Recap: A New Threat Emerges in a Surprisingly Emotional Third Episode of Marvel's "VisionQuest"
After Vision reunited with what some would believe to be his son and rescued him from the clutches of the Paladin, the two are now on the run from the determined bounty hunter. But there are bigger threats waiting in the wings (pun intended) and some of those come to light in a bizarrely emotional third episode of VisionQuest.
The episode opens with Ultron watching another news broadcast covering another killing by the Butcherbird. There is a sense about him as though he might know something about these killings. He then returns to his painting of a black bird with a red eye.
Elsewhere, we see a man watching the same news broadcast as he appears panicked. He prepares himself for the arrival of the Butcherbird, wielding a shotgun. Suddenly, his alarms are disarmed and an elevator door opens, revealing a hooded figure with glowing red eyes. The man shoots at the figure as it approaches, though it appears that things don’t end well for him.
After the title card, a panicked Thomas asks Vision where he should take him to be repaired after the fight with Paladin. In his mind, the remaining AIs scramble to fix a total systems collapse. FRIDAY begins to panic and whispers to herself “no more chaos, no more sacrifice.” She is clearly still affected by the death of Tony Stark, who created her. After some reassurance from EDITH, she comes up with a solution: cauterize the wound. Vision makes Thomas stop the car and finds a battery in the back. He breaks it open and uses the acid inside to cauterize his wound before passing out.
In his mind, the AIs let us know that it worked. A small fire breaks out and DUM-E and U rush to the scene and hilariously blast EDITH with a fire extinguisher. It’s very reminiscent of when their mechanical arms would to the same to Tony after an accident in his lab. Vision wakes up and assures Thomas he is not currently dying.
Meanwhile, Paladin also patches himself up with the help of a drone that he refers to as Bang. Handler asks him if she should send a gift basket to the Ten Rings to thank them for the adamantium armor he was wearing. It appears Paladin has made some connections with some familiar faces. In fact, she goes on to mention run ins he has had with the likes of the Punisher, Werewolf by Night and Daredevil. Paladin orders her to track whatever fluid Vision might be leaking after their fight and dispatches three drones by the names of Bing, Bang and Boom.
Thomas tries to get information out of Vision, attempting to begin a long overdue conversation. Vision however urges him that they need to drive because Paladin is still coming for them. Ultron, appearing as a kind of hallucination for Vision, urges him to have the difficult conversation with the boy. Other AIs eventually appear as well and Vision starts to get frantic. Thomas gets frustrated but eventually Vision convinces him that they need to drive before they are killed.
They arrive at a hotel and prepare to try and get a room despite having no cash. As they enter, Vision hiccups and shorts out some lights. He does it again and affects a vending machine. EDITH informs him of a “minor hiccup” causing some electromagnetic interference. Hilarious technology joke. One more hiccup causes an ATM to spit out a bunch of cash. Thomas wants to take it but Vision objects. Thomas leaves to talk to the manager and Ultron appears to Vision again, pointing out that the Avengers were always “wishy washy” when it came to morality. Which is actually a very valid point by the former genocidal AI.
Eventually, Vision agrees to take the cash. Thomas returns to take some of it to get them a room but he hesitates when he sees a pool, frozen by the trauma of nearly drowning as a child.
Paladin’s employer tells him he has until the end of the night to find Vision. The hunter looks at a toy dog on his dash and has a flashback to his childhood. He’s in the car with a man who is eventually shot and killed, but we don’t see much more. Handler interrupts to let him know she has found a trail of a coolant that could lead them to Vision.
FRIDAY sits down to rewrite Vision’s code to get things back up and running. EDITH checks on her because she seems a bit distraught. She recounts her experience of replacing JARVIS, aiding the Avengers and eventually the death of Tony. She says she lost half her world that day, tragically humanizing the AI character.
In their hotel room, Thomas watches an old TV show as Vision keeps an eye out for drones. EDITH gets him to try and talk to Thomas, which goes poorly. Thomas tells him watching old TV shows comforts him, which makes sense because half of him was essentially raised on a sitcom. Vision tells him Wanda loved old TV as well. When Thomas tries to press for more information, he brings up a book he read about the snap. I would love to know who wrote this book. Vision informs him of the Westview situation but assures him that his connection to it is no more than a delusion he created in his mind. Thomas storms off.
Ultron appears again to insult Vision and points out that what we saw was just a simulation. He says Vision can run that simulation an infinite number of times and never offer the boy any comfort. Vision runs more simulations and they always end with Thomas storming off. Eventually, he really tells Thomas that now is not the time for this conversation… and he storms off.
EDITH points out, to no one in particular, that she is not afraid of death. Ultron arrives to interrupt their work with some nonsense before telling EDITH that she doesn’t fear death because she never really faces it. FRIDAY points out that this isn’t entirely true because all of Stark’s AIs, aside from DUM-E and U, are based on real people. She reveals this to EDITH, pulling up a screen revealing the name Allison Hogan, upon whom FRIDAY is based. The name isn’t necessarily significant aside from the potential connection to Happy Hogan, Tony’s longtime friend. EDITH learns that she is based on Edith Marks, another name without Marvel Comics significance. We also know that JARVIS was based on Howard Stark’s longtime butler.
In the hotel, Thomas tries to get a drink from a vending machine, but it doesn’t work. Frustrated, he accidentally phases his hand through the glass and gets stuck. As he tries to control his power to get his hand free, he accidentally shatters the glass and cuts his hand. When he returns to the room, Vision asks what happened, but he shrugs it off. Thanks to some help from EDITH, the two briefly bond over boxing and Thomas opens up a bit. He explains his experience with drowning and his uncontrollable ability to phase.
They’re interrupted when a drone shows up outside their building. Paladin steps out of his truck and gets in an elevator. Vision prepares for a fight as Thomas looks out the door. After a tense beat, though, Thomas sees that it’s just some other guests in the hallway.
Meanwhile, Paladin’s drones are sent to his location, which is somewhere else entirely. He investigates the site of the conflict we saw at the beginning of this episode, finding the result of a gruesome murder with wings carved in the floor beneath the victim. The killer surprises him and grabs him by the throat. They ask who sent him, but he refuses to answer.
Back in the hotel, Vision and Thomas share a laugh before Vision flies into a fit of a range of emotions and eventually shuts down.
The killer grabs Paladin by the head and seemingly uses an ability to literally pull information from his mind. They find some childhood trauma and we get to fill in the gaps from what we saw earlier. As a boy, Paladin sat in a truck with his father. The man insults the boy and tries to grab the same dog toy we saw on his dash from the boy. Suddenly, another truck pulls up and the man is shot in the head. Another man opens the boy’s door and we see that he is wearing the Paladin armor. He reaches his hand out and the boy takes it. The killer lets us know that the Paladin we know is not a true Paladin but was simply raised by one. We see the boy being trained to shoot a gun before we learn that the oath of the Paladin is passed down from father to son, making him not a true Paladin. The killer then reveals that she is synthetic, though we still don’t get a good look at her. Paladin buys himself some time before ordering his drones to attack so he can escape.
While we don’t know for sure who this Butcherbird killer is, her appearance is certainly familiar. She looks a lot like Jocasta, another AI murderbot from the Marvel Comics. In the comics, she has somewhat of a romantic relationship (if that’s even possible) with Ultron and is repeatedly an issue for the Avengers and other heroes. We have also seen a mention of her in the MCU in the past. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Tony is selecting a chip for an AI, before he lands on FRIDAY, we can see one labeled “JOCASTA.”
Back in the hotel, Vision wakes up but FRIDAY lets us know he’s in critical condition again. We learn he needs to be turned off and on again but he won’t be able to do that himself. Vision explains to Thomas that he is going to need him to turn him back on. The plan is for him to shut himself down in the pool and for Thomas to phase in the water, generating enough power to bring him back online.
As Vision shuts down, he sits in the movie theater in his mind with Ultron, as they watch all of Vision’s life. Ultron interjects, though and switches the film to Westview again, saying, “The past doesn’t make one want to live, the future does.” When Vision says Westview is not the future, Ultron asks him if he is sure, hinting that there is a happy ending in the cards for Vision, Thomas, Billy… and Wanda.
Thomas struggles to control his power, but eventually manages to phase his hand in the water, generating a surge of power. The surge acts as a beacon that alerts the Butcherbird, a name we’ll stick with for now, to Vision’s presence. Suddenly, all of the AIs come back online and Vision wakes up.
Paladin returns to his truck where he gets another call from his employer. The mysterious voice informs him that his contract is being terminated. Paladin sits, distraught and unable to handle the idea of losing his contract, which is so sacred to his oath as a Paladin.
EDITH leads a funeral for JARVIS, which is an alien concept to AIs. When she asks Vision to say a few words, DUM-E speaks up instead and eloquently quotes poet John Keats. U tries to follow up but only manages to utter a nonsensical syllable. As they all take a moment to mourn though, U begins to sing “Danny Boy,” to the surprise of everyone. Ultron arrives to debate with Vision whether any of them can feel love.
As Vision retreats to another room, the lights suddenly go out and a red glow appears. FRIDAY informs him that during his shutdown, another synth made a connection with him and is still inside his mind. A swarm of birds surrounds their home and the television goes static. As Vision approaches it, it begins to show images of birds. EDITH looks closely when the eyes of DUM-E and U go red. She looks up to find Vision hovering in the center of the room, seemingly possessed, his eyes also glowing red. As the screen goes black, we hear the voice of the Butcherbird say, “Hello, Vision.”
Well, that was a creepy way to end the episode. The introduction of another synth has certainly thrown a wrench into the season and things are only going to get more intense. We’ve gone from Paladin being the villain of this series to someone we feel sorry for and we’re just starting to get a connection between Vision and Thomas. But it looks like things are going to take a turn now, as there is a much bigger problem for Vision to face. And all of that came with a surprising amount of emotion for a series consisting mostly of AI characters.
Marvel’s VisionQuest is now streaming on Disney+.