TV Review – Wandavision Episode 4

Wandavision Episode 4 (Disney+)
Written by Bobak Esfarjani and Megan McDonnell
Directed by Matt Shakman

I’m going to be a little snarky here. I am genuinely baffled by people on social media acting surprised or wondering what the twist in Wandavision is. I don’t feel like the show has hidden much from us that can’t at the least be easily inferred. I may be biased because I carved out a large chunk of dedicated brain space for comic book knowledge & tropes long ago. Everything we have seen so far, including this most recent episode, feels is telegraphing the plot beats to the audience. It felt obvious to me who the villain was in this mini-series from the second episode or so. 

This episode of Wandavision reminded me a lot of Lost when it would indulge in mythos-building. We get Monica Rambeau’s story (Teyonah Parris) and see what was happening outside of Westview this entire time. Monica reappears after Thanos’s snap is reversed in the events of Avengers; Endgame. She’s in the hospital room where her mother had been and thinks only seconds have passed. Monica learns it’s been three years, and her mother passed during this time. We find out that Monica’s mother ran SWORD, a variant of SHIELD focused on developing and monitoring superweapons. Monica is sent out in the field to work with FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) on a missing person case. Turns out it’s a missing town case as the New Jersey town of Westview shouldn’t exist and is surrounded by a protective energy dome. Monica gets pulled inside and goes through the events we’ve seen up to this point.

Marvel brings back Dr. Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), from the Thor films, who is one of many scientists working on cracking what is going inside Westview. She detects the television broadcasts, and SWORD can watch the sitcom performances from inside the bubble world. We also catch up with Monica after she is expunged from this false reality. Monica reveals that Wanda is the one behind this all, pushing her out when it became clear Monica was trying to “pollute” this realm with the truth. Throughout the episode, the residents appearing on screen are identified by SWORD, and we see their dossiers complete with New Jersey driver’s licenses. Only one person is missing on in a “blink, and you’ll miss it” glimpse. That is Agnes (Kathryn Hahn).

I’m even more convinced now that Agnes is Agatha Harkness, and at some point off-screen between Infinity War and Endgame, she approached Wanda or vice versa. Agatha schooled Wanda in the occult, unlocking her innate reality-bending powers. Maybe they went haywire, perhaps this is the direction Agatha wanted it to go, but Wanda is seemingly in control and aggressively keeping interference out of Westview. I suspect SWORD will keep trying to break through, but it will ultimately be The Vision who forces Wanda’s hand. He seems to slowly be realizing things are not right, and this episode showed a glimpse of his possible true form, still dead in some way but forcibly reanimated by Wanda. My guess is the mini-series provides a conclusion but sets Wanda up as a potential villain in the Doctor Strange film, which is set to deal with the Multiverse.