WandaVision Episode 4, "We Interrupt this Program" Recap and Review
An episode with a purpose. The series suspends its genre-bending style for context through familiar Eyes
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
Every series has a bridge episode. The episode exists merely to bridge part one of the series to part two. “We Interrupt this Program” is the bridge episode for WandaVison, made even more obvious by the very literal title. A successful bridge episode is hard to pull off, often classified as “filler”, and it pains me to say that WandaVision fails to be an exception. Episode Four is tasked with providing MCU context for everything that came before it. It blasts familiar faces and MCU lore in an attempt to bring more gravitas to an episode that consists of characters staring at things in confusion. Not to say the episode lacked reveals. In fact, the episode seemingly answers all the questions from the first few episodes, but all the answers feel more like confirmations of facts we already knew and lacked the big punch that the episode so sorely needed. All the familiar faces and couldn’t save this episode from its eventual designation as “filler.”
The episode begins with the perspective of Teyonah Parris’ Captain Monica Rambeau as she fades back into existence following the events of Avengers: Endgame. She comes back to a hospital dealing with the chaos of random people materializing after being snapped out of existence for 5 years. Monica learns of all she missed for the past few years, including her mother’s passing. Eventually, she returns to her agency, S.W.O.R.D, with the intention of returning to their space initiative but learns that she has been grounded due to protocol. She is assigned to fill an F.B.I request and meets up with the returning Agent Woo, Randall Park, outside the town of Westview, New Jersey. Already, something is off as they talk with local law enforcement who has no knowledge of the town or its residents. Monica takes steps to investigate the field, even sending a small helicopter drone into the town to investigate. They immediately lose the drone and Monica gets closer to the field to investigate but is suddenly sucked into the field and disappears without a trace. From here we switch perspectives to Dr. Darcy Lewis once again portrayed by Kat Dennings. She has been recruited along with other experts and is being transported to the site for research purposes. While there, Dr. Lewis discovers a broadcast signal mixed into the cosmic energy emanating from the field and is able to clarify it using an old television. The Agency is able to use this to monitor the situation inside the town. They immediately discover Wanda’s involvement. From their discovery, they are able to identify the residents of the town and find Monica alive inside the town. In an attempt to communicate with Wanda, Dr. Lewis devises a way to communicate through the field using radios in the town. But just as they attempt it, something happens, and the broadcast skips strangely. Even stranger, the field seems to be changing the objects being sent in. The helicopter drone was changed into a toy, and now, an agent sent in through the sewer while wearing a Hazmat suit was changed into a Bee Keeper and his safety line into a jump rope. Lacking Ideas Agent Woo and Dr. Lewis watch the broadcast just after Wanda has had her children and just as Wanda confronts Monica about her knowledge of Ultron, the broadcast skips again. Leading them to conclude that someone is censoring the broadcast. In the Town, Wanda very intentionally ejects Monica from the town after discovering that Monica is not apart of the illusion. Reality hits Wanda for a moment she even sees Vision as he truly is, dead. But she shakes it off and continues with the charade that she has constructed. After being ejected back into reality, Monica says “It’s Wanda, it’s all Wanda".”
As fitting as the title “We Interrupt this Program” is, the episode could have been called “Context” just as well. Every strange occurrence outside of the general sitcom-style nature of the warped reality was given context relative to the existing MCU. Very early on they give us a brief history and mission statement of the new super-secret agency to replace S.H.I.E.L.D in the MCU, S.W.O.R.D. The Agency was started by Monica’s mother, and Captain Marvel’s best friend, Maria Rambeau and its purpose is to monitor threats outside of earth. The speedy introduction to S.W.O.R.D is fitting because they are more or less exactly the same as S.H.I.E.L.D and dedicating more than 5 minutes to their introduction would feel redundant. The strange occurrences popping up it the sitcom reality are also revealed to be part of their efforts to figure out the nature of the field. The red Helicopter, the Bee Keeper, and the radio were all directly attributed to S.W.O.R.D’s efforts but what is interesting is how the field is able to change the physical nature of what goes into it to fit the aesthetic of the reality of what goes into it. The Hazmat-suit wearing agent changes into a Bee Keeper and the Drone into a toy. What what would happen if Wanda’s reality extended beyond its radius and engulfed everyone? And even more interesting would be if what if that reality resembled ours nearly identically aside from a few, X-traordinary, details? One confirmation that seems like an attempt by the showrunners to cover something up is that Wanda is doing this on purpose. What Monica set’s up is S.W.O.R.D identifying Wanda as the threat. This seems like an obvious set-up for a violent misunderstanding between Wanda and S.W.O.R.D, teased in the promotional material, while the real threat is revealed and dealt with in a less Action-y way. Hidden amongst the exposition in the episode is a small question that I cannot stop thinking about: why is the field shaped like a hexagon? Agent Woo mentions the shape in a blink and you miss it moment and the question itself is written at the top of his brainstorm whiteboard. It’s a very good question, if the shape didn’t matter then would the writers mention it, and since it does matter, why specifically a hexagon? Looking back at the first three episodes, Hexagons are hidden amongst the sitcom credits in those episodes so it begs the question why are they so important? The only MCU connection I can think of is the shape of the portals that ships emerge from after “jumping” in Guardians of the Galaxy, and while there are similarities, I am not sold on the connection. I could go on speculating but that would distract from fact that the most interesting aspect about this episode to me was the shape of the field.
The true tragedy of this episode is how mundane the general MCU feels in comparison to what has been going on in WandaVision. Don’t get me wrong, Darcy and Woo’s returns got me excited, and seeing S.W.O.R.D in the MCU gave me some ideas about where the MCU as a whole is headed. But WandaVison has open up realms of possibilities for the MCU, possibilities of what the MCU can be. The contrast between what has already happened in this universe, and what could happen in the universe is Wandavision doing the rest of the MCU a diservice. In other words, compared to what we have seen in the first few episodes, this one feels a little… dated.