Episode 6 of WandaVision on the Disney+ streaming service has delivered many understated answers to the questions created by it’s previous chapters. The most important project attached to Marvel Comics’ live action history has been Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. This singular movie proved that the motion picture industry was ready to tell the next level of storytelling by properly matching superhuman mythology & relatable experiences visually for the consumers. Leaps & bounds have been taken since that 2002 classic. As much as Jon Favreau’s Iron Man (2008) proved Marvel was best to tell their own stories, WandaVision has proved that there is no limit whatsoever to the combination of genres that can be used to share it’s lore. I do not consider WandaVision a good entry point for brand new Marvel fans, but if you can enjoy this series it’s all uphill from here!
The first three episodes have conveyed most of their messaging to fans through symbology. A transition began in Episode 4 where the field of view expanded for us to be exposed to more of the background story that created Wanda Maximoff’s alternate reality; past and present. Now that Evan Peters has landed in the middle of all the chaos, Jac Schaeffer & Matt Shakman have upped the ante again and presented us with the next phase in this TV show. Where the easter eggs may have been props & pictures before, I found the majority of this episode’s clues in lyrics, scripted dialogue & creative inferences. In order to follow the train of thought for this series and Phase 4, I recommend that the reader catch up on my previous articles contributed to The Illuminerdi. Return here afterwards to join me for the future.
This episode begins with a 1990’s styled music video intro. The lyrics to the theme song do everything to set the tone & stage to move the story forward. We left off with Wanda & Vision’s heated argument (over the ethics of her controlling the will of everyone in Westview) being interrupted by a doppelgänger presented as Wanda’s murdered brother, Pietro (played by Evan Peters who has played a different iteration of the same character in Fox’s X-Men franchise). The cliffhanger from Episode 5 is justified by these lyrics:
"Wanda WandaVision Don't try to fight the chaos Don't question what you've done The game can try to play us Don't let it stop the fun Somedays it's all confusion Easy come and easy go But if it's all an illusion Sit back, enjoy the show Let's keep it going, let's keep it going Through each distorted day Let's keep it going Though there may be no way of knowing Who's coming by to play"
The lyrics confirm that this show has now become all about Elizabeth Olsen & Evan Peter’s characters; at least for this “All-New Halloween Spooktacular“ episode. There is an easter egg on the back of Vision’s newspaper: “Westview Appliances, Otherworldly Deals”. Connecting to my previous article that exhibited a clue on Vision’s newspaper alluding to ‘Lights over Westview’, the image of a spaceship hovering over a TV & console, what looks like an alien on the screen in the ad, and other tidbits have finally brought me to believe Director Tyler Hayward is most likely Kree or Skrull (I will build on this later on).
The art of seduction is being played at a high level with Pietro coercing his way into the WandaVision home & planting himself as the “deadbeat” uncle sleeping on the couch. History is made with Billy Maximoff being the first character to ever break the 4th wall in a major Marvel Studios project. Although Peter Parker was talking to the camera in the beginning of Spider-Man: Homecoming, the intent was clearly not to speak to the viewer outside of Peter’s reality. The twins are clearly aware of life outside of Westview, and Billy has shown signs of cosmic awareness already.
Based on the original release schedule (prior to the pandemic of 2020), I believe the Halloween motif was meant to be a big deal. I still think it’s possible that it will connect to other shows down the line. The dialogue between Pietro & the boys is disarming as “Uncle P” seems to have a real affinity for the kids (as if they were his own). His line about ‘blood being thicker than water’ doesn’t go unnoticed. This holiday theme is perfect for explaining the incredibly dramatic costumes attributed to Scarlet Witch & The Vision in the comics. Wanda has now explained that her costume is modeled after a Sokovian fortune teller and Vision relents that he looks like a Mexican wrestler. All 1980s Marvel fans should’ve gotten a kick out of that.
The Maximoff “men” share in the stereotypical manchild tradition of shotgunning a can. In this case, it’s a can of Kane/Kāne, lemon/lime soda. Vision makes a point to clarify they’re drinking “high fructose corn syrup” for the censors. This easter egg may be the most ambiguous one I have seen to date:
- “Kane”, first speaks to my Christian upbringing. Spelled in many different ways, Kane is the firstborn of twin sons from Adam & Eve (Yes, TWINS! Check the original text). The name is biblical but also means murderer. Kane is the first killer. It is used in the slang phrase, “raising Cain” which is equivalent to the phrase “raising Hell”. You can see how this is easily a Mephisto easter egg, right?
- Keeping the same spelling, Kane is also an easter egg alluding to the the mercenary, Garrison Kane. Kane was the youngest member of the mutant, Cable’s “brothers in arms” called “Six Pack”. He would be betrayed and lose his limbs. They would be replaced with liquid metal cybernetics from the future. Before his death, Kane would be associated with A.I.M. and the second Weapon X program. Both organizations are of interest in Phase 4 due to Agent Franklin’s beekeeper transformation in Episode 4, the upcoming first appearance of Madripoor in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier and the litany of teases and clues from The Infinity Saga.
- Upon looking at the can label, I first saw the word Kāne (pronounced Kah-nay). Kāne is the Hawaiian word for men. This is also the name of an obscure character that I would love for MARVEL to develop. Kāne (First appearance; under the alias Tame: Thor Vol. 1 #300, 1980) is the leader of The Akua, a race of superhumans that were historically worshipped by the people of The Pacific Islands. This would seem to be a stretch, but with the scientific precision & accuracy of the WandaVision production team I tend to give the more ambiguous clues a closer look. Note that the soda is lemon-lime flavor. The lemon fruit is actually a “descendant” of the lime, which originated in the same region Kāne would have been worshipped; Southeast Asia.
- Addendum: Wanda & Vision had their honeymoon in French Polynesia. This was in Avengers Vol. 1 #137. This also the issue where Hank McCoy, The Beast applies to be an Avenger. Coincidence? To be honest, I don’t believe in them but this easter egg was too rich not to explore all the way.
Moving off the couch, Vision is clearly out from under Wanda’s charms at this point. Billy even speaks to us about the tension between his parents. This moment is when all the Malcolm In The Middle nods come together for me. Vision lies to Wanda about working with the neighborhood watch to create free time for him to seek answers about The Maximoff/Westview Anomaly. Pietro jumps at the opportunity to “play Dad” for a while, changing he and Tommy into matching & makeshift 1980’s Quicksilver outfits. Pietro’s hair looks more trollish & demonic than any iteration of Quicksilver’s do that I can recall. Wanda warns Pietro to behave or she will turn him into a pickled herring. Possibly being a red herring in this story, Pietro goes along with her wishes. Marvel continues feeding the Mephisto mythos more and more.
Switching to outside The Hex, there were two scenes that stuck with me here:
- The SWORD team brings the 1980’s Stark Technology drone back into the camp for studies. It is still scintillating & flashing with red energy that looks like it came directly from Wanda. We’ve never seen Wanda’s powers visibly leave a lasting light on an object or person like this before. This causes me to harken back to Darcy’s CMBR (Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation) findings. Are Wanda’s radiation levels increasing as she exerts more energy? I think so.
- The other scene that got me excited was seeing Jimmy Woo knock a few SWORD agents out! Pardon my appreciation for violence here. Up until this point the character Jimmy Woo was being used completely for comedic relief. He had never thrown a punch in Ant-Man And The Wasp. I was worried that his background of being a skilled and serious fighter in the comics would be overlooked. The quick work he & Monica make of the soldiers gives me hope that an Agents Of Atlas project is right around the corner. It also allows me to imagine how he, being a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, could work in the Shang-Chi storyline as well. It would eventually have become corny for Jimmy not to kick ass.
Back in The Hex, the Trick or Treating is under way. Pietro gives us another Mephisto clue by encouraging the twins to raise Kane by yelling out “Unleash Hell, demon spawn!” (See how that soda can clue stacked up so quickly?). Avoiding Wanda’s questions, Pietro tries to run off with the twins, but not before Tommy brilliantly says the phrase “kick-ass” which triggers Wanda to repeat it. This is one of those creative inferences that I alluded to. Wanda wants to know why Evan Peters’ Pietro doesn’t look like Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s version; her brother in The MCU. Both Peters and Taylor-Johnson starred in the movie, Kick-Ass together and this was a way to jog all of our memories; including Wanda’s. Well done.
Another couple creative inferences in this scene are perfectly executed once Pietro joins the twins in pranking all of Westview at super speed. We see one of my favorite characters, David Payton’s Herb dressed up like Frankenstein. I would tell you that High Evolutionary will end up looking like that in the comic but I promised to let that theory go… for now. As Herb’s dialogue with Wanda is interrupted by a complaint call that stranger things are happening, we see a flash of an image: Quicksilver smashing pumpkins with the twins. This is just out my head, and would be miraculous if it had anything to do with the production team’s intent but… the band, Smashing Pumpkins’ 2018 Halloween single, Silvery Sometimes (Ghost) came to mind. The band is actually in the video watching themselves on TV. The chorus of the song repeats, “We’re in the middle, we’re in the middle, Ghosts”. Being that this episode is the “Malcolm In The Middle episode”, I had a lot fun connecting those dots. How crazy was that? I’ll take it one more level deeper. Billy Corgan, lead singer of The Smashing Pumpkins co-wrote The Hole’s single, Celebrity Skin that appeared in the Marvel Studios movie, Captain Marvel, along with their album poster for Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness; which is what Wanda is feeling this whole time (melancholy & infinite sadness). (Like how I brought that full circle? LOL. Wait until the YouTube channel is officially launched!) All of this happens in a blink of an eye. Wanda realizes Vision lied to her about the neighborhood watch. Herb asks Wanda if she ‘wants anything changed’ which totally blows my mind because this means Herb is different than the majority of the people in Westview; we just don’t know how or why yet.
We see the agony some of the people on the outskirts of Westview are enduring. It appears the farther they are from Wanda or the closer they are to The Hex, the less activity. They are either stuck in place like statues or limited to a repetitive motion like broken robots.
The Yo Magic commercial is still all about Wanda & Pietro to me. The shark talks just like Pietro. The boy is a desperate redhead suffering from loneliness & hunger; obvious metaphors. The boy represents all of the shark’s victims. The shark snacks on magic…your magic. As the boy is unable to feed off magic, he dies. The prevailing theory in my mind is the more Wanda uses her powers, the more powerful the villain behind the scene gets. Remember when I alluded to Wanda emitting more radiation as time went on? Doesn’t the time lapse of the boy in the Yo Magic commercial look like he could have been dying from radiation poisoning?
Zooming pass the lies & illusions Pietro seems to be feeding Wanda, Tommy’s powers emerge. He is Speed; confirmed. They are warned not to go pass Ellis Avenue (referring to one of my favorite Marvel writers, Warren Ellis (Iron Man’s Extremis story) and/or President Ellis from Iron Man 3) and speed off.
Monica, Jimmy & Darcy sneak back into the Westview SWORD encampment after being kicked out by Director Hayward. His comments earlier in the show exhibit a slight disdain for “the enhanced”; especially Captain Marvel. Based on his clue list (including a globe of the Earth’s moon in his office), I am leaning toward him being a Kree spy, but I am convinced he is an alien nonetheless. At this point I suspect that he may have taken the real Pietro Maximoff”s body (like Vision’s body) and been experimenting with it on the moon. That would be a solid way to bring Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver back. Anyway, we never get to see Hayward’s reaction to Pietro’s recasted celebrity skin, but we do get to see Monica’s, and it’s a complete surprise. The three musketeers have made their way into the IT tent so they can hack into Hayward’s files and find out his secrets:
We first see a screen page that says, “Firewall I.C.E. Det Protocol. This could be reference to The ICE-Box Detention Center which is a super-max superhuman prison in Canada that appeared in Fox’s Deadpool 2 movie. It should be noted that this prison is also connected to The Weapon X program and first appears in team member Maverick‘s solo series.
Next, Darcy sees that Hayward “found a way to look through the boundary” from a bird’s eye view (remember Vision’s newspaper easter eggs). The monitor is primarily detecting radiation decay with Vision’s vibranium being the focal point. Why is Hayward so focused on Vision when Wanda is the prime target and obviously emitting her own radiation (i.e. the Stark drone)?
The scene cuts to Vision searching Westview for answers. He finds Agnes at Ellis Avenue & Rolling Hill Drive. She is apparently stuck like the rest of the people on the outskirts. This loss of function doesn’t affect Vision. He wakes Agnes up the same way he did Norm in Episode 4. This is the scene from all the trailers where she tells Vision that he’s dead. Vis doesn’t know what an Avenger is. His memory seems to have been wiped while in SWORD’s custody. He heads across Ellis Ave. toward the barrier after reinserting Agnes into the hex anomaly.
Cutting back to Monica & Co., a text from someone in SWORD (the logo is on the screen) comes in. Monica says “her guy” has the Hex Tank over the ridge. There is a huge mystery about whether the aerospace engineer is a male or female. I suspect we may see Hulkling. I am aware that it could be Reed Richards, Hank McCoy, or Adam Brashear as well. My bet’s on Teddy Altman.
Before said text comes in, Darcy finds a top secret medical report block pointer that rolls through different projects & subjects (C4-113, DF-456, M5-247, R4-123, Ray Johnson & Monica Rambeau). This is huge. Within the same few seconds I see two clues that possibly allude to the existence of the Weapon X Program, ICE Box and Ray Johnson (the alias for Team X member John Wraith). Monica’s files are explained to be in this folder as well because her cells have mutated twice since she’s crossed The Hex. This is confirmation that her x-rays were unreadable due to her powers developing. Because this group of medical files have two superhumans listed, my guess is that the other files are of other enhanced or supernatural beings including the Fantastic Four. File R4-123 (Richards 4 – 123?) reminds me of the scene in Spider-Man: Far From Home where we see a wall at Times Square hinting at something coming soon with a “1, 2, 3…”. I am of the mind that Avengers Tower will rightfully become what it is in the comics, the headquarters of The FF, based on it’s location in New York City.
As Jimmy & Monica resolve to rendezvous with the mysterious aerospace engineer & the Hex Tank. Darcy decides to remain behind and sift through the rest of Hayward’s files and finds CATARACT, Classified Weapons Intel. All kinds of things go through my mind trying to figure this easter egg out. Both Vision and Pietro scare Wanda with the image of them being dead and eyes clouded like a severe case of cataracts. I can’t recall or find a reasonable connection to “cataract”, but I still believe that this show will tell us more about what happened since the end of Captain Marvel.
While Vision attempts to breach The Hex, Wanda & Pietro discuss the mystery of where all the children of Westview suddenly came from, how Wanda’s taken control of everyone’s life “in an ethical way” (according to Pietro), and how her powers have increased. Suffice to say, grief is the cause of it all. Grief may very well be the main villain in this show; not Mephisto, not Nightmare or any tangible character.
The climax of the episode is once again at the end. The cliffhanger begins with Vis’ body being ripped apart each step that he takes outside of The Hex until he dies again. Darcy blows her cover and tries to urge Hayward & SWORD to help Vision. They do no such thing, but they do handcuff her to a military truck. As Vision is dying, Billy’s powers arrive. He possess the ability to manipulate reality like Wanda but also has cosmic awareness. Billy can hear & see what’s going on everywhere at once but his father’s cry for help is the loudest. The twins alert Wanda to Vision dying. Pietro shows that he is aware of Vision dying once before. How, if he was resurrected so recently? It’s clear he is not her brother and Wanda blasts him into a fake Halloween graveyard. She then stops everything, goes nuclear & expands The Hex outward & upward in order to bring Vision back to life again. Darcy is caught in the radius along with the entire SWORD camp. Monica & Jimmy can see the Hex growing from their rearview mirror. Hayward barely escapes while his team and camp are turned into a traveling circus. The episode ends with The Hex growing. Due to this being in New Jersey and Ms. Marvel being from the same state, I think it would be the Marvel thing to do by using The Hex to explain how The Nuhumans are transformed. Because I believe Hayward may be Kree, I leave the idea open that Ms. Marvel may be given a classic Inhuman origin. I’d rather the classic origin story but…it’s above me now.
What do you think about the new clues & theories? Did I miss something important? Will you share any part of this theory or article with others? Please let me know by subscribing and leaving a comment. You can also reach me at @3vry1lvsgdstry on Twitter. Thanks for reading True Believer. Be well. Manchild out.
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