The WandaVision Fan Theory That Has Us Looking Twice At S.W.O.R.D.
WandaVision pulls the rug out from under its audience in its fourth episode, "We Interrupt This Program." After three installments focused on the sitcom world of Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), we find ourselves in the world outside of Westview, New Jersey, where it's the post-Endgame modern day and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) is investigating a missing persons case on behalf of S.W.O.R.D.
The rug-pulling isn't about S.W.O.R.D.'s existence, though — it's about the revelation of who's responsible for Wanda, Vision, and the town of Westview being in a sitcom world in the first place.
After Monica gets sucked into the sitcom herself, consulting astrophysicist Dr. Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings, returning as her Thor character) discovers a TV signal coming from inside the pocket dimension of Westview. With Darcy's help, FBI Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park, last seen keeping an eye on Scott Lang in Ant-Man and the Wasp) leads an effort to reach out to Wanda via radio waves. But it's not until Monica is expelled from Westview that we finally get our definitive answer as to who's responsible for what's going on — it's Wanda herself.
Fans are now speculating not just over why Wanda would create a sitcom world for herself and Vision, but why she reacts so negatively when she sees the S.W.O.R.D. symbol on Monica's necklace. Could S.W.O.R.D. be more nefarious than we thought? And have they done something so harmful to Wanda and Vision, specifically, that Wanda will do anything to keep S.W.O.R.D. out of Westview? Let's dig into a fan theory that seeks to explain what exactly S.W.O.R.D. might have been up to prior to the Wandavisioning of a small New Jersey suburb.
Why does S.W.O.R.D. stand for what it does?
When the Marvel Cinematic Universe adapts ideas, characters, and stories from Marvel Comics, there are often changes made in the transition from one medium to the other. In Marvel Comics, S.W.O.R.D. stands for Sentient World Observation and Response Department. In "We Interrupt This Program" we find out that, while the MCU S.W.O.R.D. was originally founded to deal with interplanetary threats, in the wake of Thanos' snap, the organization's focus was altered.
The term S.W.O.R.D. on WandaVision stands for something different: Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Department. One word can change everything, and in the context of WandaVision, who better exemplifies the term "sentient weapon" than Vision? Of course, up until now, we all assumed Vision was dead, since Thanos (Josh Brolin) killed him with his bare hands before the snap took place. And this still seems true — in the moments when we see Wanda's hold on the sitcom world falter, Vision appears gray and decayed without his Mind Stone. In other words, Vision looks like he's a zombified version of his former himself.
What Reddit user NoxInfernus suggests is that maybe S.W.O.R.D. isn't merely responding to sentient weapons, but that they (at least at some point) have already had one in their possession — Vision. And the reason Wanda gets so defensive whenever she sees a S.W.O.R.D. symbol is because she's trying to protect Vision and herself from an organization who only sees Vision as a tool, not a person.
Is Wanda protecting Vision from S.W.O.R.D.?
"S.W.O.R.D. has been using Vision's body as the basis for their tech," NoxInfernus speculates on Reddit. To the user's credit, they do an excellent job of explaining just how easily this could have happened. "And who would stop them? The Avengers (what was left of them) were a mess and focused on finding Thanos. Wakanda had just lost their King and the next in line to the throne (Shuri), so I'm certain handing over Vision's body to S.W.O.R.D. would not be too difficult if asked. Wanda was gone (snapped), Tony off planet, and Banner was dealing with his 'issues' with the Big Guy. No one really seemed to care that Vision was dead."
We are aware that Avengers: Endgame originally had a scripted post-credits scene in which Wanda finds Vision's corpse in a body bag. Who's to say that, in the world of WandaVision, she didn't find him at a S.W.O.R.D. facility?
There's also a specific moment during "We Interrupt This Program" in which Director Hayward (Josh Stamberg) rushes back to S.W.O.R.D. headquarters. NoxInfernus saw a deeper meaning in that, too: "He had to check to see if [Vision's] body was still in their lab."
If Wanda did steal Vision's body from S.W.O.R.D. it would make perfect sense for her to have an extreme reaction every time she sees the organization's symbol — which has happened on more than one occasion: when she finds the toy helicopter, when the "beekeeper" comes out of the sewer, and finally on Monica Rambeau's necklace. Is it possible that the WandaVision sitcom exists entirely to protect Vision (in whatever form he currently exists) from S.W.O.R.D. specifically? Maybe!
WandaVision releases new episodes on Disney+ on Fridays.