WandaVision Finale – Wanda’s Journey Will Change the MCU
The last episode has arrived – and I think it is awesome. Here’s why a lot of fans are freaking out.
We are at episode nine of nine… and it was a doozy.
There are spoilers below.
Let’s start with the big one: this finale wasn’t as big as some had built in their headcanon. This isn’t to say it wasn’t good (it is), just that there was a big MCU ending expectation that wasn’t met. It was the first of its kind, and there wasn’t anything to really build on in terms of scale. So, no world-ending monster bad guy or big screen scale fight at the end. We’ve gotten very used to the MCU being huge. This was not huge in terms of big CG shots, but the story is a game-changer for the MCU.
It wasn’t exactly the movie epic ending Kevin Fiege spoke of in interviews at the start of the series, but it was very good in all of the ways it needed to be.
Some of the theories that did pan out:
- Wanda’s grief unleashing her powers
- Vision and the kids not really existing
- Agatha Harkness & chaos magic
- The Darkhold
- Becoming the Scarlet Witch
- Monica Rambeau becoming Pulsar
- Secret Wars tie-in
- Doctor Strange tie-in (with no Stephen, sorry)
This is Wanda’s origin story. It is a love story, a sad one in many ways. It told how her love for those around her, the loss of them shaped her and ultimately unleashed her true power. She created the family, the town, the life that she wanted. Tried to make it work, fought for it. She loses it all over again in exchange for her true self.
There’s not a lot to theorize about with a finale. The episode starts with the continuation of Agatha and Wanda’s confrontation of chaos magic – and we discover that Agatha has the ability to absorb and keep the magic of others. This is woven with a slam each other into the ground and through buildings fight between White Vision and the Vision Wanda created. Both heroes have to deal with their foes in ways that use their strengths. Vision with his logic, Wanda with her ability to think fast on her feet (while floating in the air).
Agatha and Wanda take to the skies, hurling magic at one another. Wanda seemingly gives all of her abilities to her opponent but reveals she has outsmarted her using the runes from her own basement. Agatha’s punishment is to be stuck as the nosy neighbor until Wanda lets her out. The machines, on the other hand, talk it out. Unlike the comics, Wanda’s Vision is able to spark memories in White Vision’s brain that change his course of action. I don’t think this is the last we’ll see him.
And then there’s the awesome family fight (with Darcy) against a very human Hayward (I was totally off base with that one) and a handful of S.W.O.R.D. agents… that does not end in Hayward’s favor.
The victories are followed by a very sad goodbye to the kids, Vision, and Westview (though its residents are none too happy with Wanda). It’s a really touching, well-crafted scene that I think applies to everyone’s life. It’s the kind of moment we don’t get often in comics on the screen, but see in the books. I think it’s pretty perfect.
Oh, and Ralph Bohner… so many of us were soooooooo wrong here.
The post-credit scenes link us to what’s coming next. Secret Wars are a go (how Skrulls will be handled will be interesting now that they’re good guys – maybe the Kree?) with Monica Rambeau and hopefully Jimmy and Darcy. Our last look at Wanda has her reading the Darkhold in a witch’s hut using projection; that’s where I’m expecting she’ll be when she shows up in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. We have about a year to two before we see where those end up – plenty of time to come up with theories.
I’m going to be rewatching a few episodes through a new finale lens to see if I missed things while looking for things that were never there. Make sure you tune in next week for ‘Marvel Assembled: The Making of WandaVision’ and the week after that (March 19th) is the premiere of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
