WandaVision Episode 8 Easter Eggs EXPLAINED - What's The Real Meaning Behind MCU Scarlet Witch?
The series is nearing its end, and the penultimate episode changed EVERYTHING we knew about Wanda.
WandaVision's eighth episode dropped today and yes, the show still continues to be the coolest MCU thing ever.
The first MCU series to air on Disney+ has gone from strength to strength with each episode, offering an in-depth exploration of Wanda Maximoff's (Elizabeth Olsen) state of mind following the harrowing events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. It's an extraordinary examination of grief, loss, trauma and survivor's guilt, and it's doing so all while laying the foundations for the multiverse-oriented fourth phase of the MCU.
And judging from the last few episodes, it's clear that Wanda will be right at the centre of phase four. Especially so, if episode eight is anything to go by.
Regardless of that however, even though the mystery behind Westview has pretty much been solved by now - and the sitcom motif is all but finished - there were still some really important Easter eggs and details in episode eight that are well worth pointing out. There weren't as many as previous episodes, of course, but in exploring the origins of Agatha Harkness and retconning Wanda's own powers, the quality of them more than makes up for the lack of quality.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR WANDAVISION EPISODE EIGHT!
6. The Salem Witch Trials
The first and most immediate reference to be found in this week's episode is the location of Salem and of course the infamous Witch Trials that took place there in the late 17th century.
The MCU opts to put its own spin on the event here though, showing a coven of witches as they attempt to execute Agatha for practicing dark magic.
In real life, the Salem Witch Trials were enacted by a Puritan colony in Massachusetts and were emblematic of the wider European craze that reached its peak in the early 1600s and led to the deaths of tens of thousands of women.
In the comics, Agatha was actually involved in the Witch Trials, although not in the way WandaVision depicts them here.
As was revealed in the second volume of Nova, of all places, Agatha's coven is persecuted by the Puritans but, in one of her darker moments, she actually willingly sacrificed members of her own coven.
She later settled in New Salem, a secret magical community founded in Colorado, and would indeed later face execution from a former coven, but not for the reason presented in WandaVision.