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Things get weirder as WandaVision heads to the ’60s in Episode 2 of the brand new Marvel Studios Disney+ series, “Don’t Touch That Dial”. Wanda and Vision are getting ready for the town’s talent show, but a stick of gum manages to mess things up. Meanwhile, Agnes introduces Wanda to the neighbors, including the tightly wound Dotty and Geraldine, who seems to know more than she’s letting on. And we break down some wild theories about what might be going on in the show, as well as the usual comic book Easter eggs and references.
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Full Episode Transcript:
Alex: MarvelVision, a podcast, all about the MCU, Marvel movies, Marvel TV shows, specifically Marvel TV shows because we’re going to be talking about the second episode ever of WandaVision, which just dropped on Disney+. I’m Alex.
Justin: I’m Justin.
Pete: I’m Pete.
Alex: And very exciting. Lots of stuff again to talk about. Requisite spoiler warning upfront. We’re not going to recap every moment of the episode. We’re definitely going to get into it. We’re going to get into predictions. We’re going to get into Easter eggs. We’re going to talk about some of our favorite moments in the episode, but before we do, I think the big thing that we need to talk about, because two episodes dropped on Disney+ today. From now on out, it’s going to be one episode a week, but a lot of discussion on our first episode was focused on how does that episode hold up by its own? How does it pair with the second one? We’ve seen the second one, in particular, I’m curious to go to Pete who was panicked I think about the first one
Justin: He was a screaming lunatic I think we could say. His [crosstalk 00:01:06] was literally on fire. He couldn’t deal. Had to take a nap and then woke up [inaudible 00:01:10].
Alex: Just fell down in the middle of the podcast. If you listen to the podcast, there’s a half hour of blank space when Pete was unconscious.
Justin: I went to get smelling salts and put them under his little nose. [crosstalk 00:01:21]. It was like an old timey cowboy story. Wake up, Pete. It’s time to talk about MarvelVision.
Alex: Finally, put a pie on the window sill and he just floated right up.
Pete: Pie or cheeseburgers will work.
Justin: Big old bucket of water in the face and he was like, let’s talk about Wanda.
Alex: How are you feeling after this one, Pete?
Pete: A lot better, I’m feeling a lot better. And I think that’s obviously why they dropped two in the beginning because that first one is off and the second one is a lot more digestible. Not as stressful, even though there are things happening for sure. It’s just dealt with it in a way that was a little bit easier on my heart and mind, but I would like to point out something I did notice right at the beginning. We’re getting that famous Marvel logo showing all the action and oh, you know this, you know what’s up. Oh, you remember this when this happened? Oh yeah. And this show is none of that. So it is a little bit jarring for somebody who just knows the maybe movies and TV stuff to come in and just be like, where is the Wanda that I know and love?
Justin: But frankly, I think that’s exciting. I think it’s exciting that this is so different and able to still be super interesting, unique, while also being under the same banner. Because I think what that banner does at the top of the episode is it gives you that promise that, hey, trust us, we nailed all of these projects. So have a little confidence that we’re going to get there with this one. You’re going to get to see…
Alex: Just calm a little bit. We’ll get back to this.
Justin: Exactly. Like a little…
Alex: Eventually, it’ll get back to this.
Justin: Like a little sedative to put you at ease.
Alex: A couple of things, not to harp too much on the first three seconds of the episode too much, but I did want to talk about it because I forgot to mention this in the previous podcast, I got so, I don’t know, excited isn’t the right word. Relieved actually might be closer, when the Marvel Studios fanfare came up at the beginning of the episode because it has been so long since anything Marvel. We’ve gotten used to this cadence of two, three movies a year, things coming out regularly. It’s been almost a solid year since we’ve seen anything. So to see something else coming up new, it felt good.
Justin: Exactly. I got so hyped. I took a bucket of water and put it on my face. I was like, [wooorrr 00:03:41].
Alex: I baked a whole pie and put it on the window sill. An hour later it was gone.
Justin: I took some smelling salts and poured it right in my mouth because I was like, what am I doing with this stuff, I’m so excited?
Alex: The other thing though, and these are two little caveats and I love this episode. I thought this was a fantastic episode, but two things that I thought were, not bad choices, but weird choices. Well, still talking about the logo here. I loved it the first episode, how it changed into sort of a classic TV logo. I was expecting that again this episode and that didn’t really happen, which was strange. The other thing is the, previously on, is a weird choice here in terms of how they execute it, because it doesn’t feel stylistically consistent with the rest of the episode. I think it’s probably going to become much more important as we go out in this series, which is why they set it up here, but right now it’s like, I don’t need to remember most of this.
Justin: Well, here’s what I think. I think you do need to remember most of it. And I also think it was sort of recreating the tone because they don’t want to have to keep slow walking us into the tone of this show every episode. And I think to both of your points, the logo changed into the black and white television intro in the first episode, in this episode it’s almost reminding us what’s up, giving us a little sense of the tension, dread and classic look of everything. And then it’s almost like a hard transition into the new episode. And I think that serves a dual purpose in that we saw it’s a different sitcom this time. So it’s almost like the characters are also changing channels, changing eras a little bit into this new episode and I think that’s important.
Pete: I disagree, Justin. I think what Alex is saying is right. Somebody dropped the ball and someone needs to be fired because it was a sweet transition, really helped us. The second one, they left us high and dry. I was like, what the fuck is going on? Because it goes into this fun animated thing, maybe do a little bit of that with the logo. [crosstalk 00:05:34].
Alex: I love the idea that Kevin Feige didn’t watch this at all until it’s Friday morning, Disney+, wakes up nice and early, gets himself a cup of coffee, is about to sip it, sees the intro and is like, “What the fuck?”
Pete: Yes. Spits it on his brand new computer.
Alex: Someone is getting fired. What the…
Justin: And he’s like, “Give me Tanya on the phone. She’s fired.” Well, because the two camps here, just to be clear, is me saying pat on the back, that was a cool choice. And Pete saying, someone’s head has to roll for this obvious mistake. So you be the judge listener.
Alex: [crosstalk 00:00:06:04]. It was definitely me first and Pete was just backing me up.
Pete: I’m just supporting his choice.
Alex: Great. I think we’ve pretty much covered everything in the episode.
Justin: We’ve covered that in seconds of dialogues so far.
Alex: I’m going to give kind of a broad strokes about the plot. We did this last time.
Pete: Okay, you want to move forward? Okay. I’ve more things to say but okay.
Alex: Hold on. We can get back to the logo for our middle chunk of the podcast where we do logo revisited.
Justin: Yeah, logo, go, go, go, our favorite section. Here we go. Let’s go back and talk about the logo.
Alex: Like the first episode, this is a very typical sitcom plot. And I think I was a little too dismissive about the first episode being a premise pilot. This is what’s really driven home here is the idea of this show is twofold. Obviously whatever’s going on outside in the world, whatever’s happening with Scarlet Witch and Vision in the “real world”, but the premise of the show is they moved to a small town of they’re trying to hide their magic powers, which is a very classic sitcom premise. And I got that in the first episode, but I think that’s driven home in a really good way, thematically in a modern thematic way as well in this episode, which I thought was really cool. So we get mostly, they’re trying to prepare for the town talent show, at the same time they’re hearing some weird noises outside. So Vision joins the community watch program.
Justin: Neighborhood watch.
Alex: Gets accidentally drunk on some gum, a very classic sitcom premise for a robot, I guess. And they go to the talent show, think they’re messing it up because they’re showing off their magic powers, but turns out they actually win the talent show. And so that’s the sitcom of the show. The other thing that I thought was really fascinating stylistically, because you compare this to the previous episode, is the performances because they’ve evolved as well. Scarlet Witch is now more sarcastic 1960s. Everything’s a little looser, it’s a little sexier. We see more different races in here as well, which is something that you wouldn’t necessarily see in the 1950s. So I thought it was neat to see that evolving, take on the sitcom in episode two.
Justin: Well, I think that all of this, there’s just so much in every choice in this show and to your point, yes, it’s just a slow natural progression from the 1950s to the 1960s typified I think by, at the beginning we see the bed separate. And then in that opening sequence, the beds get pushed together which was a big landmark choice in I think, I Love Lucy. And it was a legit controversy back in the day when they put the beds together. Which is crazy to think that back in the day… It’s not like people in the 1950s slept in separate beds. Everyone always slept in one bed. It’s just on television they couldn’t insinuate that people might touch each other at night. So they set the two child beds.
Pete: I would like to point out something that [inaudible 00:08:52] said though, is that it’s very hurtful. I felt like the lady in the horse costume in this episode, because I’ve been to talent shows and worked really hard and not only my outfit, but my routine, gotten it all down and then someone shows up stumbles through it. Everybody loves them and they win. And it is fucking heartbreaking to sit there, holding your horse head in your hand, just emotionally drained from what you’ve put in for months and months at a time. And somebody just stumbles their way through and just kills it.
Justin: Pete, imagine how I feel as the horse’s ass standing right behind you, being the butt, still coming in second place in over 100 talent shows that we’ve entered.
Alex: I just want to give a little bit of clarity to what we’re talking about here. Back when we were allowed to meet in person, Justin, Pete and I used to do our horse centipede act. There was lot of…
Pete: Ah, don’t make this creepy, you asshole.
Justin: Pete was the head.
Alex: I was the middle.
Justin: I like the idea that this horse centipede act with three people is one head at two butts. And you and I were butts and Pete was the head. No second head.
Alex: What were we talking about?
Justin: I have a point to make. You said that the premise of the show is about them hiding their magic powers. And I think that is one of the central tensions of the show because they’re not hiding their identities. Their identities are, they’re called Vision, they’re called Scarlet Witch. That’s real, but they have to hide the instances of their superpowers when they’re using them. And I think that points to a lot of facts that we have yet to uncover on this show in that they are in control of this environment. And the only reason they can’t use their magic powers is because it breaks the sitcom format. If that makes sense. You know what I’m saying? They can’t be super powered because then…
Pete: And again, this is something that doesn’t make sense to us, but because you are a line producer and have worked in television for so many years, this is your kind of second calling. Like you understand how sitcoms work and their structure and everything.
Alex: Actually, let’s take a step back there. As a line producer, so what is that? You make sure that everything lines up properly?
Justin: Yes. Exactly.
Pete: Well, no, it’s lined in frame. It’s producing everything that’s in frame. I think that’s how it works.
Alex: Or are you a lion producer?
Justin: Yeah. I mostly make sure that the lions have the right amount of meat. So no one gets…
Pete: And that’s the lion that roars at the beginning before the movie starts.
Justin: Shout out to Siegfried who died this week.
Pete: That’s right. Man. Oh, why would you do that?
Alex: We’re going wild today already. Let’s talk about some specific things in the episode that jump out to you, plot points you liked, moments that you thought were interesting or fun. Without getting too much into speculation, let’s talk just raw about the episode. What were sequences you were [crosstalk 00:00:11:37]. I’ll mention like, I thought the animated sequences both in the title sequence and in Vision’s stomach were very fun and perfectly done.
Pete: Now, to me that said, Jetsons. How about you guys? What was your feeling on the animation?
Justin: Bewitched.
Alex: Yeah, Bewitched.
Pete: Okay.
Justin: Bewitched, I think is the main touchstone and I Love Lucy with some of the stuff. So they’re moving forward in time through sitcoms. One other observation there about the opening credit bit, the animated thing, they’re the only two characters introduced despite the fact that there are a ton of other recurring characters here. We talked about Debra Jo Rupp from last episode, the ultimate sitcom mom.
Pete: Dottie is in this one.
Justin: Yeah, Dottie. We see, well, she’s new in this episode, I think. But we do see the mustachioed guy and all the other supporting characters, but we’re only introduced in the title sequence to Wanda and Vision making me think that they’re the only real people and everyone else is a construct of some sort.
Alex: Interesting. I mean, that’s definitely getting into some speculation.
Pete: Agnes isn’t real?
Alex: Okay. Let’s talk about Agnes. Kathryn Hahn continues to be great this episode. So funny.
Pete: “How do people do this sober.” Oh, what a line?
Alex: I love that she gets to move forward through the decades. Now she is the boozy housewife. The one that’s constantly getting drunk and wasted, very classic sitcom trope there. Her delivery of her lines are good. I love her exchange with Dennis, the mailman where she’s looking back and [crosstalk 00:13:01], checked him out, very funny. The lying about her husband, Ralph, being the assistant and making him disappear, also very funny. And all the stuff that was said, you’re a scratch, the buddy, was very funny as well. To get into like the theorizing part about it, I think there are a couple of interesting things here. This, potential spoilers I guess. We talked about this in the first episode, but a lot of focus was on maybe her being some variation on the character, Agatha Harkness from the comic books. We get a couple of clues here. Maybe I’m looking into it too much, but seeing a Scratch, in the comic books, Agatha Harkness’ son is Nick Scratch. Not the character on Sabrina. Don’t nobody freak out. We don’t have a bad boy alert here or anything. [crosstalk 00:13:47]
Justin: I was about to hit the light.
Alex: But her son is named Nick Scratch, and I looked this up. She has a husband that we never see. We never find out who Nick Scratch’s father is. So that seems to be at least… Yeah, they’re playing with that here I think. The other thing, which is a way bigger clue is over the animated opening credits, as we see Wanda in the supermarket, there’s two sides in the background. One of them is for, I believe Auntie A’s cereal. So Auntie Agatha’s cereal. And there’s something about like it being magically delicious or whatever. It’s not exactly that, but then the other one is our Bova Brand milk. And again, this is going to get to the comics, but Agatha Harkness, at least for a little while, lives in this town that I’m blanking on the name of, I’m sorry. I’m a bad comic book fan.
Justin: Are you talking about Wundagore Mountain?
Alex: Yes, Wundagore Mountain, which is run by the High Evolutionary. And there’s a bunch of animal people there, including Bova, a cow woman who also helps take care of Pietro and Wanda and I believe their kids later on as well. So whether it turns out to be that or not, there’s definitely like they’re typically hemmed and this gets into a bigger thing. I know I’m monologuing at this point, but this is the big thing that I took away from the episode that I really liked about this. What I was mentioning earlier, that it worked thematically in terms of a modern context as well, is the whole point of the episode is they’re doing this magic act where Wanda is saying, no, you got to show them. You got to show them what the magic is. You got to show them that it’s not real and what’s really happening. And that’s exactly what we get this episode. They’re not playing coy about it. We don’t know what’s happening, but we know this isn’t real. We know there’s a problem. We know there’s an outside world and we know eventually it’s going to have to be solved in some way. And I think that was a subtle way of weaving that in the episode and making it work for a 1960s sitcom premise, but also making it work for a modern TV show.
Justin: Yeah. It’s so smart. On the Agnes tip, I feel like in the first episode and in this episode, it feels like she’s sort of keeping the fantasy alive. She’s aiding and almost teaching Scarlet Witch on how to keep the sitcom trope going and to live within it so that she can be happy with Vision. And on the other side of that, Vision keeps pressing against the reality. He keeps logic, keeps trying to overwrite and then the sitcom world keeps gumming him up or somehow reshifting him back into the sitcom thing. And I think that may be the essential tension in what each character is sort of going through in this series.
Alex: I mean, a couple of things that point to that, I think pretty clearly, one, Vision is dead. So something is going on there where he, I imagine if he suddenly realized that he died, he’d just poof into a puff of smoke or something like that. But on the Agnes side of things, I think it’s her first line of the episode as she walks up to Wanda and says, “There she is the star of the show”, which is like, she knows what’s going on. She’s aware. If nobody else is aware, at least Agnes is aware.
Justin: I think you’re right. And there’s also a line that I think Wanda has, “This is our home now”, which I think it also enforces like I’m going to keep this going for as long as I can so that we can be happy.
Alex: I love Elizabeth Olsen’s performance in this episode in particular. She goes through so many different ranges and we got a sense of this in the scene in the last episode where the, stop it, stop it scene where she broke a little bit and we saw real Wanda, not sitcom Wanda. Here she gets to play that throughout. And it’s still very unclear to me. I still kind of not 100%, but pretty firmly stand by the idea that she’s the one keeping this going. She might not be the villain of the show necessarily, but she definitely doesn’t want to leave the sitcom world as strongly as maybe she should. And you get that through the performance, particularly at the scene at the end in the gazebo where she wants to tell Vision something weird is happening. And there’s clearly a level of her that realizes this is wrong, but she doesn’t want to change it.
Justin: Yeah, I agree. The performance is so strong. There’s a subtle panic all the time and sort of a wide-eyed like sadness I think, that is permeating this. And this is sort of speculation for later on, but I think they’re living their moments of a life very quickly. Last episode, they got married. This episode at the end there’s the reveal that she’s pregnant. I think my theory from last time is that these may be the very moments when Vision’s dying or if this is all happening in a split second, and she’s trying to live out the life that she wished she could have had with Vision as fast as possible.
Alex: Well, I think… Oh, go ahead, Pete.
Pete: I was just going to say, we’re talking a lot about Wanda, her acting, but man, Vision and the way Vision was drunk and talking to the audience is really hilarious. Like, “You’re dumb little faces”, he says at one point. “I’m feeling pukey.” He had so many great lines. I know it was sitcom fun, but the fact that Paul Bettany is playing a robot and then the robot that’s drunk and it’s just really fun to see all this happening at once. It’s really impressive.
Alex: He’s great. I know I was in the tag for him in the last episode, but seeing his drunk dad routine this episode was really fun. Just his stammering Brit, just really funny. And I even liked the line at the end, after he takes out the gum, he was like, “Oh, I’m not that funny without this”, and then throwing it behind him. Just a fun little moment in the middle of all this weirdness, particularly at that point. I thought it was really good.
Pete: Also, I just wanted to say as far as really great performances, mustache man killed it when she turns, he was like, “That was my grandmother’s piano.”
Alex: Yeah. Well, those things, we talked about the computational systems’ thing for the last episode, which works for the weirdness of the world, but also works as a very typical sitcom joke. I love those things in that way. Also the line about, “Wait, is that how mirrors work”, which are exactly what people would say in sitcoms like that as magic is happening around them. But also these are clearly real people or maybe pretend people who are trapped in something who are trying to figure it out as well.
Pete: Well, …
Alex: Yeah, Pete.
Pete: Speaking of that, speaking of real people, there was a moment at Dottie’s kind of thing where we got introduced to a new character who also, she seemed like she wasn’t aware of what’s going on or how she got there or even her name when she’s introduced to Wanda.
Justin: Yeah, she breaks the format.
Pete: It seems like that maybe this character is also having a Wanda experience, where she’s trapped in there as well.
Alex: Yeah.
Pete: So it might not all be Wanda’s doing. It might be like; this could be a place where they’ve trapped different heroes.
Alex: I have a theory about that that I want to get to in a second, but that’s Teyonah Parris. People might know her from Mad Men, which I think she was channeling probably at least a little bit here.
Justin: I love that. I love her as a guest star.
Alex: Yeah. She’s really good. Here, I’ll throw in a theory and this is based on kind of knowing a little bit about who she is and what she’s playing.
Pete: Oh, I thought it was based on the fact that you’ve watched ahead.
Alex: No, no, no, no, it’s not. I mean, they’ve revealed casting for other movies and things. And we talked about it the previous episode. Again, this is probably a spoiler. So if you don’t want to know, turn away, but she is Monica Rambeau. She’s the grownup Monica Rambeau. She comes from the comics. She’s going to show up at Captain Marvel 2. I think there’s a connection between the red helicopter that drops that has the sword symbol on it again, and her showing up. My theory is that that helicopter brought her in somehow, got enveloped in the sitcom world. And she is trying to figure out what’s going on with Scarlet Witch and Vision in a very direct way versus the voices outside who we hear this episode saying, “Wanda, who’s doing this to you.” She’s in there and really trying to free them because a lot of her dialogue seems to be nudging them a little bit to be like, hey, that’s a weird thing, right? Oh, that’s weird, do you remember this thing and kind of tickling them a little bit? I don’t know if you guys have the same impression.
Pete: Also the helicopter was Ironman colors.
Alex: That’s true. Yeah. Maybe. I mean, I think it’s also Vision colors, right? Because you’ve got that Vision red and yellow and everything else.
Justin: And that makes me think that maybe that the Scarlet Witch has created some sort of pocket dimension that she was able to penetrate. Maybe it’s like a little bubble or something and anything that goes into it becomes part of the fantasy.
Alex: While we’re just going wild on speculation, spoilers, I do you want to talk about two other things in the episode that I thought were interesting? One of them is pretty obvious, but when you’re talking about thematic stuff, the benefit from the talent show is for the children. And they keep saying, this is all for children. Which again, in terms of like thematically tipping their hand and saying, we’re going to tell you what this show is actually about, it’s clear when Wanda is pregnant by the end, whoever is doing this, whatever is happening here, it is all about these kids who of course are very important to the comics. And we know that, but that seems to be the plot of the show as well.
Pete: As people have kids, like that’s how it worked, or you guys just started talking about kids and then kids showed up. Right.
Justin: I mean, technically, yes. There’s one other step in there that I don’t want to tell you about, Pete.
Pete: Okay. All right.
Alex: That’s for a real spoiler podcast.
Justin: Yeah. We do a podcast every time [crosstalk 00:23:42].
Alex: The other thing that I wanted to throw out to you guys, and I don’t know. I’m very iffy on this theory, but I do think there’s some evidence for this. In terms of who is behind this, we have that very terrifying moment at the end when they go outside to the street and they see a guy come up through the street through the manhole.
Pete: The beekeeper.
Alex: The beekeeper.
Pete: And what’s interesting about this guy is, and I don’t know if this at all, but bees don’t usually live in the sewer. So the fact that a beekeeper came out of the sewers, it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Justin: What’s about the famous cartoon and comic book, Teenage Mutant Ninja Bees? They live in the sewer.
Alex: Teenage Mutant Ninja Bees. Teenage Mutant Ninja Bees. Bees in the house.
Justin: Heroes who make honey.
Alex: Confusing.
Justin: Heroes who make money or make honey.
Alex: Oh. Make honey. No, that’s much better. Thank you. The thing that I wanted to mention about the beekeeper, this is my theory that I’m kind of iffy about is based on that and one other thing that I’ll mention in a second, what if A.I.M. is behind this. A.I.M. is an organization from the comics. They’re scientists who regularly muck with everybody. There are constantly jokes about their uniforms and how they’re wearing these beekeeper helmets. The other additional thing that I’ll throw in there, this design was at the end of the first episode as well before they cut to the TV and then again here, Wanda and Vision are trapped in this hexagon, which is a honeycomb design. So there’s something there that I think indicates, to take a wildly far field, also adding in the commercial with Strucker and knowing Wanda and Vision and Pietro’s history with HYDRA, there could be something. We know HYDRA is dead in the MCU. We know S.H.I.E.L.D. is dead. What if it is these two offshoots? A.I.M. has somehow captured them, a science offshoot of HYDRA and S.W.O.R.D. is this offshoot of S.H.I.E.L.D. that’s dealing with interdimensional incursions or something. And they’re basically battling for a Scarlet Witch and Vision
Justin: That’s what I was thinking. And so the influence is coming from both sides. We have Monica Rambeau coming in to try to pull them back on the heroic side. I think that’s what the radio is, probably a good guy voice. And I think the HYDRA, A.I.M. influence is for trying to get children. They want a creation out of this using their powers that they can control.
Pete: Because when I saw the beekeeper, I thought like, oh, maybe this world that she’s creating is sucking real people in, but when the beekeeper turned and looked angrily, it seemed like it was someone too down there. And I thought, okay, this isn’t just a regular person trapped in here.
Alex: It might also be that the bee is sort of an illusion.
Justin: Tude is a comic book shortening of the word attitude.
Alex: Yes. Oh, thank you for specifying. I appreciate that, Justin. Yeah. I mean, it’s possible that he might’ve been changed by this reality bubble or something like that. So he might not look like that at all. We might be just piecing together things that don’t actually piece together, but it’s definitely a weird moment and worth mentioning. Two other that I wanted to mention. One of them, Emma Caufield, Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer plays Dottie, which I thought was a fun little bit of casting. And I think she nailed that perfectly. And the second thing, this is more of an advanced thing that I do not think is going to happen here. But I only mentioned this because this news just recently came out with the MCU, not confirmed by Disney, but apparently Chris Evans might be coming back for something as Steve Rogers. They’ve also indicated that there’s some sort of cameo that we’re not expecting. Is there any possibility that we could see like Steve Rogers or one of the Avengers or somebody like that pop up in this fantasy world towards the end?
Pete: The thing was like, after the radio, Wanda was like, “That is strange.” And I was like, ooh, I wonder if that was like Dr. Strange on the radio or something just because the way she said that was trying to, I think draw a little attention to it.
Justin: This is just total stray observation as well, but I did think the boss from last episode had Dr. Strange facial hair. So I agree with you, Dr. Strange is a likely candidate of someone trying to get in there and influence this.
Alex: Before we start to wrap up here, there’s obviously a lot more that we could talk about of the episode, but any other moments that jumped out to you that you wanted to mention?
Justin: Well, obviously the helicopter coming in, very Pleasantville, if you remember that movie, I thought. And that informs, I think the moment at the end, when they go into full color, which I think if our theory that Scarlet Witch is the person who’s guiding this and trying to keep them in the sitcom world, why would they then go to color? And my thought was that it is the influence, seeing that helicopter same as the movie Pleasantville, Scarlet Witch then has to make that make sense. So she pushes the whole world into color.
Pete: Yeah. I thought it was almost like a protective move. Like after seeing the creepy beekeeper then rewinding it and being like, no. The bubble got stronger. Like she colored it and tried to almost turn it up a little bit because [inaudible 00:28:55].
Alex: Yeah. I like that idea of the bubble getting stronger. I think that’s an interesting one. I think also just on a logistical level, it’s something that lets us again, pull back the curtain a little bit on the whole magic trick they’re doing with the show vs between episode one and episode two, where it just went from 1950s to 1960s. Now we see it go from 1960s to 1970s, presumably here at the end of the episode.
Pete: Some things that you had mentioned that I wanted to talk about. What was interesting about this commercial parody that is run in both episodes, it’s the same two people in them, which adds a nice creepy factor. And this, “Strucker will make time for you.” Like that was a crazy message as it was showing that watch.
Alex: Yeah. I mean, Strucker is dead and there was some Strucker stuff that I’m only vaguely remembering from Agents of Shield that I do not think they’re going to refer to at all, but it is possible that we might get some sort of Strucker Jr, or Strucker the third leading up in an A.I.M. or a HYDRA or something like that as behind this, potentially.
Justin: Yeah, I think.
Pete: Also, I did want to talk about when Vision went to the neighborhood watch, the fact that their top secret stuff was gossip, was really funny. And that whole thing of norms of communists and everybody falls down, that was really just fun to see Vision trying to fit in and the choices that the robot would make. It was really… “Oh, I don’t eat food.” Like just fun.
Justin: That was [inaudible 00:30:29] the mastication joke, which I thought was sort of sitcom format breaking for that era, but super funny.
Alex: Yeah. All good stuff. Oh, you wanted to mention something else, Justin.
Justin: Yes. Talking about the commercials makes me think another random theory. What if the commercials are sort of… If this is a Scarlet Witch constructed little pocket universe or whatever, bubble, maybe that’s what she’s putting out. She’s blaming Strucker or that’s the sort of outward signals she’s giving back to people like, this isn’t me doing this. Go chase these villains. Like red herrings for whoever’s coming after them to go deal with it.
Alex: I do get worried about those two folks in the commercials because they seem very separate from everybody else. At least everybody else gets to interact in this real world. It’s clear, whether they’re real or not like Dottie breaking at that point and saying, “Who are you? What’s going on?” There seems to be an understanding of at least we are here with each other trapped to this thing. Wherever those commercial people are, they’re all on their own. I’m very scared for them.
Pete: It also seems like after an incident, the person, it’s almost like a Men in Black mind wipe. They’re always like, oh, hey, okay, now I’m back to normal.
Justin: Alex, do you feel that way when you see regular commercials, where you’re like, Oh God, those poor people?
Alex: I’m terrified. Yeah. Whenever I see…
Justin: [inaudible 00:31:50] Matthew McConaughey is driving that car somewhere all by himself.
Alex: Ah, so scary.
Justin: I was scared for him.
Alex: I hope he’s all right, all right, all right.
Justin: Good.
Alex: I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.
Justin: Never apologize for a strong Matthew McConaughey.
Pete: Make him apologize. Fuck that.
Alex: Before we wrap up here… Oh, you have two more things.
Justin: Two small things. I love when Wanda reveals that she’s pregnant at the end and says, “Is this really happening?” I really liked that because it feels like she’s giving away the game a little bit to Vision. She’s like, I want this to be happening. You want this to be happening extensively. Let’s agree that this is happening now so that we can enjoy it. I thought that was a real nice, subtle explanation moment.
Alex: And well, we touched on this earlier in the podcast, but I think that also raises a lot of about what’s going on with Vision because he died and the fact that he is assuring that…
Pete: Stop saying that.
Alex: Well, he did.
Pete: You’re really breaking my heart.
Alex: The fact that he is saying…
Pete: Leave him in this little bubble that Wanda created and…
Alex: Trust me, it is hard to have a baby with a corpse. It is very, very hard. [crosstalk 00:32:55].
Pete: I trust you. Why did you say that?
Alex: The main takeaway is that I’m proud of them.
Pete: Oh my God.
Justin: What I think Alex means is in the same way that your phone dies, that’s the way that Vision died. So do you have a little funeral every time your phone dies, Pete, or do you just recharge it and move on?
Pete: Yes. No, I have a little funeral every time.
Justin: Crying. My phone’s dead. Help.
Pete: Yeah. I’ve some people say some nice things. And drop some roses on top.
Justin: Rose petals. Meanwhile, when Alex’s phone dies, he tries to make a baby with it. Last observation. Sort of overarchingly, the way that the show is moving forward in time through television, but in the same way, in reality, television became more and more real in the way that it showed reality. In the 1950s, it was super fake, people weren’t allowed to sleep in the same beds, all that. And then it slowly became now TV today is like that you can do anything you want. It’s the same as reality. And I think that’s a nice parallel that they’re using to show as the series moves forward, everything’s going to become more and more closer to reality, the reality for Vision and Scarlet Witch.
Alex: Now, Justin, I hate to be the one to tell you this. I feel like you should know better, but you can’t do anything in television. It’s run by ratings and views. So you can’t just show a flower pot and then have someone shit on it and be like, ah, this is my time.
Pete: Not to disagree with you, Pete. You’ve been backing me up a lot this episode, but have you ever watched the classic show, You Can’t Do That on Television? They did a lot on television.
Justin: That’s the real twist there, was it was already on television. And I will say that my sitcom that I’ve been pitching featuring a flower pot getting shit on over and over, it’s going well.
Pete: Oh, well, I’m sorry. Congratulations.
Alex: That’s great. Before we wrap up here, here’s what we’re going to try as a wrap up for the show. What is on your vision board? What are you predicting? What are you expecting? What do you want to see in the next week’s episode? Justin, you want to take that one first?
Justin: Sure. So we’re moving into, I guess, late 1960s, 1970s television or is that going to be like a T.J. Hooker? Like we’re getting into some more action stuff, which that seemed very exciting to me. And I think in the trailer we’ve seen definitely some more action. I’m excited about that. And the evolution of Kathryn Hahn’s character, she almost feels like she’s…
Pete: How many people are you taking here? It’s supposed to be one person.
Justin: He said prediction. It’s my vision board.
Alex: Vision board isn’t like one picture you put up there and like, this is the house I want. It’s a picture of the house. It’s more like colors and splashes.
Justin: And I’m looking forward to the color purple kind of [crosstalk 00:35:44]. I will get there.
Alex: Okay.
Justin: Just because your personal vision board is just a picture of Wolverine, Hugh Jackman, doesn’t mean that everyone else has to be.
Pete: That’s not true.
Alex: Well, Pete, why don’t we go over your vision board? What’s on your vision board for next week’s episode?
Pete: Okay. It’s a lot of oranges. Some yellows. Okay. Yeah. Red, which I feel like meets the theme of the show. I’m very excited about Justin said, it kind of crushed my vision board because I would love to see some Magnum PI type of stuff for Vision sliding across the roof of a car. You know what I mean? Stuff like that, where they’re solving crimes together. That would be a lot of fun, but no, I just think that I’m really impressed with how they went from episode one to episode two. I feel like they really did a good job of being like it’s going to be okay, stop freaking out and relaxed into a more palpable show. So I’m very excited about where it’s flowing into from here. But I really feel like the side characters, I’m very excited about, to see how they’re going to add to it and mustachio all the way.
Alex: I mean that segues nicely into what’s on my vision board. The thing that I’m really excited about beyond the main plot, I want to find more about Teyonah Parris’s character. She’s really fascinating like we talked about. Really an interesting addition to the cast that throws things a little off-kilter, so excited to see more of her in episode three, as well as the side characters. I’m always a big fan in comedies of the more they could flesh out the world of the show with random side characters coming back again and again, and again, it just makes the overall show stronger. So even though we’re focusing on the mysteries, we’re focusing on the superpowers, the comic book, Easter eggs of at all, if they can continue to make it work as a sitcom, that’s very exciting to me.
Justin: 100%.
Alex: All right. And that is it. Thank you everybody for tuning in. As mentioned, the show is going to go weekly from here on out. So we’ll have one episode going up a week. That said, if you want to support us, patreon.com/comicbookclub. We also do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. Coming up, we would love to chat with you about WandaVision on YouTube, Comic Book Club. You can subscribe right there at comicbooklive on Twitter. iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice, to subscribe and listen to the show, comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more. Until next time, don’t lose your Marvels.
