MAJOR SPOILERS WITHIN.

I’ll be discussing the show solely in the context of the MCU. This means I won’t refer to organisations, characters or events which may give context but which you’d only know if you’ve read the comics.

It’s Halloween in Westview…

Television does somethings well – drama, emotion, conflict. It does others really badly – complex organisations, professionalism, expertise. This episode hit nearly every check box for terrible tropes on display while not moving the story on any appreciable distance.

The highlight of the show continues to be Vision and Wanda – there is a distance between them now and it’s there in every look, every word which passes between them. More profoundly it’s visible to others to remark upon and worry about.

Their relationship is breaking down because of secrets. Secrets and choices Vision has challenged Wanda over and which she refuses categorically to even discuss. She has her reasons – not least of which is the person she’s in conflict with is dead, which isn’t something you get to say about most soap operas.

Getting nothing from Wanda, Vision takes matters into his own hands and she seems genuinely unaware of his actions or even his location. His goal? To leave town and see what lies beyond the limits of their new home. In it all his only concern appears to be for the truth and to care for others. He is the lawful good member of the party, with a moral clarity eating away at Wanda who, when discussing the events unfolding around them with another character knows what is happening is wrong but is fully committed to keep on, keeping on.

The appearance of her brother, Pietro, is used to great effect this week with smart analysis of why lost relatives show up on television shows in the first place. Moreover, Pietro is fully aware of why he’s there and what he’s supposed to do – enough that his persistence both wins Wanda over but also alienates her entirely. It’s lovely to watch the back and forth between them. Except unlike Vision, Pietro remembers how he died, knows he’s dead and also knows Vision is dead… which seems impossible since Pietro died before Vision so how could he know. Further, how does he remember being shot when Vision doesn’t remember his own death? It could be a plot hole or it could be careful plotting… it remains to be seen.

What is clear from the conversations with Pietro is the children are not who they appear to be – he even calls them Hellspawn… which is an explicit reference to a character not currently in the MCU but very well known in the comics. Is the entirety of what’s happening here simply to bring these two children into being and provide a place for them to grow to maturity? It certainly seems someone else is controlling events even if Wanda is powering them.

It’s the moment we step outside things fall apart for me and there are three problems to discuss.

First is the hacking. Hacking on television is a terrible trope whereby someone sits down at a computer and says ‘I’m just going to hack this,’ and then moments later they’re into a secret, secure computing network with no apparent effort at all. It’s super common and completely bogus. Normally it’s a computer nerd who does it. Here it’s Darcy. Darcy who now has a PhD in Political Science, a PhD in Astrophysics and also has world class genius level hacking superpowers that don’t need her own suite of coding tools – they just need her to say she wants to hack something. Now I have a PhD in physics so I’m undoubtedly biased, but I hate this kind of approach which simply designates one character to have the superpower of being a genius who can do every piece of intellectual work for everyone else. It’s terrible writing and painful to watch on screen as the character is reduced to uttering nonsensical explanations and delivering leaden exposition.

The second problem is SWORD, which appears to be run like a third-tier mafia where only the person in charge gets to make any decisions and can deploy violence against those who disagree with him including other federal agencies like the FBI. I mean…what? You could argue that Hayward is set up as a stooge and an evil, callous one at that but really? A multi-billion dollar federal agency with licence to kill is run by an absolute imbecile and there are no checks and balances at all? Colour me entirely pulled out of immersion.

Finally, we have the Scooby-gang who, once forcibly removed from site, proceed to engage in combat with their own side and beat up a superior military force and hide them in a van… where they presumably don’t wake up until it’s all over because no alarm is ever raised.

There were any number of ways to ratchet the tension up between the team, all of which would have added character and emotional depth to them. Instead, we have caricatures whose screen time is dominated by terrible dialogue.

Verdict: The questions unanswered this week are the exact same ones as at the end of episode 5 and I am sadly of the view this episode could have been scratched almost entirely. Which for a series where the run times are short already is not a happy thing to say. After the highs of episode 5, episode 6 has brought me low.

Rating? 3 hackers out of 10.

Stewart Hotston