WandaVision season 1, episode 8 review: Previously On

After that big reveal last week, WandaVision picks up right where it left off as the show takes a journey through Wanda’s trauma and the creation of the Hex.

With Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) revealing herself as Agatha Harkness pulling the strings behind the scenes, Episode 8 of WandaVision is set to show the encounter between Wanda and Agatha.

However, the episode opens with a moment that showcases some of Agatha’s past, taking us to 1693, as the evil witch is tied to the stake and confronted by a number of witches who accuse her of using dark magic.

As they attempt to punish her for her crimes, Agatha flips the script and uses her dark magic to drain the witches of life, leaving her as the last witch standing.

It was Agatha All Along on WandaVision

Following that introduction, Episode 8 of WandaVision returns the Disney Plus show to the present day, as Wanda is trapped in Agatha’s basement powerless. There is no more sitcom-based reality as Wanda is fully in the reality of the moment with Agatha. The evil witch explains to Wanda how she has been acting behind the scenes, manipulating events such as Pietro’s arrival – dubbing him “Fietro” because he is fake. She mentions that Fietro was not her personally, but her “eyes and ears,” leading to more uncertainty as to where this Pietro really originates from.

It turns out Agatha was drawn to the recreation of Westview, with the powerful witch in awe of Wanda’s immense power. Agatha seems extremely interested in how Wanda has been able to control thousands of people and create a new sitcom reality without much effort, even calling Wanda’s fabricated reality “magic on autopilot.”

Agatha showcases her magic for a bit, and is confused as to how a “witch” of Wanda’s novice skill was able to do all of what she sees around her. Wanda is obviously confused, because she thinks her powers came from exposure to the Mind Stone. But, as she is about to learn, that is not entirely the case…

Journey to Wanda’s childhood

In order to figure out how the creation of the Hex came about, Agatha forces Wanda to take a journey through her backstory and relive the traumatic events of her life by entering a series of doors.

The first door returns the sorceress to Sokovia, as the audience is introduced to Wanda’s parents. As it turns out, the family has a sitcom night in order to help them develop their English skills. Wanda and Pietro are soon introduced in their young forms, as the family sits down to watch The Dick van Dyke Show.

This scene is adorable and displays where Wanda’s influence of using sitcoms for her reality first sprung from, as it formed a big part of some of the happiest moments in her childhood. Seeing the family happy and watching the television adds to the sadness when the house is bombed by the Stark Industries missile that was first referenced in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

While giving another insight into the fear and trauma that the Maximoff twins faced, this also shows that Wanda’s interpretation of the event was wrong. As it turns out, the bomb was not faulty as Wanda had imagined. As Agatha explains it, Wanda was able to save herself and Pietro through casting a spell unknowingly as a baby witch.

This may be confusing at first to both the fans and Wanda, but Agatha continues to take a journey through Wanda’s life encouraging her that “she’s already lived it once,” and that “the best way to move forward is by going backwards.”

A glimpse into the future?

The next door takes the audience and Wanda through to her experience in the HYDRA base. This is where the young Maximoff has her first contact with Loki’s Sceptre and the Mind Stone. As mentioned by the HYDRA scientist running the experiment, no one has survived the trials thus far.

This makes it more special, as Loki’s Sceptre cracks open to reveal the Mind Stone to Wanda. As Wanda is entranced by the power of the Mind Stone, the stone nearly blows her away. However, before it does Wanda sees a glimpse of a silhouette that looks awfully like the Scarlet Witch from the comics.

As this episode is delving into Wanda’s backstory and trauma, it is likely a glimpse into what the powerful witch will look like in the future. However, it could also be a glimpse into another version of the character from the multiverse. In the comics it was a title passed down to her from her mother, so could it even be a possibility that the figure is Wanda’s mother?

The blast from the Mind Stone knocks out Wanda and she awakens in a HYDRA cell watching The Brady Bunch. Agatha explains that Wanda’s encounter with the Mind Stone “awakened powers that would have otherwise died,” meaning that her experience with an Infinity Stone only helped awaken Wanda’s powerful abilities, not grant her abilities.

This explanation does little to explain how Quicksilver gained his abilities from the Mind Stone, with the show likely juggling too much to explain this in the final episode. However, fans can only speculate about that as Wanda is dragged through another door..

Vision’s comfort and final goodbye

The next encounter involves a visit to the Avengers compound, as Wanda sits down watching Malcolm in the Middle as she grips a pillow in sadness. In this moment, Wanda has recently lost Pietro, is living in a foreign country and is all alone.

It is heartwarming to see Vision enter the room to comfort her, as the two talk about Wanda dealing with her grief over the loss of Pietro. Agatha has to ruin this by commenting on what Wanda would do without Vision to pull her away from the darkness, which takes us through the final door.

The creation of the Hex and Chaos Magic

This final farewell results in Wanda taking a trip to the town of Westview, where it is revealed that her and Vision had a title deed to a property in Westview where they would “grow old together.” This adds further sadness to Vision’s death and Wanda’s grief, as the property in the small town is all Wanda has left to remember him by.

As predicted by many, Wanda breaks down and this results in the powerful witch releasing an immense amount of magic, with the resulting emotional outburst creating the Hex. It is also revealed that the Vision that has been appearing in WandaVision is actually a creation from Wanda’s powers.

This discovery leads to Wanda and Agatha returning to the present day, as Agatha teleports away and uses her powers to hold both Tommy and Billy by their necks, while levitating in full costume in the streets of Westview. Agatha looks amazing and powerful, as Wanda confronts her and is ready for battle.

Agatha seems almost fearful of Wanda, stating how dangerous Wanda really is as she can create things using chaos magic. The evil witch tells Wanda she thought someone with her powers was a myth, dubbing her the Scarlet Witch. The resulting declaration seems to confirm Wanda Maximoff as a Nexus being, and connects the show the multiverse and the upcoming films Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

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However, this is not the end of the episode as a post-credits scene reveals Hayward’s “Project Cataract” coming to fruition. It turns out that Hayward has been entirely interested in brining Vision back to life, which he manages to do at the end of this episode. However, this Vision is devoid of colour and looks to be an adaptation of the White Vision from the comics.

This Vision was devoid of all emotions and everything that made him a hero in the comics, which will likely lead to the android coming to blows with his former lover (adding to Wanda’s grief further).

“Previously On” serves as an information dump, much like “We Interrupt this Program,” with the episode before the finale explaining the origins of Westview and developing the backstory and origins of the Scarlet Witch.

However, while “We Interrupt this Program” sometimes felt like purely an information dump, “Previously On” is carried by exceptional performances from both Elizabeth Olsen (who should get all the Emmys for her performance in this series) and Kathryn Hahn. The two play well off each other, and Hahn is brilliant as Agatha Harkness.

Seeing all of Wanda’s traumas unfold in one episode is a good character study and helps the audience sympathise with the character further, as she has committed several questionable actions over the past few episodes.

It will be interesting to see where the finale takes the series, as a showdown between the two witches is inevitable, as is discovering what occurred between Pietro and Monica in that post credits scene last episode. The major cameo that Paul Bettany teased has still yet to occur, so fans also have that to look forward to next week.

No matter what happens, the finale is sure to be a massive and heartfelt conclusion to the most popular series of 2021 thus far, which has kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 4 with a bang!

WandaVision‘s finale streams on Disney+ on Friday, March 5, at 12:00 a.m. ET and 3:00 a.m. PT.

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