What you need to know about the bonkers ending of the Marvel show’s third episode

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the third episode of WandaVision.

Wanda Maximoff’s sitcom-inspired reality occasionally bent in the first two episodes of WandaVision, but in Episode 3 it finally broke. In the closing moments of the latest half-hour installment of Marvel’s first Disney+ series, Wanda’s friend Geraldine (Teyonah Parris) was forcibly ejected from the quaint suburban enclave of Westview. Emphasis on forcibly. The last shot of the episode is Geraldine lying in the grass as a fleet of military trucks pull up to her and a giant glowing bubble looms large over the landscape. To borrow a famous bit of TV-speak, you might say that Geraldine was “written off” of WandaVision by none other than its creator — Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) herself.

Except Parris isn’t going anywhere: Despite introducing herself to Wanda as Geraldine, the actress is actually playing Monica Rambeau, the grown-up version of Carol Danvers’s No. 1 fan, who we originally met in the 2019 blockbuster Captain Marvel. That movie took place in the 1990s, and in the present day, Monica is an agent of S.W.O.R.D., the descendent of Nick Fury’s old outfit, S.H.I.E.L.D. As seen in Episode 2, her colleagues — most notably that mysterious beekeeper — have tried to find their way into Wanda’s manufactured reality, but only Monica succeeded in getting close to her.

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Unfortunately, she got a little too close, and committed a sin that got her exiled from “paradise.” That sin? Uttering the name “Ultron” in Wanda’s presence. To be fair, Wanda opened the door for that unpleasant memory, dreamily telling “Geraldine” how she once had a twin brother, Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) — the speedster who was originally introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron. In that 2015 film, both Maximoff kids were the henchmen of the titular despotic robot (voiced by James Spader) before allying themselves with Captain America et al., a decision that resulted in Pietro’s untimely death.

Wanda never got a real chance to mourn his passing, distracted as she was by the events of Infinity War and Endgame. So when Geraldine/Monica gently asks, “He was killed by Ultron, wasn’t he?” she thinks she’s making a connection with the grief-stricken super-being. Instead, Wanda’s hair-trigger emotions immediately toggle from sadness to anger, and Monica is cast out into the real world, resetting S.W.O.R.D. back to square one. “She had to rush home,” is all Wanda says when Vision asks where their new best friend has gone.

While we wait to see how the agents of S.W.O.R.D. break back into Westview, let’s celebrate the arrival of Wanda and Vision’s new bundles of joy: Tommy and Billy. While the twins arrived suddenly in WandaVision, they have a long history in the comics. Introduced in 1986, the brothers were “birthed” by Wanda’s magical powers, with an assist by the devilish Mephisto. Three years later, they blinked out of existence after the demon reclaimed their life essences.

Flash-forward to the mid-2000s, and Tommy and Billy returned to Marvel continuity as part of a new generation of heroes, the Young Avengers. These versions were reincarnations of the original duo, and grew up separately, eventually discovering their true origins as teenagers. With his uncle’s lightning-fast powers, Tommy became Speed, while Billy channeled his mom’s magical abilities as Wiccan. It’s too early to tell what abilities the onscreen twins might demonstrate, but we’re anticipating that when WandaVision hits the 1990s, it might be retitled: Super Family Matters.

WandaVision is currently streaming on Disney+.

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