Recap and Review of WandaVision S1E4 “We Interrupt this Program”

At the end of the last episode of WandaVision we saw things slowly start to unravel, as Wanda went from pregnant to mother of twins in just a few moments over the course of the Brady Bunch like sitcom that she and Vision seem to be living through. But at the end, Wanda ejects “Geraldine” from their home of Westview.

Recap of WandaVision S1E4 “We Interrupt this Program”

And we go backwards, but not following Wanda or Vision. Instead, we get some backstory from Captain Monica Rambeau aka “Geraldine” in the Westview sitcom.

The opening sequence shows a very confused Monica at a very busy hospital looking for her mom. Eventually she finds her mom’s oncologist, who tells her that her mom’s cancer came back and they couldn’t defeat it, but that was before Monica disappeared several years ago.

Eventually we see Monica back together and showing up to work at Sentient World Observation Response Department, aka SWORD and talking with the new acting director. (This conversation has some questions that I will talk more about in the review. )

The director knows Captain Rambeau is in a difficult spot but for now, she is on “terrestrial” duty, per the protocols set up by her mom, the founder and first leader of SWORD. When an agent vanishes, I guess they cannot go back into space right away.

So, Captain Rambeau accompanies a drone to Westview, NJ where she partners up with FBI Agent Jimmy Woo, who we know as Ant-Man’s handler and essentially probation officer from the second Ant-Man films. He explains (and has some help from a couple local cops) that he had a witness in protection in Westview, NJ.

But as he investigated, all the connections of the protectee don’t remember them. Even more curious, the two local cops, who are sitting just outside of Westview, say that the city doesn’t exist, and that they are from Eastview.

As Rambeau and Woo try to send in a drone, they theorize what is happening before Rambeau walks up to the edge of the city and is sucked in. This triggers the response that we saw at the end of last episode, where just outside of Westview, SWORD and other agencies quickly build a response unit and send for their best scientists, including Dr. Darcy Lewis, from the first 2 Thor films.

It doesn’t take her too long, as a renowned astrophysicist, to discover the broadcasts of the television shows that we have seen. This brings the team to start matching characters from the WandaVision show with the real people of Westview.

Via careful viewing, they discover a few spots where things were edited, things that we did see, like Woo using the radio to try and talk to Wanda at the pool party, and, scarier still, Wanda ejecting Rambeau from Westview, which is basically where we catch up to the show’s main timeline.

Then, as they examine Monica, she simply tells them, “It’s Wanda. It’s all Wanda.”

Thoughts on WandaVision S1E4 “We Interrupt this Program”

It is a bold choice to shift the episode focus as harsh as they do in this episode but I think it allows them to do some things moving forward. Further, they are doing some work that will potentially make another episode with Vision and Wanda as the focus even more interesting to dig into.

I loved the cast they have put together for this. Using disparate pieces of the MCU, they are gathering people who can handle the complexity of superpowered beings, yet are also normal. Jimmy Woo and Darcy Lewis can both bring a comedic touch that the show can benefit from, but at the same time, you believe them to be capable at their jobs.

But I am confused to where this whole thing is going to fall in the MCU timeline. So, we know for sure that it happens after the first Thanos snap and half the world disappears, because of a comment the SWORD director says to Rambeau on her first day back. But I am not sure that it happens before Avengers: Endgame’s finale. And it raises some questions about Monica Rambeau and her disappearance.

If the oncologist is right, her mom has been dead for 2 years, after another year of fighting cancer. Essentially, Monica has been gone for 3 years. But people that were Thanos snapped were gone at least 5 years. So, Monica’s disappearance was pre-Thanos snap but she returned either in the gap between snaps or right at the end of the first snap.

Something was majorly wrong at the hospital beyond a “busy” day at the hospital. But was that just how Monica remembered it or was it maybe even during the snap?

But we do know this: Vision is dead, thanks to a chilling frame or two at the end of the episode. Does WandaVision happen in the 5 year gap? This seems radically impossible given that Wanda herself was snapped. The Marvel nerd in me hopes they unpack this more.

And we are headed towards a power reveal with Monica. In the comics, she becomes a character with very powerful light powers and it seems like she is a surefire add-on for Captain Marvel 2, which may be where she vanished to in her gap years. And those light based powers may be why she could penetrate the wall of Westview the first time.