How Agatha All Along Makes VisionQuest Essential MCU Viewing

Between WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Wanda Maximoff played by Elizabeth Olsen demonstrated just how far grief could drive someone with the power to rewrite reality to do terrible things. Her primary goal in Multiverse of Madness was to reach another universe where she could reunite with her children, Billy and Tommy. After all, the boys from her own universe seemingly disappeared along with the rest of the family she created inside the Westview Hex in WandaVision. But were they ever really gone?

Marvel series VisionQuest follows White Vision played by Paul Bettany as he grapples with his identity. Following Vision’s death in Avengers: Infinity War, S.W.O.R.D. rebuilt the synthezoid as an emotionless weapon, but Hex Vision was able to unlock his memories during their confrontation in WandaVision. The first two episodes of VisionQuest debuted on Tuesday night. In them, viewers learn that Vision has tried to live a peaceful life in Edinburgh. At night, he interacts with artificial intelligences such as J.A.R.V.I.S., F.R.I.D.A.Y., and Ultron inside a mindscape he created for himself.

During an early conversation with Ultron, Vision dismisses Westview as pure fantasy. Ultron replies that it is a deep, scary well of emotions Vision cannot handle. Ultron insists that Vision is afraid to confront the truth. By the end of VisionQuest episode 1, that truth becomes impossible to avoid because Tommy exists in the real world outside the Hex. A bounty hunter named Paladin played by Todd Stashwick tracks down Vision’s son to use as bait.

Viewers who skipped Agatha All Along might find this revelation confusing. That other Disney Plus series established how Wanda’s imaginary children survived the destruction of the reality that created them and how Tommy acquired the new body he inhabits in VisionQuest.

Billy Maximoff survived by taking over another boy’s body

Set three years after WandaVision, Agatha All Along follows the witch Agatha Harkness played by Kathryn Hahn and a mysterious teenager played by Joe Locke. Identified as Teen, the boy helps Agatha break free from the spell Wanda placed upon her at the end of WandaVision. He then persuades her to assemble a coven and travel the Witches’ Road.

Teen’s identity is concealed by a magical sigil that prevents witches from hearing his name or learning his identity. Lilia Calderu played by Patti LuPone placed that sigil upon him years earlier after meeting a boy named William Kaplan at his bar mitzvah. After examining William’s palm, Lilia glimpsed his fractured future and secretly slipped the sigil into his jacket.

Agatha explains that the enchantment is a redaction spell hiding its subject from other witches. Lilia forgot placing it on William. The sigil did not resurrect Billy or put his soul into William’s body. It merely concealed his identity until the protection was no longer necessary.

Shortly after meeting Lilia, thirteen-year-old William rides home with his parents when Wanda collapses the Westview Hex nearby. Their car crashes at the exact moment Billy Maximoff’s magical world disappears. William dies, but Billy’s consciousness slips into William’s body. Billy awakens with no memory of William’s life. He hears the frightened thoughts of the people claiming to be his parents without knowing who they are. He pretends to recover his memories while privately investigating what happened to him.

Years later, Billy explains it to his boyfriend in simple terms. He states that he died that night and came back different and more. Once the sigil is destroyed, Agatha confirms that he is Wanda and Vision’s son inhabiting the body William left behind.

Agatha describes William as an empty vessel and tells Billy that he instinctively seized an opportunity to survive. By doing so, Billy broke the natural rules governing life and death, which is why Rio Vidal played by Aubrey Plaza and representing Death considers him an abomination.

Billy gave Tommy another life

Billy spends much of Agatha All Along searching for his brother Tommy. He cannot remember everything about their life together, but he remains convinced that his twin survived the destruction of Westview.

Billy tells Agatha that his brother is out there somewhere and that he can sense him even if he cannot find him.

Billy is partly right. Tommy’s disembodied consciousness still exists, but he has not found a new body. Near the end of the Witches’ Road, Agatha helps Billy reach out psychically and locate a dying person who can become Tommy’s vessel.

Billy finds a boy held underwater in a swimming pool after a cruel prank. The boy is terrified, and Billy initially resists choosing him because the boy has no loving family. Billy also wonders whether taking the body makes him responsible for the stranger’s death.

Billy asks Agatha if he is killing the boy so his brother can live. Agatha replies that sometimes boys die.

Billy places Tommy’s soul inside the drowning boy’s body, giving his brother another life. Agatha All Along creator Jac Schaeffer confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that Billy completed the transfer even though the series does not show Tommy awakening.

Schaeffer stated that the intention is that Billy successfully put Tommy’s soul into the body of the young prank victim. Schaeffer added that future properties will show if that narrative sticks, and noted that the scene was tricky to shoot because Tommy was not cast at the time.

VisionQuest casts someone as Tommy and picks up this exact plot thread.

Thomas Shatford is Tommy Maximoff’s new identity

After Paladin fails to subdue Vision with mercenaries, he hacks into S.W.O.R.D. files and learns the truth about Westview. That leads him to search databases for keywords including Vision, Wanda Maximoff, Tommy, and Billy. He discovers a recorded psychological evaluation from London leading directly to Thomas Shatford played by Ruaridh Mollica.

Thomas says in the recording that he had a family that was not his family, with a mother named Wanda and a machine father called Vision. Like William and Billy, this Thomas was dying when Billy placed Tommy’s mind and soul into the body. Tommy likely remained trapped in limbo for years before Billy transferred him, which explains why he is more disoriented than his brother.

VisionQuest episode 1 introduces Thomas years later as a London grifter working with a pickpocket named Lisa. Thomas claims to enjoy becoming a different person every day, but Lisa tells him that failing to be his real self makes him invisible.

That line becomes sadder when Thomas sees news footage of White Vision’s encounter in Edinburgh. The images trigger flashes of Tommy’s former life including memories of the original Vision and the Westview Hex. Thomas suffers a panic attack as Lisa tells him he is Thomas Shatford.

That identity crisis mirrors his father. They are themselves and not themselves while holding memories that do not belong to them. Lisa makes random comments about Thomas being weirdly fast, indicating he maintains his powers just like Billy.

VisionQuest has established a complicated family tree in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thomas Shatford is not the son Hex Vision helped raise in Westview. White Vision never had a son, but he possesses memories from the original Vision and Hex Vision. As he says in the trailer, he has the memories but not the virtue. Vision may regard Westview as a fantasy, but the frightened young man abducted by Paladin proves that parts of what Wanda created endured.

Source: Polygon