WandaVision has reached its penultimate episode and it was the best episode so far as it explores Wanda’s past.
Agnes has revealed her true identity. She is really Agatha Harkness, a powerful witch and she wants to know how Wanda was able to turn Westview into a sitcom world and how she resurrected Vision. Agatha takes more extreme actions to get Wanda to reveal her secret by kidnapping her sons and force Wanda to explore traumatic events in her, including the death of her parents, the experiments that were performed on her, and finding out what happened to Vision’s body.
WandaVision has been about Wanda’s grief and making a fantasy world so she didn’t have to face reality. “Previously On” took Wanda out of her comfort zone and she had to face everything she had been trying to avoid. She had to relive all her pain. This episode showed why Wanda had a personal connection to sitcoms, offered up lots of continuity nods, and set up the future.
Despite Wanda being a prominent character in the MCU since Avengers: Age of Ultron, she has not been that developed. “Previously On” rectified this by looking at events that were only mentioned. The death of Wanda’s parents was given even more significance because it showed Wanda had a protective magical relax and when she was exposed to the Mind Stone it gave her powers. The episode also had a touching moment when Wanda and Vision had their first heart-to-heart.
This episode was the most focused in the series. It just followed Wanda and Agatha as they literally go through Wanda’s memories. The surreal visuals and the change of locations gave made this episode seem like the MCU’s version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Inception.
There has been a debate on whether Wanda would be revealed to be a mutant. This episode dismisses that theory. Agatha states Wanda was a powerful witch who was able to perform powerful acts through instinct. In the comics Agatha has been a mentor to Wanda instead of an outright villain and that could be the direction the final episode and the MCU can go. But we have to remember Agatha did kill Sparky.
The lingering questions from WandaVision are the roles of mutants and the multiverse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This was symbolized with the role of Pietro who was played by Evan Peters, the actor who played the character in the Fox X-Men movies. The series has ended up dodging the question because Agatha said she created this version of Pietro. However, due to Agatha’s nature, she could be lying.
WandaVision has been a character-driven show and “Previously On” was the most character-focused episode yet.
