“WandaVision” released its third episode on Friday morning, bringing fans back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet again.
The show’s third episode — titled “Episode 3” — features Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) dealing with the aftermath of Wanda’s unexpected pregnancy. That’s about as basic as I can get without spoiling the show.
I previously wrote about the first three episodes before the launch of the show. You can read my takeaways here. Most of the takeaways centered around the first two episodes of the show, so I wanted to add some more thoughts here about the third episode.
As I wrote about before, I can confirm that even after this third episode, we still don’t really know anything about where we are, what we’re doing and what this show is about. “WandaVision” remains a massive mystery even after Episode 3. We’re only a third of the way through the season, so there’s still plenty more events to unfold on the screen. But there were brief hints in this episode that show us that answers to all of our questions are coming.
Here are some quick takeaways.
We really don’t know where we are.
“WandaVision” centers around Wanda and Vision living together in a sitcom-like reality, but everything seems a little off. Episode 3 really leans into that idea, giving us hints that nothing in this world is normal.
This stems from the characters to the location to reality itself. We see characters hint at their real identities. And we come really close to learning what’s going on behind the scenes.
It’ll likely be a while before we discover the whole truth. But it’s clear from Episode 3 that Vision and Wanda are not living in a real sitcom reality. They are somewhere else. And it’ll be fun to explore that moving forward.
It’s an evolution of sitcoms.
This is probably the most interesting facet of the new show. Every episode shows Wanda and Vision living in a different “era” of a sitcom. The first episode was reminiscent of sitcoms like “I Love Lucy.” The second episode appeared to be something out of the ‘70s. So the third episode really shows off ‘80s sitcom vibes. That probably means Episode 4 will have a ‘90s sitcom vibe. “Full House” anyone?
We knew going into this show that the backdrop would be a sitcom-like alternate reality. Now we’re seeing that in full force. As the show moves through time, we’re moving through time with it. We’re seeing different eras of pop culture all at once. It’s a fun journey through the different eras of television. Once we get to the 2000s and 2010s, it might be fun to see the show told in a mockumentary style, similar to “Modern Family” and “The Office.”
There are two characters to watch.
I don’t want to spoil too much from Episode 3. I didn’t do that for the first or second episodes. But for the third one, keep an eye on the outside characters. Watch out for the neighbor Herb (not me, for the record), the friend Geraldine and neighbor Agnes. There’s something mysterious about them. We don’t know what makes them so ... off. But they’re not normal. There’s more to the story there.
We definitely get hints at their backstory in this episode that you’ll want to explore moving forward. Keep an eye on them moving forward after this episode. Answers to what’s happening to them may give us an idea about what’s truly happening in the world of “WandaVision.”