It should go without saying, but this article contains spoilers for the most recent episode of WandaVision, Breaking the Fourth Wall, which aired today, February 19.
It felt a little bit like WandaVision was mocking me this week. I’ve had a few theories about the show, some which have panned out, some which have been proven wrong, and others which have been put on hold. So when the episode showed Wanda leaning over and looking at the camera, with her sweet smile and tired eyes, saying “Maybe everything is meaningless,” it felt like she was talking to me. In the show's reality, she was talking to her twin sons, but it seemed more like Marvel was talking to all of us.
It felt like a hint that none of us have figured it out yet. I know the entire show was filmed before any of it aired, and so it would have been impossible for the showrunners to know exactly which theories were swirling in the aether pre-episode seven. Still, there was a lot of bravado to the moment, with Wanda telling fans everything they had guessed so far was wrong.
That’s why it was so disappointing to find out that Agnes was really Agatha Harkness. We’d all already guessed that; in fact, it had been suggested so much I had become convinced that it was far too obvious a reveal for the show to pull, despite Agatha being a relatively minor character in comparison to someone like Loki.
Maybe I’m just being too harsh though, constantly wanting to be surprised by something new. Agatha Harkness is a great character to add to the MCU, Kathryn Hahn is inspired casting, and she fits perfectly in with WandaVision’s campy vibe, as well as being able to go much, much darker if the story requires it of her. As a twist, it’s meh, but as story development, yeah, I’m here for it.
Ditto Monica Rambeau, who finally became Photon this week. The series has been dropping these hints for a while now, picking up from where Captain Marvel left off. Again, it’s not surprising that Photon has joined the party, especially with Rambeau being so central to WandaVision’s plot, but it’s a good development for the MCU as a whole. Plus the emergence of Photon was not a twist in the way Harkness’ reveal was, so the element of surprise doesn’t really factor into it.
Anyway, WandaVision’s two big moments this week were Rambeau becoming Photon and Agnes revealing herself as Agatha Harkness. The former will be explored in time, so it’s the latter reveal I’m much more interested in. We know, from the ending of episode six, that Wanda is in control of the Hex. She’s able to extend the walls of it in order to contain Vision, as well as having access to her powers within the Hex, so to some degree, the Hex is hers. However, the very name ‘Hex’ suggests it actually belongs to the dark magic of Harkness, while the most recent episode revealed that her power, not Wanda’s, is what has driven most of the events forward. Was Agnes just allowing Wanda to use her powers so as not to cause suspicion, is she unable to control Scarlet Witch’s powerful magic, or does the Hex somehow belong to both of them? Maybe there’s a third figure involved; I was more convinced of Mephisto being present than Harkness before episode seven, so all bets are off around the likelihood of that now.
These are all just curiosities I have. The show is not over, so it’s only natural that I don’t know the ending. The biggest question I have is around Pietro. He’s an obvious candidate to conjure up if you want to mess with Wanda’s head, but why is he the Fox version of Pietro?
To be meta for a second, even though it appears he’s not the real Fox character, just having him on screen lays the groundwork for the X-Men to eventually cross the great licensing divide into the MCU. But in-universe, how does Agatha know what he looks like, and more to the point, how is she able to conjure up a passable version of his personality? She can teleport, but she has no known multiverse abilities, so just what the hell is going on?
I don’t need answers now, but I do need them eventually, and I’m worried the show thinks it has already provided them.
WandaVision has used the MCU’s first proper, explicitly movie-linked foray into television to experiment with storytelling, adopt a slow burn approach, and introduce - or reintroduce - far more characters than they’d usually be able to in a two-hour-long blockbuster. Hopefully this thoughtful, less formulaic approach continues past the reveal of the big bad, and we get serious answers to Agatha Harkness’ connection to the X-Men, her plans with the Hex, and how Vision’s resurrection came to be. If it all ends with a sweep under the carpet to be explored in sequels that may never come and a climatic battle between two diametrically opposed foes with a similar ability pool, that sets a worrying precedent for the MCU’s television roster going forwards. The movies already tend to follow the same basic footprints, but I hoped the TV shows would be different. After running wild for six weeks, I hope I’m wrong when I say it feels like the show is returning to the beaten path.