Summary
The finale of WandaVision is a so, so satisfying finish to a wild ride that preferred what Lionel Richie would do instead of saying a proper good-bye.
This recap of Disney Plus’s WandaVision season 1, episode 9, “The Series Finale”, contains significant spoilers, as well as a discussion of the WandaVision ending.
Previously on WandaVision
Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) ends up on the set of her WandaVision with Agatha giving a slow clap of appreciation. Suddenly Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) disappears and Wanda hears her children crying outside. Agatha has them lassoed with her purple powers around their necks and floating a good ten feet above them. She has proven her case and makes a point to Wanda that she has not yet considered: It’s all chaos magic and Wanda is the Scarlet Witch.
To top it off, another bonus scene goes on after the credits. Director Hayward is told they are ready to launch. In his yuppy-best tone, he replies, “It’s about time.” They have taken apart and have tried to put back together Vision a thousand times, but no energy source would activate him until now. With a push of a button, Vision (Paul Bettany) or “Fauxsion”, comes to life.
Now, Back to WandaVision season 1, episode 9, “The Series Finale”…
Like most villains, Agatha does a lot of talking before going on the attack. She lets Wanda in on a little secret– she is the most powerful witch in the world. Oh, and Agatha takes away other witches’ powers who don’t deserve them. She strikes Wanda with a blast of purple power. Wanda counters, which is maybe the superhero equivalent of a wrestler grabbing a folding chair, and sends Agatha into the house next with the white midsized sedan.
Agatha tracks down Wanda in the center of town and unlocks the brain freeze Wanda has on all of them. They all begin to surround her, complaining that they have not seen their families, they haven’t slept, and they can feel Wanda’s pain (even see her dreams). Agatha, laying on the guilt ever so thickly, manipulates Wanda into feeling guilt. She begins to roar at the sky (a rare, eye-roll acting moment for Olsen) and begins to part the hex dome over Westview like Moses did with the red sea.
Then, in a display of really poor special effects (jarring, really), Vision and her children begin to come apart. Like video game characters, small hex pixels begin to separate from their bodies. Who does she choose? The people of Westview or her family? Wanda makes the choice a good wife and mother would do. She chooses to close the hex and save her family. Perfect, thinks Agatha, and tries to blast Wanda’s family into oblivion but blocks her by protecting them with a red hex. The only problem is every time Wanda successfully protects her family, Agatha absorbs more of her powers in the process.
The Showdown
They have a final showdown in the sky after Wanda (or Agatha, I can’t be sure) draws Agatha into a “vision” of back when Agatha was in Salem. The witches Agatha stole their power from come out of the ground to attack her, but Agatha turns them on Wanda. Wanda burns them down with a large red energy blast. Then, they are both back in real-time. It looks like Agatha has finally sucked Wanda dry of all her powers until she didn’t.
Wanda awakens, Agatha is puzzled, and the Scarlet Witch tells her, “In a given space, only the witch that casts them can use her magic. Thanks for the lesson.” Red horns pop up from her forehead and Scarlet Witch takes back all of her powers and the ones exclusively used by Agatha, into her. She now has all the powers (she is the captain now) and a pretty bad-ass suit to go with it.
With Wanda now in control and Agatha stripped of her powers, Wanda locks her up in Westview. Not in a prison in so many words, but as the beloved character Agnes. Trapped in that nosey neighbor’s body for the foreseeable future.
WandaVision season 1, episode 9 recap: Double Vision
Meanwhile “Faux” Vision shows up, almost crushing Wanda’s head like a tin can and our beloved Vision knocks him out of the way. They end up fighting in the sky, right next to the top of the hex that is separating. Of course, these weapons are also men of intellect. They stop their fighting and being to talk about why things are happening. The true Vision explains to our powder-looking friend he is a weapon that will be controlled; he will have no free will. He gives him the magical touch and unlocks the real Vision’s memories, the one with empathy for humans. As they float in a library that strangely looks like Dr. Strange’s house, the great white hope flies through the ceiling and into the sky.
The Hayward Way
Director Hayward and friends get through the hex when the time was right. After being told by Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) he called the Department of Defense, he does what any good yuppy bureaucrat would do. He pulls out his pistol and tries to gun down Wanda’s kids in the street (if WandaVision gets nominated for an Emmy, I want that clip played). Thank goodness Monica (Teyonah Paris) and all her new superhero goodness shows up. She slows the bullets down with her body (showing just how powerful a woman’s femininity is). Darcy (Kat Dennings) then comes out of nowhere and runs down Hayward as he tries to escape in a S.W.O.R.D. Humvee. Screw it, I’m on Team Hayward going forward.
The WandaVision ending:
In true Vision fashion, he tells Wanda altruistically it is time. Wanda puts the children to bed and tells them it was an honor to be their mom. She closes the door behind them, which is like the Disney version of snuffing out your kids. Wanda and Vision go downstairs to say their goodbyes. No, not like that you perverts. Wanda tells him how much she loves him and how she will miss him. Vision replies, “A memory, made real. Who knows what I might be next.”
As they hold one another in their gazes, it is broken by the sound of the hex closing in. Instead of saying goodbye, Wanda stops him and pulls a Lionel Richie by saying, “We’ll say hello again.” The hex reaches them, everything begins to fade away, and Wanda ends up standing on the empty lot that her husband bought for them when they were going to start their lives together.
The WandaVision season 1, episode 9 Bonus Scene(s):
Monica is taken into a local movie theatre by a DOD agent for a meeting. She says goodbye to Jimmy and enters when the agent suddenly shapes shifts into a Skrull. She was sent by an old friend of her mother’s and she would like to meet with her. Monica asks where and to her delight, the Skrull points to the sky
Wanda leaves WestView and is now seen living in the mountains. Sipping tea outside her lakefront cabin, she steps back into her house to stop the kettle from whistling. As she does, the camera goes into the bedroom and we see the Scarlet Witch floating in the air. It looks like a hologram, or maybe it’s Wanda keeping that dark side of her hidden from the world. Or maybe, the Scarlet Witch is still in control of everything that is happening.
