When Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige described Jac Schaeffer’s WandaVision series at Disney’s D23 Expo in 2019, he called it “half classic sitcom, half MCU spectacular.” As odd as it sounded back then, it turns out that’s exactly what WandaVision would become. What started as a black-and-white domestic sitcom starring a witch and a robot is now more like a mini Marvel movie featuring two witches and two robots who are about to face off in the season finale. On Friday, it all ends in Westview.
And yet, unlike traditional TV shows, we know that WandaVision won’t truly conclude the story of Wanda Maximoff when the credits roll. For better or for worse, the MCU is becoming more like the comics than ever, and WandaVision represents just one nine-issue run in a multiyear plan at the House of Mouse. Despite its success, it’s unclear whether the series will return for a second season, or whether that’s even a possibility given the cross-pollination of Feige’s massive web of projects hitting Disney+ and movie theaters in the upcoming years.
Regardless of Marvel’s bigger picture, though, WandaVision has been a refreshing jump-start to the MCU after a long, pandemic-induced layoff. The show has brought an underutilized character to life in Wanda Maximoff, while also displaying not only that an MCU TV show can work, but also that one can be transcendent when given the chance to be weird and extend itself beyond the standard Marvel formula. As a nine-episode capsule, WandaVision has been an undeniable success.
But first: the finale. While some questions will likely linger on for a future Marvel project to tackle, Schaeffer has promised that WandaVision will feel “very complete” when it’s all said and done. So, without further ado, here are some of the biggest questions and loose ends ahead of the season finale.
Who is White Vision and what are director Hayward’s plans?
In last week’s mid-credits scene, Hayward booted up a sentient weapon of his own when he launched a reconstructed all-white version of Vision, a character with roots in the comic books. Overshadowed by the formal introduction to the Scarlet Witch was the revelation of Hayward’s lies and manipulations throughout the season, as the S.W.O.R.D. director led Monica and Co. to believe that Wanda had forcefully retrieved Vision’s body so she could reanimate it in Westview. In truth, Hayward had secretly kept Vision’s remains, and was just waiting to find the proper power source to complete Project Cataract and get the robot back online.
While the new version of Vision originated in John Byrne’s “Vision Quest” story line in the West Coast Avengers from the late ’80s, this flashback of Vision’s blunt reintroduction to the twins in Tom King’s The Vision from 2018 serves as a solid summary of the white synthezoid in the comics:
We’ll have to wait and see how similar White Vision is to his character in the comics, since they already have different origins, but it seems likely that WandaVision will follow this path. In the end, Wanda could also potentially find a way to merge her Westview version of Vision with this newly constructed body, or perhaps Vision will die again trying to save her when he’ll inevitably have to fight himself. (Is Vision still just flying around right now? Maybe he should’ve just stuck with Darcy in the funnel cake truck after all.)
Throughout the season, Hayward has vocalized his distrust in superheroes—now he’s created one that he may be able to control himself. If his first move is to send his sentient weapon to attack a grieving former Avenger, what comes next?
What will happen to Fake Pietro?
Speaking of misdirections, what’s up with Pietro (Fietro) Maximoff? When Evan Peters showed up as Pietro at the end of the fifth episode instead of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, it nearly broke the brain of every Marvel fan who’d been awaiting the arrival of the X-Men since Disney acquired the rights from 20th Century Fox in 2019. Pietro’s return seemed to indicate the MCU’s introduction of mutants, causing fans to wonder whether X-Men characters like Magneto and Professor Xavier would soon follow.
Three episodes later, however, it seems like WandaVision may have just been trolling its content-hungry audience, subverting its expectations ahead of another crucial reveal down the line. Pietro played a major role in the sixth episode, but there was no reference to his X-Men roots or how he arrived in Westview. Agatha later explained that she brought Pietro to Westview, not by resurrecting him, but through some form of “crystalline possession.” So if that’s decidedly not Pietro—neither the X-Men version nor his original MCU counterpart—then who is being possessed to look like him? And what will happen to him if Wanda’s hex ceases to exist?
Before any of those questions can be answered, we first need to see what happens between the imposter and Monica Rambeau after he found her snooping around Agatha’s basement in the mid-credits scene of the seventh episode. But if Fietro is proof of anything, it’s that we shouldn’t take anything in WandaVision at face value.
Who is the original missing person in the FBI’s missing persons case?
Between all of the sitcom high jinks and witchcraft, it’s easy to forget that the FBI and S.W.O.R.D. first became interested in Westview due to a missing person. Back in the fourth episode, we learned how Monica Rambeau ended up stuck as Geraldine in Wanda’s reality. She had been ordered by director Hayward to chaperone an imaging drone to New Jersey for the FBI to use in a missing persons case. When she meets agent Jimmy Woo outside of the town, Woo tells her: “I’ve got a witness set up down the road in Westview, and this morning, it looked like he flew the coop.”
When Jimmy continues to explain that he contacted the known associates and relatives of the witness, he adds that “none of them have ever heard of him.” This intriguing and mysterious development is then quickly topped when the cops from Eastview tell Monica and Jimmy that Westview doesn’t even exist, despite them standing directly outside of it at the time. From there, the missing persons case became a missing town case, but we never hear much about that original witness thereafter.
With only one episode left, we still don’t know his or her identity. It seems curious that Jimmy, an agent from the Bay Area who has had his fair share of superhero drama in the past, would be the one assigned to a case on the other side of the country. Perhaps this forgotten witness was simply a means for WandaVision to get the FBI and S.W.O.R.D. involved, but there’s a chance this case will be solved.
Who is Dottie?
Through the better part of WandaVision’s first seven episodes, there were two Westview residents who stood out from the rest: Agnes and Dottie. When Jimmy Woo and Co. were putting together that big board of Westview residents that included their sitcom character bios along with their real IDs, Agnes was the only one without an accompanying form of identification pinned to her file, while Dottie was notably left off the board altogether:
We now know that Agnes was Agatha all along, but where does that leave Dottie?
Dottie featured prominently in the second episode, when she served as the power-hungry town committee leader organizing Westview’s talent show (for the children). She also shared a strange moment with Wanda just before Jimmy and Dr. Darcy Lewis attempted to make contact via the radio, when Dottie told Wanda that she’d “heard things” about her and Vision, and that she didn’t believe Wanda when she said that she didn’t mean anyone any harm.
Since then, Dottie has appeared only in bit parts, like when she was shown watching Monica confront Wanda in the seventh episode while tending to her garden. Could there be a third witch in Westview?
Who is Ralph?
Like Dottie’s, the true identity of Agnes’s mysterious husband has yet to be revealed. But in Ralph’s case, we haven’t even seen him on screen or received any confirmation that the guy actually exists. Agnes has mentioned her husband in passing several times, as early as the season premiere and as recently as the seventh episode, but Ralph hasn’t been referenced since Agatha finally introduced herself to Wanda. Will Ralph come out of whatever hole (or dimension) he’s been hiding in to fight alongside Agatha in the finale, or was he merely a misdirection from the very beginning?
Will Billy and Tommy survive? (Are they even alive to begin with?)
It is not looking good for the twins right now. After Agatha and Wanda’s trip down memory lane last week, Agatha finally brought out Billy and Tommy, choking them while explaining how dangerous and powerful Wanda truly is. (Which is rather a bold thing to do to the legendary Scarlet Witch, no?)
Even if the twins survive Agatha’s stranglehold, it’s still unclear whether Billy and Tommy can exist outside of the magical bubble that their mother created. Vision began to disintegrate the moment he stepped outside of Westview, which is certainly not a good sign for the kids, but Billy and Tommy also weren’t previously killed by Thanos. If Westview is restored to its former state, then the twins—and the magic that was used to create them—may disappear with it. But Wanda is only just now beginning to learn what she’s capable of, and she may yet find a way to save them.
What’s that book in Agatha’s basement?
Among the many spooky items found in Agatha’s dungeon-style basement is an ominous book, which may turn out to be an evil and powerful spell book known as the Darkhold. Like she often did in the comics, Agatha gave Wanda a quick lesson in magic near the beginning of the eighth episode, explaining runes and transmutation spells. But she made no mention of that glowing book of hers, nor did she really explain the nature of her creepy basement.
Beyond this book, there’s still much to be learned about Agatha—like, for example, what her skincare routine is after all these centuries, and what she ultimately plans to do, especially now that she’s aware of Wanda’s tremendous and unreplicable power.
Is agent Franklin … OK?
You might not remember this poor guy, but that’s OK, because it doesn’t seem like his S.W.O.R.D. coworkers do either. Agent Franklin hasn’t been seen since he emerged from a manhole in Westview wearing a recently transformed beekeeper suit before Wanda rewound him out of an episode. Wherever he may be, at least he now has plenty of colleagues in town to keep him company.
What happened between Monica Rambeau and Captain Marvel?
Despite Carol Danvers being Maria Rambeau’s best friend, as well as Monica’s idol growing up, Monica was very dismissive of Auntie Carol when Jimmy and Darcy mentioned her in the fifth episode. Obviously, something changed between the ’90s-set events of Captain Marvel and present time.
For now, all we know is that Maria helped establish S.W.O.R.D. before dying from cancer years later, and that Monica followed in her mother’s footsteps and became a S.W.O.R.D. agent. It would make sense if Danvers had assisted Maria in the development of the intelligence agency, so perhaps during some space mission—or, like, whatever other sketchy-as-hell stuff they do at S.W.O.R.D.—Maria was exposed to some sort of cosmic radiation that caused her cancer, and Monica blames Carol for it. Or perhaps Captain Marvel had been too busy saving other planets to even pay the Rambeaus a visit in the first place.
Whatever the reasoning, it seems doubtful that we’ll find out any more during WandaVision—they’re probably saving this for when Teyonah Parris reprises her role as Monica in Captain Marvel 2. With Monica having vanished for five years thanks to Thanos and that wicked snap of his, and the fact that Monica has superpowers of her own now, there will be plenty for them to catch up on.
How will everything lead in to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?
With Elizabeth Olsen slated to return as Wanda in the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel, it remains to be seen how the Scarlet Witch and the good doctor will cross paths in the film, which is expected to hit theaters in 2022. As Agatha explained in the last episode, Wanda possesses a dangerous, mythical amount of power; Chaos Magic capable of spontaneous creation. And if Agatha was able to detect Wanda’s witchcraft when she created the Westview Anomaly, surely the Sorcerer Supreme would be able to as well?
Excluding Pietro, who turned out to be an imposter anyway, there has yet to be a significant cameo from a superhero from another MCU franchise. And while Strange would be the most likely candidate to arrive for a splashy ending to the show, such an appearance could feel more like an intrusion into what has been a wonderful journey in its own right, rendering a successful Disney+ debut as little more than a preview for a movie more than 12 months away. But Doctor Strange cameo or no, Westview is about to feel the full force of the Scarlet Witch, and whatever happens may shatter the fabric of the Marvel universe itself.
