WARNING: The following contains spoilers for WandaVision Episode 6, "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!," now streaming on Disney+.

Behind the scenes of Wanda's happy Halloween, S.W.O.R.D. director Hayward is doing his best to become Monica Rambeau's personal boogeyman. His aggressive behavior kicks up another notch this week with his virulent anti-superhuman sentiments. It's not a leap for Monica and her new friends, Dr. Lewis and Agent Woo, to realize there's something else going on here. While answers have to wait for another time, there's an unsettling familiarity to Hayward's behavior. He's starting to act a lot like classic X-Men baddie, William Stryker.

Stryker was a major foe during the course of Fox's X-Men franchise, introduced in X2 as a military man willing to use his own mutant son as a guinea pig in his schemes to control and eradicate mutants. His five film appearances were a smart elaboration of the role he had in the comics. Writer Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson introduced the equally vicious Reverend Stryker as part of 1982's seminal X-MenGod Loves, Man Kills storyline, gathering a secret paramilitary force to hunt mutants. The films altered Stryker from fanatic to militant, but his hatred for mutants remained the same.

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Hayward's aggression towards Wanda and the potential threat she might pose turned to open bile this week, and he had no problem turning against his old friend, Monica. Using the Blip as an excuse, he spat at her and her family's friendship with superhuman Carol Danvers, going so far as to invoke the loaded phrase "you people" right to Monica's face. He ejects both Rambeau and her new allies from the project, though they quickly regroup to discover what he's clearly hiding.

It doesn't take long for Dr. Lewis to find out that Hayward has some worrisome things buried in S.W.O.R.D.'s on-site systems, and that he's lying about his access inside the Westview Hex. In addition to whatever the secret Cataract file might reveal, Darcy realizes the depths of Hayward's fixation on Vision. He's running a tracker inside the Hex based on vibranium, a major part of the synthezoid's body that he didn't mention S.W.O.R.D was actively dissecting in the lab. It seems clear that he wants Vision back — to hell with the rest. The answer to why might be in that comparison to Stryker.

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tyler hayward smiling condescending in wandavision

While Stryker wasn't the founder of the Sentinel program in comics or films, he was an ally to inventor Bolivar Trask during 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past. The Sentinels themselves are a dark mirror of Stark's original concept for the Ultron Project. Instead of a shield around the world against threats beyond, the Sentinels focused inward, protecting "normal" humans from the mutant scourge. Hayward's obsession with Vision and the angry, increasingly insulated worldview he's nurtured since Thanos' assault is an unmistakable parallel.

The X-Men are certain to return to the MCU. When it happens, it's not likely the franchise will want to use Stryker yet again. But the Sentinels, awe-inspiring and terrifying, are a concept that didn't get as much time as fans might've liked. Hayward, in lieu of retreading previous films, is the perfect choice to abuse the Ultron Project. His goal might in fact be to twist Vision's abilities and Stark's vision inward, just like Stryker and Trask, warping the stolen synthezoid tech into a new origin story for the rise of the Sentinels.

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+.

KEEP READING: A WandaVision Guide: News, Easter Eggs, Reviews, Recaps, Theories and Rumors