The first six episodes of WandaVision were something of a Marvel Cinematic Universe rarity in that it was completely devoid of mid-credits or post-credits scenes. No teasers, no stingers, no jokes that didn’t fit in the regular story. But as the pace of WandaVision revelations picks up, so come the stingers. And while the post credits scene that accompanied last week’s episode was more of a tease than anything else, WandaVision episode 8 has a huge post-credits scene.
SWORD and Director Hayward
The scene opens with SWORD director Hayward hearing that his team is ready for launch, gazing at the expanded hex. He and his team get ready to activate a weapon he says wouldn’t work no matter the power supply, and then we see the juiced up drone Wanda threw back at him a couple of episodes ago hooked into a chamber. Then the big reveal: Hayward has a ghost-white fresh copy of The Vision, activated and ready to head in to do battle with Wanda. This is huge, and much bigger than Monica getting snatched up by fake Pietro last week, because it changes a lot of what we thought we knew about the show. “Vision Quest” was comics legend and noted misanthrope John Byrne’s first storyline on West Coast Avengers. In it, Vision was kidnapped and disassembled by agents from several governments, with the intention of reassembling him as a weapon they can use. The Avengers stopped them and retrieved his parts, but when Hank Pym put him back together, he couldn’t repair Vision’s synthezoid skin, and Wonder Man, whose brain waves were the template for the original Vision’s consciousness, wouldn’t consent to them being copied again. So the reactivated Vision was ghost white and completely devoid of emotions. Vision stayed this way for some time – cold, emotionless, aloof – eventually leading to him and Wanda splitting and serving on different Avengers teams. He would stay this way for a couple of years real-time, until he was given the memory engrams of Alex Lipton, the deceased son of a Roxxon scientist who used the re-emoted Vision to help him fight off Roxxon goons. He ALSO used these powers to show up in a pretty great side scrolling arcade game, Captain America and the Avengers. To Wanda, this was, to say the least, a real bummer. Her husband and the father of her children (or “father” of her “children” if you want to sound justifiably conspiratorial) was just murdered by several governments and put back together again with none of the memories or personality or skin that made their relationship work. So naturally, she went crazy and turned evil (as one does), leading straight into the Dark Wanda Saga we talked about at greater length here.
Wanda Was Telling the Truth
This means quite a bit for the story of WandaVision. First of all, it settles the question of narrative reliability fairly well. We saw earlier in the series a video Director Hayward showed of Wanda stealing Vision’s remains from a SWORD facility, contrary to Vision’s will. Then this week, we saw Wanda’s memory of her final visit with Vision’s remains, then driving off from SWORD HQ in her modest Buick to the lot Vision bought her before he passed, then constructing Vision entirely of her hex powers. If Hayward still has Vision’s remains, we know which account is true (and we have to wonder a little at who bought the video shown at the all hands SWORD meeting a few episodes ago). It’s fine, I have a permit to make those jokes. (Editor’s Note: Jim…)
