Ever since WandaVision has landed on Disney+ earlier this month, it has been nothing short of a treasure hunt with clues embedded in every second of every episode.
Fans have been given seven days between every episode of this nine-part mini-series to find all the hidden Easter eggs. With one-third of the series in the books, what do we know so far about what is happening on WandaVision. Read on to find out.
What we know for sure now is that WandaVision is set in an alternate reality resembling sitcoms of different eras as time passes. Wanda is the most likely architect of it all whose powers are expanding by the minute. By the end of Episode 3, she can manipulate reality, teleport people, and even give life to inanimate objects.
The third episode picks up right after the previous one: Wanda is pregnant, but she and Vision are still trying to figure out their past which remains mysteriously missing from their memories. The wackier third installment will be key to piecing together the rest of the series.
With at least ten more Easter eggs added in Episode 3, there is a slightly clearer explanation for it all. The birth of Wanda’s twins has put the series in line with the crossover comics, House of M. A lot of what’s going on in WandaVision can be explained from the events of House of M.
But it is where the series deviates away from House of M that the fun part begins. In House of M, Wanda is going through a nervous breakdown when she warps the reality to create a parallel universe. In WandaVision, Wanda is far away from the edge of insanity and is in fact growing in her witch powers.
So are Wanda’s powers being abused by someone else, say the SWORD, for ulterior motives. The birth of Billy and Tommy has brought another comics into the picture, Vision and the Scarlet Witch, and another villain, Mephisto. By end of Episode 3, we are finally beginning to piece together all the Marvel comics the series could be pulling from and what to expect in the coming weeks.
1. What is WandaVision Really About?
Here is the official description of the show from Disney+. WandaVision is “a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff and Vision—two super-powered beings living idealized suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.”
That said, Marvel fans would know the series is a lot more than just another superheroes-navigating-human-realms. In telling the story of one of the most heartbreaking love stories ever committed to film, WandaVision has tragedy weaved into its elements. It is a story of loss, grief, and everything in between.
By falling in love with Vision, Wanda had already set herself for disappointment because her dreams of having a family could never be realized with a synthezoid. But then Vision is killed/destroyed, and so is Wanda’s twin brother Pietro.
It is through the lens of immense tragedy that WandaVision should ideally be seen. The series takes inspiration from the 2005 Marvel comic book, House of M.
Written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Esad Ribić, House of M is centered on Wanda and her emotional turmoil. Wanda is on the verge of insanity and is having a nervous breakdown. So, she manipulates reality to give herself a set of twins and a happy life with Vision which is later undone by Professor X. He uses his telepathy to tell Wanda to stop.
2. How House of M comics overlap with WandaVision
The first three episodes have several instances that can be traced back to the House of M. Whenever fantasy and reality meet, the ground slips from underneath Wanda.
In Episode 1, when Mr. Hart was choking, Vision does not get up to help him until Wanda says so. Wanda herself is nudged by Mrs. Hart who suddenly goes all weird-voiced, “Make it stop.”
In Episode 2, just as the man on the radio starts speaking to Wanda, the camera makes a toss, Wanda freezes and Dottie crushes the glass in her hand and starts to bleed. The blood this time is red.
In Episode 3, Wanda seems to step out of her trance-like state when Geraldine mentions Ultron killing Pietro. Wanda goes from confused to irate in 10 seconds and Billy starts crying. When Geraldine offers to pacify him, Wanda asks her to leave. Geraldine’s response, “Wanda don’t be like that” is particularly telling of her intentions to make Wanda see the truth.
In House of M, Wanda’s alternate reality goes unchecked to a point where other superheroes are also living out their darkest fantasies. Emma Frost marries Cyclops. Spider-Man hitches with Gwen Stacy. Ms. Marvel takes on the title of Captain Marvel.
But none of them is aware of being trapped in Wanda’s reality. When they do realize the truth, each one starts making Wanda aware of her what has happened and, all hell breaks loose. Sounds familiar? Isn’t that what Geraldine is trying to so as well?
3. How is WandaVision different from House of M?
While House of M does explain the events taking place on WandaVision, they don’t seem to suffice when vouching for Wanda’s exquisite magical powers. In Episode 1, Wanda burns a chicken and while trying to undo the damage, turns it into a basket of eggs. (Did you notice it or are you going back to rewatch Episode 1?)
The magic show arc of Episode 2 was especially telling about Wanda’s magical capabilities thriving in face of a hiccup. (Literally a hiccup, since Vision had accidentally swallowed gum which snagged his innards and made him dysfunctional.) Wanda goes on to convert a life-size piano into a two-dimensional painting of the piano. She even teleports Geraldine from behind the stage to inside a cupboard.
In Episode 3, Wanda is able to breathe life into inanimate objects while setting up her child’s nursery. The plastic butterflies to be hung on the baby’s cradle come to life after she first experiences her baby’s kick.
The stork she paints on the nursery’s wall comes to life and even tries to eat the fish printed on Geraldine’s pants. (Did you notice it too that Wanda has a stork visiting her? Do you think it should’ve been two storks, because twins? Lol.) Finally, since Vision is afterall a robot, Wanda seems to have gotten pregnant by herself.
To account for such exquisite magical capabilities, fans are looking at another Marvel comic, Vision and the Scarlet Witch. In the comics, Wanda’s life-giving abilities were borrowed from a devil named Mephisto.
4. Who is the villain in WandaVision?
In the 1982 comic Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Wanda turns William and Thomas from mere constructs of her mutant abilities into living breathing humans. She uses the demon Mephisto’s soul power to do this. Mephisto later consumes the twins to take back his lost soul fragments.
If WandaVision is going to incorporate this story arc then we might finally have a villain for the show. Mephisto could then be responsible for keeping Wanda trapped in her subconscious so she can create the twins for his consumption. Meanwhile, other superheroes could be trying to fend off Mephisto by waking Wanda up from her fantasy to face the reality.
Many fans believe that Mephisto is actually Ralph, husband of Wanda and Vision’s neighbor, Agnes. The locket around Agnes’ neck closely resembles that worn by Wanda’s mentor witch Agatha Harkness from the comics. If Agnes is Agatha then her mysterious behavior from Episode 3 can be explained.
Maybe, Agnes is helping Ralph (Mephisto) keep Wanda trapped in her fantasy until her twins start exhibiting mutant tendencies. Then she may give up the twins to Mephisto and wipe Wanda’s memory, as Agatha does in Avengers West Coast.
But it does not end at Mephisto and Agatha. According to some theories, Marvel is planning to connect Wanda and Vision’s story back to the center of its multiverse – Doctor Strange. In the comics, Doctor Strange had famously stepped in to save many superheroes from Mephisto, including Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four.
What’s more, Marvel recently confirmed that Spider-Man 3 will trace back to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in MCU Phase IV. The one confirming was none other than MCU president Kevin Feige. Considering MCU’s long-standing history of complex interweaved multiverses, this doesn’t seem too far-fetched either.
What do you think about these interpretations of WandaVision’s Easter eggs so far? Did we miss something out?
5. About WandaVision
WandaVision is a Disney+ MCU miniseries created by Jac Schaeffer featuring the Marvel Comics characters Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and Vision. Cast members include Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Kathryn Hahn, Teyonah Parris, Randall Park, Kat Dennings, Evan Peters, Debra Jo Rupp and Fred Melamed.
The series takes place three weeks after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Wanda Maximoff and Vision are living an idyllic suburban life in the town of Westview, New Jersey, trying to conceal their true natures. As their surroundings begin to move through different decades and they encounter various television tropes, the couple suspects that things are not as they seem.
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