“Breaking The Fourth Wall” Review

While the big revelation of the episode might be something most of us have been expecting, BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL has much more than that up its sleeve. With the six episodes so far having been meditations not only on grief but also finding something to say about each era of sitcom it’s touched upon – and linking them neatly to the series’ overall arc, we finally reach the lowest point of WANDAVISION’s Kübler-Ross odyssey by bringing Wanda to depression. Meanwhile, Vision finds himself a new ally amongst the circus folk as the Hex begins to destabilise.

***SPOILERS & SPECULATION***

It’s something of a confessional episode so it’s fitting that it takes its sitcom stylings from the likes of MODERN FAMILY and THE OFFICE, as Wanda, Billy, Tommy and even Agnes take their turns speaking directly to an unseen – until the end – documentary crew. You can tell we’re kicking off WANDAVISION’s third act because all the various storylines kick up a gear here, converging on the central mystery of the Hex.

For the first time, Wanda explicitly takes responsibility for creating the fictional world of Westview although she’s still a little hazy of the exact how and why it all began. As the stress begins to take its toll, both in Wanda’s emotional state and in the increasing instabilities in objects around her – which flicker back and forth between their different eras – once again, Agnes appears in the nick of time and offers to take the twins off her hands. It’s an offer that might as well come with directions to a gingerbread house.

Outside of the Hex, Director Hawyard is set on pursuing his ultimate vision for, well, VIsion but it’s Monica’s plans which reach fruition first. Her ‘aerospace engineer’ friend may be disappointingly insignificant (shattering a thousand Fantastic fan theories) but her attempt to breach the Hex again is anything but. While the barrier proves more resistant than anticipated, Monica manages to force her way through, leaving Agent Woo on the outside and a very changed Monica once again inside the Hex – but free of Wanda’s influence.

Also free of Wanda’s influence – but recently forcibly reminded of his dependence on the Hex – is a restored Vision, who quickly finds Darcy and frees her from the mind control of the circus, although the fact she was reimagined as an escape artist suggests she might be instrumental in finding a way out for our heroes. Without much hesitation, they pick a truck and run away from the circus, although their attempt to reach Wanda brings in a third sitcom homage to the episode as ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT gets a few nods. Unfortunately, their journey is stymied by multiple obstacles as they’re thwarted by whoever is really in charge of events inside the bewitched zone.

Since the beginning of the series, that’s been one of the nagging questions of the series: who is behind all this. For every seeming confirmation that it was Wanda, there were other contradictory clues suggesting there was some other malign influence at work. BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL confirms that and, indeed, who that malign presence is as Agnes finally shows her hand and takes overt control of events with the announcement that she is, in fact, Agatha Harkness – Marvel’s preeminent witch and a longtime friend and foe to Wanda in the comics.

With the cutesy commercial in the middle of BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL heavily namedropping the Nexus, the stage is now set for a reality-warping multi-dimensional final showdown. We know the who, but we’re still wondering about the why. What’s Agatha’s objective? Does it concern the twins? And who, really, is Pietro? With only two episodes left to go before (hopefully) everything is answered, there’s no sign that WANDAVISION’s done casting its spell on us yet.