‘WandaVision’ Recap: ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Seven of ‘WandaVision’.
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One universal truth that we are all aware of in life, is that at some point or another… we are going to face some serious heartbreak and some difficult emotional hardships. The kind that will undoubtedly leave us in a shattered place, to the point where we are despondent and broken and likely listless. And while it is important for us to pick ourselves up and try and move forward so we can live our lives to the fullest, sometimes the pain we experience makes it impossible to stand tall and the only thing that can bring us out of our funk, are our family members or the people we’ve chosen to bring into our lives as extended family.
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Because they know how to reach us, and how to inspire us and sometimes, they’ve shared in the pain we have and know how to overcome it, and really… all of this is relevant to our discussion today, simply because this particular conundrum served as one of the focal points of this week’s episode of WandaVision. Because ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall’ saw Wanda Maximoff in quite the desolate place after last week’s incredible episode. For now, the reality of what she’s done and the trauma that she’s faced was at the forefront of her mind and body and soul, and that left Wanda in quite the ugly place. Simply because she didn’t know how to reconcile so much death and destruction and of course… that little incident where she expanded The Hex, and that left her despondent and lost. 

But thankfully, there were people out there eager to try and help her, such as Monica. Because she knew that Wanda was doing all of this out of the rage and the pain that comes with grief and that she needed someone that knew this pain and knew how to reconcile it to help her overcome it, and that person was Monica. Which motivated her to push back through the membrane surrounding Westview to try and reach her and well… Monica’s fight to save a hero, led to the first real major surprise of the night. In that her voyage back through this strange barrier… completed the mutation in her cellular structure in some incredible ways. Such as the fact that it allowed for her to maintain control of her mind and it also gave birth to a brand-new hero. One that can see electromagnetic fields and manipulate them. Which means that Monica has become the live-action version of Photon and that’s just awesome. 

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However, while it was cool to see Monica become a hero, she had a mission to complete and well… that is a mission that ended in failure thanks to another surprise. Because just when it seemed as though Photon was about to shatter the emotional walls that Wanda put up, Agnes just had to step in and pull Wanda away and offer her a moment to breathe within the walls of her neighbor’s humble abode and that’s when the surprise in question came into play. For once Wanda settled in, she couldn’t help but notice that something wasn’t right about this house. Because that fly on the wall was a little too large, and bunnies simply don’t purr, and of course… the twins weren’t around, despite the fact that Agnes picked them up earlier in this tale, in order to give Wanda a little quiet time. Which motivated her to explore the house to find them… and what she found in the basement changed everything.
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Because there were no piles of boxes or unused workout gear in this basement. No instead, there was a massive tunnel leading to who knows where, and candles and symbols and what appeared to be a book of sorcery that Stephen Strange would know more about than Agnes or Wanda, or rather… just Wanda. For once the Scarlet Witch settled in, Agnes was quick to welcome her to her lair and reveal the fact that she is really named Agatha Harkness and that she possesses some incredible power as well. The kind that has allowed for her to manipulate Wanda from day one and mastermind this whole mess and every wild event that’s come Wanda’s way, and that revelation definitely gives one pause, only because it manages to raise more questions.

Simply because, we don’t understand why Agatha would go to such lengths to use and manipulate and hurt Wanda in this manner. But it will likely only be a matter of time before we find that out, since this show has done a phenomenal job of providing us with answers when the time is right, and while we wait to learn exactly what Agatha’s endgame actually is; it’s best we celebrate another game-changing tale. One that forced a hero to deal with her pain, whilst bringing two big old school Marvel characters to life on the small screen since Photon has arrived and Agatha and Wanda go way back in the comics. And it even found a way to offer up some comic relief by way of its fourth wall gags and some incredible banter between Darcy and Vision and well… in the end, this was simply an incredible episode. One that will truly make the wait for next week’s tale a painful one, since we are beyond eager to see where this incredible story is headed. Until then.   

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