VisionQuest closes with historic finale and an epic post-credit scene

Forever is overwhelming in all the best ways possible. The reveal of Paladin’s Client in episode 7 seemed, as previously mentioned, relatively forgettable; however, the dynamic we see here between Vision and Ultron/Virgil finally corresponds exactly to what I had been wanting to see since VisionQuest started. We get a clarification that the Client is the person that inspired Ultron’s human avatar, Virgil Horton, grandson of Jim Hammond’s creator and Jocasta’s husband. Virgil was the traitor that sold Jocasta’s AI work to Tony Stark and also worked in S.W.O.R.D’s rebuilding of Vision’s body. His ultimate goal is to steal Vision’s human form and live alongside Jocasta’s synthetic body forever.

Jocasta and Vision are under Virgil’s control in his house, where he also holds Ultron’s hard drive. This leads to an entertaining and twisted love-triangle dynamic between Virgil, Ultron and Jocasta. To help Jocasta and Vision escape his control, Tommy makes the first significant use of his speed and breaks the device that kept them under Virgil’s control, all while running non-stop at normal speed. (Oh my, I love a great speedster joke!) Jocasta throws Ultron’s hard drive into her nanorobots and, wow, the original Ultron is back to our world! He unmercifulnessly kills Virgil and sets up a plan to use the nanobots to resume his old Age of Ultron plan. Does it get slightly repetitive at times? Sure, but he’s a great villain, so we’ll take it. 

To try to stop Ultron, we are graced with Vision’s idea to trap Ultron in a WandaVision style sitcom, called UltraVision. It initially follows the production style of WandaVision’s brilliant third episode, Now in Color, but, after 500 episodes (all with very creative episode titles), Ultron takes control of the simulation. In a dialogue exchange with a vast number of callbacks to Age of Ultron and other VisionQuest episodes, Vision convinces Ultron to stop his plan and is brought back to reality by both his sons teaming up. 

“Family is forever,” so, obviously, we had to have some sort of reunion in this episode. First, we get the long-awaited encounter between Billy and Tommy via a mental contact, which had been set up since Agatha All Along’s finale in 2024. Unfortunately, we did not have a Kathryn Hahn/Agatha Harkness cameo, although Billy does talk to her as an “imaginary friend.” Later, after escaping the UltraVision sitcom, Vision sees both his sons in what is one of VisionQuest’s most emotional moments. 

Each character introduced here — the AIs, Lisa and Tommy, Paladin — have satisfactory yet relatively vague endings. In a callback to Wanda and Vision’s goodbye, Vision states to Tommy that “I suppose it stands to reason, we might say hello again” after Tommy asks about the possibility of a complete family reunion (which would include his mother). It is also revealed that Ultron is still out there, living peacefully in the world he once sought to destroy, and thinking about ways to recreate his beloved.

It truly is a great episode (perhaps not greater than episode 7, but it still managed to exceed my expectations). Let’s not move past that too quickly. We’re all excited for what comes next…

The post-credits scene

It starts with a recap of the last time we saw the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff — where she smashed herself to death with the collapsing ruins of Mount Wundagore in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (2022). Now, after Wundagore collapses over her, we see Doctor Doom approach her and say “Scarlet Witch, awaken. Your power will be mine”. Just as he finishes saying this, Wanda opens her eyes.

This settles years of theories of what actually happened to Wanda and what would be her future in the MCU. Now, it is ultimately confirmed she will side with Doom, even if not out of choice. The most popular and trusted theory is that she is one of Doom’s Latverian Witches. Theories aside, I have waited too long to write this:

The Maximoff Family will return in Avengers: Doomsday.