SPOILERS AHEAD FOR EPISODE'S 1-8 OF WANDAVISION
...And just like that, nine weeks have flown by. Not quite as fast as Westview jumping from decade to decade of sitcom styles every week, but still, fast enough that it’s tough to believe the WandaVision season finale is right around the corner. Arguably one of the most unique ideas Marvel has brought to the screen, WandaVision has taken fans on quite a ride. While it may be unconventional in terms of a traditional superhero story, the amount of authenticity and meta layers baked into this love letter to sitcoms has swept fans off their feet. Now that we’ve nearly reached the end of this wild trip, it seems that the series has raised more questions than can be answered in one grand finale. Before you close out Wanda and Vision’s story in Westview, let’s review the ten things WandaVision NEEDS to address in the finale.
What is the deal with Agatha?
After weeks of strange remarks, eerily convenient appearances, and overall suspicious behavior, a highly speculated Agnes theory was confirmed at the end of Episode 7. Complete with her own killer theme song and a super spooky lair, it was revealed that Agnes is actually the sorceress Agatha Harkness who arrived in Westview after Wanda created the hex anomaly. But why? Well, that’s the thing. We don’t exactly know yet. Obviously she’s been stirring up drama, and she is clearly interested in Wanda’s power. Episode 8 was expected to give us some more details, but it really only scratched the surface. An abridged version of her comic backstory shows her coven of witches during the Salem witch trials attempting to execute her for tampering with dark and forbidden magic. It’s definitely cool to see another powerful (and not to mention hilarious) magic user in the MCU, but why does it matter? WandaVision has yet to give us the full weight of Agatha Harkness’s motivations and why she matters beyond being a powerful witch. Her backstory and life-draining powers ring a familiar bell when thinking about villains like Kaecilius who was working with powers from the Dark Dimension. Is Agatha serving a similar higher power? Is she jealous of Wanda’s ability to use chaos magic? Does she want to snap her out of this sitcom fairytale and train her properly? Whatever it is, the finale needs to give us that final piece to Agatha’s character to tie everything full circle and give it some more weight than where it currently stands.
What is Agatha’s mysterious book?
One MacGuffin that could act as the missing piece to Agatha’s story is the mysterious glowing book we see in her evil lair at the end of Episode 7. The camera makes sure to deliberately linger on this book as it pans around the lair, which leads us to believe it could be an important easter egg. It does bear a striking resemblance to the books found in Wong’s library from Doctor Strange. Could this be the book that contains the forbidden magic which nearly got Agatha executed all those years ago? Maybe it’s just a simple book of spells, or maybe it’s something more important like the Darkhold from the comics. If so, we could possibly see Marvel villain Chthon enter to serve as a villain for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Regardless, it’s clear that this book has some sort of deeper meaning that should hopefully be explained during the final episode.
Who is Fietro?
Undoubtedly the most jaw dropping moment in WandaVision thus far has been the arrival of Evan Peters as Fake Pietro/Quicksilver. From the moment he appeared on screen, fans’ imaginations ran rampant with theories of X-Men connections, multiverse plot threads, and, of course, Mephisto reveals. However, similar to the piece by piece Agatha Harkness reveal, WandaVision has refused to give us a clear answer as to what this version of Pietro’s deal is. From the beginning, he has seemed a bit off, not exactly acting like the version of the character from Age of Ultron nor the version from the Fox X-Men movies. The easy assumption was that Evan Peters is merely playing a villain in disguise. That is until we learned “it was Agatha all along” secretly controlling Pietro, or “Fietro” as she called him. Basically, this neither brings us closer or further away from any of our theories. Fietro could still be a villain in the sense that he is just a minion of Agatha Harkness. However, he does have superspeed, which makes this theory harder to get behind. In terms of Fox X-Men multiverse connections, these theories can’t be ruled out either! All Agatha states is that she used a possession spell so that she could listen in and speak to Wanda. Who’s to say she didn’t pull him from the multiverse either intentionally or inadvertently? The last we saw of this version of Quicksilver, he caught Monica Rambeau snooping on Agatha’s basement lair in Episode 7’s post credit scene, which also left us hanging. Basically, we know a lot, but we also know nothing at all. It will be interesting to see how Pietro is factored into the finale on top of everything else. Will it be a shocking reveal that we didn’t see coming? Or will it just be a meta joke that will infuriate us? Only time will tell.
Will Vision and the twins survive?
Some may argue that this question has already been partially answered when Vision tried to leave the hex during Episode 6. Yet much like the rest of these dangling plot threads, we can’t say for sure. It’s safe to say that we now know this version of Vision is not the physical version that died during Avengers Infinity War. Technically, he is real within the confines of the hex, since Wanda’s chaos magic allows her to “spontaneously create” things. However, many would agree that we were led to believe that if he leaves the hex, he will die. Although we haven’t seen Billy and Tommy attempt to leave the borders of Westview, Wanda definitely did not want them going near the edge of town on Halloween.
During the comics, Billy and Tommy were initially revealed to be fake. In reality, they were pieces of Mephisto’s soul which were reabsorbed into his body. Eventually Wanda reincarnated them as teenagers. At this point, the likelihood of seeing Mephisto show up is pretty darn low. However, that doesn’t mean the WandaVision finale won’t take inspiration from this plot thread by having Wanda say goodbye to the twins AND Vision. This could set up her gaining more control over her powers with Doctor Strange in the future to bring them back into the main MCU reality. It’s a toss up with whether or not we’ll see them survive this final episode. But it would truly detract from the whole lesson of this series and Wanda’s character development for Vision to walk out of this fight alive.
Where is Doctor Strange?
At this point, God only knows why Doctor Strange hasn’t decided to intervene in Wanda’s fake reality to free the residents of Westview. Surely if we are to believe his words from Thor Ragnarok that he keeps a watchlist of the most dangerous reality-threatening beings in existence, then he would be aware of Agatha. If Wanda is supposed to be a fabled being in the world of magic, then he must have known or sensed her drastic increase in power with her use of chaos magic? Perhaps he does know. In the themed intro to Episode 7 which parodied The Office, a “blink and you’ll miss it” frame shows the sentence “I know what you’re doing Wanda” written on various pieces of paper on a fridge. Maybe this is Doctor Strange attempting to send Wanda a warning message before he finally intervenes. Only time will tell; but to be honest, if The Sorcerer Supreme doesn’t at least show up in a post credit scene, he will definitely have some explaining to do in his sequel.
Who is Ralph?
Arguably the most intriguing plot thread that has yet to be answered throughout this season of WandaVision is the identity of Agatha’s mysterious husband “Ralph.” Practically every single episode that Agatha has appeared in has included an allusion, anecdote, or casual mention of a husband that we have not yet physically seen on screen. On the one hand, this could just be the showrunners poking fun at yet another sitcom trope. On the other hand, could it be something more? While most of the Ralph quirk is played for comedy, some of the details are undeniably questionable. According to Agatha, her anniversary with Ralph falls on the anniversary of the Salem witch trials. Plus Agatha has also mentioned that “Ralph looks better in the dark” and has casually mentioned the devil. Could Ralph end up being the higher power that Agatha serves? The villain of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? Mephisto? Nightmare? Chthon? Dormammu? It seems unlikely that this will be a main focus of the finale. Nonetheless, it definitely shouldn’t be ruled out of a post credit scene reveal.
Who is Jimmy Woo’s Witness Protection Person?
Out of everything on this list, Jimmy Woo’s Witness Protection participant gone missing is the one point we know the least about. The only mention of this plot thread came up in Episode 4, where Jimmy explains that his single missing person’s case in Westview turned into a missing town’s case. At this point, there are almost too many options of who this person could end up being, and maybe it doesn’t even matter. But it’s worth mentioning that the leading theory is that Dottie is the missing Witness Protection Participant. Early in the season as Darcy, Jimmy, and SWORD are compiling Westview residents on a whiteboard, nearly every single side character is put up on the board except for Dottie. Coincidence?....maybe.
What is the deal with Hayward?
Although Agatha has seemingly been unveiled as the true villain of WandaVision, SWORD director Tyler Hayward has acted as just as much of a villain, if not more. Playing the role of the douchey government employee who is just “doing his duty,” Hayward has gotten shadier episode by episode. It’s clear that he has some vendetta against superpowered people, but it’s unclear why. It’s definitely possible that he could just be an asshole who is frustrated from the fallout of Avengers Endgame. However, it’s hard to see how an organization started by Nick Fury and Maria Rambeau could be repeating so many of SHIELD’s mistakes. Plus, how can we expect Nick Fury to continue letting the guy run SWORD like this? Is Hayward not who he says he is? Possibly a rogue Skrull which could set up the Secret Invasion series? Possibly Ultron? Or a different villain entirely? Even if Hayward does just end up being a dick with a hatred for The Avengers, expect some big shake-ups at SWORD after WandaVision ends.
Who is the surprise cameo?
One of the biggest sources for WandaVision fan theories comes from the stars themselves. Not only has Elizabeth Olsen stated that the show will have a “Luke Skywalker - The Mandalorian level cameo,” but Paul Bettany has stated that he’s excited for us to see the appearance of an actor that he’s “always wanted to work with.” Like most of the other plot threads, the theories have been nearly infinite. From Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, to Magneto, Ultron, Mephisto, Nightmare, Deadpool, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, these comments by Olsen and Bettany have taken fans’ imaginations by storm. While many would love to hold out hope for a Magneto appearance, it seems like Paul Bettany might have dug himself into a Giant-Man sized hole.
During the post-credit scene after Episode 8, we learned that Hayward’s “Project Cataract” was really an attempt to reanimate the real Vision’s body as his own sentient weapon in the form of “White Vision” from the comics. Considering how much WandaVision has to wrap up in just one episode, it seems very unlikely that the finale will have the time to introduce an entirely new character that will surprise fans and be given enough screen time to do that character justice. That being said, many believe that Bettany’s comments were actually just a huge troll on fans. We obviously can’t know for sure, but it looks like the actor that he has always wanted to work with is...himself. In all honesty, this would probably be a bit of a letdown for fans after weeks of theorizing (albeit a great troll). However, we are holding out hope that there’s more to “White Vision” than meets the eye. Think about it: without the Mind Stone, a large amount of Vision’s code is made up of Ultron. Is it possible James Spader could return to voice “White Vision”? Obviously we’d rather Magneto, but this would certainly be a shocking moment.
What will the repercussions be?
The final question that WandaVision will at least need to give us a hint towards is what we can expect beyond the finale into the rest of Phase 4. This will largely depend on how and if the rest of the plot threads are resolved. That being said, there’s not much to say beyond the fact that WandaVision’s ending will have to give us an inkling of how Wanda’s story will continue and affect other heroes. Too much has happened throughout these eight episodes so far for there to be no lasting impacts outside of Westview. How will Wanda answer for basically enslaving Westview? If the hex gave Monica powers, what does this mean for other people who come in contact with Wanda? Will mutants be introduced? Will the multiverse be tapped into? How will this affect Doctor Strange’s story? How will this play into Spider-Man: No Way Home? It’s certainly not a given that all of these questions will be answered; but Marvel has some big seeds to lay, that’s for sure.
Written By: Jake Zall
Edited By: Kayla Jimenez & Deanna Shiverick