The Wages of Sin in WandaVision Episode 7

The following article reflects on WandaVision episode 7: “Breaking the Fourth Wall.” Spoilers ensue. You have been warned.

Wanda is in really deep now. Vision is recovering from almost being destroyed (again) by trying to leave the space Wanda created. Wanda is determined to hide her desires from Vision while still keeping him around. She loves him. She’s hurting. She just needs to ‘rest her eyes’. But she doesn’t want to lose Vision. She also seems to be making an effort not to lose herself in the process. So she has been doing more and more to control the situation. But as we see, in this modern family style homage, Wanda isn’t in as control as she thought she was. Things are changing, rearranging. Shifting between time periods (or episodes of the show?).

Meanwhile we have Vision himself, recovering from said destruction, teaming up with Darcy to find answers. She catches Vision up on everything. His creation in Avengers age of Ultron, his death by Wanda, then Thanos. All the public information so to speak. Wanda was blipped (disappeared for five years as a result of the snap by Thanos), so for her, Vision’s death was mere weeks ago but for Vision, well, it’s like it happened to somebody else.

Meanwhile we see Monica begin to transform into the hero she becomes in the comics, Photon, or at least an aspect of it. She tries to break into Wanda’s reality, but can’t, even with the help of space vehicles. But when she finally breaks through herself, well, she has a break through. She is able to confront Wanda with her truth.

This leads to a confrontation, discussing events outside of Wanda’s bubble (what does Hayward want with Vision’s body, What is the aim of SWORD, is this a part of SHIELD?), but Wanda just wants the invader gone. Wanda and Monica have a lot in common: both were blipped, both came back to tragedy, both had to deal with deeply uncomfortable realities, of sin placed upon them by others (by Thanos in this case), but Wanda doesn’t want to hear it. Wanda has given in so much that she has accepted she’s the villain, and doesn’t even care anymore. Monica tells her she doesn’t have to be. Enter Agatha. 

Agnes, Wanda’s nosy neighbor, brings Wanda into her home, where she was watching her twin sons, but they aren’t there. They might be in the basement. It’s there we see the big reveal that Agnes is Agatha Harkness, another magic user, the twins are missing, and that somehow she has been, at the very least influencing Wanda (as shown by her purple magic). 

There is a lot of mystery still to be unpacked, but what I want focus on the characters of Wanda and Agatha. As we see in the brilliant tv intro, Agatha had been controlling things in each episode, pulling strings, specifically Wanda’s. 

Here we see the perfect illustration of sin and its consequences. Sin appears beautiful. We allow sin to control us often because it gives us a feeling of happiness, of comfort, of safety. It hides the realities of the world, ironically cast upon this world by sin as well. We sin to hide from sin. Sin leads to death, and here, we see that the death of Vision has caused Wanda to give in to those temptations of comfort, of happiness. It’s easy to say she wants control. In reality she wants her life back. She wants Vision, and the life that was stolen from them. 

As of episode 7, we are still unsure of when and how Agatha came to be involved but it’s very clear she saw Wanda looking at the metaphorical apple (temptation to sin) and decided to play the temptress, the snake, and got her to bite. Anytime there is a disruption in Wanda’s reality, it conveniently fixes itself. Was it Wanda or Agatha? We do see Wanda exchanging her grief for a false sense of control and happiness. And we see Agatha take advantage of that. The consequences of that sin are being felt EVERYWHERE. It literally changed Monica’s DNA. It has hundreds of people trapped in a reality where they are aware (and terrified) of what’s happening but can’t do anything about it. While things outside of the Wanda reality are bad, with the mysteries of the government, and the possibility of so many characters potentially becoming involved (Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel, Mister Fantastic!?, X-MEN!?!?). Inside we are seeing the “wages of sin”—the devastation that Wanda and Agatha’s selfish decisions continue to breed. 

We can sympathize with Wanda. I do. But what’s wrong is wrong. She is abusing her power and affecting others in ways in which they can’t fight back. It’s manipulation. It’s kidnapping. It’s abuse. I’m still worried for Wanda at the end of this series, but there are likely to be consequences she won’t and shouldn’t be able to avoid.

The reality is, sin affects us here the same way, if not worse. We are simply watching a metaphor, granted a cool metaphor with superpowers and high stakes. Our lives aren’t like that. But the realities of sin affect us all the same. Our sin is never isolated, it always affects others. Emotionally, physically, or worse. There is no such thing as victimless sin. We often think what we’re doing is justified, because of our own past pain, or we don’t dwell on the outside realities and just cozy up to the good feelings that our temptation gave us. After all, if it didn’t feel good we wouldn’t want it right? 

The consequences of sin are scary. They lead to pain, sadness and anxiety, even though in the moment it feels good, even right. Resist the temptation to sin. Resist the temptation to try to control every variable, even though we do not have Wanda’s ability, the desire to do what she just did has probably lurked in our mind in some form. We want control. 

If there’s any takeaway from this, it’s this. Learn to confront our selfish desires so that they don’t damage us and our neighbors. Don’t let Agatha, aka your worst self, get in the driver’s seat. Don’t let sin rule. It doesn’t have to and the consequences are never worth it.