Recap / WandaVision Episode 1 "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience"

Oooooooooh, aaaaaaaaa…
Newlywed couple just moved to town
A regular husband and wife
Who left the big city to find a quiet liiiiiife…
WandaVision!

She’s a magical gal
in a small town locale
He’s a hubby who’s part machiiiine…

How will this duo fit in and pull through?
All by sharing a love like you’ve never seeeeeen…

WaaandaaaaViiiisioooooooon!

— Episode 1 Theme Tune

Wanda and Vision find themselves as newlyweds in the 50s. When the two notice a marked date on the calendar, Wanda is beside herself trying to figure out what it could mean. Meanwhile, Vision's boss Mr. Hart invites himself and his wife over to Vision and Wanda's house for dinner. What starts as wacky shenanigans soon takes a sudden sinister turn.

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Tropes:

• The '50s: Everything seen in this episode is a direct homage to this decade. Everything is in black-and-white, Wanda wears decade-appropriate dresses, the food is very grandiose, and phrases such as "gee willikers", "goll-ee" and "crackerjack" are used frequently. Heck, the main issue that the episode deals with is the standardinvoked Dinner with the Boss trope, which has been a Discredited Trope since The '80s at the latest.
• Ambiguous Syntax: When Mr. Hart is choking, Mrs. Hart says, "Oh, Arthur, stop it!" and then continues to repeat "stop it" with a frozen smile on her face. After the first couple of times, is she still talking to Arthur — or is she begging Wanda to stop him from choking?
  • In the same scene just moments before, Arthur angrily demands "Why did you come here?". Is he simply frustrated that Wanda and Vision can't answer a simple question, or does he want to know Wanda's true intentions?
• Armor-Piercing Question: Mr. Hart pierces the veil of reality by demanding to know how Wanda and Vision first met and got married, then repeatedly demands to know "Why did you come here?" before inexplicably choking on a chocolate covered strawberry.
• Awful Wedded Life: Wanda's new friend Agnes makes no secret that she and her husband Ralph are miserable together.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Agnes visits to give Wanda and Vision a pineapple while the Harts are visiting. They both close the door at her before the Harts ask who it was at the door:
  Mr. Hart: Who is that?
  Wanda: [in unison] The salesman!
  Vision: [in unison] Telegram!
  [beat]
  Vision: ...The man selling telegrams.
• Brick Joke:
  • When Vision walks in on Wanda preparing the lobster, she throws them out of the window out of reflex. Later, when Mr. and Mrs. Hart head off, the lobster has somehow been stuck to the front door, with Mrs. Hart thinking it's a door knocker.
  • When Vision discusses with Wanda the meaning of the heart on their calendar, he brags about how he's incapable of forgetting anything only to forget the discussion. He proves himself wrong again at the end of the scene when he claims he never forgets, only to forget to adopt a more human disguise.
  • Wanda offers to make Vision a full continental breakfast only to be turned down. Guess what she ends up making for dinner when all the other plans go astray.
  • When the Harts arrive at the house, Wanda has the light low, so Vision goes into the kitchen looking for her. Thinking it's Vision, Wanda approaches Mr. Hart from behind, covers his eyes and seductively asks, "Guess Who?" Vision covers it by saying it's a traditional Sokovian greeting of hospitality. Later, when leaving, Mrs. Hart covers Wanda's eyes and says, "This guest is leaving your house," trying to return the tradition.
• Bridal Carry: Being newlyweds, Vision carries Wanda like this in the opening titles. He accidentally drops her when he phases through the door.
• Broken Record: During the dinner, Mrs. Hart says "Stop it" repeatedly while her husband chokes on a piece of food. At first it's like a character stuck on a dialogue beat, but as she continues saying it, she shifts her focus to Wanda and there's a subtle undertone of desperation in her voice. Combined with her "head spinning" earlier in the scene, this was foreshadowing that the people aren't just characters in some cheesy sitcom, and that they're not enjoying their time in this setting.
• Business of Generic Importance: Invoked. Vision works at "Computational Services, Inc.", a 1950s big-city corporate desk-office company. Sometime during the episode, he asks his coworker Norm what they actually do there. No answer is actually given. They don't make, buy, or sell anything, but their productivity went up 300% after Vision started working for them.
• Call-Forward: During the fake ad for the ToastMate 2000, you see a couple of tchotchkes hanging on the wall, look kind of like jello molds. One is a rooster (for the chicken that Wanda turns into eggs) and the other a lobster (like the one that ends up hanging on the front door).
• Cardboard Box of Unemployment: Jones is seen leaving work with one after being fired by Mr. Hart.
• Chekhov's Gun: As part of her preparations for what she thought to be her and Vision's anniversary, Wanda prepares a single chocolate-covered strawberry for them to share. Guess which piece of food Mr. Hart ends up choking on in the climax?
• Continuity Nod:
  • Wanda jokes about Vision's "indestructible head," referencing how he was killed when Thanos ripped the Mind Stone out of his head.
  • The blinking timer light of the Stark Industries toaster is reminiscent of the timer of a bomb, which is a nod to the Stark bombs that killed Wanda's parents and almost killed her and her brother.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: When Vision explains the heart on the calendar was shorthand for dinner with the Harts, Wanda points out how ridiculous it is since he can move at the speed of sound, and she can make a pen float through the air. They don't really need to abbreviate something like that.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • Mr. Hart grouses about Jones' "beatnik" affect just because he wore a turtleneck to dinner.
  • He also grouses about Wanda being from Eastern Europe, saying "We don't break bread with Bolsheviks."
  • The Toastmate 2000 ad. "Is your husband tired of you burning his toast?"
  • Wanda and Agnes (well, sort of for the latter) playing the stereotypical housewife role. Wanda is expected to be able to whip up a sumptuous homecooked meal for her husband's boss, and Agnes actually has one "just lying about" when Wanda isn't quite up to the task. As to the gender-flipped version, Mr. Hart wonders if Vision is management material when he apparently can't even keep his own house in order, like a proper man of the house should.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The entire episode is in monochrome, as part of its overall homage to sitcoms from the 1950s. The only exception is the blinking red light on the toaster in the commercial, which had been going for an uncomfortably long time. Since it was a Stark Industries product, this was probably a bit of a Call-Back brought up by some of Wanda's personal demons (see under Continuity Nod).
• Dinner with the Boss: Vision's boss Mr. Hart comes over for dinner. He's already fired another employee for an inadequate dinner.
• Dissonant Serenity: Mrs. Hart laughing and playfully saying "Stop it" over and over again while her husband nearly chokes to death on a strawberry. It's enormously disturbing, her tone only shifting to one that sounds less like she's asking her husband to stop and more like she's pleading for Wanda to stop.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The episode was, true to its title, actually filmed before a studio audience.
• Foreshadowing: Mr. Hart says that their dinner party is "complete chaos". At the end of the season, Agatha will identify Wanda's powers as chaos magic.
• Foreign Farewell: Played with when Wanda, mistaking Mr. Hart for Vision, sneaks up behind him and flirtatiously covers his eyes. Vision covers for her by claiming it's a traditional Sokovian way of greeting one's guests. As they're leaving, Mrs. Hart covers Wanda's eyes in the same way.
• Forgot About His Powers: When Mr. Hart is choking, Vision and Wanda sit there despite either being fully capable of saving him. They didn't even need to reveal themselves since anyone can do abdominal thrusts. Like much of the show, this is intentional to demonstrate that something is wrong with their world, especially when Wanda drops the act momentarily to tell Vision to help him.
• Forgotten Anniversary:
  • There's a mysterious heart on the Visions' calendar for August 23, and neither of them can recall what it is supposed to indicate. With some prodding from her neighbor Agnes, Wanda decides it must be their anniversary, but at work, Vision learns that it actually means his boss, Mr. Hart, is coming over for dinner.
  • When Wanda describes the mystery heart to Agnes, she admits she has to deal with the same problem from her husband.
    Agnes: The only way Ralph would remember is if there was a beer named June 2nd!
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Though it's difficult to read because of the Stylistic Suck of the era-appropriate grainy television, the calendar has things written on it that can be barely made out when the camera focuses on it.
  • Under the dates, it reads "Foster Home and Gardens"... foster. Lessons for living, positive role models, safety. Fits right in with the 50s Red Scare aesthetic. The calendar was also "PRINTED IN U.S.A.". That probably doesn't have any thematic relevance, though.
  • The image above the dates is a little girl watching television, which seems to read "All this little girl needs is a COLOR TELEVISION", calling forward to the series going technicolor at the end of episode 2. There are also some butterflies on the wall, like the mobile in the nursery they set up in episode 3.
• Funny Foreigner: Vision explains away the comic misunderstanding between Wanda and his boss by saying that Wanda is from Sokovia in Eastern Europe. Among the many oddities, Wanda's Sokovian accent is gone, and she now speaks with a mid-Atlantic accent. However, Vision still speaks with his English accent, and no-one comments about how Britain is also part of Europe.
  Vision: And this dress is so... so... Sokovian!
• Genre Shift: From a send-up of a sitcom from the '50s where Hilarity Ensues as dinner with the boss goes horribly wrong, it suddenly turns to surreal horror as Mr. Hart suddenly starts choking on food that wasn't even at the table and his wife can only smile in terror and repeat "Stop it." over and over at Wanda.
• A Glitch in the Matrix: Right out the gate, something is subtly wrong when the sitcom plot starts up and, beneath the comical misunderstanding, it's clear that Wanda and Vision don't know what the heart on the calendar date means because they have no actual memories of prior events. This continues with Vision trying to figure out what exactly his job is and Wanda bluffing details of their relationship to Agnes, culminating in Mr. Hart confronting them directly with the fact that they seem to have no memories of how or why they came to live in that suburban town.
• Housewife: Shortly after arriving at Westview, Wanda dresses and acts like a stereotypical 1950s homemaker. Agnes and Mrs. Hart also do this, befitting the time period they live in.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: When Wanda jokingly accuses Vision of forgetting what the heart on the calendar means, he claims that he's incapable of forgetfulness due to being a machine. When Wanda insists he tells her what today's date means, Vision can only think for a few seconds before asking, "What was the question again?"
• In Medias Res: How did Vision come back to life? When did he get married to Wanda? Why are they suddenly in Westview with no recollection of how they got there? All good questions, but the premiere provides no answers and just rolls with the story as it is, with the first hints at resolving these questions not coming until the fourth episode.
• Instant Drama, Just Add Tracheotomy: An intangibility variant that doesn't cause any harm. Vision forgoes the Heimlich maneuver when Mr. Hart chokes on a strawberry and instead phases through the man's throat with his hand to retrieve it.
• Intangibility:
  • During the title sequence, as Vision is carrying Wanda into their new home, he accidentally drops her on the porch outside when he phases through the front door.
  • Later, at dinner, Vision's hand phases through Mr. Hart's throat to retrieve the strawberry that's choking him.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At dinner, the Harts ask Wanda and Vision about their life before moving to Westview. When they hesitate to answer, Arthur badgers them to get on with it while his wife insists that he be patient as they set up the story; the whole exchange mirrors preemptive critiques about the series itself partaking in its Genre Throwback premise before getting into more conventional Marvel action. With the benefit of Rewatch Bonus, it becomes this in the WandaVision show as well — just enough of the real person "playing" Mr. Hart comes through to angrily demand an explanation from Wanda for why they settled here, why this town and these people are characters in their sitcom, "why are you doing this to us?"
• Literal Metaphor: Mr. Hart grills Vision on his expectations for dinner tonight and assumes his employee has no skeletons in his closet. Vision, being an android made of vibranium, has no skeleton and admits as much.
• Logo Joke: The Marvel Studios logo appears as though it's on a black-and-white television. The fanfare also sounds more compressed at the same point the logo becomes monochrome.
• Mean Boss: Mr. Hart is a self-righteous stick in the mud with way too high standards. He's fired Jones simply for not sufficiently impressing him as a dinner guest and threatens to do likewise to Vision. Then he is dismissive of Wanda out of Cold War-related xenophobia. To his credit, he does warm up to the pair after Vision stops him from choking, but by then, the audience has realized there are bigger problems afoot.
• Metaphorical Marriage: The Opening Credits depict Wanda and Vision apparently moving into their new house right after their wedding, but they don't actually remember getting married. They agree to have a wedding of sorts at the end of the episode, where Wanda conjures rings onto their fingers and they say their "I do"s alone in their living room.
• Monochrome Casting: Averted, with a diverse cast compared with that of a 1950s sitcom. There's a reason for this, but it's not explained until later.
• Mood Whiplash: From comedic slapstick as Vision and Wanda scurry about trying to get dinner ready. Then after finding themselves at a loss for words regarding their "story," Mr. Hart starts choking, and Mrs. Hart disturbingly begins chanting "Stop It," with a forced smile on her face.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The floating wine bottle that Wanda pours out at the dinner table has a label that looks very similar to the House of M logo, and the brand name "Maison du Mépris" translates from French to "House of Contempt"... Or "House of M" for short.
  • The episode takes place on August 23rd, also written as 23/8. The Avengers #238 is a comic about bringing Vision back to life.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: In the Avengers movies, Wanda primarily uses her powers in three ways: she moves people and objects (herself included) with her mind, implants ideas in other people's minds, and shoots blasts of energy. Now in this series, she can conjure things into existence, repair broken objects, and so on. Notably, her abilities are never called "magic" in her previous appearances, but she and Vision call it magic here.
• Obliquely Obfuscated Occupation: Neither Vision nor Norm knows what their company does. Mr. Hart's explanation doesn't clear things up.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: When Agnes introduces herself to Wanda, she says, "Forgive me for not stopping by sooner to welcome you to the block. My mother-in-law was in town, so I wasn't."
• Odd Couple: Wanda and Vision lampshade their unusual pairing.
  Vision: My wife and her flying saucers.
  Wanda: My husband and his indestructible head.
  Vision: Aren't we a fine pair?
• Once per Episode:
  • The episode gives us our first hint at S.W.O.R.D. on the outside in the form of the symbols next to the TV showing Wanda and Vision's "show".
  • Someone questions/interrupts Wanda's idyllic sitcom world and is injured as a result.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Both Wanda and Vision refuse to admit they can't remember why they've marked today on their calendar, and by the time Vision finds out his boss is coming for dinner, Wanda has decided it's the anniversary... of something. He thinks it's important to please the boss's wife (not his own), she replies that they should impress the husband (hers, not the boss).
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Wanda and Vision maintain an appropriately light tone throughout the episode, but when Mr. Hart is choking, their dialogue is briefly as serious as on an Avengers mission. Another hint that something is wrong with the scenario.
• Parody Commercial: For the Toastmate 2000, by Stark Industries.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: At one point, Vision leads a ukulele sing-along of... "Old MacDonald". Guess they already paid a hefty price for using "Yakety Yak".
• Quizzical Tilt: Wanda gives one to Vision as the latter suddenly recites the song "Yakety Yak" in order to distract Mrs. Hart, who was about to discover Wanda making just about every object in the kitchen float as she prepared dinner.
• Red Scare: Upon being told that Wanda comes from Europe (from the Eastern European-sounding Sokovia at that), Mr. Hart immediately says, "We don't break bread with Bolsheviks!"
• Running Gag: Vision's fixation with "Yakety Yak"; first, he takes an interest in it while overhearing it at work. Then, he sings it as a distraction while Wanda deals with the cooking going pear-shaped, and he deems it their song in the last moments of the episode.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Vision wears a dashing business suit throughout the entire episode.
• Shout-Out: The opening credits have Vision phase through an ottoman, referencing the first-ever Couch Gag from The Dick Van Dyke Show. The living room and kitchen are also almost identical.
• Significant Reference Date: Agnes' wedding date is on June 2nd. June 2nd, 1692, was when the Salem witch trials started.
• Splash of Color: The timer light on the toaster is the first thing in color. It's also Stark Industries-branded, one of the few reminders of the broader Marvel Universe.
• Stalker Shot: After Wanda makes rings appear on their fingers and the credits pops up, the camera zooms out to reveal everything is being watched on a monitor by someone at a S.W.O.R.D. facility.
• Stealth Pun: The toaster brand advertised in the commercial break is dubbed the ToastMate 2000. "Toast" is slang for death or the dead (as in "You're toast!"), while "mate" can mean soulmate, as in Vision, Wanda's soulmate who had been "toast" before the show begins. Or checkmate.
• Stereo Fibbing: Wanda and Vision fall into this after an unexpected drop-in from Agatha.
  Mr. Hart: Who was that?
  Wanda/Vision: [in unison] A salesman!/Telegram!
  Vision: A man selling telegrams.
  Wanda: Wouldn't you know it, good news is more expensive.
• Stop Trick: Wanda's costume changes are done as these. When she gives herself and Vision rings, you can even see the fingers jolt a bit during the jump cut.
• Stylistic Suck:
  • The entire episode uses bad special effects.
    • As an homage to Bewitched, Vision changes into his human disguise with a sparkle effect, and Wanda uses her powers to make objects fly à la the old string from the ceiling way.
    • The smashed plate un-smashing was clearly done by filming the plate breaking and playing it back in reverse.
    • Wanda making wedding rings appear on her and Vision's fingers is likewise done with a very obvious Jump Cut.
  • The whole episode is also shown in grainy black and white appropriate to the era. It's mostly not noticeable, until you get closeups of items like the calendar, where text that would be easily legible with modern cameras is almost impossible to make out.
  • The episode also uses the lack of period-appropriateness to add to the sense that something is going very wrong in the dinner party scene. Once Mr. Hart starts choking, the camera begins to move and push in on the characters in ways that a '50s camera couldn't, and when Vision saves him, his hand phasing through Mr. Hart's throat is rendered with modern CGI.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Both of the main characters are quick to insist that Vision is a human.
  Wanda: [to Agnes] Well, I assure you I'm married. To a man. A human one and tall.
  
  Vision [to Norm] I'm a regular carbon-based employee made entirely of organic matter, much like yourself.
• Unexplained Recovery: How and why Vision is seemingly Back from the Dead is not addressed in the episode.
• Wham Shot: Someone at a S.W.O.R.D. facility is watching the show.
• Your Other Left: When Agnes introduces herself to Wanda as her neighbor to the right, she adds "my right, not yours."

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