From the start, Wanda and Vision have been about connecting to each other and, stopping to look at their relationship, it’s a beautiful trajectory for them as characters.
One of the first lines that Wanda ever said about Vision in Age of Ultron was “I can read him. He is … dreaming,” and that line set the tone for their entire relationship. Over and over again they shared a love based around their connection through the Mind Stone.
Wanda’s powers were gifted to her when she was experimented on by HYDRA through the Stone’s powers. That same power then went into creating Vision, and the two could feel each other through it. In Infinity War, we see Wanda and Vision hiding out in Scotland together, and when Vision’s head begins to hurt, he asks Wanda what she feels in the Stone. Her response? “I just feel you,” and it’s that same sort of tone that we got from their first moments.
Later, in Infinity War, when Wanda is forced to destroy the Stone (and therefore kill Vision), he tells her that she can never hurt him because all he can feel is her, reiterating the same statement that she made to him back in Scotland.
So how does all of this play into one of the most heartbreaking aspects of WandaVision? Well, it’s simple: Wanda can’t feel Vision anymore.
Wanda Maximoff discovers that Vision’s body is being kept in a S.W.O.R.D. base in New Jersey and goes there to confront those in charge. Hayward meets with her, eggs her on, and shows her Vision’s body. Distraught, she breaks the glass and descends into the room he’s being separated in and looks at the body of what was once her love.
Mirroring the same motion from Scotland, she puts her power up to his mind, trying to find any sort of connection. And when she can’t sense him, she says out loud, “I can’t feel you,” and it is honestly one of the saddest moments in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Wanda Maximoff’s grief isn’t any different than the other Avengers. They’re all forced into this “career” and are always suffering. But what makes Wanda so different is that she hasn’t been able to stop and unpack any of her trauma, and a lot of her powers are connected to her emotions, much like the Hulk. In fact, a lot of the Avengers are, eventually, ruled by their emotions. Wanda’s abilities are just something incredibly powerful that she doesn’t yet understand, so it makes her slightly more dangerous.
Her grief leads her to a plot of land that Vision had given her to grow old in. And she’s so overcome with her own pain that she finally has that breaking point moment. When she loses control, she accidentally ends up trapping an entire town in a sitcom with no idea how she did it or how to stop it (at first).
I think, for Wanda, it was that hope of being able to feel Vision, to know that he was still with her somehow, that was keeping her going. Throughout the show, she learns that Vision does live within her and always will. Before the hex is completely destroyed, her Vision asks what he is, and Wanda responds by telling him that he’s the part of the Mind Stone that lives in her.
“You are a body of wires and blood and bone that I created. You are my sadness and my hope. But mostly, you’re my love,” she tells him as they’re waiting for their end. Vision, after she expresses her love for him, sheds a tear, and both Wanda and Vision seem surprised by this.
“I have been a voice with no body. A body but not human. And now … a memory made real. Who knows what I might be next? We have said goodbye before, so it stands to reason …” Vision says to Wanda as they’re watching their last moments together start to dwindle, and Wanda reflects one last message of hope, saying, “We’ll say hello again” to him.
With a final “so long, darling,” he’s gone, and Wanda is left alone in her grief but with an understanding of the pain she’s experienced and how to move on. Wanda Maximoff has lost so much, and while I didn’t understand their relationship at the beginning, WandaVision helped to show me just how much Wanda and Vision cared for each other and how deep their love ran.
I, like Wanda, have hope we’ll see Vision again because I don’t think their story is over, but knowing that Wanda will always feel Vision around her is emotional.
(image: Marvel Entertainment)
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