WandaVision Episode 5 Review: The Power of Love
“The Things I do for Love.”
Famous words uttered by Jaime Lannister as he shoved a pre-teen prince out of a window to his crippling end just to protect his secret incestuous relationship with his sister. And Wanda doesn’t quite check all the boxes in the “Am I Jaime Lannister” Checklist right now. She’s pretty damn close. She has a twin. She’s got a really powerful daddy. And even though she hasn’t crippled any kids, she has demonstrated that she’s totally an ends justify the means kind of gal when it comes to protecting her family too. Enslaving a whole community with mind control and forcing them to act in her scripted sitcom life? Nothing wrong with that baby because we’re all safe and sound. The only thing she’s missing that separates her from the powerful Westerosi heirs is having an undying love affair with her sibling. So yay, Wanda isn’t that depraved. But she did steal her dead boyfriend’s body, re-animate it, and create a family with that half robot corpse. Totally normal behavior.
So what does this have to do with the latest episode of WandaVision? Not much. Was more of a fun comparison. And any time we can casually mention incest in a blog, we’re gonna take advantage. But this episode does continue to force us to grapple with the question of how far is too far? And makes us ask if Wanda’s love for her family and desire to protect them from the pain she’s endured justify her torturous control over the town of Westview?
Because that’s what we learn in this episode. We had been teased with it. And the fringe characters and neighbors had dangled bits of suggestive dialogue to us. But this was the first instance where we flat out got told directly into our ear holes that the control that Wanda is exerting over these people is tortuous. It’s painful. And they’re desperate for it to stop.
It’d be different of course if Wanda had these people just mind-floating in a comforting cloud of oblivion. Kind of pausing there life in some xanax haze of ignorance as she works through her demented form of therapy. Hell, if that were the case, I’d be banging on the door to get in the bubble. Screaming, begging Wanda to prescribe a week of mindless joy. Sign me up baby. Do what you want with my body Wanda. Put me in your show. I’m just here to vibe.
But no. This is the episode where things have taken a permanent shift. So we’re no longer asking should she be stopped. Because the answer is a resounding yes. The new question is just how the fuck do you stop her? And that’s why we’ll stay tuned.
Guess that’s more of thematic encapsulation of what happened but there were tons of other big things that happened in this episode and I’m just going to list them:
- Pietro is back from the dead. And it’s the actor from the X-men movies. So what does that mean? Could the Xmen be making an appearance? Does this mean they’re ret-conning Wanda’s back story from previous movies and moving towards Magneto being her actual father? Idk but…
- Speaking of Magneto being Wanda’s dad. There was most definitely a deliberate homage to him in this episode. In Wanda’s stand off/confrontation with the S.W.O.R.D. swat team, she uses her powers to control all their guns and point them at the commander. Something eerily similar to a scene in the first X-Men movie where Magneto does the almost exact same thing to a police force in a stand off outside of a train station. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but I doubt it.
- Is Monica Rambeau getting her super powers? For those that don’t know, she is the next Captain Marvel in the comics. And we have witnessed part of her origin story in this episode when her MRI results came back ruined because of all the radiation in her body.
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