So like many of you today I just watched WandaVision Episode 8. So with one episode left, let’s get speculative. Welcome to Free Talk Friday, and in this week with only one episode of WandaVision left it’s clear what’s on my mind today.

It goes without saying that I will be getting into SPOILERS for WandaVision Episode 8 here. Therefore, If you have not yet watched it, why not go check it out on Disney+ and come back later. No SPOILERS till after the gap, so it is your choice as always?

WandaVision Episode 8 SPOILERS below.

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What Have We Learned?

Remarkably WandaVision Episode 8 didn’t do much to advance events beyond where we left off after Episode 7. Instead, as this episode’s title (Previously On) indicates, it was a recap episode. However, not only were we recapping some of Agatha’s history, we also had a recap of the life of Wanda Maximoff.

Let’s start with what we know of Agatha. Hundreds of years ago, Agatha was captured by other witches including her own mother. She was accused of accessing dark magic, forbidden to her. Agatha pleads with her Mother to help her, but she refuses and the Witches attempt to…..I am not sure, kill Agatha, drain her of her power? Instead, whatever dark power is within Agatha allowed her to absorb the energy of the other Witches, including their life force. Even Agatha’s own mother was subject to this fate. But what Agatha has been doing since then, and why she really wants to know Wanda’s secrets, i.e. her motivation, is still unclear.

Agatha seems to wish to understand how Wanda can be so powerful that she created this Hex with her own power. Agatha therefore takes Wanda on a trip down memory lane. We are shown the death of Wanda’s parents and also a hint that perhaps Wanda’s abilities existed in some form prior to her encounter with the Mind Stone. By the time we get to the Mind Stone, we find out it had killed every other ‘volunteer’ prior to Wanda. What Wanda then experiences with the Mind Stone is very different to what Hydra see’s looking on.

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Did the Mind Stone, or some entity within it, then choose Wanda and unlocked her true potential? Could it be that the X-gene, making Wanda a mutant is what allowed her to survive? I’m not sure how that would help at this point to bring Mutants into the MCU, but it definitely feels like a first step doesn’t it? Wanda’s backstory then skips to the period of time straight after Age of Ultron, as she mourns the death of her brother and gets to know Vision for the first time. Vision seems to help pull Wanda back from despair. Sadly, after Vision’s death at the hands of Thanos, there is no one to help Wanda.

Wanda Creates The Hex

Wanda reacts badly to seeing Visions body being cut up and reengineered and takes the body. That scene is one we have seen from a different point of view already. The most intriguing part of this flashback is clearly what Hayward says to Wanda. He intimates that Wanda is powerful enough to bring Vision back from the dead. In fact, it almost seems like it is Hayward who plants that idea into Wanda’s head to begin with, before she goes to Westview. When Wanda does arrive in Westview she finally breaks after standing within the foundations of the house her and Vision planned to live in. The Hex is created by Wanda almost as we see in the beginning of Episode 1 spontaneously, and from her Vision materializes.

Agatha then tells Wanda she thinks she is something thought only to be a myth, the Scarlet Witch. Of course, this is the first time that the name Scarlet Witch has been used in the MCU. Essentially, this is the origin story of the Scarlet Witch in the MCU. Then we leave things on a huge cliff-hanger as Agatha holding Wanda’s sons’ seems to temp Wanda into a fight. Finally, an after credit scene shows us that the leaks were correct and White Vision has been activated by Hayward. Interesting as well that only Wanda’s powers seems to be able to power this version of Vision.

Episode 8 And Beyond

Let’s start with Agatha, what are her goals here? If Agatha is the main villain, what is she after? If Agatha simply wanted to absorb Wanda’s powers in the way she did those other witches, why all the deception, why need to know how she did all this? I have the feeling Agatha needs to know how Wanda does it specifically, because she wants to use a similar power for whatever reason, Could Agatha be looking for a key to the Multiverse for some reason, what if this is not even her base reality? Or, is it about the resurrection powers? Was Sparky killed just so Agatha could see if Wanda could resurrect him. Was fPietro another temptation for Wanda to pull her Pietro from the grave? Or, is it the fact that Wanda has enough power to literally create children that should not exist?

Good questions and no real answers here. We simply do not yet know enough to pinpoint Agatha’s motivations, but we can make some guesses based on some old set photos. Remember Dottie, she seems like a potential villain and then just disappeared? Well set photos showed her in the same Witch outfit, or similar to what Agatha is wearing. We also have to remember that Dottie was also one of the characters SWORD could not identify.

Agatha’s Coven?

So what I wonder is, are there others like Agatha in Westview, does Wanda think she is going up against one Witch, only to have a whole coven appear ready to fight for Agatha? Or is Agatha doing something else to Dottie, or is Dottie really in charge of Agatha. Again, we have only questions, but the set photos alone must make us suspicious that Dottie is more than just a background character from Episode 1. Without truly understanding Agatha’s goals, it’s hard to side one way or another. In some ways not having Dotti be anyone would open up even more unresolved questions, at this point it would be far simpler if she is working with Agatha in some way, or against her.

I’ve seen some fans theorize that Dottie could really be Clea or another sorceress linked to Doctor Strange, who we already know shows up next week. The only reason I have to doubt this one is back to those set photos again. Why was Dottie dressed up like Agatha this week at one point? Perhaps it was to pull the wool over fans eyes perusing those photos? However,  I think that’s too smart, even for Marvel.

White Vision

One of the discussion fans are already having today is this, is White Vision, basically Ultron? There are some fans who think Hayward is Ultron in a Human body, and some who think the villain will be all that’s left of Vision. SWORD clearly think they have this Vision under control, but what happens when it goes through the Hex? We’ve already seen the Hex literally rewrite things to fit Wanda’s head space. So will White Vision show up as an antagonist or an ally to Wanda and the real, but kinda dead Vision. Could Wand do something eventually which merges these two version of Vision together, so that the Vision we know and love can have his consciousness in the new body? To be honest, any of these outcomes are possible at this point, and with only one episode to go that’s very cool.

Also I’ve already asked this question Here, but is Paul Bettany himself the mystery actor he always wanted to work with? It seems to fit Bettany’s dry and very British sense of humor for him to be talking about himself in that way. It’s smart, no one would guess until White Vis appears, but is it a little too on the nose. I know some fans are hoping that Bettany was not just fooling around, that there really is an amazing cameo appearance to come in that finals episode. Again, we have no answers here, only more questions and more speculative reasoning. We truly won’t know the answers to any of the questions presented here until next week. That’s pretty rare this close to a show’s finale.

The Final Word

WandaVision has been a great show so far. It’s great. And as said, rare that we are still guessing between so many different theories this close to the end. Truthfully though, I think us fans need to temper our expectations slightly. There are some in the fan base who think we are going to get a 1.5 hour movie with every cameo under the sun. Maybe we will, but I’d be happy enough for the moment with a few answers.

After all, this movie likely leads directly into Spider-Man: No Way Home, and then likely straight into Multiverse of Madness. If all the rumors are sound, which for this I think they are, then we should see Doctor Strange show up at the end of WandaVision. But what events are set in motion from WandaVision, and how this all connects in Multiverse of Madness? It’s all still on the table. Roll on next Friday.

As always, leave any thoughts you have about WandaVision Episode 8 and beyond in the usual place below. Or on Discord? We have a spoiler room in there for those who have watched the show already, Feel free to get speculative.

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