This recap of Disney Plus’s WandaVision season 1, episode 4, “We Interrupt This Program”, contains significant spoilers.

Last Week on WandaVision

Last week, during WandaVision’s episode titled “Now in Color”, Vision (Paul Bettany) ran inside the house to find that Geraldine (Teyonah Parris) had disappeared after tipping her hand to Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) that she knew far more about her than she had let on. He asks his wife where she went and Wanda replies that she left and had to rush home. A minute later, the camera then cuts to a nighttime view of the welcome to Westview sign. The black sky then starts to pulsate, static crackling, almost like television with bad reception, and a body comes falling out of the sky that rolls into an empty field. It is Geraldine, disoriented, who is then surrounded by Humvees, helicopters, and armed soldiers while Daydream Believer from The Monkees plays in the background. As the camera pans out and the lyric, “Oh, what can it mean” plays, we see an army camp facing the Welcome to Westview sign, and behind it, is a fenced-off area with tall stadium lights shining towards a fenced-off area that is protected from the outside world with a sign that says, Westview.

A Shocking Opener

WandaVision episode 4, “We Interrupt This Program”, starts with Geraldine coming back from the great fallout of the end of Infinity War where Thanos delivered on what he promised in that half of all human life on earth is gone, families are destroyed, and some species are completely wiped out, all disintegrated by his meaty fingers. She begins to integrate back to life, as well as half the hospital she is standing in. She is looking around, frantic for her mother, until a doctor breaks the news to her—she died three years ago of cancer. Her mother is Maria Rambeau. That’s right, best friend of Captain Marvel. Geraldine is in fact her daughter, Monica.

Back on the Case and Out in the Field

Monica takes back her spot but is grounded from the space missions when she returns to the Sentient Weapon Observation Response Division (S.W.O.R.D.) Headquarters. She is given territorial missions only. She needs to chaperone a yuppy FBI agent, Jimmy Woo (played by Randall Park). He needs to borrow S.W.O.R.D.’s drone to locate a missing witness in the witness protection program who was last seen in Westview. Jimmy explains that Westview, New Jersey doesn’t exist even though a giant sign is right behind the cops that claim they’ve never heard of it. When Captain Monica Rambeau tries to enter the town, there is a forcefield that won’t let them pass. Well, that’s until she is sucked in by it when she touches it too many times. She is gone and Jimmy is standing there dumbfounded like the rest of us. This is all after she tried to fly in a small drone that disappeared when it entered Westview’s atmosphere. This is most likely the toy helicopter found in Wanda’s hedges.

Setting up Camp with a Returning Favorite

A multi-agency response sets up camp outside Westview and the CMBR (cosmic microwave background radiation) is within normal limits, for now, says Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings, reprising her role from Thor). That’s right, the wisecracking scientist with a quick wit and body that won’t quit is in town to help all the G-men find their missing witness and fellow public service agent. She pulls out an old computer and asks for a box television — she has a working theory that the universe created a vintage sitcom starring two avengers.

What you have next is the equivalent of a couple of FBI agents going through an IMDB page trying to piece who each person actually is in the show. Everyone, from the Hart’s to Herb, is playing someone else. That’s when Darcy spots Monica in episode two, possibly deep cover. The team watches the episodes and takes notes (I suspect Darcy was taking them at the end of the first episode, titled “Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience”) and we find out it was Jimmy trying to talk to Wanda through the radio during the sophomore episode, “Don’t Touch That Dial“.

Wanda Packs a Punch

Wanda gets defensive in WandaVision season 1, episode 4 and utilizes the reddish currents she acquired when being exposed to the Mind Stone’s scepter as an unwilling HYDRA agent. She sends Geraldine through the wall and a couple of dozen fences later, she lands outside the forcefield in front of the S.W.O.R.D. camp just outside Westview. Wanda realizes the mess she made and fixes it quickly before Vision comes back in to keep her world intact. Of course, Darcy and Jimmy don’t see this scene as someone is censoring the broadcast.

We then get the shock of our lives. Wanda sees Vision for who he really is. Vision’s dead body, with a giant infinity style hole in his head, and his face now a pale, lifeless red. She is frightened, not used to seeing him like this as his body is usually under her control. Vision tells her that they don’t have to stay here, but only Wanda knows the truth; “No, we can’t” she tells him because this is the only way they can be together.

When Monica hits that lush Westview field and comes to a rolling stop she looks up at the sky and tells us something we already have figured out — Wanda is controlling it all and this is her world. The rest of us are just trying to infiltrate it.

Question’s Remain

WandaVision season 1, episode 4 revealed Wanda is in full control of Westview and she has created a world she always dreamed of (remember the references to the House of M in the pilot) and a life she always, “envisioned”, pun intended. Does the real question remain who are the people Wanda has trapped herself with? Is she in control of her abilities or has the death of Vision sent her spiraling into a type of psychotic break by dissociating herself with the rest of the world? Or is it simply a secret vacation spot for superheroes who just need a break from the outside world? One fact remains certain, the people of Westview are not who they seem.

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M.N. Miller

WandaVision season 1, episode 4 recap – “We Interrupt This Program”