WandaVision’s First Two Episodes - Episode 1, "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience" & Episode 2, "Don't Touch That Dial" Review and Recap
A TRIPPY, PSYCHEDELIC AND STRONG START TO PHASE FOUR OF THE MCU, ‘WANDAVISION’ DELIVERS THE LAUGHS OF THE CLASSIC SITCOMS IT PAYS HOMAGE TO, WHILE ALSO CONTAINING A LOT OF HEART, AND BUILDS A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF INTRIGUE IN ITS FIRST TWO EPISODES.
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!
The last time we were in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Mysterio was terrorizing London, and Spider-Man was learning to live life without Tony Stark. That’s where we all are right now, trying to find our way through the MCU without our stalwart heroes that we’ve spent over a decade with. Our first step back into the MCU was supposed to be “Black Widow” last year, which would have acted as a glimpse into what we’re leaving behind, but instead, we are treated with “WandaVision”, a blind leap into the future of Marvel Studios. A lingering criticism of the MCU has been its formulaic design when it comes to introductory solo movies. “Iron Man”, “Captain America: The First Avenger”, “Doctor Strange”, and “Captain Marvel” have very similar structures, and that is not necessarily a bad thing: but fans have been yearning for a bit more creativity when it comes to giving their heroes their own projects. This isn’t lost on the powers that be: very slowly, Marvel has been combining their formula with other genres with relative success. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” was a political espionage thriller along the lines of “The Fugitive” and “Three Days of The Condor”; “Ant-Man” was a heist movie reminiscent of the “Ocean’s” series; and “Thor: Ragnarok” was the closest thing the MCU had yet seen to a broad strokes comedy. This is the fence that “WandaVision” is swinging for. Series creator Jac Schaeffer exercises the full range of her writing abilities to deliver some of the sharpest, snappiest, and wittiest writing the MCU has seen outside of Shane Black’s “Iron Man 3”. After watching the first two episodes, I was getting flashbacks to series like “Legion” and “Devs”, which was odd at first because “WandaVision” is visually the polar opposite. But at its core, they all give you the same gut feeling of belonging to the same sub-genre: psychedelic mystery.
“Episode 1” begins the series’ couch gag equivalent: a title sequence inspired by classic television sitcoms. Here, the primary homages are aimed at “Leave It to Beaver” and "The Dick Van Dyke Show”, complete with Paul Bettany as Vision dodging a low-lying piece of furniture. From the black and white presentation to Wanda’s Transatlantic accent, everything is out of place; but Wanda and Vision seem to go with the flow. All is not well in suburbia, however. The couple has no memory of how they got there or where they came from, but that doesn’t seem to matter. All that matters this episode is: what is so special about August 23rd, and why is a heart written on the calendar? With this mystery still lingering, Vision heads to work to do whatever it is that they do there. This is when we meet Agnes, played by the hilarious Kathryn Hahn. Wanda and Agnes talk, and the more they do, the more the weirdness of the situation becomes slightly more apparent, but quickly dismissed as they determine the day to be her and Vision’s anniversary. While at work, the heart's true meaning is revealed to Vision: dinner with his new boss Mr. Hart, played by Fred Melamed. In between scenes, we are shown a commercial for the ToastMate 2000 from Stark Industries, which started innocuous enough but instantly dove into the strange end of the pool, with the only color in the show thus far being the red blinking light on the toaster and a presenter who looks terrified of the appliance. The show immediately moves to the big dinner, and after an awkward introduction to Mr. Hart, we are introduced to his wife, Mrs. Hart, played by sitcom powerhouse Debra Jo Rupp of “That 70’s Show”. After some close calls, and with the suspiciously convenient help of Agnes, Wanda pulls together a meal, and all is well… until it isn’t. As Mrs. Hart grills Wanda about where she came from, Mr. Hart starts choking, and the dream begins to collapse. For a moment, the Wanda we remember comes back and takes control of the situation. She commands Vision to help Mr. Hart, and he leaps into action and pulls a strawberry from the choking man’s throat using his phasing powers. Then the world evens out, and we return to the Leave it to Beaver fever dream. As the episode ends, the camera pulls out to reveal someone watching the strangeness on a monitor while making notes in a notebook emblazoned with the logo of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s sister agency: S.W.O.R.D.
“Episode 2” starts with another classically-styled title sequence, this time being an obvious nod to “Bewitched”. We begin with the couple in their bedroom, complete with separate beds. Wanda is startled in the night by some loud noises outside the window. She wakes Vision, and they panic until discovering that it’s just a tree branch blowing into the window by the wind. The next day, we join the couple as they practice their magic act for the big talent show they entered to fit in with the neighborhood. With that in mind, Vision leaves to join the Neighborhood Watch at the local library, leaving Wanda to her own devices. She is drawn outside, where she finds another odd sight. In the bushes is a toy helicopter, appearing in full color despite everything else being in black and white. Wanda picks it up, inspecting the vibrant red toy, and finds a familiar logo: another S.W.O.R.D. emblem. The oddness is interrupted by the lovable Agnes, who brings her pet rabbit for Vision to use in the talent show. Agnes decides to introduce Wanda to the women of the neighborhood and their intimidating leader, Dottie, played by Emma Caulfield Ford. As the neighborhood committee meets, Wanda introduces herself to a new friend who tells her, after hesitating suspiciously, that her name is Geraldine. At the Neighborhood Watch meeting, Vision learns of their true purpose: gossip. Vision easily, though unintentionally, integrates into the group, with his stilted social skills inadvertently enamoring the group to him. All is going smoothly until Vision accidentally swallows a stick of delicious Big Red gum, which almost immediately “gums up” his mechanical components. After the committee meeting, Wanda helps Dottie with clean up. Dottie becomes aggressive in her questioning of Wanda, and suddenly a radio near them goes static, and we hear a voice calling out for Wanda. Dottie panics and looks absolutely terrified as the voice asks, “Wanda, who is doing this to you?” Suddenly the radio explodes, along with a glass that Dottie is holding, and Dottie’s hand gets cut open, revealing blood that’s in full color, just like the toy helicopter before it. Then, just as suddenly as the weirdness came about, everything snaps back to normal. Here, we are given another commercial, this time for the Strücker: the only watch for the Hydra Agent on the go. At the talent show, Wanda waits with “Geraldine” only to have Vision show up malfunctioning due to the gum, making him appear intoxicated. Wanda manages to reel in Vision’s sloppy magic with some magic of her own during the show, even using “Geraldine” for the big finale. They are a hit with the neighborhood, and now they have earned a relaxing night at home. As they get back, Wanda suddenly develops a prominent baby bump. But before they can celebrate, another loud thud draws their attention. They head outside to investigate, thinking it is the tree again. Instead, they find a manhole opening on their street, and out of it crawls a beekeeper. There is no hiding the weirdness at this moment: Wanda snaps out her Honeymooners-esque delirium and says, “no.” The scene rewinds to the moment Wanda and Vision embrace upon seeing the baby bump. The two share a tender moment this time, and they kiss deeply. The kiss affects Vision, though: after their embrace, color returns to Vision’s head, and begins to spread around their house. The two marvel as Technicolor takes over and restores the color spectrum to the world, and the aesthetic of their house subtly changes to that of the early 1970s. However, as the episode ends, we hear “Wanda, who is doing this to you?” just one last time.
There is so much to unpack from the “WandaVision” premiere - particularly from “Episode 2” - but as we compare notes with what we already know about the show, we can start to piece some elements together. First and foremost, there are two things that are absolutely clear: one, Wanda is in control of the world whether she knows it or not; and two, Vision is not really there. During the moments of “collapse”, when the 50s/60s facade begins to crack, it is during moments when Wanda is experiencing some sort of stress brought on by her thinking too hard about why she doesn’t remember anything before moving into the neighborhood. I hesitate to say the world is in her mind because her powers seem to be closer to the Reality Stone than any other, and she could very well be manipulating the world as we know it or a part of it. She also seems to be the only one reacting to the strangeness and it seems that Vision is only reacting to her and not the world. I believe that Vision is Wanda’s manifestation of who Vision was. It would make sense going forward that Vision would still act normally and even go with Wanda’s questioning of that reality because, to her, he would catch on too. Next, we have the involvement of S.W.O.R.D. In the comics, S.W.O.R.D. is the space branch of S.H.I.E.L.D., but that may not be the case here. S.H.I.E.L.D. never officially returned to the MCU, leaving a hole in the secret spy game. The S.W.O.R.D. logos were an obvious announcement of their presence, but Monica Rambeau’s involvement confirms their deep connection to the plot. The reason behind my suspicions of Geraldine stems a bit from her hesitation before giving her name, but mostly from the fact that she is played by Teyonah Parris. It was announced that she would be playing Monica Rambeau in the series, whom we met in “Captain Marvel” when she was still a child. From the events of that film, she has knowledge and experience with S.H.I.E.L.D. and aliens, which further hints at her status as a S.W.O.R.D. agent. However, their involvement seems to be observational. They seem to be trying to reach Wanda in a sort of dream state. Monica could be trapped in there with Wanda, which could explain her presence and odd behavior. When the presumed agent asks Wanda through the radio “Who is doing this to you?”, it confirms the involvement of a nefarious party and my best guess points to Kathryn Hahn’s Agnes. Just from the two episodes we have, if there were someone controlling Wanda they would be keeping close to her to monitor what was happening up close. Dottie would be another possibility, but after seeing the fear in her eyes while the radio was going haywire, that seems less likely. After introducing herself, Agnes pops up when Wanda’s belief in the facade wavers, such as when Wanda found the Helicopter in the bush. However, during the moments when Wanda intervenes in the world, Agnes is nowhere to be seen.
The presentation of “WandaVision” is like nothing we’ve seen before in the MCU. In fact, the closest thing - aesthetically speaking, anyway - that “WandaVision” can be compared to is the 1998 film “Pleasantville”, which coincidentally starred former Spider-Man Tobey Maguire. That seems obvious given the black and white, classic sitcom aesthetic, but it goes deeper than that. Earlier, I compared the show to “Legion”. What specifically connects the two is creating tension by using an unreliable point of view. With Wanda’s abilities literally anything is possible, and this is what Jac Schaeffer is leaning into. She is taking advantage of complete creative freedom and presenting us tension via confusion. In these first two episodes, nothing makes sense. Each of the two episodes creates more and more questions that compound into a dense fog of mystery that surrounds these characters. Our connection to the characters is what keeps the confusion from causing us to losing interest, due to so much being thrown at us at once. Because we know how the characters acted before this series, the questions are unified into the mystery that lies at the center of the show. Through every strange thing that happens, every question boils down to this: what is happening to Wanda? The strength of these episodes breathes life back into the MCU, after more than 18 months away from it. The format alone creates a great opportunity for long-form storytelling that will only strengthen our understanding and connection with these characters. By shining the spotlight on characters that have had relatively little screentime in the rest of the MCU, Disney and Marvel are building opportunity with the future of these characters’ use when they return to the big screen. If the series keeps the momentum it has from this great premiere - both in quality and in viewership - then it will likely cement Marvel Studios’ investment in Disney+ beyond 2021. Here’s to hoping that Marvel fans continue to be beneficiaries as well.