Part 2: Moral Relativity, Darwinism & Wanda’s Dark Side
The Marvel universe tended to clearly divide the forces of good and evil - until now.
Wandavision’s visuals may begin in black-and-white, but in terms of moral values, we soon find ourselves drifting into a grey zone. Riding the ascendant trend of the modern anti-hero (perhaps epitomized by Joker, another Marvel spin-off) WandaVision explores Wanda’s (Elizabeth Olsen) dark side and capacity for destruction in spite of her protagonist role.
After Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) frees the residents of Westview, Dottie (Emma Caulfield Ford) - whose name turns out to be Sara - begs Wanda to let her daughter out of her room, just to hold her or let her play with Wanda’s boys. When Wanda accuses Agnes of making Dottie/Sara guilt-trip her, our favorite frenemy Agnes shrugs off Wanda’s attempt to shift the blame: “She’s your meat puppet. I just cut her strings.”
To complicate matters, for the residents of Westview, there are actually upsides to living under Wanda’s mind control, as Fietro (Evan Peters) cunningly points out during the Halloween episode: better jobs, quality of life, and couples staying together. Basically, the stability and prosperity of an upper-middle-class American gated community - what’s not to like? So maybe that’s why when the previously peppy delivery man (Amos Glick) tells Wanda he’s exhausted, Wanda echoes Fietro’s rationalizing: “Oh, you're fine…I’ve kept you safe here.” But if Fietro is Agnes’ mind slave, then who is really brainwashing who here? Hmm.
As for Agnes, she may be as power-hungry and narcissistic as Hayward, but arguably, she does help as well as harm Wanda. When the Westfield residents turn into an angry mob, Agnes knowingly warns her, like a jaded, older version of Wanda addressing her younger self (minus the cigarette prop or whiskey), “Same story, different century. It’ll always be torches and pitchforks for ladies like us.”
But if Wanda is the show’s true villain, Vision (Paul Bettany) is her partner in crime. In episode five (“On a Very Special Episode…”), Vision actively enables Wanda to maintain control over the town. As a test of his loyalty, or perhaps on a particularly dull day at the office (since he’s really a number-crunching synthezoid who puts our most advanced A.I. algorithms to shame), Vision zaps Norm (Asif Ali), who becomes frantic, rifling for his phone to call his sister since their dad is sick: “You have to stop her. Just make it stop!” Instead of setting the rest of Westview free, Vision chooses to uphold the status quo and re-zap Norm, and Norm is suddenly back to cracking jokes about 80’s internet technology.
In the same episode, Vision makes a clue-dropping reference to Charles Darwin. Vision mentions to Wanda that when he read The Descent of Man to Billy (Jackson Robert Scott) to get him to sleep, it “only made him cry even harder." Darwin’s seminal book on human evolution is often used to justify a “survival of the fittest” mindset, where animals in an amoral universe fight for survival and domination. This nod to biological competition foreshadows the power struggles that escalate in forthcoming episodes and hints at using nature as an excuse for human (and by extent, mutant) ruthlessness.
As the show’s most obvious embodiment of Darwinism, Hayward (Josh Stamberg) displays no personal responsibility or regret after breaking the rules. The question is, to what extent can we condemn wanna-be Supermen like Hayward if he triumphs? Thankfully, he doesn’t, and there’s enough hard science to back up how humans are a uniquely mysterious mix of nature and nurture.
In contrast, although technically on Hayward’s team, Agent Woo (Randall Park) and Captain Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) represent greater degrees of social good. At a S.W.O.R.D. regroup, Hayward smugly labels Wanda a “terrorist” who is holding thousands hostage, which makes her “not the principal victim, but victimizer.” In Wanda’s defense, Rambeau argues that it could have been thousands more if Wanda hadn’t put up her own quarantine. Playing devil’s advocate, Woo counters Hayward’s extremism with an ironic, “It’s an oversimplification of events...But, yes.”
Perhaps Rambeau represents the closest thing to Wanda’s conscience, despite her own “terrifying” and “excruciating” first-hand experience of Wanda’s brainwashing. While she could have just as easily joined the Westfield gang against Wanda, Rambeau does not stoop to moral midgetry. During Hayward’s first stand-off with Wanda, Wanda deflects Hayward’s accusations by stating that she’s not the one with the guns. “But you’re the one in control,” Rambeau reminds Wanda, without a trace of self-righteousness. When Wanda reinstates her stranglehold over an angered Westview mob, Rambeau, again, intervenes: “Heroes don’t torture people.” Ouch.
In all fairness, Wanda does end up apologizing to Rambeau and releasing the townspeople, who are free to go back to stapling piano lesson leaflets on public poster boards and the like. Displaying radical yet realistic empathy, Rambeau admits that given Wanda’s power, she would have brought her mom back from the dead. So I had to ask myself, with such superpowers, might I end up as a Wanda or an Agnes - or even a Hayward? “Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and all that jazz.
Although it’s on a sliding scale of ethics, I believe the degrees to which Wanda, Agnes, and Hayward purposefully misuse their powers make all the difference. It’s my own personal view that we should distinguish each character by their actions but also, by what they don’t do. After Wanda faces-off with an awakened Westfield, she tells Agnes, “See, the difference between you and me is that you did this [vengeful mass-slaughter of your persecutors] on purpose.” Just as Hayward resurrects his own Vision, Wanda could have used “conditional” Vision as a weapon for world domination, but crucially, she chooses not to. Hayward is willing to burn Westview to the ground to get what he wants, but that’s where he and Wanda differ. From one woman to another, Rambeau urges Wanda not to succumb to Hayward’s institutional and authoritative narrative spin: “Don’t let him make you the villain.” Wise words, girl.
As an audience member, I appreciate the layers of moral tension embedded in WandaVision, a thoughtful slow-burner that isn’t interested in easy answers. I hope you do, too. Instead of feeding us convenient cliches, or force a half-digested code on mindless “meatpuppets,” the show acknowledges our freedom and ability to judge for ourselves.
Thanks for joining me and I’ll see you next week, with more in-depth theories about WandaVision!
“Okey dokey, artichokey?”