A solidly packed episode brings Vision closer to Tommy, helps us understand the different parts of Vision and gives more insight into Paladin and the Butcherbird. Join me in unpacking this complicated episode below the fold....
I started out wondering where this series would go and am becoming slowly more invested in Vision – and what I'm starting to call VISION, the VIbranium Synthezoid Incorporated Operating Noosphere. Obviously, all the "characters" are pieces of Vision's intentionally fractured psyche, and they share some level of awareness and also of autonomy. Understanding exactly what JARVIS, Friday, Ultron, Dum-e and U are, helps explain some of the things in this episode to me.
To be clear, I have no certainty about what they are. I have some ideas. This is my attempt to explain what's going on, while also reviewing this episode, which opens with Vision still in crisis, and the VISION team scrambling internally to reroute systems and save him, making me think already of the previous episode. As the episode begins, Vision has to use battery acid on his wounds to save himself, and even so he passes out (while the VISION team is still awake – an important point.)
So at the start of this episode what is my understanding? JARVIS is gone. As the butler of the group, he seemed to be maintaining the essential architecture and organization of the system. Without him, they still have their knowledge, abilities and specializations, but there is also a sense of more randomness, and without JARVIS as their leader they seem more prone to... self-indulgence, or difference, for lack of a better word. JARVIS was clearly the superego of the group.
Dum-e and U are... cleaners, subroutines that protect and maintain VISION. They are clearly far more complex than they originally appeared. In this episode, also, for the first time, they also seemed... a little scary? One went almost superintelligent, and the other looked terrifying when he sang. Are Dum-e and U part of VISION's id? Most people think the id is something evil. Freud defined the id as subconscious or unconscious desires, something without morality or immorality, operating on natural impulse alone. Dum-e and U perform a cleaning and organizing role, but contain unexpected impulses.
FRIDAY, EDITH and Ultron, on the other hand, seem to function as neuroses or psychoses, given they are copies of other personalities contained as subroutines within VISION. EDITH had some moments here that terrified me – without JARVIS, she seems to be slipping into insanity. I quite like the character – she seems to be shaping up as a sort of adult Pippi Longstocking – and didn't really understand what was driving her slide towards depression, unless it's the loss of JARVIS and how challenging it is keeping VISION going right now.
Vision himself is the ego of the group, the part trying to merge his impulses – the tendencies towards goodness and virtue inherited from OG Vision – with the body and experiential standpoint which he currently inhabits. Vision has two conflicting superegos. In many ways he and Tommy work well together as father and son because they are both, in themselves, multiple people trying to reconcile themselves with each other.
Does Vision realize that in this episode? There must be a part of him that is OG Vision, even if it doesn't have a representative here. That Vision shared his memories and experiences with this one, and that seems to me to be quite the same as absorbing the programming of FRIDAY, EDITH and Ultron – yet so far we've seen those memories squashed, almost repressed into a movie Vision doesn't want to see. Might the OG Vision make an appearance in this internal family in future episodes? I think he might. When the episode began Vision was trying to save himself; when it ended Vision had been saved by his son, only to be put into danger by what clearly seems to be a new robot. For a hero, Vision needs a lot of saving – but Paul Bettany sells every moment and sells it well. In terms of Tommy, however, Vision figures out how to connect with him. And, like many fathers, the solution lies in asking his son to open up about his feelings, rather than telling him what those feelings are. Tommy finally confesses his story: he died, attacked by bullies, and in the process of dying, he came to life, two Tommys now. In the process of sharing his story, we and Vision began to see the extent of Tommy's power and how it relates to Vision's.
The Paladin started out as this Mandalorian-like unstoppable figure, and now seems a lot more human. I'm not going to deny it – I'm getting serious David Harbour vibes from Todd Stashwick in this episode, as he physically and metaphorically takes off his armor and acknowledges his limitations. The episode left me hoping that Paladin and the Vision would connect. Both of these characters are struggling to identify who they are, and have connections but also differences from their predecessors. These two have a lot to talk about, if they can ever get to that point.
The Vision's brief recuperation is immediately delayed as he's attacked by both Paladin and Butcherbird, who thankfully attack each other, and he and Tommy realize they're not safe hiding in the hotel. While the Butcherbird tears down Paladin – using very human tools for something that seems so robotic – the Paladin manages to call down his drones to protect himself, and Vision and Tommy flee.
Yet the flight is giving them a chance. The Vision realizes that he needs a complete reboot in order to survive, and that Tommy's powers are what he needs to make this happen. In a fairly stunning speech – Paul Bettany can take any words and make them meaningful – Vision convinces Tommy to try. These two are well cast to work together, I think. They keep saving each other.
The process of rebooting Vision started with Vision and Ultron together in the film room, looking at stories of Vision's life while Vision shuts himself down in the pool. Unlike earlier, when Vision is knocked out, this complete reboot shuts off the entire VISION team, the film, and Ultron and Vision themselves. Tommy's reboot is epic, and Ruaridh Mollica not only demonstrates power but the ultimate in wistful Irish faces. When Vision reawakens, he seems far more like himself. I absolutely loved this scene of rebirth and even baptism.
Interestingly, the Butcherbird is impacted by this moment – red eyes changing to gold for a second.
The failure to get Vision again causes Paladin to lose his client and, possibly, his self respect. Will Paladin go after Vision again to prove his worth, or go after the Butcherbird? Paladin seems to have determined Butcherbird is another synthezoid, but I'm not so sure. Mind reading powers don't seem to be part of Vision's power set.
The funeral they finally hold for JARVIS gives us so much more insight into the VISION crew. Dum-E and U also seem to be the programs that provide Vision access to the arts and music – spaces of deep feeling. Or were those pieces of Jarvis, coming out? What does it mean that the Ultron avatar struggles to understand love, while our Vision now seems to believe in it? And, who is the new person in VISION – the Butcherbird, or something else? Whoever it is doesn't seem to be working with Ultron, who seems quite as disturbed as the rest of the VISION team. And Dum-E and U and V turn out to be somehow easily controlled by the new visitor. From physical attack and repair to mental attack, this episode just brings us from one cliffhanger to the next, and I'm here for it... and for your thoughts about my psychoanalysis of VISION!
Quick Notes
Is it just me or does Vision's face seem more like OG Vision than White Vision in this episode?
I can't place the Butcherbird in the comics. At one point in the books Vision created another synthezoid, but this doesn't seem to be that.
Nice Quotes
"All you've ever wanted was to feel real. Anything but to feel... synthetic."
"I have run thousands of simulations of what I'm about to tell you. At the end of each and every one of them, you run from me, more confused, more angry than you are now. But all my simulations were flawed. Because I do not know you well enough, Thomas Shepherd. I haven't listened to you well enough. And therefore I haven't considered that inside you is Tommy Maximoff, son to Wanda and Vision, brother to Billy, who adored him. HE is not your fantasy, he is not your delusion. You are real. Tommy Maximoff is real. You are who you think you are."
"No. This isn't right. The past doesn't make one want to live. The future does."
"It was history itself that recommended the Paladin." (I think this line may have additional meaning.)
Overall
A fantastic episode which will keep me watching. 5/5 upgraded Ships of Theseus.
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