How WandaVision’s Infamous Grief Line Was Created (By Accident)

WandaVision writer Laura Donney broke down the key grief line from episode 8. The MCU streaming series shone a spotlight on Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) as she struggled to deal with Vision’s (Paul Bettany) death in Avengers: Infinity War. After becoming a success with fans and critics alike, WandaVision was nominated for a record 23 Emmy awards. One of the nominations was for Donney’s episode 8 script, “Previously On,” which made it clear that grief was always the main villain of WandaVision. 

Although the first seven episodes of WandaVision had been hinting at Wanda’s grief being the primary instigator for what was happening in Westview, episode 8 finally confirmed it. The episode featured Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) taking an unwilling Wanda on a trip down memory lane. Agatha forced Wanda to relive through all her past trauma, which led up to a crucial memory that added more context to Wanda’s relationship with Vision. In the scene Vision attempts to console Wanda at the Avengers Compound while Wanda was in the midst of mourning her brother Pietro. Although Vision struggles to understand human emotions, he sums up grief perfectly with the line, “What is grief, if not love, persevering?”

Donney gave an insightful interview with The Hollywood Reporter about episode 8’s Wanda and Vision scene and how the famous line about grief came to be. She pointed out the contrast between Wanda’s very human grief and Vision’s desire to understand and empathize with her. Check out Donney’s explanation of the scene below.

“Vision likes clarity and is pretty direct, and in a lot of ways he always finds the poetic reality of a situation…It pushes Wanda to say what she’s really feeling. She knows he’s not going to come at her with judgment — he’s never had this experience. It really opened the door for Wanda to be vulnerable with him. 

My original line didn’t have ‘grief’ in it…I think everyone felt like we had to name [the emotion], and then this beautiful line bloomed…I think of it as the scene is written, and then the choreography of language can change…That’s what can happen when you have amazing hearts and minds all working together.”

Donney’s line about grief was relatable, impactful and certainly resonated with WandaVision fans. Another reason why the line was so important was because it showed the audience the first sparks of Wanda and Vision’s love. Instead of shaming Wanda for grieving or judging her, Vision simply strove to understand what she was going through, and that was exactly what she needed. Equating grief to love persevering was certainly a good summary for WandaVision as a whole. Donney’s Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Writing For A Limited Series or Anthology or Movie,” is well deserved.

What WandaVision did so well was to actually allow an Avenger the time to grieve the loss of a loved one. Not only that, but WandaVision made past Wanda and Vision moments in the MCU even more poignant. The love that Wanda and Vision shared was powerful, so it made sense that it was Vision who helped Wanda come to terms with letting go of a false reality that wasn’t helping anyone in the long run.

Although it made sense that WandaVision ended with episode 9, it’s evident that there’s far more story possibilities for one of the MCU’s cutest couples. Wanda and Vision departed in Westview with the hope that they’d say hello again one day. Here’s hoping that’ll happen so Wanda can finally enjoy some lasting happiness for once in her life.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter