WandaVision Episode 5 Spoilers, Review, & Breakdown: Something’s Definitely Up with Agnes
We’re back today to talk about WandaVision’s revealing fifth episode! First, I want to give those who have not yet watched the show a big SPOILER ALERT! And now we can continue. This episode snuck in several clues that Agnes is the real bad guy in Westview and not Wanda (even though she’s supposedly controlling the town) while giving us a blend of both realities. Now, without any further ado, we will proceed to our review and (somewhat) breakdown!
To start off, we have a Family Ties-influenced intro with the paintbrush and “starring, this character” theme. The theme song, “Making It Up as We Go Along” directly connects to Wanda and Vision’s strong love for each other despite the complications caused by newborn twin sons. Link to the lyrics here: https://genius.com/Kristen-anderson-lopez-and-robert-lopez-making-it-up-as-we-go-along-lyrics
Wanda and Vision, in very 80s-appropriate attire, are just learning how to take care of babies. (Until now, they had been superheroes and had nothing to do with the intricacy of normal family life.) Watchers of Elizabeth Olsen’s older sisters’ sitcom Full House also recognize that the living room is designed very similarly in color and sofa choice.. what a great reference!
On the other hand, the baby boys are everything but behaving themselves. Billy and Tommy, lying down for a rest in their separate cribs, are crying their eyes out even though Wanda gives them pacifiers, says several calming words, and holds them in her arms. Everything seems to be totally out of the new parents’ control… until Agnes arrives!
“Hiya, kids!” Those are only words that someone comedic like Agnes could say perfectly. (Congrats to the one and only Kathryn Hahn for acting the part so well!) Vision immediately notices that the arrival was much too sudden, so he decides to ask, “How did you know?” Laughing, Agnes retorts, “With my ears. I was just on my way to jazzercise!” Even Wanda seems suspicious this time.
Take a break, focus on the fashion. Agnes also has the puffy 1980s hairstyle billowing above her head, some of it nearly falling in front of her face. And that outfit! Colorful stripes contrasted against a black top with a sparkly silver headband are unmistakably something that a woman going to a dance gym would wear.
Anyway, she is magically able to calm the babies when Wanda and Vision simply cannot. She also associates a lavender calming perfume with her “husband Ralph”. Isn’t this enough blabbing about your fictional partner? (At least we think he’s fake.) As she enters the kitchen, she tells Wanda sarcastically, “Kids. You just can’t control ‘em.” Could this have a more ominous meaning? Do Billy and Tommy turn into villains at the end of the show?
The next line shocks Wanda and Vision and is one of those big hints that Agnes is really Agatha Harkness. When the babies begin to cry once again, she says this: “Let’s take that again, shall we?” Both parents are shocked; Wanda asks Agnes to repeat herself. But of course she doesn’t say the same thing. “Take it from the top,” she says, starting to grin and giggle.
In the comics, Harkness knew Wanda’s power level personally since she was a (sometimes villainous) tutor in witchcraft to the Scarlet Witch. When she suggests taking the scene again in this episode, it might be alluding to the fact that she knows Wanda’s reality-warping powers and what they can do.
And suddenly, the infant baby boys are gone. In a matter of minutes, Billy and Tommy are now talking, walking 5-year-olds! But they don’t last long at this age. You know, kids grow up too fast….
Billy and Tommy have really taken advantage of being five years old: they can walk, so they found a stray dog outside. “We don’t think that you’re suited to care for an animal until you’re…. well, ten years old,” Wanda explains to her toddler children in early ’90s suspenders and a plaid T-shirt. Vision also agrees to these terms. But suddenly, the kids look at each other, start grinning as if they had some scheme brewing up, and immediately become: 10-year-olds! So much for toddlers. Now, they’re only 3 years away from being teenagers! And Wanda and Vision have no more excuses to give to the children regarding not keeping Sparky.
We go back to Vision’s workplace here, which we haven’t seen in..what, 4 episodes! Really! And now we get to see everyone here in color, of course, also in a very 80s theme: the computer being just invented (actually in 1984). But all of a sudden, another strange thing occurs.
Just as Vision is checking out his co-worker’s new desktop, an email pops up: and it’s from SWORD! The name has changed from “the Westview anomaly” to “the Maximoff anomaly”, clearly stating Director Hayward’s strong hate towards Wanda. And Vision isn’t the only one interested in the message: the entire room of employees starts to read monotonously at the same time! How odd….
Afterwards, the workers begin to exit the office as Vision stays behind, suspecting something is very wrong. Grabbing his co-worker and pressing on his temples, they start to glow yellow (the color of the Mind Stone) and the co-worker starts to gasp for air as if he had just been through extreme pain. It turns out he has been, ever since he became a victim of the sitcom world. “She’s in my head. Get her out!” he yells. Well, Vision soon restores him back to his calm state as part of Wanda’s little fantasy. Everything’s good now (or so it appears)…
Here, we get to the part where the focus comes back to S.W.O.R.D. Out of Director Hayward’s emphasis that Wanda’s the antagonist of her own story, he sends in a drone… armed. Listen to Monica! Wanda isn’t a terrorist, she has no idea how the town even came to be this way! But he’s still firm in his beliefs and tries to fire at her and the twins. Don’t you know that if Wanda’s this powerful to take a whole city into hostage, a simple drone won’t make a single scratch on someone like this?
Easter Egg: The silver drone has a logo that tells us who’s manufacturing this weapon. It’s Stark Industries! This could explain why Wanda banished S.W.O.R.D.’s drone instantaneously from her sitcom bubble. There are actually two reasons! Number one: Wanda evidently doesn’t want anyone intruding into her ideal life. And, number two: she hates the brand of Stark Industries. After all, it sent the bomb that blew up her house, interrupted her happy TV time watching The Dick Van Dyke Show, and killed her parents at the same time. She doesn’t want any reminders of the company ruining her sitcom… again.
Commercial break time! Today, we’ve got Lagos paper towels. Doesn’t seem much like an Easter egg carrier, does it? Think back to Captain America: Civil War before deciding on that thought. Lagos is the city where Wanda accidentally destroyed a building with her unstable powers. She felt incredibly guilty afterwards and chose to hide away in the Avengers Compound (and Vision cheered her up).
Other clues in the short ad support the idea that someone’s bringing back all of Wanda’s worst memories. The slogan at the end is the huge evidence: “Lagos. For the mistakes you didn’t mean to make.” Of course Wanda definitely didn’t mean to slaughter all those people in the skyscraper. Also, the beverage spilled on the table looks a little like blood; those slippery little WandaVision clues that so many of us easily miss!
As S.W.O.R.D. is analyzing the Westview – I’m sorry, I meant to say Maximoff – anomaly, a figure starts to approach the barrier without warning. Of course this stirs up Director Hayward’s attention as he orders the other agents to prepare to fire. It turns out to be…. Wanda herself! But she’s not coming to be friendly or try to work things out with S.W.O.R.D.
Throwing the drone back (now shrouded in her scarlet magic), she orders the others to stay out of her home so that she doesn’t hurt them back. Good deal, right? Not to Hayward. Away from that, it’s important to note that Wanda doesn’t leave without her signature mark: she enforces the Hex’s barrier with a red hue, now making it effortlessly visible.
Easter Egg: When Wanda emerges from the Hex, pay attention to her outfit. Even though it’s dark, it can be easily told that she’s wearing the same corset and leather jacket from Endgame. I guess we’ll just have to see if this has any more significance in the rest of the show or if she’ll wear it again!
When Wanda comes back into her sitcom world, she finds Billy and Tommy searching for Sparky the dog. It turns out that Agnes – that nosy neighbor’s always in their business! – has the pup wrapped up in cloth after he supposedly died from eating from her azalea bushes. (Come back for our Episode 7 Review to find out what really happened!) For one thing, why does she have poisonous plants growing in her backyard?
Again, there’s an Agatha Harkness indication in the very next scene. The twins, out of their grief, tell their mother that she can fix anything – even resurrecting the dead. Wanda looks absolutely shocked by her children’s pleas, but Agnes is nothing but curious. “You can?” she asks naively. A-ha, Agnes might be on her way to revealing her identity. Can a powerful witch move through five episodes without dropping a few traces of who she is behind the scenes? Nope!
Vision, who has just returned from work, is having a dreary conversation with Wanda until things get more stirred up. After noticing that there are no children in Westview, his co-worker’s edgy cries about being under “her” (we put that in quotes since it was untold who he was speaking about) mind control, causing him excruciating pain. All that time, being a normal husband was to hide all of his suspicions about the sitcom he’s living in!
“What is outside of Westview?!” Vision demands. You can totally tell this is a full-blown argument between husband and wife as they levitate themselves with their powers. Wanda, of course, won’t tell Vision what’s really going on, but hinting to him, “Trust me, you don’t wanna know.” Yeah, listen to Wanda if you don’t want to disintegrate! As both of them land on the floor, everything’s back to normal again as Wanda reassures Vision that everything is fine in the sitcom world of hers.
Knock-knock! Who’s there? It’s…. your brother Pietro Maximoff? Wanda’s also shocked, inquiring about his identity since he looks different. Why cast Evan Peters to do the job instead of Aaron Taylor-Johnson? (We’ll find out why in the finale.) But his greeting statement is absolutely unfriendly and a total disgraceful way to greet your twin sister after so many years: “Long lost bro to squeeze his stinkin’ sister to death or what?” Yep. The Quicksilver we know from Age of Ultron is gone.
