Author: Trafficblast

Episode 7 of WandaVision is here and Westview is now in the 2010s, when sitcoms began to really lean into the “talking head” segments and mockumentary style directing with shows like Modern Family and The Office. So, naturally, we get a whole lot of that going on here–even though some of Westview’s residents seem a bit less enthusiastic than others about the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Wanda’s powers are on the fritz as she slowly loses control over the fabric of Westview’s reality, causing glitches in the proverbial matrix that make for all sorts of anxiety. The twins are noticing something is up and looking for answers that Wanda either doesn’t have or just doesn’t want to give and Vision is still on a crusade to get out of the town, despite having no memory of his life before arriving in Westview at all.

Oh, and there’s something going on with Monica–but you’ll know it when you see it. Trust us, it’s impossible to miss.

Here are 21 Easter Eggs, references, and things to note this week. And when you’re done, take a look at our deep dives into the other episodes of WandaVision.

1. Talking heads right out of Modern Family

This week’s episode takes its cues from Modern Family, from the talking head segments to the score within the episode itself. This week’s theme song has a very different inspiration, though, which we’ll get to.

2. “Our game is freaking out!”

Billy and Tommy’s video games cycle through GameCube controllers, Atari joysticks, and finally to Uno cards as Westview spirals out of control.

3. Billy’s head hurts

Last week, both twins had their own special superpower awakenings with Tommy’s super-speed and Billy’s extremely complicated “magical” abilities that appear to be manifesting as telepathy in the show. In the comics, he’s able to warp reality just like his mom, but so far in Westview, he’s just got himself a nasty headache from being able to apparently read minds.

4. WiiMotes

After their video game kept changing earlier, even becoming Uno cards, the twins end up with a pair of WiiMotes, meaning they ultimately wound up with a Nintendo Wii. not a bad trade, considering they started with a GameCube.

5. The sounds of Scranton

This week’s theme song is trying very hard to sound like The Office, which makes sense. Not only is it era-appropriate, but like Modern Family, it makes liberal use of talking-head segments.

6. Created by Wanda Maximoff

Of note, with Vision on his own adventure, he’s entirely absent from the opening credits. What’s more, this week Wanda is credited as the creator of WandaVision, which may or may not be correct, given what gets revealed later in the ep.

7. Darcy the escape artist

Darcy was, very unfortunately, left chained to an SUV during the Westview expansion in Episode 6–but don’t panic. She’s fine! Her sitcom-ified self isn’t in handcuffs at all; she’s been made the “escape artist” of the circus.

8. “He is not your uncle”

Wanda’s changed her mind about this new Pietro since their minor scuffle last week. He’s been conspicuously absent this week (though we hope you stuck around for the mid-credits stinger, which we’ll get to) and Wanda now insists that he isn’t actually a member of the family.

9. Rebuilding Vision

SWORD was apparently looking to rebuild Vision, which we started to guess at last week when Darcy discovered that Hayward was able to very specifically track Vision’s body within the Hex–though we were worried the plan might have been to rebuild Ultron, who was originally intended to occupy Vision’s body. Either way, this is clearly a major violation of Vision’s will, which stipulated he never be remade in the event of his death (as revealed earlier in the season).

10. The stork

Hey remember that stork painting that came to life way back in Episode 3? It’s here again, if only briefly.

11. “Nexus” Antidepressant

This week’s commercial was for an antidepressant for “when the world doesn’t revolve around you–or does it?” Which is likely a nod to one of the more galaxy-brained concepts in Marvel comics: the existence of “Nexus Beings,” or people who have powers that can affect probability and literally alter the flow of the “Universal Time Stream.” Both Wanda and Vision are considered Nexus beings.

Also, there’s the idea of the Nexus of All Worlds, which is a sort of gateway point between dimensions from which all universes in the multiverse can be accessed–which may be something to keep in mind for the upcoming Dr. Strange sequel, Multiverse of Madness.

12. “You’re quiet, Agnes”

Billy is unable to hear any of Agnes’s thoughts which, if you weren’t already majorly suspicious of her, hopefully sent up some red flags.

13. Monica: Empowered

We’ve been anticipating a superheroic turn for Monica from the start and we absolutely got it in this episode–another trip through the Hex has given her full-on superhuman abilities. She can see energy, and even hold up against a blast from Wanda (with some added superhero landing flare for good measure). In the comics, Monica has gone by many different codenames, including Captain Marvel, so we don’t know for sure which one she’ll land on here in the MCU, but Photon, Spectrum, or Pulsar seem like fair bets.

Also, did you catch those quotes from Captain Marvel playing as she marched through the Hex?

14. Vision’s death recap

In case you missed Avengers: Infinity War, Darcy did a nice job of catching Vision up on both of his deaths, Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet, and even his creation to defeat Ultron back in Age of Ultron. That’s a lot of exposition she fed him during a single funnel cake truck ride.

15. An AI called JARVIS

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Paul Bettany started his tenure in the MCU as the disembodied voice of Tony Stark’s AI butler.

16. “Presto” delivery

The delivery man who watches Wanda and Monica’s fight–and then continues on to make a delivery at Agnes’s house–is wearing a “Presto Delivery” uniform (just in case you didn’t catch on to the foreshadowing that Agnes had something magical of her own going on).

17. Yo Gabba Gabba

We don’t know where the twins are, but we certainly know what they were watching before they disappeared. Wanda sees Yo Gabba Gabba on Agnes’s TV. The children’s TV show ran from 2007 to 2015.

18. Agatha’s Dungeon

Agnes/Agatha’s basement is more or less a dungeon full of what look like occult relics, including a very ominously glowing book on a stand. The book’s cover doesn’t seem to match anything from the comics directly, but it could potentially be the MCU’s version of the Darkhold, a spellbook containing all sorts of magical and demonic knowledge–though it should be noted that Agents of SHIELD already introduced their own version of the Darkhold, which, in theory, probably isn’t canon for the MCU, but might be something to consider.

Also, regardless of whether the book is the Darkhold or not, it seems to be giving off a distinctly orange (perhaps even fiery) looking energy which, compared to Agatha’s very purple-based powers, sticks out like a sore thumb. Whatever is powering the book, it’s certainly not Agatha herself.

19. Agatha Harkness

This twist probably wasn’t all that shocking to anyone who’s been keeping up with fan theories even half heartedly–we’ve been anticipating Agnes to reveal herself as Agatha Harkness from the very first episode.

There are some odd things about this reveal, however–namely the fact that we still don’t know what Agatha’s motives could possibly be. She does a great job of showcasing all the manipulating she’s been doing behind the scenes in her own personal theme song, but we don’t know why or what she’s looking to gain. Also, critically, we don’t know where the twins are–which is a bit concerning, given their comic book origin as fragments of the soul of Mephisto.

Also to note, Agatha in the comics has never been a full-on villain. Sure, she’s not the warmest lady in the world, but she’s never been explicitly evil, even when she did help repurpose parts of a demon’s soul to help Wanda become pregnant. This certainly doesn’t mean that the MCU’s take on the character couldn’t go a different direction, but it might not be time to write off your theories about a bigger, badder villain reveal before the show’s finale just yet.

20. Agatha All Along

Of course, Agatha gets her own theme song. And, honestly, it might be the best one of the bunch. We’ll be singing “Agatha All Along” for days and have no regrets.

21. Pietro’s not gone yet

In the mid-credits sequence, he catches Monica snooping around Agatha’s house. Given that we saw Agatha controlling him in the Agatha All Along sequence, is he essentially one of her sentries?

On February 1, actor Evan Rachel Wood spoke out on her Instagram about grooming and abuse she endured from shock rocker Marilyn Manson. The fallout for Manson was swift, and continues. AMC’s horror series Creepshow dropped an episode featuring Manson entirely, and producer Greg Nicotero offered up some background during the TCA winter press tour.

“I found out about [Manson’s history] at the same time everybody else did that particular morning. I don’t think there was a moment where we didn’t want to do the right thing and pull the episode, and I don’t think we thought about it for more than four seconds,” Nicotero said. “There was some great actors in that episode as well. But you know we stand by the decision. We stand by what we support and that shows.”

The show must go on, though, and so the team had to make some changes.

“We did a little bit of restructuring,” Nicotero continued, “and we actually pulled an episode up that stars Molly Ringwald called ‘Sibling Rivalry,’ which is a really fun and very clever kind of right of passage, high school, horror, episode, and it’s really fun and really good and you know that we just had to keep going you know and that’s what we did.”

Following Wood’s post, Manson’s record label, booking agent, and manager have all dropped him. The Starz network will also drop Manson’s guest appearance on American Gods, based on Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name, the network said in an official statement. Manson denied the accusations, calling them “horrible distortions of reality.”

Creepshow itself, meanwhile, was just renewed for season 3, along with news that season 2 will hit Shudder, AMC’s horror-themed streaming service, on April 1, 2021.

Crafting newer, better gear is core to the experience in Valheim, and in order to survive long enough to fight through Greydwarves, Trolls, and the game’s huge bosses, you’re going to need strong armor. The trouble is, how you create that armor can be pretty confusing. It requires you to expand your toolset, upgrade your workbench, hunt certain creatures, and learn how to work metal.

We’ve put together a full rundown of each of Valheim’s current armor sets below, including how strong they are, what benefits you can expect from them as you create full sets, and most importantly, how to unlock and create them. Expect to do a lot of work hunting and mining along the way. It’s also worth noting that each set of armor can be upgraded several times to increase its durability and armor levels. Leather armor might be your first armor set and among the weakest, but it can become very effective if you upgrade it while working on advancing to the next tier.

Valheim Armor Sets

Rags

• Set Items: Pants, Tunic
• Crafting Requirements: Workbench; Leather Scraps (obtained from boars)
• Armor per piece: 1
• Weight per piece: 2

Leather Armor

• Set Items: Pants, Tunic, Helmet, Cape
• Crafting Requirements: Workbench Level 2, Deer Hide
• Armor per piece: 2 (1 for cape)
• Weight per piece: 5 (1 for helmet, 4 for cape)

Troll Leather Armor

• Set Items: Pants, Tunic, Helmet, Cape
• Crafting Requirements: Workbench Level 3, Troll Hide, Leather Scraps, Deer Hide
• Armor per piece: 6 (1 for cape)
• Weight per piece: 5 (1 for helmet, 4 for cape)
• Set Bonus: Sneak +25

You’ll get access to Troll Leather Armor once you slay your first troll and gathered its hide. Crafting the armor requires upgrading you workbench twice, which means you’ll need a chopping block and a tanning rack nearby. Troll Armor is solid if you can get the hides for it, and it doesn’t take much to upgrade to make it pretty strong. Troll armor will cover you while you do all the work to mine and smelt Bronze, which can take quite a while.

Bronze Armor

• Set Items: Helmet, Plate Cuirass, Plate Leggings
• Crafting Requirements: Forge, Deer Hide, Bronze
• Armor per piece: 8
• Weight per piece: 10 (3 for helmet)
• Set reduces movement speed by 10%

Bronze Armor is a step up from the leather varieties you’ve been using up to this point, but it’ll take some time to unlock. First and foremost, you’ll need to kill Eikthyr, the game’s first boss. Look for altars marked with a deer relief to find places to summon it, and use deer trophies to do so. When you defeat Eikthyr, you’ll get his antler, which you can fashion into a pickaxe tough enough to start mining ores. That’s the first step in your quest toward Bronze.

The second step is to mine Tin and Copper, which you’ll find around the Meadows and Black Forest biomes. Once you’ve mined both, you’ll unlock the ability to build new crafting stations, including a Smelter and a Forge. Use the Smelter to turn ore into useable Copper and Tin, then use the Forge to combine them into Bronze. From there, you can start actually making things out of Bronze, including tougher tools and new armor.

Iron Armor

• Set Items: Helmet, Scale Mail, Grieves
• Crafting Requirements: Forge, Deer Hide, Iron
• Armor per piece: 14
• Weight per piece: 15 (3 for helmet)
• Set reduces movement speed by 10%

Like Bronze Armor, Iron takes some work to unlock. Scrap Iron is only found in certain places in the Swamp biome, and to get it, you’ll have to defeat the Elder, your second boss. To locate the Elder, you’ll need to explore the Black Forest for certain rune stones, which you can find near altars and inside burial chambers. Interact with the rune stones to mark the Elder on your map so you can hunt it down.

You’ll find Iron in Muddy Scrap Piles, which are located in Sunken Crypts. If you find a Wishbone, you can also uncover Muddy Scrap Piles buried throughout the Swamp biome. Use the Smelter to create Iron, which can then be crafted into armor at the Forge.

Wolf Armor

• Set Items: Drake Helmet, Chest, Legs, Cape
• Crafting Requirements: Forge, Wolf Hide, Drake Trophy, Silver, Wolf Trophy, Workbench
• Armor per piece: 20 (1 for cape)
• Weight per piece: 15 (3 for helmet, 4 for cape)
• Set increases Frost resistance; reduces movement speed by 10%

You’ll need to head to the Mountain biome to find everything you need for Wolf Armor. The upgrade is significant, but so is the cost–you’ll need to find Silver, Wolf Hides, and Drake Trophies to craft this gear, so expect to be busy. Drakes are frost-infused dragons that hang out in the Mountain biome, and you’ll need to bring some down to earn their trophies in order to make your armor. You’ll also need to find Silver in the Mountain, which requires both a Wishbone to locate and an Iron Pickaxe to harvest.

The Drake Helmet, Wolf Armor Chest, and Wolf Armor Legs can be made at your Forge and require Drake Trophies, Wolf Hides, and Silver to make. The Wolf Fur Cape is a little different; you won’t need Drake Trophies for it, but you will need Wolf Trophies, in addition to Wolf Hides and Silver. Craft the cape at the Workbench, rather than the Forge, to complete your set.

Padded Armor

• Set Items: Helmet, Cuirass, Greaves, Linen Cape
• Crafting Requirements: Forge, Iron, Silver, Linen Thread
• Armor per piece: 26
• Weight per piece: 10 (3 for helmet)
• Set reduces movement speed by 10%

The top armor in Valheim right now is the Padded Armor set, and of course, it requires a lot of effort to create. First, you’ll need to take down Morden, the boss in the Mountain biome, which will allow you to build the Artisans Table, and then the Spinning Wheel. Next, you’ll need to go to the Plains biome to get Flax, which you can turn into Linen Thread with the Spinning Wheel.

After that, you just need a lot of Iron, Silver, and Thread to make the items in the armor set. The benefits are huge, however, providing you a ton of protection and relatively little drawback.

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The first thing you hear aboard the Glykon when you finally make your way inside is a low, frightening growl. As you’re creeping through a ventilation duct to find a way into the derelict spaceship’s structure, it’s impossible to pin down where the sounds of scratching, breathing, and heavy footsteps are coming from. It isn’t long before you discover the bodies and the wreckage. There’s no one aboard. Something awful happened here. Whispers emanate from the walls, and shadows move in the corners, and slowly you realize that everyone is dead, but you are not alone.

Investigating the Glykon is Destiny 2’s latest mission, Presage, and it’s a standout moment in the game. I spent more than an hour wandering the ship when I discovered it, finding my way through its twisting hallways and infrastructure, listening to the sounds of something alive creeping around in the dark. The level evokes the likes of horror sci-fi such as Alien, Dead Space, or Event Horizon, sending you into the bowels of a dead ship with only your gun and your flashlight as comfort, without a clear sense of what you’ll find–or what it might do to you.

Missions with a unique tonal shift like Presage only come along every once in a while, and they’re among the best things that developer Bungie makes for Destiny 2. Unlike the rest of the game right now, Presage places you into a full-on horror story for a short stint. It throws puzzles and obstacles in your way with little or no explanation of how you might make your way through them and trusts you to figure it out. It demands you explore and understand its space, rather than just sending you from gunfight to gunfight–huge portions of the mission contain no enemies at all. And it throws in some very cool ideas that I’ll try not to spoil, with one fun section taking after an iconic Star Wars moment and another that, if you squint, could have been ripped from Halo 2.

Destiny has always excelled at putting players in satisfying shooting battles, but it’s in missions like Presage that it feels like Bungie is really stretching its legs and showing what it’s capable of. There are a few big fights in Presage, but it’s everything else that makes the mission so interesting, with its focus squarely on puzzles and exploration. There are plenty of inventive moments that require you to fully understand an area to figure out how to open a door or break through a vent. Finding your way into the ship to start with, for instance, is an exercise in observing the space around you and uncovering a hidden path that requires a little creative thinking. Bungie constantly designs environmental puzzles that put players to the test with their platforming, and when they’re at their best, traversing the spaces of Destiny 2 is as fun as fighting in them.

Destiny 2 lately has been getting better and better about telling its story, drawing from its lore, and expanding on its world and characters in ways that make them more impactful. Presage feels like it’s brimming with important story beats that haven’t been fully uncovered yet. How the ship and its crew met their fate is an open question–what killed them and why are two others.

The whole thing ties into the lore of the former Cabal emperor, Calus, one of Destiny 2’s more nuanced villainous characters, as well as the current seasonal story arc concerning Caiatl, the new empress and Calus’s daughter. It recalls elements of the Crown of Sorrows raid and the Season of the Drifter from more than two years ago, making both relevant again. It rewards you for paying attention to Destiny 2’s story, and it encourages you to go learn more about the world; the more you know about all these different elements, the more interesting and weirder the story of the Glykon becomes.

What I like most about Presage, though, is that it’s full of secrets. The best moments in Destiny, bar none, are the discovery of secret tidbits hidden within the game. Presage itself is something of a secret–to unlock it, you need to play a specific mission this week , opening a door that has been closed for six years and revealing a new area. Inside the ship itself are clues that imply there’s more to the mission than what we’ve already seen–as you learn more about the ship, you can unlock additional pieces of story and hidden caches.

Digging through and finding what’s hidden in missions like Presage are some of the greatest experiences that Destiny 2 has to offer. It’s moments like these when we see the community around the game at its finest, it’s reminiscent of when thousands came together to solve the puzzle of the Corridors of Time. They’re opportunities for Bungie to make its game feel massive and nuanced, where your investment in the game is respected and rewarded, and where Bungie is at its most creative and inventive.

It’s been tough to be a Destiny fan lately. Some changes, like the removal of some planetary destinations and “gunsetting,” in which older weapons and armor have been rendered obsolete, have turned off a lot of players. Though I might have complaints about losing my favorite gear to old age or the lack of story context for my friends first stepping into the world, it’s missions like Presage (and the extremely cool gun you get from it, Dead Man’s Tale) that keep me playing.

I like Destiny’s enormous universe and the strange, fascinating stories it can tell. I like that one mission can be focused on comedy, and another can be a straight-up haunted house. I like that there’s always something new to uncover. And I like that I’m eventually going to find out what happened on a derelict ship drifting through the solar system, shoot a bunch of aliens with a cool new gun, and see a little more of Bungie’s massive world come into sharper focus.