[Analysis & Review] WandaVision Episode 5 [Impressions & Easter Eggs]

Hello!

This time I’m going to write about WandaVision episode 5, which dropped on Friday 5 February — the points worth flagging, the theories, and predictions for where all of this goes next.

In this article I’ll write up everything that caught my eye on the first watch and the Easter eggs briefly, then write a proper verdict at the end.

Spoilers ahead

The review of episode 4 is here!

https://movie-paradise-blog.com/2021/02/%e3%80%90%e8%80%83%e5%af%9f%e3%83%bb%e3%83%ac%e3%83%93%e3%83%a5%e3%83%bc%e3%80%91%e3%80%8e%e3%83%af%e3%83%b3%e3%83%80%e3%83%b4%e3%82%a3%e3%82%b8%e3%83%a7%e3%83%b3%e7%ac%ac4%e8%a9%b1%e3%80%8fwandavisi/

Every WandaVision episode review is here!

Contents

The source comics & other bits

WandaVision is built on The Vision, volumes 1 and 2. That run was apparently extremely well received and picked up a stack of awards.

There were several scenes this week where you really feel that comic underneath it all, so let me point them out!

I also picked up the Japanese book Marvel Taizen, released 21 January 2021 — the kind of book that gets you a very long way into Marvel Comics in one go. I want to work through it slowly on days off.

256 pages sounds short, but it’s a large-format book, so picture one of those big Shogakukan illustrated insect encyclopedias. So I think the amount of information in it is on another level compared to anything else on the shelf. And it came out in 2021, so it’s current lol

And then there’s this, obviously!

Episode 5, “On a Very Special Episode…”

The parody is Family Ties

Episode 5 felt like a mix of the sitcom side from episodes 1 to 3 and the real-world side from episode 4. The sitcom being parodied this time was a show called Family Ties.

The premise goes like this.

A situation comedy (sitcom) about the chaos of the Keaton household. The show reflects a transitional moment in American culture — the swing from the liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s.[1]

Specifically, one of the running comic engines is the contrast between the ex-hippie, liberal parents and their eldest son Alex, a fervent Republican supporter: the rather odd situation of the younger generation being more conservative than the older one. Michael J. Fox, who played Alex, won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series three years running from 1986 for the show.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Ties

The show’s lead is Michael J. Fox, the man everyone knows as the star of Back to the Future.

WandaVision’s opening is so close to that show’s opening that it made me laugh lol

The kids growing up fast

Tommy and Billy were born in episode 3, and in episode 5 they shoot up from newborn to five? to ten. The timing goes

• because Wanda and Vision were being worn down by the crying
• because Wanda and Vision told them you have to be ten to keep a dog

Which brings us to the thing that keeps nagging: are the twins real people?

Wanda doesn’t have them under control, so they do seem to be real. But their bodies being able to shoot up the way they do this week — is that because they’re an illusion, a vision?

Nosy Agnes and the retake

Agnes turns up at every possible opportunity in episode 5. She’s been nosy since episode 1, and yet this week she’s especially everywhere.

In one exchange with Wanda and Vision, the script should have had her holding the baby, and yet an unintended slip from Vision left her unable to. So she turns to Wanda and asks

Episode 5 is full of these sitcom moments where the air just dies, and it’s incredibly unsettling lol

Agnes is clearly not like the other residents of Westview, and I’ll dig into her properly in the “After finishing episode 5” section of this article.

Wanda looks way too much like Michelle!

The opening runs childhood photos of each of the cast, and the actress playing Wanda looks so much like Michelle from Full House that I went whoaaa! lol

Well, that’s because Elizabeth Olsen, who plays Wanda, is the younger sister of the Olsen twins who played Michelle.

*Important* The power inside Monica

As I said in the episode 4 review, there’s a very strong chance Monica ends up as Photon, a hero who can turn her body into light. That’s a theory that comes out of the comics, but with her mother Maria’s middle name being “Photon” and the X-ray in episode 5 being wrapped in light, her becoming a hero with superpowers looks all but certain.

What being controlled feels like

Asked why she couldn’t resist while she was appearing in the sitcom, Monica answers like this

While Wanda had her pinned down, Monica was probably filled up with the feeling of losing her mother. What I’m curious about is where those negative emotions are rooted. Which is to say

1. Wanda controls people by throwing her own negative emotions at them
2. Wanda controls people by calling up their negative emotions

Those two.

As the later scene with Norm at Computational Services shows, Norm was full of thoughts about his father in hospital. Monica had only just lost her mother too, so maybe the condition for Wanda controlling someone is that they have to be carrying deep grief?

*Important* The mystery of the S.W.O.R.D. HQ raid

Episode 4 opens three weeks — 21 days — after Endgame, and how many days after that episode 5 sits is unclear. Wanda raided S.W.O.R.D. HQ nine days before episode 5, so, extremely roughly, Wanda ended up in this state about two weeks after Endgame.

What snagged for me in this sequence:

1. Director Hayward is running a little ahead of himself
2. Vision hated the idea of being used as a weapon, so his will asked to be left in peace once he died — and yet at S.W.O.R.D. HQ the body was being dissected?
3. Following on from 2, Vision died in Infinity War, so the dissecting? had been going on for around five years
4. Also following on from 2, Director Hayward calls it not dissection but “storage”
5. The security camera footage is blue-toned monochrome, and yet Wanda’s power (magic) reads red. A mystery.

I’ll dig into this area in the “After finishing episode 5 — is Agnes really Agatha Harkness?” part of this article.

Sparky the dog

Wanda’s sons (existence questionable) bring home a dog, and after a bit of business where he messes with a plug socket and a spark comes out, he gets named Sparky.

Sadly, though, he eats the azaleas at Agnes’s place (Agnes again — far too suspicious) and dies.

I have read the whole of the comic WandaVision is nominally based on, and so far there’s almost nothing in common between the show and it in terms of setup or characters.

But! Sparky, who turns up this week, is in that comic! And he dies there too — after which Vision transplants the dead Sparky’s brain data into the body of an artificial creature called a synthezoid, and he comes back to life. Post-synthezoid, he looks like the green dog above lol

So I think Sparky probably comes back in WandaVision too. What form he comes back in is still unclear, mind.

Commissioning a nuclear bunker on wheels

Monica works out that a nuclear bunker on wheels would let her get into the town without being brainwashed, and she apparently knows someone who could build a machine like that, so she sets out to commission them. Darcy offers an alternative and she drops it, mind.

That person who could build it is probably a character who has already appeared in the MCU, I’d guess. Personally, going on engineering ability, Shuri of Wakanda?

Would love her to show up in episode 6.

A rover like this already appears in the trailer that’s out, so hopes are high.

The costume isn’t a hallucination

The outfit Monica was wearing in Westview turns out not to be a product of hallucination after all — the bulletproof gear she had on to begin with kept its bulletproofing while its appearance was changed, rewritten. That got confirmed this week.

I’m still betting this comes from the Reality Stone at work, part of the Infinity Stone revival plan I theorised about in episode 4.

Norm and the others at “Computational Services”, and the conditions for control

Vision heads in to the office — “even though it’s a Saturday” — to put some distance between himself and Wanda.

While he’s checking email with Norm,

S.W.O.R.D. ULTRA TOP SECRET COMMUNIQUÉ
It is genuine
Dr. Lewis discovered it in the Maximoff Anomaly
High levels of radiation in the vicinity
Effect on residents unknown
Advice requested

— that message comes in from S.W.O.R.D. The whole office reads it together in this scene and it was horribly creepy. Vision, suspicious, holds a hand over Norm’s head, Norm snaps back to himself, and tells him about his father in the real world and about how much he’s suffering under Wanda’s control.

Saturday and Monday

It was Saturday in the morning, and yet Vision goes off to work as if it were Monday, and the boys find it odd. Is this scene laying groundwork for Wanda losing control of this world?

S.W.O.R.D. gets in

S.W.O.R.D. gets in using a radio-controlled toy that genuinely existed in the ’80s. I’d assumed imitating the technology of the era would be enough, and yet unless it’s something that was actually in use back then, its shape gets changed.

Here too, only Wanda’s magic reads red through the footage.

S.W.O.R.D. vs Wanda

Unable to take S.W.O.R.D.’s repeated interference any longer, Wanda issues a final warning to Director Hayward and Monica. And then, as though showing off her power, she takes control of the agents and has them point their guns at Director Hayward. Monica had been so devoted to her, and yet — a sad scene…

The Lagos paper towels

This week’s commercial hints at Wanda’s Lagos incident. Yes, the hospital hit by mistake in Civil War.

And the commercial’s catchphrase was “you didn’t mess it up on purpose.” Exactly what Wanda thinks about what happened in Lagos.

What’ll the next commercial be? Thanos killing Vision, maybe?

The dead can’t be brought back

When Sparky dies, the scene where Agnes asks whether Wanda can bring him back looks like she’s steering Wanda into using her power, which is suspicious.

And Wanda saying Sparky is dead and won’t be coming back felt like she was laying Vision over him, which was sad.

*Important* The confrontation with Vision

Vision, in the kitchen, admits how little he trusts Wanda. He tells her she can’t control him, and yet Wanda forcibly rolls the end credits on episode 5. That scene was properly meta and brilliant.

The points that caught my eye in it:

1. Vision can’t remember his previous life or who he is
2. Why there are no children in the town
3. Wanda herself doesn’t know how this whole thing started

On 1, given that Vision’s body was stolen from S.W.O.R.D., maybe the Vision in this show has the real Vision as his base body, while the mind is a copy made of him? Personally, though, I’m backing the theory that this Westview is connected to the afterlife lol Details in the episode 1 & 2 review.

On 2, controlling that many people would obviously be hard. Meaning the other tens of thousands of residents are being put to sleep somewhere? And personally, since Wanda seems to find people carrying trauma easy to control, I suspect young children are difficult.

I think 3 is a hugely important thing that gets close to the core of the show. Wanda not being able to remember either surely means there’s someone behind all of this. And that someone, as I said in the episode 1 & 2 review, I think is AIM. On top of that I think Agnes = Agatha Harkness is in on it too. Details in the second half of this article!

Pietro turns up

The 20th Century Fox Pietro (Quicksilver) turns up!!!!!! Insane!!!! Absolutely insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me lay out the meta background. The rights to Wanda and Quicksilver were held by 20th Century Fox. So before Fox was bought by Disney, Disney — who badly wanted Wanda and Quicksilver in the MCU — apparently signed a deal where Disney would lead with Wanda and 20th Century Fox would lead with Quicksilver. Which is why Pietro dies in Age of Ultron, you see.

So even if Pietro came back in WandaVision, I’d assumed the one to appear would be the Disney Pietro.

But as I said in the episode 1 & 2 review, there was X-Men groundwork in there (which I took for fan service at first)

So the Fox Pietro showing up this time is

• proof that the multiverse has now been brought in
• a sign that works made outside the MCU up to now could join the MCU as well

— an enormously important event that makes both of those clear!! There’s even a chance that Chris Evans, who played Captain America, comes back as the Human Torch down the line lol

Back to Quicksilver — it has to be those slow-motion scenes in X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Dark Phoenix! The staging that makes you think this guy has to be the strongest, and “Sweet Dreams” playing over it. Irresistible lol

The mistranslation in Pietro’s entrance

In the scene where Pietro appears, as of 7 February 2021, Darcy’s line reads as follows — Japanese subtitles, English subtitles, then Japanese dub, in that order.

The problem is the Japanese subtitle. Going by that line alone, it comes out as though the Fox Pietro already exists in Darcy’s world — as though Darcy knows that two kinds of Pietro, the Disney one and the Fox one, both exist. The English subtitle and the Japanese dub, on the other hand, come out as Darcy wondering why someone who ought to be the Disney Pietro on the inside looks different on the outside.

Personally I think that Japanese subtitle would be better changed.

The theory review starts on the next page!

*All of it important* After finishing episode 5

Is the 20th Century Fox Pietro (Quicksilver) the same person?

The Fox Pietro has appeared, and that gives rise to one hypothesis: that the Fox Pietro is the Disney Pietro on the inside.

For what it’s worth, Avengers: Age of Ultron has a scene — extremely hard to spot — where Pietro and Vision are in the same place, as below, so the Disney Pietro ought to know who Vision is.

So, given that at the end of episode 5 the Fox Pietro says

— that makes the one who turned up in episode 5 the Fox Pietro on the inside as well as the outside.

Hexagons and the Infinity Stones

First off, I’m backing the theory that this show is AIM’s plan to revive the Infinity Stones. Details here

I covered why it’s a hexagon (the Hex) in the previous episode’s review, and thinking about it properly, six matches the number of Infinity Stones, so that could well be the reason too.

Is Agnes really Agatha Harkness?

The list of Westview character names and real names has been showing up since episode 4, and so far Agnes is the only one whose real name isn’t known.

So who is Agnes really?

I’d have loved to have called this myself back at episode 1, and yet I didn’t notice a thing — people are saying she’s Agatha Harkness.

Agatha Harkness’s power isn’t mutant-derived like Wanda’s; she’s a genuine witch. She also appears in the comic WandaVision is built on, incidentally.

In the comics she’s apparently Wanda’s mentor, among other things.

Now, in the WandaVision trailer she’s in a witch costume like this,

and apparently Agnes has been spotted dressed as a medieval witch like the below!

📸: Kathryn Hahn en el set de #WandaVision como una bruja; ¿podría ser Agatha Harkness? Junto con Elizabeth Olsen.

Las primeras imágenes estarían siendo rodadas en “Halloween”. pic.twitter.com/uMBGnJqqbJ

— Marvel Chile | News 💥 (@MarvelChile) December 17, 2019

So Agnes = Agatha Harkness is all but locked in.

So why is she in Westview? Let me dig into what she’s after.

Agnes and AIM

The hexagon (Hex / hexagon / honeycomb) has been a keyword in this show since episode 1, so AIM being involved in this Maximoff Anomaly is surely locked in. (Details here)

So, and this is a complete guess on my part,

1. AIM captures Agatha, either back in the medieval period or in recent years
2. AIM uses Agatha to control Wanda and build Westview, in order to obtain the Infinity Stones
3. and the Infinity Stones come into their hands through the process of Wanda bringing Vision back to life
4. Agatha pretends to obey AIM, and plays the clown in the sitcom in order to strengthen Wanda’s power
5. one thing and another happens, Agatha and Wanda escape AIM, happy ending (?)
6. and as I said in the previous episode’s review, Director Hayward is an AIM spy

— that’s what I reckon lol

Would be nice to be right.

How well the chromatic aberration is reproduced

WandaVision changes its look (how the image itself looks) to match the decade each theme comes from.

Episodes 1 and 2 being black and white, for instance.

Personally I really love how carefully episode 5’s look is built. What I want to cover in this section is the chromatic aberration in episode 5. For the detail, this piece on chromatic aberration is worth reading.

Put simply, chromatic aberration is colour that isn’t really there, appearing at the edges of the frame or along the outlines of objects when you shoot through a lens. Vision’s hair, say, or the outline of the crib, or the outlines of his colleagues at the office.

There are roughly two types of chromatic aberration, and in the image above I think the red areas are longitudinal chromatic aberration and the blue is lateral chromatic aberration.

I did wonder whether it might be the false colour you often get off an imager, but given how polished this show is, I came round to thinking it’s staged to look like film that happens to have chromatic aberration in it.

Beyond the story, WandaVision’s props and shooting techniques are wonderful, and writing an article week after week is hard work lol

Episode 6

Episode 6 is here!

[Analysis & Review] WandaVision Episode 6 [Impressions & Easter Eggs]