Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase 4 & Beyond (and a chance to change your vote)

The theory of Agnes is that she had no Westview counterpart, that they didn't identify the name of a civilian "playing" her.

xxpost Well at least you've chosen a reasonable metric by which to assess the soundness of others' minds.

Besides, the MCU architects intentionally feed the speculative nature of fans. They want people to jump to conclusions based on the source material if only to pull the rug out from under them by going in some completely different direction with the filmed material.

To that end, tossing in a character whose name is a portmanteau of a character with strong ties to Wanda in the comics and then having that character (a witch in the comics) dressed up like a witch while everyone else is Halloweening about in goofball iterations of their comic outfits may in fact suggest that hints of Agnes's involvement is a total red herring. It's too on the nose.

Xxp yeah Pietro was doing straight up Ace Ventura ham that I appreciated.

Imma just say it outright since I'm the only one with the courage to state the obvious: the big bad here is clearly Mojo.

And mutants will be introduced to the MCU when the X-Babies show up at season's end.

I was struck by the idea that he'd make a good Jim Carrey - sure there's a "Jim Carrey during the making of The Man in the Moon" germ rattling around somewhere in Charlie Kaufman's head.

can we please avoid thought-manifesting this sort of garbage into existence

also it's a bit weird that all the other frozen people at the end of Westview couldn't move or speak, and Agnes could outright talk

I wanted to know why Vision has only done his brain finger trick twice, once to the guy in the office and once to Agnes.

i would imagine he realizes it increases the individuals' pain when he does that, making them more upset, and that he's not trying to do that.

he’s just coming to grips with his truman-show existence and doesn’t really want to believe it.. running around brain-juicing everyone into existential dread would be kinda weird no??

Agtee

Agtee

AGREE fuckdamnit

I want to know more about what he's doing when he does that. In contrast to the comics, where powers are fluid and wind up all over the map as various creative teams handle a given character, the MCU has been pretty good about defining its various players' power sets and the limitations thereof (see the multiple references to Wanda never before having demonstrated these particular abilities). So since Vision has never had any 'wake people from their mystical trance powers' before, the suggestion seems to be that his powers as we already understand them are able to disrupt whatever force is acting on the town. Which may in itself be a clue as to the nature of that force (perhaps something technological?).

xpost Agree too! On the other hand, he's trying to figure things out, and that woman he passed going through the motions while a tear ran down her face seemed pretty unhappy without his help.

xpost Not a bad theory, given the apparent levels of radiation.

guys the red light on the toaster is clearly the hibernating soul of Count Zorbon - if this does not pay off i can only assume it’s because of dumb internecine studio politics and frankly i am already preemptively disgusted

Besides, the MCU architects intentionally feed the speculative nature of fans. They want people to jump to conclusions based on the source material if only to pull the rug out from under them by going in some completely different direction with the filmed material.

Sure, but I feel like there's a clear line between "stuff we put in as Easter Eggs for the fans" (The Incredibles / Parent Trap, Ag<atha Hark>ness, Kick-Ass) and actual balls that they have in the air (Hayward's plans, Monica's friend, Monica Rambeau, possibly even Jimmy's witness?)

It seems likely that Agnes or Dottie will the witness at this point
"...in the town you grew up in?"

oh wait, that wouldn't work. Jimmy would've seen them on the broadcast.

They finally clear everything up and the witness is Ralph, played by Stan Lee.

The theory of Agnes is that she had no Westview counterpart, that they didn't identify the name of a civilian "playing" her.

In this episode she was finally included in the sitcom credits as "Agnes". All the other people in the credits (Vision, Wanda, Pietro, Tommy, Billy) are essentially playing a fictional version of themselves; there's no actor name as you would have in normal TV series credits, as it's Wanda playing Wanda. So it would seem she has no other name/identity outside the simulation, she really is Agnes. Also, when Vision (supposedly) wakes her up from the simulation, he keeps calling her Agnes and she doesn't tell him her real non-simulation name, like Vision's co-workers in the previous episode did.

I do agree that Agnes is a red herring, but only in the sense that she's not Agatha Harkness, nor in anyway related to Mephisto, but she is somehow tied to what happened with Wanda and how she ended up controlling the simulation. Like I said upthread, the MCU has been pretty good at teasing comic existing book stories, and making people think they're adapting them wholesale, but the changing the plot in significant ways so it's still fresh. Like when the second Cap movie was called Winter Soldier and introduced the eponymous character early on, so everyone thought they're gonna adapt the comic book plotline where he first appeared, but then the main plot was actually something else and not from any comic. Or when Civil War gave us Zemo as the antagonist, but the character only had the same name as his comic book counterpart, and his background and motivations turned out to be almost opposite from Baron Zemo.

Meantime, The Youth have spoken.

My niece looooooves Wandavision and insisted on rewatching the Halloween episode today. Now her new bit is pretending she’s in the same fugue state as the people under the spell and just keeps repeating her actions in a loop pic.twitter.com/K1FC7KdUuY

— Laura Hudson (@laura_hudson) February 13, 2021

looooool

So since Vision has never had any 'wake people from their mystical trance powers' before, the suggestion seems to be that his powers as we already understand them are able to disrupt whatever force is acting on the town. Which may in itself be a clue as to the nature of that force (perhaps something technological?).Which may in itself be a clue as to the nature of that force (perhaps something technological?).

I agree with this; in the Marvel comics phasing through technology makes them malfunction, and with Kitty Pryde especially its one of her signature moves. I can't recall if Vision has done the same in comics, but I'm sure he has? Also, the red wall of the illusion is certainly made to look like some kinda of technological forcefield, not a mystical barrier - it doesn't have the fluid lines of Wanda's powers, but seems rather to be made out of hexagons... And when Vision starts to disintegrate, you can see hexagon-shaped pieces of him flying back towards the illusion wall. So I think the whole is most likely revealed to be nanotech or something. And if Striker knows more about this whole than what he told Monica, which is hinted in this episode, it might mean that his goal is to acquire this technology so SWORD can use it to battle aliens.

Whoops, I meant to say "if Hayward knows more about this whole thing..."; the whole discussion upthread about Striker made me misremember the character's name.

It's Stryker now. He's been recast.

I enjoyed the line the SWORD chief fires off at Rambeau & Darcy: “And which one of you is the sassy best friend?”

(and that the answer is Jimmy)

But why would something technological gives Wanda new powers?

Wanda hasn't gained new powers, she can just control the simulation.

I think they are still playing with residual power from Infinity Stones. Wanda can control it because she received her powers from an Infinity Stone and Vision can disrupt it and has some level of immunity to it because he gets his powers from an Infinity Stone. I’m wondering if this was some sort of trap triggered by Wanda’s theft of Vision’s body that she then took control of and bent into a haven. My onlyniutsftanding question is if this speculation is correct, who laid the trap in the first place? S.W.O.R.D.? If so, how did they get their hands on the (possibly residual?) power of one or more Infinity Stones in the first place?

i've seen it claimed that agnes' car has connecticut plates; can't quite tell but it's possible. it's not a new jersey plate, tho. since salem is a town in connecticut, this proves mephisto is behind the whole thing

i haven't watched too many purely streaming shows, so -- is 30-minute episode followed by eight minutes of credits a standard thing now?

xpost But Wanda is (apparently) expanding the hex/town/simulation? How can she do that if she is not causing it?

It's the same one, the Mind Stone.

Well if it's, say, nanotech, and she can control it, she'll just make the nanobots spread to a wider area.

(xpost)

The episodes seem to be varying length, with 4 minutes of credits? Episode 5 was 34 minutes long.

er, with meaning _not_ including there, obviously.

the credits ARE insanely long. not sure why they are doing this

fuckin' with people who probably every week try to see if there are mid-credit scenes

Wait, have you been missing all of the mid-credits scenes?!

oh shit did they reveal ULtron was really Rosie the Robot

Speaking of the end credits, the initial animation sequence with all the old electron gun/phosphor bits is really lovely.

This week's mid show advert was grim stuff

yeah that was morbid!

I wasn't sure what its point was. Was this the first fake ad that took such a surprising turn?

I loved it, what a perfect combination of tonally OTM ads from the time and...something else.

things are breaking down

even the theme song was kind of curdled and strained, a kind of desperation in the chorus to “keep on going” or whatever