WandaVision Episode 5 Explained

After the last episode spent most of its runtime explaining things and revealing the truth behind mysteries, Episode 5 goes right back to introducing cryptic clues and pulling shocking twists. So, let’s explore what was brought up in this episode and try to make some sense of it.

Warning: spoilers for WandaVision Episodes 1-5, earlier MCU movies, and general information from other MCU projects follow. Plus, spoilers from a few Marvel comics also follow.

The Commercial

This episode’s “commercial break” is the easiest aspect of the episode to explain and helps further confirm a theory expressed in our earlier episode explanations. The theory is that each of Wandavision‘s “commercial breaks” are references to traumatic events from Wanda’s past.

This episode’s commercial break is a reference to the beginning of Captain America: Civil War. This movie starts with the Avengers involved in an altercation that ends with a bomb going off. Wanda clears the bomb from their immediate vicinity but it still goes off and kills several people. The commercial mentions Lagos, the city where the altercation took place, and mentions making a mess that is hard to clean up, which is how Wanda felt about the deaths that occurred as a result of her actions. It is another clear example of a traumatic event from Wanda’s past.

Manipulation

This episode spent a lot of time exploring Wanda’s control over her own reality. We see that the townspeople are almost entirely under her power, that Wanda subconsciously reshapes anything entering her reality, and that she can leave it in order to threaten the real world. However, there are points where the limits of her control seem questionable. She is unable to affect her children with her magic, Agnes seems to be playing along rather than completely mind-wiped, and she seems genuinely surprised by Quicksilver’s reappearance.

These strange happenings outside of Wanda’s control hint at a theory we’ve brought up in the past, that someone else is manipulating Wanda. This could be Mephisto. In the comics, Mephisto tricks Wanda in a way that relates to her children and the power they have. It could be S.W.O.R.D. This episode revealed that S.W.O.R.D. was experimenting on Vision’s dead body, a violation of his will, and the previous episode revealed they have recently been experimenting with artificial intelligence, indicating they may have trapped Wanda as she took Vision’s body with her. It could also be Hydra, who are mentioned in previous episodes; Ultron’s intelligence, who we never saw die; or someone entirely new. No matter who it is, the thought that someone is manipulating things makes a lot of the show’s mysteries a little more clear.

The Children

This manipulation leads directly into the next topic, the children. Wanda and Vision’s children are an enigma when it comes to most aspects of their characters. However, things start to make a little more sense when considering the fact that these children may be part of someone’s nefarious scheme. Specifically, if someone wanted to use Wanda’s incredible powers to generate even more sources of incredible power, her children. 

This theory is furthered by some of Agnes’ interaction with the main characters. Agnes has been a person of interest in our episode explanations for a while now, as her name may be a reference to a comic character, Agatha Harkness; her dialogue is often suspicious; and she does not appear to have been a resident of Westview before Wanda took over the town. This episode also shows her paying specific interest in helping Wanda’s children, to the point where she seems to be able to anticipate their needs before being altered to them. In addition, the fact that she finds their dog is a little odd, as the dog’s death almost feels like a test to see if Wanda will use her powers to try to bring the dog back. 

All of this is suspicious, even if it isn’t clear how. Agnes could be an agent of the mysterious force manipulating Wanda. Or, she could simply be an independent entity with motives of her own. It may even be that the children are the evil ones and that Agnes is trying to set things right. What is clear is that Agnes is unique and that she has some interest in the children.

Quicksilver

Despite a series of shocking twists revealed throughout this episode, the most shocking came at the very end, when Wanda’s dead brother showed up at her door. This is a huge twist by itself but the fact that Quicksilver is now played by a different actor makes it a twist that could have repercussions on the entire Marvel universe.

Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Quicksilver was played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Meanwhile, over in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men movies, their version of Quicksilver was played by Evan Peters. In this episode of WandaVision, the returning Quicksilver is played by Evan Peters, not Aaron Taylor-Johnson. This begs the question as to why this change was made. In a show as meticulously laid out as Wandavision, it seems doubtful that this very specific change-up is just coincidental. Instead, it seems far more likely that Wanda (or a mysterious third-party, since Wanda seemed completely oblivious to Quicksilver’s arrival) pulled the Fox-version of Quicksilver into the MCU in order to replace her dead brother. This theory is further backed up by the fact that Scarlet Witch is set to have a starring role in the next Doctor Strange move, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which could see her showing an interest in the Multiverse in order to discover the truth behind her brother’s reappearance.

If this is true, it could have vast repercussions on the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The existence of a Multiverse could bring in characters from other Marvel films that did not take place within the MCU. It could also introduce new characters from unexplored realities and bring in a whole host of storytelling possibilities.

Monica Rambeau

A smaller mystery from this episode is introduced through Monica Rambeau. After leaving Wanda’s reality, her medical test results are inconclusive. She then suggests reentering Wanda’s reality in a fallout shelter on wheels. In the comics, Monica is a superhero on her own, with powers centered around energy manipulation. The developments in this episode may be setting up her powers within the MCU, which may be further explored when she appears in the upcoming Captain Marvel 2.

We plan to keep following along and trying to make sense of the WandaVision series as it develops. So make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest or subscribe to ComicBookWire’s newsletter to stay up to date on whats happening!