WandaVision episode 8: Heartbreaking reason behind show’s sitcom reality revealed

“What is grief, if not love persevering?” Vision (Paul Bettany) asks Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) in the eighth episode of WandaVision, which was released on Disney Plus on Friday (26 February).

It’s this line that weighs heavily on Wanda’s mind in the aftermath of his death in Avengers: Infinity War (2017).

Viewers learn this in an episode that sees Kathryn Hahn’s Agnes, recently revealed to be ancient sorceress Agatha Harkness, take Wanda through a tour of the traumatic memories that led to her becoming the most powerful character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*

As many people predicted, it wasn’t the villains Mephisto, Nightmare or indeed even Agatha who created the sitcom world that’s referred to by Dr Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) as the Hex; it was Wanda.

Throughout the extended episode, in flashback, we see Wanda’s experience of trauma – the death of her parents in a bomb explosion in Sokovia, being imprisoned after joining an anti-freedom terrorist organisation, the killing of her brother, Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

In all of these moments, the one constant that brought Wanda an element of comfort was sitcoms: The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Brady Bunch, Malcolm in the Middle.

She enjoys these sitcoms for featuring “a silly mischief that always becomes fine” – because, at the end of these series’ episodes, “you realise it was all a bad dream”.

READ MORE: What Marvel movies and Disney Plus TV shows are coming after WandaVision?

When Wanda returns from the blip, and sees Vision’s body being dismantled by SWORD, it hurts. “He’s all that I have,” Wanda says, wanting his body so she can bury him and move on. But, to Director Tyler Hayward (Josh Stamberg), Vision is not a person but a dangerous weapon made of very expensive vibranium. “Well, that’s just it Wanda,” Hayward tells her, “he isn’t yours.”

It’s the discovery of a property deed for an unbuilt house in the derelict town of Westview, New Jersey – registered by Vision – that prompts Wanda to visit the land. After finding the house she was poised to live in with her love, she experiences an overwhelming explosion of her power as Scarlet Witch, which creates the sitcom world.

Due to being unable to bury Vision and experience grief like everyone else, she created a place where she can live out an alternate reality with Vision away from the trauma of the real world.

If you’re wondering where Agatha factors in to proceedings, it’s this “afterglow of spells cast all at once” that drew the sorceress to the source.

Well, that’s the biggest WandaVision mystery solved. Elsewhere, fans have been left feeling very excited after the MCU’s first official mention of Wanda’s Scarlet Witch moniker.

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WandaVision continues Fridays on Disney Plus.