“She could have taken out Thanos on her own.”
'WandaVision' reveals 1 shocking new way 'Avengers: Endgame' changed the MCU
In 'WandaVision' episode five, the end of 'Endgame' is recapped like people talking about the Super Bowl. How much do normal people in the MCU know?
Jimmy Woo and Darcy Lewis definitely surf Reddit for fan Avengers fan theories.
In WandaVision Episode 5, S.W.O.R.D. agent Monica Rambeau works to figure out how to get back into "The Hex," the quarantine zone of Westview, New Jersey now under the control of Wanda. (Soon, perhaps, "Scarlet Witch.")
Alongside FBI agent Jimmy Woo and scientist Darcy Lewis, the three briefly recap Wanda's participation in the ending of Avengers: Endgame.
The thing is, they talk like fans, and that reveals something very interesting about how the Marvel Cinematic Universe has changed post-Endgame.
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Here's a key bit of exposition dialogue in WandaVision Episode 5:
Darcy: "If all the sets and props and wardrobe are solid matter, that would mean she's wielding an insane amount of power."
Jimmy: "Far exceeding anything she's displayed in the past."
Monica: "She could have taken out Thanos on her own, if he hadn't initiated a blitz. Nobody else came close."
Jimmy: "Well, I'd argue that Captain Marvel came close."
Monica: [visibly annoyed]
Darcy: "Her powers came from an Infinity Stone too, right?"
How do you guys... know all that?
All right. Everyone stop. This three-person exchange, while necessary for WandaVision to re-establish stakes and explain the true extent of Wanda's situation, raises a lot of questions on its own about the MCU and how much everyday people who aren't Avengers know about it.
In this case: How in Mephisto's hell do Jimmy, Darcy, and Monica know the specifics of the Avengers: Endgame finale?
Revisit the (exciting) climax of Endgame and consider the absence of a viewing audience, or even onlookers present. Unlike the Battle of New York, which took place smack dab in the middle of a major metropolis, the Battle of New York II took place in an empty quarry in upstate New York where Avengers HQ was based.
Outside the participants of the battle, nobody was there. There definitely weren't media present to document the event. So how do Jimmy, Monica, and Darcy know about the exact specifics? How do the three know about it in detail and recap it like it was the Super Bowl?
Aside from the hundreds, maybe thousands who fought in the battle, the general public was not present in the climax of Avengers: Endgame. So how did Jimmy, Darcy, and Monica know everything about it?
How did the three know Wanda overpowered Thanos? How did they know Thanos called his underlings to rain fire (the "blitz" Monica refers to)? And how did they know Captain Marvel swooped in like Goku and wrecked Thanos' big ass spaceship?
This is just one degree of the public's awareness of the MCU story WandaVision reveals. It seems the Infinity Stones are also common knowledge — to be fair, something as big as "the Blip" would force key details into the public sphere. Still, it's not as if the Avengers would let the rest of the world in on everything. Wouldn't it only make their job harder if everyone knew about the existence of magical space rocks?
Jimmy, Darcy, and Monica aren't nobodies. Darcy was an intern of Jane Foster and Dr. Selvig, two people who've gotten closer to the Infinity Stones than some of the Avengers. Jimmy Woo, as an FBI agent and friend of Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Melinda May, must have contacts — even if he's never been in action (that we've seen). And Monica Rambeau is... Monica Rambeau, a friend of Captain Marvel and someone destined to be a superhero of her own someday. (By the way, did you notice Monica's tension at the mention of Captain Marvel? There is some tea to be spilled here.)
Monica Rambeau tensed up at the mention of Captain Marvel. What grudge is Monica holding against Carol Danvers?
But consider the still-hilarious tribute to the fallen Avengers at the beginning of Spider-Man: Far From Home. While the death of Tony Stark had to be made public given his role as a public figure, a bunch of high school teenagers still knew about the deaths of Natasha/Black Widow and Vision (in Avengers: Infinity War). One of those deaths happened in a forest in Wakanda, the other on an alien planet. Apparently, this stuff gets public. But how? Who leaks it?
Ultimately, until Marvel pulls away from stories about the Avengers to show us more of the everyday lives of everyday people, it's impossible to know exactly how much the general population understands of what happens in these movies. However, based on WandaVision Episode 5, it seems like the normies of the MCU are virtually 1:1 with us, the fans and obsessive viewers of Marvel films.
So how do people in the MCU know the specifics of individual matchups during the final battle in Endgame. Just like in the real world, they must have obsessive fan theories, speculation, and internet leaks. (Reddit must exist in the MCU, right?)
Hell, the awareness of the Avengers and their adventures can only explain how future heroes like Ms. Marvel, a New Jersey teenager and Avengers fangirl obsessed with Captain Marvel, will exist. As the MCU shifts towards new stories and new characters, such as in the Disney+ shows Ms. Marvel, Ironheart, and Ryan Coogler's Wakanda spinoff, we'll not only find out how much people know but how they get that knowledge in the first place. And, perhaps most importantly, how it changes their lives in the process.
WandaVision streams new episodes Fridays on Disney+.
