Ah, yes, my trip. I don’t think we’ll get away after all. Small towns, you know. So hard to . . . escape.
In this third episode of WandaVision, we progress into the seventies with a cheesy Brady-Bunch inspired episode and about all I’m going to say outside of spoiler tags is that I think this is the best episode so far. The episodes have so far really nailed the aesthetics of the sitcom eras they’re spoofing and this episode, with the show finally in full color, is able to take advantage of that to a greater degree than the other two episodes. I think the costumes and makeup in this episode are both really fantastic.
The idea of Wanda having a pregnancy that progresses, essentially, over the course of a day was a great premise, as was the idea of her pregnancy causing her powers to manifest in unpredictable ways. Olsen, Bettany and Parris all give their best performances so far, in my opinion, all of them dealing with new wrinkles to their characters. Bettany’s Vision is slowly starting to realize that something is very wrong with his situation, Parris’ Monica Rambeau takes a big gamble at the episode’s climax and Olsen’s Wanda reveals new wrinkles to her powers and a hint of just how far she’s prepared to go to maintain this sitcom-based reality.
The moment Monica brings up Ultron was a real “oh ****” moment and I think it speaks to just how well the show has created this strange sitcom netherworld that it was so jarring. It really did feel like something intruding from somewhere else; this is an MCU property obviously, but bringing up Ultron killing Pietro really did feel like it was coming from somewhere else. Parris’ delivery of that line is great, but then this episode really hits its high point with Wanda’s chilling reaction. Olsen’s quiet, “What did you say?” followed by her dead pan, “Oh, she left, honey. She had to rush home,” feels like something out of a horror story. Before we saw what happened to Monica, I was getting real “wished into the cornfield” vibes; could Wanda just will someone to not exist anymore . . .? I wonder. She didn’t do that this time, but could she? Olsen’s performance is excellent enough that it’s got me wondering if she could . . . and if she WOULD. And then a great ending with Monica getting just yeeted right the **** out of Wanda’s sitcom bubble. What a great ending to a great episode. 4 stars.
tl;dr – the seventies sitcom provides the setting for the show’s most successful episode yet, mingling shocking plot reveals with more great meta-humor. 4 stars.