“It’s Wanda. It’s all Wanda,” states Monica Rambeau after she’s ejected from Westview for triggering Scarlet Witch’s memories of Ultron and the real world. SWORD’s gal on the ground had tentatively been playing the part of ‘Geraldine’ in the first three episodes of WandaVision’s sitcom reality, but episode 4 gave us a chance to see the real Monica in action as she attempted to help the FBI’s Jimmy Woo unravel the mysteries of Westview prior to being pulled inside. When her final encounter with Wanda turned ugly, Monica seemed convinced that Scarlet Witch was the one responsible for all the weirdness happening inside the Westview bubble, but is she? Is it really all Wanda? Handing us a House of M-esque ‘Wanda’s just gone bad and manifested a new reality’ solution on a plate around halfway through WandaVision’s run feels a little too convenient, bearing in mind there are still five episodes of Wanda and Vision’s Disney+ journey left to go, at least some of which will include more sitcom homages. The internet remains conflicted about Captain Rambeau’s message to the outside world, too.
Vulture Is in Westview
Jimmy Woo first discovered the situation in Westview after trying to contact a man under witness protection in the town. It seems unlikely that Woo, in charge of monitoring the high-profile likes of Scott Lang in Ant-Man and the Wasp, would have been keeping tabs on a total rando. So, who was the FBI protecting in Westview, and are they integral to WandaVision’s central plot? Some fans are wondering if Jimmy’s Westview guy is Michael Keaton’s Spider-Man: Homecoming villain Vulture, aka Adrian Toomes, who was being threatened in prison during that film’s closing stages. It’s unclear how he could be connected to the story here, or how he could have a major impact on the proceedings due to the nature of his portrayal in the MCU so far. Is he anything more than a regular industrious guy without his Exo-Suit? Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 9
Sheer Pandemonium
Could Master Pandemonium ultimately be behind the creation of Westview as a way to summon or restore the iconic Marvel Comics villain Mephisto? A few fans have clung to the theory that Evan Peters’ reported inclusion in WandaVision won’t involve reprising his X-Men role as alt-Pietro Maximoff, but that instead he’ll play Master Pandemonium or Mephisto himself. The theory posits that Pandemonium has somehow manipulated Wanda into living in this TV sitcom charade so that he can raise Mephisto in exchange for the resurrection of Vision, but if there’s any truth to the theory, there’s likely a high price to pay for the ‘gift’ of Vision’s return – at one point in the comics, Wanda and Vision’s children turn out to be lost fragments of Mephisto’s soul, and he could conceivably snatch them from Wanda or absorb them. Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 8
Blood of My Blood
During the black and white episodes of WandaVision, Wanda’s neighbor Dottie Jones (Emma Caulfield) got a cut on her hand. Dottie’s blood was red and not black and white, revealing that only the surface of the Westview players (and their memories) had been altered to suit this reality. Underneath, they were quite real, and probably frightened. But if Westview and its residents are consistently altered on the surface, is Vision’s corpse honestly just another puppet that Wanda happens to be playing magic Weekend at Bernie’s with? Did Wanda see him as he really is (dead as a f****n doornail) after Monica reminded her of the real world tragedies that had befallen her, or was it her mind playing tricks? Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 7
The CMBR of Secrets
Darcy detected high levels of CMBR – cosmic microwave background radiation – coming from Westview. The presence of the cosmic energy – a remnant from an early stage of the universe here thought to be ‘the Big Bang’ – could mean that Wanda’s power, which was increased or unlocked by HYDRA’s Mind Stone experiments, is still growing. Regardless, with Wanda potentially wielding or generating CMBR in Westview, it could open up a big can of worms for the wider cosmic MCU, with some theorizing that Wanda could channel the Power Primordial (energies of the Big Bang that still permeate the universe) or that she is being manipulated by Celestials. Utilizing high levels of CMBR could even theoretically attract the attention of supervillain Galactus, whose origins are often entwined with the Big Bang. We also wonder whether CMBR could herald the arrival of the Fantastic Four to the MCU… Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 7
Hex Vision
Jimmy Woo, much like the rest of us, wants to know what the deal is with the hexagon theme running through WandaVision. The internet at large is at a loss with this one! It could all just turn out to be a fun Marvel Easter egg about Scarlet Witch’s “hex powers” from the early comics, which she could use to create “hex spheres” – more Under the Dome-style Westview shenanigans – but there might still be links to her powers being rooted in Chaos Magic, too. Some people are also interested to find out if the hexagons will lead to the reintroduction of the shady AIM organization, last seen in Iron Man 3, which has been known to use a hexagon motif.
Agnes Among Us
Eagle-eyed viewers will have probably clocked the lack of ID attached to Agnes’ picture on the SWORD board filled with already-identified citizens being manipulated in Wanda’s fantasy bubble, which still makes Katherine Hahn’s nosy neighbor a real question mark. If Wanda didn’t create Westview’s warped reality, or had help doing so, the prevailing theory is that Agnes was almost certainly involved somewhere along the line. It’s still thought that Hahn is secretly playing iconic sorceress Agatha Harkness – Wanda’s mentor in the comics. Harkness’ origins go back to ancient times, but she was once a prominent member of a colony of Salem witches, and eventually became close with Wanda. It was Agatha who showed Wanda how to make better use of her powers, eventually exposing how dangerous they really were for our world, and reality itself. Agnes may have helped Wanda with her Westview dreams, but chances are high that Wanda will probably turn on her if she happens to get cold feet. Things often tended to end badly between the pair in the comics, and that’s putting it mildly. Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 2
King Ralph
Wanda and Vision’s neighbor Anges mentions her worthless husband Ralph multiple times in the first three episodes. During the magic show, she even jokes that Vision should make Ralph disappear inside the Cabinet of Mysteries – but we’ve never actually seen Ralph. Are these disparaging references to her husband classic throwaway sitcom gags about the tiresome mythical spouse you never see (we’re personally reminded of Norm’s wife from Cheers but there are plenty more examples out there) or something more sinister? A few people are even wondering if Anges and Wanda have imprisoned Doctor Strange so he can’t interfere with their plans and, to be fair, you’d have thought the good doctor would have been first on the scene with all this mystical and cosmic palaver going on, though he was noted to be “unavailable” during Spider-Man: Far From Home. Will Ralph turn out to be another red herring? Don’t touch that dial.
