Phase 4 of the MCU is well (and weirdly) underway as we approach the midpoint of WandaVision. The first of Marvel’s slate of Disney+ series, audiences have been alternately delighted, befuddled, confounded, and creeped out by the first four half-hour episodes, and all evidence points to the intensity only increasing as we approach the finale. In the midst of this captivating uncertainty, we comic book nerds here at Title Theory wanted to lay out our *UPDATED* best-guess theories about where the show may be headed, what characters we might see introduced, and what impact might be seen in subsequent movies and shows.
**********
It goes without saying that the following discussion will likely contain SPOILERS for the first 4 episodes of WandaVision (and depending on how good our guesses are, upcoming episodes and future MCU properties). Continue reading at your own risk.
**********
WHAT’S GOING ON?!
What We Know: The fictional town of Westview, NJ has been engulfed in a mystical and/or cosmic anomaly, hexagonal in shape and extending a handful of miles from the center of town. Citizens trapped inside are unwitting actors in an ever-evolving sitcom centered on the newest additions to town, Wanda Maximoff and Vision. Beyond the barrier, federal agents, under the supervision of the Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division (SWORD), have secured the perimeter and have begun to study the phenomenon from the outside. People from the nearby area insist that the town doesn’t exist, despite numerous road signs indicating otherwise, but they acknowledge that there is an Eastview instead. One SWORD agent, Monica Rambeau, accidentally gets absorbed within the barrier, but is eventually ejected again when she angers Wanda.
Thanks to some helpful dialogue from the fourth episode, we learn that FBI agent Jimmy Woo is tracking down someone (male) who had gone missing from the Witness Protection Program, and he believes that he is in Westview. Given that the MCU doesn’t usually leave such threads unresolved, this missing person is likely deeply involved in what is going on in the town. Furthermore, when the federal agents were identifying the citizens that appeared on their monitors, they can’t confirm the identities of Agnes or Dottie, and the missing person is nowhere to be found. You know who else we’ve heard referenced on the show but haven’t yet seen? Agnes’ mysterious husband, Ralph. This seems like too much of a coincidence to not be meaningful. Some are saying that “Ralph” is either imaginary or some powerful magical character, like Mephisto. Best guess: Ralph is the missing informant, but it remains to be see whether he’s superpowered (or even human).
WHO’S BEHIND ALL THIS?
What We Know: If you accept Monica Rambeau’s assertion after being forcefully thrown out of the barrier, Wanda is ultimately the one controlling the events in Westview. Wanda has certainly shown an increased level of desperation and bubbling rage with each episode of
the show. By the end of the third episode, she was downright frightening with her pitiless glare and merciless expulsion of Monica from the bubble. In earlier episodes, she is seen rewinding time in the town to re-do events and circumstances that she is not pleased with, such as seeing the beekeeper emerge from the underground sewer or restarting a conversation with Vision where he expresses suspicions about their surroundings.
What We Expect: While there is definitely evidence that Wanda’s powers are capable of easily altering reality, as well as the fact that her mental stability is rapidly declining, there are also instances from the show that contradict this hypothesis. For example, during the episode where she gives birth to the twins, she encounters things that she can’t directly control. In particular, a stork appears in her home, and she *tries* to use her powers to make it leave, but it remains unaffected. On one hand, you could possibly argue that this is evidence of her mind beginning to fracture, where parts of her psyche are breaking away beyond her conscious control.
On the other hand, this could reveal that, while Wanda is given a great degree of autonomy within this pocket reality, it is ultimately under the control of someone (or something) far more powerful, and Wanda is an unwitting accomplice to some greater scheme. Given the latter scenario, the smart money is that this hidden puppetmaster is Mephisto (possibly the unseen “Ralph”), and Agnes (read: Agatha Harkness) is supervising the goings-on on his behalf.
WHAT’S UP WITH ALL THE HEXAGONS?
What We Know: Ever since the first episode, hexagons have repeatedly popped up in the series, from a final fade out to a Brady Bunch-esque intro montage. As of the fourth episode, we discover that the barrier surrounding the town is hexagonal in shape, and we even see hints of the pattern in the office of S.W.O.R.D. director Tyler Hayward, as he has framed degrees and commendations on the wall in a hexagonal formation, and the carpet also bears a hexagon-like pattern.
What We Expect: Clearly hexagons are a motif, but what is the significance? Early on, some were associating it with the mysterious beekeeper coming out of the sewer (i.e., hexagons being related to honeycombs), whom they assumed to be a scientist from Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM), a Hydra-like organization of amoral scientists. In the comics, AIM scientists were famous for wearing uniforms that made them resemble beekeepers. By now it seems pretty clear that this was just a S.W.O.R.D. scientist in a hazmat suit, so this theory seems to have been disproven (so can we please move on from A.I.M., guys?).
A variation on the “beekeeper” theme is the idea that the hexagons symbolize a beehive. In this interpretation, the city is a metaphorical beehive, where the citizens of Westview are like worker bees who exist to please their queen (i.e., Wanda). This seems plausible, but isn’t as satisfying as other ideas.
Other people that have cursory familiarity with Christian symbolism see the hexagon’s six sides as a reference to 666, the mark of the beast from Revelation. The idea is that the repetition of the shapes is a subtle hint that Mephisto, who functions as the Satan figure of the Marvel comics universe, is the hidden force masterminding the events of WandaVision. To be as generous as possible, this is a very big stretch.
Still others see it as something of a pun. In the comics, Wanda’s spells are known as “hexes,” so to include a series of “hex-agons” could be an on-the-nose way of letting the viewer know that Wanda is controlling everything with her magical abilities; Darcy Lewis even dubbed the anomaly "The Hex" in episode six. That said, it seems like too much of a dad joke to be taken seriously.
So, what else could it represent? The hexagonal shape and its characteristics seem like only part of the equation. In the fourth episode, a fair amount of exposition is dedicated to describing the energy barrier as being similar to cosmic microwave background radiation, a form of energy leftover from the Big Bang. It has previously been revealed that the Infinity Stones were formed at the dawn of the universe, and before they were “atomized” by a victorious Thanos between Infinity War and Endgame, there were a total of 6 of them (i.e., the same number of points in a hexagon).
It has also been established that Wanda’s reality warping powers were activated by exposure to the Mind Stone, not the Reality Stone. This is peculiar, because when her powers are being used, they give off a red color, similar to the Reality Stone; likewise, Pietro’s super-speed could be considered a manifestation of the Space Stone, with the same blue tint, even though he was also affected by the (yellow) Mind Stone. In Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers received her abilities by being exposed to the Space Stone, but when she assumes her binary form, she glows with a golden/orange hue (referencing the Soul Stone, perhaps?).
From these examples, it seems reasonable to believe that the Infinity Stones are very interdependent, working in tandem with one another in the MCU. With the stones no longer
existing in their original form, the power they contained might have been released incorporeally into the universe to be harnessed by whomever has the mystical knowledge or genetic ability (cough*mutants*cough) to do so. Isn’t this precisely what sorcerers like Doctor Strange do when they use magic?
In other words, instead of having to physically possess a stone to control its power, that power can be channeled and summoned from the universe (multiverse?) itself. If that is true, then Wanda (or Agnes or Mephisto or whomever) could be focusing the powers of the 6 essential aspects of existence (space, time, reality, mind, power, and soul) in order to create and maintain this pocket reality. Thus, you would expect that the energy barrier around Westview would have 6 “sides” and emit the same type of energy as the primordial universe.
Alternatively, and more simply, the hexagons could be a reference to the Mind Stone. When it was in Vision’s forehead, it had an irregular hexagonal shape, similar to the design of the vanishing cabinet from the second episode. The Mind Stone represented a common bond between Wanda and Vision, as it awakened her innate powers and was the source of his life and sentience. Because of this connection, the repetition of the hexagon motif could symbolize Wanda’s desire to use her powers to resurrect Vision as he was before Thanos tore the stone out of his head.
WHAT IS VISION’S STATUS?
What We Know: Prior to WandaVision, the last time we saw Vision was at the end of Infinity War. Wanda, in an act of sacrificial desperation, used her powers to destroy the Mind Stone in his forehead, killing him in the process. Then, in a particularly cruel twist of fate, Thanos
rewinds time to restore both Vision and the stone, only to do this =====>
Then, suddenly and without explanation (yet), Vision appears fully restored in the first episode of WandaVision, seemingly with no memory of having been killed. Yet, at the end of the third episode, viewers are treated to a jump scare where Wanda turns around and momentarily sees Vision in his lifeless gray form.
What We Expect: He’s totally dead. As dead as Jacob Marley at the beginning of A Christmas Carol. There are numerous reasons to believe this:
Given the brutal way in which Vision was killed by Thanos, how would he have been reconstituted and brought back to life? Even as an artificial lifeform, his mind and personality was largely dependent on the Mind Stone, which is no longer an option. No one (that we know of) in the MCU has the technology or cosmic power to restore the synthezoid to life.
In the episodes released so far, Vision has demonstrated a personality that is more emotional and reactive than his previous portrayals in the MCU films. From his origin in Age of Ultron, he has been calm, objective, methodical, and guided exclusively by reason. In Civil War, his logic leads him to take the side opposite that of Wanda, but he doesn’t act out of spite or anger. Even in Infinity War, when we are shown the intimacy of his relationship with Wanda, he isn’t manic or excitable, but the same steady, reliable, contemplative synthezoid we have seen before. By contrast, the Vision we see in WandaVision has an almost completely different personality, exhibiting exaggerated emotions and overreactions. As an example, at one point he gets so nervous he levitates in their home. As the series progresses, however, Vision does seem to be showing his more insightful qualities, suspecting that everything might not be as it seems. This suggests that the character we are watching isn’t actually Vision, but Wanda’s version (or memory) of him, and it’s her emotions bleeding through. Vision’s increased suspicions of Westview could be understood as reflecting the subconscious part of Wanda’s mind that knows none of it is real.
In addition to fundamental shifts in personality, Vision’s behavior in the series is also inverted. In the films, he does not hesitate to act once he reaches a conclusion. He is the one who rallies the Avengers to fight Ultron, complies immediately with the Sokovia Accords out of principle, and is willing to sacrifice his life to deny Thanos the Mind Stone. But in the first episode of the show, he witnesses a man choking to death, and only intervenes when Wanda prompts him to help. He seems to act more out of fear, while Wanda assumes the lead role.
Vision also demonstrates a very specific new superpower in the third episode. In the films, he possesses the ability to alter his body’s density, allowing him to pass through solid objects or absorb brute force attacks without taking damage as well as project energy beams from the Mind Stone. However, in the show, we see Vision use a new power: super-speed. This could be further evidence that Vision is just a manifestation of Wanda’s mind/memory, because her deceased brother, Pietro, did have super-speed. Her memories could be starting to blend together from repeated traumatic experiences, to the point where she attributes characteristics of her brother to Vision.
<====== THIS. In her mentally and physically exhausted state at the end of episode three, Wanda turns to look at her husband, but instead sees him as he was from the ending of Infinity War: colorless and lifeless. This surprise startles Wanda, who quickly recovers to see the bright red and green face of a living Vision. Given the circumstances of this shocking scene, it makes sense that Vision is still dead, and that reality was only able to penetrate Wanda’s delusions when her guard was temporarily let down.
Finally, in episode five we are shown footage of Wanda stealing Vision's body from the S.W.O.R.D. facility; this all but confirms the evidence stated above.
Our working theory early on was that Vision was not actually “real,” but a projection of Wanda’s psyche that reflected her memories of him. After watching a few more episodes, we now believe that our speculation, while plausible and satisfying, was incomplete. Instead of Wanda projecting Vision in his entirety within the Westview energy barrier, it seems as though she has used her reality warping powers to project an illusion of life onto Vision’s corpse, like some sort of mystical puppet. What we and the people of Westview see is his actual vibranium-infused body, disguised and animated by her magic.
HOW WILL IT END?
What We Know: The series takes place between Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, which means:
The aftermath of WandaVision is probably what was keeping Dr. Strange busy during Spider-Man: Far From Home, since he was unavailable to assist SHIELD.
SHIELD seemed to have no problem believing Quentin Beck’s claim that he came from an alternate universe Earth. This seems to suggest that they’re familiar with the idea of people crossing between parallel realities.
What We Expect: Badly. Wanda experiences a full psychological break, and ruptures the boundaries separating the various realities of the multiverse.
Comments