After three episodes sitcom-focused episodes the episode “We Interrupt This Program” shows S.W.O.R.D.’s reaction to the disappearance of Westview.
Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) has returned from the Blip, not realizing she has disappeared for five years. She returns to working for S.W.O.R.D. and gets assigned a mission to help the FBI with a missing persons case. It turns out that the mystery was much bigger because it involved a missing town with a static field around it resulting in S.W.O.R.D. bringing in scientists to help with their investigation, including astrophysicist Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings).
“We Interrupt This Program” aimed to show what was going on outside of Wanda’s sitcom. It answered some of the questions that were asked in the previous episode, like who was watching the TV, who was the beekeeper, who the citizens of Westview were, and how Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) was able to send a radio message to Wanda. It also asks some new questions – the big one being is Vision alive? Other questions were why did the show keep leaping ahead a decade and why the static field had hexagon shapes? A question that hasn’t been asked but will properly become important is the role of Agnes, the noisy neighbor because her real identity wasn’t revealed. She could be an agent who keeps Wanda’s world alive.
WandaVision has been disliked by a vocal minority because of its retro styling and being a homage to sitcoms. “We Interrupt This Program” was more in line with the rest of the MCU. It looked more like a mini-movie and the tone was more serious with a few MCU-style quips thrown in. Due to the focus on S.W.O.R.D.’s investigation, this episode felt like an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. story.
This episode brought back Agent Woo and Darcy who previously appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp and Thor: The Dark World. There were comic relief characters in the films, yet they come into their own in this episode, especially Darcy. I was not a fan of Darcy in the Thor films but she has improved a lot because she now has her Ph.D. and Darcy shows she’s a perfectly capable scientist. She learned a lot from Jane Foster and Selvig. Darcy and Woo worked well together.
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“We Interrupt This Program” introduces new elements that will become even more important in the wider MCU. This episode finally reveals Geraldine’s real identity as Monica Rambeau, the daughter of Maria from Captain Marvel. Monica was shown to be an important agent of S.W.O.R.D. and the character is already set to appear in Captain Marvel 2. S.W.O.R.D. will have an important role in the future because they investigate the paranormal, scientific, or extra-territorial phenomenon. Phase Four is set to have stories revolving around the Multiverse they will properly become a recurring force in the MCU.
Due to the episode focusing on S.W.O.R.D.’s perspectives. they didn’t show much of the title characters. Most of their scenes were clips from the previous episodes. The only original scene was showing what happened after Wanda banished Geraldine from Westview. Wanda repaired the damage she caused and tried to pretend everything’s normal. But Wanda suffers from a vision of her husband as a living corpse, breaking her reality for a brief moment.
A moment I really liked in the episode was showing the Beekeeper’s entry into Westview because the world turned from color to black-and-white.
“We Interrupt This Broadcast” was more in keeping with the MCU style that mainstream audiences are used to. It made for a great alternative look to events we have already seen.
