WandaVision episode 7 recap: Marvel show goes off the rails in the best way

WandaVision took a modern turn Friday as episode 7 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe show hit Disney Plus. In the episode, titled Breaking the Fourth Wall, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) expanded Westview’s boundaries to save Vision (Paul Bettany) from certain death after he stepped outside the sitcom town.

In doing so, she dragged astrophysicist Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) and dozens of government agents into her false world. However, SWORD agent Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and FBI guy Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) escaped the expansion, since they’d left to meet Monica’s mysterious aerospace engineer friend.

It’s SPOILER time.

It’s been Agatha all along

In a deeply unsurprising (but beautifully executed) twist, it turns out the ludicrously suspicious Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) was a baddy the whole time. Wanda enters her creepy basement looking for her missing twins, and Agnes reveals herself to be the witch Agatha Harkness. Turns out she was responsible for everything that’s gone wrong or weird in Westview, including the arrival of Pietro Maximoff from the Fox X-Men universe (Evan Peters).

“And I killed Sparky too,” she says, cackling. 

That’s the step too far Agatha. Killer theme song though. (Yes, it’s already on Spotify.)

Agatha Harkness is one of those characters with a pretty convoluted history in the comics, having lived through the Salem witch trials in the 1690s. She’s more dark hero than villain, having helped the Fantastic Four and taught Wanda to control her powers. 

Agatha also wiped Wanda’s memories of her children after the demon Mephisto absorbed them into his soul — comics storylines often seem super strange out of context — and Wanda killed her after learning this. She’s since returned to life and allied with Captain America.

A bigger bad?

There are a few hints that there’s another force at work — including a super prominent cicada on the curtain in Agatha’s living room. It’s not a million miles from a fly, a form taken by Mephisto in his first chronological comics appearance. I’m sure glad MCU Spider-Man isn’t married.

“Ralph says I supercoat things,” Agatha says during one of her interviews, referring to her unseen husband (and suggesting he’s worse than she is).

Also, where the heck are Tommy and Billy? This whole facade is probably a scheme to get hold of Wanda and Vision’s superpowered children, so… success?

The post-credits scene

Monica arrives at Agatha’s house and gets ready to enter the basement, but is surprised by a creepy Pietro (who’s presumably under Agatha’s control).

“Snooper’s gonna snoop,” he says.

It’s likely Agatha and Pietro are in for a surprise, since they don’t know about Monica gaining superpowers. It seems possible that Agatha pulled him from the X-Men universe to manipulate Wanda.

The mighty Monica

After Monica pushed through the Hex barrier and got back into Westview, her DNA has been rewritten and she’s gained a few abilities. She can perceive the electromagnetic spectrum, like the electricity in pylons, and seemingly absorbs the kinetic energy when Wanda slams her onto the pavement.

In the comics, she got the power to transform herself into any form of energy within the electromagnetic spectrum after getting bombarded by extra-dimensional energies. And the SWORD outfit she wore for her second trip into Westview sure looks like her modern comics costume.

Voices in the barrier

As she’s pushing through the barrier, Monica hears a bunch of familiar voices — mostly a flashback to Captain Marvel. The speakers include her late mother Maria, Monica’s younger self, Nick Fury(!) and Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel).

Maria: “No, no I can’t. I can’t leave Monica.” 

Young Monica: “Mommy, it’s OK. I can stay with Grandma and Pop-Pop.”

Maria: “There’s no way I’m going, baby. It’s too dangerous.”

Young Monica: “Mom, maybe I could fly up and meet you halfway.”

Fury: “Only if you learn to glow like your Aunt Carol.”

Maria: “And you were the most powerful person I knew.”

Dr. Harley: “Your mom, she died, honey.”

Jimmy: “She was truly an inspiration. Sorry.”

Carol: “Your mom’s lucky. When they were handing out kids, they gave her the toughest one.”

Joining the circus

Darcy finds herself in the Westview role of an escape artist in the circus, but Vision wakes her up and she fills him in on his full history. Now he’s aware of the full trauma Wanda experienced in Avengers: Infinity War, having killed him to stop Thanos from getting the Mind Stone, only to watch him die again after Thanos reversed time. The movie is so fast-paced that I hadn’t thought about how horrible that’d be. 

It’s been five in-universe years since those events, but Wanda was among those Blipped away and only returned a few weeks ago. So that trauma is pretty darn fresh.

The SWORD sharpens

We only get a moment with jerk-face acting SWORD director Tyler Hayward (Josh Stamberg), but he’s determined to launch a strike against Wanda today. His goon mentions that the WandaVision sitcom is no longer broadcasting — probably because Wanda is taking her me day or Agatha started blocking it as she prepared to make her move.

Jimmy also doesn’t get to do much, but he confirms from Darcy’s email that Hayward wanted to bring Vision back online. It ultimately took Wanda’s power to get it done. 

“Hayward wants his sentient weapon back,” Monica says.

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The aerospace engineer

Fan theories suggested that Monica’s aerospace engineer friend would be Reed Richards or energy-absorbing hero Blue Marvel — nah, man. Major Goodner and her team are apparently loyal to Monica, but don’t mention working for anyone else. 

It still hints at a faction of SWORD that’ll stick with Monica, who’ll likely end up replacing Hayward as director after that plot thread comes to a head.

The ad

This episode’s commercial is for the antidepressant Nexus — in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony Stark hacks into the NEXUS Internet Hub to discover that JARVIS (the AI that’d become Vision) scattered his artificial consciousness across the web to stop Ultron.

In the comics, the Nexus is a cross-dimensional gateway that provides a pathway to various realities — linking it to an antidepressant fits with Wanda’s attempt to create her own reality to escape her trauma. This could tie in with the upcoming movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

“A unique antidepressant that works to anchor you back to your reality. Or the reality of your choice,” the ad says. “Side effects include feeling your feelings, confronting your truth, seizing your destiny and possibly, more depression.”

Just before Monica confronts Wanda, we see her taking some pills from a bottle with a similar-looking label. 

Also in the comics, Wanda is a Nexus Being — something whose power can affect probability and change the flow of time. Such people are monitored by the Time Variance Authority, a group that’ll show up in the upcoming Loki show.

Observations and WTF questions

• The intro riffs on The Office and Modern Family.
• “I know what u are doing Wanda” flashes on the screen during the intro, in the style of a ransom note. It could be a hint that Tommy and Billy have been kidnapped. 
• Kathryn Hahn is credited as one of the singers in “It Was ______ All Along,” which sounds a lot like The Munsters theme tune (and a little like The Addams Family too).
• “I actually did bite a kid once.” Sounds like Agatha needs her own Disney Plus series.
• Objects are shifting between time periods, which suggests that Wanda is losing control. Or is Agatha wresting control from her?
• “Don’t believe anything that man said. He is not your uncle.” After Wanda seemed to accept Pietro, she suddenly warns Tommy and Billy about him. Did his casual cruelty about Vision’s death shake her out of her delusion?
• The voices Billy is hearing are the true personalities of Westview’s residents. Agnes/Agatha is “quiet” because her personality isn’t being suppressed.
• An empathetic Monica seems like she’s getting through to Wanda before Agatha interrupts, which is hopefully setup for Wanda coming back from the brink. 
• “Do you think this is maybe what you deserve?” Agatha says as the interviewer, suggesting she’s punishing Wanda.
• You can hear purring when Wanda walks by Señor Scratchy the rabbit in Agatha’s living room. The rabbit might really be Agatha’s cat familiar, Ebony. 
• Tommy and Billy’s controllers briefly morph into Nintendo GameCube pads — definitely the best ones. They also use Wii Remotes, but I don’t think that console needs my public support nearly as much.
• Why didn’t Darcy and Vision get out and walk?

Join us for more Easter eggs and observations this Friday, when episode 8 of WandaVision hits Disney Plus.

CNET’s Caitlin Petrakovitz contributed to this recap.