WandaVision: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 8

Toastmate 2000 Revisited

One of WandaVision’s first Easter Eggs involved a fake 1950s television commercial for “The Stark Industries Toastmate 2000.” What made this particularly significant is that this was the very first scene with color, courtesy of the toaster’s blinking red light. There was an obvious connection to Tony Stark, of course, and yours truly believed the toaster was a nod and wink to Vision, since he was Tony’s creation in the MCU.

However, it turns out that the Toastmate 2000 had a far more personal significance to Wanda than even I imagined. It’s actually a reference to how Wanda’s parents died, a story which she related in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

Via flashback, we learn that Wanda’s love of sitcoms came from when her family, while living in war-torn Sokovia, had weekly TV nights, watching black market DVDs that included shows like Bewitched, I Love Lucy, The Addams Family, Malcolm in the Middle, and especially The Dick Van Dyke Show. It was also during one of these family TV nights that her parents died when bombs fell on their house. Said bombs were also developed by Stark Industries which had (wait for it) distinctive blinking red lights. Yes, saying a bomb is like a “toaster” has a touch of dark humor, doesn’t it?

As to why said bomb didn’t also kill Wanda and her brother? Well, that ties into one of the bigger revelations this episode (pardon the pun) dropped on us.

The Scarlet Witch

In another flashback, we see the moment Hydra began running test’s on Wanda using Loki’s scepter. The scepter, as MCU fans know, contained the Mind Stone, the same Infinity Stone which, coincidentally enough, brought Vision to life. It’s during this test that the Mind Stone broke out of it’s casing and reacted to Wanda. And inside the stone, Wanda sees a silhouette of herself as the Scarlet Witch from the comics. More specifically, it’s Wanda wearing the costume she wore during the Uncanny Avengers comic book series.

This underscores that it wasn’t the Mind Stone that gave Wanda her powers; it enhanced powers what she already had. Like Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Agatha Harkness, it seems Wanda always had an affinity for magic, specifically chaos magic. Remember how we talked about Wanda possibly being a “Nexus Being?” That’s because, in the comics, Chaos Magic can not only warp and alter reality, it can also create it… or destroy it.

Is this a retcon? Absolutely! Yet it also brings Wanda closer to her comic book counterpart, including the part that she was actually born with these powers (although not going as far to say she’s a mutant). Only the specifics of how her powers became enhanced have changed (in the comics, she and Pietro were experimented on by the High Evolutionary).

This also brings up a very uncomfortable truth. Like in the comics, this episode confirms that Billy (Julian Hillard) and Tommy (Jett Kylne) aren’t real. Neither is Vision (Paul Bettany), or at least the one we’ve seen in Westview. This also explains why Vision doesn’t remember his past before Westview, why he can’t leave Westview, why he can “wake people up,” and even why he has super speed like Pietro. He’s literally a product of Wanda’s imagination, memories, and love created from her own grief. Or rather her inability to cope with it.