Small Details In WandaVision Only True Fans Noticed

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Marvel's WandaVision has finally wrapped up the first big chapter of the MCU's phase four. The grand finale left us with lots of answers, several new questions, a killer costume change, and a few great fights. Let's break down the small details you may have missed in all the madness. WandaVision hasn't exactly been an action spectacle, but its finale starts off with a bang. On the suburban streets of Westview with Agatha holding Billy and Tommy hostage, the episode's opening sequence sees Agatha and Wanda clash. While it won't be until later in the episode that Wanda shows what she can really do, early in her battle with the older witch, Wanda uses a trick she likely learned from fighting Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War — rather than using her powers on Agatha directly, she taps into her telekinesis to slam a car right into Agatha. When Wanda approaches the house to see what's happened to her opponent, she sees Agatha's boots sticking out from beneath the car. As she inches closer, she sees the boots are empty. The moment references 1939's The Wizard of Oz, which includes the famous visual of a house landing on top of the Wicked Witch of the East. Of course, unlike the witch in the earlier classic, Agatha isn't dead or defeated. That's not the only reference to a non-MCU movie in the episode, either. As Wanda, Vision, Billy, and Tommy face off against the military in the town square, it's a shot very reminiscent of the moment in The Incredibles when the family faces off against Syndrome's minions. There were a lot of rumors out there indicating that Benedict Cumberbatch might make a cameo in the WandaVision finale as Doctor Strange. Well, the finale came and went without any sign from the resident of 177A Bleecker Street, but that doesn't mean he was forgotten entirely. As the battle between Wanda and Agatha moves to the Westview town center, Agatha confirms what many of us have suspected since the end of episode 7 — the tome she was keeping in her basement is the infamous Darkhold. Before revealing the book itself, Agatha tells Wanda, "Did you know there's an entire chapter devoted to you in the Darkhold? That's the book of the Damned." Ignoring Wanda's protests, Agatha reads from the book, saying that the Scarlet Witch is "not born, she is forged. She has no coven, nor need for incantation." Perhaps the most impressive thing Agatha reads is that: "Your power exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme." As we know, Doctor Strange is the Sorcerer Supreme, and he's not exactly a street magician. The argument could be made that of all the heroes to go one-on-one with Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, none make as good a showing as Doctor Strange. Of course, Wanda gives as good as she gets when she shows up to settle her score with the villain in Endgame, but still — saying Wanda is more powerful than Strange is significant. Of the many things Wanda does in her battle against Agatha, she tries something we haven't seen in quite a while. Appearing behind Agatha, she taps into Agatha's mind to uproot her nightmares. Things don't quite go as planned. While Wanda does unearth the vision of Agatha's old coven trying to kill her, the more experienced witch manages to turn the tables on her. You can't blame Wanda for trying, since this is a move that worked out well for her in Avengers: Age of Ultron, when we see Wanda use this power successfully on almost all of the Avengers. We get to see Wanda in a comic book accurate get-up in episode 6, but, just as is often the case in the MCU, that costume was intentionally made to look pretty goofy. Similarly, the costumes worn by Vision and the fake Pietro don't come off like what you'd expect to see the Avengers wearing while defending Earth. But while we get hints of it in the penultimate episode, we don't get to see Wanda in her new and improved comics-accurate outfit until the series finale, and it's worth the wait. We first see an energy outline of the headpiece forming while Wanda is in Agatha's nightmare vision. After Wanda places the runes of power along her Hex boundary and she accepts who she is, we finally get to see her transformation begin. Once she reclaims her power from Agatha, she descends from the sky above Westview in an outfit that reflects her comic book attire — and doesn't look like it was thrown together at the last minute for a costume party. In his final moments with Wanda, Vision offers words of comfort and hope, speculating that perhaps — in spite of everything — this won't be the last time they see one another. Vision says to Wanda, "I have been a voice with no body, a body but not human, and now a memory made real. “Who knows what I might be next?" When he calls himself a "voice with no body," Vision is referring to his time spent as J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony Stark's A.I. assistant. While he doesn't appear in person in the MCU until Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bettany voiced J.A.R.V.I.S. in the first two Iron Man films and the first two Avengers films. "Congratulations, sir. You have created a new element." Unlike his comic book counterpart, whose brainwaves are based on those of the superhero Wonder Man, Vision's personality is something of a fusion of different characters, including J.A.R.V.I.S. That J.A.R.V.I.S. helps to create Vision isn't exactly an obscure fact. But considering how much the character has been through since then, it can be very easy to forget that in a sense, Vision has been with the MCU narrative since the very beginning. By the end of WandaVision, we're still not completely clear on what Monica Rambeau's repeated exposure to Wanda's Hex has done to her. After she pierces the Hex boundary a second time in episode 7, it's clear that she's more than she used to be. What isn't clear is what that means exactly. In episode 7, we see her eyes glow blue a number of times, and she recovers from an assault by Wanda quicker than you would expect. But in the series finale, we get a clue that her abilities could be close to those of her comic book counterpart. In the comics, Monica Rambeau has the ability to transform herself into any form of energy. Particularly back in the '80s when she first showed up, Rambeau would often appear covered in a golden hue as she transformed into light itself. Along with allowing her to travel impossibly fast, while she was in this form, solid objects would pass through her without harming her. We see something like that power in WandaVision When Hayward tries to shoot Billy and Tommy. Monica steps between the director and the boys, and her eyes glow gold. As the bullets reach her, they pass through her harmlessly. At the same time, the bullets are slowed down — and Monica's entire body takes on a semi-transparent golden appearance. Back in episode 4, Jimmy Woo lists the Skrulls as one of the possible culprits behind the Westview Hex. It turns out, of course, they have nothing to do with it. But that doesn't mean they were going to completely keep their noses out of what was going on. In the series finale's mid-credits scene, the authorities are wrapping things up in Westview when a woman leads Monica into a theater under false pretenses. The woman ultimately reveals herself to be a Skrull and tells Monica, "I was sent by an old friend of your mother's." She tells Monica her old friend wants to meet with her. When Monica asks where, the Skrull points meaningfully upward. In most likelihood, the "old friend" the Skrull is referring to is Talos, the Skrull who works with Monica's mother Maria, Carol Danvers, and Nick Fury in Captain Marvel, and who subsequently has a mid-credits cameo in Spider-Man: Far from Home. It could also be Fury himself. Whoever this old friend is, we'll likely find out in the upcoming Captain Marvel 2. If you stick around for not just the mid-credits scene but the post-credits scene as well, then you see Wanda in a cabin in some distant wilderness — looking pretty similar to Bruce Banner's hideout at the end of 2008's Incredible Hulk. Guarding the cabin is an illusion of a "normal" Wanda, while inside the building we see the Scarlet Witch's astral form accessing her powers and poring over the Darkhold, presumably to take Agatha's advice and learn more about who she is and what she's capable of. Just before the scene ends, we hear Billy and Tommy's voices calling out to Wanda for help. This is pretty significant because in the comics, while Wanda's twins are revealed to be constructs of her power, they are reincarnated in the forms of the boys who become the heroes Wiccan and Speed. While it's too soon to tell, it seems likely this could be exactly what leads Wanda to join forces with the Sorcerer Supreme in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. WandaVision's eighth episode did a lot to explain the mystery at the heart of the MCU series -- namely, why did Wanda make herself the center of a strange, surreal sitcom? Let's dig even deeper into some of the easter eggs and references in Wanda's real-life TV Land. In episode 8 of WandaVision, Wanda is made to see the night that her life was ripped apart in Sokovia . Moments before a fateful explosion, she and her family are watching her favorite episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show – season 2's "It May Look Like A Walnut." This is a classic episode of the series, as Rob Petrie watches a science fiction film about walnut-obsessed aliens infiltrating Earth. The next day, all of the events of the film seem to come true. First, his wife turns into a space invader, and then Rob himself begins to morph into an alien. The episode was a parody of the sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, only with movie star Danny Thomas as the extraterrestrial ringleader. The Easter egg at play is that this Dick Van Dyke episode is really just a bad dream. Rob's wife hasn't been taken by the aliens. He's not missing his thumbs or lost his sense of humor. Similarly, Wanda takes all of the bad things that have ever happened to her and turns them into a bad dream. Thanks to Agatha Harkness, Wanda experiences a vivid flashback of her childhood in episode 8, and for the first time, we see the incident that radicalized Wanda and Pietro and drove them toward joining HYDRA. In the middle of TV night, a missile rips through their house, killing their parents. Pietro grabs Wanda and pulls her under the bed, keeping her safe. But that's when another missile lands three feet in front of them ... but it doesn't go off. The siblings stay trapped under the bed for two days before they move. And as the duo mention in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the rocket has a very familiar word painted on the side: "On the side of the shell was painted one word." "Stark." That spurs their hatred of Tony Stark, pushing them into the arms of HYDRA as they volunteer for the experiments that would give them their powers. Up until this episode, however, we'd only heard of this tragic event. But the scene in WandaVision goes into greater detail, including a reveal that the shell actually said "Stark Industries." More importantly, Agatha questions Wanda as to whether she ever wondered if it was a coincidence that the bomb didn't go off. "Did you stop that bomb?" "What?" "You used a probability hex." From her perspective, it's obvious that Wanda was a "baby witch" who subconsciously used a probability-altering spell to prevent the explosive from going off. During one of episode 8's flashback sequences, we see the Mind Stone float out towards Wanda. As a result, she sees an image of a woman in silhouette, with flowing hair and a headband very similar to the classic Scarlet Witch costume. None of this is recorded by HYDRA's cameras. What exactly this is referring to is unclear. Is the Mind Stone seeing Wanda's future where she fully embraces her identity as the Scarlet Witch? Or is it a reference to her heritage? In the comics, Wanda learned only relatively recently that her mother was actually Natalya Maximoff, one in a long line of Scarlet Witches. Whatever the case may be, this is the point that Wanda first comes into her powers. However, it's also clear from the start that she's never had a good grip on how she's able to do what she does, ascribing all of it to the Mind Stone's influence. It may well be that the Mind Stone simply unlocked her own innate abilities. After touching the Mind Stone, Wanda sits down to watch an episode of The Brady Bunch. In this particular installment, Cindy Brady is having an argument with her brother, Bobby, about her beloved doll. As for the plot of that particular Brady Bunch episode, the doll goes missing, and Cindy blames Bobby. The young boy professes his innocence, and their argument spills over into the rest of the family before the real culprit, their dog, is revealed. That episode is a subtle reminder that things aren't always as they seem, and we can often overlook the real culprits and create undeserved blame if we're not careful. In other words, Wanda is being blamed for certain things that she hasn't done, and Agatha is gleefully stringing her along. The episode also has a slightly more obvious connection to WandaVision: the doll that the Vision uses to practice changing diapers on in episode 3 is an exact duplicate of that doll. In episode 8, Wanda has a flashback to the moment she visited S.W.O.R.D. headquarters. In this heartbreaking scene, she's led to the Vision's body and allowed to examine it. "I can't feel you." Wanda's line is a callback to the Vision's last words to her in Avengers: Infinity War. After agreeing to destroy Vision to keep his Infinity Stone away from Thanos, Vision tells her. "You could never hurt me." “I just feel you." Wanda revisiting that line at S.W.O.R.D. HQ is a sad acknowledgment of the end of their connection. In episode 8's post-credits scene, S.W.O.R.D. director Tyler Hayward reveals that his team has had a breakthrough. They've powered up the dead Vision's body using energy channeled from an object directly affected by Wanda's magic. As it turns out, all Hayward has wanted all along is a way to revive and control this sentient weapon. This revived Vision is a ghostly white, a direct reference to a period in the comics when Vision was torn apart and then put back together by Henry Pym during the late '80s. In the comics, the ghostly, barefoot Vision was drained of all emotions for years, which led to more than a few supervillain plots. Will the same hold true for Vision 2.0 or will it all tie up in a happy ending like the plots on Wanda's favorite tv shows? "Silly mischief that always becomes fine." WandaVision's seventh episode — "Breaking the Fourth Wall" — brings us to the late '00s/early 2010's in terms of sitcom references. Wanda, Vision, Agnes, and even Darcy participate in talking heads segments in which they speak directly to the audience, mirroring the mockumentary stylings of sitcoms like Modern Family, The Office, and Parks & Recreation. While the style used in episode 7 feels most like Modern Family, that isn't where the intro comes from. With its flashes of things you'd expect to find in a workplace like computer screens, calendars, and the I Love Wanda coffee mug — plus the derivative theme music — it feels a lot more like the intro to The Office. Speaking of office comedies — just before the theme starts, Wanda tries to laugh off the bizarre things happening in her home with "It's probably just a case of the Mondays." That's not a reference to The Office, but rather a reference to the 1999 comedy Office Space: "Uh oh. Seems like someone's got a case of the Mondays." The opening few minutes of episode 7 also hide one more easter egg. As Wanda-themed objects appear one-by-one, a license plate with Wanda has the numbers 12,28,22. Those numbers are a reference to Stan Lee's birthdate of December 28, 1922. Although the late comic book icon won't be making any more cameos in future MCU projects, the subtle shout-out makes it clear that Lee is gone, but definitely not forgotten. "Breaking the Fourth Wall" doesn't show the brothers in their costumes, but the color scheme of their clothing does reflect those of their comic book costumes. The green and white of Tommy's outfit look a lot more like what he wears as the young superhero Speed. When Wanda gets her breakfast, she's understandably freaked out about her milk's container transforming a few times. At one point it becomes a carton with the picture of a missing child on the back, though we can't make out the child's face. Putting the pictures of missing children on milk cartons became customary in the mid-'80s, so it's interesting to remember that the WandaVision episode dealing with the '80s, episode 5, "On a Very Special Episode…" also happens to be the same episode in which Vision points out that Westview's children are missing. Wanda's cereal is interesting as well. First, the brand's mascot is a cartoon clown, and at the end of the previous episode Wanda's expanding hex radius changes the S.W.O.R.D. agents into circus clowns. Second, there's the name "Sugar Snaps." It's impossible to see or hear the word "snap" in an MCU production without thinking of the most infamous snap of all — the one Thanos makes to kill half the universe. As a result of Wanda's swiftly expanding hex radius at the end of episode 6, unlike most of the S.W.O.R.D. agents who are turned into clowns, Agent Monti is changed into the circus strongman. It's unlikely that Monti has been made into any kind of superhero, but at the same time, when we see a guy in a comic book TV show in a colorful, tight outfit with a big S on his belt, there's a good chance that means something. When you combine the S with the blue and yellow color scheme, there are a couple of different superheroes this could be referencing, and both of them are super strong. One possibility is the mutant hero Strong Guy. When he first joins the new version of X-Factor, Strong Guy, like the rest of the team, wears a blue and yellow uniform. Another possibility, and a more fitting one, is the Sentry. Like Monti's getup, Sentry's original outfit is yellow and blue and it includes an S on the belt. Also, while he isn't introduced until 2000's The Sentry #1, it's revealed the hero's been around since the early days of Marvel but the entire world has forgotten about him, including the Sentry himself — just as Monti has forgotten who he is. Understandably, because of reports that Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff will be an important part of the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, fans have been theorizing that WandaVision would have something to do with Marvel's vast multiverse. One of the most overt signs we receive in the story itself is the commercial in episode 7. While the same man and woman who regularly appear in WandaVision's faux commercials weren't around in episode 6, they return in "Breaking the Fourth Wall" for an ad that mimics antidepressant commercials. The brand name of the medication is Nexus — a word that has two meanings in Marvel Comics, both of which relate to the multiverse. There's Marvel's Nexus of All Realities, which in the prime universe of the comics exists in the Florida Everglades and is guarded by the monstrous Man-Thing. As the name implies, the Nexus is a gateway to Marvel's other realities. And then there's Wanda herself. In the comics, Wanda is the Nexus Being of the prime Marvel reality. As a Nexus Being, Wanda reflects her reality's defining characteristics and can alter the flow of the future. In the 1998-'89 miniseries Avengers Forever, we learn the powerful Immortus knows Wanda is a Nexus Being and fears the possibility of her having children even more powerful than herself. He manipulates events to pair Vision and Wanda off as a couple, in the futile hope that Wanda's coupling with an android could never produce offspring. In episode 4 of WandaVision, we hear echoes from 2019's Captain Marvel as Monica is resurrected during the Blip. We hear those voices and more again in episode 7 as Monica forces her way through the hex barrier. And this time, it seems clear Monica is hearing them as well. We hear the young Monica talking with her late mother about helping Carol Danvers. We hear Nick Fury tell her that she can only follow the adult heroes if she can learn to glow like her Aunt Carol. And we know in the comics she does glow. We also hear different people like Dr. Harley and Jimmy Woo speaking about the death of Monica's mother. And of course, we hear a refrain of this line: "Your mom's lucky. When they were handing out kids, they gave her the toughest one. Lieutenant Trouble." "You remembered!" It's these words that give Monica the strength to push the rest of the way through the barrier. Piercing the hex barrier gives Monica superpowers, though it isn't clear exactly what those powers mean. We see her eyes glow blue several times, and she recovers so quickly from Wanda's assault toward the end of episode 7 that even Wanda is shocked. In the comics, Monica is quietly one of the most powerful heroes in Marvel. She's had a number of aliases, the most recent being Spectrum, and after she's bombarded with energy from another dimension, she gains the ability to transform into any form of energy at will. She's also had another alias that's been hinted onscreen before: Photon, just like Monica's mother's call sign in the MCU. By the end of "Breaking the Fourth Wall," a lot of fans' suspicions that Agnes might be more than a friendly neighbor seem to have been confirmed. Wanda's own suspicions are sparked when Agnes leads her into her home and Wanda notices the twins are nowhere to be seen. She then sees a large, loud insect on the window shade. She asks Agnes where the boys are, and Agnes answers that they're "probably just playing in the basement." Wanda goes down to the basement to look for them, and we get the episode's biggest reveal. This all unfolds like a tribute to The Silence of the Lambs. Toward the end of that film the hero, Clarice Starling, believes she's just doing a routine interview about the first victim of notorious serial killer Buffalo Bill. She's speaking to a man who now lives where the person she wants to interview used to live. She's already suspicious of his manner and some of the things she sees in his house. But when she notices a large exotic moth, something the killer leaves behind in his victims' throats, that seals the deal. She pulls her gun on him and he runs to the basement, where they have their final showdown. When Wanda and Agnes confront each other in Agnes' basement, we learn Agnes isn't Agnes. She's the witch Agatha Harkness. We then get a montage of moments throughout the series when it's revealed Agatha was manipulating events. It isn't clear, however, exactly what Agatha is after. Harkness isn't a villain in the comics. In fact, at different times, Harkness has been Wanda's ally and even a mentor. While not really a superhero in the traditional sense, she has surfaced every now and then to aid superheroes during different mystical crises. So while it's finally confirmed that Agnes is Agatha, we still don't know why she's there. It also isn't clear just what she means when she says it was her "all along." Just before Agatha reveals herself in the basement, Wanda notices what appears to be a very serious looking tome shimmering with crimson energy. We're not sure exactly what this is, though it could be the Darkhold. The Darkhold is probably the most infamous magic tome in the history of Marvel Comics, sought after by the likes of Doctor Strange and even the vampire king Count Dracula himself. The thing is, we've already seen the Darkhold in the MCU — in both Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Runaways — and it didn't look like this. But on the other hand, it isn't completely clear exactly what canonical weight a lot of the Marvel TV series have in the MCU. Whatever it is, when we see Agatha use magic, it's accompanied by purple energy. The energy coming out of the book, on the other hand, is more red like Wanda's. Also, the design on the book's cover features two sets of adjoined rings, kind of like... twins? And Wanda's boys are nowhere to be seen. Whatever the book is, whether it's the Darkhold or something else, it could be acting as the twins' prison. Don't change that channel. WandaVision is continuing to reinvent the wheel for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, taking the reality-warping series into a 1990s pastiche. WandaVision's sixth episode — "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!" — takes a leap over the '90s to deposit us in the early aughts. With its faux home video camera work and pop punk theme, the intro to episode 6 echoes the intro to the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, which premiered in early 2000 and concluded in 2006. The intro song includes lyrics reflecting the bizarre events in Westview like "Don't try to fight the chaos" and, later, "What if it's all an illusion?" Amusingly, the actual theme song to Malcolm in the Middle, with it's "You're not the boss of me now" refrain, also feels like it would be suitable for Wanda's reality-warping rebellion. Like Malcolm often did with its title character, episode 6 begins with Billy narrating, though his inner dialogue doesn't last past the first scene. Young Avengers fans are no doubt hoping that Billy and his brother Tommy will eventually grow to become their super-powered comic book counterparts. In the comics Billy is Wiccan, a mystical hero and one of the founding members of the Young Avengers. Meanwhile Tommy is, like Quicksilver, a mutant with the gift of super speed whose codename is, creatively, Speed. Whether or not Billy and Tommy appear in the MCU after WandaVision, fans can at least say they got a chance to see them use their powers and dress in their — for the most part — comic book-accurate costumes. Billy's costume — which he wears throughout the episode — is Wiccan's costume in the comics. Pietro gives Tommy a smaller version of his own costume, which is not what Speed wears in the comics -- but it's still fitting, considering his powers. You may also notice that just before Pietro starts wreaking havoc in the suburban neighborhood with his nephews, he and Tommy share a Top Gun reference. Episode 6 gives us some scenes between Pietro and Wanda after the bombshell cameo at the end of episode 5, and unsurprisingly there are a lot of obvious callbacks to 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. Sokovia is mentioned a few times, including Wanda saying her outfit is a "Sokovian fortune teller" and the quick flashback to the young Wanda and Pietro trick-or-treating in their homeland. Wanda mentions their childhood growing up in an orphanage together, and after she calls Pietro a bad influence, the brother fires back, "who beefed in your borscht?" — with borscht being from the same region of Europe where you would find Sokovia, if it were a real place. Right after that exchange, the twins both ask each other about the disappearances of their accents — something Wanda slips back into briefly in the previous episode. And of course there are the references to Pietro's death. Early in the episode, Tommy teases Billy, saying that his twin is afraid that Pietro's a vampire — a creature who, possibly like Pietro, is neither dead nor alive. "You get killed -- walk it off." At the Town Square Scare, Pietro tells his sister he remembers being "shot like a chump," and later she has a brief vision of him pale and riddled with bullet holes. "You didn't see that coming." One thing worth noting is that Pietro says he was "shot like a chump for no reason at all," when in fact in Age of Ultron he sacrifices himself in order to save Hawkeye and a Sokovian boy -- which seems like a pretty worthy cause to us. "All-New Halloween Spooktacular" finally gives us Wanda and Vision in their old school Marvel comic book get-ups. Images of the pair in their half-baked costumes were some of the first photos released for the series. Billy appropriately thinks his mother is dressed as "Old Red Riding Hood" while Pietro compares Vision to a traffic light, a half-shucked corn cob, and a booger. "He's what you call 'a manchild.' After Pietro suggests he join Wanda and the boys for Halloween, Wanda says he doesn't have a costume, prompting Pietro to use his super speed to put himself and Tommy in matching outfits reflecting what Quicksilver used to wear in Marvel's comics. The silver lightning bolt is straight from the funnybooks, as is the slicked-back, Wolverine-style hair. Does it look good in real life? Well, not really -- but it's still a pretty neat thing to finally see. Some fans are understandably hopeful that Evan Peters' presence in WandaVision could be the beginning of the entrance of the X-Men into the MCU. While it's far too soon to say whether this is the case, episode 6 has a couple of X-Men references early in the story. As the couple argue about whether or not Vision will be trick-or-treating with Wanda and the boys, Pietro steps in to take the synthezoid's place. "Big guy has a conflict, twins need a father figure for the night -- Don't sweat it, sis. I got the old XY chromosome." Weird line, right? For Pietro to mention his DNA and the letter X is a pretty obvious reference to the team Professor X built. There's another X-Men reference that's just a little bit easier to miss a few moments earlier. "The neighborhood watch is the only thing that stands between the trees and the toilet paper." As Vision says his line, he points in opposite directions and his forearms cross to form a big, yellow X. The ad for "All-New Halloween Spooktacular" is perhaps the most bizarre faux commercial we've seen yet on WandaVision. The ad uses stop-motion animation and shows us a boy stuck on an island in the middle of the ocean. A talking shark drops in with a surfboard, gives the boy a "Yo-Magic" yogurt snack, and leaves. The boy can't seem to open the container, and his teeth clatter as if he's freezing even though the sun seems to be baking him. Time speeds up and he keeps trying and failing to open the Yo-Magic snack. Eventually he withers away to a skeleton. The ad ends with a shot of the Yo-Magic packaging and the slogan "Yo-Magic! The snack for survivors!" The ad seems to be a fusion of at least a couple of different brands of similar snacks from the '90s and early aughts. The packaging is reminiscent of Yoplait's Go-Gurt, while the ad itself pulls heavily from YoGo Yogurt, which used stop-motion in its ads. As for magic being essential for survival? The message seems obvious. At the Town Square Scare, a movie marquee gives us a couple more Easter eggs, and like many of the other references, there's a bit of a time gap between them. Westview's Coronet Theater is showing two films. On screen 1 is The Incredibles, which came out in 2004. It's a fitting movie reference considering by the end of episode 6, every member of Wanda and Vision's family has superpowers. In fact, only moments after we see the marquee, Tommy discovers his super speed. Screen 2 is showing The Parent Trap, however, which — assuming we're talking about the remake and not the original from 1961 — came out six years before The Incredibles in 1998. Either way, both versions of the film feature a pair of twins separated at birth. It's an apt reference, considering how Pietro and Wanda have been separated since the former's death and how — in the comics, at least — Billy and Tommy were long-lost twins themselves. Each week, WandaVision reveals new and more interesting layers to its strange TV-inspired reality. Episode 5 is certainly no exception, with plenty of hidden pop culture and MCU references When we return to WandaVision's strange sitcom reality in "On a Very Special Episode," Wanda, Vision, and all the residents of Westview have moved into the prime time programming of the '80s. In particular, the intro borrows from Family Ties. Among other things, Family Ties is known for making the young Michael J. Fox famous even before he became a time traveler in 1985's Back to the Future. The most blatant pull from the series is the initially colorless portrait that begins to be colored in by a paintbrush controlled by Wanda. Family Ties' intro for its first three seasons included a similar portrait. It's a nifty visual allusion to the way Wanda "colored in" the gray and lifeless Vision that viewers briefly spotted at the end of WandaVision's fourth episode. "On a Very Special Episode" has its share of '80s references. But they don't all stay in the '80s. When Agnes visits Wanda and Vision, she tells them she stopped by on her way to Jazzercise. Founded in the late '60s and still around today, Jazzercise hit its peak in the mid-'80s. We get another purely '80s reference toward the end of the episode. In the kitchen, Wanda tells Vision, "Well, life moves pretty fast out in the suburbs." It sounds a lot like Matthew Broderick's famous quote from 1986's Ferris Bueller's Day Off: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." But some of these references don't really find homes in the '80s. Early in the episode, Agnes yells, "Fussy babies, meet Buns of Steel!" The Buns of Steel workout videos, while technically originating in the late '80s, didn't really become a craze until the early '90s. We get a similar moment when Norm references a catchphrase that hit its peak in the late '80s and '90s. "What do you think Norm? Should we surf the internet?" "Cowabunga, dude!" "Cowabunga, dude" is most associated with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and, to a lesser extent, off-brand Simpsons merchandise. "Cowabunga." "Huh?" "Cowabunga!" These blurrings between '80s and '90s pop culture could be intentional. They could be a sign that, just as Vision is becoming more aware of Wanda's illusions, the integrity of her dream world is deteriorating. In the 2016 Vision comic series, Vision lives in the suburbs with a synthezoid wife, son, and daughter. They also, eventually, have a synthezoid dog named Sparky. Not only is WandaVision's Sparky a callback to the comic series, but his close call with the kitchen's power outlet is as well. Like the Sparky of WandaVision, the Sparky of the comics initially meets a sad — though much more brutal — end. However, he's eventually brought back to the land of the living. Ironically, considering Wanda's decision not to revive the pooch in "On a Very Special Episode," Scarlet Witch is one of the heroes who could bring the flying pooch back to life. In "On a Very Special Episode," WandaVision's strange advertisers are back. This time, the ad is for Lagos, a paper towel brand. Showing Lagos wiping up an identical spill to what the "leading brand" is trying and failing to clean, the ad mirrors Bounty commercials of the '80s that touted their paper towels the "Quicker Picker Upper." The name Lagos is a blatant reference to Captain America: Civil War. It's Wanda who unintentionally incites the film's conflict when she accidentally kills Wakandan volunteers in the Nigerian city of Lagos. Rather than calling Lagos a "Quicker Picker Upper," the ad ends with the slogan "Lagos For when you make a mess you didn't mean to." Fittingly, the juice that the towels clean up resembles blood. One thing that's easy to miss about the ad is the reference to what's going on with Vision. Just before the end of the commercial, the husband knocks over a glass of beer. The wife hands him a few towels as the narrator says, "Husbands can use it too, you know." This could reflect not only how Vision begins to assert himself, but how episode 5 shows he has a degree of control over the illusions. For example, he's able to temporarily free Norm from Wanda's telepathy. This may also be why Agnes is so flustered early in the episode when she isn't sure whether she's supposed to hold the babies — because she's getting conflicting signals from Vision and Wanda. And then, of course, there's the reveal at the end of "On a Very Special Episode" that will doubtless go down as one of the biggest TV moments of 2021. The doorbell rings as Wanda and Vision argue, and after Wanda answers the door we're greeted by a familiar face, but familiar in a way that we don't expect. Before we see the visitor's face, we see the back of his head, which sports a head of hair that looks a lot like the one belonging to Pietro Maximoff — Wanda's brother who dies heroically in Avengers: Age of Ultron. We are, indeed, greeted by Wanda's brother, but a different Pietro than the one most viewers had to have been expecting. Instead of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who plays Pietro in the MCU film, Wanda finds herself facing Evan Peters — who plays Peter Maximoff in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past as well as the final two films of Fox's X-Men franchise. As Darcy points out as she notices the change, Pietro Maximoff has been "recast," alluding to the fact that American sitcoms are famous for their sometimes abrupt recasting of characters. One of the most well-remembered examples of this comes from a sitcom WandaVision mirrors in its second episode – Bewitched. The main character's husband, Darrin, was recast when Dick York was replaced by Dick Sargent in the series' sixth season. Four episodes in, and WandaVision keeps revealing new and more interesting layers to this strange new reality. "We Interrupt This Program" opens with the first extended onscreen depiction of the Blip — the resurrection of all the people killed by Thanos' snap in Avengers: Infinity War. Spider-Man: Far from Home lets us know how the event comes to be known as the "Blip" and some of the consequences of it, but this is the first time we get a good long look at the chaos immediately following the event. Specifically, we see Monica Rambeau returning from the dead in a hospital room where her mother was a patient during the events of Infinity War. As Rambeau's body reforms, we hear dialogue from 2019's Captain Marvel. "Your mom's lucky. When they were handing out kids, they gave her the toughest one. Lieutenant Trouble." "You remembered!" It's a fitting way to start the episode, considering one of the biggest mysteries the story presents is how the synthezoid Vision has returned from the dead. Captain Monica Considering all the hints that have been dropped in the previous three episodes, it's no surprise to learn that Monica Rambeau works for S.W.O.R.D. Her scenes with Director Hayward pretty strongly imply that she was the frontrunner for his job before Thanos' snap made that impossible. But while she may not have the top position, Monica isn't without rank in S.W.O.R.D. After Monica's security badge doesn't work at headquarters, Director Hayward shows up and introduces her to the security guard as "Captain Monica Rambeau." The rank isn't an accident. When she shows up in Marvel Comics, Monica is a different kind of captain. After obtaining the ability to transform into any form of energy, Monica becomes known as Captain Marvel, years before Carol Danvers takes up the title. Maria Rambeau In the opening scene of the episode, we learn that Maria Rambeau is dead. From a conversation between Monica and Dr. Highland, it's revealed that at some point between the events of Captain Marvel and those of Infinity War, Maria was diagnosed with cancer. When Thanos made his fateful snap, Maria had just undergone a procedure to treat her cancer and it was deemed a success. Because Thanos' snap wiped Monica from existence, she awakes not knowing that her mother's cancer soon returned and she died three years before the Blip. But when Monica returns to S.W.O.R.D., it's clear her mother isn't forgotten. As Director Hayward leads Monica into the headquarters, they pass by a number of portraits, including one of Maria Rambeau with her call sign, "Photon." Maria wasn't just a high-ranking member of S.W.O.R.D., either. Hayward says she "built this place from the ground up," which makes sense. After all, S.W.O.R.D. in the comics deals with extraterrestrial threats, and as far as we know, Maria is one of the first few MCU Earthlings to knowingly have contact with any extraterrestrials. Agent Woo, magical man We first meet FBI agent Woo in 2019's Ant-Man and The Wasp when Woo is in charge of babysitting Scott Lang while Lang's under house arrest for violating the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War. In WandaVision, he's the FBI agent waiting for Monica Rambeau to help him with his missing persons case, and their introduction to one another includes an Easter egg from his very first MCU scene. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scott uses sleight of hand to make a playing card appear out of thin air. Later, Woo has an important question for Scott: "How'd you do it, Scott?" "Do what?" "The card trick." "Seriously?" It turns out Woo's a huge fan of sleight-of-hand, and WandaVision reveals that he's been honing his skills since babysitting Scott. As he's approaching Monica for the first time, he uses the same trick to produce his business card. During the montage that shows us the progress of the joint task force investigation, we get a couple shots of Agent Woo taking notes on a dry erase board. Under the heading "What is behind this?" Woo has written "extraterrestrials (Skrulls?)". We first meet the shapeshifting Skrulls in Captain Marvel, and what we know about them so far makes Woo's notation very interesting. While Skrulls are traditionally villains in the comics, Captain Marvel shows that they're just trying to survive being annihilated by the Kree in the MCU. Captain Marvel and her allies help the aliens, and in the mid-credits scene of Spider-Man: Far from Home, they appear to be working with Nick Fury. So why would Agent Woo or anyone else suspect them of something nefarious? It could be that relations between Earth and the Skrulls have changed. Another possibility is that while Captain Marvel seemed to imply its Skrulls were some of the last the Kree hadn't wiped out, maybe there are more of the shapeshifters out there who aren't as friendly as the ones working with Nick Fury. The conclusion of "We Interrupt This Program" implies that Wanda is behind all the weirdness going on in WandaVision — at least, that's Monica's theory. When Wanda uses her powers to hurl Monica beyond the boundaries of Westview and she lands among the joint task force, Monica has one conclusion: "It's Wanda. It's all Wanda." The episode ends with Wanda and Vision sitting down with their newborn twins to watch some TV as the Jimi Hendrix Experience's 1968 song "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" plays. The song is a perfect cap to "We Interrupt This Program" for a couple of reasons. While the word "Voodoo" can refer to any number of things, in American pop culture it's often associated with witchcraft, making the song just one of a growing list of things referencing witchcraft in the series. More importantly, there are the opening lyrics. Hendrix sings "Well, I stand up next to a mountain / And I chop it down with the edge of my hand." Then, later in the verse, we hear "Well I pick up all pieces and make an island / Might even raise a little sand." If Monica is right and Wanda is behind everything going on in Westview, then the imagery of someone chopping down mountains and using the debris to build an island is pretty fitting for the series. WandaVision is the MCU's weirdest project to date, full of very obvious sitcom references, and more than a few subtle hints that something in Wanda's world is very, very wrong. The third episode is no different. Prior to the release of WandaVision, the last time we saw Scarlet Witch she was tearing Thanos apart single-handedly, posing for a group shot, and chatting with Clint Barton after Tony Stark's funeral. That's where we left her in Endgame, but in this show, her main challenge seems to be in the realm of new beginnings. While working on her nursery, Wanda unintentionally makes the butterflies of the mobile above the crib turn into actual butterflies. This is a reference to a popular Marvel Comics miniseries, and could even be the foreshadowing for a character who has yet to be revealed. "Kicking? Already?" "It's such a strange sensation, it's kind of fluttery!" One of the comic book series fans have been comparing most to WandaVision is the 2005 miniseries House of M. In fact, Paul Bettany has said WandaVision was pitched to him specifically as a mash-up of the comic books Vision and House of M. In the latter series, Wanda uses her reality warping powers to completely remake the world. With a few noteworthy exceptions here and there, most of the people in this new reality have no idea the world's been remade, but one of the exceptions is Layla Miller — who comes to be known as, you guessed it, Butterfly. Layla is a mutant before House of M, and somehow Wanda's reality-warping gives her the ability to "awaken" people into the knowledge that they're living in a world gone wrong. Nor do we think that this is the last time Layla is referenced in episode 3. When they're talking about what to name who they assume will be their newborn son, Wanda jokes about hoping "it's a girl." Later, when Vision practices changing a diaper, he uses a girl doll with blond hair — just like Layla — in spite of the fact that he and Wanda seem to be sure their child will be a boy. The episode also keeps up the trend of breaking up the action with a surreal fake commercial. Episode 3's advertisement pulls from old commercials for Calgon, a water softening brand with a line of bath and beauty products. In the 70s and 80s, there was a popular series of advertisements in which overworked, overstressed women would throw their hands up and beg for deliverance from the Calgon brand. "That does it! Calgon, take me away!" After uttering the magic phrase, they would be transported to a bathtub where they would be overcome with comfort. In this ad, a busy mother can't even eat her breakfast without her kids knocking her cereal away with a soccer ball. A dog reminiscent of Vision's pet Sparky from The Vision comic — minus the green fur — pees against the wall. Then a narrator asks her, "Do you need a break?" "You read my mind." Which is, of course, something that Wanda can literally do. The woman in the commercial is transported to a bubble bath where a man in a Roman toga fans her like a doting servant. Among other things, the narrator says, "When you want to get away, but you don't want to go anywhere," which could be a description of what's happening to Wanda and Vision. He also speaks of a place where "your problems float away," which evokes the way in which Wanda makes things float away with her mind. The mom, likewise, blows bubbles off her hands as if she has similar powers. Finally the product is revealed: "Hydra Soak." The slogan is "Find the goddess within!" It's a clear reference to the powers Hydra gave Wanda, and the fact that those powers are clearly expanding. It's also intriguing that the product box reads "Made in USA," since that's not where Hydra was formed, nor is it where Wanda was when she was given her powers. If you're familiar with the hit sitcom Bewitched – starring Elizabeth Montgomery as a witch who both uses her powers to solve her family's problems and struggles to keep her identity as a witch secret — it's impossible to not think of the show while watching WandaVision. It comes to mind early in the premiere episode, when Wanda is putting her dishes away with her telekinetic powers. But the similarities get kicked up a notch in the opening credits of episode 2, when instead of using The Dick Van Dyke Show for inspiration, WandaVision uses animation reminiscent of Bewitched's unique style. It's a particularly fitting show to choose to pull from for episode 2 for a few reasons. One of the most obvious is the fact that both shows deal with witchcraft. Another is that just as episode 2 ends with the world of WandaVision changing from black and white to color, Bewitched began its life as a black and white show in 1964 and changed to color in 1966. Early in episode 2 we get color mixed in with the black and white, and it's as striking as it is meaningful. After practicing the magic act with Vision, Wanda is straightening up the living room when she hears a whirring and a bang from outside. In the bushes of her front yard she finds a toy helicopter. Unlike everything else in this black and white world, the helicopter shows some color. It's red and gold, with some metallic silver mixed in. The number 57 is on its side, and the S.W.O.R.D. symbol is painted on the front. The number on the helicopter isn't randomly chosen. The first comic book appearance of the Vision comes in 1968's Avengers #57. And once again, just as the Toast Mate 2000 reminds us of Tony Stark, for some reason or another, the helicopter happens to be painted in Iron Man's classic colors. Like the premiere WandaVision episode, the second episode treats us to another faux advertisement. This time, instead of a toaster, we get a watch manufactured by a company called Strücker, and the commercial is chock full of Easter eggs. First, there's the most obvious reference. Baron Von Strucker — whose short MCU life ends with Avengers: Age of Ultron — is in charge of the experiments which give Wanda and her late brother Pietro their powers. He's a part of Hydra, whose sinister logo is visible on the watch face. Aligned as they are, the watch hands can't help but bear a resemblance to Loki's scepter, from which Wanda and Pietro's powers spring. Then there's the time. The watch is showing the time of 2:42, and if you're looking for Easter eggs in Marvel media, pay attention to numbers. Consequentially, 1984's Avengers #242 is a pretty important one for the team — and for Vision and Scarlet Witch in particular. The pair are reunited when Vision's body finally is restored after injuries he'd suffered during a previous adventure. Early in episode 2, Wanda and Vision practice their magic act for the talent show in the living room, and later we get to see that act completely go off the rails when swallowing a piece of chewing gum messes with Vision's insides so much that he acts like a raving drunk. "Is this your card? Is this your card? Is this your card? Is this your card? … Is this your card? In both scenes we also see what Vision calls the Cabinet of Mysteries, equipped with a secret door to let its occupant seem to have disappeared. Adorning the cabinet is a picture of the Mind Stone stuck to Vision's head. It's not just an Easter egg, but a meaningful reference. His Mind Stone was destroyed off-camera by Thanos, and the Stone from the past was presumably returned by Captain America. The purpose of the cabinet as a device to make things disappear and reappear might also have some significance. After all, both the Mind Stone and Vision are things that were supposed to disappear, but didn't. At least not completely. When Wanda and Dottie confront each other in the middle of episode 2, the 1965 hit single "Help Me, Rhonda" by the Beach Boys is playing on a nearby radio. It may seem like a song chosen just because of the era, until you think about both the name of the song and some of the lyrics. First of all, there's the title — "Rhonda" sounds a lot like "Wanda." Then there's what the Beach Boys are singing. On the surface, the song is about a man devastated by his fiancee cheating on him, and asking Rhonda to "get her out" of his heart. But if you think of it in the context of Vision and Wanda's shared history, it becomes a much darker story, particularly with these lyrics: "She was gonna be my wife/And I was gonna be her man/But she let another guy come between us/And it shattered our plans." The last thing Vision and Wanda talk about before being attacked by the Black Order in Avengers: Infinity War is making their relationship more permanent. Then "another guy," i.e. Thanos, shatters not only their plans, but literally shatters Vision. As soon as preview images began popping up for WandaVision, it became clear the show was taking part of its inspiration from a fan favorite — but short-lived — comic book series. In early 2016, Marvel Comics released the first issue of Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta's Vision. The synthezoid had enjoyed a couple of miniseries before then, but this one was unique. This Vision comic also found its title character trying to build an idyllic and ordinary life in a quiet suburb. Rather than being married to Scarlet Witch, however, Vision builds his family of synthezoids — his wife Virginia, his son Vin, and his daughter Viv. Unlike the heroes of WandaVision, the synthezoid and his family make no attempt to hide what they are in the Vision comic, which leads to more than a few complications. No spoilers, but here's hoping WandaVision has a happier ending. The style of the first episode of WandaVision is based on sitcoms of the '50s and early '60s, and the faux intro includes a funny Easter egg calling back to one of those classic programs – The Dick Van Dyke Show. The reference isn't so much about what happens, though, as much as it is about what doesn't happen. Fans of the The Dick Van Dyke Show will likely notice the similarity in theme music with WandaVision's. They'll also remember that in some episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show, the intro includes the titular star tripping over the ottoman in his living room and taking a tumble. There was also an alternate version used occasionally where Dick sidesteps the ottoman. In WandaVision's intro, Vision almost finds himself making the same mistake as he's carrying Wanda into their living room. Unlike Van Dyke, however, Vision's powers allow him to phase right through the precariously placed furniture and deliver Wanda to the living room without injury. "Laughing at people in pain is a manifestation of a deep-seated hostility." He slips and smacks his head on the table. Laughter. There's a lot of twin imagery in the first two episodes of WandaVision, usually in the form of matching sets of jewelry, furniture, and other objects. And in some cases, the matching pair is missing. For example, when Agnes introduces herself to Wanda, she notices Wanda doesn't wear a wedding ring — though Wanda takes care of this toward the end of the episode. There's also the two lobsters that Wanda accidentally sends flying out of her kitchen window that subsequently Vision can't find. There's the couple's twin beds and other twin sets of furniture, and even the matching pieces of toast in the Toast Mate 2000 commercial. Both of WandaVision's first two episodes include a fake advertisement. In Episode 1, we get an ad for the Toast Mate 2000. Among other things, it gives us the first indication that WandaVision could be taking place in the same world as the rest of the MCU, as we find out the device is built by Stark Industries. "The all-new Toast Mate 2000, by Stark Industries." The Toast Mate 2000 is also a clever reference to both Vision and Wanda's comic book twin sons. Vision is, after all, Wanda's "mate" — and like the toaster, he's part machine. The toaster, of course, creates two matching pieces of toasted bread, just like Wanda and Vision's "matching" twin boys. And who makes the Toast Mate 2000? Stark Industries. Just like how it's Tony Stark who is one of Vision's creators in Avengers: Age of Ultron. There are a lot of allusions to witches and witchcraft in WandaVision, which is fitting considering Wanda's alter ego is the Scarlet Witch. One such Easter egg is part of the format for the WandaVision show-within-a-show.. At the end of both of the first two WandaVision episodes, the couple is framed in a hexagon as the end credits roll. That's not something commonly seen in sitcoms of any era. One explanation is that it's referencing Wanda's powers. While we've never heard them described this way in the MCU movies or TV shows, in the comics Wanda's ranged blasts are called "Hex Spheres." Not to mention that a "hex" commonly means a spell or curse cast by a witch. When Agnes takes it upon herself to help Wanda create a memorable romantic evening in Episode 1, she uses tips from a women's magazine called Glamorous. Now, you could understandably assume there's nothing much to make of that title... until we get to Episode 2. Wanda and Vision volunteer to be part of the talent show benefiting Westview Elementary and they put on a magic act. Vision plays the magician and Wanda plays his lovely assistant, Glamour. "I am Glamour and he's Illusion!" This is yet another reference to witchcraft. While usually when we talk about "glamour" we're talking about someone's attractiveness or their lifestyle, there's another meaning for the word. A glamour can also mean a mystical enchantment — in particular, it's typically an illusion. For a perfect MCU example, think of Loki. When Loki disguises himself as someone else, that would be called a glamour. And considering how much you come to question the reality of what's going on in WandaVision, that word carries some weight. In the final moments of WandaVision's premiere episode, we pull back from the screen showing the sitcom to see a desk. The screen playing the faux sitcom is surrounded by much more contemporary technology, and someone whose face we don't see is sitting and watching the strange show. More importantly, on the monitor to the left of the TV screen — and on a notepad on the desk — we see a symbol familiar to Marvel Comics fans. The symbol with the blade — as the picture suggests — belongs to an organization called S.W.O.R.D., whose acronym in the comics stands for "Sentient World Observation and Response Department." The agency is first revealed in Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men run, when they're introduced as the space counterpart to S.H.I.E.L.D. — while S.H.I.E.L.D. deals with earthbound threats, S.W.O.R.D. handles threats from the stars. Fans have been theorizing about the MCU's S.W.O.R.D. for years, and the symbols at the end of episode 1 let us know they're finally here. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite MCU Easter eggs are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.
Info
Channel: Looper
Views: 276,939
Rating: 4.8667812 out of 5
Keywords: looper, wandavision, mcu, marvel, disney plus
Id: AgyiZYf3h8s
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 48min 45sec (2925 seconds)
Published: Sat Mar 06 2021
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