VisionQuest Episode 7 ‘Immolation’ delivers the emotional gut punch this show has been building towards. Sure, this isn’t over yet. There’s still the matter of what’s going to happen to Vision (Paul Bettany) and Jocasta (T’Nia Miller), and who really is behind it all. But it’s hard to care about the ending when this hour gives us Vision allowing himself to feel the grief, and thanks to that, accepting not just himself, but Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica).
There has only ever been one Vision, and this episode sees him realize that the disconnect he felt between memories and feelings was just… a mental block, a protection. If I tell myself this didn’t happen to me, that I don’t “feel” it, then I don’t get to feel the good, but I also don’t get to feel the loss. And Vision has suffered terrible loss. Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) is gone. He believes Billy (Joe Locke) is gone. And the possibility of never having them again is enough to make him not want to be the Vision.
But what is grief if not love persevering, and in this episode we see Vision accept the grief because his love for Tommy demands that he does. There’s no way to save his son, the one he has tried very hard to keep at arm’s length, without accepting who he is and what that means. For Vision, whatever comes next is worth it. He has already been saved, in all the ways that matter.
I AM THE VISION
“I have always been the Vision. There is only one.” It feels like an obvious answer, of course, but sometimes accepting ourselves can be the hardest thing to do. And in Vision’s case, it’s not a simple case of accepting who he is; it’s the fact that the acceptance will come with the unimaginable pain of loss. Wanda’s loss was so profound she created an entire fake world. Vision’s grief was so vast that he cut himself from who he was, just so he didn’t have to feel it.
But denial only takes you so far, just as bargaining with Wanda. At some point, you have to accept the bad, if you want to get the good. And for Vision, that meant that having Tommy in his life, saving him, being able to make him happy… well, it required living with the loss of his other son, Billy, and the only woman he ever loved, Wanda.
If VisionQuest hits so hard, if this episode hits so hard, it’s because anyone who’s ever experienced loss understands what this is like. Sometimes it feels like the wound is so deep, so painful, that you’d be willing to give up every memory just so you wouldn’t have to feel the loss. But in the end, that’s not true. Love perseveres. And love doesn’t fix things, but it leaves a mark, a good one. One you don’t want to give up.
EVEN THE BAD STUFF IS THERE FOR A REASON
Sounds super profound, because this episode is just one emotional gut-punch after another, but we all live and learn. And sometimes we learn over and over. The same lesson. Different lessons. The bad stuff does indeed make you better, if you can learn the lessons that come with it. If you’re open and accept that there are lessons to be learned.
But moving forward through pain, through grief, can sometimes be terrifying. There’s also an acknowledgement of that in the show. And VisionQuest works on such a scale that, at a cursory glance, it might be hard to relate. We will never come close to the big universe-type losses the MCU provides. But loss is loss. Grief is grief. There’s specificity within these universal messages, and that’s what VisionQuest is trying to show.
We’re all fighting our own battle, and we all have our own struggles. That’s why this story is about Vision… not about Wanda, not about Billy. Perhaps it’s also about Tommy, but that’s about it. Forget about what’s coming later, about Doomsday and about who’s coming back or leaving. Hang onto what came before, but remember it’s not about that. Process this. Sometimes, you have to let yourself feel the pain. You have to let yourself learn the lesson. The big picture comes later.
THANK YOU, MY SON
Learning the lesson, feeling the pain, accepting yourself, all big lessons that sometimes require a really hard journey. And for Vision, they also require a tether. A reason to try. That’s what Tommy provides. But Tommy is more than just Vision’s reason for being; VisionQuest has turned him into a fully realized character that we want to see more of. That’s what makes Vision’s admission that Tommy found him when he was lost so emotional.
And that’s also what makes the “I love you” hit so hard. Because we wanted Vision to realize that Tommy was his son, yes. We wanted him to go from Thomas to Tommy. But we also wanted Vision to feel that love, not just because of who Tommy was to him, but because of who Tommy was, period. And the journey that we’ve taken makes it feel like when Tommy tells his son he loves him, that’s because he sees Tommy and loves him, not because he sees his son and loves him.
But there’s also the Tommy side of it, the boy who sadly remembers a life that wasn’t that great, the boy who desperately wanted to believe that he was loved and that him being part of a family wasn’t just a hallucination. Vision’s words make that real. Thomas Shepherd is Tommy Maximoff, and Tommy Maximoff has a father. He has a brother. He had a mother. He’s part of a family. And family doesn’t give up on each other.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of VisionQuest Episode 7 ‘Immolation’? Share with us in the comments below!
The first two episodes of VisionQuest are available to stream on Disney+.
