WARNING: The following contains spoilers for WandaVision Episode 8, "Previously On," streaming now on Disney+.
It's been clear from the very beginning of WandaVision that Tyler Hayward, S.W.O.R.D.'s acting director, couldn't be trusted. However, it took a little longer to realize his chief concern wasn't the welfare of the poor residents of Westview, or the danger posed by the extraordinary growth in Wanda Maximoff's powers. And, as we learn in Episode 7's mid-credits scene, it wasn't even the recovery of Vision's body; Hayward has had that all along.
In "Previously On," the newly revealed Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) tries to discover how a now-captive Wanda (Elizabeth OlsWandaVision: What the Mid-Credits Scene's MAJOR Twist Really Meansen) was able to harness the power required to not only create Westview's sitcom reality but also control hundreds of its residents. When Wanda can provide no answers, the witch guides her through memories, from the death of her parents in Sokovia and the Hydra experiment to her first "moment" with Vision and her visit to S.W.O.R.D. headquarters.
Perhaps it should come as little surprise that there was no attack, as depicted in the "declassified" security footage -- unless you count Wanda using her powers to open doors, rather than push the buzzer, or shattering glass to get closer to Vision's body. Which, we should be add, was being callously disassembled in front of her. Contrary to Hayward's briefing to Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) and Kat Dennings (Darcy Lewis), Wanda left S.W.O.R.D. headquarters without Vision's body, and he and his team continued their attempts to bring the synthezoid back online.
However, with the Mind Stone destroyed, they required a new power source. And, as the mid-credits scene confirms, they found one -- through Hayward's duplicity.
At the new S.W.O.R.D. outpost well beyond Westview's expanded barrier, Hayward marvels, "We took this thing apart and put it back together again a million times. Tried very type of power supply under the sun, when all we needed was a little energy directly from the source." That source was Wanda and the Mind Stone, naturally enough. We may never know whether it was Hayward's plan in the fifth episode when he secretly armed the drone Monica used to simply talk to Wanda, but the result is the same: When Wanda angrily returned the craft to S.W.O.R.D., it was crackling with her raw, Mind Stone-fueled energy.
But the Vision Hayward powers up in these final moments of this episode isn't the character we know and love; not exactly. He's entirely while, with ghostly eyes that give new meaning to the name "Cataract."
Longtime Marvel Comics readers will now doubt recognize this version of Vision. In 1989, at the beginning of writer/artist John Byrne's tenure on West Coast Avengers, agents from multiple governments seized and dismantled Vision. He was rescued by his teammates and reassembled by Hank Pym, but not without a cost: Because of the extensive damage, he was now chalk-white in appearance. What's more, he no longer possessed any emotions, because Wonder Man, whose brain patterns were used (without his consent) to program Vision the first time, refused to participate. And so, the synthezoid was resurrected as a blank slate, devoid of any feelings for Wanda.
It seems likely S.W.O.R.D.'s revived Vision will similarly have no emotional connection to Wanda, or their children, setting up him as the chillingly perfect weapon of mass destruction for WandaVision's finale. The question is if Wanda will have to destroy the love of her life a second time, or whether she'll be able to break through to Vision in time to save their family, and quite possibly Westview.
Written by Jac Schaeffer and directed by Matt Shakman, WandaVision stars Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, Paul Bettany as Vision, Randall Park as Agent Jimmy Woo, Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, and Kathryn Hahn as Agnes.