If your heart didn’t break during this episode, I don’t know what to tell you.

I want to begin by saying, as someone who adores Wanda and who is one of her biggest fans, I am so so happy that she isn’t as terrible as this entire show tried to make her out to be (also screw Hayward I have some choice words for him). While in the comics Wanda can rotate between good and bad, and while I will still stand behind her through whatever happens, this poor girl has been GRIEVING. As we saw in this episode, all she wanted was to bury her lover’s body and she truly did create the Hex out of pure accident. But as much as I love and adore Wanda and the fact she is not the villain every thing kept making her out to be, let’s get down to some of the real dirt in this episode.

Now this episode really acted as Wanda’s backstory, something we haven’t gotten and therefore we can officially consider this her origin ‘movie’. This episode also confirmed, though, that we likely won’t ever see Aaron Taylor Johnson back as Pietro unless he comes in as part of the Multiverse. But Wanda is officially the Scarlet Witch! So I consider this a win, but also a turning point. She will be the focus of Phase 4 and it is only beginning.

Let’s start with breaking down some of the key players who we didn’t see this episode. Vision, or at least Westview Vision, has been suspiciously flying back home for awhile. But the fact we even have to make a distinction brings us to likely the most important part of this episode. One, Wanda didn’t steal his body and reanimate it, which is definitely a creepy weight off our shoulders. But two, Vision (the OG) has been reanimated officially by Hayward (I really hate this guy). Now my thoughts on White Vision are that I think he is going to be Ultron. Just follow along and hear my out, because I get it we’ve been there and done that with Ultron already. However, the hints and remarks towards things we’ve seen in AOU in WandaVision are too obvious to ignore. Not to mention, if you want to look at it yourself, go check out who’s in the cast of WandaVision on Google. Lastly, we need to remember that Vision’s body was originally supposed to be Ultron’s new form, but the Avengers took it from him and then made Vision himself. Ultron himself also reiterated how he was everywhere and all he needed was to survive in one small form to be able to live. Not to mention, in the first episode, Hayward makes a remark about protecting the world, a mission Ultron sort of had until he decided the only way to save it was to just about destroy it.

We also don’t see our believed fake Pietro in this episode, who luckily we found out was being controlled by Agatha. This not only means that the Multiverse is still a prevalent arc, but also I don’t have to hate Evan Peters because he isn’t purposefully the bad guy. Last we saw him, he was with Monica, who also was missing from this episode. So this means we have Pietro, Monica, Wanda, Agatha, and two Visions to look out for in a massive battle scene. This doesn’t even consider the possible new players, one of which I still stand behind being Dr. Strange.

Now let’s talk about the whole Mephisto thing. I will continue to stand by Agatha not being the big bad of this show, but I’m not sure if Mephisto is. I think he is the big bad of much, much more and Marvel wanted us to think and consider him so that he was on the radar in the future. He plays many roles in the comics and, while the MCU doesn’t do exactly as the comics, they are great outlines for what may be coming. I won’t continue to point fingers towards who might be Mephisto, but I will still say he is coming somewhere down the road.

Speaking of Agatha, gotta love the villain. Her magic being purple and her not aging for four hundred years speaks to dark magic, once again tying this episode to the possible appearance and connection to Dr. Strange. Let’s see, we have a ton of magic, including dark magic, and the Multiverse, sounds pretty Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness if you ask me.

With the final battle coming in the season finale, I want to discuss our most important character, which is Wanda. Once again, yay she didn’t steal a corpse! Wanda quite literally split her soul in half to create this new version of Vision, which is powered by her powers and therefore explains why he was falling apart upon leaving the Hex. However, because he is powered by her magic, which partially comes from the soul stone and the other part seemingly being in her already (mutant?) before Hydra experimentation, he appears to have his usual powers from before his death, including the power of the stone itself. This comes down to what Agatha calls chaos magic, which seems to be what comes with the title of the Scarlet Witch, bestowed upon Wanda officially in this episode, but first when the stone seemingly chose her. Now the theories run either that it was future Wanda in the stone or that it was the spirit/power of the trapped Scarlet Witch. I think that a version of the Scarlet Witch may have lost a battle to Agatha and ended up trapped in the stone by her, but Wanda was then chosen to take the mantle and become the more powerful version of Scarlet Witch. Agatha seemed desperate to reach her conclusion about Wanda, and I think what makes Wanda especially dangerous is that a lot of power’s strength comes from her emotions, therefore making her nuclear at various moments. We see this with the Hex creation, Wanda feeling limitless pain accidentally creating an entire new reality where she initially cannot be hurt. She attempts to give everyone in town a better life and unfortunately, doesn’t realize her grief is hurting them instead. Power such as hers is a formidable match and it will be intriguing to see what or who comes to match it, since I don’t think Agatha has it in her.

My final thoughts come with the Nexus, which is where multiple realities (multiverses) collide. The Hex has become a Nexus and therefore I think this is how the Spidermen and possibly other mutants come into play. There are various ways the Nexus can fit into things, but keep in mind the Nexus in AOU had to deal with the internet where they were concerned Ultron would hide. I hate to say it, but this isn’t a coincidence.

My best recommendation from this episode to you all is to rewatch Age of Ultron before next week’s season finale. Other than that, I wish everyone the best of luck coping with this episode and with the fact we have to wait until next Friday to (hopefully) get some answers. The anxiety is definitely running high that is for sure. As always comment your thoughts or message me if you want me to directly touch on something specific or go more in depth about a topic. See everyone next week for the conclusion of WandaVision.

Image: “WandaVision Episode 8”, Brett White, Decider