It’s not unusual for a Marvel project to leave us with questions at the end; that’s kind of the whole point of an interconnected universe. But the “WandaVision” series finale really left us with fewer answers than usual.
The thing with “WandaVision” is, it was never meant to kick off Phase Four of the MCU. But because of COVID-related delays and shutdowns, it ended up being the first project released, with “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” set to follow on March 19. So, that said, it’s entirely possible that other films on the MCU slate were meant to set up elements of Phase Four, with “WandaVision” simply adding on.
But as the timeline stands, we’re left with “WandaVision” as the stepping off point. And, after “The Series Finale,” we’re stuck with a whole lot of questions going unanswered. Let’s break it down.
Who was the person in witness protection Jimmy Woo was checking on?
Jimmy Woo’s entire relevance to “WandaVision” was due to the fact he just happened to discover the Hex while checking in on an FBI witness stashed in Westview that WitSec had lost touch with. As he explains to Monica in episode 4, it looked like the witness had fled but upon contacting relatives and known associates, “none of them have ever heard of him.” (We later learn that this targeted form of amnesia affects anyone who had some kind of personal connection to Westview but wasn’t actually there when the Hex went up.)
Later in the episode, S.W.O.R.D. researchers managed to identify the real world identities of all the ‘characters’ in Wanda’s fake sitcom version of Westview, with the exception of three people — obviously including Agnes. But despite Jimmy being allowed to observe the SWORD task force up close, the missing witness was never brought up again. We just don’t know if they were one of the sitcom characters, one of the other two people S.W.O.R.D. couldn’t identify, or just gone altogether.
As always, there are theories. One we find pretty interesting is that it’s “Fietro,” who ended up being just an actor named Ralph Bohner. Why? Because anyone with the last name “Bohner” probably wouldn’t laugh at it after having it his whole life. He would only laugh at it if it were new to him — like he had gotten it as part of his new life.
But theories are not facts. And the fact is, no one is ever explicitly named as Woo’s contact. As far as the final episode of “WandaVision” is concerned, Ralph Bohner is just another Westview resident. It’s simply a dropped thread that leaves fans grasping at whichever characters are left.
There’s a slim chance we may yet get an answer to this elsewhere in the MCU. Jimmy Woo first popped up in “Ant-Man,” and as an FBI agent, really has the flexibility of being placed in any other story. But considering this “witness” was key to kicking off the story of “WandaVision,” we won’t be surprised if he or she has no connection into the MCU at large.
Where does Agatha’s magic come from?
As MCU villains go, Agatha got a rough beat. She was fun, and undoubtedly has the best Marvel villain theme song, but in the grand scheme of things, she has no depth. All we know about Agatha is that she existed in 1693 and can suck magic from other witches. We don’t know why she does it, or what rules of magic she broke that led her mother and her coven to try and burn her at the stake, or what her long-term plan was — if she had one at all.
And we definitely don’t know where Agatha’s magic comes from. It’s a surprising move; Marvel goes to great lengths to explain the origin story of most of its characters, but especially the ones with cosmic abilities. Peter Quill was able to hold an Infinity Stone because he was half-Celestial, Carol Danvers was hit by the explosion of a lightspeed engine (powered by the Tesseract), Wanda was born a witch and enhanced by the Mind Stone.
But Agatha just…showed up. And all we saw in her backstory is she claims to have a natural knack for dark magic that scared the hell out of her mother and the other members of her coven. We have literally no idea how she can do what she does. We don’t even know how she came into possession of the Darkhold. Did she steal it from the Sorcerer Supreme?
We’ll probably get more info on the Darkhold in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” but given where we left Agatha at the end of the series, we probably won’t find out any more regarding her specific magic. And on that note…
Will we ever see Agatha again?
As punishment for her actions, Wanda gives Agatha the role she chose — permanently. With a quick burst of Wanda’s magic, Agatha is once again Agnes the nosy neighbor, meant to live in Westview forever, where she can’t hurt anyone. Of course, Agatha’s final words to Wanda come as a warning.
“You have no idea what you’ve unleashed,” Agatha says. “You’re gonna need me.” To that, Wanda simply says, “If I do, I know where to find you.”
In Marvel lore, Agatha Harkness is a major player in Wanda’s story. But the MCU tends to play pretty loosely with comic arcs; it’s entirely possible that Agatha will never pop up again, meant only to face off against Wanda in “WandaVision.” It’d certainly be a waste, but it’s hard to imagine the MCU coming back to Westview at any point.
Why was S.W.O.R.D. allowed access to Vision’s body in the first place?
For most of “WandaVision” we were led to believe that Vision only existed in Westview because Wanda stormed S.W.O.R.D. HQ, stole Vision’s body and magically reanimated it to get her husband back. But no, that’s not the truth. In actuality, Wanda’s magic spawned an entirely new Vision; he’s a sentient illusion, powered by the piece of the Mind Stone that lives in Wanda.
It also turns out that she showed up at S.W.O.R.D. like a normal person — she went through the front door, politely talked to the security guard/receptionist, and was invited back by Director Hayward. Hayward then showed Wanda the lab where they were experimenting on Vision’s corpse, not-so-subtly suggested she use her powers to restore him to life, and told his guards to stand down when she flew down into the lab to have a look for herself before leaving, peacefully.
But the thing about all that, S.W.O.R.D. did have the original Vision’s body. And in Episode 5, after learning about Wanda’s supposed storming of S.W.O.R.D. HQ and theft of Vision’s corpse, Jimmy explains that resurrecting him is in violation of the Sokovia Accords. “And the Vision’s own living will,” Hayward replies, to which Jimmy says “he didn’t want to be anybody’s weapon.” Hayward goes on to claim that Wanda “in her grief disregarded his wishes.”
It would seem then that assuming Hayward wasn’t lying about a living will, and Jimmy’s understanding of the Sokovia Accords isn’t mistaken, there were several very strict legal reasons why S.W.O.R.D. shouldn’t have had access to Vision’s body at all. So uh, how?
This is never explained. The closest we get to that is when Hayward tells Wanda, “He’s not yours. He’s ours.” Did The Avengers just decide to ignore their friends’ dying wishes? Did S.W.O.R.D. just straight up steal it in the confusion following The Snap? We really need to know how Vision become government property.
What’s the story with S.W.O.R.D.?
The MCU timeline gets a little messy with S.W.O.R.D.
We know that “WandaVision” takes place three weeks after everyone gets blipped back, thanks to a conversation between Monica and Hayward in episode 4. But S.W.O.R.D. was founded pre-blip, by Maria Rambeau. At the very least, it’s been around for five years in the MCU. And yet, we’ve never heard of it until now?
Our guess is that S.W.O.R.D. was created to fill the void after S.H.I.E.L.D. was dissolved following the events of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” But aside from that theory, there’s a lot of backstory to be filled in here. Luckily, it’s one of those pieces that probably ties into more than just “WandaVision.” We’ll undoubtedly see S.W.O.R.D. again — most like in “Captain Marvel 2,” considering Carol Danvers is the very definition of “sentient weapon” — so hopefully we’ll understand more of how and why it came to be.
What’s the beef between Captain Rambeau and Captain Marvel?
If there’s one thing absolutely no “WandaVision” viewer missed, it’s the face Monica pulled when Jimmy Woo name-dropped her Auntie Carol. But, on the off chance you did, it looked a little something like this.
It comes when the two of them and Darcy are discussing the events of “Avengers: Endgame” during episode 5. When Monica points out that no other Avenger came close to taking out Thanos, Woo responds with “Well, I’d argue that Captain Marvel came close.”
Then, when Darcy tries to get more info on where Captain Marvel got her powers, Monica deflects with a “We are not talking about her, we are talking about Wanda.” The moment doesn’t go unnoticed by James or Darcy, but they drop it. Obviously, we can’t.
When last we saw Monica with Captain Marvel, the two were closer than ever, with Carol encouraging Monica’s dreams of going into space. Clearly, something has changed. My personal theory is that maybe Auntie Carol wasn’t so pleased with Maria’s creation of S.W.O.R.D., and maybe that affected their friendship. Maybe Monica lost her aunt again as a result, and then Captain Marvel wasn’t there for Maria when she died.
But that’s just my personal theory. Odds are, we’ll get a definitive answer on what’s up between Monica and Carol in “Captain Marvel 2.”
Who was Monica’s “guy” over the ridge?
Never in the history of Marvel lines has there been one quite as cut-and-dry foreshadowing as “I know an aerospace engineer who’d be up for this challenge.” (Okay, fine, there probably have been, but just roll with me here). Monica drops the line literally over her shoulder and she and Darcy discuss the parameters of what Monica would need to safely re-enter Westview. Honestly, she might as well have winked into the camera with it.
In the following episode, Monica gets a text saying her way back into the Hex will be outside Westview in an hour. “Just gotta meet my guy over the ridge,” she says. Again, that sounds like a continuation of an obviously big hint that Someone Important is about to show up. So fans can be forgiven for assuming that was the case.
For many, the prevailing theory was that the line was referring to Reed Richards, and that “WandaVision” was about to set up The Fantastic Four. Spoiler alert: It didn’t. And also, for some reason, it turns out “my guy” wasn’t even a guy at all.
Instead it was “Major Goodner,” a random woman in Army fatigues who was apparently friends with Monica’s mother. She says all of two lines to Monica and then we never see her again. We never even get confirmation that SHE was the aerospace engineer who designed the rover Monica attempts to get into Westview with.
Now, this could be written off as Monica simply using “guy” as a vague term, and not actually referring to her contact’s gender. But Marvel isn’t known for letting little things like that slide. Was this just a massive, inexplicable oversight? Another little trolling of fans? Or was this actually intended to set up something that mattered, but the six-month production hiatus caused by COVID end up undoing whatever it was?
How did “Fietro” have super speed?
It’s been a long time since Marvel faked out its fans as hard as they did with “Fietro.” But, in one of the biggest eye-roll moments in recent memories, it turns out “Fietro” wasn’t Pietro from another dimension. He wasn’t anyone. He was just an actor who found himself possessed by Agatha for the purposes of screwing with Wanda and trying to pick apart the Westview illusion.
But how exactly did Ralph Bohner imitate Pietro’s abilities? If he was just a normal guy, where did he get the super speed from? The assumption is that this is just another piece of Agatha’s manipulation; she somehow magically gave him speed for her purposes.
It’s not the most unlikely scenario, but it still doesn’t make much sense. As Agatha explains, “Fietro” wasn’t literally her, “just my eyes and ears.” We have no clear idea if the necklace she used to control him also gave him his super speedy abilities.
How did Pietro survive touching the Mind Stone?
This is perhaps the most frustrating question posed by “WandaVision” because it was both (probably) unintentional, and likely won’t ever get answered.
“WandaVision” took a big leap in retconning Wanda’s origin story. Turns out she didn’t just gain powers from being experimented on with the Mind Stone, but she was born a witch and the stone simply “amplified what otherwise would’ve died on the vine.” It was the magic already in her that seemingly kept her alive.
If that’s the case, then how did her brother Pietro survive? Did he have inherent powers that were amplified? Did Wanda share the power of the Mind Stone with him somehow? Was he just lucky? In rewriting one twin’s origin story, “WandaVision” created a glaring hole in the other’s.
And no, we probably won’t ever get an answer, because Pietro is well and truly gone. He isn’t “Fietro,” he likely isn’t going to appear in Marvel’s upcoming animated series “What If…” — it’s just something we have to live with. And it might drive me crazy for the rest of my days.
What’s next for Darcy?
Darcy was an integral piece of “WandaVision.” It was Darcy who discovered the broadcast signal in amidst the CMBR of the Hex, it was Darcy who able to establish contact with Wanda (however briefly), and it was Darcy who discovered S.W.O.R.D. had been trying to bring Vision back online.
And yet, somehow it was Darcy who ended up with just a singular line in “The Series Finale.” She didn’t pop up in the mid-credits scene because of “Something about ‘debriefings are for the weak’” — she just vanished.
As it turns out, this loose end is a result of COVID shutting down production on “WandaVision” halfway through. In an interview with Kevin Smith on his “Fatman Beyond” podcast, “WandaVision” director Matt Shakman revealed that Darcy was originally in the finale more.
“But we did have a whole sequence where Darcy, Monica, Ralph meet up with the kids, and they’re in Agatha’s house, and they think that maybe they should steal the Darkhold from the basement because the kids has seen it down there when they were being held hostage,” Shakman revealed. “And they go down to get the book, and as they reach out to get the book, the rabbit hops up in front of the book. And they’re like, ‘Oh it’s Senor Scratchy, he’s the best!’ And they reach over the scratch him and he hisses and this whole “American Werewolf in London” transformation happens where rabbit turns into this big demon.”
This was ultimately left on the cutting room floor, as the show’s COVID shutdown resulted in them being unable to finish the VFX needed for the sequence. And honestly, I’m not that mad that Scratchy didn’t end up being a literal demon. Marvel can do a lot, especially with special effects, but a demon bunny would’ve just been…meh.
Still, Darcy is one storyline the show really needed to see through. Especially because, according to Kat Dennings, she will be back for future MCU projects. We have no idea which ones, or in what capacity Darcy will show up, we just know that she will. “WandaVision” really needed to at least give her future some kind of set-up.
What happened to Billy and Tommy?
At the end of “The Series Finale” Wanda finally brought down the Hex. Sadly, that meant saying goodbye to not only her husband (again) but her kids too. It’s a hard thing to grapple with, especially after Monica said in episode 5 “Everything might look fake in the TV, but everything in there is real.”
If Wanda actually gave birth in the Hex, then theoretically, Billy and Tommy should have survived. This is explained with a bit of a hand wave in the finale, with Agatha explaining to Wanda, “You tied your family to this twisted world, and now one can’t exist without the other.”
Except apparently, it can. Because, if you listen closely during the post-credits scene, you can distinctly hear Billy and Tommy crying out for Wanda once more. She hears it in her astral projection form, which begs the question: where are Billy and Tommy? Are their voices simply a painful memory for Wanda? That seems unlikely, because her face clearly indicates surprise at hearing them.
Are they in another dimension? “WandaVision” ended up doing nothing with opening the multiverse, so it remains unclear. Our best bet at getting an answer on this one is in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
What’s going on with White Vision?
Then there’s Vision himself. By the end of “WandaVision,” the Vision we and Wanda knew is gone…or is he?
When Vision meets his doppleganger in the library, he transfers the data of his life in an effort to get the White Vision to stand down and consider the circumstances of what’s going on. Once the transfer is made, the White Vision’s data chip turns Mind Stone-gold, his eyes turn a bit more human and he quietly utters “I Am Vision” before flying off, never to be seen again in the episode.
So uh, IS he Vision, or what? Is he still able to be controlled by S.W.O.R.D.? Does he have any kind of emotional connection to Wanda now? Where will he pop up next? The questions truly just keep rolling in with the White Vision, and there’s no way to know when — or even if — they’ll get answered.
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