VisionQuest – Immolation review S1 E7
Immolation brought the fire to VisionQuest on multiple fronts. First, for the official introduction of Jim Hammond aka The Original Human Torch into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and for the scorching dialogue that included so many fiery quotable lines.
Before I exhaust all of my fire-related puns, let’s break down all the big moments from the penultimate episode of VisionQuest.
It’s 1939 and Dr. Phineas Horton (Paul Bettany doing a little double duty) is selling his estate while his wife pleads with him to stop going down this path he’s on. Phineas has sunk three years and countless funds to replace the son he lost by making a robot.
For Phineas, completing his robot, Jim, is more important than enjoying the life he could have with his wife and their daughter, Victoria. In the wake of their departure, Horton turns to the still in-progress Jim and tells him that “I will make you better than God made us. You never need know the consequence of love.”
Huey Lewis & The News and Kelly Clarkson would agree with Phineas on the power and trouble with love, which is certainly the dominant theme of Immolation.
In the present day, Thomas is distraught over Lisa’s condition after being infected by Jocasta’s nano bots. While he knows Vision isn’t really his father, Lisa helped Thomas see the world and not be afraid. Losing Lisa would cause Thomas to lose himself. Those words sting, or maybe more appropriately for Immolation, burn Vision as that sentiment reflected Wanda’s as her world came crashing down.
To help Lisa, Vision says they need the aid of someone with a lot of juice in Madripoor. While The Falcon and The Winter Soldier viewers might guess he’s talking about Sharon Carter, it’s actually just Paladin. Not that Paladin hasn’t been a welcome addition to the series, it just illustrates how disconnected the MCU is from a project to project perspective with the inclusion of TV shows in the mix.
Friday calls in with some disturbing news from deep in Jocasta’s data center — Jocasta doesn’t know how she became a synth. Ultron notices it as well telling Jocasta that someone put her in a very unique cage.
That mystery can wait. For now, Jocasta needs to enter in the biometrics from her fellow AI founders’ club. Curiously, there’s a code required from a secret sixth partner. Last chance to get all those interesting and well-conceived theories about The Client out…
The Client has an offer for both Vision and Jocasta, his “beautiful queen.” Vision’s answer lies in his code while The Client will help Jocasta regain her memories.
Ultron has been keeping Friday’s presence a secret. He wants to know who’s pulling Jocasta’s strings. The burning immolation question is does Ultron genuinely want to know to look out for Jocasta or learn his rival to having control over her?
Paladin managed to snag Corvus Glave’s blade. The Wakandans were using it as an alien battery. It sure feels like Shuri or M’Baku really needs to tighten up Wakandan security.
Director Terry Matalas shot Vision’s trek inside his subconscious like Vision’s version of Wanda’s nightmares in Into the Multiverse of Madness. Immolation further connects VisionQuest and WandaVision to the point that Agatha All Along has become somewhat of a side quest series instead of a vital part of this saga.
Vision flashes through a moment with Ultron and Billy and Tommy before he encounters Vision 1.0, who just immediately starts dropping killer dialogue in Immolation.
“After all the monsters fought and battles waged the only force capable of imprisoning me is myself. I’ve been relegated to a memory. You have placed me on a pedestal so impossibly high and not to honor me, but to spare yourself the effort of the climb.”
NuVision insists he’s just a copy, but OG Vision fires back with another gem — That is a lie you tell yourself.
While this inner monologue plays out, Paladin has to block a recovered and still mind-controlled Lisa from stopping Vision.
Vision keeps going and finds JIM (Bettany pulling triple duty) and Horton.
Horton says he made JIM fearless, which made him a hero of his time, perhaps a nod to JIM’s comic book origins of fighting the Axis alongside Namor and Captain America? JIM eventually found love and it set fire to the air around him and Horton. While Horton wasn’t JIM’s father, he was his…something.
Vision tries to maintain the illusion that only “works” in his subconscious that he is not Vision — complete with all the emotional ties from his early creation, death and resurrection. To own up to it would be “the admission of a truth so impossibly cruel it would be a wound that could never heal. A loss no soul would be able to bear.” The loss of Billy, Tommy and Wanda. Instead of being broken, JIM proclaim Vision is healed as the white fades away and the color is restored.
JIM tells Vision he has had possession of the source code all along embedded in his forehead. This was a really wonderfully done scene and another amazing performance/set of performances from Bettany that firmly places him in the upper echelon of MCU performances.
Vision awakens and stops Lisa by removing Jocasta’s influence, but The Client wants the deal honored. Vision surrenders himself to Paladin, but not before leaving a message to Tommy with all of SWORD’s files on WandaVision.
Meanwhile, Jocasta starts to remember some of Jo’s memories like winning the Stark Industry Award with her hidden partner.
The mystery of the client has been really well done although the payoff seems a bit underwhelming. It’s a dead ringer for Ultron’s human avatar minus the neckbeard. This mystery player shuts down Vision and Jocasta’s motor functions and has his goons blow up Paladin’s van. Guess that contract really was cancelled…
Immolation serves up some tantalizing scenes for Bettany in his various roles while numerous subplots get paid off. Now let’s see if VisionQuest can deliver with the season finale.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: Disney
After watching Immolation, check out The Visions in the Marvel Premier Collection format at Amazon.
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