WandaVision



WandaVision is a nine-episode miniseries streamed in early 2021 on Disney+ as part of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprise their Avengers roles as Wanda Maximoff and Vision.

Mere weeks after the Avengers undid Thanos's "snap", one of the restored disappearees, Monica Rambeau,

"Darcy: Wanda recast Pietro?"
 * Arc Geometry: Hexagons.  Hexagons everywhere.  From the opening sequences to the arrangement of certificates on Hayward's office wall to the Hex itself.
 * Arc Words: "For the children", at least in the earlier episodes.
 * And I Must Scream: The native residents of Westview, who are still aware to some degree under the "characters" imposed on them. They can even manage to express themselves through the characters, as demonstrated by Herb and the doctor.
 * Aspect Ratio: Is constantly changing and a clue to where the action takes place.  Anything inside "The Hex" is shown in the old-fashioned 4:3 ratio; anything outside the hex is in 1.88:1 or even 2.35:1.  Crossing the boundary in either direction results in the screen expanding or contracting accordingly.
 * Baleful Polymorph: In general, going through the barrier around Westview and into the town changes what goes through to fit the current setting of the town, from the molecules up.  (With a couple of notable exceptions.)  Objects native to the era within -- for instance, using a 1980s-vintage drone to enter the 1980s version of Westview -- don't get changed, or at least don't get changed noticeably.  Individuals are "rewritten" to fit the setting, with a new identity and personality imposed upon them.
 * When Wanda expands the Hex in episode six, it overtakes and absorbs most of the SWORD base on the outskirts of Westview, and turns it into a circus filled with far more clowns than is usual.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall:
 * The name of episode seven. That episode includes an inversion when Monica forces her way through the barrier around Westview and into the sitcom reality there.
 * A Visual Pun when Wanda ejects Geraldine/Monica from Westview in episode three.
 * Broken Bridge: All the road obstructions in episode seven that happen simply to prevent Darcy and Vision from driving back to Westview from the circus. Eventually Vision gets fed up and remembers he can phase and fly.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The "witness" Jimmy Woo was sent to check on in Westview -- who got mentioned once early on and then was all but forgotten...
 * Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All over the place, once you get out of the black and white era.
 * Agnes always wears something purple.
 * Wanda frequently wears red.
 * Billy always red and Tommy always wears blue and/or green -- which correspond to the colors of their comic book counterparts' costume colors.
 * Monica's powers appear to be colored blue.
 * Continuity Nod:
 * Jimmy Woo from the Ant-Man movies is trying to reach a person of interest to the FBI in Westview, and produces his business card for Monica when they first meet using the sleight-of-hand trick he was trying to learn in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
 * Darcy Lewis from the Thor films appears and has progressed from intern to doctor of astrophysics since we saw her last. SWORD has brought her in as an expert to help deal with the "Westview Anomaly".
 * Monica seems to get a lot of these in the form of snippets of dialogue from other MCU productions.
 * Cool Car: The rover vehicle Monica uses to get back into the Hex in episode seven.
 * Cut and Paste Note: A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the opening credits of episode seven is a ransom-note style message reading "WANDA I KNOW WHAT U ARE DOING".
 * Doing It for the Art: The production team went out of their way to recreate the proper look-and-feel for the various sitcom styles presented, even going so far as to use period cameras and lenses for the earlier episodes, and even filming the first episode with Three Cameras in front of a live Studio Audience (of friends and family of the cast and crew, who had all signed non-disclosure agreements).
 * Drop-In Character: Agnes.
 * Dungeon Bypass: When blocked by an endless series of obstructions that prevent him and Darcy from reaching Westview in episode seven, Vision eventually gets fed up and flies there.
 * Far Side Island: Setting for the "Yo-Magic" commercial in episode six.
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus:
 * In the opening credits of episode seven there is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it frame or two of a Cut and Paste Note-style message reading "WANDA I KNOW WHAT U ARE DOING".
 * Homage: Where do we start?
 * Episode one: I Love Lucy
 * Episode two: The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched
 * Episode three: The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show
 * Episode five: Family Ties, Full House
 * Episode six: Malcolm in the Middle
 * Episode seven: Modern Family, The Office, Happy Endings, The Munsters
 * Episode eight:
 * Episode nine:
 * Episode four has none; it is completely backstory for Monica, Jimmy Woo, and SWORD.
 * Halloween Episode: Episode six, "All New Halloween Spooktacular"
 * Hide Your Children: Despite charity events run "for the children", Westview is remarkably devoid of them except for the Halloween Episode and a line of schoolchildren used as a barrier to keep Darcy and Vision from getting back into town in episode seven.  Lampshaded by Vision at the end of episode five when he points out that he's never seen anyone using a nearby playground.
 * Hide Your Pregnancy: Wanda employs all the usual tricks in episode three to hide her pregnancy from "Geraldine", lampshading their use in series like Bewitched to hide the pregnancy from the viewer.
 * In the Style Of: All the various "theme songs" for the different Sit Coms through which Vision and Wanda's life together progresses are deliberate pastiches of the themes of real Sit Coms.
 * Jump Scare: Two, in episodes three and six; both times Wanda looks at someone and suddenly sees them as they last were in the "real world" -- Vision drained of color and his forehead torn open, Pietro/Peter riddled with bullet holes, and both very dead.
 * Kill the Dog: At the end of her "theme song" in episode seven,  proudly admits to killing "Sparky".
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Neither Wanda nor Vision can remember just how they came to be in Westview.
 * Laugh Track: Used in episodes two through five. (confirm)
 * Line-of-Sight Name: Agnes suggests the name "Sparky" for the dog in episode five because of sparks that fly when he tugs on an electrical cord.
 * Masquerade: Wanda and Vision initially maintain one when they arrive in Westview, but Wanda becomes less and less concerned about hiding their abilities until in episode seven she attacks Monica with her powers in the street in front of their house.
 * Mistaken for Subculture: When Vision comes upon the former SWORD base, now a circus, in episode seven, an obnoxious strong man who seems to be in charge mistakes him a clown who is supposed to assist their new escape artist act.
 * Mockumentary: Episode seven employs the style of early 21st Century series like The Office and Modern Family in which Reality Show-style "interview" segments are interspersed among the story segments, representing the characters' inner thought processes.  Vision suddenly realizing he doesn't have to wait at an eternally-blocked traffic light is represented as him yanking off his lapel mike and walking off the "set".
 * The Other Darrin: Invoked and referenced when Pietro Maximoff shows up on Wanda and Vision's doorstep at the end of episode five, and he's not played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson as he was in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but by Evan Peters, who played him in the Fox X-Men movies.


 * Parody Commercial: Every episode that's presented as a sitcom has a commercial break with... disturbing implications and hints about the story.  In general the same people appear in them, although not all of them in every one.
 * Power Incontinence: Wanda starts showing signs of this as early as episode three.  It gets much worse after she expands the Hex at the end of episode six.
 * Remembered I Could Fly: Vision in episode seven: after one too many road obstructions appear to prevent him from returning to Westview with Darcy, he finally just phases through the roof of the food truck they're in and flies off.  Lampshaded in the Mockumentary segment that's supposed to represent his inner thoughts, Modern Family-style, when he suddenly declares, "Why am I just sitting around here?", pulls off his lapel mike, and walks off the "set".
 * Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Invoked, lampshaded and maybe even mocked with Tommy and Billy going from infants to seven-year-olds in an instant in episode five -- and then aging themselves up to ten a few minutes later so they can keep a dog they found.  Later in the same episode Wanda convinces them not to age themselves up again to escape grieving for the dog after it dies.
 * Stealth Insult: When the expanding Hex engulfs the SWORD base at the end of episode six, it turns into a circus filled with clowns.
 * Stealth Joke: When she, Monica and Jimmy are thrown off the SWORD base by Hayward (and escape their escort), Darcy is the only one to stay behind.  When she reveals herself at the end of episode six, she's handcuffed to a truck, and is unable to escape when Wanda expands the Hex.  She becomes the new escape artist -- wrapped in chains -- for the circus the SWORD base is turned into.  (In a moment of disgust with Vision she simply shrugs and the chains drop off her.)
 * Studio Audience: Used for the I Love Lucy Homage episode and made up of friends and family of the cast and crew who had all signed non-disclosure agreements.
 * Super-Hero Origin: Going through the boundary around Westview alters a person to a molecular level.  Monica Rambeau goes through it three times and ends up empowered like her comic book counterpart.
 * Three Cameras: Used for the I Love Lucy Homage episode.
 * Three-Month-Old Newborn: Tommy and Billy, upon their birth at the end of episode three.
 * Three-Point Landing: Monica makes one when she breaks free of Wanda's attack in episode seven.
 * Tome of Eldritch Lore: The book surrounded by wisps of red light found in Agnes' basement at the end of episode seven.
 * Trapped in TV Land: When we first learn that neither Wanda nor Vision actually remember how they ended up in Westview, a variation of this trope appears to be in play.
 * The Un-Reveal:
 * Monica's unknown engineer friend was given just enough build-up to generate rampant viewer speculation that he might be a major figure up to and including Reed Richards. Turns out she was no one familiar from the comics at all.
 * On the other hand, viewers familiar with Marvel Comics had sussed out that Agnes was actually several weeks before it was confirmed at the end of episode seven, so her (re-)introduction was less a surprise and more "I knew it" for most watchers.
 * Very Special Episode: The actual title of episode 5, which is a self-aware "very special episode".
 * Visual Pun: When Wanda ejects Geraldine/Monica from Westview at the end of episode three, she sends her hurling through four walls.
 * Whole Costume Reference: In episode six, the "Halloween" episode, Vision and Wanda both wear cheap homemade versions of their iconic comic book costumes.  Wanda says hers is a "traditional Sokovian fortune teller", while Vision's is described as a luchadore.

---

Episode titles:


 * 1) Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience
 * 2) Don't Touch That Dial
 * 3) Now in Color
 * 4) We Interrupt This Program
 * 5) On a Very Special Episode...
 * 6) All-New Halloween Spooktacular!
 * 7) Breaking the Fourth Wall

-- TRIVIA PAGE


 * Hey, It's That Guy!:
 * Sharon Davis/"Mrs. Hart" is Kitty Forman.
 * Dottie is Anya.
 * Agnes is Jennifer Barkley and Lily Lebowski.
 * Shout-Out:
 * Monica's initial in-Westview identity, Geraldine, may be a reference to comedian Flip Wilson's "Geraldine" character.
 * The Strong Man with a prominent "S" on his costume in episode seven may be a sly reference to Superman.

--

NIGHTMARE FUEL


 * Monica's first minutes after being restored from "The Blip". Unlike the comical sequences we've seen in other MCU works, Monica comes back in a hospital that's suddenly a madhouse, wondering what happened to her mother, who had been in surgery for cancer.  In between running into people materializing out of thin air, she learns that her mother has been dead for yers, victim of a reappearance of the cancer she had apparently beaten only a few minutes before from Monica's point of view.
 * The "Yo-Magic" commercial from episode six, watching the boy waste away to a skeleton because he can't open the package of yogurt. Not to mention the possible implications for the greater plot of WandaVision when the shark says, "I'm eating Yo-Magic!"