Spoilers Ahead
“What is grief if not love persevering”- Vision
The show that everyone has been talking about for the past month and caused Disneyplus to crash not once, but twice, WandaVision. WandaVision as stated in the title is about Wanda and Vision the two avengers and all the events that take place for Wanda Maximoff after Endgame. This is a story about how Wanda deals with her grief of losing Vision and her brother Pietro.
The story starts off with Wanda and Vision living an ideal suburban life in Westview, New Jersey with each episode living in a classic sitcom from each decade starting with the 50s. As the couple goes through each decade, they start to suspect that something is wrong and reality is not what they actually consider to be real. Halfway through the episodes after viewers meet all the neighbors and find out that Wanda Maximoff created a sitcom world from Westview, New Jersey where she and Vision live a sitcom life because in sitcoms, everyone lives happily ever after unlike in reality where Wanda has lost all her loved ones.
WandaVision Episode 1- The first episode starts off with a catchy 50s theme song and is in black and white. The funny jokes of the 50s and the costumes and hairdo are immaculate. Wnada and Vision start off as a sweet married couple. I am going to be writing about each episode in detail so if you have not seen it. Enters Agnes the funny neighbor with the joek “ my mother in law was in town so I was out of town:” enter the laugh track. I love the way Wanda talks. It takes us back to some cozy times where everything is perfect in the sitcom world. How to treat your husband to keep your husband and agnes says a joke how to goose your wife so you don’t lose your wife. This feminst joke is typical for that decade although it definitely would not work now, thankfully those foolish ideas of how women have to act to keep their husbands are gone. Should stumble so that he can catch up, he displays the damsel in distress idea that is how boys fall in love because it members their savior complex.
The advertisement in this episode shows the lady looking dull and brainless and it is clearly a sexist commercial but was common in the fifties as it was the lady who remained at home while the men went and worked. The way the ppl talk in the fifties talk is so funny. However Vision is very respectful and asks wanda how he can assist when she is struggling to prepare the food.
WandaVision Episode 2- The marvel studios title starts off with color and then starts off with the couple imitating i love lucy sitcom with both of them in separate beds/. The laugh tracks are good, it is consistent with the classic sitcom formula with the scared husband and the brave strong wife. The theme song in this is based on the show Bewitched. The first clue comes in this episode with the colored toy helicopter which leaves first time viewers confused.
WandaVision Finale- The finale that everyone has been waiting for. Last we saw, it’s been revealed that Wanda is doing chaos magic and that makes her the scarlet witch. Dun dun.
A family is forever. Wanda says to her twin boys as she tucks them in knowing in her heart that she is going to lose them as the hex retreats. The last minutes of the episode are heartbreaking as Wanda loses her family once more to set the world right. She loses vision and her boys again. It’s heartbreaking to see. Vision is the piece of mind stone that lives in wanda. Vision in the hex is the vision created by Wanda and is her sadness and her hope and her love. Vision is the physical manifestation of wands as feelings, her heartbreak hopes and dreams she had for the real vision. Her happily ever after. Vision became a memory made real. They have said goodbye so many times before and they will say hello again. The viewers watch as vision gets destroyed again with the worlds so long darling and then comes the real wanda standing in the plot that she and vision bought once again alone, back where she started. She puts up her hood and walks away from the dream house she had if only for a little while the happiness she shared with her love. As she walks through the town getting the judgmental looks from the rest of the town she captured. Wanda then changes into her scarlett witch role and flies away. Why Marvel insists on making their viewers cry, we will never know but this is a heartbreaking ending for Wanda and for the viewers who fell in love with her family.
I think what I like best about this show is that Wanda in some way represents what all of us wish for sometimes when things get tough or too hard to handle, to like run away to that secret place where we all desire or to go that fantasy place like finding a secret world through a closet or living the sitcom life where you know you will get a happy ending. Wanda basically lived what we all wanted and it shows us about our mental health as we see her go through the five stages of grief. Overall, we can see her go through the five stages of grief, live that fantasy life, and ultimately accept her grief and become stronger for it. What that tells of all us is that no matter how tough or hard circumstances can get, time will get us through it and that it is ok to break down every once in a while as a long as we can get back up stronger.