At midnight Pacific Time on the dot, I clicked into the Disney Plus app and was told it “wasn’t available in my region”. A second and third try produced the same results. As I checked social media, I saw people from all over having the same experience. Was this some sort of Disney marketing move to make us all believe we were trapped in Wanda’s Hex with no contact with the outside world?
Thankfully, within 30 minutes I was able to play BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL and was quickly pulled into another magical ride in and around Westview. As the title of this episode tells us, this WANDAVISION chapter is styled after popular tv comedies of the 2000s and 2010s where our main characters speak directly to the camera.
Going into Episode 7, the third-to-last of the series, WANDAVISION had A LOT of questions to answer, especially coming off of last week’s cliffhanger ending. The show doesn’t disappoint here. The investigations happening both inside and outside Westview bring some large payoffs. This is the first episode that felt like we, the audience, know more about what is going on than anyone inside the Hex or our S.W.O.R.D. team gathering intel on Westview’s outskirts.
Much praise has been heaped at both Elizabeth Olsen’s and Paul Bettany’s performances, but this episode’s most dramatic beats belonged to Vision. Even under layers of special effects makeup and costuming, Vision’s quest to make logical sense of his reality brought forth a deeply relatable struggle thanks to Bettany’s nuanced acting.
We’re in the homestretch of WANDAVISION and while Episode 7 does bring us additional mysteries as it solves old ones, the series flows smoothly and gleefully into its final act. What’s going on with X? And what about Y? And who really is Z? Will we get even more answers in next week’s penultimate episode? I can’t wait to tune in and find out.
WANDAVISION streams weekly on Disney Plus, Fridays at 12am Pacific Time, usually.
