WandaVision season 1, episode 9 review: The Series Finale

WandaVision episode 9 spoilers follow in this review. Proceed with caution.

WandaVision episode 9 proved a thrilling conclusion to a complicated, emotional story, kicking off the Disney Plus era of the TV portion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

A brief recap to kick things off – the timeline is sometime in spring 2023, about a month after The Blip (the return of everyone who vanished in The Snap). Sidekicks Darcy Lewis (Thor), FBI Agent Jimmy Woo (Ant-Man) and a grown-up Monica Rambeau (Captain Marvel) are all brought to Westview, New Jersey, where a mysterious series of events are taking place.

These include Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) giving birth to twins, the return (sort of) of her twin brother, tragic backstories and a massive expansion of the Hex, which pulled Darcy (Kat Dennings) into the script and gave Monica (Teyonah Parris) superpowers of her own.

Outside of Westview, SWORD Director Tyler Hayward (Josh Stamberg) has rebuilt Vision’s (Paul Bettany) corpse in a opalescent, perhaps-LMD form.

WandaVision episode 9 was a fitting finale

Through an in-universe TV show also titled WandaVision, the series has paid tribute to legends of the sitcom genre throughout television history, everything from The Dick Van Dyke Show to Modern Family. 

As part of this blurring of stage, screen and reality, each episode has featured a commercial for everything from fancy watches to yogurt and antidepressants.

Visiting The Good Place in the middle of a battle

Hayward’s White Vision enters the Hex and proceeds to attack Wanda, attempting to crush her head before Wanda’s Vision intervenes and a airborne fight ensues while she battles with Agatha (Kathryn Hahn).

This battle crashes into the Westview Public Library, where our Vision and White Vision eventually strike up an Age of Ultron-style conversation about philosophy, attempting to determine whether a museum replica of an old ship (like Columbus’s Nina, Pinta or Santa Maria) can actually be considered the real ship once everything’s been replaced.

After they realized that they both could sort of be considered the real Vision, as our Vision has the memories and emotions, while White Vision contains the bodily material of the original, White Vision’s pre-Snap memories are restored and he disappears.

Witchy warfare

Agatha and Wanda struggle for control of the latter’s magic for much of WandaVision episode 9, which is where most of the action of this episode comes from. We learn that the Darkhold has an entire chapter devoted to the Scarlet Witch, and Agatha tries several schemes to drain Wanda of her powers, twice through brute force and then by peer intimidation, overwhelming her with the pain the random Westview citizens are feeling from taking on roles in the Hex.

After neither of those efforts work, and being pulled into an Ultron-style nightmare vision, Agatha attempts to use this to her advantage before this also fails and Wanda neatly reverses the basement scene from the previous episode before depowering Agatha.

The surge of power fully transforms her into the Scarlet Witch, while Agatha is cursed to permanently play Agnes the nosy neighbor inside Westview, where she will safe from harm.

Not goodbye…just see you later

The rupturing of the Hex allows for the real world to pour back in as everyone realizes this isn’t sustainable and that Westview’s citizens are being harmed unintentionally by being forced to play roles.

Wanda accepts this and allows the Hex to disappear, after saying heartfelt goodbyes to the boys (in a Leave It to Beaver-like scene) and Vision (where they are both confident they’ll eventually find each other again) before they all disappear and she finds herself standing on the empty lot again.

Summary

Normality has been restored to Westview, and after revealing his nefarious plan to use White Vision as a weapon (not to mention probably several charges of lying to federal officers), Hayward is arrested, but not before Darcy rams his Humvee with the ice cream truck.

The series finale has not just one but two credits scenes, which is fitting as the main Avengers theme can be heard several times throughout this episode, and the full cinematic title card is used at the opening as well.

While it did contain its moments of action, much of the important information was handled throughout dialogue, and the most pivotal scenes were tinged with a quiet restraint, making them all the more powerful.

https://twitter.com/wandavision/status/1367505285485633537

There were a plethora of other references to earlier MCU projects scattered throughout, reminding audiences of its place within the universe, and no doubt more will be discovered on rewatch. At the same time, it also laid the groundwork well for what’s to come, as Wanda’s first action upon returning to real Westview was to apologize to Monica for the pain she’s caused.

And in those post-credits scenes in WandaVision episode 9? In the first, Monica is asked to meet someone in the movie theater, who turns out to be a female Skrull, saying that an old friend of Monica’s mother wants to meet her… in space.

In the second, Wanda is living in a lakeside cabin deep within the Canadian wilderness, seemingly enjoying her solitude, only for it to be revealed that the Scarlet Witch is apparently a separate entity, who hears the boys in danger asking for her help.

Transmogrified trinkets

• The Darkhold, of course, was a magical book that played a huge role in season 4 of Agents of SHIELD, partially responsible for AIDA creating the Framework reality.
• Darcy disappearing before Jimmy’s debriefing session was a fun callback to everyone bailing on Coulson’s debriefing attempt at the end of the first Thor movie back in New Mexico.
• It’s possible that the Skrull Monica was talking to was her childhood friend in Captain Marvel, and (thanks to Spider-Man: Far From Home, which takes place several months later) it seems likely that the person being referred to is either Nick Fury or Talos.
• Like the strongest moments of AoS or Friday Night Lights, the most poignant moments can often be accomplished with a minimum of dialogue or a well-edited montage. The acting on this series was brilliant throughout.
• The episode titles riffing off television tropes throughout was a fun touch, so “The Series Finale” is very clever in how straightforward it is.
• Bruce Banner has also hidden out on his own in the Canadian wilderness after an adventure, at the end of The Incredible Hulk. 

All episodes of WandaVision are available on Disney Plus, and Wanda will return in Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange 2 (technically titled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). The first episode of the next chapter in the greater MCU saga begins in two weeks with the release of The Falcon and the Winter Solider.