WandaVision theories

Like many people, I've been wildly speculating over the last seven weeks about just what the heck is going on in Westview, the fictional New Jersey town where Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, has crafted a not-so-perfect-as-it-seems sitcom life on “WandaVision.”

I'm not too shabby at coming up with hot takes on movie, TV and comic storylines... unless you measure their quality by, you know, how often I get them right.

When the Red Hulk burst onto the comics scene in 2008, I put the clues together and determined he was none other than Betty Ross' ex, Glenn Talbot. I was so convinced that I tenaciously clung to the theory long after the Red Hulk was revealed to be none other than Betty's dad, Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross.

When “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” premiered in 2013, I was pretty confident Phil Coulson was an LMD (life model decoy). Turns out (seven-year-old spoiler warning) I was wrong. Well (two-year-old spoiler warning), early.

When the Vision debuted in 2015's “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” we learned the Marvel Cinematic McGuffins were, in fact, Infinity stones. I theorized that as an artificially created quasi-messianic being with an Infinity gem on his forehead, Vision was going to be, or at least stand in for, Adam Warlock in the big finale. He, um, didn't make it.

But now he's back in Marvel's first Disney+ show, and man, is it good. In all fairness, I'm more excited about Jimmy Woo and Darcy returning than Wanda and Vision, but Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany are knocking it out of the park, along with the rest of the cast and crew.

It's been fun to see people speculate about what's going on and what's going to happen next. With the last episode a little more than 24 hours away, I thought I'd throw out a few theories, but they're actually more about what we AREN'T going to see in episode nine.

Because with all the stuff that is happening on “WandaVision” and as many Easter eggs as they drop (and more that we imagine), I think there's not quite as much going on as we think. And that's fine, because the main thing they're doing is telling a great story.

Dottie is... some lady who lives in Westview. Anya was my favorite character on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” so I would be happy to have more Emma Caulfield in the MCU. I know some people have pegged her as Doctor Strange's apprentice/lover Clea (future blog topic: the ethics, or lack thereof, of Doctor Strange). I'd be fine with that, but we've already seen that her husband is just a regular Westview... ian? I know she wasn't on Jimmy's big board, but maybe someone was just changing the toner before her page printed out.

Ralph is... made up. Is he Mephisto? Is he Nightmare? Is he Immortus? Is he Chthon? Is he Devil Dinosaur? I say, none of the above. I've been wondering who Agnes' often-mentioned, never-seen husband is, other than the “WandaVision” equivalent to Maris on “Frasier.” But with only one episode left and many questions to be answered, plus an apparent showdown between the title mash-up, I'm not sure how many reveals we should expect. They're going to go the “Lost” route and focus on characters over checking off mystery boxes. I think Ralph is just someone Agnes made up to fit into her sitcom surroundings.

Monica's aerospace engineer friend is... not Mister Fantastic. “WandaVision” is no doubt going to set some things up. We've been guessing it could be mutants, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four. I even had a friend suggest Blade if that book in Agnes' basement really is the Darkhold. But again, we're running out of time for all of this to happen. One theory I heard was Adam Brashear, aka the Blue Marvel. That would make sense, because he's connected to Monica in the comics and, well, the engineer's got to be somebody we know, right?

The big MCU cameo at the end is... probably not Doctor Strange. It feels like it should be Doctor Strange. When magic stuff goes haywire in Marvel, who ya gonna call? And we know Wanda's going to be in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Marvel's told us that, right? And they've told us this show sets that movie up, right? And we know there's supposed to be one more cameo.

But this is the studio that straight-up LIED to us in the trailers for “Infinity War” and “Endgame” – a betrayal of trust I appreciated in a world where previews often tell too much of the story. They go to extraordinary lengths to keep their own casts from knowing enough to accidentally spill the beans. So if they've telegraphed this clearly that Doctor Strange will be making a house call to Westview, I'm not buying it.

We'd be more likely to see the Falcon (“Hey, you're an Avenger, right? You gotta do somethin' about your friend”) to segue into the next Disney+ series. Or maybe, Loki, as a friend suggested, to set up another series and pay off some of that multiversal stuff that, so far, we've only theorized about rather than seen. Heck, maybe Blade.

Perhaps it's someone Strange-adjacent. Maybe Mordo shows up because Wanda is really abusing magic. Or just Wong telling her the Doctor will see her now.

I had plenty of theories going into “Endgame,” and they made a lot of sense. They were also proven wrong. But I love what Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely and the Russo brothers did with that movie, and I trust I'm going to be more than satisfied with Jac Shaeffer and company's finale too, even though I really have no idea what's going to happen.