WandaVision: Season 1, Episode 4 Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out Episode 4 of WandaVision carries the title “We Interrupt This Program”, which is about the most accurate description possible. Rather than the assumed scheduled broadcast of Wanda and Vision adjusting to life as new parents, we get instead an episode almost completely devoid of both starring roles. Episode 4 instead recaps the events of the entire season so far from the other side of the fence. And with it comes… well, pretty much everything we’d already guessed. As the prevailing internet theory had suggested long before WandaVision had even begun its run, the sitcom reality is the creation of Wanda herself. It’s yet to be spelt out, but the haunting image of dead Vision, with his practically monochrome face and caved in forehead, certainly suggests that the idyllic family design is Wanda’s remedy for her own grief. The reveal is strongly presented, filmed in contemporary widescreen and colour grading to emphasise that we’re briefly seeing beyond the facade. Without the laughter track and carefree atmosphere, Elizabeth Olsen momentarily channels a darker side of Wanda, demonstrating a similar menace as to what we saw when she went toe-to-toe with Thanos. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/16/wandavision-heres-whos-doing-this-to-wanda-and-vision-mcu-canon-fodder"] But while Wanda’s reveal provides episode 4’s final big moment, this is a chapter primarily dedicated to SWORD, now revealed to be the MCU’s Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division. Key among their staff is Wanda and Vision’s strange neighbour Geraldine, better known in the real world as Monica Rambeau. Last seen in Captain Marvel as the young daughter of Carol’s friend, Maria, Monica is now a Captain at the agency. She’s not the only MCU connective thread SWORD has provided; the web pulls in Thor’s chatterbox Darcy - now complete with a PhD - and Ant-Man’s FBI agent Jimmy Woo. All three bring their respective expertise to solve the mystery of WestView. It makes for an episode that really hammers home that MCU signature style; an interconnected world rather than separate projects under the red banner. The Marvel energy is present through the whole episode, generating a very familiar feel that is a significant departure from WandaVision’s established style. SWORD’s Response Base on the outskirts of WestView calls back to the SHIELD tents set up around Mjolnir back in Thor, while mentions of cosmic threats and broadcast signals entwined in radiation cement that particularly Marvel flavour of sci-fi. The episode even opens on Monica being brought back from the blip, neatly calling back the MCU’s biggest event while also clarifying the show’s time period. All these things considered, anyone looking for some reassurance that WandaVision is a show about the universe they care about will certainly find it here. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=wandavision-all-the-marvel-and-tv-easter-eggs-in-every-episode&captions=true"] Seeing the events of the first three episodes play out from the perspective of SWORD neatly declutters a lot of what’s been going on so far. But the impact of the episode lies in your wider understanding of the Marvel universe. If you were previously unaware of SWORD, then this acts as quite a major milestone episode, pulling back the curtain on that mysterious logo that has been peppered through the season. But for anyone well-versed in SHIELD’s sister agency, Monica’s pendant, the helicopter, and the ‘bee keeper’ from the sewer had already demonstrated that the agency was quite clearly observing the sitcom. For those viewers, this episode is about establishing that SWORD are not responsible for trapping Wanda in a comedy prison, rather than introducing any further wild quirks. This new understanding of SWORD does recontextualise everything that’s come before it, though, and poses a new, more fascinating question: is Wanda the enemy? We see the SWORD field team discover that the supporting cast of WandaVision are all missing persons rather than manifestations, and so the suggestion is that real civilians have been imprisoned and manipulated by Wanda to populate WestView. As much as we may feel sympathy for Wanda, such actions are hard to condone, and so the lines between good and evil are blurred. This makes the future of the show less clear cut, and with the show’s prior biggest questions now tied up, the stage is now set for a complex, potentially more morally grey new mystery. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/29/how-much-does-monica-rambeau-know-about-monica-rambeau"] All of this darkness and serious MCU business does mean that episode 4 is almost completely lacking in comedy. Kat Dennings does, as ever, bring some lightness with Darcy, and Randall Park continues his gently funny, out-of-his-depth act with Agent Woo. But any sitcom elements are purely viewed through the lens of an observation experiment, completely sidestepping the show's delicate balance of comedy and underlying menace, as well as its signature retro camera work. WandaVision’s unique position as many things to many people means this will likely be seen as both the strongest and weakest episode so far by differing camps. But regardless of your feelings on WandaVision’s paused dedication to comedy, episode 4 is a statement: WandaVision is not strictly a Marvel sitcom with a ‘serious’ framework. This promises to change the dynamic of the show going forward, and may well dilute the overall strangeness of its atmosphere in exchange for something that feels more befitting of the MCU as a whole. Digging further into the universe also means that Teyonah Parris gets a proper moment in the spotlight as Monica, who seems a natural fit in the MCU’s lineage of Agent Coulson-style characters. With Wanda’s newly revealed darkness, Monica is now in a position that could propel her to exciting new heights. Plus, her mum’s codename of Photon - a name used by Monica in the comics - is a lovely hint at what could be a more superheroic future for the character.

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