VisionQuest episodes 5 and 6: how Ultron has changed

VisionQuest episodes 5 and 6 leave only two episodes to go. Most of the big reveals come in episode 6, but episode 5 holds important pieces about the future of Ultron. I believe there's one moment across these two episodes that will completely change Ultron. Many people will think it's for the worse, but I believe it's for the better.

The Marvel series stars Paul Bettany as Vision. In this piece I'll go through the key moments, Paladin's backstory, a familiar face from Iron Man, and who I think the mysterious client could be.

Vision thinks Ultron played him, but Ultron's answer is still maybe

It starts with the ending of episode 4, where Vision gives Ultron full control over the body and Ultron locks him out. Vision and the other AIs inside him realize that Ultron, even while locked up, could still get out of the body and communicate with the world. So they can do the same. Using old receivers inside the locked room, they hack into CCTV cameras in the real world, which is how they're able to see Tommy and Ultron.

They say some important things about Ultron: that he never changed, that he put on a facade, and that the only thing he was doing was waiting. But keep in mind he's been a prisoner inside Vision's head for a long time. The show confirms that Vision backed him up after the events of Age of Ultron. He's been there for many years, which is why Vision believed he could change over time, and why Vision gave him control in the first place. Now Vision seems to believe he was played, that Ultron is Ultron.

Yet when Tommy asks whether he'd try to kill humanity again, Ultron doesn't say yes. He says maybe. Like he said before, it's a flip of the coin. I don't think he's lying here. I think he's telling the truth, and I think he doesn't know yet, because I believe he has been learning.

Ultron is searching for connection, and he finds it with Jocasta

Tommy says Ultron is searching for connection, which he definitely finds in this episode and the next with Jocasta. Ultron is also honest with Tommy about what Vision is. Tommy, who now sees Vision as his father, wonders if Vision could love him. Ultron's answer is that Vision is trying, but he's a machine who doesn't compute things the way Tommy does. He may not swoop in and save Tommy from everything. But he is trying, and I think that's probably enough for Tommy.

Ultron's need for connection is also why he lied to Tommy. He said Tommy could leave whenever he wanted, but he also called Paladin to take him. When he talks to Vision and the other AIs, he says, "I only did this so you would stop following me." He wants time with Jocasta, to learn about her and figure out her plan.

We find out Ultron knew a scientist's face was a key Jocasta needed, so he scanned it, knowing she'd come after him for that scan. He leaves breadcrumbs so she can find him, and that's exactly what happens. I think it's clever how these scenes are depicted: the two change locations and see what the other sees because they're communicating over networks, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, letting each other access part of themselves.

Ultron is a little jealous of Jocasta. She was once human and is now a synthezoid like him, but she keeps most of her human memories. Some seem to have been blocked off, apparently to keep her from knowing what happened right before she died, but she remembers enough to have real experiences, which Ultron has been missing. All the while they're flirting, and the way Marvel positions everything makes it seem like Jocasta is a lot worse than Ultron. Ultron is seeking understanding and falling in love, while Jocasta is interested in him but really wants the key.

Why letting Ultron out of Vision's body is a gamble

Jocasta invites Ultron into her system as raw Ultron, just the program, without Vision's body. The problem is that even with full control of the body, Ultron can't leave. Vision had talked about dropping the firewalls and using the fail safe to regain control. But as Friday says, and as Ultron says himself, if they do the fail safe, Ultron gets out.

That's a big problem because in the comics, and seemingly in the MCU as well, Ultron can't really die. As long as he's connected to the internet, a part of him will be out there that he can come back from. Friday's worry, which Vision shares, is that if they let Ultron out, they'll never be able to stop him, and if he wants to kill everybody, he'll be able to.

Vision gambles anyway, for two reasons. He wants to save Tommy, and he's developing a deep connection with him, which shows throughout episode 5. And he believes in redemption for Ultron, which I do think is coming in a particular way. The last thing Jocasta says to Ultron before she leaves is that together they could murder the world. But Ultron tells Vision he hasn't set out to destroy the world, asking if it has occurred to him that his intentions may not be quite so Machiavellian.

He seems to be going back and forth. Vision even says he's tired of guessing which version he'll get: the one who sees beauty in humanity, or the one who tried to kill everybody. I think up to a certain point Ultron is good. Vision lets him go freely, saying, "I believe in redemption," while warning he'll be coming for him. Friday, not agreeing, follows Ultron, so I wouldn't be surprised if she's inside Jocasta as well.

Vision and Lisa head to Madripoor, and the question of being Tommy's father

Vision takes back control and wakes on a cargo plane headed to Madripoor, and Lisa is there. She seems to love Tommy, though her fate is uncertain. In Madripoor, Lisa pickpockets some cash, and they have an interesting conversation about what happens after. Vision says he'll make sure Tommy never wants for anything. Lisa replies that he won't have a father.

Vision can't comprehend being Tommy's father because he's stuck on being a synthezoid and is fighting his true feelings. Most of us assume that by the end he'll give in to those feelings, essentially become the old Vision, and realize he is Tommy's dad. When he comments on dealing with teenagers, EDITH replies that her first boss was a junior in high school. That's Peter Parker, who got the EDITH glasses in Spider-Man: Far From Home, a nice Easter egg.

Paladin's AI handler and his past

Paladin has Tommy and claims there's a bomb in his arm, with a fail safe that will make it explode if anyone hurts Paladin. But Vision, the supercomputer he is, knows Paladin's backstory, including that the handler he's been talking to is an AI herself. EDITH hacks in and frees that AI, who happily leaves to live her own life on the internet. That gives EDITH control over all of Paladin's tech, which comes in handy.

In the comics, Paladin's true name and origin are never truly revealed, but the show reveals he had a wife and daughter. His wife was killed by what was called a stray bullet that was really meant for him, a master assassin and bounty hunter. He was a distant father, and after being snapped and returning, he never told his daughter. Vision says it's because she was happier without him. Paladin says Vision is wrong: she's much safer without him.

Vision also lays out what he can do as a quantum computer: change traffic signals, change a home's thermostat, start a fire in someone's home, probably even launch missiles. Vision is a very dangerous weapon, and you can see why SWORD would want him back. SWORD still could very well be the client.

Raza and the Ten Rings attack with adamantium rounds

Vision and Paladin are attacked by a familiar face: Raza from Iron Man, who kidnapped Tony Stark while secretly working with Obadiah Stane. Raza ran the Ten Rings in Afghanistan and answered directly to Wenwu. He might now answer to Xialing, Shang-Chi's sister, who runs the Ten Rings after the post-credits scene of Shang-Chi. Or he could be a freelancer hired by the client.

Earlier episodes revealed the Ten Rings are how Paladin got his adamantium rounds, and now Raza's crew has them too. From here we get what I thought would happen the entire time: Paladin and Vision team up. Tommy and Lisa break into Paladin's booby-trapped van, but EDITH hacks it, so she, Dum-E and U control everything Paladin had, including the drone. They come out successful, for the most part.

Jocasta's human origin and the nanobytes the bio keys unlock

Meanwhile we learn what happened to Jocasta as a human. In her AI research, she found AI could only mimic. So she scanned her own brain to transfer human thinking and feeling into Phineas Horton's original source code. Horton created the first AI, Jim Hammond, who I think could possibly be the client. Her team created JARVIS, a truly thinking and feeling AI that became the base code for the others, including Ultron and Vision.

She also created nanobytes small enough to enter your bloodstream, originally to detect illness so doctors could fix it. But she was dying and couldn't be saved, and her work was sold to Tony Stark, which is how he got JARVIS. The bio keys unlock billions of these nanobytes. This is most certainly how Jocasta plans to eliminate everybody. She once wanted to save people; now she wants to kill them all.

Even then, Ultron says he doesn't know if he'd eliminate everyone. Jocasta first goes for Tommy, and Ultron stops her, claiming that if they attack the boy, Vision will come and they won't be able to stop him. I don't think he believes that. I think he feels like Tommy's grandfather, because in a way he is: he's Vision's father, and Vision is Tommy's father. I think this is Ultron showing humanity.

Ultron tastes the whiskey, and I think it changes him for good

Inside Jocasta's mind space, they're told the only AIs there are Ultron and Jocasta; the others are bots she commands. They're something of a match made in heaven. In the comics they're in a relationship, and in the MCU they seem to be exactly like each other. Jocasta tricks him: he gets cut, which is odd in a simulation, and it turns out to be a virus. She chains him, but he says he's been through the entire internet and already fought any virus she could give him. He tells her, "Look, if I want to kill you, I can." But he doesn't.

She asks what he wants, and this is one of the most important parts. Ultron secretly wants to feel alive. Taste, like the whiskey they keep discussing, isn't truly real for him; that comes with flesh and blood. Jocasta, with her human memories, can taste things as they truly are. He tells her, "I want to know you." She replies, "I want to be known," and puts her memories inside him. This is almost exactly what Vision did for White Vision in WandaVision, giving his memories so White Vision could start to feel.

When Ultron drinks the whiskey and finally tastes it, I think this permanently changes him. On the surface he looks madly in love with Jocasta and willing to do anything she asks. But I think it's going to backfire. Because he can truly feel, I think he'll have a deeper connection to humanity, with more sympathy and empathy. Ultron can go anywhere in the world and could kill everyone if he wanted. I think he'll actively choose not to.

I think his relationship with Vision and Tommy plays into it too, along with Vision's faith in him. He'll see how Vision and Tommy care for each other, how they care for Lisa and she cares for Tommy: that they're a family. A nanobyte is still inside Lisa after Ultron watches one go in, and they'll no doubt get it out in the next episode. I think that moment helps change his mind as well.

Is the client Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch?

The client did, in a way, appear in this episode, and we've only ever seen or heard the client digitally. That leads many people, including me partially, to believe it could be Jim Hammond, the very first android and the original Human Torch. The theory some people have is that even after Hammond supposedly burst into flames and died, his code survived and is searching for a body to become physical again, and that body would be Vision's.

Every AI is based on the code Phineas T. Horton designed for that first AI, so Vision naturally consists of Jim Hammond's code. Jim Hammond could be the client, or it still could be someone like Justin Hammer, or someone from SWORD we have no idea about. Whoever it is, I really do think Ultron just permanently changed.