WandaVision - Episode 6 - Review

After the revelations of the fifth episode, WandaVision needed to hit the ground running with the latest episode, but it didn’t and it wasn’t even close. But while it lost steam, it did start to fill in more of the world, which could be rewarding down the line.

Spoilers Ahead

The episode starts off with a very Malcolm in the Middle opening, down to the odd shaped font for the names and that thread wrapped itself around the entire episode, with the twins speaking to camera, just like they did in that show. Once the credits were done, we got to see that this was the Halloween episode, which gave Wanda a chance to dress in her now iconic, but never before seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, red outfit. Not to be out done, but Vision was also rocking an outfit that was inspired by the original comics, which was nice, though he went with boxers over briefs and while the outfits didn’t get much attention apart from the opening moments, it was a nice service to the fans, who may have wanted to see them.

Outside of some retro inspired outfits, a lot of the episode is split between three storylines and none of them are particularly interesting on their own, but they do manage to weave in and out of each other, which builds the stronger story. Wanda is still confused as to how her formally dead brother is back and looks different, Vision is still troubled by what Wanda appears to be doing and outside the Hex, Monica, Jimmy and Darcy are being all Scooby gang. The problem is none of the individual stories carry enough weight on their own to make an impactful change to how we are perceiving things. Wanda spends most of the episode confused, but when she starts asking questions of Pietro, he starts asking hard ones back, though I did like the question about their various accents and how they have vanished.

Vision ends up on the other side of town is trying to understand why folks are not moving, and when he eventually discovers Agnes just sitting in her car, he gets some critical information. Not content with just accepting it, he pushes forward and leaves the Hex, though there is clearly something not right with him, as he starts to decompose the moment he breaks free of the Hex. While all that is happening, the Scooby gang are trying to work out what is going on, whilst Darcy explores some major hacking skills that she somehow discovered a need to learn, along with Astrophysics, but with those skills, they learn the Director of S.W.O.R.D. is not being honest.

As I said, none of these stories on their own carry weight and there are times when it feels like they want to say something, or reveal something big, but then they cheap out and don’t. This is the kind of things shows do, when they need to pad out their episode count, to keep people invested and is honestly not something I thought Marvel would do. The reason I know this is the fact, is because Monica, who was blipped for five years, spent three weeks adjusting to that and then days later is sucked into tv land, but she manages to make contact with someone from before all of that. Then with all that, there is no name, just the reveal that they need to meet up, outside of the area, which is again, teasing for more and when there are many threads all demanding attention, keeping them all taught will only lead to them snapping and not in the good way.

As I said earlier the costumes that the main characters are wearing are fun, even the twins get in on the action, but for the most part, you could be mistaken for thinking that everything was filmed during the modern day. The only real way to date it, are some odd technology, like dance mats and the movies playing at the local cinema in the town square. Because the show is set in the early 2000’s, The Incredibles being one of the movies that is playing was released in 2004, I was hoping to see more modern things seeping in, but with how the episode ends, it seems the reverse is true.

WandaVision’s sixth episode is the weakest so far, which considering they have been hitting it out of the park on others, is saying something. While not horrible, they didn’t offer any explanations, just asking more and more questions, even throwing in the odd fact that Monica Rambeu has had her cells changed, hello Photon, but even that was a throw away line. They are clearly building to something here, bad Director has secrets, which we knew, but again have more clarification, there is someone not involved that has an understanding of whatever is happening and the world of the Hex grew. I get drawing people in, but this episode is filler and only just a few steps above being a highlight reel episode.

The Score

7.0

The Pros

+Vision finally starts to get some actual information

+We get comic accurate outfits in the MCU

The Cons

-There are no answers given, just a lot more questions raised

-The episode feels like filler, cool design, but no real substance