Each week, WandaVision reveals new and more interesting layers to its strange TV-inspired
reality. Episode 5 is certainly no exception, with plenty of hidden pop culture and MCU
references. Here are a few Easter eggs you likely missed in Episode 5 of WandaVision.
When we return to WandaVision's strange sitcom reality in "On a Very Special Episode," Wanda,
Vision, and all the residents of Westview have moved into the prime time programming
of the '80s. In particular, the intro borrows from Family Ties. Among other things, Family
Ties is known for making the young Michael J. Fox famous even before he became a time
traveler in 1985's Back to the Future.
The most blatant pull from the series is the initially colorless portrait that begins to
be colored in by a paintbrush controlled by Wanda. Family Ties' intro for its first three
seasons included a similar portrait. It's a nifty visual allusion to the way Wanda "colored
in" the gray and lifeless Vision that viewers briefly spotted at the end of WandaVision's
fourth episode.
"On a Very Special Episode" has its share of '80s references. But they don't all stay
in the '80s.
When Agnes visits Wanda and Vision, she tells them she stopped by on her way to Jazzercise.
Founded in the late '60s and still around today, Jazzercise hit its peak in the mid-'80s.
We get another purely '80s reference toward the end of the episode. In the kitchen, Wanda
tells Vision,
"Well, life moves pretty fast out in the suburbs."
It sounds a lot like Matthew Broderick's famous quote from 1986's Ferris Bueller's Day Off:
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could
miss it."
But some of these references don't really find homes in the '80s. Early in the episode,
Agnes yells, "Fussy babies, meet Buns of Steel!" The Buns of Steel workout videos, while technically
originating in the late '80s, didn't really become a craze until the early '90s. We get
a similar moment when Norm references a catchphrase that hit its peak in the late '80s and '90s.
"What do you think Norm? Should we surf the internet?"
"Cowabunga, dude!"
"Cowabunga, dude" is most associated with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and, to
a lesser extent, off-brand Simpsons merchandise.
"Cowabunga."
"Huh?"
"Cowabunga!"
These blurrings between '80s and '90s pop culture could be intentional. They could be
a sign that, just as Vision is becoming more aware of Wanda's illusions, the integrity
of her dream world is deteriorating.
In the 2016 Vision comic series, Vision lives in the suburbs with a synthezoid wife, son,
and daughter. They also, eventually, have a synthezoid dog named Sparky.
Not only is WandaVision's Sparky a callback to the comic series, but his close call with
the kitchen's power outlet is as well. Like the Sparky of WandaVision, the Sparky of the
comics initially meets a sad — though much more brutal — end. However, he's eventually
brought back to the land of the living. Ironically, considering Wanda's decision not to revive
the pooch in "On a Very Special Episode," Scarlet Witch is one of the heroes who could
bring the flying pooch back to life.
In "On a Very Special Episode," WandaVision's strange advertisers are back. This time, the
ad is for Lagos [LAH-gohs], a paper towel brand. Showing Lagos wiping up an identical
spill to what the "leading brand" is trying and failing to clean, the ad mirrors Bounty
commercials of the '80s that touted their paper towels the "Quicker Picker Upper."
The name Lagos is a blatant reference to Captain America: Civil War. It's Wanda who unintentionally
incites the film's conflict when she accidentally kills Wakandan volunteers in the Nigerian
city of Lagos. Rather than calling Lagos a "Quicker Picker Upper," the ad ends with the
slogan
"Lagos For when you make a mess you didn't mean to."
Fittingly, the juice that the towels clean up resembles blood.
One thing that's easy to miss about the ad is the reference to what's going on with Vision.
Just before the end of the commercial, the husband knocks over a glass of beer. The wife
hands him a few towels as the narrator says, "Husbands can use it too, you know." This
could reflect not only how Vision begins to assert himself, but how episode 5 shows he
has a degree of control over the illusions. For example, he's able to temporarily free
Norm from Wanda's telepathy. This may also be why Agnes is so flustered early in the
episode when she isn't sure whether she's supposed to hold the babies — because she's
getting conflicting signals from Vision and Wanda.
And then, of course, there's the reveal at the end of "On a Very Special Episode" that
will doubtless go down as one of the biggest TV moments of 2021.
The doorbell rings as Wanda and Vision argue, and after Wanda answers the door we're greeted
by a familiar face, but familiar in a way that we don't expect. Before we see the visitor's
face, we see the back of his head, which sports a head of hair that looks a lot like the one
belonging to Pietro [pee-ETT-roh] Maximoff — Wanda's brother who dies heroically in
Avengers: Age of Ultron. We are, indeed, greeted by Wanda's brother, but a different Pietro
than the one most viewers had to have been expecting. Instead of Aaron Taylor-Johnson,
who plays Pietro in the MCU film, Wanda finds herself facing Evan Peters — who plays Peter
Maximoff in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past as well as the final two films of Fox's X-Men
franchise.
Not only does this have potentially huge consequences for the fabric of the MCU — and not only
is it an instant classic fourth-wall breaking moment — but it's an absolutely perfect
homage to the sitcom. As Darcy points out as she notices the change, Pietro Maximoff
has been "recast," alluding to the fact that American sitcoms are famous for their sometimes
abrupt recasting of characters. One of the most well-remembered examples of this comes
from a sitcom WandaVision mirrors in its second episode – Bewitched. The main character's
husband, Darrin, was recast when Dick York was replaced by Dick Sargent in the series'
sixth season.
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