatha
actually under someone else's spell? Kang is set to appear in 2022's Ant-Man and the
Wasp: Quantumania, played by Lovecraft Country's Jonathan Majors, so we might just be getting
a sneak peek via WandaVision.
And we know Marvel is going to the multiverse in the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse
of Madness, naturally, as well as in Spider-Man 3. How does it all connect to WandaVision?
Time will tell.
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