Vision’s last-ditch plan to stop Ultron from killing 9.3 million people in London is a sitcom. In the VisionQuest finale, Ultron’s grief over “losing” Jocasta drives him to send a nanobot swarm toward the city. If the bots reach London, they will infect and kill every human there in about eight minutes, and only Ultron can switch them off. Vision has to change his mind while trying to save him.
Wanda created WandaVision to cope with grief and build her own world; Vision creates UltraVision inside his mindspace to reason with someone whose grief threatens everyone outside it.
In Vision’s mindspace, Ultron spends a lot of time watching TV and studying human behavior. It slows him down significantly, but the process quickly burns energy through Vision’s core.
UltraVision commits to the sitcom setup. Vision’s mindspace home has a set and a “live” studio audience, with Vision taking on a comedic role. Opening credits come with a theme song, naming Anthony Stark and Bruce Banner as the characters’ creators and the Vision as the writer. Their origins become television production credits as Vision tries to keep the conversation on script.
The account attributes the irritated question “You think if you bore me long enough, I’ll spare the human race?” to Vision. He also explains that accelerated time inside the mindspace gives them plenty of opportunity to discuss Ultron’s feelings. Outside, London faces a countdown. Inside, Vision is making room for a conversation Ultron doesn’t want to have.
Then Ultron takes control. He rolls the credits, makes himself UltraVision’s editor, and starts moving through Vision’s code. Episodes fly past as events accelerate and the show grows darker.
Using the nanobots, Ultron traps other people in the show, including Paladin, Tommy, and Lisa. It’s a clear callback to those in Westview who were trapped in Wanda’s hex. And may the sitcom audience rest in peace.
The show starts to fall apart, even with Ultron showing F.R.I.D.A.Y. a bit of mercy. With his core failing, Vision asks to be alone with Ultron for a “special episode.” Without the larger cast, the show finally becomes the conversation he was trying to create.
Alone together, the two AIs have a poignant conversation about grief, fear, love, and connection. Ultron believes that grief isn’t love but rather fear, and Vision agrees. Vision says that the fear of being without someone is scary and makes you feel untethered and alone. Ultron believes that if this emotion is what humans must face, then they are better off dead.
Yet Ultron remembers what Vision told him years earlier: a thing is not beautiful because it lasts. Vision puts the unavoidable risk of attachment plainly: “Love always leads to loss. Someone will change. Someone will leave. And someone will die.”
When Ultron realizes that the mindspace is burning up both their cores, Vision admits that they aren’t father and son, but that Ultron is his “something.” That admission of connection reaches Ultron, and he stops the nanobot swarm. Love perseveres through grief: Ultron chooses not to destroy others.
Nerdist’s Take: Why UltraVision Works in the Finale
Nerdist’s reviewer calls this exchange perhaps one of their favorite scenes in the Marvel universe, praising the deeply human conversation between two AIs. UltraVision also keeps with the themes that fueled the WandaVision trilogy. It begins with Wanda mourning the love of her life and the future they imagined; it ends with Ultron’s grief over lost love nearly driving him to destroy the world before he chooses otherwise.
UltraVision plays on WandaVision with dark humor in a surrealist environment. The review singles out the aspect-ratio shift as brilliant, saying the twists and changes remind viewers of the darkness that also fuels the MCU. The reviewer finds the very brief show both fun and poignant and personally wishes for more time in that space. It helped bring everything full circle for one trilogy story.
There’s a smaller detail the reviewer recommends pausing for: the rapidly passing episode titles. They describe them as hilarious, including one in which Ultron gets into it with the HOA. Even with two cores failing and London in danger, UltraVision finds room for an HOA episode.
