We’ve known that Teyonah Parris was joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Monica Rambeau for quite some time, but she’s finally made her debut in Marvel and Disney+’s WandaVision, so let’s unpack what her involvement in the show means.
**Spoilers for WandaVision episode 3, “Now in Color,” lie within.**
Monica Rambeau has been in WandaVision as their neighbor and friend, Geraldine. Showing up in “Don’t Touch That Dial,” she was one of the only neighbors that seemed genuinely nice to Wanda and Vision. In “Now In Color,” Geraldine is the one who is there to help Wanda when her sudden pregnancy has progressed to her giving birth in the span of one day.
To Geraldine’s credit, she doesn’t question most of what’s happening, which only drives home one important fact: She most definitely is there to try to work for S.W.O.R.D. and get Wanda out safe. This episode has Wanda in labor with Billy and Tommy, her twins that she manifests in the comics. While Vision is off trying to get the doctor to come back to deliver the baby, Geraldine is helping Wanda as paintings are flipping and the house is moving and doing things on its own because of Wanda.
Geraldine helps deliver the baby right as Vision comes back with the doctor, and once both Tommy and Billy are born, Vision talks to the neighbors while Geraldine talks to Wanda. In a scene where Wanda opens up about her past, she starts to talk about her brother Pietro, and Geraldine brings up Ultron.
What it does is reveal that, out of everyone trapped in this sitcom universe, Geraldine/Monica has more of a sense of what’s going on. Throughout all of “Now In Color,” the neighbors seem more aware—something that even Wanda and Vision comment on. They know something is weird and they know they’re trapped, but I don’t think they can accurately say why or how, just that they’re stuck in this world against their will.
For Monica, she has control. She knows what’s happening, and she knows the world outside, and the fact that her S.W.O.R.D. necklace in this episode catches Wanda’s attention is telling.
Once Wanda has the twins, the two talk, and when Wanda brings up Pietro, Monica mentions that he died at the hands of Ultron. Whether that’s a slip-up or Wanda’s own memory completely taking over, we don’t know. What we do know is that Monica does seem to have more control over herself and what she knows than Herb, Agnes, and the rest of the town of Westview.
To be honest, I think that Wanda opening up to Geraldine/Monica made the latter believe that she could maybe break through—talk to her and get her to see what’s happening. The problem is that Wanda very clearly does not want to leave this sitcom reality she’s made for herself.
Whether it is rewinding the time or cutting Vision’s thought out of the episode, she doesn’t want to be confronted with the fact that this isn’t really her life, and Monica clearly having the ability to connect to the world she left behind was a threat to her.
Monica Rambeau will become a hero in her own right, and we’re going to see her in Captain Marvel 2, but the fact that she is clearly working with S.W.O.R.D. is important because it means that she has a greater connection in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at large.
At the end of the episode, Wanda essentially “yeets” Monica out of the sitcom world, throwing her into a field outside of Westview as a bunch of vehicles roll up, and we see the forcefield that’s around this world Wanda is building. Does that mean Geraldine/Monica is out of Wanda’s world forever? I don’t think so. She seems determined to help Wanda break free from this mental hold she’s put herself in, and it’s interesting to see how Monica tries to break her out of it.
Until we see more, getting this glimpse into Teyonah Parris’ take on Monica was fun, and I can’t wait to see more of her in the future of the MCU. What does this mean for her relationship with Wanda Maximoff, though? We’ll have to wait and see.
(image: Marvel Entertainment)
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