*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
Recently, a fellow HerCampus ODU writer, mentioned to me how much she loved the new Disney+ series, “WandaVision”. While I had heard plenty of buzz about it on social media, I figured it wouldn’t be for me, seeing as I haven’t seen a Marvel movie in my whole life. She reassured me that I didn’t need thorough Marvel knowledge to enjoy the series and I’m seriously glad that I took her advice.
While “WandaVision” is based in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, much of the underlying Marvel knowledge that you need to understand in the show gets explained over the course of the nine-episode series. The show is centered around two Avengers, Wanda Maximoff, and her husband, Vision. Both characters have powers that make them a part of Tony’s Stark’s superhero team, with Wanda having various abilities to control objects and people with her mind, and Vision being a “vibranium-synthezoid” (for those of you who don’t know what that means, it basically means he is a robot) which allows him to phase through solid objects and have superhuman intelligence.
So with that mini introduction to the characters, I’ll start off by saying the first two episodes were painfully slow and I was all-in-all, very confused. The first episodes start off as a show within a show as Wanda projects the ideal life for her family into motion, but after a few episodes, they break through that fourth wall and let the viewers in on what is happening. But, I had heard such good things about this series, so I decided to stick it out – after all, the episodes vary in length but start off relatively short – and I’m so glad I did. Another thing to note is that the first three episodes jump through different time periods, starting in black and white as a tribute to “I Love Lucy”, and then moving through time to pay tribute to more big-name series like “The Brady Bunch.”
After the first few episodes, it’s revealed that Wanda and Vision are actually living in an alternate reality created after tragedy struck their family in previously released Marvel movies (this is where Wanda is projecting her TV show). The “Hex” as they call it, was accidentally created by Wanda as she was grieving Vision’s tragic death at the hands of Thanos. So, as a way of coping with her grief, she creates this bubble in which she can control everything and everyone – something she finds out over the course of the show. While Wanda starts to pick up on what is happening rather early on in the show, Vision has no recollection of anything that happened before the “Hex.”
It isn’t until STORM Agent, Monica Rambeau gets accidentally trapped in the Hex (and subsequently thrown out by Wanda) that Wanda begins to fully realize what’s going on and Vision starts to catch on to the fact that things aren’t right. He realizes what Wanda has done and that he cannot survive outside the reality that she has created for them. Unfortunately, he also learns that the residents that live inside the Hex are greatly suffering from Wanda’s constant mind control, which motivates him to discuss the situation with Wanda, who denies she has done anything to them.
Ultimately, Wanda has to learn the extent of her powers in order to lift the mind control of the residents of the Hex and allow them to return to their normal lives. This is what the entirety of episode eight, aka my least favorite episode, is composed of. Be prepared to feel confused and keep an open mind when the annoying neighbor, Agnes, comes out of the woodwork to reveal she’s not who she claimed to be.
While it wasn’t the best episode, it does paint the entire picture of Wanda’s backstory for those, like me, who weren’t familiar with it from previous movies.
The show ends on a heartbreaking note, where Wanda takes down the Hex and returns to reality, leaving Vision in the past. But I don’t think that this will be the last we see of her. Marvel did a great job setting up Wanda for her own Marvel movie where we learn more about what it means to be The Scarlet Witch.
Despite the fact that “WandaVision” was my first glimpse into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I can guarantee that it won’t be my last. I found that despite the show and characters being based on superheroes and action, there was a lot of comedy and romance embedded in the show. Not to mention, the characters were lovable and fun to watch interact with each other on-screen. All in all, I give “Wandavision” five stars!