WandaVision fans think they’ve noticed a big mistake in the latest episode
Are we missing some scenes from the TV show?
WandaVision’s fourth episode finally took viewers beyond the curtain of the strange sitcom fantasy, introducing the “outside world” that exists beyond the confines of Westview including the government agents (including Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau, Kat Dennings’ Darcy Lewis and Randall Park’s Jimmy Woo) investigating exactly what’s going on.
And what is going on? Well, it seems that Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda (or someone controlling her) has kidnapped an entire town, transforming its residents into sitcom characters. In reality, friendly neighbour Herb is a man called John Collins, Vision's colleague Norm is Abilash Tandon, Mr and Mrs Hart are played by Todd and Sharon Davis and so on, with the audience given glimpses of detailed files offering information about each “character”.
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In typical internet style, this meant some fans paused to take a better look at some of those files – and in the process, one viewer spotted something interesting which they posted on reddit. In a file for the character “Norm” – seen in episode one as a colleague of Vision (Paul Bettany) – a number of details are recounted that haven’t been seen in the series, suggesting another scene that hinted at the outside world.
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"Abilash [Norm's real name] expresses concern for his father and sister,” the file says. “This information was obtained when Vision awakened him. Is Wanda controlling a whole town? Physical safety of residents is now in question. When Vision releases him, Abilash becomes Norm again."
While we have seen some creepy moments of “awakening” – Monica remembering Ultron, Dottie questioning Wanda’s appearance in Westview, even Vision realising something was “very wrong” – this one has not yet appeared on-screen, with Norm (played by Asif Ali in real life) only appearing to express interest in Vision’s speed of work and be part of the Neighbourhood Watch.
So why has SWORD seen this take place and not us? Well, there are a couple of possibilities. To begin with, it could be that the scene with Norm/Abilash was originally in the script and was filmed, only to be removed in the editing process. In other words it could be a deleted scene that was included in the file prop (as at time of shooting it was part of the story), and the prop removed even when the scene had been cut – a bit of an oversight, essentially.
It’s easy to see why such a scene would be cut – it could be that Norm’s awakening would have been one weird scene too many for the first episode, which largely just set up the sitcom world beyond the odd dinner with Mr and Mrs Hart at the end – and equally easy to see why the file would be mistakenly still included as part of the SWORD set. But perhaps we’re also not giving the WandaVision creators enough credit here.
What if instead of a deleted scene, this is a moment we haven’t yet seen? After all, it’s hinted in episode four that there are many more “episodes” of the WandaVision sitcom than we’ve seen, with Kat Dennings’ Darcy Lewis binging a number of them and noting recurring themes that we’ve not witnessed (including Wanda washing up a lot in the 1960s episodes).
Maybe in a different "episode", Abilash did awaken when Vision spoke to him, but we haven’t seen it on-screen – and maybe instead we’ll see it in a future episode. After all, this week’s episode showed us scenes from episode three we hadn’t been aware of at the time including Wanda’s clash with Monica, and a different spin on Wanda and Vision’s conclusion to the episode.
Notably, we’ve not seen Vision “awakening” anybody yet – except in one of the trailers, when his touch appears to turn Agnes (Kathryn Hahn, below) into her modern self, able to recognise Vision as a dead Avenger. Maybe we only see this power in action later on, but also see him use it in some flashbacks to earlier parts of the series.
Perhaps more generally going forward, we’ll be treated to other “unseen bits” removed by Wanda from the timeline that see Vision coming closer to the truth, before she undoes them and puts him back into his more comfortable mindset.
Perhaps this mysterious missing scene will come into play then, and this unusual quirk will be explained – though it still seems possible that the description’s inclusion in Abilash/Norm’s file could have been a small production mistake.
Still, we’ll be sure to find out soon enough. Last time Disney+ had a mistake in one of its streaming shows (specifically when a crew member in jeans could be seen in the background of a shot in The Mandalorian) it was removed within a day, so any fans keen to see how important this detail really is would do well to see if it similarly disappears anytime soon.
And if it does, well, we may have had an intriguing little glimpse into WandaVision’s future – which is also, weirdly, its past.
Want more WandaVision content? Check out our latest WandaVision review, our guide to the WandaVision cast, the WandaVision release schedule, Agatha Harkness and the creepy WandaVision commercials. Plus, we ask: is Wanda pregnant? When is WandaVision set and how did Vision survive?
WandaVision releases new episodes on Disney+ on Fridays. You can sign up to Disney Plus for £5.99 a month or £59.99 a year.
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