Recap / WandaVision Episode 6 "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!"

Wan-da! WandaVision!
Don't try to fight the chaos
Don't question what you've done
The game can try to play us
Don't let it stop the fun
Some days it's all confusion
Easy come and easy go
What if it's all illusion?
Sit back and enjoy the show

Let's keep it going, let's keep it going
Through each distorted day
Let's keep it going, though there may be no way of knowing
Who's coming by to play

— Episode 6 (Surreal-sounding) Theme Tune

In the late 90s, Wanda, Vision, Billy, Tommy, and Pietro prepare for Halloween in Westview, but Vision has plans of his own. On the outside, the tension between Hayward and Monica reaches a head, and several uncomfortable truths are learned.

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Tropes:

• The '90s: Word of God says that this is ostensibly when the episode takes place, though it does borrow from the early 2000s as well by being based on Malcolm in the Middle. Most '90s sitcoms were about adults and their social, professional, and love lives, such as Seinfeld, Living Single, and Friends. To find a family sitcom, they had to cheat a little.
• Actor Allusion: After the kids interrupt Wanda and Pietro's discussion about why Pietro looks different, Tommy says, "Kick-ass!" and Wanda repeats it, confused. Kick-Ass starred Aaron Taylor-Johnson (who played the original Pietro, as shown in the opening recap) as the titular superhero, and Evan Peters (who replaced him in the Anomaly) played his friend Todd.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: Wanda turns the Hex into this when Vision escapes its boundaries and is dying: it pulls in Darcy along with the entire S.W.O.R.D. base. Only Monica, Jimmy, Hayward, and two other S.W.O.R.D. agents manage to escape in their vehicles.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • This episode continues to question how much Wanda is really responsible for the Westview Anomaly, as while talking to Pietro near the end, she says that all she remembers before Westview is a massive feeling of loneliness. She also flat-out states that she isn't sure how she did it in the first place.
  • The "Previously On" segment shows Pietro as played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson via Stock Footage, but for the rest of the episode, he's played by Evan Peters. Is "Uncle Pete" actually the same Pietro that Wanda knew and loved, but with a different face? Is he actually from another universe? Or is he someone or something else entirely, given his knowledge of Westview being an illusion, knowing about Vision's death despite not being present for it, and constantly dodging Wanda's questions about his and her past?
  • There's further intrigue growing around Hayward and S.W.O.R.D.'s attitude towards Vision. Hayward has clearly been tracking him inside the Hex; the "Cataract" program that Darcy unearthed implies that S.W.O.R.D. was doing something shady with Vision's body before Wanda retrieved it from them (or did she?); and when Vision breaks through the Hex barrier, neither Hayward nor his personnel do anything to either help or contain him, instead merely watching as he "dies".
  • Agnes explicitly names Wanda as being responsible for the anomaly instead of panicking and telling Vision to "stop her." But unlike all the other people at the edge of town, she is able to move and talk even before Vision seemingly frees her from the spell — leaving it open whether she is telling Vision the truth, or manipulating him into crossing the town barrier, planning on having Wanda expand it.
• Ambiguous Syntax: Pietro, at one point, mentions that his purpose in Westview is to "give [Wanda] grief." He could be using the phrase as its usual expression of "causing trouble," in reference to his clear role in the show as comic relief Manchild, but his death has also given Wanda a lot of actual grief. He could also be speaking literally, in that he was brought in by someone else to cause Wanda grief and further amp up her powers.
• Amnesiac Resonance: Vision still retains the knowledge of how to use his flight and phasing abilities and even changes his Halloween costume into his proper superhero outfit, but doesn't remember being an Avenger.
• And I Must Scream: Anyone in Westview outside of Wanda's immediate field of vision seems to be left standing there, waiting for their "cue", still very conscious.
• Artificial Atmospheric Actions: The further Vision gets from Wanda, the less natural the townspeople's actions become. He encounters a couple stuck trying to put up the same Halloween decorations over and over, and on the very edges of Westview, everyone is completely frozen in place.
• Ascended Fridge Horror: Partway through, Pietro addresses the previous suspicions about where the children in Westview were. He questions if Wanda had just used her powers to keep them all asleep all this time.
• As Himself: Pietro Maximoff is credited "as himself" in the show within a show.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Agnes, when Vision briefly frees her from whatever Mind Rape is controlling Westview, begins cackling like her costume, a Witch Classic.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Jimmy may be a spacey Plucky Comic Relief, but he's also a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, with added FBI training and with experience handling Avengers. He's the first to coldcock the guards escorting him, Monica, and Darcy out of the S.W.O.R.D. compound and mug them for disguises.
• Beware the Superman: Discussed. Director Hayward survived the Snap and watched the world descend into madness after the heroes were defeated, and so he has a much more cynical attitude towards Wanda and all other people with superpowers. When Monica voices empathy for Wanda, he calls her naive and kicks her out.
• Black Comedy: In a flashback to the Maximoffs' childhood in Sokovia, they get a dead fish from an old lady for Halloween. Simultaneously, the sound of gunfire can be heard in the background because Sokovia was in the middle of its civil war.
• Both Sides Have a Point: In the case of Hayward versus Monica regarding Wanda. Hayward, despite his questionable methods and Jerkass tendencies, is absolutely right that Wanda's a danger and cannot continue to operate unchallenged. On the other hand, Monica makes a totally valid point that they have no idea what would happen if Wanda dies as she's the only one who can safely end the Hex, and that they almost certainly don't have a way to kill her.
• Broken Record:
  • On Vision's way to the edges of Westview, he sees a man and woman repeatedly putting up Halloween decorations.
  • When Vision later breaks Agnes from her trance, she starts repeatedly screaming "DEAD" at him.
• Buffy Speak: Pietro refers to Wanda's powers as "wiggly woos" (the term Elizabeth Olsen herself has used for comic Wanda's hand gestures).
• Call-Back:
  • Pietro mentions that Wanda has come a long way from just giving people nightmares and shooting red "wiggly-woos" from her hands, as she did when they last saw each other.
  • In the previous episode, Wanda dismissed Vision's accusation that she's controlling everyone in town, saying that she can't mentally dictate every person while they're going about their daily lives all the time. This episode shows that she doesn't: The further from Wanda they are, the less Westfield residents are able to move on their own, until they're frozen in place, as if waiting for their "cue." And fully conscious of every second of it.
  • Pietro calls out the fact that Westview has finally let the children of Westview participate in the "classic Halloween episode".
• Cheap Costume:
  • Wanda, Vision, Pietro, and Billy all wear corny versions of their comic-book accurate costumes (with Tommy wearing Pietro's costume instead of his own).
  • In a flashback to Wanda and Pietro's childhood, she wears a ladybug outfit while he is dressed as a pirate.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Even though Vision can't remember his time as an Avenger, after he leaves the Hex and his body is breaking down, he is shouting to the S.W.O.R.D. agents, "the people [inside] need help!"
• Circus of Fear: When the Hex starts spreading outwards, it turns the S.W.O.R.D. vans and helicopter into clown cars and a hot air balloon, other buildings into a circus, and the agents into clowns, mimes, and other circus entertainers.
• Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Wanda expanding the Hex far past the boundaries of Westview as Darcy is enveloped by it, almost all of the S.W.O.R.D. personnel on-site are pulled in and turned into clowns, Jimmy and Monica are on the way to meet up with her "aerospace engineer" contact, and Hayward is left with only two agents as he desperately tries to contact anyone else as the Hex borders grow larger and larger right behind both of them, with no signs of stopping.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Billy's powers are blue, in contrast to his mother's red.
• Comic Book Movies Dont Use Code Names: Lampshaded when the task force discusses how Wanda has never used a "funny name" — though every comic book reader knows "Scarlet Witch".
• Commonality Connection: After losing her mother, Monica knows the grief and loneliness that Wanda is feeling and is determined to reach out and help her, which puts her at odds with S.W.O.R.D. leadership.
• Company Cross References: The Incredibles and The Parent Trap are being shown at the theater; both titles are owned by Disney along with WandaVision itself. The Incredibles stars a Super Family Team, while The Parent Trap stars long-lost twins being reunited.
• Consummate Liar: As we learn in later episodes, Agnes isn't actually under Wanda's control, but she pretends she is and pretends she's a normal resident of Westview after Vis "frees" her from Wanda's control.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When Monica, Darcy, and Jimmy put on disguises, Jimmy puts on a baseball cap as a nod to the standard disguise in many MCU movies.
  • Vision collapses outside the Hex in the same pose as Pietro did when he died.
• Control Freak: Agnes reveals that Wanda won't allow anyone to even think about leaving town.
• Cool Uncle: Pietro or "Uncle Pete" goes all in on this, volunteering to help Tommy and Billy with their trick-or-treating, using his superpowers to help them pull pranks, and cheerfully acting like a Manchild. Agnes seems to be an Honorary Aunt for the boys in a similar fashion. Her sweatpants in the opening credits say "Naughty" on the back.
• Creator Cameo:
  • One of the gravestones in the town square says "Janell Sammelman", who is the first assistant director for WandaVision.
  • When Darcy searches through Hayward's computer and sends something to Jimmy Woo, the names James Gadd and James Alexander pop up. Gadd is a post-production designer, and Alexander a VFX designer for the series.
• Creator's Culture Carryover: Despite the flashback of Wanda and Pietro going trick-or-treating in Sokovia, Halloween is primarily an American holiday. While some traditions like costume parties and watching scary movies have been adapted by other countries, trick-or-treating is rarely practiced outside the US, Canada, and occasionally the UK (individual parties are one thing; getting an entire community to go along with a foreign holiday is a different matter entirely). Justified in that this is part of the joke, portraying a very American childhood staple in the setting of an exaggerated stereotype of a war-torn Eastern European country, with Wanda lampshading that the flashback is not something she actually remembers.
• Curse Cut Short: Darcy utters "OH FUUU..." as the Hex absorbs her — and her being brought into Sitcom Land changes the ending to "...UDGE."
• Cutaway Gag:
  • When Tommy brags about being the "cool twin" and Billy takes offense, it briefly cuts to them playing DanceDanceRevolution together, where Billy stumbles and falls over.
  • Pietro initiates another one by mentioning a childhood Halloween in Sokovia to Wanda. Wanda doesn't remember it the way it was depicted.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Apparently, the Snap caused Hayward to deeply mistrust superpowered beings, implying that it was hell trying to claw back some semblance of order in the aftermath of the Avengers' failure. The subsequent Blip has not changed his mind either.
• Determinator: While literally falling to pieces as the artificial reality sustaining him fails, Vision nevertheless begs the S.W.O.R.D. agents around the town to help the people inside.
• Dirty Coward: When Wanda starts expanding the Hex, the S.W.O.R.D. agents run for it, leaving a handcuffed Darcy behind. She is as appropriately incredulous about this as you'd expect.
  Darcy: Are you serious right now?!
• Divergent Character Evolution: In the previous episode, Tommy and Billy acted as a virtually indistinguishable pair of Trickster Twins. Here, they immediately develop much more distinct personalities while staying in line with classic sitcom character archetypes. Tommy is the cool twin, and Billy is the dorky one, which is appropriately lampshaded. They also start to develop their respective powers from the comics.
• Double Meaning:
  • A lot of what Pietro says to Wanda references both his role as a sitcom character and his role in Wanda's story.
  • The commercial for "Yo-Magic" is foreboding. The premise is a starving kid stranded on an island being informed by a shark (a predator) that it used to be hungry like him until it snacked on "yo[ur] magic." The kid himself can't open the cup of Yo-Magic that he has and eventually starves to death desperately trying.
• Dude, Not Funny!: In-Universe, when Billy sees his dad dying outside the boundary of the Hex, Uncle Pete remarks that Wanda's dead husband can't die twice. This earns Pietro a face full of magic courtesy of Wanda that throws him a good 20ft away into a bale of hay.
• Easily Forgiven: Averted. Vision has not forgiven Wanda and their relationship is strained.
• Flashback with the Other Darrin: Averted. The Previously on… opening showing Pietro's death in Avengers: Age of Ultron visibly shows him as played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson instead of Evan Peters, as a way of emphasizing the fact that he was recast In-Universe.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The Malcolm in the Middle-esque theme song lyrics imply that the idyllic situation is coming unraveled.
  • During the first scene, Pietro notices Billy turning to the camera to talk to the audience.◊ This is an early hint that Pietro knows he's living in a TV show.
  • When he unfreezes Agnes and learns he's an Avenger, and dead on top of it, she starts shouting "Dead!" over and over, then starts cackling madly.
  • Early in the episode, Wanda warns the boys not to go past Ellis Ave. Approaching the climax, Vision approaches this street, and thus the boundary of the Hex.
  • Pietro quizzing Wanda about how she managed all this is a good indicator that she's not the one who brought him to Westview.
  • When Vision leaves the Hex, his body starts falling to pieces and disappearing, letting us know that he's entirely a creation of Wanda's magic and Hayward lied about her stealing his body and bringing him back.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Wanda sends Pietro flying into the tombstones, part of the epitaph on one of them can be seen. It says "Not on her side."
• Going Through the Motions: The farther away Westview residents are from the action of each "episode," the less bodily autonomy they have. Vision sees a man and woman stuck in an endless loop adjusting the same Halloween decorations, while a Single Tear runs down the woman's face. It gets even worse the closer you are to the border; people are frozen in place, and Jimmy wonders if they're even alive.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Continuing a Running Gag that started with Iron Man 2, the latest subversion of the first use of "fuck" in the MCU involves Darcy about to finish a long f-bomb just as the Hex absorbs her before it forces her to utter something more family-friendly.
  Darcy: Oh, fuuuuuu— [gets absorbed by the Hex] —dge!
• Gratuitous Spanish: When Wanda and Vision are discussing Vision's costume:
  Vision: I know you have a secret thing for Mexican wrestlers.
  Wanda: Mi gusta mucho.
  Vision: Chili con carne.
• Halloween Episode: Westview celebrates Halloween in this episode, and the family puts on their Silver Age costumes! Pietro even references it.
• Hide Your Children: Discussed; besides the twins, there were no children in previous episodes. Pietro notes that Wanda only brought them out when she needed them for her Halloween episode, and theorizes that they were dreaming peacefully in their beds before that, in order to "minimize trauma."
• Hollywood Hacking: Darcy hacks into Hayward's top-secret files and gets onto S.W.O.R.D.'s secure network seconds after picking up a laptop, and no explanation is given as to when or how she learned to do this.
• Identical Twin Mistake: There's a brief moment where Pietro mistakes Billy and Tommy, calling one twin by the other's name and then rolling with it when corrected.
  Pietro: [in response to Wanda's displeasure to the idea of shaving cream filled balloons, pointing at Tommy] It was Billy's idea.
  Tommy: I'm Tommy!
  Pietro: And don't you forget it!
• I Got a Rock: During the flashback to the Maximoff twins' Halloween in Sokovia, we see the twins get a dead fish for a treat. Just one; they have to share.
• Impostor-Exposing Test: Wanda not-so-subtly quizzes "Pietro" on their childhood and asks what happened to his Sokovian accent. In response, Pietro calls her on this, dodges the question, and asks what happened to HER accent.
• Internal Reveal: Vision learning that he's dead thanks to Agnes.
• Jerkass: After the last episode, Hayward doubles down on being willing to kill Wanda, is trying to forcibly recover Vision (or just Vision's body), and when Monica calls him on his behavior, makes a cheap shot about her dead mother (who was his mentor) before having Monica, Jimmy, and Darcy kicked off the base. He also watches Vision's suffering when he tries to escape Westview and doesn't attempt to help him, and abandons his forces (and a handcuffed Darcy who can't even move) when the Hex abruptly starts to grow.
• Jerkass Has a Point: "Pietro" spends the episode Leaning on the Fourth Wall and twitting Wanda about the reality of things around her and kinda being a Jerkass. Then he compliments her on her treatment of the children in town. Whether she kept them on ice or what, the fact that she didn't force them to be conscious through the nightmare that is being controlled for storylines isn't a mark against her.
• Jump Scare: At the beginning of the episode, Wanda is startled when she turns around to see Pietro making a face at her. Later in the episode, Wanda is once again startled when she turns around to see Pietro turned into a corpse riddled with bullet holes like what happened to "him" in Age of Ultron.
• Jurisdiction Friction: The FBI has ceded jurisdiction to S.W.O.R.D., but Jimmy is there as its representative and expects to be kept in the loop by Hayward. However, when he protests Hayward's decisions, Hayward has him thrown off the base. Jimmy states that this goes beyond Hayward's "provisional authority".
• Kick the Dog: On top of firing Monica and forcibly removing her, Jimmy, and Darcy from the base, Hayward in a bit of needless cruelty brings up how maybe it was a good thing that Monica wasn't there to see her mother die.
• Kid Com: Billy and Tommy have much more to do in this episode, and they serve as the episode's narrators.
• Kids Love Dinosaurs: Tommy wears a green shirt decorated with stegosaurs and teases his brother by calling him a Dork-asaurus Rex.
  Billy: Not a real dinosaur.
• Laughing Mad: Agnes starts laughing hysterically after Vision does his thing to break the mind-control effect.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Woo, so far characterized as a nebbish FBI agent, beats up a S.W.O.R.D. security agent while getting escorted off the base. Notably, he does it completely unprompted, and it is Monica who follows his lead.
• Manchild: Billy calls Pietro this when he describes to the audience how his mother has changed since Pietro's arrival. Indeed, "Uncle Pete" sleeps on the couch until 4 pm, is a slob, and trolls the neighborhood while taking the kids trick-or-treating.
• Masked Luchador: Alluded to when Wanda and Vision are discussing Vision's costume:
  Vision: I know you have a secret thing for Mexican wrestlers.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The S.W.O.R.D. agents watching the Hex pulse outward only need a second to realize what's going on before they all run like hell.
• Medium Awareness:
  • Pietro knows that he died, somehow came back, and is now in Westview to play the Cool Uncle to Tommy and Billy and cause shenanigans for Wanda and Vision. He's also aware that his appearance is different, that he and Wanda now have different accents, and even notes that the current scenario is a "classic Halloween episode".
  • Billy and Tommy also frequently speak directly into the camera à la Malcolm in the Middle, implying that they know they're in a TV series.
• The Mole: There are hints that Pietro has been brought to Westview to serve this purpose. Stating that he's been brought in to "cause you grief", and repeatedly quizzing her about what she's done to Westview and how she did it.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • The commercial of this episode is about a kid stranded on a desert island, slowly starving. A shark comes up with a radical musical cue and offers him "Yo-Magic" yogurt to satisfy his hunger. He can't open the cup no matter how hard he tries and the commercial fast forwards to him starving to death trying, ending with him as a skeleton. Then it snaps back with an upbeat reiteration of the Yo-Magic product, "the snack for survivors".
  • At the climax of the episode, Wanda enlarges the Hex in a foreboding sequence. As it envelops the S.W.O.R.D. base, it turns it into... a carnival, and all the agents into clowns and mimes.
• Mugged for Disguise: While being escorted off the base, Monica and Jimmy proceed to knock out the S.W.O.R.D. agents leading them away and take their uniforms. Darcy is rather upset that she wasn't let in on the plan.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Billy can sense that Vision is dying outside the Hex, even sensing/seeing through the eyes of the S.W.O.R.D. agents. His mother has exhibited some telepathy before (most notably when she "felt" Pietro die in Age of Ultron), but not to the extent of vividly seeing what strangers are seeing.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The costumes that Wanda, Vision, Pietro, and Billy wear are all based on their original outfits from the comics. Still, with the exception of Wanda's (which is pretty close to her comic version), they look intentionally thrown together. Lampshaded: Billy says that Halloween is about getting to be someone else for the day... while wearing the costume of his own comics counterpart.
  • Pietro being called a manchild, as well as his enjoyment of pranks, junk food, and video games, more closely resemble the X-Men Film Series' Peter Maximoff — which may not be a coincidence.
  • Wanda asks Pietro if he remembers a kid at the orphanage with "a skin thing," possibly referencing Toad, their former teammate in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
  • When Billy and Tommy go to get candy, Pietro yells to them, "Unleash hell, demon spawn!" In the comics, Billy and Tommy are revealed to be shards of the demon Mephisto's soul, figuratively making them demon spawns.
  • A metagag that doubles as reflecting Character Development, in past episodes of the Show Within a Show, Wanda and Vision reflected the idealized suburban couple. As Dysfunctional Family became more commonplace for sitcoms like Malcolm in the Middle, couples like Lois and Hal were much less glamorized than Lucy and Ricky. Wanda and Vision reflect this as they are not on the best of terms with each other.
• No Fourth Wall: Billy and Tommy speak directly to the camera throughout the episode, commenting on their family how the title character of Malcolm in the Middle would.
• Oh, Crap!: Everyone who sees the Hex expanding quite appropriately freaks out and tries to run, except Darcy, who's handcuffed to a car.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: After he breaks out of the Hex, Vision starts to glitch and fall apart.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: It turns out that Darcy is also a master hacker on top of being a Doctor in Astrophysics, and knowledgeable enough about engineering to rig up the vintage TV to pick up a kind of broadcast that no-one ever designed it to pick up.
• Offscreen Inertia: Westview inhabitants who aren't physically close to Wanda and her family's ongoing plotline gradually experience this the further away they get. A good distance, they're stuck in an endless loop performing the same minute action over and over. Right near the Hex's boundary, they're not moving at all.
• Pastiche:
  • The opening credits, fourth wall breaks, quick-cut flashbacks, and general filming style of the episode are based on Malcolm in the Middle.
  • Note that this is the first episode to have children other than the twins. Most TV didn't have children outside the main family (and older television often didn't have that) unless it was an annoying neighbor or a bully or a friend. Children are more difficult to work with, practically and legally, so they were usually kept to a minimum. Only in an episode like this would you see large numbers of child-sized background actors. Lampshaded by Pietro.
• Polar Opposite Twins: While the previous episode had Billy and Tommy as largely the same, this one quickly establishes Billy as the nerd and Tommy as the troublemaker.
• Precision F-Strike: Darcy utters an "Oh fu..." as the Hex expands to get her, which changes the rest of the word into "fudge."
• Present-Day Past:
  • A quick cutaway of Billy and Tommy playing DDR shows Tommy wearing a beanie with the face of a Creeper from Minecraft on it. The game was first released in 2009, long after the 90s/2000s setting that the episode supposedly takes place in.
  • The movies playing at the theatre are The Incredibles and The Parent Trap, neither of which would be in theatres at the same time, and the former of which wasn't out in the '90s.
  • The brand of milk Tommy is seen using at the beginning of the episode, Maple Hill Creamery, did not open until May 2009.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: In-Universe, Agnes is now credited in the show's title sequence, despite having been a major "character" from the start. Ironically, she barely appears in the episode (and not at all in the "plot"), trying to escape from the Westview reality. Like Vision, she has no last name listed.
• "Psycho" Strings: Pietro imitates the Psycho strings when he plays around with his nephews and pretends to stab them.
• Railroading: Vision is almost forced to take part in the plot of the episode (he even exasperatedly mentions that his costume was the only thing in his closet). He manages to get out of it by lying that he's working neighborhood watch so he can explore Westview.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Wanda expands the Hex, her eyes not only grow red, but seem to contain an image of a glowing red object.
• The Reveal: Hoo boy, this episode topped the previous one with the bombshells.
  • Hayward has figured out a way to look through the boundary but didn't let anyone else know, and he's been tracking Vision. Darcy discovers, via hacking, that S.W.O.R.D. was working on a top-secret weapons program called "Cataract", which (given the name) has alarming implications for what they were doing with Vision's body.
  • Darcy also discovers that Hayward has been studying the records of Monica's blood work and realizes that traveling through the Hex barrier doesn't just transform inanimate objects; it also affects a person's cells on a molecular level. It could be very dangerous for Monica if she tries to get into Westview again, to say nothing of all the people who've been stuck in there for days and subjected to five reality-altering time skips by this point.
  • Pietro is aware that Westview is an illusion and that his role is to create conflict for his sister's sitcom. Additionally, he knows that Vision is dead despite not being present for his death, and that he himself (or at least one version of him) was shot to death, hinting at an additional level of omniscience.
  • The farther someone is from Wanda (barring Vision), the less control they have, as demonstrated by the people on the other side of town being stuck in looping tasks while still fully conscious, and the people on the edge of the town near the barrier being frozen in place completely like statues.
  • Agnes seemingly wants to get out of Westview but doesn't believe she'll be allowed to leave.
  • Vision's survival is intrinsically tied to the Hex, as he begins to disintegrate when he tries to leave, but when the Hex expands to envelop him, he instantly recovers.
• Rule of Symbolism: Pietro has two important ones:
  • First, the credits state "Pietro Maximoff as Himself", which represents to Wanda that this Pietro is her Pietro, not some alternate-universe "recast" version or whatever. Note that in the credits, he is named Pietro, but the boys always refer to him as Uncle Pete(r), so the jury's still out on that.
  • Second, Pietro's hair isn't his silvery color like the previous episode, but platinum-blond like Aaron Taylor-Johnson's take on the character. Again, this is probably Wanda wanting the Pietro that she knew.
  • When Vision reaches the edge of Westview, the camera lingers on a STOP sign at the crossroads.
  • The origins of Halloween are about spirits crossing over to the land of the living on All Hallow's Eve because that is when the barrier between the lands of the living and dead is at its weakest. In the episode dedicated to Halloween, Vision (who is deceased) tries to move out of the barrier of the Hex.
  • Agnes is dressed like a witch.
• Ruritania: A Cutaway Gag to Pietro and Wanda as children shows Sokovia as an exaggerated stereotype of life on the other side of the Iron Curtain: a little old lady gives the kids a dead fish as a Halloween treat while gunfire can be heard in the distance. Two men try to disassemble a car for parts. Wanda notes that she doesn't remember Sokovia like that.
  Pietro: You probably suppressed a lot of the trauma.
• Same Character, But Different: In one of his asides to the camera, Billy notes that "Uncle Pete" and his mother haven't seen each other in a while, and he's different from how she remembers him. Wanda tries to figure out just how different this person is from the Pietro she knew.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Running desperately from the expanding Hex is only appropriate.
• Self-Serving Memory: Inverted. Pietro, remarking on his death, claims that he died in the street "like a chump for no reason." He actually willingly performed a Heroic Sacrifice, saving Hawkeye and a Sokovian child from Ultron, hinting that this Pietro is not the same person that Wanda knew, or he's lying about his identity.
• Shout-Out:
  • This episode recycles the sets of Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls.
  • In the scene where Tommy and Pietro run off to get candy, they quote "I feel the need... the need for speed!" from Top Gun, which also doubles as a Mythology Gag for Tommy's superhero name.
  • Tommy's first guess about Wanda's costume is "Old Red Riding Hood".
  • The Creature Walks Among Us is being projected on the town square of Westview.
  • Darcy's slowed down and drawn out F-bomb turning into the word "Fudge" is one to A Christmas Story.
  • The beginning of the episode — from the intro song, the camera work, the boys looking at and speaking to the audience, and the antics of Pietro and the boys while trick or treating — is very reminiscent of Malcolm in the Middle.
  • Some kids can be seen wearing the skeleton costumes worn by Johnny Lawrence's gang in The Karate Kid.
• Single Tear: On his journey through Westview, Vision sees a woman who repeatedly hangs a piece of Halloween decoration as a single tear runs down her cheek.
• Something Only They Would Say: Wanda asks Pietro about a boy with them in the orphanage after their parents died. Pietro realizes that Wanda is testing him, suspicious since he doesn't look like her Pietro. Pietro completely dodges the question, suggesting that he may not completely have Pietro's memories or is lying about who he is.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The whimsical sitcom music continues to play as Vision explores the increasingly creepy outer edges of Westview.
• Stealth Insult: When the S.W.O.R.D. camp is absorbed into the expanding Hex, it's turned into a circus and its agents into clowns or mimes.
• Stylistic Suck: The Halloween outfits that Vision and Pietro wear look intentionally bad (though Wanda's actually looks pretty decent). There's no rationale given for Pietro's, but Vision's is apparently supposed to be a luchador outfit, and Wanda says that hers is a "Sokovian fortune-teller".
• Time Stands Still: Wanda freezes everyone and everything around her before she expands the Hex.
• Touché: When Wanda asks Pietro what happened to his accent, he asks her the same thing.
• Turn of the Millennium: Despite Word of God's claims that it takes place in The '90s, there are several references to early to mid 2000s pop culture; in fact, the show that this episode parodies debuted on January 9, 2000, and is considered a staple of the early to mid 2000s. Wikipedia's article for the episode explicitly marks it as taking place in this decade per their sources.
• The Unreveal:
  • Monica's mysterious aerospace engineer is on the way, and she leaves with Jimmy to meet him, but the audience has yet to see him.
  • We see the other S.W.O.R.D. agents transformed into carnies, clowns, and mimes, but we never find out what Darcy turned into.
  • We never find out Agnes's real identity, and she still somehow responds to the name of "Agnes" when Vision addresses her as such when Vision does the break-the-mind-control thing he did on Norm.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Pietro spends his time either insulting Wanda and her husband or enabling her, saying he supports creating her own little world, even when she makes it clear that she's feeling guilty, and it started because she felt empty and alone.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Lampshaded by Darcy, when Jimmy and Monica both start fighting back against the S.W.O.R.D. guards escorting them out of the base.
  Darcy: Why didn't anyone tell me the plan?
• Verbal Backspace: When Wanda presents her costume (Sokovian fortune teller):
  Pietro: Wow. That is so...
  Tommy: Rad!
  Pietro: ...lame.
  Tommy: Lame.
• Wham Episode:
  • Hoo boy. This episode confirms that Wanda has a level of power and control far beyond anything we've seen from her before, demonstrated by her expanding the Hex and dragging Darcy and the entire S.W.O.R.D. compound inside. Wanda also states that she doesn't know how she did it, indicating that she may not be acting alone or may be under someone else's influence.
  • This episode also comes with the revelation that Monica's DNA is being slowly rewritten due to her time in the Hex and may be irreversibly so if she goes in again.
  • Tommy and Billy have begun manifesting their powers from the comics: Super-Speed for Tommy and psychic and hex-like abilities for Billy.
  • The expansion of the Hex consumes Darcy and the S.W.O.R.D. base. While we see the base turn into a circus, we don't see what happens to Darcy.
• Wham Line: Further adding to the Ambiguous Situation of who this Pietro is, he displays knowledge of the events of past MCU movies despite not being present for them, which adds to the mystery.
  Billy: I hear Dad in my head! He's in trouble!
  Pietro: Don't sweat it, sis. It's not like your dead husband can die twice!
• What the Hell, Hero?: Subverted with Pietro's assessment of the situation. He congratulates Wanda for handling the situation as ethically as possible while still keeping her playground going.
  Pietro: Where have the kids been all this time? I assume sleeping peacefully. No need to terrorize them beyond the occasional holiday episode, am I right?
• World Limited to the Plot: When Vision strays far away from Wanda, he sees people frozen, doing repetitive actions, and in Agnes' case, confused on where to go.

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