Streaming Saturday #12: WandaVision Episode 4
Hi, everybody!
Welcome to an idea I came up with after the last issue of Stay Tuned. But instead of waiting several days for WandaVision Wednesday, I decided to update Stay Tuned and make it a weekly posting situation by rebranding it to Streaming Saturday.
Before I get started, remember to leave a like and a comment below.
Also, a SPOILER Warning is in effect starting now. On to the recap!
The first episode, which was "Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience" and shot in black and white to pay homage to Bewitched, followed Wanda and an inexplicably (so far) alive Vision as they attempt to remember why today's date is marked on their calendar. While Wanda seeks advice from her neighbor, Agnes (probably based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, who served as Scarlet Witch's mentor in the mystic arts--which are different from her mutant, a.k.a. "miracle" in the MCU, powers), Vision finds out that today was the date he was supposed to have his boss and his boss' wife over for dinner. Jokes and physical comedy ensue, mostly based on miscommunication and the fact that Wanda is a witch and Vision is a machine-man. By the end, a disturbing character break occurs, but everything goes back to "normal." A built-in commercial does a brilliant job of making a Stark Industries toaster look sinister.
The second episode, "Don't Touch That Dial," was also in black and white, and introduced "Geraldine," a new friend of Wanda's, whom she meets at a stuck-up event-planner's house for a community meeting. While Wanda tries to convince the event planner to let her and Vision do a magic act for the upcoming talent show, Vision tries to fit in at his job at a literal paperwork factory by "humorously" selling Wanda out as a Communist (because she was born in a fictional allegory for the USSR), and gets "drunk" when he accidentally and literally gums up his inner works. The ensuing retro comedy is just as solid as it was in the pilot. Color and sinister characters start to seep in little by little, things wrap up rather smoothly despite several more disturbing character breaks, and a HYDRA (fictional Nazi research division) commanding officer sells watches now.
The third episode, called "Now In Color" (because it's, you know; now in color following the events of the last episode), is the weakest in my opinion so far, and is supposed to reference The Brady Bunch sensibilities of a 70s sitcom. But very little happens that would indicate that "Now In Color" is doing any such thing. In fact, considering that the bulk of the episode centers around Wanda giving birth to Billy and Tommy (a nod to the time Wanda had a mental breakdown in the comics and used magic she learned from Agnes--which was powered by regular Doctor Strange villain and "DEFINITELY NOT SATAN, Comics Code Authority...JK, he's totally Satan," Mephisto, because convoluted comic book villain reasons--to give birth to twin boys named Billy and Tommy), if there are any 70s media the episode is drawing inspiration from, it's religious horror movies like The Omen and The Exorcist. So, it's almost thirty minutes of "witch gives birth," interjected by a disturbing commercial in which we find out that HYDRA makes soap. The episode ends with "Geraldine" breaking character and reminding Wanda that her own twin brother was killed by Ultron. In response, Wanda "sends her upstairs", and she wakes up in the present, on the outskirts of a S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division) encampment (which looks somewhat similar to the S.H.I.E.L.D. encampment that was erected around Mjolnir in the first Thor).
"We Interrupt This Program" to bring you what you probably clicked on this four. Episode Four, that is! We see a woman who looks like "Geraldine" phasing back into existence in a hospital, following the events of Avengers: Endgame, and she is revealed to be Monica Rambeau, the grown-up daughter of Maria Rambeau from Captain Marvel. After returning to work at S.W.O.R.D., Monica is sent to the outskirts of Westview, New Jersey (the setting of the WandaVision "TV Show"), where she meets up with Jimmy Woo (Scott Lang's parole officer in the Ant-Man films, now an FBI agent) and two local cops who don't realize that Westview exists despite both of them being from Eastview and standing directly in front of a "Welcome to Westview" sign. When the cops leave, Monica discovers a TV-static-like barrier around the town and is accidentally sucked through it, becoming "Geraldine." Elsewhere, Darcy (Jane Foster's friend and intern from the first two Thor films) gets "recruited" by S.W.O.R.D. to help them find Monica, and because pseudo-science, she learns of the sitcom reality that has taken over Westview. Besides the end of the previous episode, this is the first time we are starting to see how the sitcom reality affects the people and things that enter it from the outside (the colorized toy S.W.O.R.D. helicopter that showed up in Episode 2 used to be a drone, the beekeeper I mentioned last issue used to be a S.W.O.R.D. agent in a hazmat suit,...), as well as how the sitcom itself is perceived from the outside (with the uncomfortable character breaks we saw in previous episodes edited out in real time). This is also most likely the episode that the naysayers have been waiting for, as it feels the most like the "Marvel thing" (not to be confused with the other Thing from Marvel, but don't worry; they're working on that, too) they were expecting, despite much evidence to the high-concept, batshittily insane, sinister, retro-sitcom contrary. Speaking of sinister and batshit insane, the episode ends with Wanda ejecting Monica Rambeau from WandaVision following the Ultron revelation, just like the end of "Now In Color." When she wakes, Monica utters, "It's all Wanda," and the credits roll with "Voodoo Child" blasting over them. Oh, and it's also probably important to mention that S.W.O.R.D. are able to find the real identities of the whole "cast" through facial recognition...except for Agnes and the event planner!
So, yeah. Regardless of what anyone thinks, WandaVision is amazing. I'm hooked.I still haven't watched any of the MCU past Infinity War, and my attempts to re-watch every film before WandaVision premiered have so far been in vain--I only got as far as Winter Soldier before that happened--but I didn't really feel out of the loop when I started watching this series. It's accessible like that. It's a Marvel medium for people who don't like Marvel media. But it also serves the larger story of the MCU through callbacks, fanservice, and its abstract depiction of trauma in the best way Marvel Studios knows: by taking a well-known genre or concept, doing that genre or concept justice, and also throwing in jokes and superheroes. And, at least as far as I'm concerned, it works as well as it always has, if not better.
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