Well, Episode 9 is clearly titled "The Series Finale" as yet another nice wink to its love of TV sitcoms (side note: remember all the "Seinfeld" eps were simply titled "The..." with the subject in it?) as well a likely definitively letting us know this is indeed a 'limited series' and not an ongoing one. The finale of the series felt like the Marvel 'Standard Operating Procedure' of lots of spectacle & fighting. WandaVision, in true MCU fashion, ended with the least memorable aspect of the spectacular series: just as the big climax of most Marvel films are the least memorable (with some exceptions of course, with the Avenger films being the most obvious), "The Series Finale" is maybe the least inspiring, lest original aspect of the nine episode series. It should also be said that while I do indeed enjoy a good celebrity trolling their fanbase, Paul Bettany mentioned how excited he was to work with a great actor he's aways wanted to work with being himself might've set up a lot of disappointed fans expected to see Doctor Strange or some other big MCU 'heavy.' It didn't bother me, but I'd be lying if, in the back of my mind knowing this film somehow connects to the DOCTOR STRANGE sequel, I wasn't thinking "well maybe we WILL see Strange show up, even if in a cameo or something."
I'll just recap some of my general thoughts of the finale, and for the purposes of anyone (oddly) reading this w/out seeing the finale I'll keep things mostly spoiler free:
* the action beats were really well staged & directed; too many TV shows stumble with big action set pieces (see past seasons of "The Walking Dead," especially during the Neegan war stuff). The director expertly used simplistic visual geography to make it easy to follow all of the characters' actions
* while the action set piece finale feels like standard, "meh" MCU, the fact that both of our heroes won out because of their brains was great!
* WandaVision in general highlights how the MCU shared universe is both an asset and a detriment. Obviously this series would likely not exist (or not work as well) w/out the shared universe, but but feels hampered because it gives WandaVision a lack of closure or real weight: for a series that seemingly strived, and more often than not succeeded, at being much more. I mean, the end almost feels like a bit of a cheat: like it hedged its bets at the end. _A_ Vision still exists in the MCU (and now White Vision has memories of the real Vision & is ready to swoop in and save the day whenever The Avengers need him next). And the post-credits stinger
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* We do get a nice 'sequel' to the "What is grief, but love persevering" moment when Wanda is putting the boy to bed in the end for the last time. Vision alluding to them meeting again someday is both nice literally (in the MCU - see White Vision), and symbolic/metaphorical for us in the real world (see believe in the afterlife).
* Wanda going from seeing the horrors her Hex has put on the townspeople one moment, to then seeing her dismantling the Hex "hurt" her loved sons and thus rebuilding the Hex not being ready to deal with their loss is an odd choice. It's like we don't ever _REALLY_ see Wanda have to reckon with her false reality family: the whole "she has to let them go, and deal with her loss, in order to fix the horrors she's inflicted on innocent civilians" feels mostly skipped over. It felt like it could've been another layer of the study in grieving; maybe the creatives thought it was too heavy here at the end?
* After the emotional ending, it felt like an odd thematic decision to pivot to hear Monica 1) imply she'd do similar to bring back her mom if she had the powers and 2) the people of Westview should be thankful(?!) if they knew what Wanda gave up to free them. At least Wanda wisely replied it wouldn't change how they feel about her.
* Bummer we had a significant lack of Darcy
* Monica felt mostly sidelined except for her big 'hero moment' (showing off powers similar to what her comic character has!).
* "Fietro"'s explanation felt pretty lame and mostly "undercooked" in the end. And also felt like Marvel was ultimately being either a bit too cute for their own good and/or flat-out trolling the fans to jump to theories on the internet.
* I did dig the Skrull mid-credits scene: presumably setting up CAPTAIN MARVEL 2?! I'm amused the final ep of the series goes full-Marvel with both a mid & post credit scenes
* It was awesome to see an 'updated' version of the Scarlet Witch comics costume!
* "Mrs. Hart" asking Wanda for death rather than being a never-ending sitcom character feels like dark commentary on TV & the monotonies of seemingly never-ending characters in the same situations over and over and over and over again. Like, maybe Hawkeye Pierce would ask for sweet sweet death rather than having to live the life of an Army surgeon for three times th length of the actual Korean War in the sitcom MASH.
I liked a lot of the finale quite a bit while watching it, but upon just a little reflection it unravels a bit. Overall, it's a "fine" ending: not great, not bad, but serviceable. Like a true comic storyline it brought us back (mostly) to the status quo pre-WandaVision while also setting up and getting us excited for future MCU installments: not a bad thing, and kind of commendable when you think about it. Marvel Studios has spent the last 13 years getting us to not only fall in love with their films and characters, but simultaneously making us REALLY exciting for the next films/series down the pipe. It really is expert long-form storytelling and is to be commended from both an artistic as well as business model. WandaVision is a triumph, and sets up Marvel's streaming series with an incredible high bar both creatively and execution-wise. I'll maybe post some thoughts later on this weekend about the series overall but I'm incredibly satisfied as both a MCU fan and old-time comic nerd!
