WandaVision's post-credits scenes: Monica's cosmic mission and Wanda's Darkhold

Both credits scenes from the WandaVision finale set up many things in the MCU. My read at the time was that the first pointed Monica toward space alongside Nick Fury and a revived SWORD, and that the second, with Wanda poring over the Darkhold, pointed to Chthon as the real force behind her story.

I also had a theory about how Wanda might try to reach her children, and a mixed reaction to the return of Vision, both covered further down.

Jimmy Woo looked set to move up after the Westview cleanup

The first scene picks up almost immediately after Wanda flies out of Westview. In the town center, Jimmy was directing FBI agents so they could give medical and psychological attention to the citizens who had been stuck in an episode of Father Knows Best for the previous week.

Because of Monica's comment about authority looking good on him, I guessed that Woo had been put in charge of the cleanup. Because of his work in Westview, I thought he would probably be moving up. Hayward, by contrast, would probably be going to jail.

Monica, at this point, has fully become Photon. She now possesses superpowers, and they have clearly caught the attention of someone else.

The Tannhäuser Gate is a nod to Blade Runner and to Monica's journey

A special agent leads her into the theater, which is showing a film called Tannhäuser Gate. This is a callback to Blade Runner, namely Roy Batty, who talked about the things he had witnessed as he was dying. The character said, "I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate."

To me, that foreshadows the journey Monica is about to go on. The name Tannhäuser also refers to a knight from German folklore who had to journey into the underworld to find a pagan queen. That's much like how Monica had to travel into the Hex to find the Scarlet Witch. I'll admit that one is a reach.

I think the Skrull's old friend is Nick Fury, not Talos

Inside, the agent transforms into a Skrull. Unfortunately it isn't Talos's daughter, who was Monica's friend in Captain Marvel. She does bring an important mission, though. She says she has been sent by an old friend of Monica's mother.

That could apply to Talos or Nick Fury, but I side more with Fury for a few reasons. First, Fury is with the Skrulls at the end of Far From Home, and they are journeying through space. That film takes place eight months after the show, so it seems he may have met with Monica and then traveled out into the vastness of the stars with her to complete a mission.

During that time, Talos was masquerading as Fury. It makes sense that Fury would select him to stay on Earth while he and Monica journeyed into the cosmos.

SWORD could head back to the stars with Monica in charge

This episode more or less confirmed, through the Darkhold, that Agents of SHIELD is not canon in the MCU. If we stick with the main timeline, SHIELD was disbanded after The Winter Soldier. So Fury has probably been looking for a new agency to work with, and I thought that would likely be SWORD.

In both the comics and the MCU, it's clear SWORD dealt with space matters. Only after the events of the snap did the MCU version change direction. With its acting director no longer the acting director, I thought SWORD would be traveling back to the stars, led by Monica, who has filled her mother's shoes.

The SWORD logo on her uniform is clearly there for a reason. Who knows, they might even meet Daisy, who also traveled into space after Agents of SHIELD. I'm begging Marvel to make it canon.

I believe the second scene is set at Wundagore Mountain, home of the Darkhold

The second scene takes us to what I believe is Wundagore Mountain. I believe that because of the Darkhold. It was in a chamber known as the Darkhold, in this very mountain, that Chthon wrote his book of black magic, the Darkhold. That book is a paramount possession and ties heavily into the series.

I rode the Mephisto train until the very end, but I've since come to think Chthon is the true one behind it all. In the comics, he was the being that bestowed Wanda's powers on her when she was a young girl. As we learned in episode 8, she was always a witch, even in this continuity.

The fact that he wrote the book ties in heavily to this. The villain also possessed Quicksilver in the comics, much like how Agatha possessed Ralph Bohner.

The twins' voices could be a trick, or a sign they're trapped on the astral plane

Wanda is at a cabin surrounded by runes. She strolls back inside, and it's revealed that her Scarlet Witch version is on the astral plane, reading through the Darkhold. At this point she hears the voices of her children, who are clearly still out there.

There are a number of ways to take that. Either Chthon has manifested them as a trick to make Wanda delve deeper into the book, or they're trapped on the astral plane. That is a sort of afterlife, and it could be where their spirits have gone. In Doctor Strange, we saw the title character doing something similar to what plays out here, so we can shut down the idea that there are now two Wandas.

I feel like they're going on a Dark Phoenix trip here, with the alter ego within her being something that could potentially turn to the dark side and destroy the world. She does always have Agatha to turn to, and I thought Agatha would likely become a mentor to her, similar to what she is in the comics.

My theory at the time: Wanda would summon a dark entity alongside her children

The children scream out for help and sound in pain, so it makes sense that Wanda would try to track them down. It was pointed out to me that we never see the kids vanish, and that someone could have snuck in and taken them before the Hex closed.

I thought something different. My belief was that Wanda would try to manifest her children through the Darkhold, but in doing so she would also bring forward a dark entity.

In the comics, Billy and Tommy were originally extensions of Mephisto's soul, and they were used as a way to bring the villain to Earth. The heroes managed to stop him, and the kids disappeared in the process, much the way they did at the end of the series. They have since returned in the comics as fully fledged characters.

White Vision's return is a get out of jail free card I can live with

There's also the White Vision, who is still out there. In the episode it looked like he was going to go all Terminator 2 on everybody, but Vision managed to get through to him and restore his memories. That included his life with Wanda before the snap, and he said, "I am Vision." before flying off.

The character is still alive, and I thought he would likely be the person who has to rein Wanda in from going off the deep end. I'm torn on this. I feel that nearly everyone who dies in the MCU eventually gets brought back, and I wanted some real consequences from Infinity War. Wanda said goodbye to the memory of Vision in the finale, and it seems like letting him return goes back on that.

However, I love Paul Bettany, and I want to see more of Vision. "I suppose it is a get out of jail free card that I can live with." These characters feel like Marvel's first family to me now. That role usually belongs to the Fantastic Four, but I feel they've slotted into it nicely, and I would love to see Wanda bring them back.