The Real Reason Geraldine Was Thrown Out Of Wanda's World
The WandaVision series is defining itself more and more by its stark differences between moments where everything is played straight as a fun retro sitcom and when things get decidedly disturbing. When the Harts asked “What are you doing here?” over and over again. When the Homeowners Association president’s glass bursts in her hand only to have the fragments calmly picked out. When the doctor implies he isn’t allowed to leave Westview. These moments of immersion-breaking creepiness are peppered in to call attention to the world itself and just how wrong everything is in the idyllic small town. So what happens in the episode “Now in Color” that makes it different from the rest?
The climax of it all changes everything. During an episode that's clearly an homage to The Brady Bunch (minus the children… for most of it), we see the wonderful world of color spill over into Westview, slightly oversaturated with brilliant red. The tried and true tropes of “husband experiences pregnancy with just as much intensity as the wife” are right alongside “unexpected birth.” But they’re a lot more extreme: Vision needs to practice his wife’s contraction breathing technique in order to stop himself from floating off the ground with stress, and instead of months, the baby matures to the end of the third trimester while we’re watching. Wanda’s visiting friend Geraldine checks in to ask for a bucket to empty her home of floodwater (a “my water broke” joke) before stopping to chat about her day. By the time Geraldine’s done with her story, Wanda’s contractions start in full, leaving Geraldine to deliver the baby while Vision is bringing over the doctor. After Vision brings the doctor back, Wanda’s baby is born: Tommy, only he’s not alone. While the doctor and Geraldine are giving the pair some time to themselves, Vision delivers Wanda’s second son, Billy, to prove how thoroughly unneeded the doctor is.
Vision walks the doctor outside and catches his neighbors gossiping in hushed voices about Geraldine, showing another perspective on her and how little we know about Wanda’s friend. Inside the house, Wanda sings a Sokovian lullaby to her newborn twins, the new mother’s expression becoming somber as she talks about her brother. She talks about how she “had” a brother named Pietro. In turn, Geraldine’s plastically happy expression melts away as she recalls out loud that Pietro was killed by Ultron, causing Wanda to turn on her with suspicion on her face. Geraldine tries and fails to change the subject, and the scene moves back outside. Herb and Agnes are talking about how Geraldine has no husband and no house, speculating on why she’s there but refusing to tell Vision all of it. Inside the house, Wanda notices the sword necklace that Geraldine wears as her anger rises. Geraldine is launched out of the '70s sitcom and into the modern widescreen world of today, a group of SWORD vehicles closing in around her as she looks at a large military compound built in a perimeter on what seems to be a force field surrounding the current-day Westview.
The implication is that Wanda has at least some control over the alternate world of Westview and she wants Geraldine out. But why? There’s the obvious answer: Wanda doesn’t like being reminded of her brother’s death. She reacts quickly and seems to wake up and have the same kind of suspicion that Herb and Agnes have. Consider this: the neighbors says that Geraldine has no home and no husband, which means that the story Geraldine tells about her house being flooded is a lie. Her story about her job probably is, too: it let her stall and stay inside the house so that she could observe Wanda. Maybe she did it to gain more of Wanda’s trust, glean some information on what Wanda’s doing, or maybe so that she could be there for the baby’s delivery. If you’re wondering how she eats and lives, that’s not explained, but the obvious answer is that she's a spy for SWORD all along, and any spell she's been under is broken when Wanda brings up her brother. But let’s delve a bit deeper with a different question. Instead of asking why Wanda reacts so strongly, I think we should ask: why is Pietro dead in Wanda’s perfect world?
My guess is that he isn't supposed to be. Sure, she says she “had” a twin, using the past tense, but what if that wasn’t always her plan? If Wanda’s in control of the sitcom reality, then she’s probably aware of something: pacing. These episodes are pretty packed with key events as it is: introducing the couple to Westview, showing them adapting to their blissful home life, and now a pregnancy. My guess is that Pietro isn’t dead; he just hasn’t been introduced to the cast yet. The theory is that Wanda is supposed to bring back her brother in a later episode…and Geraldine ruins that by calling him dead.
Imagine a later episode where Wanda would’ve gotten to decide from a bouquet of different introductions for her brother: having him show up suddenly as if he’d never been gone, getting a letter from him to announce he’s moving to Westview, or a visit to Sokovia for a fish-out-of-water episode with Vision. The limitless potential of how she could have brought her brother back to life and into her family, crushed under Geraldine’s foot on what's supposed to be one of the happiest days of her life: the birth of her children.