FULL SPOILERS AHEAD

We interrupt this program of WandaVision to talk about “We Interrupt This Program,” the episode that answers a BUNCH of questions we had after watching the first three episodes, while presenting whole new ones. There’s a lot that happened in this half hour, so let’s jump right in!

No longer focusing on Wanda and Vision, we open with Monica Rambeau returning from “the Blip;” that’s what the denizens of the MCU call Thanos snapping away half of all life in Avengers: Infinity War (and their return 5 years later in Avengers: Endgame). She was in a hospital when the Blip happened and we get to see the horror and panic that ensues when half the world re-manifests suddenly as Monica finds out her mother, Maria Rambeau (last seen in Captain Marvel), died during that period. All in all it’s a very different take compared to the more humorous take Spider-Man: Far From Home had. Monica returns to work at SWORD, the Sentient World Observation and Response Department (which I think is the first time the organization has actually been named). Monica is grounded for now by acting director Tyler Hayward–he doesn’t have a big role but I’m naming him in case he becomes important later–and she’s given the terrestrial task to investigate a missing person in Westview, New Jersey. There she meets FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Mr. Randall Park, last seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp where he clearly learned the magic trick Scott Lang showed him). Turns out the entire town is missing, and nearby residents and relatives claim it never existed. After a drone disappears in the forcefield surrounding the area, Monica touches it and gets sucked in as well.

Very quickly SWORD sets up a presence around the town and calls in experts, one of whom is Dr. Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings, last seen in Thor: The Dark World). Still snarky as ever, she detects a strange signal amidst the background radiation the bubble projects; this turns out to be the black and white broadcast of Wanda’s sitcom, explaining the end of the first episode. SWORD–but mostly Jimmy and Darcy since they’re recognizable characters–start using facial recognition to identify the characters in the show, finding the missing residents are living fake lives with fake names. Then they see Monica appear as Geraldine in an clip we never saw, outright telling us that the show has more episodes than we the audience have seen. Darcy and Jimmy try to contact Wanda through a radio–explaining the transmission that caused Dottie to break a glass and cut her hand in the second episode–although the glass breaking seems to be cut from the broadcast. SWORD also picks up a picture of their drone, changed to fit the time period but in color while the rest of the world was still in black and white. And to wrap up even more loose ends, turns out the mysterious beekeeper was an agent in a hazmat bunny suit who tried to enter the bubble from underground, only to be changed by entering this pocket reality (I’m going to keep calling it that until we get a better description). What happened to him is left a mystery with grim implications.

As for Monica/Geraldine, Darcy and Jimmy watch the now colorized show as Geraldine breaks kayfabe (“the portrayal of staged events within the industry as ‘real’ or ‘true'”) and mentions Ultron, angering Wanda. There’s another cut in the broadcast that’s very obvious to Darcy, but the duo are confused as to why Monica suddenly disappeared. We find out as we see more from the last episode: Wanda forcibly blasts Monica out of the world, breaking through walls similar to a cartoon character. Wanda momentarily seems to realize this world isn’t completely real, made worse when she looks at Vision and sees his corpse, implying that he may not be completely resurrected. Wanda regains composure and says she has everything under control, while outside the bubble Monica tells the swarming SWORD agents that this is all Wanda’s doing.

So many answers! This explains why SWORD–an organization that deals primarily with space threats–has such a presence on Earth, although it is a bit contrived in my opinion. This is what happens when you want a SHIELD-like organization, but you blew up SHIELD in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It’s such a comic book move for a writer to revive an idea or character killed off by another writer… Anyway, we also have explanations for the toy helicopter, the beekeeper, the radio, and why Monica was going by the name Geraldine.

But questions still remain! How much do the other characters in the show know? Herb and Agnes sure seemed like they knew things they couldn’t/wouldn’t talk about. YouTuber Nando v Movies pointed out on Twitter that SWORD’s notes on Vision’s coworker Norm say he apparently became his real self, Abilash, when Vision “awakened him.” This had to have happened in an episode/broadcast we didn’t see, because I would’ve remembered something like that. What does “awakened” mean in this context? Does this tie into Vision talking with Norm and Agnes? Did they know things about the true nature of this pocket reality because Vision was nearby and Wanda wasn’t? Is Wanda the true mastermind, or is it similar to the House of M comics event where she had the power and means but someone else gave her the idea? I mean, Marvel does love to have villains secretly pulling the strings of their heroes, especially so in the case of the comic version of Scarlet Witch. We still have 5 episodes left so there’s plenty of time to answer these questions, and most likely several more we haven’t asked yet.

Previous: Now in Color
Next: On a Very Special Episode…

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