WandaVision: The Future Is Scarlet

Y’all alright?

You ok, friends?

The series finale of WandaVision dropped early Friday morning (a few minutes earlier than usual to gag the girls even more) and it. Was. A. Doozy. But we’ll get through it. And I promise not to “Well, in the comics” you to death, we’re focusing on Mickey’s newest MCU smash hit TV program as its own thing. 

The last episode of Wanda’s Trauma Playhouse ended with a climatic battle between the Redhead Executive Producer and her pissed off ancestor Agatha “Stay Mad” Harkness in a multicolored struggle to see who would become master of the Scarlet Witch magic. The action scenes were cute. The last 8 episodes were great storytelling and literal worldbuilding, but I’d been waiting for a long, sparkly, drawn out slugfest between Wanda, Vision and whoever else was behind all this chaos for weeks now. When Wanda bust a magic shot at Necromancer Karen for putting her kids on leashes like she was dragging them across the strip mall, I finally felt like I was watching a tentpole Marvel movie in the comfort of my own room. The girls are throwing spells at each other like a Charmed season finale, set to the backdrop of Modern Family suburbia. Mama Witch is tired of Aggy’s shit, and it’s time for her to go. 

Let’s talk Vision. Boffum. Colored Vision and Nautica Shorts In The Winter Vision. Hayward really snatched up a synthesizer-um synthezoid droid made from Wakandan natural resources and turned it into a weapon of the state? I know Klaw is smiling up at him, cuz that is top tier colonizer behavior. But anyways, Rainbowy & Ivory have a couple of fight scenes akin to a round of Marvel vs. Capcom. You know, when you and your cousin both wanna play as the same character so one of y’all gotta pick the palette swapped version? It was basically that, but instead of one icing the other with a loud finisher that makes your mama bust in the room and threaten an ass whooping, they resolve their differences with…philosophical dialogue? 

The multiracial from-every-continent-in-Africa Vision told his Miracle Whip hued brother that his oppressors have been feeding him lies this whole time. He thought he was programmed to destroy himself…until shown that he WAS himself. The Hellmann Bot’s third eye was opened, reliving all his PAST lives (Jill Scott voice) and thanked his colored brother by…flying away. Not sticking around to see if anyone else may have needed any superpowered assistance, mans hit that White Flight button with tha QUICKNESS.

Monica deserved better. Even if that Pietro wasn’t the real one (a fakeout that wasn’t even funny), can we at least get a quick visual of how he ended up trapping her with ALL the powers she just got vs his purple-powered speed? Can we get a more exciting conclusion than her just taking dude’s hex choker off? Sis was giving mad blue electromagnetic energy, I wanted to see her use it on Silver Couch Surfer. But I guess the budget once again stops short for Black supporting heroes. Monica done ran all through this Black Mirror ass town trying to save this white lady from her damn self and gets yeeted out her house twice, you can’t give my girl some ass-kicking MCU superhero realness? Oh, but she can block bullets to protect this woman’s kids, though. 

I’m not gonna lie, having Billy and Tommy disarm the soldiers was cute, it gave Dash and Violet Incredible teas. But whew, after the year we’ve had I was a bit bothered by the amount of times Monica had a gun shoved in her face during this show. I know she’s just getting started on her super journey, the Skrull agent in the mid-credits scene giving her a message from Tasty Burger Fury was indicative of that. I just wanted to see more. However at the end of the day Teyonah Parris delivered on all levels as Monica Rambeau, giving Wanda the grace she felt she didn’t deserve. 

Now back to Winx Saga- I mean Wanda and Agatha. Agatha undoing the mind control hex on all the people in Westview was a low blow, but it needed to happen. Wanda didn’t realize what she was doing, but she was still holding them hostage as a result of her processing her trauma through her unchecked powers. I know the first thing I’d say if got unwhammied was “OH MY GOD HOW BEHIND AM I ON RENT!?” But it was so satisfying seeing Mrs. Witch stepping into her scarlet bag, watching her disappear and reappear on these foes. When she snuck up behind Agatha and did the mind illusion thing from Age Of Ultron, I was like YASSSS. Sis had her relive her most distressing moments just like she did her last episode, bringing back the dead homies and errthang. You betta give us dark witch imagery!. And it was wild seeing Aggy flip the hex back pon ha like the reverse card in Uno. But y’all…

When we first see that iconic crown materialize on her head…

Just…yes. 

But they weren’t done, y’all. We get a final battle in the sky, purple and red light firing off under ominous red clouds as the neighborhood slowly collapses on itself. Agatha tried so hard to remain the Supreme but…Wanda wasn’t having it. She uses the same spell Agatha used on her in the episode prior to cut her hating ass off from her magic and take her down, allowing her to regain all her power and reach her final form.

When I say “beautiful gowns,” I mean that shit.

Fuck. Me. Up. Wanda. Maximoff. 

Her brand new Scarlet Witch outfit is perfection. The design, the color, the boots, the cloak…and of course the crown. With all you’ve been through up until this point, you betta SERVE, henny. It was so satisfying seeing a 2021 version of Wanda and Vision walking down the street with their two kids, ready to live the rest of their lives together. However, this is not the ending we’re meant to have. It is absolutely heartbreaking to see Wanda say goodnight to her children, and then finally the love of her life before the illusion she created from a part of the Mind Stone disappears in front of her. Another family gone. After a brief reconciliation with Monica (with her victims staring daggers at her), she dons her new outfit and flies away. Who was gonna stop her anyway? It was so interesting watching this finale, it definitely felt like an anti-hero movie. The main character steps into her power with a fancy new costume, and it’s usually a sign of hope for the people. But instead of a shot of the townspeople cheering the hero on as they fly off into the sunset, they watch in shock and horror as the superpowerful being (canonically stronger than Strange) that stripped them of their free will escapes captivity to do with her powers whatever she sees fit. But what they don’t see is her studying for her charmcasting final, learning to control her powers and unlock new ones. If the voices we heard in the end credit scene were who we think they were, it looks like Wanda’s happy ending isn’t destroyed…but delayed.

WandaVision is a mind-bending metanarrative that smartly tackles the subject of grief through decades of sitcom television. In a world that is currently using television to cope with the trauma of loss during a global pandemic, the message hit home harder than I think even the creators planned it to. There were definitely some plot points that I wish had gotten resolved more smoothly, but it was fun to see the MCU flesh out two of its characters that we still didn’t know too much about aside from comic book lore projections. Focusing on this project as it is, and not what it could have been or what it could possibly be leading to, I was fully entertained. There’s nothing like the love for one’s family while you can still hold them, that’s an easy truth. But learning to process how to move on when you can’t hold them anymore is much more challenging. Accepting that fact is half the battle. Magic and metal aside, this show reminds us that grief is part of what makes us human. For what is grief but love persevering?