WandaVision Just Jumped The Shark and I Love It

*** Major Spoilers for WandaVision Episode 1–5 ***

‘WandaVision’ is BONKERS and moving at a hell of a speed. Even with four whole episodes left the revelations are coming thick and fast and the twist at the end of Episode Five ‘On a Very Special Episode..’ might be the most significant yet.

The jam-packed episode saw Wanda and Vision’s creepy kids aging themselves up from babies to five-year-olds to ten-year-olds, said kids finding and adopting a dog, that same dog dying, Vision briefly snapping his co-worker Norm out of the sitcom reality, Wanda leaving that reality to confront and intimidate SWORD, the discovery that the sitcom reality is more real than everyone thought AND Wanda and Vision having a blazing row as the latter finally starts to figure out what’s going on, all before that final twist.

A visitor at the front door interrupts that row, and who was on Wanda’s doorstep but her long-lost brother Pietro… kind of.

This is Wanda’s brother — also known as Quicksilver — only it’s not the Aaron Taylor-Johnson version who debuted and died in 2015’s ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, it’s a version being played by Evan Peters — who played the character in Fox’s X-Men universe.

“She recast Pietro!?” Dr Darcy says outside the Westview anomaly. ‘WandaVision’ has been more meta than anything in the MCU so far and this (wonderful) line was the most meta so far, but what’s actually happening?

The show’s central mystery is how Vision has been resurrected, and this episode was all about the extent to which Wanda can resurrect, create and recreate in this pocket reality.

Wanda says dead is dead, but her kids disagree. They appear to know on some level about Vision’s supposed resurrection (possibly because they’re literal extensions of Wanda herself) and so implore their mother to bring back Sparky the dog. She doesn’t, but she does appear — huge emphasis on appear — to bring back their uncle.

Earlier in the episode we learn that prior to the events of the show Wanda broke into SWORD’s headquarters to steal/reclaim Vision’s body, supporting the idea presented at the end of last week’s episode that the Vision we’re seeing is really Wanda puppeteering his corpse.

She brought him back because she has his body, but the body of Aaron Taylor-Johnson Pietro is long gone. There’s nothing left for Wanda to puppeteer, and even if there was, puppeteering a human corpse versus a robot corpse is probably too dark for Disney’s MCU.

We’ve also seen enough evidence that she can’t just will people or matter into existence . She caused the kevlar body armour Monica Rambeau was wearing to turn into 70s-appropriate clothing, and even when Monica left the reality that clothing remained the same in appearance, only revealing what it once was on a molecular level. Wanda is using what’s already there to remould this reality.

The exception appears to be her children, the existence or non-existence of which probably being what the show’s final episodes will revolve around.

So, what about this Pietro. There are two options.

Option One: This is actually the Fox version of Pietro pulled into this reality from the Fox universe by Wanda (or the show’s real, unseen villain) officially opening up the multiverse in the MCU.

Would this mean the rest of Fox’s X-Men cast will pile on through? With the exception of the fourth-wall breaking Deadpool, probably not. Marvel will certainly want to reset the X-Men for the MCU when the time comes. Pietro and Wanda do represent a bridge between the universes however, and even if this version of Pietro’s time in the MCU is short-lived, his existence would “validate" a series of films that happen to now be available on Disney+ thanks to the Disney-Fox merger. Got to love that corporate synergy.

‘Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness’ and all the speculation around the upcoming ‘Spider-Man 3' would suggest this is the most likely option.

Option Two: This is another of the “thousands” of inhabitants of Westview being held against their will in the sitcom reality, meaning Peters is playing a normal person Wanda has brought in to cast as her brother. The link to the Fox universe is for the audience’s benefit only and represents another meta layer.

We’ll find out in the next episode when SWORD fails or succeeds in identifying whether this Pietro is a real missing person from inside the MCU reality, or not.

Either way, the introduction of Peters’ Pietro is a piece of deliberate stunt-casting and represents the “show" inside the show jumping the shark.

Many shows have brought in big-name stars or “cool” new characters to shake things up in an attempt to boost ratings. In this case, the real showrunners won’t have any ratings dip to worry about but Wanda is certainly losing her audience in Vision.

Pietro’s appearance and dialogue support this. The leather jacket, referring to Vision as a “popsicle”. It reminded me a bit of Poochie from The Simpsons: a send-up of the tropes I’ve been talking about.

Pietro is here to stay, for a few episodes at least. He’ll be another leading character drawing the attention of us real viewers, but also Vision and SWORD. It’s all very deliberate.

He’ll also be another source of pain for Wanda when this reality does come crashing down. Wanda’s been through a lot of trauma in her life, losing her home, her brother and most recently Vision.

She’s been scary enough at times, but when she loses them all again, she’ll be terrifying.