Warning - This article contains spoilers for WandaVision.
Marvel's first Disney+ original series, WandaVision, has come to a close. The series shed light on many previously-unknown aspects of Wanda Maximoff's powers - including her status as the legendary Scarlet Witch.
However, the finale featured a throwback to the character's first appearance in the MCU...
FROM TONY STARK TO AGATHA HARKNESS
While battling Kathryn Hahn's Agatha Harkness in "Episode 9," Wanda snuck up to her from behind and used her powers to invoke a traumatic memory. Both Wanda and Agatha were transported to 1693 Salem, Massachusetts, the location of the previous episode's opening scene, in which Agatha was put on trial by her fellow witches, including her own mother.
This power played a major role in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Thor, and the Hulk all had their minds manipulated by Wanda. The things they were shown ranged from memories of the past to visions hinting at the future (and, in Hulk's case, viewers didn't even get to see what he saw).
Still, the common thread is that they're all traumatic enough to throw them off their A-game.
The shot of Wanda manipulating Agatha's mind in WandaVision is akin to the one in which she approaches Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark from behind to do the same in Age of Ultron.
Both Tony and Agatha were surrounded by the bodies of people they knew in their respective nightmare-style realities, though Tony's was just a vision while Agatha's was an actual memory.
In both scenes, Wanda is visibly shocked by how the vision was endured by the victim.
SCARLET WITCH VISIONS
It's nice to see that even though Wanda has seemed to "unlock" her full powers as the Scarlet Witch, the Marvel Studios team hasn't forgotten what made her so memorable - and so frightening - to begin with. While she messes with the minds of everyone in Westview throughout WandaVision, her ability to traumatize someone by showing them a vision of something that is utterly terrifying to them is extra sinister.
There's also a bit of a fun juxtaposition between this scene and the Age of Ultron one. In that movie, Wanda shows Robert Downey Jr's Stark and other Avengers scary visions to help the villain of the film, Ultron. But, in WandaVision, she uses the power for good, working to defeat Kathryn Hahn's evil Agatha Harkness.
All episodes of WandaVision (as well as Avengers: Age of Ultron) can be streamed on Disney+.
