In Episode 6, WandaVision welcomes a handful of new questions, adds wrinkles to past conundrums,
and finally offers some insight to what's truly going on in Westview. Here's what we're
left with once the credits roll on the "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!"
With Billy and Tommy growing up at a lightning-fast pace, it should come as no surprise that they're
already beginning to manifest their own superhuman abilities. Tommy is the first to show signs
of his burgeoning powers early on in the episode, running around at blink-and-you'll-miss-him
speeds alongside his uncle Pietro. For Billy, it takes him a bit longer, but near the end
of the episode, his telepathic strengths rise to the surface as he detects that Vision is
in some kind of danger.
In the comics, Billy and Tommy do start off as Wanda and Vision's children — kind of.
Since Vision is a synthezoid and can't actually pass on DNA for human reproduction, Wanda
inadvertently uses her powers to take fragments of the demon Mephisto's soul to create her
twin boys. Knowing this backstory certainly informs some of the dialogue in WandaVision,
like this joke from Uncle Pietro:
"Unleash hell, demon spawn!"
The consequences of this accidental deal with the devil in the comics are monumental, as
Billy and Tommy disappear whenever Wanda isn't thinking about them. Once Mephisto catches
wind of this, he reabsorbs the twins into himself, long story short, via a villain called
Master Pandemonium. This erases the pair from existence altogether before they can display
any powers, though they do return in the comics as "reincarnated" versions of themselves:
the Speed and Wiccan Young Avengers fans know and love.
Meanwhile in the original comic storyline, Agatha Harkness, a powerful witch who mentors
Wanda in the comics, tells Wanda the truth about her sons, then wipes her memory so she
won't have to live with the pain of losing her sons. One popular theory is that Kathryn
Hahn's WandaVision character Agnes could actually be Agatha Harkness.
“The devil’s in the details, Bev.”
“That’s not the only place he is.”
She did, after all, dress and cackle like a witch in this episode, and has yet to be
ID'd by S.W.O.R.D., though her seeming confusion when Vision breaks the Westview spell casts
some doubt on this theory.
Moving outside of Westview's borders, WandaVision Episode 6 gives audiences no shortage of the
story from S.W.O.R.D.'s perspective. This time around, things get a bit heated between
Director Hayward and the team of Captain Monica Rambeau, Dr. Darcy Lewis, and FBI Agent Jimmy
Woo. The trio's desire to actually help Wanda and those trapped in her suburban nightmare
rather than punish Wanda leads to their ejection from the project and the premises altogether.
This entire scenario raises a big question: What is Hayward's plan, and why is he trying
to remove all voices contrary to his?
The plot thickens as the episode goes on, and Darcy is eventually able to hack into
Hayward's files. What she finds is an inside visual on the entirety of Westview and trackers
on some of its residents — including Vision, whom it appears the acting S.W.O.R.D. figurehead
has taken a vested interest in. The android's body went to the secret organization for examination
following his death in Avengers: Infinity War, so it should come as no surprise that
Hayward would want to recover it ASAP.
It's unclear how Hayward wants to use Vision's corpse, exactly, but it looks like the weapons-related
project has the code name "CATARACT", which is a condition that leads to a clouding of
the eye, and a decrease in vision. It also makes your eyes look a bit like how Pietro's
and Vision's looked when Wanda saw their dead faces. Spooky!
When it comes to Monica Rambeau, it appears there's more to her than meets the eye — or
at least there will be very soon. As teased in Episode 5, Monica's physiology is beginning
to change in strange ways, making it impossible for medical equipment to get readings on her.
In Episode 6, Darcy drives this point home. She explains that Monica's exposure to Wanda's
Hex has re-written her cellular code twice — once for each time she crossed the threshold
— and this means it's unsafe for her to use her "aerospace engineer" contact and hatch
a plan to go back into Westview. For avid comic book readers, this is a surefire sign
that big things are on the horizon for Monica.
In the comics, Monica is exposed to an extra-dimensional energy that alters her molecular structure,
granting her a slew of impressive superhuman abilities. With her newfound powers, Monica
rises to prominence as the second incarnation of Captain Marvel before taking on a few different
superhero codenames.
While it's unlikely she'll replace relative MCU newcomer Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel
any time soon, it's clear that Monica is lined up to become something more than a S.W.O.R.D.
operative in the near future. Considering that her mom, the late Maria Rambeau, went
by the nickname Photon, all signs point to Monica taking up that name as well when her
powers begin to manifest more overtly. Either way, this is a very exciting prospect for
the future of the MCU, and she'll make a fine addition to its next generation of heroes.
Not allowing his suspicions to dissipate, Vision concocts a plan to figure out what
lies beyond Westview. He tells Wanda he's going off to patrol as a part of the neighborhood
watch team, but actually slips away to investigate the town's border. What he finds is truly
disturbing. Once Vision begins to move away from the crowds of trick-or-treaters, he runs
into an unsettling amount of people frozen in place like living mannequins, unable to
speak or move. As evidenced by one woman who lets out a tear, they seem to be totally aware
of what's going on, but can't escape Wanda's trance.
Shortly thereafter, Vision encounters Agnes in her car at the edge of town, seemingly
lost. Much like he did with Norm in WandaVision Episode 5, Vision awakens Agnes and she immediately
loses it. She explains that he should be dead, but because he lacks memories of his life
before Westview, Vision is at a total loss. He places Agnes back under Wanda's influence
and moves on, heading for the Hex's barrier.
Standing at the boundary between his fictional reality and the S.W.O.R.D. camp, Vision struggles
to step outside. It's possible that because Wanda's magic inside the hex is what reanimated
his corpse, it's apparently impossible for him to leave entirely, and his attempt to
do so starts tearing apart his physical form. We don't, however, see Vision's dead visage,
like we did back in Episode 5.
This fact, combined with the momentary shot we got of Pietro's dead body during his and
Wanda's heart-to-heart, raises an important question: Are these glimpses of their true
selves, underneath Wanda's magical meddling? Or are these images simply what Wanda sees?
After all, Pietro's new face seems to imply that this guy is not the same Pietro who died
in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Yet, he seems to be aware of his fate, which differs from
Vision's blanked memory of his pre-Westview life as an Avenger. Is Wanda puppeteering
the dead bodies of Vision and Pietro? Or is something else going on here?
Regardless, in response to Vision's cries of pain, Wanda pushes out the borders of Westview
so that she can save his life and maintain her control over him — and now countless
other individuals, including several S.W.O.R.D. agents, and Darcy Lewis, too.
It will be interesting to see how Wanda and Vision can move forward now that Vision has
broken through his wife's illusion. Will she come clean about what she knows? And since
she told Pietro she doesn't know how she's suddenly gained all this power, will we finally
discover if someone is pulling her strings? We'll just have to wait for the next WandaVision
episode to drop on Disney+ to find out.
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