WARNING: The following contains spoilers for WandaVision Episode 6, "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!," now streaming on Disney+.
Ever since the Maximoff twins made their Marvel Cinematic Universe debuts in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, a question has lingered: How does this universe bring up the elephant-sized mutant in the room? Mutants have been a large part of Marvel comics for decades, with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver themselves serving as X-Men characters. And with Disney's acquisition of Fox, as well as Evan Peters showing up on WandaVision as Pietro, the mutant question has only shone larger in the spotlight. Now we may finally have our answer as to how mutants enter the MCU.
"All-New Halloween Spooktacular!," the newest episode of the Disney+ series, has tricks and treats abound as Westview celebrates Halloween. But the oddities also move outside of "The Hex," as Monica Rambeau, Agent Jimmy Woo and Darcy Lewis try to mount an initiative to go against S.W.OR.D. and save Wanda. To do so, they sneak their way into HQ, as Darcy hacks Director Hayward to find out what secrets he's been hiding. It turns out, he has the ability to track Vision, as well as ping all the town's residents. But that's not all the secrets he has.
Monica spends the episode getting her ducks in a row, intending to go back into the Hex and try to reason with Wanda. She figures, based on the intel she gained while in Westview during episodes 2 and 3, as well as her personal relationship with the Scarlet Witch, she can get through to her. But Darcy stops her, making a startling discovery. Hayward has Monica's blood work, and it appears that her time in the Hex has altered her DNA on the molecular level--twice.
While a shocking reveal, the groundwork for Monica's odd biology post-Hex has been laid. Back in Episode 5, as she's undergoing several medical tests, her bio scan doesn't seem to register. Additionally, we know that the character of Monica Rambeau has a comic book origin as "Photon," with the powers to both transform into and wield energy within the electromagnetic spectrum. So respective to Monica, it may just be that her trip to Westview was a way to give her a power set and make her into the person we know from the page.
But the implications behind Darcy's discovery mean something much bigger. It seems like entering the Hex and becoming a part of Wanda's warped reality fundamentally transforms you, not just into a "character" but down to your very building blocks. It quite literally mutates your cells. And since we know that at least the vast majority of characters on the show-within-a-show of WandaVision were real people before Wanda and Vision came to town, it's highly likely they have been mutated just like Monica.
This, interestingly, could be the way that the concept of mutants finally enter the MCU. Up to this point, it's been debated if and how it would happen. Even as soon as last week, with Peters' Quicksilver popping up, fans have been crediting the multiverse for the all-but-certain introduction of mutants. But this week's revelation could mean that the mutants don't come from a rare genetic strain or another universe. They're created, incidentally born from the reality Wanda has created.
Considering how the episode ends, that has huge implications for the MCU at large. Many characters, including Monica, viewed the Westview anomaly as harmless enough, a silly sitcom-based reality contained inside its own town-sized bubble. But when Vision's attempt to escape the Hex winds up with him being pulled apart, his wife jumps to his aid. She ends up expanding the anomaly, engulfing the towns outside of Westview and several S.W.O.R.D. agents along the way, including Darcy.
This means that Wanda's mutant-creating ability isn't just limited to one town. If she so desires, she can expand the bubble to encompass any geographic area. That event then means more people being brought in and their DNA being mutated, possibly creating a bevy of mutants to finally fill out the MCU.
WandaVision Episode 6 featured its greatest number of town residents to date, with everyone out and about on Halloween. As Pietro notes, it seems that Wanda had kept a gaggle of children in stasis, unleashing them to fill out the town when appropriate. This means there may be a group of youngsters who all possess mutant DNA living in town. And if they happen to make their way out of Westview, perhaps their next stop may be a certain school in upstate New York to help hone their abilities.
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. New episodes air Fridays on Disney+.