Spoilers ahead if you didn’t watch all 9 episodes of the show WandaVision on Disney+!

WandaVision is an amazing show that aired on Disney+ as part of the Marvel Universe. It is definitely a must watch show if you love Marvel films. The premise of the show is that Wanda is a character who has suffered from a lot of loss and trauma throughout her life. She then fell in love with her partner Vision who she planned to spend the rest of her life with. After Wanda suffered the loss of her twin brother, her partner Vision then died. Because this is part of the Marvel Universe, Wanda also has intense superpowers in which she has a hard time controlling. Her immense amount of grief brings Wanda through the 5 stages of grief throughout this show in a very realistic way. Anyone who has been through a loss can relate to what Wanda seems to be going through.

Anchor Therapy is a counseling center in Hoboken, NJ with psychotherapists specialized in helping children, teens, adults, and couples with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, trauma, life transitions, and more. Anchor Therapy is accepting new clients and is now providing in-person sessions and teletherapy sessions to residents of New Jersey, New York, and Florida.

Denial:
After the loss of her partner Vision, Wanda goes into a deep denial of what happened. Her powers are so strong that she is actually able to re-create a live version of her partner in which they then get married and have a family together. Wanda is so deep in her denial that if anything seems out of the perfect world she created around herself then she will literally rewind to correct this error. Wanda is controlling the physical world around her so that she can stay in this denial about her loss.
Another point of denial for Wanda is that she was pregnant for less than a day and had twin babies who grew to 10 year old boys within days. This is obviously not the normal trajectory for pregnancy and aging, but Wanda is so deep in her denial of losing her family with Vision that she creates a family in front of her. She includes everyone around her and in the town in her denial by making her kids’ growth a normal thing that no one is allowed to question.
Later in the show, Wanda’s deceased brother also shows up at her door. While the actor who plays her brother isn’t the same actor, this character still presents to Wanda as her brother and she is again so deep in her denial that she goes along with it. While Wanda is surrounded by her family members, she does not have to come to the reality that they are all dead.
Dealing with complex life transitions, like the loss of a loved one, is hard. If you are debating grief counseling, read our blog “How To Know When To Seek Grief Therapy & Learn All About The New Grief Diagnosis.”
Anger:
Whenever anything threatens this new reality that Wanda creates, she becomes very angry. An example is that when Wanda is confronted about the reality of losing her brother by another character Monica Rambeau she becomes so angry that she sends Monica flying out of this perfect town and life that Wanda built for herself. When Wanda’s family is threatened by anything around her that challenges this environment that she created, she becomes very angry and will stop anything that comes in her way of having a perfect life with her family.
There comes a point when Vision starts to question Wanda about what is going on since something seems off to him. Wanda then becomes angry that her husband, who she re-created to be perfect and alive, is now questioning their new reality that she’s worked so hard to create and keep together. Wanda then gets into a fight with Vision because she doesn’t want anyone challenging this new reality so that she can continue to live in denial.
Bargaining:
Towards the end of the show, Wanda starts to recognize that she is causing pain to others. Her powers are so strong that she trapped a whole town in Westfield, New Jersey to live out her new reality. Wanda is able to control everyone’s minds so that they play out the perfect roles that Wanda wants to see in her life as she creates a “normal” life with her new family. When Wanda starts to come to terms with what she has done, she tries to make sacrifices for the temporary alleviation of pain.
An example is when Wanda travels outside of the hex she created around this town in New Jersey. There are military type people (agents of S.W.O.R.D.) along the outside of the hex trying to stop Wanda from hurting others inside of the hex. Even though Wanda is starting to become aware that she is causing harm, she tries to negotiate with the agents of S.W.O.R.D. by saying that if they don’t bother her and her family then she will not bother them. Wanda is trying her hardest to keep her new reality as it is so that she doesn’t have to cope with her loss and trauma.
DEPRESSION:
During Episode 7, Wanda has clearly become depressed. She is not taking care of how she appears as she was before and she has a hard time getting out of bed. There is even a commercial, which reflects Wanda’s real life and trauma, for an antidepressant medication. Wanda starts to have a hard time taking care of herself and her responsibilities. Her depression also shows through her powers in which she is having a harder time controlling the reality she created around her.
If someone you know is struggling with depression, check out our blog “3 Ways To Support Someone With Depression.”
Acceptance:
At the end of the show, Wanda finally accepts the reality of her loss and that she needs to stop hurting innocent people around her. Wanda makes the very difficult decision to let go of her new reality which meant saying goodbye to her two new children and her husband Vision. Wanda finally accepts that she can’t fix things in the way they were going and she has to stop hurting people. After Wanda says goodbye to the hex she created around a town in New Jersey, she finally allows herself to process her grief.

Contact Us

WandaVision is a show that showed a character going through such a hard topic like grief. While this show is based in a fictional world and there are superpowers involved, it still shows very clearly all of the stages of grief and how they are hard to get through.

As we go through the 5 stages of grief, it is important to note that there has been new findings to come out in the psychology world stating that these 5 stages do not need to go in order and that typically the 5 stages are intertwined within each other and you may experience a few at the same time. You may also find yourself spending a long time within one of the stages while you spend a short amount of time in another stage. If you’re interested in grief counseling, read our blog “What To Expect in Grief Counseling.”

Every person goes through grief and loss differently, but ultimately everyone experiences at least some parts within each stage of grief.

One of the best lines from the show is, “What is grief, if not love perserving?”

If you want to support a loved one during the grieving process, read “How To Support Someone Who Is Grieving.”

If you want to read more popular culture-related mental health blogs, check out the following articles: