WandaVision’s latest episode explains how Wanda gained her powers because she’s always been a mutant.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for WandaVision Episode 8, “Before”, which is now airing on Disney +.
A show as adept at storytelling as WandaVision is just as good in his big flashy deed as with his subtle wink to the audience. Throughout the series, fans are losing their heads over every Easter egg and oblique reference that could potentially turn into something bigger, and in the latest episode, Agatha Harkness dropped a detail that could potentially change the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe by proving that mutants already exist .
The episode largely revolves around a deep dive into Wanda’s backstory, as Agatha wants to understand the source of her immense power. Agatha walks in amazement at Wanda’s ability to perform magic on such a colossal scale, trying to discover where the power comes from. The tour includes visits to Wanda’s childhood, her experimentation with Hydra and her relationship with Vision, from the heyday to the death of the Android. There is so much going on that it can be difficult to pick up the subtle nod for mutants that Agatha drops.
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Since Wanda’s inception in Age of ultron, it was clear that her initial motivations from Avenger were due to the fact that she and her brother were almost dead in Sokovia. Wanda was trapped under rubble and stared at a missile from Stark Industries that could explode at any moment, and Wanda considers herself lucky that the weapon is a dud. After her radicalization, she subjected herself to Hydra’s experiments with the Mind Stone, which was originally believed to be the source of her and her brother’s powers. However, it seems that a deeper story has taken place.
During the visit to Wanda’s childhood, Agatha pointed out the enormous coincidence in which the Stark weapon never exploded. She did not recall the powers of Wanda not as a result of the Mind Stone, but as a natural aptitude for ‘hex hex’ that would ‘corrupt on the vine’ if the Mind Stone did not further empower them. This is a very small hint, but it does not take much to draw the connection between the innate forces identified by Agatha and the X-Gene that serves as the precursor of mutant abilities in the comics.
Under such an interpretation, mutants could exist for generations, with their powers so small and subtle that they are rarely recognized. Substantial trauma or exposure to sufficient power sources such as an Infinity Stone can catalyze the X gene and activate it to a recognizable superhuman ability. This will not only connect the origins of Wanda and Pietro in their comic book history of the comics, but also create an easy method by which mutants exist in the MCU, without requiring a major shift in reality.
For Wanda, her origins clearly go deeper than simple mutant forces. Agatha identifies her as the “Scarlet Witch” and binds her to the larger magical elements of the MCU, but for her brother Pietro, the explanation may be as simple as an activated mutant gene. Aside from all of Wanda’s reality-changing antics, Pietro is merely a speed eater whose powers are activated upon exposure to the Mind Stone. Under similar circumstances, a mass event, perhaps encouraged by Wanda himself, could awaken the genes in the rest of the mutant population. The X-Men finally have a clear path to the MCU, and they WandaVision to thank for it.
WandaVision was written by Jac Schaeffer and directed by Matt Shakman, and Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch, Paul Bettany as Vision, Randall Park as Agent Jimmy Woo, Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau and Kathryn Hahn as Agnes . New episodes air on Friday + Disney.
