WandaVision has moved forward to the 1970s with Wanda and Vision continuing to live the suburban dream with the arrival of a child.
“Now in Color” picks up where “Don’t Turn That Dial” left off: Wanda is suddenly four months pregnant and turned the world of the suburbs from the black-and-white ‘60s to the colorful ‘70s. Wanda experiences the quickest pregnancy in history but giving birth makes her powers go haywire.
“Now in Color” apes the cheery sitcoms of the ‘70s, particularly The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family to a lesser extend (at least to me as a Brit), The Good Life. It was wonderfully upbeat as Wanda and Vision prepare to have a family life.
The comedic setup of the episode was Wanda’s accelerated pregnancy and the need to hide it from the pregnancy from the neighbors. However, her powers work against her when she has contractions. They suddenly change her coat or bring a painting to life. Hiding something is a common trait in sitcoms, but due to Wanda’s superpowers it made WandaVision similar to the ‘90s version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
The drama of the episode came after Wanda gave birth. Wanda makes a reference to the fact she was a twin and Geraldine reminds Wanda of the events in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Besides being a nice callback, it also shows the amount of pain Wanda has suffered. Wanda has been experimented on by Hydra, used by Ultron, lost her brother and her life partner, been killed and accidentally killed people at the beginning of Captain America: Civil War.
Wanda was willing to do anything to protect the world. This was shown with Geraldine’s punishment and the reveal that SWORD has surrounded a wall of static. The other action Wanda did was when Vision starts to question the strangeness of the world Wanda reversed time. The third episode has reduced the ambiguity that Wanda hasn’t been manipulated.
Whilst Wanda tried to prevent Vision from asking questions and finding out what’s happening, it doesn’t stop him. After Wanda gave birth Vision talked to the neighbors about Geraldine, at the same time as Wanda questions Geraldine’s identity. The question that remains is the identity of the residents – were they also creations of Wanda’s mind, or were they ordinary people who got caught up within Wanda’s illusion? If it’s the latter would it cause the residents a moral dilemma on whether they should go back to the real world? It was a similar issue to what happened in the “House of M” comics because many characters got to live a false dream and questioned whether they should leave it.
A final point which is a minor one is I enjoy Vision using Britishisms like ‘leg it.’
“Now in Color” does keep the intrigue that was established in the previous episodes. The humor was appropriately silly and far-fetched and the dark twist was well executed.
