The following contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Marvel’s WandaVision.
With the Disney Plus double-episode premiere of WandaVision, the audience was treated to a new style for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The series places Wanda Maximoff and Vision, with all of their superpowers, into a seemingly average suburban neighborhood called Westview, but it does it in the style of a 1950s sitcom. While the episodes are full of laughs, they’ve also got plenty of unsettling moments to show the audience that reality isn’t exactly what it seems.
The question, of course, is just who is in control of this evolving sitcom reality. A voice on the radio in the second episode, Jimmy Woo of Ant-Man and the Wasp, asks, “who’s doing this to you, Wanda?” making the audience think that Wanda, despite all of her power, might not be in control of anything at all. Wanda, however, also takes several actions to prove that she has plenty of control in Westview whether the town is being manipulated by outside forces or not.
The first episode of the series features Wanda and Vision hosting the latter’s boss and his wife for dinner. While the bulk of the scenes focus on Wanda using her powers to prepare the meal while Vision does his best to appear perfectly human, the actual dinner is the unsettling part of the episode.
Neither Wanda nor Vision have answers to basic questions, like where did they move to Westview from, or where did they get married. That’s enough to give the audience pause. When Mr. Hart, however, starts choking on his meal while questioning them, it’s like there’s a glitch in the matrix as his wife tightly tells him to, “stop it,” over and over again in one of the best acted moments of the episode. It’s not until Wanda sits up and tells Vision to help him that Vision saves the man’s life. It’s almost as though no one is capable of helping him until Wanda gives the order.
In the second episode of the series, the neighborhood hosts a charity talent show of sorts. They’re said to be raising money “for the children.” What’s interesting is that this particular phrase is repeated often as if a chant – and that so far, the audience hasn’t actually seen any children in Westview.
Of course, that seems to be about to change since Wanda suddenly finds herself pregnant at the end of the episode. She’s also not just pregnant, but inexplicably noticeably pregnant in the blink of an eye. It’s as though repeatedly being talked to about doing something “for the children” helped to put the idea in her head. That, and Agnes asks when she and Vision plan on having children. It certainly appears as though Wanda makes it happen, whether she’s entirely conscious of that or not.
With the first two episodes of the series calling on 1950s and ’60s sitcom styles, there are also commercials. More specifically, there’s a commercial break in the middle of each episode. While each of these items provides references to other Marvel movies, fans have been able to note that both commercials also call back to specific moments in Wanda’s life – turning points, or episodes that would have caused her immense trauma.
The first commercial is for a new toaster from Stark Industries. This isn’t just an ordinary toaster, however, as pressing the button to power it up calls to mind the activating of weapons in the Iron Man suit. It also beeps a countdown that sounds suspiciously like a bomb as it readies the food. Fans will recall that Wanda and her brother Pietro were trapped in their home in Sokovia as children when warring parties used weapons from Stark Industries to fight one another. They spent days with nothing but a bomb that didn’t explode for company in the rubble of their family home.
The commercial in the second episode is for a watch called the Strucker complete with the Hydra symbol on the watch’s face. Baron von Strucker is the Hydra scientist that experimented on Wandra and Pietro with Loki’s staff. Though they volunteered for the experiments, they were both caged and used as weapons once the staff was able to unlock power within them. In Wanda’s case, telekinesis, illusions, and even some form of mental manipulation. For Pietro, super speed.
Both pieces of information referenced in the commercials recall the events of Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Wanda’s proper introduction to the MCU. It’s enough to make fans wonder if everything is in Wanda’s head, or at least influenced by her own memories.
One of the most obvious pieces of evidence that Wanda is controlling the environment of Westview is the introduction of the beekeeper. When Wanda and Vision hear a noise from outside their home, they discover someone in a beekeeper’s outfit emerging from the manhole in the middle of their street. The uniform is reminiscent of those worn by members of Advanced Idea Mechanics in the comics, but it has a SWORD logo on the back of it. None of that, however, speaks to Wanda’s control.
When Wanda sees the person in question, she immediately says, “no,” waves her hands, and the scene literally rewinds itself. Wanda eliminates the threat of the beekeeper completely by seemingly turning back time. She and Vision go back to her happy news about having a baby as if nothing just happened.
At the end of the second episode, the audience is in for a surprise. The image changes from the usual black and white of the first two chapters as color is slowly introduced throughout the house. As the house goes from black and white to color, however, the audience might notice a specific color cue makes it happen. The color red outlines the change as it happens.
It’s also notable that red is the one color prevalent in the black and white episodes before that as well. The light on the toaster blinks red during the commercial sequence. Wanda sees a toy helicopter in her yard that has red in it. When Dottie cuts her hand, the audience sees the red blood. Red is Wanda’s signature color. She is the Scarlet Witch, after all, even if the moniker hasn’t been used throughout the MCU. When she uses her telekinetic abilities in the movies, red light follows her movements. The implication is that she controls the change from black and white to color.
Of course, just because Wanda appears to have control over everything in Westview doesn’t mean that she made the choice to enter into this idyllic town. There is a lot the audience learns in the first two episodes of WandaVision, but there are still many mysteries at play. Wanda’s control over her environment appears to be focused on keeping her happy ending with Vision intact, but larger forces at play could mean she’s merely protecting herself from something – or someone – else.
WandaVision is now streaming on Disney Plus with new episodes available every Friday.
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