The Series Finale
Episode 9 of WandaVision begins with Wanda using her powers and knocking back Agatha. She forces the boys to leave as Agatha reveals she’s using her magic against the undeserving. Only, White Vision arrives and grabs Wanda’s face. It’s clear this is a very different Vision to the one we’ve come accustomed to, leading to a showdown between the two versions of Vision. While they fight, Wanda squares off against Agatha. The witch claims that Wanda’s destined to destroy the world and cuts the strings to Wanda’s “meat puppets.” The people under her spell surround Wanda and begin pleading for help. In true MCU fashion, a giant fight ensues as the two versions of Vision square off against one another while Wanda breaks the anomaly using her powers. With cracks in the forcefield, Agatha reminds Wanda that she can either save Westview or save her family. Unfortunately she chooses the latter when she sees Vision and the kids start to fade away. Outside the anomaly, Jimmy Woo bluffs his way into (and out of) handcuffs, making a quick call to the authorities to come and help. At the same time, Monica finds herself with Pietro, or more specifically Ralph who’s under Wanda’s control. With soldiers managing to squeeze in during the power struggle, Agatha and Wanda both use their magic as Monica too uses her powers to get involved in the fight. Vision manages to help White Vision break his programming protocol and watches as this new version flies away. Wanda and Agatha trade magical blasts, with Agatha draining Wanda with every stream of magic she throws at her. However, Agatha somehow runs out of juice and isn’t able to hit blasts of her own. Wanda then shows off her own trump card. She’s made runes around the anomaly. It’s a clever play and one that sees Wanda embrace her origins and conjure forth the power of Scarlett witch. Wanda decides to keep Agatha inside her own prison, transforming her into the nosey neighbour inside the sitcom. Agatha calls her cruel just before she does it, as Wanda brushes aside these claims and locks up Agatha in a prison of her own making. Wanda begins to shrink the anomaly now that the threats are gone, heading back home with Vision and tucking the kids in after the big CGI fight. With the anomaly shrinking, Vision and Wanda talk for the final time. Wanda admits that Vision is a piece of the Mind Stone that lives inside her; he’s her sadness and hope but mostly her love. The two say goodbye and the world, including everything in Westview, fades from view. Wanda walks away, through Westview where the residents all shoot nasty glances her way. Wanda apologizes to Monica (not to anyone else mind you) and says goodbye, flying off scot-free. Hayward is apprehended in the wake of this too, while Monica heads into the movie theatre for a private meeting. A Kree transforms though and reveals that there’s a meeting planned, pointing up at the sky as the location. Meanwhile, a post-credit sequence reveals that Wanda is living alone in a wood hut by the river, backdropped by rolling hills. She also seems to be channeling her inner-Scarlett Witch as she begins furiously reading Agatha’s book
The Episode Review
WandaVision bows out with a pretty lacklustre and cliched ending. In a way, this show feels like a succulent cheeseburger sandwiched between two stale, tough pieces of bread. This season started slowly, with three slow-burn episodes of mystery and dead-pan sitcom jokes that mis-fired more than they hit. All of this eventually built up to a really intriguing, original and interesting run of episodes in the middle, before topping things off with a cleverly written penultimate episode that shed more light on the past and Wanda’s plight. Then the finale takes everything that was unique and interesting about this show and glosses over all of it with a generic lick of MCU CGI. Sure the fighting looks good and the show ends on a bombastic note, but it also loses some of the charm and character inherent with this show. There’s a reason Doctor Strange stands out as one of the better stand-alone movies in the MCU and that stems from its ending. There’s no clever resolution here (outside the Runes) and instead the usual gimmick of a giant battle is the conclusion. This time though it feels like a scene ripped right from Dragon Ball Z. WandaVision has certainly been one of the more unique shows of the year though, and perhaps that’s why this feels like such a bitter pill to swallow; ending with a whimper rather than a roar. The finale certainly leaves many questions on the table though, including exactly what happened to White Vision and what Agatha’s fate is likely to be going forward. It’s perhaps a little disconcerting that Wanda gets no comeuppance for her actions either, especially after enslaving all these people for such a long time. Given how she apologized to Monica personally, would it not have been more emotionally engaging and fitting for her to apologize to everyone in Westview? Still, despite that WandaVision bows with an enjoyable enough finale but one that slaps on CGI and bombastic action rather than what actually made this show so compelling – character-driven drama and mystery.
