WandaVision: What’s hidden in plain sight in Episode 6
By Mike McNulty
“And Pietro Maximoff as Himself”
The initial reaction to Evan Peters as Pietro instead of Aaron Taylor-Johnson made almost everyone think Wanda brought Quicksilver over from Fox’s X-Men universe. Only it’s clear very early on that Pietro wants Wanda to believe that he’s really her brother back from the dead despite having a different face and accent. He even acts like he remembers his own death from Avengers: Age of Ultron, which we saw in the “previously on WandaVision” recap.
But Pietro slips up when – as Wanda learns from Billy about Vision being in trouble – he says, “Don’t sweat it, sis. It’s not like your dead husband can die twice.” It’s a jerkish thing to say, and Pietro, in both the comics and Age of Ultron, is definitely that. Yet it also raises a very important question: If this is the same Pietro from Age of Ultron or even from the X-Men movies, how could he know that Vision died in Avengers: Infinity War? Answer: he can’t.
If anything, this episode not only hinted that Pietro isn’t who he says he is, but it made several allusions to him actually being the demon Mephisto. His calling Westview “charming as hell” is pretty on the nose, but so is him calling Billy and Tommy, “demon spawn” and him saying how they “need a father figure.” It’s all but flat-out telling us the twin’s real parentage from the comics.
Even Pietro’s peaked hairstyle seems like a giveaway. It’s both a reference to his hairstyle in the comics… and makes him look like a devil.
The Yo-Magic Yogurt Commercial
The Mephisto hints aren’t just limited to “Quicksilver” either. Take the very disturbing Claymation-style ad for “Yo-Magic Yogurt.” Unlike WandaVision‘s other fake ads, it doesn’t make deliberate callbacks or references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What it actually does is act as a metaphor for what’s really going on in the series.
The small and deserted tropical island? That’s Westview. The hungry child? That’s Wanda. The shark offering the child the yogurt? Definitely seems like the devil offering something tempting that’s too good to be true, doesn’t it? Note also how the shark talks and acts eerily similar to Evan Peter’s Pietro, as well. Given how the ad ends, things may not be looking good for Wanda and the people of Westview.