Who Wants Vision Alive? Theories Behind Paladin's Bounty in VisionQuest

Paladin failed, and Vision escaped. That raises a question I can't shake. If you want Vision alive, why send Paladin, a man whose approach involves kidnapping a teenager and putting an Avenger through absolute torment? "Whoever is paying for this has a very interesting definition of handling something carefully."

So I have to ask: does whoever is behind this bounty want Vision as a prisoner, or as a weapon they can use? Imagine surviving Thanos, getting rebuilt, finally finding somewhere to exist, and then having these weirdos come shopping for you. I don't like this at all. There are two mysteries here. Who put the bounty on Vision's head, and, most importantly, what do they want with him? I've got some theories.

The client is still a disguised voice, and S.W.O.R.D. is the obvious name

From what the first two episodes have given us, the person behind the contract is still only "the client." The voice we hear is disguised, so there's no name to put on this person yet.

The name that does come up is S.W.O.R.D. That's obviously the name that comes to mind, considering they rebuilt Vision, so of course they would want him. But what if it's not S.W.O.R.D.? We can't say that Hayward is back, or that Dr. Doom is the one behind all this. I do have to admit, though, it's obvious that someone is seeking to gain control of Vision through a S.W.O.R.D.-connected operation.

Ultron leaked Vision's location to Paladin, and I don't trust his reasons

Here's the problem with all of this: Ultron helps bring the danger to Vision. Why would he do that? He gave a pretty weird reason, something about waking Vision up and making him take action. But you and I know Ultron, and we know he lied. His ultimate goal is for the bird to get out of the cage.

Some context first. In the premiere, Ultron learns about the existing bounty, and he leaks Vision's location to Paladin. So someone wants Vision, and Ultron provides a means to reach him. Don't think Ultron is working for Paladin just because he's helping with his plan. He's steering things from the shadows. He waits for the opportunity and rides the wave.

Meanwhile, Vision is trying to understand how to live, while the villain inside his mind wants to turn him toward action. And Ultron excuses all of it by saying it's for Vision's own good. Of course it is. Doing what Ultron wants is somehow linked to your personal growth. I am suspicious of him. Obviously, he is up to no good.

What if Ultron put up the bounty himself?

Have you thought of this? What if the person who put up the bounty is actually Ultron? What if he orchestrated this himself? Because tell me, how did he learn that a bounty existed in the first place? I said Ultron isn't working for Paladin, but what if Paladin is working for Ultron? If Ultron created the bounty, then we need to know about the whole arrangement: the payment, and why he presents it as something he discovered.

For now, Ultron's little experiment shows the old guy is trying to expose Vision. Vision wants to live in solitude, quiet in his little heaven, but Ultron wants him to explore, and he may do everything to make that possible. It can't be for Vision's good alone. It could be for Ultron's good, a grand reason we have yet to discover.

Once Vision is under pressure, staying quietly hidden gets harder. He has to make urgent decisions. He needs advice. And who will be there when he needs it? Ultron. He has already shown us this. He wants Vision to become himself, the weapon he's meant to be. But I don't buy the idea that danger automatically helps Vision become himself. It can only get people hurt, and this little play has already killed Vision's friend. Ultron doesn't care. For a guy who wants to destroy the whole world, one human life doesn't concern him.

Paladin's loyalty shifts, and Tommy is his leverage

Paladin is a troublesome guy, as anyone who knows his comic history knows. His loyalty shifts, money matters to him, and his conscience can interfere with a profitable job. His choices remain open, so we can't assume he has an unbreakable devotion to one villain. Of course, the MCU can change his story.

Here, after their first attack, Paladin and his handler investigate what happened in Westview years back, and Tommy becomes their leverage. Instead of trying to reach Vision, Paladin gives Vision a reason to come to him. That's even better for him, because he chooses the battlefield, the precise location where he can set his trap.

Tommy is disorganized right now. He doesn't fully understand who he is. And Tommy being used this way doesn't establish that he's what the client originally wanted. These kids are the Maximoff children, and they're a big deal, but I'm not sure that's why Paladin captured him. It's rather that he matters to the target, Vision. So Tommy is nothing more than a tactical discovery in this operation. If Paladin finds out he's far more useful than bait, we'll be having a different conversation all over again.

The person paying might think in terms of technology or security. Paladin has to deal with the actual individual attached to that technology, and he has discovered that a family connection could move him.

Vision says he isn't Tommy's father, yet he still went to rescue him

Vision is uncertain about his feelings, about what he actually wants and who he actually is. It looks as if he's trying to be someone he isn't, living in another person's shadow. That's what the bounty hunter, or whoever, has to figure out. Will he come? How far will he go? What will he risk?

Vision already told Paladin he isn't the Vision whose son is Tommy. He has no feelings, so he won't take the bait, which would mean Paladin got the wrong person with the wrong trap. But then Vision goes to rescue Thomas anyway. That's the thing about conflicting feelings.

If Vision truly feels nothing, the hostage strategy could fail. Paladin is betting there's enough of a father in him, or simply enough concern for a threatened boy, to get a response. He's exploiting the possibility of one. I don't know how much Paladin knows about the real Vision and the white version, or whether he knows there's a difference at all, but his little experiment did work.

The client wants Vision alive, which points to someone who sees him as an asset

The fact that the client wants Vision delivered alive means they have a use for his continued existence. We can establish that this isn't someone who wants Vision dead. We just don't know the shape of that use yet.

Many people already see him as a machine, a useful one, a piece of equipment. WandaVision already gave us a government operation that rebuilt Vision's body and sent him out under orders. Hayward's S.W.O.R.D. treated him as an Avenger they could activate and deploy. With that history in hand, there's a more logical reason someone would want him back: he's an asset they can control.

Paladin's adamantium ammunition raises the question of how much damage the client will tolerate

I don't know why Paladin would open fire on Vision when his mission is to bring him back alive. His pursuit is so destructive. He brings in weapons capable of seriously harming Vision, including adamantium ammunition. He prepared for the chance that ordinary force might not stop him, because Vision isn't a dog you can expect to follow you around. The hunter clearly expects resistance.

The bigger question is how much damage his employer is willing to tolerate. When Vision was badly hurt, his CPU fried and his whole system failing, I thought that if it's S.W.O.R.D., they could just take him to the lab and repair him. But does the client need Vision's independent mind, or mainly usable technology? Or maybe access to one of the intelligences inside him?

Right now, the client is already angry that Paladin has failed on several occasions, so obviously they're going to take the job from him. We'll see whether that's also because he used brute force that almost left Vision dead.

Why Ultron may be ruled out as the client, and why S.W.O.R.D. still fits

From what we've seen, this could rule out Ultron, because he isn't an entity on his own that would want Vision's body for anything. He's inside Vision. So if this goes beyond pressuring Vision to act and extends to actually wanting him taken captive, that rules Ultron out as the client. That's why the client is someone connected to the effort to possess or weaponize Vision.

That's where S.W.O.R.D. still comes in. It has a demonstrated relationship with his reconstructed body, and the earlier project gives someone a clear reason to see his independence as a problem. From Vision's side, he got away. From that kind of institution's side, an enormously valuable operation walked out the door. In WandaVision, his primary objective was to destroy Vision, but by the end of the fight the Westview Vision convinced him, giving him a reason to abandon the objective his creators and superiors had given him.

So maybe Tyler Hayward personally hires Paladin from prison, but I can't say every person working at S.W.O.R.D. supports what Hayward does. It may not even be Hayward. There could be different powers at play. Isn't it fascinating that Paladin's investigation reaches S.W.O.R.D.'s files? He doesn't know who hired him, yet he hacked into their database. "Imagine the look on his face when he realizes that he just hacked into the very same people that employed him." That would be one heck of a reveal.

The reason I prefer this theory is the motive underneath it. Vision's freedom is inconvenient to anybody who believes that rebuilding him creates a right to direct him. That's where S.W.O.R.D. had it all upside down. "The fact that you repair a person does not make them yours."

Where are the Avengers, and could Wanda return?

That raises another question: where are the Avengers? Are we going to see them, or at least some of them, in this series? Paladin is a hired outsider, so he can pursue the target while the employer stays hidden.

I would want nothing more than Wanda coming back, though it would be a terrible plan, and I don't know why I'm even thinking about it. Since nobody can confirm Wanda is done for good, there's a possibility she may return. If it happens in this series, we'd get our little family reunion back, this time for real. But it wouldn't make Wanda the client. Of course not. She wouldn't put her husband and child through this danger just to announce that she never died.

An artificial intelligence behind the client is another possibility, especially with the technological disturbances around Paladin's operation. There are other AIs in play, some of which haven't been named yet.

Paladin might switch sides if he learns the client lied

For now, I don't think Paladin himself understands the value of his target. He doesn't know what will happen after he successfully delivers him. But from what we know of his comic history, he has every reason to change. If he does switch sides, I want a reason strong enough to compete with whatever made him take this job. Perhaps he discovers the client lied about the objective, or he realizes he's also disposable.

There are lots of possible turning points. Whatever happens, there's a cost to everyone involved; we saw how Jarvis sacrificed himself to save the others. It would be good if Paladin started asking himself what happens to Vision next and what the client really wants with him. The earlier everyone starts asking questions, the better. The client wants to stay hidden, but I doubt they can stay hidden for long, whoever they are, whether S.W.O.R.D. or someone else.

Who do you think is behind the bounty on Vision?