A WEEK OF WANDAVISION BONUS EPISODE: DEEP DIVING INTO A SCENE FROM 108

Before moving on from WANDAVISION, I thought it might fun to dive into one short dialogue scene that I loved from episode 108 (by writer Laura Donney), and think about why it works. 

It's the flashback about two thirds of the way through the episode where Wanda sits staring at a sitcom as she reels over the death of her brother Pietro.

After a couple lines getting Vision into the room, the scene has three main parts: 

1. Vision tries to understand why Bryan Cranston getting crushed by a roof on an episode of MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE is funny; 
2. Vision asks Wanda how she's doing, she shares the sense of being overwhelmed and he reflects on that;
3.  Vision laughs at something onscreen, then apologizes, and she reassures him it was in fact funny, which makes him very happy. 
   

Within that second, main part, here are the beats: 

• Vision offers to listen if that would help Wanda; 
• Wanda wonders why he would think it would;
• Wanda tells him it wouldn't; 
• Wanda apologizes and does share what she's going through, how overwhelmed she feels. 
• Vision responds by saying he doesn't think her loss will overwhelm her, and explains why by sharing his own experience being alone. 
  

Part of what's interesting about the scene is how little conflict there is. Usually conflict is the engine of story. Also it's the mask in which you can safely hide exposition (aka a person telling us directly how they're feeling). But other than a moment at the beginning, there's just not much of that there. It's like the setting itself, completely with flash or drama.

And yet the scene flows really well and the things that Wanda and Vision reveal feel earned. 

Maybe that's because there is actually conflict in the scene, in the form of the pain that Wanda is going through, the loss she's suffered. What possible value could some sort of disagreement or misunderstanding add to that? It's like a guy wearing a hat on a hat but it's also at a funeral and so why is he doing headwear anyway?  

So that's my first thought: The scene works as well as it does because it stays always connected to the reality of the moment it's in. It doesn't let external notions of writing structure or anything else get in the way of trusting in the truth of the situation.

It's also a scene in which each character shares something that is both personal and also deeply insightful. Wanda describes what it's like for her to be grieving. Her metaphor of the waves knocking her down is evocative of her experience and also gives words to many other people's experience with the nightmare that is loss. 

Vision's response has the same two components. The beginning and the end are together this profound thought about grief--that it is love persevering, and so it won't destroy us. It can't all be sorrow, can it?, he asks, in a line I am deeply envious of.

In between he shares about himself, his experience of always being alone. In a sense this has nothing to do with what we're talking about. And for the character of Vision it's actually not an attempt at self-disclosure as much as an observation on his existence. 

But for us in the audience (and Wanda) what he's saying is moving and eye opening. You see Vision different after that scene.

So for me, the second reason this scene is so strong is that it gives us new things to chew on--first, new insights into Wanda and Vision; and second (and maybe more importantly) new insights into our lives. Literally, we walk away from that scene with a new way to think about grief. When you can deliver a gift to the audience while still staying grounded in the reality of the characters and their relationship, you've got them for life. Who doesn't like a surprise goody bag?

The other thing that I love about the scene is the bookends. We open with and on humor, and after we've taken the journey with Wanda and Vision through life and loss the writing circles back to it, and it's at one and the same time a surprise, because it's such a different tone than where the scene has been, and yet also fulfilling, in that it feels like we've come full circle.  

The opening of a scene is like the set up of a joke. Returning to it at the end is naturally satisfying for the audience. 

But the ending doesn't just return to the initial subject. It comes back to Vision's need. He wants to understand humor. At the beginning he tries and fails. At the end he laughs, thinks he's failed and Wanda tells him no, it's funny, and his reaction is Yes, it is, right?

Paul Bettany's performance is so perfect at capturing the quiet comedy of Vision's need to get this.  

This a two minute scene, but only twenty lines of dialogue, and most of them just a couple words, a single sentence. But there's just so much there. Brava, writer Laura Donney!

++

So I've been doing this for about three weeks now, mostly as a sort of practice run to see if it could work. I'm not totally sure that Blogger is going to be the platform I need it to be. I may take a couple days and try to migrate it to WordPress. 

Either way, here's my plan for the rest of the week: I'm going to talk about the pilot of FREAKS & GEEKS, which I saw for the first time last week *hangs his head in shame*.

Then for the next two weeks I'm going to dive into the Oscar nominees for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted, which will be announced today, and see what cool tricks we can find there. 

UPDATE (3/17):  With the release of the Snyder Cut I'm going to do some pieces on the Snyder DCverse at the end of this week and at least the start of next week. But we will get to the Oscar nominees right after that!