WandaVision: Season 1, Episode 8 Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out This review contains spoilers for Marvel's WandaVision episode 8, now available to view on Disney+. To remind yourself of where we left off, check out our WandaVision episode 7 review. [poilib element="accentDivider"] With the finale in sight and the big Agatha Harkness reveal dropped at the end of its last chapter, you’d expect WandaVision to ramp up the pace for its penultimate episode. Instead it does the very opposite; episode 8 is an exercise in taking stock. It’s a series of flashbacks that feels akin to pre-flight checks, ensuring the audience is fully informed before heading into the show’s final take-off. There are a few fun twists to be found, as well as some emotional value, but for anyone fully invested in both WandaVision and the MCU, it feels like the brakes have been applied when it should have been the accelerator. It should be pointed out that episode 8’s most important reveal comes not as part of the main show, but in a mid-credits scene. It turns out Hayward was lying back in episode 5 about Wanda having stolen Vision’s corpse. Instead, he has rebuilt Vision - a nod to the White Vision from the comics - and has activated him using the Hex’s energy. This means Hayward has broken the Sokovia Accords’ rules, should you need any more evidence that Hayward is as corrupt as they come. This all presumably paves the way for some kind of zombie Vision vs clone Vision showdown in the finale. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=wandavision-all-the-marvel-and-tv-easter-eggs-in-every-episode&captions=true"] A reveal as large as that is unfortunately relegated to a post-credits due to this week’s structure, which takes place almost entirely in Wanda’s memories, and so there’s no natural room for a detour to SWORD’s base. This design, which walks viewers through key moments of Wanda’s life, acts as a catch-up on her origin story so far. For anyone invested in the MCU, this is largely an exercise in watching stuff you already know, and even those who have only seen WandaVision will have pieced together these events thanks to expository dialogue in earlier episodes. That’s not to say there’s no merit in these scenes; their key value to fans comes in their emotional weight, and how they contextualise the sitcom elements with Wanda’s childhood love of imported American DVDs. But, for much of the episode, it does feel like we’re doing revision for our final WandaVision exam, rather than learning a whole lot of new topics. Where we do learn new things is with Agatha Harkness, although it may be that Marvel overstated her impact in the last episode by suggesting it was Agatha all along. Yes, she’s definitely been up to no good, but Agatha is almost entirely in the dark about Wanda’s power, rather than being the manipulator behind it. This does neatly position her as a sort of investigator for the episode, working as a guide for the audience’s thought process as she interrogates Wanda from memory to memory, attempting to discover the root of her power. Power which, by the end of the episode, Agatha has determined is Chaos Magic. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/21/wandavision-episode-7-the-real-villain-finally-revealed-mcu-canon-fodder"] With that discovery, Agatha proclaims Wanda as The Scarlet Witch, suggesting that in the MCU the title is some kind of prophecy or lineage for witches. It’s an interesting spin on inserting Wanda’s superhero name into the show, and the whole episode helps establish that this is who she was destined to be from birth, rather than via experimentation. The scene in Hydra’s lab, in which Wanda sees a vision of herself within the Mind Stone dressed in the classic Scarlet Witch costume, was a particularly strong method of adding a feeling of legend and weight to her story. It is, though, another reveal that really only works with the benefit of comic book knowledge. There’s nothing in the episode to contextualize Chaos Magic and its sinister comic origins, nor really demonstrate how Agatha has come to identify it. Still, it’s clear that Agatha wants to at least interfere with what Wanda has, and will cruelly hold her children hostage to meet that goal. This positions Wanda between the two enemies of Agatha and SWORD for the finale, which will hopefully provide some entertaining results. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=agatha-harkness-wandavisions-other-marvel-witch-explained&captions=true"] Episode 8 certainly has its flaws, then, but there are enough components that worked to prevent itself from feeling truly unnecessary. This largely comes from Elizabeth Olsen herself, who provides a sense of heft to the episode’s emotional sequences. As ever in the MCU, it's in the fleeting, quieter moments that we see the heroes’ most interesting character traits, and for episode 8 that comes in the flashback to Wanda and Vision at the Avengers HQ. Here we see that it’s not just Vision’s death that has caused all this grief, but a life of accumulating tragedy that has “drowned” her. Olsen really conveys Wanda’s exhaustion here, and is wonderfully matched by Paul Bettany, who’s back in classic Vision mode for a lovely tender moment. Wanda’s visit to SWORD’s headquarters to reclaim Vision also showed a new perspective; Hayward’s lies had convinced us that she’d stolen Vision’s body in rage, but the truth is much gentler than that. Seeing what SWORD had done, Wanda’s depression spirals deeper rather than manifests into violence, further emphasising the sad tragedy of the story. The sequence in which Wanda arrives in Westview for the first time, and opens Vision’s heart-signed property deed for the land, is sure to wrench even the coldest of hearts.

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