Review: VisionQuest, “Firewall” | Season 1, Episode 5
Ultron takes center stage in a stylish episode that effectively reorients the season
Part of what made WandaVision and Agatha All Along so memorable is how episodic they were, with each installment offering a new theme and aesthetic that immediately made them distinctive. VisionQuest hasn’t embraced that structure in the same way, but “Firewall” comes the closest to having a high-concept standalone premise. Instead of simply linearly following what happens after Ultron takes over Vision’s body and leaves the gala with Thomas, this episode presents it as a mystery for Vision and his fellow AIs to piece together from 20 hours in the future. They know Vision’s physical body is currently rising to a great height, but they don’t know anything beyond that. So they dig into his memory banks and CCTV footage to piece together a timeline.
It's a clever way to add some style to what’s ultimately a pretty straightforward, conversation-heavy episode, although the true special effect here is how charismatic James Spader is whenever he’s allowed to go full megalomaniac. Indeed, structurally, it really helps to reposition Ultron as the focal point of the villain side of the show with Paladin and Jo Carrington as pawns in his game rather than the other way around. Back in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Vision and Ultron were literally created as foils for one another, which makes him a much more natural antagonist than either Paladin or Jo were on their own.
Pairing Ultron with Jo also allows the show to deliver a twisted mirror universe version of the Wanda/Vision love story. My assumption that Ultron would see Jo as a daughter turns out to be supremely incorrect as they almost immediately start flirting in increasingly shameless ways. (Best not to get too caught up in the logistics of robot family trees I guess.) Credit to T’Nia Miller for being able to go toe-to-toe with Spader in such an effortless way as Jo and Ultron push each other to new levels of villainy based on their shared hatred of humanity. It’s unclear how much of their connection is genuine and how much is a manipulation on one or both of their ends, but that’s part of what makes them so well-matched.
