VisionQuest Ep 7 Review
All right, if Paul Bettany or James Spader don’t win some kind of award for their work in VisionQuest, they are being robbed-especially Paul! He just pulled triple-duty in this episode as the Vision nears the end of his quest for self-discovery. A quest that ends up flipping the narrative of the show completely on its head as we go back to the beginning of synthetic life, and to a hero that was part of Marvel’s early days. Man, this show is good!
Who’s Really Pulling the Strings?
In the last episode, it looked as though we had our ultimate big bads set up for the final two episodes. Ultron and Jocasta have formed an unholy alliance. There’s a nest of nanobots capable of controlling mankind waiting to be unleashed. And Thomas’ love interest, Lisa, is at risk of dying thanks to the nanobot Jocasta implanted in her. However, that is when the Client shows up and makes everyone an offer they can’t refuse. The key to saving Lisa’s life lies in the original source code, the ancestral code from which all AI stem from, buried deep within the Vision’s processors. The Client gives him the means to find it, but only if Vision gives himself up to this enigmatic person. A deal with the devil, contract and everything.
The journey that Vision takes into his own mind gives Paul Bettany the chance to show off his full acting chops as he is forced to play multiple roles at once. He manages to do a great job at playing the different characters off of themselves, too, making them feel unique. For example, Vision is confronted by the sight of his past self, who chews him out for putting him on a pedestal because he’s too scared to embrace who he is. Which is basically the entire premise behind this show: Vision learning to accept that he is not a replacement of his past self, but is the Vision. It gets even better, though, when he meets a fascimile of the first Synthezoid, JIM, and his Gepetto, Dr. Phineas Horton.
Paul Bettany Slays as the Vision
Most of us know who the Human Torch is. Despite how popular Johnny Storm is, though, he isn’t the first person to be called that. That honor goes to a superhero Marvel introduced near the beginning in 1939: JIM. He was an android created by Dr. Horton who could set himself on fire and became one of the first modern superheroes. In the MCU, though, Horton created him as a replacement for his late son, and did so without giving him the capacity for emotions. That was something JIM resented his creator for, and eventually, it led to both of their deaths. And now, JIM’s code is watching Vision trying to deny the emotions he wanted and thinks he’s making the stupidest mistake possible.
In a scene that’s charged with the most emotion we’ve seen Paul demonstrate as the Vision, we understand why he’s been so adamant on calling his past self a different person. It’s because acknowledging that he’s the Vision means acknowledging that Wanda’s supposedly gone, and so is Billy. The irony is that we know that Billy’s out there, and if rumors about Doomsday are true, so is Wanda. However, it’s important that Vision finally accepts the grief he feels from everything he’s been through and then move on. And when he does, we get to see the Vision regain the color he once had, and it is glorious!
Too bad that his newly reclaimed identity (and accepting Thomas as his son) comes at the cost of his freedom. The Client gets what he wants.
But who is the Client? Someone we weren’t expecting.
The Real Gepetto
As it turns out, Jocasta was being played from the beginning: there was a sixth partner that worked alongside her to develop the nanobots. Someone who had the same ideas she did about using them to bring about their vision of peace. Someone who has been pulling the strings of all the AI, even Ultron, much to his disturbance. That someone is the Client, and while we don’t know his name yet, we do know his face. After all, Ultron’s been wearing it for the entire series.
The episode ends with Jocasta and the Vision being captured by the Client, with the latter brought to Dr. Horton’s old home by Paladin (who dies). That’s when we look to see someone else being played by James Spader. And since most of the AI we’ve met were based on someone human, this is the human version of Ultron.
Full disclosure: I have no idea who this person might be whatsoever. The most I can think of is that he might be a descendant of Dr. Horton, based on what the Internet says. All I know is that the finale next episode needs to stick the landing, because after that, it’s a straight shot to Doomsday. And I’m really hoping that Paul and James come back for that in some form.
I Give “Immolation” a 4/5
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