Spoiler Free.

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 time to fight for their home.

Coming into the last episode this series has built itself a huge amount of baggage – not in the negative sense but in the way that any story developed as part of a larger mystery brings with it.

There are more fan theories than one can count and barely a fraction of them could have been correct. The trouble with building theories on a show like this is that they always tend to build an escape velocity which has them leaving the story behind. This is part of the fun of watching a show like WandaVision, it’s part of what’s kept us glued to our screens from week to week and talking about it on every corner of the internet.

The trick is in landing the plane at the end of the flight. When there are so many ideas floating around in the real can a show like WandaVision live up to its own hype?

Long story short? Just about. This is a really solid end to what has been a roller coaster of a series. At times uneven in tone and delivery but brave, ambitious and, largely, a brilliant success.

The show has explored the consequences of grief throughout and remains true to that right to the end. In true comic book style it ends up with people yeeting cars about the screen and blowing up buildings and punching one another through walls – Marvel’s not quite ready to abandon the tent pole battles which mark out its franchise. Which is a shame because until this episode it has stuck to its guns and focused hard on Wanda’s emotional battle in clever and sophisticated ways.

As a result I feel like it landed but did so with a few bumps. I’m sure lots of people will have loved the delivery and it’s just my take and, don’t get me wrong, I loved 95% of this episode including a couple of really nice subversions of the main speculative theories about what was going to happen.

Throughout the series the time Olsen and Bettany have spent on screen has been the highlight and this episode is no different. When they’re together they can break the TV and I would watch a show with the two of them being sweet to one another all day long. Whatever other unevenness and fudge in the last episode they smooth it over because I was fully invested in their story. Not every show deserves or can ask its viewers to stick with it but WandaVision earned the right to ask.

I do have one big issue and it’s on the nature of consequences. By now we know that Wanda’s done some pretty reprehensible stuff to the people of the town she’s turned into her personal Eden and this isn’t addressed in any meaningful way. It’s a misstep for me because even with other characters calling it out there are no consequences. Those same characters who could challenge Wanda instead sympathise and excuse her behaviour while condemning others for similar infractions.

It’s a singular failure for me because it privileges one person’s experience over everyone else’s and says that justice is only for some. Hardly the superhero creed we all want to see. This dismissing of other people’s hurt and damage occurs in a show which has been so careful to explore the consequences of trauma and how it needs to be healed. It’s a big shame in what has otherwise been a great and deeply emotional journey.

Verdict: How to summarise this though? Structurally challenging, emotional moving, brave, complex story telling with massive heart and absolutely worth your time.

Rating? 9 stages of grief out of 10.

Stewart Hotston