Teyonah Parris Plays A Crucial Role In The Puzzle That Is WandaVision

In the strange Marvel Cinematic Universe world that is WandaVision, things aren't exactly as they seem. Three episodes into the brand new Disney+ offering, fans of the superhero world are trying to piece together how exactly Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) are reunited post-Avengers: Infinity War. Thankfully, episode 3 of the complicated miniseries offers us a revelation, courtesy of one Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris).

We first met Monica in the '90s-set Captain Marvel as the young daughter of Carol Danvers' (Brie Larson) best friend Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), but we don't technically meet her adult self in WandaVision. The character introduces herself rather sketchily as Geraldine in episode 2, and just like Wanda, she's trying to get her bearings in Westview. However, the third episode reveals that Geraldine isn't exactly who she says she is, and her exposure leads to a major plot discovery.

Episode 3 sees Wanda and Vision attempting to prepare for the rapidly approaching arrival of their firstborn child. The pregnancy advances quickly, and within minutes, Wanda goes into labour with her friend Monica by her side, giving birth to a pair of baby boys. The sight of her newborns reminds the former Avenger of her own twin, Pietro (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson), but when Monica tentatively reminds Wanda how Pietro died — via a barrage of bullets shot by Ultron in Age of Ultron — she is literally ejected from Westview. Monica lands in a grassy field near a base camp, with helicopters and army tanks immediately swarming her as Wanda's warped reality continues nearby.

As evidenced by the base camp set outside of Westview, a military unit is carefully monitoring Wanda's chaos magic from the outside. Given the clues of the episode, it's safe to assume now that the agency keeping a close eye on Westview is S.W.O.R.D., the space-based initiative formed by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and storied extra-governmental military counter-terrorism and intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D. From the looks of it, Monica was recruited to join the elite space organisation and has been assigned to work Wanda's frightening case. But if there's anyone who can get to the bottom of this reality-shifting mystery, it's Monica — she's kind of a big deal in the Marvel world.

"Monica has so much on her," Parris, the actress who plays the S.W.O.R.D. agent in the Disney+ series, told Refinery29 in via Zoom in early January. "In the comic books, her history is very long. So WandaVision does serve as sort of an origin story for Monica. You get to some of it, but not all of it. There's only so much space to do that."

Parris also said that while some of her story will be reserved for the events of Captain Marvel 2, in which Monica appears alongside Carol Danvers and Ms. Marvel, much will soon be revealed in the next episodes of WandaVision. She pointed specifically to the chain of events that took Monica from the young girl we met in Captain Marvel to an instrumental S.W.O.R.D. agent and "how the events in this world have shaped and changed her." But comics readers know she's a future superhero with her own special abilities. Yeah, you read that right. Monica is just as gifted as the rest of the MCU.

Yeah, you read that right. Monica is just as gifted as the rest of the MCU.

“Monica brings heart," said Parris of her character. "She's a female, and she is a woman of colour. A Black woman! She's just been such a staple in the history of the comics — she was the first female leader of the Avengers," she continued. "And she's just had such a long career in the comic books and worked with so many different superheroes and had relationships that there's just so much to flesh out."

If you're still lost after watching that episode of WandaVision, you're definitely not alone. But, as Parris promised, all will be revealed in time; patience is key in seeing how all of this ties together and ultimately affects the rest of the MCU. Monica's big reveal as a S.W.O.R.D. agent and the confirmation that Wanda is in fact altering reality with her chaos magic are the first steps in solving this mystery.