WandaVision Episode 8 Confirms What The Commercials Were All About

The penultimate episode of WandaVision made its debut last Friday, and it undeniably gave Marvel Cinematic Universe viewers a lot to take in. The Disney+ exclusive series has been taking a comprehensive and unexpected approach to the histories of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and The Vision (Paul Bettany), all while weaving in some major television homages along the way. While this weekend’s eighth episode didn’t necessarily include a lot of traditional sitcom tropes, it did begin to connect the dots surrounding some of the series’ earlier elements — particularly, what exactly has been going on with those in-universe commercials. Spoilers for Episode 8 of WandaVision, “Previously On”, below! Only look if you want to know!

Piggybacking off of the reveal that Wanda’s neighbor Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) was really Agatha Harkness, the episode saw Agatha begin to get to the bottom of Wanda’s chaos magic powers, and how she used them to unintentionally create the sitcom-inspired bubble of reality that is Westview. To do this, Agatha took Wanda on a trip down memory lane, literally having her revisit some of the most traumatic moments within her life — moments that, when juxtaposed with the commercials that appeared in WandaVision’s first few episodes, took on a new meaning.

There was the death of Wanda’s parents, which was caused by a Stark Industries bomb that was unleashed on their house during a seemingly-average TV night. After young Wanda and Pietro hid under a bed for safety (and Wanda seemingly used a probability hex to stop the bomb from going off), the explosive still beeped menacingly for two days — a beeping not unlike the Stark Toaster that was advertised in Episode 1.

Then, there was Wanda’s recruitment into HYDRA and the experiments with the Mind Stone, which appeared to further awaken her powers as the Scarlet Witch. The idea that Wanda was brainwashed and radicalized by the group calls back both to the Strucker Watch showcased in Episode 2, as Baron von Strucker was responsible for the experiments, as well as the Hydra Soak mind control soap from Episode 3.

Granted, the flashbacks in Episode 8 don’t entirely explain all of the commercials, as those require larger context clues or knowledge of the past events of the MCU. The Lagos paper towels of Episode 5 were a callback to Wanda accidentally causing the “Lagos Incident” in the opening of Captain America: Civil War, which led to innocent civilians dying and the implementation of the Sokovia Accords. Episode 6’s Yo Magic yogurt is definitely a bit more ambiguous — it could represent Agatha feeding on Wanda’s magic or something else entirely. Episode 7’s Nexus antidepressants also take on a complicated meaning, as they seem to hint at Wanda being a Nexus Being with keys to opening the larger Multiverse. There’s also the lingering question of who exactly the two recurring actors in the commercials are, as many had theorized that they could be Wanda and Pietro’s parents, something that Episode 8 ended up disproving.

New episodes of WandaVision debut every Friday exclusively on Disney+. If you haven’t signed up for the service yet, you can try it out here.

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