We need to talk about how WandaVision dealt with grief in episode 8.
I’ve been an admittedly big MCU fan for quite some time now. I’ve watched every film that has come out of the franchise at least twice. I’ve enjoyed how despite all being superhero movies, many of the films take on different individual characteristics. Thor: Ragnorak was more comedy than anything while Captain America: The Winter Soldier got pretty dark. WandaVision, more so than being in TV format now, has been significantly different than anything else to come out of the MCU.
I also must admit, however, I have never been a big Scarlet Witch or Vision fan. Partially because these two characters came out of one of my least favorite movies in the franchise: Age of Ultron, but also, I just never felt as though I understood them. Wanda was an emo-looking (and acting), ultra-powerful, orphaned girl. Vision was a walking, talking, fighting computer. That was what I got from them. I couldn’t get past the whole computer-human thing to really value their relationship, especially considering in Age of Ultron we saw Wanda watch Vision’s birth into the world. Pretty weird.
WandaVision has done so much for these characters though. Particularly, in this aforementioned episode 8. As someone who has dealt with grief and despair, watching the last episode has been such a cathartic experience.
WANDA VISION EPISODE 8 SPOILERS AHEAD!
In episode 8, we watch Agnes, now known to be Agatha Harkness, take Wanda on a tour of her memories in a bid to understand how Wanda is so freaking powerful. Unintentionally, this walkthrough turns pretty much into a therapy session for Wanda and a deep dive into who she is as a character. We get to witness the extent of this character’s trauma.
It all feels so heartbreaking and real. This is obviously a fictional character. There are literally no people out in the world who have experienced trauma like her. She not only sees her parents die in a missile attack, her brother get shot dozens of times, but she also watches the love of her life die not once but twice. And one of the times she is the one who has to kill him. Not to mention almost all her former allies/friends have also died, and when she tries to give the love of her life a proper burial she discovers that the government is disassembling his body and she is not allowed. Wanda’s trauma is outside any plausible trauma an actual person can face. However, the way we see her deal with it feels all too real.
In one of the memories, Agatha walks Wanda through, we get to watch a past interaction between Vision and Wanda in which Wanda opens up to him about the pain she has been feeling. She describes it as a wave that keeps coming to take her down no matter how hard she tries to stand up. I love this description personally. Although I don’t think
it is original, it feels very honest. However, what Vision says in response is what really stood out to me though.
“Well, it can’t all be sorrow, can it?… What is grief, if not love persevering?”
I personally have never thought about grief in this way but it feels like a beautiful, wholly accurate description. The reason we feel so much pain is because we feel so much love. The hard feelings we have are tied to so much good and not just sadness. They are proof that we are human and may go on.
What we as viewers watch Wanda go through in this episode is absolutely horrific, but as someone who has experienced grief, they felt validating. Watching a superhero, a mainstream pop culture icon, deal with such intense emotion in front of such a massive audience means a lot to me. Marvel did a fantastic job of writing grief in this episode and all the episodes leading up to it. I am now a diehard Wanda and Vision fan and cannot wait to see what comes next.