Well, that’s a wrap on VisionQuest. The season finale, “Forever,” finally pulls the mask off the mysterious Client, unveils his frankly unhinged master plan, and sends Vision and Ultron into one last father-son showdown that somehow involves a sitcom. There’s a surprise new member of the Horton family tree, a pair of messy deaths, a long-awaited brotherly reunion, and post-credits scenes that put Ultron’s hard drive and Wanda’s fate back on the table.
If your head is still spinning, you’re in the right place. Below, we break down who the Client really is, how the finale plays out, what that ending means, and where the MCU’s synthezoids could go from here, including what “VisionQuest” sets up for “Avengers: Doomsday”. But first, a quick refresher on how we got here.
Previously on “VisionQuest”: A Dad Finds Himself, and a Stranger Shows Up
In the penultimate episode, “VisionQuest” finally cashed in on its double-meaning title. Vision spent the season digging through his own subconscious, pondering on the Ship of Theseus, and what he found was refreshingly simple: he’s the Vision, he’s always been the Vision…
He never had had to audition, because he was him.
Episode 7 had Vision descend into his subconscious to retrieve the source code shared by all synthezoids, which he used to reprogram the nanite and save Lisa Molinari. Along the way he faced his past selves, J.I.M. and his feelings about Thomas Shepherd, and broke down at the thought of losing Billy, Tommy and Wanda. Meanwhile, Jocasta got all of Josephine Carrington’s memories back, including who her partner in building AI was, and Ultron realized his human avatar was based on that same man.
Then the client stepped outside the manor to inspect Vision, wearing Ultron’s face.
Cue the collective gasp, and the collective “oh no, Ultron’s been playing us the whole time, hasn’t he?”
Plot Twist: Virgil Horton Is the Real Big Bad
Spoiler alert: that wasn’t Ultron. The man behind the curtain (and the moustache and polygonal glasses) is Virgil Horton, grandson of Phineas Horton, the guy who gave the MCU the Synthetic Man and, by extension, its AI family tree. James Spader plays him, and he’s a brand-new character with no comic book backstory to lean on.
Virgil has Vision, Jocasta and Ultron locked up in the old Horton mansion and keeps them in line with his control tablet, which he gets giddy to trigger if needed.
Between jokes about GoBots and Tamagotchi, he gives everyone a history lesson. His mother, Victoria, got stuck with Phineas’s scientific journal after Phineas abandoned her and sold the family home to bankroll his work. She died broke, and Virgil decided to spend his life getting the family fortune back.
His route there ran through Jo. The two were lovers, spouses and co-creators, and together they used that journal plus their own brains to build artificial general intelligence at Markridge Biotech. Then Virgil sold the tech to Tony Stark, which ties us back to our favourite hero once again.
Stark’s version of it eventually became Ultron, which is why Ultron wears Virgil’s face since he’s partly built on Virgil’s brain patterns. That’s the same logic as Vision, Ultron and J.I.M. Hammond all sharing Phineas’s face. The Hortons really do have a seal on everything.
Virgil’s Plan
Anyway after human Jo died, Virgil took a classified job at S.W.O.R.D. and put Vision’s original body back together, giving us the emotionless White Vision from “WandaVision”. On the side, he used Stark’s refined AI tech to build Jocasta and bring Jo back. She was not thrilled about being resurrected without being asked, and reacted so violently that Virgil deleted himself from her memory.
But his grand finale? Yes… move his own consciousness into Vision’s body, the “perfect vessel,” so he, Jo and their 20 billion nanobots could live on for centuries. He could use the nanobots to impose “tranquility and obedience” on everyone, which is a polite way of making humans into robot slaves. Romantic.
The Rescue, and Two Very Messy Deaths
Outside, Paladin, Tommy, and Lisa team up to bust Vision out. Tommy saves the day by embracing the speed in himself, which is the most Tommy thing possible, and smashes the remote controlling Vision, Jocasta, and Ultron. There’s some vicious fighting, and then the trio is free.
However, it does not end well for everyone as Virgil shoots Jo with an adamantium gun. But soon, Ultron gets his hands on Virgil and responds by squeezing him to death. He then reforms his body with the nanobots to do it. So that’s two deaths: Virgil, and Jocasta’s robot body.
Ultron Goes Rogue, Then Is Truly Free
Holding Jo as she dies does something to Ultron, and it is not a mellowing effect. He’s furious. And we all know what happens when a manic Robert California-sounding robot is angry…
He claims the nanobots as his own and sends them toward London with one goal. Kill everyone.
Virgil managed to make him hate humanity all over again, and Ultron is ready to become the chief AI of all things.
Vision’s counter-move is to dive into Ultron’s mind and trap him in a WandaVision-style sitcom called UltraVision, where he tries to reason with him using classic sitcom dad logic. It’s equal parts funny and terrifying, and the clock is ticking. They only have 8 minutes to stop the catastrophe. F.R.I.D.A.Y., E.D.I.T.H., D.U.M.-E, and U pitch in, but they, Paladin, Tommy and Lisa all get hit with mind invasions from Ultron that nearly kill them.
The real twist is that UltraVision exists because both Vision’s and Ultron’s cores are powering it, and both are burning out. Vision powers himself and Ultron down to the brink of death and finally gets through to his father. Ultron calls off the London attack, shares a genuine father-son moment, then dissolves, saying he had strings, but now he’s free. The nanobots shut down before they reach the city. Everyone breathes out.
Brothers Reunite
A quick refresher, since the Maximoff boys have a complicated paper trail. After Wanda ended her hex in “WandaVision”, each twin’s soul ended up in another boy. Agatha All Along revealed that Billy took over William Kaplan, a kid who died in a car crash with his parents the same day Westview was freed. That same series also named Tommy Shepherd as Billy’s brother, who drowned.
In the finale, Tommy goes to the astral realm to find Billy through “dream-binding.” They hug it out, and Billy jokes that Tommy’s cooler because he’s Scottish.
The reunion can’t last too long though, because Tommy has to be actively drowned to get there. But soon enough, Billy shows up at the Horton mansion in person, matches powers with Tommy, and zaps their dad back to life.
The whole family is there, minus one very important person. Wanda doesn’t appear, but she’s mentioned. Tommy asks if they’ll ever see her again, and Vision replies that they’ve said goodbye before, so it stands to reason they might say hello again, echoing the words he said to her at the end of “WandaVision”.
Oh come on, they’re teasing us again. Sure, it isn’t proof she survived “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, but it’s a very Marvel way of leaving a door ajar.
Everyone Gets a Second Chance
Paladin and E.D.I.T.H. team up to help people in need, with Lisa and Tommy on board. Vision’s makeshift family turns bounty hunters into bounty givers, and Vision, Tommy, and Billy plan a family dinner in Jersey. Cozy.
Vision says goodbye to his AI gang inside his quantum house, trading some words about family and change, and walks out last. Then the phone rings, and he turns around and goes back in. “Hello, Ultron.” Vision already knew Ultron had slipped away, since not all the nanobots were accounted for, and he didn’t chase him because he believes in second chances. Ultron has no idea what he’ll do next, whether that’s visiting art galleries or burning them down, but he knows he doesn’t want to do it alone. Which raises a very reasonable question: do what, exactly?
Ultron Finds A Way
Okay, if you were expecting Vision’s love to return… Well, no not yet. Instead, what we get is a short scene of Ultron, still hanging out in the Horton mansion, holding a drive. the drive has Jo’s program files.
Just like her robot husband, Jocasta has been resurrected a few times in the comics, so it’s an easy bet that Ultron intends to bring back his lady love. Humanity’s destruction seems to have been bumped down the to-do list.
And here’s a fun tidbit to keep in your back pocket: Ultron appears in the storylines for the “Secret Wars” comics. Just saying.
Wanda’s BACK?
Now for the scene that has the internet losing its mind. So, we are taken back to the end of “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” where Wanda destroys the shrine dedicated to her at Mount Wundagore and brings the mountain down on herself. She makes sure other versions of Billy and Tommy exist across the multiverse, tells Doctor Strange that no one will be tempted by the Darkhold again, and destroys every version of it. A red flash follows as the mountain collapses, and fans have assumed the worst ever since.
But no! A massive rock is lifted out of the rubble, and the person moving it is Robert Downey Jr.’s Victor Von Doom, making his first appearance in a Disney+ project. The camera pans to Wanda’s lifeless body, and Doom tells her to awaken because her power will be his. His green magic moves toward her, apparently trying to harness her abilities. Wanda opens her eyes with a gasp as she watches Doom use his powers, and then the scene cuts to black.
Indeed, the scene fuels speculation that Wanda could be one of the witches (the orange one) helping Doom in his bid to control the multiverse, which would tie “VisionQuest” straight into “Avengers: Doomsday.”
She wouldn’t be the first person he’s collected, either. The recent re-release “Avengers: Endgame Encore” added a post-credits scene where Doom teleports into the underground military facility where Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner is barricaded after his first Hulk transformation in more than a decade. When the Hulk emerges, Doom tells him he’s there to collect him. Doom is building a roster, and it looks like Wanda’s on it.
Young Avengers and Season 2: What Do We Know?
When it comes to the Young Avengers, there has been nothing official. But Billy and Tommy are classic members of the team in the comics. The Multiverse Saga has also given us Kate Bishop, America Chavez, Ms. Marvel, Ironheart and Cassie Lang, so Marvel has most of the roster sitting on the bench.
Two of them are going to dinner in New Jersey, so draw your own conclusions.
As for a season 2, we wouldn’t bet on a project explicitly called “VisionQuest” Season 2 because technically this was the finale of a trilogy comprising of “WandaVision, “Agatha All Along and now this.
Despite that. showrunner Terry Matalas has hinted at ideas for the future, and Paul Bettany says there are plenty of ideas for where to take these characters next. As always, it comes down to Marvel giving the green light.
All episodes of “VisionQuest” are currently streaming on Disney Plus.
