Finales are notoriously difficult to execute successfully when a show is just a simple procedural drama or episodic sitcom. That degree of difficulty grows exponentially when the series has a rabid fan base and has presented a quasi-puzzle box tale throughout its run (and if the show is all of that, plus years of waiting for answers, well, then it’s Lost and we all know what happened when that one aired). This strange opening paragraph is simply me saying that if there’s online backlash about not enough happening in the WandaVision finale, or that not enough Marvel characters showed up to surprise us, or that the villain everyone was hoping to see didn’t materialize (at least, not yet. . .), well, who cares?
Because WandaVision wasn’t built to be a multi-season series with a cliffhanger. It was built to be a catalyst for bringing Wanda Maximoff into the light (by taking her through deep, soul-crushing darkness). It was meant to be an origin story for Monica Rambeau. It was meant, although we didn’t realize it until the finale, to be a way to keep Vision within the MCU, albeit as a different version of the character we grew to love over the course of the series (a true deus ex machina, which I didn’t love – I am now and always will be someone who firmly believes there need to be actual stakes when it comes to the mortality of characters). It ended up being a reminder to us all that Kathryn Hahn is a national treasure and should be in leading roles all the damn time now. And it was meant to help set the stage for upcoming MCU projects.
You aren’t going to see Marvel flexing its muscles to throw in a massive villain on a TV show (something we all should have realized a touch earlier – despite TV being the hot medium of the moment, Marvel isn’t about to waste a reveal like that on Disney+ when it can bring those characters to the masses in a film that many more people will be able to access). I was guilty of falling into the hype machine – although at the end of the review, I’ll touch on some theories about what Big Bads might still be lurking for Doctor Strange – and I lost sight of what the series was trying to show us: Wanda.
Now, I’m not sure the finale was as successful as it hoped in getting us to understand Wanda, but finales shouldn’t be the episodes doing the heavy lifting when it comes to character development. Their function is to tie up the loose ends and put a bow on things. And, while choppy and saddled with a lot more MCU shenanigans than other episodes (to bridge into the next Phase of things), it didn’t sink the ship. But a shaky finale can’t overstate how well the series as a whole was able to flesh out a character who was introduced to us as a villain and then relegated to the background of several films. I like Wanda now. I want to spend more time with her. As someone who enjoys gray characters far more than wholly good or evil, I’m excited to see what’s in store for her as things progress (and I so hope she doesn’t turn into a pawn for another villain and continues to remain an autonomous character, even if a bad guy begins to exert influence over her – I don’t want to see her “saved” by Doctor Strange). And that’s a win in my book.
As I’ve said before, it’s no coincidence that the MCU characters getting TV shows are the ones that need the most fleshing out as Marvel moves into its next phase without three of its tent pole stars in the mix. We need to learn more about Wanda to root for her to master her abilities and thrive as an Avenger – or to grasp the complexities of her new power and all that comes with it as she struggles with the pull of a darker force hinted at by Agatha in her final moments. We need to understand more about Bucky and Sam to care about their roles on the MCU now that Captain America is off enjoying his golden years in solitude. We need to get a deeper look into the light within Hawkeye after we’ve spent so long looking at the dark. So far, Marvel is 1-for-1 in successfully making me care about a tertiary Avenger that they barely had time for in the films, which is more than I hoped for when these series were first announced.
The greatest strength of television is the familiarity it breeds between characters and their audience. No other medium has the ability to tell stories about the same characters, week after week, beamed directly into their audience’s home. Think about your favorite television shows. Doesn’t it feel like you know those characters? You can predict what Monica and Joey will do in a given situation. You know how Benson and Stabler will solve a case and what will set them off. You love Baby Yoda and want to see him protected at all costs. The emotional investment that builds over time is something Marvel is counting on with their latest foray into television for their future Avengers. If you watched all of WandaVision and came away not caring if Wanda destroys the world with her new abilities or would be fine if White Vision sat on a mountain in the Andes and never returned, well, I’m not sure what show you were watching.
The brilliance of setting the series within sitcoms wasn’t just that the forced laughter and joy generated by the cookie cutter world was juxtaposed against the deep grief Wanda was experiencing, but it was that it allowed the show to indulge in that bond between viewer and character. We allowed ourselves to fall in love with Vision and Wanda – and Monica, who emerged as the true hero of the piece (although, again, I certainly could have used more time with her in the finale – and that final discussion with Wanda absolving Wanda of her horrific role in enslaving and torturing a town of innocents was troubling and short-sighted form a writing and character standpoint). It made the twist that so many of us saw coming with Agatha hit harder than it would have in a 2-hour MCU film because we had spent several episodes puzzling her out and getting to know her. As someone who writes about a whole lot of television, it can be easy for me to become cynical about stories, arcs, characters, and plot machinations (and there were plenty of those in WandaVision), but something about this series broke through that tough critic exterior and made me genuinely invest in the story and these characters – even if it didn’t completely stick the landing. And that’s really what Marvel wanted from us all.
The MCU shrunk in a big way at the end of Endgame, with the loss of Tony Stark, Captain America, and Black Widow (even if she has her own prequel film still to come). Allowing Wanda, Vision, Falcon, Winter Soldier, and Hawkeye to take on larger roles within the MCU helps to fill that void. And giving us in-depth looks into what makes them tick helps us to begin to see them as the heroes (or morally ambiguous characters who could go either way in the case of Wanda and White Vision) of the future, and gets us primed to want more of them (hopefully – we’ll see how Falcon and Winter Soldier fare in their upcoming series).
TV bonds us together in a way film doesn’t. We learn to love the friends that show up on our screens each week (there’s a reason Wanda was so drawn to sitcoms as a setting for her utopia – there’s a sense of familiarity there for her to cling to). We talk about them with our real friends and family weekly and discuss what happened and speculate on what is to come. It stays on our pop culture radar longer and makes a deeper emotional impact than a series of film characters we only encounter once or twice a year. And it allows actors the chance to go on a longer and more emotionally compelling journey, as their character grows week to week. WandaVision was a character showcase for two of the most powerful MCU characters, but it was also an acting showcase for Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany. And it turned Kathryn Hahn from a character actor in the minds of most of the world into a star (seriously – the best damn thing WandaVision did was keeping Agatha as a player on the MCU gameboard, even if she’s had her mind wiped).
Was WandaVision a great television series? No, it lacked the deep storytelling that marks the best of the medium and the end spent too much time shoe-horning in the key beats needed for future MCU projects (which, I suppose, is the price of doing TV within the MCU framework). But it certainly rose well above what one would expect from an MCU film. It took the time to dive deep into the psyche of one of the MCU’s most underdeveloped characters and made her shine. It gave Olsen and Hahn a chance to really showcase their talents. And it did the expositional work for future MCU projects without showing too much of the framework connecting the series to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or Captain Marvel 2. That’s no small feat.
So, we can complain all we want that nothing “cool” happened in the finale; that no major Marvel villains or mutant heroes emerged in the end. Or that the fight scene was lame (which, yeah, it was). But to do so misses the point about what WandaVision ultimately wanted to be: A story about how one woman’s grief almost destroyed her and those around her. Wanda emerged from her pain by accepting it as a part of her, which is what we all must do when we confront grief, and she came out stronger – albeit without actually accepting the things she did to the people around her, which one hopes will be something that comes up down the line. Will that strength potentially end up costing her and the rest of the MCU? I think the safe bet on that is oh, absolutely, but that’s a tale for another day. And another movie.
WandaVision Theories/Easter Eggs
— So, no Big Bad this round. I wouldn’t really classify Agatha as a villain (since her whole goal was to increase her own power and not harm anyone else – and she offered to train Wanda in the end, which is in line with her comic counterpart . . . and I suspect we haven’t seen the last of her) and while Wanda was definitely more villain than hero in the end, the show didn’t seem all that concerned with investigating that angle, which was a real shame. Perhaps we’re going to see that dealt with in more depth in Doctor Strange, but it was a real missed opportunity to essentially gloss over her actions in the end, especially after really learning how terrifying the experience was for the people of Westview.
— White Vision is out there and armed with Vision’s memories, which means the MCU wants to have its cake (kill Vision) and eat it, too (bring Vision 2.0 online and give themselves the runway to keep the character and Paul Bettany in the fold). Now, I know that in comics, characters die and are resurrected all the damn time, but I hate it when a series spends a great deal of time and effort stressing that a character is dead only to bring them back almost immediately. It’s cheap and it only serves to teach your audience that they don’t need to worry if people are in danger, because they can always come back. And it’s especially bad within the superhero genre, where we’ve been conditioned to assume they won’t kill off a big name character unless it’s the end of an era kind of deal. So, stop doing this, MCU. If they’re dead, they’re dead.
— So, who was asking for Monica at the mid-credit scene? While it could be Captain Marvel (she was a friend of Maria’s, after all), it’s more likely Nick Fury, who has been hanging with the Skrulls for an undetermined amount of time up in space (as we saw in the credits of Spiderman: Far From Home). Is this her intro into the next Captain Marvel film? Likely, but it could also mean she’s going to play a role in the upcoming Secret Invasion Disney+ series (which is confirmed to have Fury in it). After all, Captain Marvel 2 is still over a year away. Might as well keep Monica hard at work in the mean time.
— Now for the Wanda speculation. As I mentioned last week, Chaos Magic is the purview of the Elder God Chthon, who was banished from Earth and desperately wants to get back. And you know what else is linked to Chthon? That would be the Darkhold – the book Agatha had in her possession. You know, the book astral Scarlet Witch was speed-reading in the end-credit scene. Wanna take bets on who might be popping up in the Doctor Strange film? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
— Also: Note that Wanda was reading the Darkhold the same way Doctor Strange reads. Only Wanda has had zero instruction in the art of magic, so she figured this all out naturally. Which is pretty terrifying. Agatha mentioned that the Scarlet Witch is more powerful than the Sorcerer Supreme, and if you recall, there currently is no Sorcerer Supreme (the last one was killed in Doctor Strange and Doctor Strange hasn’t been deemed worthy yet). So, looks like Strange and Co. have their work cut out for them if Wanda breaks bad. Could we see the early part of House of M after all? I mean, Billy and Tommy are still calling out to Wanda, so it’s not a bad guess.
— So Evan Peters’ Pietro was just a red herring, which would be cute in a normal situation, but not so cute when you are dealing with the MCU about to introduce the multiverse into things. Please don’t pull something like that again, Marvel.
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