After the first two episodes of WandaVision dropped on Disney+, fans of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe immediately set to work, picking apart every little detail of the classic TV-inspired
pseudo-sitcom.
There are lots of people, places, and even objects that potentially hint at how WandaVision
could change Marvel's TV universe going forward.
Take Westview community leader Dottie.
Dottie, like many of the residents of Westview, is already beginning to see through the cracks
in WandaVision's world.
As she and Wanda clean up after a town planning event, she makes it clear that she has "heard
things" about Wanda and Vision and, moreover, doesn't trust them.
More than that, when a mysterious voice calling Wanda's name is heard coming through the static
of a nearby radio, both Wanda and Dottie are able to hear it.
It's obvious that there's more to Westview and Dottie than meets the eye, and the actor
who plays her likely seems more than a bit familiar.
"Nothing like what you two just did has ever happened in the history of our talent show!"
Her name is Emma Caulfield Ford, and this is far from her first foray into the world
of science fiction and fantasy.
Perhaps you've seen her in Fear the Walking Dead, Supergirl, Once Upon a Time, or another
of her dozens of TV appearances over the years.
But, chances are, you know her from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In Season 3 of Buffy, Cordelia Chase wishes that Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale,
thus creating an alternate universe ruled by The Master and overrun by his creatures
of the night, in one of the most iconic episodes of the show.
The "scary, veiny, good fairy" who made Cordy's wish come true?
Why, that would be none other than Emma Caulfield Ford, known at the time as just "Emma Caulfield,"
as the vengeance demon Anya.
It wouldn't be until the fourth season of Buffy that Anya would be slotted in as a series
regular, but it didn't take long before fans realized the character would become far more
than Cordelia's replacement after she absconded to Los Angeles with Angel.
Anya was a fresh, snarky take on the "inhuman being must learn to be human" trope.
After centuries of helping scorned women take extreme revenge on the men who spurned them,
Anya becomes friends with Buffy and the gang while also falling in love with Xander Harris.
The romance between Anya and Xander is a huge part of the Buffy story, and very nearly leads
to marriage.
Of course, it wouldn't be Buffy if true love didn't lead to misery, so we get to see Anya
cope with being a vengeance demon all over again, making her one of the most complex
characters in Buffy's seven-season history.
The same year that Buffy the Vampire Slayer concluded it's seven-season run, Emma Caulfield
Ford was already starring in a horror movie with a concept that actually feels like it
could've come straight out of an episode of Buffy — Darkness Falls.
Darkness Falls is both the name of the 2003 film and the town in which the story is set,
raising the question — who would choose to live in a town named Darkness Falls?
The answer, as you might have guessed, is Emma Caulfield Ford playing Caitlin Greene.
In A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven found success redefining the Sandman as a knife-fingered
monster who kills you in your dreams named Freddy Krueger.
Darkness Falls performs a similar trick, but this time it's the Tooth Fairy getting a murderous
makeover.
Just like the parents from Elm Street killed Krueger, the parents of Darkness Falls kill
Matilda Dixon, a.k.a. the Tooth Fairy; the difference is that Matilda Dixon was innocent
of the crimes she was accused of.
The result is the same: The Tooth Fairy becomes a vengeful spirit and returns to do some killing.
Considering Caulfield Ford just wrapped playing a vengeance demon on Buffy, she naturally
was the perfect person to fight an evil Tooth Fairy.
Two years before Black Mirror existed in any form, Emma Caulfield Ford starred as Oona
O'Leary in 2009's TiMER — a movie with a very similar premise to the Black Mirror episode
"Hang the DJ."
In the future, most people accept who their "soulmate" will be via a high-tech dating
app.
The app in TiMER is a device installed in the wrist that counts down to when a person
will meet their soulmate, but Oona's clock is not counting down.
Does she have no soulmate?
Is her soulmate dead?
Or has her soulmate simply not gotten their own device installed?
TiMER is a classic science fiction exploration of free will versus destiny set through the
lens of a romantic comedy.
Plus, there are two interesting things about TiMER as it pertains to WandaVision.
The first is that there seems to be a question of whether or not the residents of Westview
are there of their own free will or not.
Even more interesting, however, is that Jac Schaeffer, who wrote and directed TiMER, is
also the showrunner for WandaVision.
So if there's any role from Caulfield Ford's past that's relevant to WandaVision, it's
definitely Oona from TiMER.
"Now you can clap."
"And stop."
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