Actually, I’d go further and say that Hahn was not very good throughout this episode. She’s been excellent throughout the series so far, but her over-the-top “I’m a bad guy” persona was pretty generic, to my tastes. To be fair, she was probably just doing what the director wanted, but it still fell pretty flat, IMO. Same, really, for Olsen. Excellent throughout the series, but 95% of this episode was just her numbly staring. YMMV, of course.
Overall, I thought it was a merely OK episode that was just setting us up for the finale. Necessary but utilitarian at best.
Ok, but from the Hydra scientists’ perspective, we don’t see Wanda approaching the stone and collapsing. We see a distinct skip from Wanda approaching the stone to Wanda already collapsed on the floor, which looks exactly like the skip/glitches Darcy et al see when Wanda edits her sitcom reality.
And, again, how are we seeing what the Hydra scientists saw?
The first is an obvious Blade Runner reference, another movie about superpowered artificial humans. The second isn’t a real movie.
Did anyone else think that Westview was a really sad, decaying little town? I know Earth went to shit after the Snap, and it’s only a few weeks since the Blip, but even so, the fact of the Blip should mean the people at least shouldn’t be so depressed.
I’m starting to suspect that the writers of this series are probably a lot less imaginative than its fans. Sometimes a witness is just an excuse to get the attention of an FBI agent. Sometimes an aeronautics engineer is just somebody who can get their hands on a 1990s drone. Sometimes writers forget when they are telling a single POV narrative.
I’ve enjoyed speculating about all of the little details and mysteries, but I’m also really trying to just enjoy the show for what it is. You’re right, not every tertiary character is going to have a fully developed biography and not every dangling plot thread is going to be resolved. I really hope the fandom doesn’t disappear up its own ass and explode with outrage when it turns out that the teacup Dottie was holding in episode three wasn’t a subtle clue that she’s actually Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast as part of a new Disney multiverse.
Yes, of course, but the “magic” appears to be reconstructing Wanda’s memories. She can’t possibly have a memory of what the Hydra scientists saw in the other room. But,
Yeah, I think this is probably the answer to my question.
Yes, clearly. The sign is dirty and faded, the downtown is run-down with mostly boarded up storefronts, the public pool is abandoned with rusting fencing falling down and the pool itself filed with scum. I don’t think that has anything to do with the Snap or the Blip, though. It’s just a typical American town with a dying downtown. It’s a dramatic contrast for the sake of the narrative. Vision had apparently bought a plot of land in the kind of suburb/small town Wanda seemed to love in her sitcoms, but the reality was grimy and kind of depressing. So she made it “better.”
I keep reminding myself that most of the audience hasn’t spent the last thirty years devouring every Marvel comic and movie multiple times. And caring deeply about the characters, and nerding out over perceived easter eggs.
A good reminder is that my Brother-in-Law and his family are watching. They are practical non-dorks who have never cracked a comic book. But they got sucked in because they loved the sitcom pastiches and are trying to keep up without committing to hours of other background media.
Their comment: “We figured, it’s Disney, it’ll probably be good.”
THAT’S who’s watching this, gang. And given that Marvel needs to keep it simple enough for non-mutants like them AND satisfy hardcore fans, they’re managing to stay on that tightrope.
I sometimes judge a new plot point that way: “Okay, fans will say ‘We were right! Agnes = AGatha HarkNESS’, and BIL will say ‘Oh, a witch. I know what a witch is.’”
We just need five more episodes (lots more Darcy and Woo, and a fun side story with SWORD agents who got turned into clowns, and Mutant Zombie Sparky…).
I actually am a Marvel fan. I haven’t read all the titles but I’ve read most of the 80s and 90s X-Men and some from the '00s, multiple runs of X-Factor, X-Force etc. I’ve read Mighty Thor and some old Thor, Amazing Spider-Man, etc. I’ve seen almost all of the films. And I still find this thread hard to follow. I think you really do have to have been fully immersed in this universe (and all other iterations of said universe) to fully appreciate the conversation here.
But I’m not one to speculate when I watch a thing. I just watch it.
Nice catch on the grimy town folks…I didn’t catch it cause i was too busy wiping all the tears away, and then she opened the property deed and oh gawwwwd.
Also it sure felt like Wanda drove out of the SWORD parking lot and went down the street to Westview. Given what happened to Avengers HQ…maybe don’t build SWORD so close to millions of people.
For as long as the credits go on, it seems that they have quite the army of writers. An army that is dwarfed by the massive volunteer militia of fans.
The fans will find all the plotholes that the writers missed, and they will catch all the easter eggs that they put in.
I’ve seen plenty of speculation that seemed to tell a better story than the one that actually ends up playing out, but they can only tell one story, the fans are not limited that way.