Realities, and possibly alternate universes, collide in another incredible WandaVision. Episode Five, cleverly titled “On a Very Special Episode”, brings events in and outside of Westview into conflict. The sitcom scenario updates to the eighties with Billy and Tommy as new characters. But Vision (Paul Bettany) begins to see behind the charade after a freaky encounter with Agnes (Kathryn Hahn). As Monica (Teyonah Parris) debriefs SWORD, vital information is released by Director Hayward (Josh Stamberg). SWORD and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) tussle, but that pales in comparison to her argument with Vision; which comes to a truly unexpected conclusion.
“On a Very Special Episode” begins with the Marvel Studios intro rolling after the last recap. Wanda and Vision’s house now reflects an eighties sitcom. Wanda walks into the living room cradling a crying baby Tommy. Her permed hair is frazzled as she begs for “sleep.” Vision comes down the stairs with the crying Billy. They dance together playfully while the kids bawl. The babies are put in their cribs as Vision goes to get the “binkies.”
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Wanda tries to use her power to make the crying children go to sleep. It doesn’t work and that confuses her. Vision comes in the room with the pacifiers as ears. The laugh track howls. Wanda wipes them off and puts the pacifiers in their mouths. The babies spit them out in tandem. Wanda wonders if they need some help.
The doorbell rings. On cue, Agnes walks in with frizzy hair and leg warmers in a purple “jazzercise” aerobics outfit. Vision quickly masks his true form. Agnes heard the babies were on “a sleep strike.” Vision gets panicky and doesn’t want Agnes to pick up the children. Her bubbly demeanor changes. She turns to Wanda, “Do you want me to take that again?” Vision and Wanda look confused. A deadly serious Agnes continues, “You want me to take it from the top?
Wanda urges Vision to let Agnes “give it a try.” Agnes jumps back into bubbly character and starts playing with the children. She does leg stretches while rocking the cradles. “What was that about?” Vision asks. Wanda pretends not to know, but Vision is unconvinced. Agnes sprays lavender while commenting about Ralph’s libido. Vision looks at Wanda, “Did you seriously not see what I saw?”
Agnes searches the liquor cabinet. Wanda says Agnes was just being neighborly. They hear silence. The cribs are empty. “Mommy…daddy,” they turn around to see Billy and Tommy are now five years old. Agnes laughs and drinks, “Kids, you can’t control ’em, no matter how hard you try.” Wanda and Vision embrace the boys.
A Family Ties-esque new opening credits scene rolls. Wanda and Vision are seen playing with the boys, while a montage of pictures, of everyone growing up, accompanies a new eighties era theme song. The credits introduce “Billy” and “Tommy” as new characters. The sequence ends as the new family in a painting.
“What’s the first thing you remember?” Director Hayward says in a voice-over. Monica Rambeau is on a gurney being scanned. “I remember Wanda’s voice in my head. There was this feeling, this hopeless feeling, like drowning. It was grief,” Monica says in a voice-over. Jimmy (Randall Park) and Darcy (Kat Dennings) enter the medical tent. Jimmy introduces Darcy, “There’s a briefing in ten.” The medic walks back over. Monica’s brain scans are blank.
In the command center, Director Hayward leads the briefing, “We know now that Wanda is the principal victimizer.” Jimmy gives a rundown of Wanda’s history. Born in Sokovia in 1989, her parents were killed when she and her brother, Pietro, were ten. Hayward continues, the twins were then radicalized by HYDRA. “After unspecified experiments with the Mind Stone, Maximoff gained telepathic and telekinetic abilities,” Jimmy jumps back in. Hayward asks if Maximoff has an “alias, no funny nickname.” Jimmy confirms that she doesn`t.
Hayward brings up that she attacked the Avengers. Jimmy corrects him “that she become one herself.” Hayward then refers to Lagos and Germany, “We know how that turned out.” Hayward refers to Wanda as a “terrorist”. Monica contradicts him. Hayward reads from his notes, “By your own account…you call being under her mind control excruciating and terrifying.” The monitors show her scene as Geraldine in the living room. Monica disagrees, “I don’t believe she has a political agenda or inclination towards destruction.” Hayward says, “She’s holding thousands of people hostage.” Monica refutes him again, “She put up a quarantine. I don’t believe this is a premeditated act of aggression.”
Hayward pulls up a visual. He shows a top secret recording from “nine days ago” of Wanda breaking into SWORD headquarters. She smashes through their security and takes Vision’s corpse. Jimmy comments this was against Vision’s living will, “He didn’t want to be anyone’s weapon.” “Maximoff, in her grief, disregarded his wishes,” Hayward curtly states as he ends the briefing. Jimmy wonders how she brought him back without the Mind Stone. Darcy chimes in, “What happens when he learns the truth?”
The old tv monitor zooms back in on the sitcom painting. Tommy and Billy are in the kitchen hiding a dog in the sink. Wanda hears it barking. She finds and cuddles the furry critter. The boys want to keep him. They found him outside “crying” and “alone.” Wanda doesn’t see a collar, and becomes enamored by the pooch. Vision walks in and is surprised by the dog. When Wanda asks why he’s “so formal” in human form, Vision “has a hunch someone will pop over.”
Again on cue, Agnes walks in with a dog house. Vision observes “she has exactly the item we require.” The dog licks an outlet and causes sparks. Agnes names him “Sparky.” Wanda then conjures his collar. Vision is stunned, “Agnes is right there!” “I’m tired of hiding,” Wanda replies. Vision is now more concerned, “What are you not telling me?” The laugh track changes to “aww” as the boys beg their dad to keep Sparky. Wanda and Vision agree they’re not ready to care for an animal until they are “ten.” The boys look at each other, smile, and then age to ten. “Let’s just hope this dog stays the same size,” Agnes chimes in.
At the SWORD command center, Monica and Darcy try to figure a way tore-enter Westview. Jimmy walks in with coffee. Darcy updates him that the twins have aged. Darcy is now calling Westview “The Hex.” Jimmy asks if they’ve identified the children. Monica believes the children are hers. Jimmy is astonished by “the insane amount of power” she must have to control and manipulate Westview. Monica reminds him that Wanda came “close to defeating Thanos.” When Jimmy brings up Captain Marvel, Monica looks annoyed.
Monica has an idea. She takes everyone back to the lab. Monica takes Jimmy’s gun and shoots her Westview costume. They are bullet proof because she was wearing a kevlar vest when sucked inside. Wanda changes things going into the Hex. Monica wants to send something in that requires no change.
Back in Westview, Vision is at work installing a computer at his desk. Norm (Asif Ali) is impressed by the computer’s abilities. Vision tells Norm, “Let’s surf the internet.” The computer dials up to an old school bbs. He sees an electronic mail. It’s a “top secret communique” for Darcy from SWORD, “High levels of radiation at perimeter. Effect on Westview residents unknown.”
All the employees start reading the email like robots. Vision is alarmed. They all start laughing. Vision zaps the computer, then puts his hands on Norm’s head. The spell breaks. “Please…please help me…what day is it…how long has it been…where is my phone!” screams Norm. “You have to stop her…she’s in my head…none of it is my own…it hurts so much!” Norm begs Vision. Vision zaps him again, and then Norm reverts back to his character. Vision is horrified.
At their house, Billy and Tommy train Sparky. They ask where “dad went.” Wanda says it’s Monday, but they boys know it’s Saturday. They wonder if he needed to get away from them. She comforts her children, “Sometimes your dad and I aren’t on the same page, but that’s temporary.” Billy asks if she has a brother. She replies, “He’s far away from here. And that makes me sad.” Sparky runs to the front door barking. They boys tell her that “something is scaring him.” They go outside.
In the command center, Monica is flying an eighties tech drone over Wanda’s house. Everyone watches on the monitor as Wanda and the children are below. Darcy realizes that the drone footage is not on the broadcast, “Wanda decides what makes it on her show.” Monica tries to speak to Wanda through the drone’s speaker. Wanda’s eyes glow red. Suddenly Monica loses control. Hayward orders, “Take the shot.” An operator beside Monica presses a button, and then they lose visual.
An alarm blares. Everyone runs outside to the energy field. All the soldiers point their rifles at a figure coming through. Wanda, in her red coat, throws the broken drone at Hayward’s feet, “Is this yours?” “The missile was just a precaution. You can hardly blame us,” replies Hayward. “This will be your only warning. Stay out of my home,” says Wanda. Hayward refuses, she’s taken an entire town hostage. Monica jumps in, she didn’t know the drone was armed. Monica says Wanda knew she was a SWORD agent, but allowed her into their home. “You trusted me to deliver your babies. You know…on some level…I am an ally,” Monica soothes.
They have nothing to offer her. “I have what I want, and no one will take it from me again.” Wanda tells them. She waves her hand. All of the soldiers with guns point their laser scopes at Hayward. Wanda walks back into Westview. The soldiers regain control of their minds. Everyone watches as the energy field glows fiery red.
A commercial interlude has two children spilling their juice at the dinner table. The frustrated mom (Victoria Blade) tries to clean up the mess. A voice-over says, “You need Lagos brand paper towels.” The mother then cleans up her husband’s (Ithamar Enriquez) spill. The commercial ends with “Lagos, when you make a mess you didn’t mean to.”
Back in Westview, Wanda and the boys search for the missing Sparky. The mailman tells them their mom won’t let him get far. They find Agnes with Sparky wrapped in a towel dead, “I found him in my Azalea bushes.” The boys start to cry. Wanda begs them not to age themselves again, “The urge to run from this feeling is powerful.” “You can fix anything. Fix the dead, ” Tommy pleads. “You can do that?” a shocked Agnes asks. Wanda tries to tell them there are “rules in life.” Some things are forever. They boys continue to ask her to bring Sparky back. “Bring who back?” Vision queries as he enters the scene from work.
That night at home, the boys are in bed. Vision addresses Wanda in the kitchen, “I spoke to Norm’s oppressed personality free from your oversight. He was in pain.” Wanda doesn’t want to talk about this. Vision presses, “You can’t control me like you do them.” “Can’t I?” Wanda walks away and the credits start to roll. But Vision refuses. He challenges her further as the credits continue, “What is the Maximoff anomaly? I hope this was all subconscious and you just became aware of it.”
The credits stop as Vision follows Wanda to the living room. “Norm has a family! You won’t let him reach them!” Vision screams in his true form. They both elevate. Wanda’s hands glow red, “All of this is for us!” “What is outside of Westview!” Vision demands to know. Wanda continues to obfuscate, “You don’t want to know.” But he’s not having it, “You don’t get to make that choice for me. I can’t remember my life before Westview. I don’t know who I am…I’m scared.” Wanda approaches him, you’re my husband and a father.
They both settle down. Vision asks why there are no other children in Westview. Why is the playground empty? Wanda admits that she is not controlling everything, “I don’t know how any of this started.” Vision holds her, “What you’re doing here is wrong.” The doorbell rings. Wanda did not do it. The doorbell rings again. They open the door.
Wanda is utterly stupefied. Back at the command center, watching on the monitor, so is Darcy. “Wanda, who is this?” Vision asks. The camera pulls back to reveal a silver haired man wearing a leather jacket. The laugh track begins to clap as the shot reveals Evan Peters as Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver. He walks in the house, “Long lost bro can’t squeeze his stinking sister to death or what?” Darcy watches on the monitor in disbelief, “She recast Pietro?” “Pietro,” Wanda says quietly, then hugs her brother. He points to Vision, “Who’s the popsicle?” The laugh track howls.
Bringing in Evan Peters as Pietro was a monster reveal. He played Quicksilver for Fox when News Corp. owned the X-Men rights. Marvel Studios is using WandaVision to bring that franchise into the MCU. How freaking epic is that? The fact that he’s Evan Peters, and not the dead Quicksilver played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, could allude to the multiverse theme that is the focus of the upcoming MCU films. We also know now that the Agnes is different from Norm and the others in Westview. Wanda clearly states that she is not in control of everything, and doesn’t know how “The Hex” started. I’m betting that Ralph, Agnes’ unseen husband, is the true villain. We’ll have to see if he is Mephisto, as fandom has been speculating. WandaVision returns next Friday on Disney+.
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