Friday, February 26, 2021

WandaVision, “Previously On”, Review!

Last episode had a revealation, in all of the strangeness, the boys staying over at Agnes’ house, we had Wanda going to her house.  Agnes says they are playing in the basement and Wanda walks down there.  She finds that the basement is dark with vines and a book that made me immediately think Darkhold!  This was a dangerous magical artifact that was was first seen in Marvel Spotlight #4 (1972) and also appeared in season four of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and season three of Runaways. Agnes introduces herself as Agatha Harkness!  She stares and sends purple energy around Wanda’s eyes, the Power Stone, that was found by the Guardians of the Galaxy?  Agatha transforms herself from witch to 50’s housewife, we get the new theme song and intro to her show, Agatha All Along!  She uses her purple magic during Wanda and Vision’s magic show, then a zap to the neighbor, Herb, trimming the hedges.  When Pietro shows up at Wanda’s door, we see his back is covered with purple energy and Agatha having a picnic using her magic on the lawn.  She is also behind the camera filming Wanda, then says she killed Sparky with a witch’s laugh!       


We don't get Monica, Darcy, and Jimmy in this episode, but that's okay.  The Marvel Studio logo shifts into purple, the color of Agatha's powers, and we get a cloaked figure holding a torch leading three others in Salem, Massachusetts, 1693.  Agatha is being taken by two women, pleading, to a stake.  It is set up to look like the Salem Witch Trials, but these are witches taking Agatha.  Her arms are bound magically behind the stake.  A woman says that Agatha betrayed her coven.  The witches start chanting, their hands glow blue, Agatha tries pleading again… to her mother (Kate Forbes)!  The blue is the color of the Space Stone (Tesseract).  She is blasted by all of the witches and screams!  Her throat turns red and transforms the blasts into purple.  It seems like this magic doesn't come from the Infinity Stone, but draws on energy like them.  Agatha taps into power like the Reality Stone (Aether) and turns the blue into the purple of the Power Stone.  


The witches start aging and now they scream.  Agatha feels her power.  Her mother blasts her, but Agatha frees herself from the binding spell and sends all of the witches down.  Her mother is flying now and with a blue energy crown blasts her a final time.  The energy transforms into purple, aging her mother, who drops down, gruesome.  Agatha takes the brooch from her mother’s corpse and flies away.  In the present, Agatha is petting her bunny from the magic show, Señor Scratchy, and sees Wanda’s eyes flash red.  Wanda tries to form a hex, but nothing happens, instead Agatha binds and lifts her off the ground! Agatha points out the protective spell in the runes around the room.  She tells Wanda she wanted her to reveal herself and was close with “fake Pietro.”  Hahn, whom fans (that I formerly dub WandaVisionaries) suddenly love, revels in her villainy.  Agatha plucks a bug from a shelf and casts a spell on it to send to Wanda.  She is impressed that Wanda casts spells that transform Westview and its residents.  Agatha turns the bug into a small bird before sending it to be fed by Señor Scratchy.  


She wants to know how Wanda created Westview.  Agatha tears out a strand of hair from Wanda, uh-oh, power over her.  She sends the hair into a door.  Wanda refuses to go along and then Agatha lets her hear her kids, Tommy and Billy, pleading.  They enter a room and Wanda sees her mother, Iryna (Ilana Kohanchi).  She greets her husband, Olek (Daniyar), who has brought back a suitcase of sitcom DVDs he wants to sell.  Young Pietro (Joshua Begelman) wants them to speak in English.  Agatha pushes Wanda forward to be transformed to her younger self (Sophia Gaidarova).  Oleg finds Wanda’s DVD pick behind a curtain.  He shows his daughter a collection of the Dick Van Dyke Show.  Wanda is excited to see her favorite show with her brother.  She is entranced by Mary Tyler Moore.  The bedroom and kitchen is what saw in Wanda’s house!  The flashback is suddenly broken by a thunderbolt!  



We see Wanda suddenly on the floor of an apartment devasted by an explosion.  Pietro takes her away.  A Stark Industries bomb falls down in front of them, they are trapped, this is an intense scene of war refugees.  I don’t see how anyone could love Iron Man after this moment.  A television plays the Dick Van Dyke sitcom next to the bomb.  Wanda tries to reach out with her hand and is yanked back into adult Wanda.   Agatha asks if she used a probability hex on the bomb.  Wanda says they were trapped with the defective bomb for two days.  Agatha wants to learn more.  Another door with a Hydra symbol opens.  She is forcing Wanda to confront her traumas.  Wanda walks forward and we see her as a refugee entering a room with the Loki staff.  She says her name and that she is a volunteer.  The Hydra scientists behind the wall take notes.  The Mind Stone lifts from Loki’s staff.  It shifts into a yellow color and flares with power.  


Then, she collapses with the doctors checking on her.  Later, Wanda watches the Brady Bunch in her room, as the scientists go over the recording.  Agatha reveals another door.  We find Wanda at the Avenger’s Compound with Vision, this is disturbing to see their life outside of Westview, they are watching Bryan Cranston (Hal) in Malcolm in the Middle.  She admits to Vision that she wants to see Pietro again.  Vision tries to comfort her in his own loneliness and laughs at the show.  Agatha mentions that Pietro and Vision died and wants to know what Wanda was thinking with Vision gone.  Agatha opens another door to S.W.O.R.D.  Wanda demands to have Vision’s body returned to her, but a security guard refuses.  She is given permission and enters the office of Director Hayward.  He takes her to see the S.W.O.R.D. technicians working on Vision’s body.  Hayward says “He isn’t yours.”  He is of course the villain of the series.  


Wanda sheds a single tear and then shatters the window.  She flies down to the laboratory, Hayward has the S.W.O.R.D. guards stand down, and she checks on Vision, but senses nothing.  Wanda walks away to get into her car.  Next to her is a note.  She drives to Westview, New Jersey, and sees the Westview residents.  Wanda drives up to a house under construction, the note is a property deed, there is the words “To Grow Old In - V", a note from Vision to build a life there.  She falls down crying, unleashes her power, it looks like the red stone is in her chest and she transforms the town into the sitcom 50’s.  Her power rebuilds Vision!  Sitcom Vision in black and white sees Wanda transformed into b&w sitcom wife.  They kiss on the couch to watch tv.  Current Wanda sees the studio lights around the home set.  Agatha claps in the audience seats.  There is a confrontation and Agatha mentions that it is chaos magic.   In the comics, Agatha teaches Wanda how to use the chaos magic that affects probability.   I imagine that after the battle, Agatha takes away her sons to some dimension, they may not be able to walk out of Westview after the bubble bursts, to age them up to Wiccan and Speed.  There is an end credit scene!  This episode of WandaVision is intense, I want to go back to sitcom world!  


Four Mind Stones out of Five!  


#WandaVision, #PreviouslyOn, #IlanaKohanchi, #Daniyar, #JoshuaBegelman, #SophiaGaidarova

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