VisionQuest Episodes 1 and 2: 10 Things From Jarvis's Sacrifice to Daddy Ultron

I binged the first two episodes of VisionQuest when I got the screeners, and here are the 10 things that stood out to me most. First up, Jarvis deleted himself, and I was shocked at how sad it was.

Jarvis deleting himself to save Vision was surprisingly sad

I've never really cared about Jarvis, and the actor who plays him isn't particularly well known, so I was surprised at how much I had the feels. Vision was shot, which I'll come back to when I get to the adamantium bullets, and he was running low on power with too many AIs in his head. Ultron brought it up and said maybe someone should delete themselves, and Jarvis stepped up. I thought that was really touching.

Jarvis was Tony Stark's first AI, and you could see that mirrored in his code. When he deleted himself, he dropped his human avatar, but he didn't turn into a synthezoid, because he never was one. He just turned into his AI code, which is reminiscent of the Jarvis and Ultron code from Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Tony and Bruce Banner worked on them. I thought that was a nice callback. Ultron was pretty funny when he said, "Not my first choice, not my second choice." I don't think Jarvis was any of our first choices. I was kind of rooting for Edith, to be honest. I guess Dum-E and U wouldn't have been enough code or energy to make a difference, and perhaps Jarvis was the one because maybe he was taking up the most RAM.

I did think it was really beautiful that Jarvis called Vision brother and Vision called him brother right back. They had that cute back and forth where Jarvis said he was written first, so he was the older sibling, and then he did the WandaVision line about family being forever. Still, I have to wonder why his deletion would be considered so permanent. Is there not a backup file? I think a backup wouldn't take any energy to keep, so the finality of it as it was presented confuses me.

WandaVision lives all over VisionQuest, but Elizabeth Olsen is missing

Terry Matalas, the showrunner, has said he is a WandaVision super fan. Either it's genuine or he's pandering to the fans, but I don't think anyone cares, because I think it's effective. I think WandaVision and Agatha All Along were both incredibly well written shows, so it could only help to take lines from them. But they're using so many clips from WandaVision, and I'm frustrated. Where is Elizabeth Olsen? I don't understand what has happened, and perhaps someday we will find out.

As far as I can tell, she's not really working, so it's not like she's booked and busy, and I think it continues to confound all of us that they don't bring her back. Is it a Marvel choice? Is it an Elizabeth Olsen choice? They have all these old clips, which they own, so I guess they can use them, but the actress is available. Yes, she was crushed by Wundagore Mountain at the end of Multiverse of Madness. I guess we saw the rocks falling, but I didn't see a body.

Speaking of bodies, I had a horrible thought going back through the episodes today. Billy got a new body, Tommy got a new body, and technically Vision got a new body. They didn't change actors for Vision, but could they change actors for Wanda? On the one hand, I think Wanda fans would be very frustrated with that, but on the other, it's getting ridiculous. So I'm not sure. It was an interesting thing to consider.

Vision also goes around crediting Wanda for Tommy being back, but we know that was Wiccan. Perhaps Wiccan is even more powerful than his mother, since he brought back himself and his brother. Wanda did create Vision from scratch, along with her two sons, but I think Wiccan is very formidable too. The witch side of the family is very powerful, so perhaps the answer to bringing back Scarlet Witch lies in her other son, Billy.

The Maximoff family's love brings them back into existence

This family loves each other so much that they willed themselves back into existence. As I said in my review without spoilers, I think this is really what the show is about. Grief is just love persevering, but if you cut off the first half of that, love persevering is very much what you have here. You're seeing Vision, Tommy, Billy over in Agatha All Along, and probably eventually Wanda, all being brought back by pure love from the rest of the family. I think it's a beautiful sentiment.

I also like the line "You're my something." Today in particular, it's so hard to define personal relationships. Everybody seems to have no social skills, myself included; the pandemic did a number on a lot of people, and so has technology, and I think people like to keep it looser these days. So the idea that you just acknowledge that somebody means something to you, even if you can't yet define the relationship, is really nice. When Tommy says it to Vision, he doesn't want to say you're my dad. I think that's the same dynamic between Vision and Ultron. They're not ready to say they're father and son, and maybe it's not even true, but they know there's a connection. I like that this show is creating its own great lines in addition to using the WandaVision ones.

I was also really interested that it seems the original Vision is legendary for being the most human AI, and all the other AIs want to know how he did it. When Ultron reminds the new Vision of the original, I love that the shot focuses on his very human eyes, particularly with the contrast of the red skin, which Tommy describes as a bruise. It's like really looking into the soul of Vision. And what made Vision the most human of all the AIs? He was loved.

Paul Bettany's new Vision has memories but not emotions, and shades of Ultron

Paul Bettany rocks a popped collar, and I love it. The visual effects are very subtle, but I think they're very effective: the way they light up his eyes and do the lines on his cheekbones is pretty great. I think Bettany is doing a wonderful job. He's also a very pretty man, and I think that speaks to the fact that he's made by a machine. He's almost scientifically beautiful, in that he's so symmetrical, and I think it's a great choice. You see that in the family too, because the actor playing Tommy also has amazing bone structure.

Bettany is also doing a great job with the different versions of Vision. This Vision has the original's kindness, but let's not pretend he doesn't have some serious shades of Ultron. He has Vision's memories but not his emotions. He's intellectually Vision, but not Vision in his heart, and that's the hurdle for the character this season. I also think he's more powerful than ever. He can drink liquid, he can pass very much as a human, he's extremely strong and fast, and he can fly. Being detached from his emotions gives him a coldness that comes across as very formidable and scary.

He's vaporizing bad guys at the hospital, turning them into puffs of digitization, and he didn't even pause to think about whether he should. That, to me, is shades of Ultron. I loved when Ultron said, "I'm so proud of you, my boy," after Vision almost choked out Paladin. Vision also makes all these AIs work for him. He presents himself as kind and altruistic, but he's created a class system within his head. He's not in charge like Captain America; maybe there's a little Tony Stark in him too, which would be interesting. Ultron, you'll note, is his only peer, and perhaps that's something Vision has to allow.

Something else that's very Ultron: Jarvis warns him not to let the signal from Paladin in, because he can't scan it for threats, which would mean letting down the firewall. Vision commands Jarvis to do it anyway because he's curious. That's a very Ultron thing to do, and it suggests Vision feels he's pretty much invulnerable. There's definitely a lot of Vision's code in there. Not DNA, but code. I love that metaphor of doing human things through machines.

Daddy Ultron is part of what's going on with Paladin, but I have mixed feelings about James Spader

Something it took me a couple of episodes to notice: Ultron has a human face in his human avatar, but his synthezoid form has no human features really. He didn't give himself a nose, and he doesn't look as human as Vision. That's not a choice Terry Matalas made, but I love that I think he really presses it. And talk about a backup file: it seems that when Vision destroyed Ultron at the end of Age of Ultron, he uploaded him and kept a copy. The DoorDash stuff was pretty funny.

I also loved the idea of using a bad guy to catch a bad guy. They wonder how to figure out what this bad guy is thinking, then decide to ask the one they have upstairs and bring him down, which was very funny, especially when he asks what this decor is. Then it's quickly revealed that Ultron is at least a part of what's going on with Paladin. He tells Vision, "I'm trying to push you out into the real world instead of literally being inside your own head." I think he's not only doing that to get out and knock Vision off balance; I think he does feel paternal toward him and feels he knows it's what's best for Vision.

James Spader does have a way with a line reading, like when he says it's the end of the world and he feels fine. I also liked when Vision's malfunction after being shot let the elevator open, so Ultron could escape the prison within Vision's head, and Spader turns around and greets the moment. But he's so strongly defined on TV at this point that it feels like I'm in The Blacklist, because he established himself so strongly there. So I have mixed feelings about him on the show. I also have a hard time reconciling his human avatar with his synthezoid avatar. They don't seem like a match to me, and that's a little jarring.

Paladin's plan to trap a synthezoid was pretty good

I don't like Paladin very much, but I feel he had a pretty good plan. Before Vision went to meet him, Vision ran infinite simulations, because what's eons to him is a split second to humans. He could actually determine what Paladin was going to say, which I thought was kind of creepy. Tommy does something similar with the lock: he's using speed, but he's able to run an infinite number of combinations, just like a synthezoid or an AI. I think it's fascinating that Tommy's superpower puts him a little bit in Vision's camp, even though he's not a synthezoid.

So how do you throw off someone who can run infinite simulations? One way is to give him new information he couldn't have incorporated because he wasn't aware of it. Paladin also uses emotion. He knows this new Vision wants to be more human and has a son, or at least as close as he's ever going to get, as Paladin puts it.

The real trap is at the hospital, where Paladin uses an EMP cage, an electromagnetic pulse that wipes out or dampens technology. That was very clever. I think it's no accident that the symbols on the wall seem very much like technology runes, a science version of Wanda's runes, and Wanda herself was captured in a room covered in runes. It's a great parallel. Then there are the adamantium bullets. Vision is made of vibranium, but adamantium can pierce it. That was great to me because it creates a vulnerability for Vision, and it shows that Wolverine is coming and could slice and dice Vision or other synthezoids. It shows adamantium is still the superior metal.

Tommy is my favorite character, and giving speed to a thief is a great idea

I like all three, grandpa, father and son, but Tommy is my favorite. He's a new toy, and we're very happy with him. What an introduction: those cheekbones, those teeth, those glasses. I loved him pulling a Clark Kent in his very first appearance. He cuts an incredibly dashing figure, and as I said in my review without spoilers, it makes me a little nervous for Joe Locke's Wiccan, because this Tommy is very formidable. Like Vision, he almost seems like he was built in a lab.

I really like that he already has his powers, sort of. He's not all the way there, but I don't want to go through another origin story. I also loved giving speed to a thief. I looked it up, and Speed has never been a really big character, so this is new ground to break, and he was not a thief. But a pickpocket has to be quicker than the eye, which is a great thing for a speedster. As we remember from his uncle Quicksilver, he can also phase through objects, which Vision can do too. A thief who is very fast and can phase through solid objects is a very good match.

I'm also so glad they're not taking a ton of episodes to bring him and Vision together. They are doing two episodes at once, but on the very first night, you get these two together. I think in the earlier days of Disney+ they would have made us wait until episode four, five or six, or the very end. It makes the show feel like it's moving along at a good clip.

Paladin versus Vision brings shocks, vaporized henchmen and a budget trick

As I said, I don't like Paladin, but I have to respect him. I was shocked that Mrs. Guthrie got killed, and I was also shocked that Paladin took out the sniper who did it, saying, "Hey, I told you no civilians." With the blood splatter, I thought this show came to play.

Then there were the Ultron tendencies again when Vision choked Paladin and Ultron called him his boy. There's also a shot of Vision vaporizing a guy where you can even see the body outline. He didn't even blink. But I did catch that the show couldn't afford to keep all of the action in close-up. At the pub in Edinburgh, they pulled to wide exterior shots. I get it, and I know that trick from a production standpoint, but it was slightly frustrating. Still, having Paladin around allows for action, and I think that's good.

Who's the client? I know, and I'm not telling

I've seen all the episodes, so I know who the client is, but I'm not going to say anything or give any hints. One good guess is S.W.O.R.D., which built the new Vision and may want its property back. I think Valentina is kind of a good choice too, since she's the current evil person in charge there. As I recall, I don't think she was arrested at the end of Thunderbolts.

Someone I guessed was Justin Hammer, because Sam Rockwell is always available and Vision's head is full of AIs. I did guess quite a bit about Lanterns in advance, so I might be right. Other names I've seen floated include Sharon Carter, who is supposed to be collecting things, and Nick Fury, which is a very interesting choice. All I'll say is I think it's a good mystery.

Vision's house borrows from WandaVision and Tom King's comic

On the exterior of Vision's house, the ivy grows like a circuit board, which I think is pretty clever. Among the many products inside, there's a firewall chili labeled malware free. That was very funny, and what a loss they didn't do some kind of crossover with Norton or McAfee. At first it felt very WandaVision coded. As I said in my review without spoilers, clearly they were a match, or she's been a big influence on him, because he built his own house that's very similar to the one she built.

It also draws intense inspiration from Tom King's The Vision comic. He's having a month; he's very much behind Lanterns too. I recommend the comic. It's quite good, and it's the one that made Tom King famous. It was so long ago that I don't remember how it ended, but I don't remember anybody being upset about it. Maybe he wasn't allowed to do everything he wanted back then because it was his first big gig. I think it's obviously very influential on this show, and they're borrowing from it to some degree.

I also really like that the house is a clever metaphor for how these AIs operate: deleting themselves, the firewall, a data leak, and the pigeon as an email. It's very accessible, too. You don't have to really know computers to play along, because these are terms everybody knows.

Who do you think the client in VisionQuest is?