WandaVision Halloween episode theories revisited

The Halloween episode of WandaVision left me convinced that Wanda and Vision were each wanted by a different evil entity. Vision was wanted by a science and tech villain in Hayward, maybe with Ultron involved, and Wanda by a magic villain, maybe Nightmare working for Mephisto. WandaVision (2021) is the Disney+ series starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany. By the time the finale aired on March 5, 2021, the show had revealed Agnes as Agatha Harkness, and Mephisto never appeared.

Every week this show gave me the same experience. On my first time through I was frustrated that it was over. On the second time through I had an epiphany that made me appreciate the episode more, along with the people putting it together.

Magic versus science: my read on who wanted Wanda and Vision

The structure is what struck me. Evan Peters was seeming very henchman-like, and the split created a situation of magic versus science. Thor said magic and science are the same thing, and Darcy comes from the Thor movies, so I wondered whether that was what linked Wanda and Vision. I thought it was so well done.

It was also getting very X-Men, and as an X-Men fan I was enjoying it. I liked how dark it was too. People had dug up an old interview from when Elizabeth Olsen first started in the MCU in which she said Marvel would never do such a dark story, and here they were doing it.

I also appreciated that nothing was wasted. The episodes might be short, but the creative team used every second. Every bit of dialogue and set decoration felt crucial. I thought the Halloween setting was a clear reference to Mephisto or Nightmare, and a nod to the original comic, which featured a demonic entity. The twins are called demon spawn in this episode, and in the comics they were parts of a demon's soul.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the big cameo and the opening credits

The recap showed Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Pietro distinctly, when before it seemed the show was going out of its way not to show him. Elizabeth Olsen had said we were getting a big cameo, and I bet it was him. Who better to save her from the fake brother than the real brother? I hoped that was the case. Age of Ultron also looked phenomenal here; maybe they improved it in post. I did not think this new Pietro was Quicksilver.

The opening credits felt very Disney Channel to me, and I loved that they integrated the powers into the zany suburban life: Wanda closing the door with her powers, her rollers, Vision going through the sofa. Agnes had the word naughty bedazzled across her rear, and though she was acting innocent, I still didn't buy it.

I thought it was telling that Agnes shared a credits frame with the twins. In the comics Agatha Harkness was like a nanny to them, and since they are demon spawn, who better to look after them than their demonic overseer? I thought that was intentional. Pietro Maximoff was also credited as himself when nobody else was, which felt like the show insisting it was him. This might have been my favorite opening credit sequence.

Billy narrates, and Evan Peters' Pietro shows his interest in the twins

Billy narrated, and I think that was because he has powers similar to Wanda's, so he can become aware of what's happening, as he does later. He was also wearing his costume from the comics. Tommy teased him that he was secretly afraid of their uncle because he's a vampire, from hell basically, the first of many references to that.

Pietro used his speed, and some people thought he might be a SWORD operative working for Hayward. I didn't think so, because then how would he replicate those powers? I suspected he was trying to give one of the twins a push in the right direction. I also loved that Wanda explained her costume as a Sokovian fortune teller, and I hoped it would lay the groundwork for her to keep that look.

A flashback to Halloween in Sokovia made me wonder whether he was meant to be dressed as Nick Fury, though I didn't know where that reference would come from. Wanda said she didn't remember it like that. Vision, snippy, decided to play along so as not to cause a problem. Pietro was very interested in the twins, and as many people pointed out, Dottie had disappeared, which was very suspicious. There is a character like her in the comics.

I thought Evan Peters' character only wanted Wanda and the magic, not Vision, which is why he happily offered to be the father figure. He also called one twin by the wrong name, because I think he didn't care about them; they were tools for something more nefarious. His swept hair later doubled as devil horns, and when the boys went trick or treating he told them to unleash hell.

Hayward goes full villain while Ultron hovered over the episode

Monica said Hayward had been looking for an excuse to get rid of them, but his shots about her mother were below the belt. He wasn't hiding it anymore. The episode mentioned so often that Pietro was killed by Ultron, and Ultron did create Vision, so I believed Ultron had a history with this couple and thought there was a very good chance he was on the science and tech side. James Spader coming back would have been great.

Jimmy Woo got a fight scene, which I loved, and Randall Park sold it. I also wasn't sure why SWORD brought the drone back, but I wondered whether it would be swallowed into the expanding Hex at the end, having already passed through the barrier a couple of times.

Pietro's answers that weren't answers

Wanda was testing him about their past, and he called her on it, saying he knew he looked different. I wondered whether that was a way to trick her into opening the multiverse, letting her know she had another brother somewhere. He also suggested that if he'd found paradise he wouldn't want to be reminded of the past either, which I read as him accusing her of changing his face.

When she asked where his accent was, he asked where hers was and never answered. He said he'd been shot in the street for no reason and heard her calling his name. That never happened to the Fox Quicksilver, so I think he was referencing Aaron Taylor-Johnson's version, as if she had called to him from the afterlife. Meanwhile Herb's neighborhood watch revealed Vision wasn't helping them, and a creepy figure with legs stood behind Wanda. Maybe it was production design, but it was creepy.

The fake commercial, the skeleton and The Parent Trap

The fake commercial was super creepy, and I thought it was about something happening now or still to come. The blue water mimicked Billy's blue energy, and the boy was Billy because of the red shirt. A shark came to help him, which felt close to a serpent, and not someone you should trust, like Evan Peters. It told him he needed his magic or he'd die, and he wasted away into a child skeleton, which disturbed me. Maybe Evan Peters' character was trying to get Billy supercharged too.

The movie theater was playing The Incredibles, about a super powered family, and The Parent Trap, which features twins, fitting a show so much about twins. When Tommy turned out to have speed, I loved how happy Wanda was for her children, and that she told them not to go beyond Ellis Avenue.

Vision meets Agnes at the edge of Westview

Darcy, Monica and Jimmy found that Hayward was not tracking Wanda but Vision, through his vibranium decay rate. They also learned that residents near the border were frozen when Wanda didn't need them, which I found cruel. Vision found a woman stuck in a loop with a single tear on her face, and the whole town frozen, so he changed into his real Vision look and flew over Westview.

He found Agnes in a car at the edge, saying she took a wrong turn and got lost; I thought that might be what Agnes did in real life. Kathryn Hahn had tears welling in her eyes. Agnes knew him as Vision from the Avengers, told him he was dead, and said Wanda wouldn't even let them think about leaving. I thought she might be setting him up to see Wanda as the enemy, since Hayward and what I called team evil both wanted them separated.

Ellis Avenue, I think, was named after President Ellis, who introduced the Sokovia Accords and hired General Ross, and who was a major player in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Monica's rewritten DNA and the powers I expected

Monica's contact turned out to be a he, which meant some Spanish translations people had shared couldn't be fully trusted. He was about an hour away, so I expected him in the next episode. Darcy warned that crossing the barrier twice was rewriting Monica's DNA. Monica was definitely getting her powers, I thought, given her comics history and all the references to photons and radio waves, and I bet whoever was coming would factor in.

One theory going around was that Wanda was turning everyone in Westview into mutants. I liked that a lot, but I wasn't sure. Monica was the real hero for not caring; her mother had cancer, which also rewrites DNA, and she had seen cells go into remission. I thought she partly felt this could be reversed and partly didn't care.

Pietro digs into how Wanda did it

At the festival, Pietro said their mom and dad would like this, and I wondered whether he was trying to get her to bring in Magneto. He praised her handling of the ethics, then leaned in and asked how she did it. He told her he wasn't her husband, paused where the word brother should go, and said she could talk to him. I think he was posing as Pietro to gain her trust.

Wanda remembered only being alone and endless nothingness, which made me wonder whether she had died, maybe ending up in hell with Mephisto, and whether that was why she kept seeing dead versions of Vision and Pietro. I didn't believe she was animating Vision's corpse. Darcy also found Project Cataract, a classified weapons program, and emailed it to Jimmy.

Vision tries to leave the Hex and Billy's blue magic

I didn't think the sitcom layer could be entirely Wanda, because creating those TV vibes isn't her power set, so I saw two layers locked together. Vision was pulled back piece by piece as SWORD agents stood and stared, which felt very E.T. and Stranger Things. Darcy exposed herself to help because she's a good person, while SWORD looked like a pretty evil organization, maybe the new Hydra.

Billy heard his dad's call for help, and his energy was blue where Wanda's is red, straight out of the comics. The twins taking after Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver felt tragic and Shakespearean to me. Vision still had the mind stone outside the Hex before it went dark. Part of me wondered whether Hayward took Vision's body as a trap to bait Scarlet Witch into creating a new mind stone, since the stones had been returned to their times. That would be quite the weapon.

Wanda expands the Hex and Darcy gets pulled in

When Pietro said her dead husband couldn't die again, I think that was the final straw that made Wanda realize he wasn't her brother. She threw him into the tombstones, paused the town and expanded the Hex, along with the TV static, which made me wonder whether she controlled both. Jimmy and Monica escaped, but Darcy, handcuffed to a car, was pulled in.

The SWORD camp became a carnival, the helicopter became a hot air balloon, a little Wizard of Oz, and the agents became circus performers. I think that was Wanda's commentary on the operation, and her way of taking SWORD off the board. I was disappointed they didn't get Hayward. I believed Darcy would show up at Vision's work as a computer expert, maybe with the emails she sent herself.

With three episodes left, I hoped for longer ones and expected a 2000s Modern Family style next, possibly with Wanda and Vision finally teaming up.