VisionQuest Episode 4 Review: Changing Channels

This article contains spoilers for VisionQuest season 1 episode 4.

Now halfway through VisionQuest’s eight-episode season, we’ve seen E.D.I.T.H. don all sorts of costumes. But it’s not really until she puts on a duster, chews a toothpick, and explains the photos and strings on an evidence board that we realize what’s going on: they’re in a crime procedural show. It’s not the only genre jump that happens in this episode, which begins as an Exorcist riff (complete with E.D.I.T.H. in a priest’s vestments), shifts to a procedural, and then becomes an espionage story.

The changes in tone are all motivated by the story, as Vision, Thomas, and Ultron seek to learn more about the mysterious Butcherbird who has been attacking them. But the shifts raise bigger questions about the shadow that WandaVision casts not just over VisionQuest, but over all of Marvel television in general. Did WandaVision provide the best example of marrying superheroes to television? And if so, can VisionQuest do anything to iterate on that example?

Episode four picks up where three left off, with Vision under the control of the Butcherbird Killer, the mysterious hooded figure who will reveal her robot form by the end of the episode. Director Gandja Monteiro continues to make strong visual choices to represent Butcherbird’s assault, from the glowing red eyes of throes in her thrall to the hard blue lights shining in the corridor where Viz answers her interrogation. Equally delightful is the exorcism that E.D.I.T.H. performs to sever the Butcherbird’s connection, complete with Ultron bellowing, “The power of code compels you!”

One need not love the Matrix sequels to get a kick out of the episode’s melding of tech jargon with genre tropes. The bits of Vision and Ultron bickering with each other and with police at stopping points (the show’s way of visualizing the duo hacking security systems) get a laugh each time. Likewise, the conceit of having Vision work with the AIs in the Mindscape while he also teams with Thomas in the real world is surprisingly clear and compelling, despite the potential for confusion.

However, the episode’s script doesn’t quite match the level of the visuals, both on a plot and a dialogue level. Part of the problem could be due to the performances, which still sometimes veer too broad. Since speaking at the previous episode’s funeral, D.U.M.-E and U have become downright chatty, which would make for some fine comic relief—if the whole episode weren’t constantly breaking for comic bits. Case in point: E.D.I.T.H. summarizes the Butcherbird’s attack on Vision’s code by declaring, “Nobody likes a surprise rear entry” and Ultron snorts, “Do you even listen to yourselves?” to make sure everyone gets the joke.

Likewise, the central mystery isn’t terribly compelling yet. By the end of the episode, we learn that the Butcherbird Killer is based on Josephine Carrington (T’Nia Miller), one of several scientists working on an early artificial intelligence project, run by Katerina Wells (Mary McDonald). Perhaps the show just has twists it doesn’t yet want to show, or perhaps we’re just so used to Marvel scientists and robots that the whole thing feels rote, but the scientists and their project doesn’t seem too compelling outside of the fact that they’re being slaughtered by a scary robot.

That’s even true for those who recognize all of the Marvel Comics references at work in the episode. The deepest pull comes with the reveal that E.D.I.T.H.’s forerunner Edith Marks was married to Edward Marks, a character from the ’80s war series The ‘Nam. Thomas quips to his lady friend Lisa Molinari about a coat of arms, highlighting the codename her character uses in the comics, Coat of Arms. The Butcherbird Killer reveals her robotic form, which Avengers fans will know as Jacosta, even if she doesn’t have that name yet. And Thomas uses the super speed which will give him his codename “Speed.”

Most notable is a look at the original Human Torch, a synthetic created by Dr. Phineas Horton. That Torch first appeared on the cover of 1939’s Marvel Comics #1, making him just as important to the entire franchise as this robot apparently is to the characters in the show.

Chatter about the Human Torch gives the episode its strongest thematic moments. Here, Horton’s creation is simply called J.I.M. (instead of Jim Hammond, the character’s comic book identity) and his combustibility is explained as a flaw in his programming. Vision tells Thomas that J.I.M.’s mental design was too simple, and the flood of emotions overwhelmed him, forcing him to burst into flames. Vision did not suffer the same fate because of the Mind Stone in his forehead, and the White Vision—who obviously cannot access the now-destroyed Mind Stone—survives with the help of the various AIs in his head.

Thomas observes that the same thing could have saved J.I.M. “What, a mind stone?” asks Vision.

“No, a family,” clarifies Thomas.

The concept of family has come up since Thomas first appeared at the end of VisionQuest‘s pilot, but it moves to the forefront of this episode. Not only does F.R.I.D.A.Y. spend more time investigating the humans who gave the AIs their physical characteristics, but Thomas and Lisa squabble over how much the former should trust his new father figure. Likewise, Ultron doubles-down on his claims to be Vision’s dad and Thomas’s grandfather, offering advice about adolescents that he learned by watching TV.

Accordingly, most of his observations are surface and broad. Then again, so is everything the show wants to say about the nature of family, as when Thomas pushes away Lisa with a clanger about her being jealous that she’s still an orphan.

The flatness of the dialogue here works because, of course, we’re watching VisionQuest, a TV show. Moreover, in the same way that WandaVision was a show about a woman coping with tragedy by bringing TV into the real world, VisionQuest is a show about people (mostly synthetic, but still) learning about the world through TV. It’s about false people trying to understand real people, using pop art as a mediator. More than anything that’s come before in the show, episode four seems aware of that distinction and is pushing it as a theme. If it can continue exploring the way TV and pop art helps us think about our identies, then VisionQuest‘s genre shifts won’t just be an homage to WandaVision starting it all—they’ll be a way for VisionQuest to build upon, and possibly exceed, the standard WandaVision set.

VisionQuest streams new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.