The finale of WandaVision premieres tomorrow, and as much as I want to know what happens, I’m not ready for the show to be over. Viewers have learned so much about Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) over the course of the last eight episodes. Paying homage to decades worth of iconic sitcoms and television tropes, WandaVision is entirely unique and enthralling. I have no clue how the show will end, but I’m waiting with bated breath.
The audience has watched the mystery unfold along with Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) and Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), a dream team if there ever was one, with each installment revealing more pieces of the puzzle. Last week we learned a lot more about Agnes/Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) who, as we know from that fabulous song, has been behind a lot of the wacky goings-on in Westview. Agatha pushed Wanda to relive important moments in her life, culminating in a scene that showed Wanda creating the Hex and a replica of Vision with a burst of grief-stricken magic. In a stunning post-credits scene, we find that S.W.O.R.D. director Hayward (John Collins) has accomplished what was really his goal all along: to revive the original Vision, who is now sporting a silvery-white look.
With all that’s happening, it looks like the final episode will be one for the books. Series director Matt Shakman certainly hopes that fans are pleased. “I hope that they feel like the journey was satisfying for them,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I know there are so many theories out there; there will be a lot of people who will no doubt be disappointed by one theory or another. But we’re always telling this story about Wanda dealing with grief and learning how to accept that loss, and hopefully people will find that the finale is surprising but also satisfying, and that it feels inevitable because it’s the same story they’ve been watching the whole time.”
How did the WandaVision team decide which sitcoms to reference?
Episode 8, titled “Previously On,” delved into Wanda’s past and her deeply emotional connection to sitcoms. In a devastating flashback, viewers learned that Wanda was watching The Dick Van Dyke Show when an explosion killed her parents. In the years after her brother’s death, she often watched sitcoms as a way to remind herself of happier times. Shakman explained how they chose which sitcoms to reference:
"We were looking at family sitcoms. There are a great many wonderful shows like Taxi or The Office that could’ve been inspirations, but the ones that we focused on were the ones that were about family because that’s obviously what Wanda yearns for. She loses her family when she’s young, she loses her brother, she loses Vision and the family that might have been. So the family sitcoms were the strongest thematic connection to that."
Friday cannot come soon enough! The first eight episodes of WandaVision are currently available to stream on Disney+.
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