Here's how 'WandaVision' ends — and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 4 begins

Ethan Alter
·Senior Writer, Yahoo Entertainment
·10 min read
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Warning: This post contains spoilers for the season finale of WandaVision.

With the teasing promise of a Luke Skywalker-level cameo awaiting them in the WandaVision finale, it's no wonder that Marvel zombies swarmed Disney+ overnight when the episode dropped, crashing the streaming service for the second time this season. Instead of one Luke Skywalker, though, they were treated to two Visions — confirming star Paul Bettany's cheeky 11th hour admission that the actor he'd "always wanted to work with" was, in fact, himself.

The S.W.O.R.D.-created White Vision and Wanda's magical Vision tangled throughout "The Series Finale," fighting on the ground and in the air over Westview, until they reached a moment of mutual understanding and went their separate ways. Bettany's gag was a bit of trolling that didn't exactly thrill bleary-eyed Twitter users.

Viewers were also disappointed that the arrival of the Marvel multiverse is apparently delayed for now. After teasing an X-verse crossover with the introduction of Fietro — aka Fake Pietro, played by Evan Peters from Fox's defunct X-Men franchise — the finale revealed that he had just been another Westview resident all along. Worse still, his secret identity turned out to be Agnes's much-referenced "husband" Ralph, aka Ralph Bohner: a name that effectively turned Peters's entire appearance into a punchline instead of the set-up for the arrival of Magneto and the rest of the X-Men.

To be fair, the minds behind WandaVision did try to let everyone down gently. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly ahead of the finale, director Matt Shankman warned against getting too wedded to any of the fan theories circulating on social media. "There will be a lot of people who will no doubt be disappointed by one theory or another," he said. "Hopefully people will find that the finale is surprising but also satisfying, and that it feels inevitable because it's the same story they've been watching the whole time."

And that story was deeply rooted in Wanda Maximoff's reservoir of grief: Having lost her Sokovian family and then her Avengers family, the show was built around her attempts to create her own nuclear family — one that couldn't be canceled. But then reality inevitably found its way through her hexagon-shaped sitcom bubble, forcing her to rewrite the happy ending she imagined for herself.

At least she got to control her own narrative endgame: Fully embracing the abilities of the mythical Scarlet Witch predicted in the Darkhold — Marvel's big book of magic — Wanda fought would-be usurper Agatha Harkness to a standstill, and then orchestrated a moving farewell to her Westview clan as her spell over the town broke once and for all. "We've said goodbye before," Vision remarked, moments before he joined their sons, Billy and Tommy, in the TV afterlife. Wanda completed his thought: "We'll say hello again." The emotion of that moment allowed Twitter to forgive Bettany for pretending to be Luke Skywalker and Peters for the Bohner joke.

With the story of WandaVision told, there are lingering questions big and small. One storyline that wasn't paid off: Who exactly was the missing FBI witness whose disappearance was so important that Jimmy Woo and Monica Rambeau needed to investigate? We may never know.

But the bigger question is: Where do the characters go from here? As the opening chapter of Marvel's Phase 4, the series set in motion significant events that will reverberate throughout the TV shows and movies that will find their way to theaters and/or Disney+ over the next two years. In fact, "The Series Finale" features two end-credit scenes that serve as direct preludes to a pair of upcoming sequels: Captain Marvel 2 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Monica Rambeau's Photon is the subject of the first bonus scene: Having demonstrated her Hex-acquired powers in the middle of Wanda's extended confrontation with Agatha, Monica is approached by a S.W.O.R.D. agent who reveals herself to be a shape-shifting Skrull. "I was sent by an old friend of your mother's," the Skrull says. "He'd heard you'd been grounded and he'd like to meet you." But this meeting is going to require some serious mileage as her mom's pal is located off-planet in Captain Marvel's pocket of deep space — most likely on or around the same ship housing Nick Fury, as revealed in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Monica has already been announced as being part of the Captain Marvel 2 cast, joining Brie Larson on her next adventure. But this scene also opens the door for her to appear in the recently announced Secret Invasion series, headlined by Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn's Talos. It also confirms longstanding suspicions that Skrulls have existed among humans for some time — setting the stage for the events of that show.

The second bonus scene leaves Wanda where Doctor Strange will presumably find her in his Sam Raimi-directed sequel. (Here's a fun Easter egg: Raimi's previous Disney blockbuster — 2013's Oz the Great and Powerful — is one of the titles glimpsed on the marquee of Westview's sole movie theater.) Fleeing the wilds of New Jersey for the actual wilderness, she's depicted living her own double life in a remote cabin. While her physical self brews tea, her astral form is furiously studying the Darkhold, her twin sons' cries echoing in her ears. Whatever multiverse mission the Sorcerer Supreme is embarking on, for the Scarlet Witch it's clearly gonna be personal.

Left unanswered are the current whereabouts of White Vision, last seen regaining his memories of life before the Hex courtesy of Westview's Vision, thus overwriting his S.W.O.R.D. programming. While he's still not the Vision that Wanda knows and loves, he could find his way back to that place — a potential Season 2 storyline that has its roots in the comic book. That means Disney+ could announce a Vision and the Scarlet Witch series in Phase 5, one that also includes their two kids as junior heroes after the twins are rescued from the multiverse of madness.

In other words, WandaVision may be over... but the adventures of Wanda and the Vision are just beginning.

WandaVision is currently streaming on Disney+.

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