TV Recap – “WandaVision” Keeps Fans Guessing with “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!”

WandaVision shocked Marvel fans last week with a very surprising ending and we’ve all been waiting patiently for some answers. This week’s episode, titled “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!,” may have brought us back inside the hex, but it certainly didn’t give us the answers we were looking for.

Spoilers ahead!

The episode opens up with a 90s-inspired theme song and intro, in which Tommy runs around the house with a video camera terrorizing his family. Notably, it’s not just Wanda, Vision and the twins featured in the intro – which is set entirely in their home and one their front lawn – but also Agnes and Pietro, again played by Evan Peters as we saw last week.

The opening shot establishes that this is a Halloween episode, with a ghost decoration in the foreground as Billy comes down the stairs. He gives an explanation of Halloween before being contradicted by Tommy, who is clearly the troublemaker of the two. Both twins look into the camera and speak directly to the audience, mimicking a style of some 90s sitcoms. Billy is dressed in his Halloween costume which mirrors his look in the comics. Tommy isn’t wearing a costume because he’s going as “the cool twin.”

The boys approach their uncle, who is sleeping on the couch at four in the afternoon. Tommy makes fun of Billy for being afraid of Pietro and secretly thinking he’s a vampire. Interestingly, this seems to play off of a theory that Pietro may actually be Mephisto or some other villain in disguise. Pietro hears the boys talking and rushes up to scare them. As the boys scream and run, Pietro uses his super speed to cut them off and continue to scare them.

Wanda comes down the stairs dressed in what looks like her classic Scarlet Witch costume from the comics. When Pietro and the boys question what she is, she explains she’s a Sokovian fortune teller. Tommy, searching for approval from his uncle, agrees with him that she looks “lame.” Pietro brings up a memory of a Halloween they spent as children in Sokovia and we see a flashback to two children trick-or-treating, Pietro with a Nick Fury-esque eyepatch and Wanda with antennae. Wanda points out that she doesn’t remember it quite like that and Pietro retorts that she must be suppressing the trauma.

Billy looks back into the camera and tells the audience Wanda has been weird since Pietro showed up and refers to him as a “man child.” Vision then comes downstairs, dressed to mirror his classic look in Marvel Comics. Pietro jokingly makes a few guesses as to what his costume is until Vision points out that Wanda has a thing for Mexican wrestlers.

Wanda and Vision watch as Pietro plays video games with the boys. Vision points out that she never told him much about his brother and they watch as he teaches them to shotgun a soda. Wanda, visibly puzzled herself, explains that Pietro is full of surprises.

Vision tells Wanda to have fun and she questions where he’s going. He explains that he is undercover as part of the neighborhood watch. Wanda starts out saying “that’s not what you’re supposed to…” and Vision cuts her off. It appears things are already not going exactly according to Wanda’s script in this episode. She drops her objection and instead questions why she is just now hearing of his plans. Billy again explains to the audience that Wanda and Vision have been “different.” As Wanda continues to convince Vision to be with his family, Pietro interjects and explains that he can fill the “father figure” role. They both seem to agree and Vision tells Wanda to “be good” before leaving, obviously referencing the fact that he is aware of this false reality.

Pietro scares Wanda and asks where she keeps the water balloons. When she tells him they don’t have any, he reveals his intentions to spend the night pulling pranks. He blames Billy for the idea, as he points to Tommy. Wanda points out that they don’t even have costumes and Pietro runs off with Tommy. They return in classic comic-style Quicksilver costumes.

On the S.W.O.R.D. base, Director Hayward orders two agents carrying the seemingly Wanda-charged drone from last week’s episode to give him information within an hour. Monica chastises him for his attack on Wanda and he responds saying they now know what they’re dealing with. Darcy and Woo step in to back up Monica in a debate over how to handle the situation. Hayward tells Monica she’s advocating on behalf of super-powered individuals and acknowledges her history with Carol Danvers. He also points out that those who disappeared in the blip still have the “luxury of optimism.” He orders his agents to remove the three of them from the base.

As they are being escorted out, Monica points out that Hayward is up to something and she and Woo attack the guards escorting them. After they knock out the nameless henchmen, they disguise themselves in S.W.O.R.D. rain gear.

Back in the hex, Wanda and Pietro take the boys trick-or-treating. As Tommy runs off to start collecting candy, Pietro calls out to the boys to “unleash hell” and refers to them as “demon spawn,” again nodding to the Mephisto theory. With the boys at a distance, Wanda begins to question Pietro about their childhood and he quickly points out that she’s testing him. He acknowledges that he looks different and she questions why. He asks her the same question, pointing out that maybe she just doesn’t want to be reminded of the past.

After Pietro runs off with the boys to help them get candy faster, Wanda says hello to Herb and asks about his patrol. He says it’s been quite before getting getting some reports of some vandalism form his earpiece. As he repeats everything he’s hearing about – missing candy, smashed jack-o-lanterns, silly string – we see Pietro and the boys are responsible for all of those things. Wanda tells Herb that Vision can help him and he points out Vision isn’t on duty, sparking Wanda’s curiosity. With her visibly confused, Herb asks Wanda is there’s something she wants changed, seemingly aware of the fact that he’s living in a sitcom in the same way Agnes was a week earlier. Wanda tells him it’s fine and he moves along.

Across town, Vision walks the streets alone before noticing a husband and wife in their yard repeating the same small actions over and over. He looks disturbed by the visual but notices that the children around him continue about their trick-or-treating without paying them any attention.

The episode is interrupted by another commercial and this might be the strangest one yet. The animated ad features a boy stranded on an island, complaining about hunger. A shark pops out of the water and tells the boy he used to be hungry too before snacking on Yo-Magic. He gives the boy some yogurt and disappears back into the ocean. The boys struggles to open the package and eventually withers away into a skeleton, still holding the Yo-Magic. The ad’s tagline says “Yo-Magic! The snack for survivors” and the commercial comes to a close. This could be in reference to Wanda surviving Hydra’s experiments coming out with magical powers.

We jump back into the hex with Wanda, Pietro and the boys. Interestingly, the shot opens with a look at the local movie theater which seems to be playing The Incredibles and The Parent Trap. Given that the former wasn’t released until 2004, perhaps this episode is actually set in the early 2000s as opposed to the 90s. These movies are also relevant, with one being about a family of superheroes and the other being about a family with twins. Perhaps this shot was telling us that the boys were about to realize their abilities.

Pietro points out that Wanda is lame for making the boys return their candy and she tells him he’s a bad influence. Pietro explains that he’s just trying to do his part because that’s what she wanted. He explains that the “details are fuzzy” on what happened to him prior to his arrival in Westview. He remembers being shot in the street and then hearing Wanda calling for him. If Wanda did in fact subconsciously bring Pietro back from the dead, this mirrors an instance in the comics where she did the same with Simon Williams.

The boys interrupt them and ask to continue trick-or-treating. Tommy runs off with super speed and collects some more candy, much to Pietro’s delight. Excited for his new powers, Tommy runs around Wanda and the bunch in celebration. Wanda tells Tommy to take Billy and warns them not to go past Ellis Avenue, a rule the repeat to show they’ve been told this before. The boys run off and she calls out again for them to be careful.

Outside the hex, Monica, Woo and Darcy find a room with equipment they can use to dig up more information. Darcy goes to work and find that Hayward has found a way to look into the hex and has been tracking Vision. They notice that the residents near the edge of town are barely moving and see that Vision is approaching some of them.

Back in the hex, Vision tries to speak to some of his neighbors who simply appear to be frozen. After he gets no answers, Vision sheds his disguise and flies up into the sky. He spots a car stopped at an intersection and goes to investigate. He finds Agnes in the car and she asks him where the Town Square Scare is. A muted version of his neighbor explains that she took a wrong and got lost, which Vision of course questions. He frees her from the mind control and she excitedly points out that he’s one of the Avengers and asks if he’s here to help. Vision tells her he does want to help but questions what an Avenger is. Agnes begins to panic and asks if she’s dead. When Vision questions why she would ask that, she tells him he is. Vision tells her he plans to help and she questions if he can, saying “no one leaves” and “Wanda won’t even let us think about it.” This is the first time a mind controlled citizen has actually said that Wanda is the one controlling them. She begins to laugh hysterically and vision is forced to put her back under Wanda’s control. As she drives off, now back to her normal self, we see that she was stopped at Ellis Avenue and Vision crosses past it.

Darcy continues to work to dig up information when Monica’s phone rings. She explains that her way back into the hex will be there in an hour and she just needs to meet her “guy.” This is referencing the aerospace engineer she brought up last week, which many fans have been speculating could be female. While I wouldn’t completely throw out that theory, it seems less likely now.

As they start to head out, Darcy warns Monica that she can’t go back into the hex. She shows Monica her blood work and explains that the boundary has twice rewritten her cells on a molecular level, again seemingly being the cause of her future super powers. Monica explains that she’s going to do whatever it takes to help Wanda and Darcy withdraws her objection but also tells them she won’t be joining them because she knows she can find more helpful information.

Back in the hex, Pietro and Wanda admire the town of Westview in the town square. Pietro asks Wanda what she did with all the children up until this point, calling back to the fact that there were no children in Westview prior to this episode. Wanda objects and Pietro cuts her off and says she’s handled the ethical issues of this town the best she could. He also points out that this town is a big leap from what her powers were previously and asks how she did it. She tells him she doesn’t know how she did it and that she only remembers feeling “completely alone” and “endless nothingness.” When she turns toward her brother again, she sees him with bullet holes in his chest and a dead face. After panicking for a second, she assures him she’s ok.

Darcy continues to dig for information and finds a classified file labeled “CATARACT” that is for Hayward’s eyes only, and she sends the file out to Woo. Both Hayward and Darcy see that Vision is approaching the boundary and Hayward orders his team to move out.

We see Vision get to the barrier and push through it, reaching the outside world and S.W.O.R.D. and Darcy look on. The barrier appears to be pulling him back in and eventually starts tearing him apart. Darcy blows her cover by calling for them to help him and running to do so herself. An agent stops her and Vision screams in pain.

In the hex, Billy hears his dad’s scream in his head, along with Hayward’s voice. He uses his newly-discovered power to stop his speeding brother and tells him to be quiet as he listens. When he hears Vision scream again, he rushes to Wanda for help and tells her he’s in trouble. We again see Vision being torn apart as he calls out to S.W.O.R.D. that the people need help. Darcy is handcuffed to a truck an agent as she looks on in horror. Vision eventually crumples to the ground and seemingly dies.

Wanda asks Billy where Vision is and Pietro interrupts, saying “it’s not like your dead husband can die twice.” Infuriated, Wanda uses her powers to launch her brother into some hay. The children look on, worried, and Wanda tells Billy to focus. He tells her he sees soldiers and they think Vision is dying. Wanda uses her power to stop time in the hex and begins expanding its boundary. Woo and Monica see that the hex is moving as they drive away. Hayward and S.W.O.R.D. scramble to get away from the hex, leaving Darcy behind. The boundary quickly overtakes both Vision and Darcy and eventually almost all of S.W.O.R.D., turning the base into a carnival and agents into clowns. Hayward and a few agents get away and the director tries calling out to other agents but gets no response. Wanda opens her eyes with a red glow and the episode comes to a close.

While this was another wildly fun episode of WandaVision, it did very little to answer any of our previous questions or even really create many new ones. What it did however, is further out curiosity on previously established questions like “why is Pietro different?” and “what’s going on with Agnes?” We’re just going to have to wait some more to get answers to those questions. In the meantime, we can now also wonder what the hex is going to do to all of its new residents.

You can watch WandaVision on Disney+ now.

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Mike Mack
Mack is the Editorial Director for Marvel and ESPN content and he has covered comic cons, theme park events, video game showcases and other fun events. He is a fan of theme parks, sports, movies, Marvel Comics and is a self-proclaimed "nerd."