VisionQuest just went from a quiet character study to a full-blown Ultron story in the space of two episodes. Here is a quick catch-up on the premiere, everything that happens in Reboot and Malware, what that last shot is telling us, and when the next two episodes arrive.
I have been waiting for a proper Vision story since the end of WandaVision left White Vision flying off with Wanda's memories and none of her feelings. Episodes 3 and 4 dropped on Disney+ on Tuesday, October 20 (Wednesday in the UK), and they are the best hour and three quarters of Marvel TV I have watched in a while. They also end with the single worst-case scenario for Vision, which is exactly why you are probably here.
4Reboot and Malware
A synthezoid serial killer, a black-tie gala, and the deal Vision should never have made.
The setup, spoiler-free: Paul Bettany is back as Vision, hiding out in Edinburgh with a bounty on his head and a house full of Tony Stark's old AIs living inside his mind. The most dangerous tenant is James Spader's Ultron, who lives on the top floor and spends his time nudging Vision to feel something. Ruaridh Mollica plays Tommy, a young grifter in London with memories of a mother named Wanda, and Todd Stashwick is the Paladin, the bounty hunter chasing them both.
Critics have been warm on it. The Rotten Tomatoes score launched at 87% and Certified Fresh, dipped to 82% before the premiere, and then climbed back to around 90% once more reviews landed, which almost never happens after release. Bettany and Spader get the loudest praise. The main complaint is pacing, with some reviewers saying too much of the runtime goes to characters explaining things, and honestly, after episode 4, I think that complaint just got a lot weaker.
If you need a refresher before episode 5, these three are the essential homework:
Everything below covers episodes 1 through 4, including the ending of Malware. If you have not caught up, the trailer above is the safe place to stop.
Quick catch-up: episodes 1 and 2
Vision works at an Edinburgh pub he and Wanda used to visit. Inside his head, he has built a home of code for J.A.R.V.I.S., F.R.I.D.A.Y., E.D.I.T.H. and the rest of Tony's AIs, with Ultron locked on the top floor.
Ultron leaks Vision's location on the dark web. He did not place the bounty, but he made sure the Paladin found it. The Paladin's team storms the pub, the owner Fiona is killed, and Vision tears through the attackers.
Vision punishes Ultron by taking away his screens and every link to the outside world.
The Paladin digs into S.W.O.R.D.'s Westview files and finds Tommy, now going by Thomas, who has two sets of memories and a psychiatric file to prove it. He captures him and tells Vision he has his son.
Vision walks into the trap anyway. Sonic pulses scramble him, adamantium rounds crack his vibranium body, and J.A.R.V.I.S. deletes his own code to give Vision enough power to survive. Tommy refuses to run, steals a car and drives Vision away. Ultron's line over the top of it: "Like father, like son."
Episode 3, Reboot: what happens
Tommy hauls a badly damaged Vision to a cheap hotel. Vision says only Tony Stark or Bruce Banner could fix him, and one of them is dead. Inside his head, the damage plays out as a house fire that DUM-E has to put out, which is the kind of detail that makes this show so much fun.
Meanwhile there is a killer on the news. Victims are being left with wing shapes at the scene, the press has named the killer Butcherbird, and the hooded figure with glowing robotic eyes shrugs off shotgun blasts. Ultron is fascinated, because as far as anyone knows, every Stark AI in existence is already living in Vision's head.
The Paladin survived the fight thanks to an adamantium vest supplied by the Ten Rings, which is a fun thread back to Shang-Chi. We get his origin in flashback, and the mystery client gives him until the end of the night to finish the job.
The heart of the episode is Vision and Tommy in that hotel room. Tommy asks straight out whether Vision is his father. Vision says no and blames Wanda. Then Tommy explains the pool: bullies held him under, he drowned, and "something else" filled the gap, which is why he has two lives' worth of memories. When Vision's core starts to fail, Tommy jumps back into the hotel pool and uses his super-speed to restart it. It is a lovely, painful callback, and it is also a mistake, because the reboot sends out a signal.
Inside the mind palace, E.D.I.T.H. holds a funeral for J.A.R.V.I.S. The sky turns red, DUM-E and U are possessed, and Butcherbird walks right into the service.
Episode 4, Malware: what happens
E.D.I.T.H. performs what is basically an exorcism on the intruding code, and Ultron identifies it: a synthezoid serial killer. Vision and Ultron then hack Interpol while pretending to be cops, and the funniest beat of the season so far is Ultron, the robot who once tried to end humanity, failing a CAPTCHA.
The pattern comes together. Every victim sat on the board of Markridge Biotech, an AI company that sold its technology to Stark Industries. Each body is missing a piece, and each piece works as a bio-key for a locked container. The last board member standing is Katerina Wells, and she is hosting a gala called The Re-Evolution of Man on Sokovia Remembrance Day. If you remember what Ultron did to Sokovia, that date is not subtle.
To get in, Tommy recruits his old partner in crime Lisa Molinari (Lauren Morais), the grifter who goes by Coat of Arms. E.D.I.T.H. also turns up Stark files on Dr. Phineas Horton and J.I.M., the first synthetic man, later identified as Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch. Comic fans will know Horton built that android Human Torch back in 1939, decades before Ultron or Vision existed.
At the gala, Vision slips. He tells Tommy there are five AIs in his head. Tommy remembers being told four at the hotel and does the math: the fifth is Ultron.
Then the mask comes off. Butcherbird is Jocasta, played by T'Nia Miller, a synthezoid built in the image of a dead AI researcher, Dr. Josephine Carrington. She even quotes Ultron's old line, "Peace in our time." In the comics, Jocasta is the bride Ultron built for himself, so the second she said that, I yelled at my TV.
The ending, explained
Jocasta beats Vision. With both of them about to die, Ultron offers a deal: hand over control of the body and he will get them out alive. Vision agrees, and Ultron immediately does what Ultron does. He locks Vision, F.R.I.D.A.Y., E.D.I.T.H., DUM-E and U out of the mind palace and takes the body for himself.
Katerina Wells dies in the chaos, and at least one recap reads it as Ultron's doing rather than Jocasta's. Ultron flirts with Jocasta, she runs, and he walks off with Tommy. Ultron is now wearing Vision's face, and he has Vision's maybe-son along for the ride.
The final shot is the one I cannot stop thinking about. It is a museum exhibit on J.I.M., the synthetic man who burned out from overwhelming emotion, and it mirrors a portrait of a burning man that hangs in Vision's mind palace. Here is my theory: the show has spent four episodes with Ultron pushing Vision to feel more, and now it is showing us what happened to the last synthetic man who felt too much. Episode 7 is called Immolation. I do not think that is a coincidence.
Ultron spent four episodes begging Vision to feel something. The last shot shows us what happened to the last synthetic man who did.
What episodes 5 and 6 have to answer
Who hired the Paladin? S.W.O.R.D. is the obvious suspect, and the show has not confirmed anything.
What is in the container that Markridge's board members were the keys to, and does Ultron want it too?
Who built Jocasta, and why is she hunting Markridge's board? Recaps are floating Ultron, a copy of him, or S.W.O.R.D. working from Markridge's research. Nothing is confirmed.
How does Vision get his body back from inside a mind palace Ultron now controls?
Is Tommy really Vision's son, and what was the "something else" that filled him in that pool?
When the rest of VisionQuest comes out
Eight episodes in total. Episodes 5 (Firewall) and 6 (Deadlock) arrive together on Tuesday, October 27. After that it goes to one a week: episode 7 (Immolation) on November 3, and the finale, Forever, on November 10. Those are US evening releases on Disney+, so in the UK each one lands the following day.
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