Tuesday TV Touchbase: WandaVision

 

This week's Tuesday TV Touchbase will focus on WandaVision. 

Friday presented the 9th and final episode of WandaVision. Let's cover some of what did NOT happen in that episode.

There was no revelation that Mephisto was involved in any way.

There was no big reveal for Reed Richards in the MCU. 

There was no cameo by Doctor Strange. 

There was a conclusion to a story arc that reached a logical if heart breaking conclusion. 

As with anything based on comic books, there is the inevitable flying about while characters engage in a super powered slugfest. There is a lot of Wanda Maximoff and Agatha Harkness hurling bolts of red and purple energy at each other and there is a lot of collateral damage as Wanda's Vision and SWORD's White Vision comes to blows. 

The battle of Vision Vs. Vision is ultimately resolved with... philosophy. And if you've ever slogged through the purple prose of Stan Lee, Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart, a showdown using a philosophical debate is entirely appropriate. 

The crimson hued Vision imparts memories to the white Vision who develops human eyeballs and just flies off. I've read some reviews of this episode that are critical of white Vision's abrupt and unanswered departure from the story. Are these reviewers completely new to the MCU? Just like the comics they are based on, stories in the MCU lay the groundwork for future stories. Whither White Vision? That is a story for another time. 

Wanda comes into her power in this episode. Agatha sews the seeds of her own defeat by constantly pushing Wanda and belittling her lack of knowledge of what she is capable of. But Wanda is learning and as her knowledge grows, so too does her power. She defeats Agatha Harkness using the very knowledge of runes that Agatha used to hold Wanda in check in episode 8. 

But stronger than her growing eldritch powers of the Scarlet Witch is Wanda's conscience. Her perfect little fantasy life in Westview is causing pain for it's residents. She can free them from this pain she has inflicted but it means dropping the Hex field that sustains not only her fantasy world but also the lives of her Vision and the lives of her two sons. 

Wanda knows what she has to do. Wanda knows the sacrifice she has to make.  

She drops the Hex. 

As the field shrinks down to size of the Maximoff house, Wanda and Vision put their children to bed one last time and then watch the approaching red curtain of energy that will remove Wanda's family from existence.  

Everyone here in the Fortress of Ineptitude was verklempt. 

As with most MCU projects, things end without really ending.

Wanda tells Monica Rambeau (whose "Photon" powers manifest in this episode) she doesn't know how her powers really work but she's going to find out. In full Scarlet Witch regalia, Wanda takes flight away from the accusatory stares of Westview's residents. 

Monica has a meeting with an FBI agent who is really a Skrull and gets an invitation that will change her life. Presumably, this will pay off in Captain Marvel 2. 

After ALL the credits are over, our attention turns to a majestic tableau of snow capped mountains with a rustic cabin by a sparkling lake. Here we see Wanda relaxing with a nice cup of coffee while in another corner of the cabin, the Scarlet Witch in a swirl of crimson energy studies the Darkhold while we hear from the distance the cries of her children. I presume this too will be followed up on in Dr. Strange 2. 

Things end without really ending.

When WandaVision first launched with its concept of being a parody of classic sitcoms, Ken Levine did a review. Ken knows sitcoms. He's written and directed hundreds of sitcoms over his career and it is a career built on a foundation of knowing and understanding the work of those who came before him. If anyone knows anything about situation comedy, it's Ken Levine.  

Ken Levine didn't like WandaVision.   

It was an assessment that was made purely from the perspective of a professional maker of sitcoms. Ken found he first two episodes lacking a full appreciation of the situation comedy form. Exclusively from his perspective a sitcom writer and director, Ken may have had some valid points. 

But WandaVision was always more than the individual gimmicks that powered its narrative. By episode 4, the shroud was lifted on the whole sitcom premise to reveal a larger, perhaps more disturbing story. The story of a woman devastated by grief with the power to do something about that grief even at the expense of usurping the lives of an entire town.   

The creators of WandaVision demanded much of its audience with a show that defied any number of conventions of how a story should be told. It was not always successful but damned if people didn't keep up with it. 

What's with the splashes of color in the black and white episodes? 

Do the residents of Westview know they are in a TV show? 

Why is this reality playing out like American sitcoms? 

Is Wanda really in control? 

What does Agnes know? Is Agnes really Agnes? What the hell is the deal with Ralph?

Yes, there really is a Ralph.  

I said at the beginning, WandaVision reached a logical conclusion. Wanda's fantasy conception of Westview could not be sustained indefinitely and that mean the lives she created from nothing, those of her husband and children, could not be sustained.  

I am concerned that Wanda's struggles with grief are pushing her in an unwelcomed direction. In one very moving and oft-discussed scene, Vision shares with Wanda his understanding of grief. He could not fully grasp the pain of loss as he never loved anyone enough to be feel pain when they are gone. Which led Vision to ponder, "What is grief but love persevering."  

Vision's lesson on grief may not have taken hold in Wanda's psyche as well as he hoped. Wanda began the series as a woman using power she doesn't understand to confront her grief. She ends the series as a woman determined to fully understand her power to confront her grief.  

In the comics, the Scarlet Witch has not always been handled well by the writers who frequently resort to her reality bending powers and a fractured mental state to cast her as the antagonist. I fear the same may be repeated in the MCU if the sinister Scarlet Witch apparition in the post credit scene is any kind of harbinger of what awaits Wanda in Dr. Strange 2.   

_____________________________

Next week, I take a look at Snowpiercer, Superman and Lois and other various TV things.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down? I'm trying to watch TV over here.