‘WandaVision’ Episode 8 Recap: The Scarlet Witch is Born
What if we got one of the fullest origin stories for an MCU character to date? This week, Agatha and Wanda took a heartbreaking trip through Wanda’s past. Each era plays as a small vignette peeling back another level of Wanda’s trauma. After five MCU appearances, Elizabeth Olsen has mastered the character and this reflective episode is a high point for Scarlet Witch in any medium.
Today, we’re recapping episode eight of WandaVision (expect new recaps every week).
*Please note: spoilers for episode 8 of WandaVision below
Episode 8: What Had Happened Was…
Before the full history of Wanda unfolds, episode eight opens with a witch trial by witches. Agatha’s origin illustrates her willingness to put on an act or lie to get what she wants right away. In the course of minutes, Agatha (Agnes) has murdered her coven and absorbed (drained?) her mother’s power. Cut back to the basement from last week’s cliffhanger where Agatha gives Wanda and the audience a small magic tutorial.
The bulk of the episode focuses on Agatha forcing Wanda to face her past. We see her childhood, captivity by Hydra, post-Ultron despair, and S.W.O.R.D. escapade. From all the eras, the biggest revelation is the hint/confirmation that Wanda was a powered person all along. We learn devastating facts about Wanda along the way, get confirmation that Pietro is a fake, and see a fully realized Chaos Magician mirrored in a fever dream with Wanda and the Mind Stone.
Turning to Vision the sadness continues – first as Paul Bettany delivers one of the best lines in any project of the MCU: “What is grief, if not love persevering?” The last knife comes when we learn that Viz bought them a house to “Grow old in” that was destroyed in the 5 year time jump or never built because of The Snap. The last kernel of despair from The Hex catalyst scene is a minor detail on their home paperwork. The heart on the calendar from episode one is the same heart that vision drew on the deed. Gutting.
MCU Threads & Marvel Connections
They did it! They said the name! We officially have our Scarlet Witch! Well, Agatha did, but Wanda finally has a funny hero name (suck it Hayward) how satisfying. Much of the buzz from this week’s episode will be rightly focused on the after-credit stinger featuring the newly built Vision body. Project catalyst in the comics, half-bizzaro vision, but certainly not on our side. A Synthezoid in the hands of S.W.O.R.D. (and Tyler) is a scary thought (more on this in the futurist). It remains to be seen what the new Blank Vision will do, but it does seem like a way for the Vision we know and love to return outside of The Hex.
The Futurist
This week’s theory is all about who we didn’t see. Episode seven’s stinger featured Pietro and Monica meeting for the first time. The initial assumption was that the speedster was capturing her in the same way that Agatha did with Wanda. The episode could have opened with Monica and Wanda side by side as prisoners. Monica’s absence at the beginning and end (when Agatha has the twins leashed) might mean that she wasn’t captured. If that’s the case, then has Pietro decided to be good? If he was created by Agatha, and implanted with some of Quicksilver’s memories, it’s possible that he has that same love for his sister and will fight to keep her safe. Wanda’s world can alter, maybe it altered Agatha’s spell and made a change to Pietro’s mind. The bet is that Evan Peters is here to stay and will be the MCU speedster going forward post WandaVision.
Our last bit of pontification goes to Blank Vision. If S.W.O.R.D. has learned to make vision bots what to stop them from creating an army? In a similar way to the Chitauri attack on New York, we could see a mad dash to get items and materials that have come into contact with Wanda’s chaos magic. The show proved that Wanda’s power was the catalyst that gave life to a new version of Vision. Smarter theorists have mentioned the new Viz bots could be the MCU’s seed that leads to Sentinels. If the HeX-Men are indeed on the way, the government would need a robot force to keep them down.
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Episode 8 of WandaVision is streaming now exclusively on Disney+!
