WandaVision's Fake Commercials Are Packed With Hidden Meanings and Clues

The first "commercial" we see is a '50s-style toaster commercial, complete with the "retro housewife" demonstrating how to use it. It's the last few seconds of the commercial, however, that make it clear this is something much more significant. As the toaster finishes cooking, there's a series of increasingly rapid beeps that will be familiar to any Marvel fan: it's the same repulsor sounds that we know from Iron Man's suit and other tech. Just to drive that connection home, the ad reveals that the "toaster" is made by Stark Industries.

Although Tony Stark and Wanda were both Avengers, her connection to Stark goes back much further than that. In Wanda's first appearance, back in Avengers: Age of Ultron, we learn that a Stark-made bomb was responsible for killing her parents many years ago; in fact, it's a desire to get revenge on Tony that leads her and her brother to briefly team up with Ultron.

The smoky, '60s-esque ad is more than just an example of era-accurate sexist advertising! The watch is named after Baron Wolfgang von Strücker, the HYDRA villain who used Loki's scepter to experiment on "volunteers" — including Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. It's those experiments that gave the twins their superpowers, while also traumatizing them deeply. The watch face clearly shows the HYDRA symbol alongside Strücker's name.

More curious is the slogan at the end: "He'll make time for you." Does this allude to Wanda carving out her own reality, where time doesn't seem to pass normally?

The '70s episode brings back HYDRA again, but that's not even close to the most significant element of the commercial.

"Need a break?" asks the male narrator, to which the "housewife" replies, "You read my mind." Given what we know about Wanda's powers, this could be a reference to how she's "inside" the minds of all the Westview residents, but it also could mean something more sinister.

The other interpretation is that someone else, an outside force, is the one doing the mind reading, and Wanda is represented by the housewife who needs to "escape to a world all your own, where your problems float away." as the narrator says. The entire world of WandaVision is clearly crafted as an escape for Wanda, who's intensely grieving, but this commercial hints that maybe Wanda's not the one in control, since "HYDRA Soak" bubble bath is responsible for this housewife's relaxation.

Instead, it's possible Wanda was tempted or tricked by another, sinister entity. The final slogan, "Find the Goddess Within" is particularly eerie, given what happens in this episode. The '70s episode features the birth of Wanda and Vision's twins, who, in the comics, are actually formed from the demon Mephisto. Given the odd "goddess" reference in this commercial, it could be suggesting that HYDRA is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to evil entities taking advantage of Wanda.

After skipping an episode, since episode four took place mostly in the outside, real world, the commercial returned for episode five, which imitates an '80s sitcom. This commercial is pretty easy to interpret. The "Lagos" paper towels are named after the city where Wanda tried to contain an explosion and instead accidentally redirected it towards a building, where civilians were killed.

"For when you make a mess you didn't mean to," the slogan goes, which seems to accurately reflect Wanda's reaction to the Lagos accident: a devastating mess that happened without her intending any harm. During the episode where this commercial airs, there are a few hints that Wanda is confused about parts of "her" sitcom: she mentions not knowing how the whole thing even started, and she's shocked when a doorbell rings and reveals a version of her late brother on the other side. Could this commercial be suggesting that Wanda isn't as much "at fault" for what's happening as the other characters currently believe?

To understand episode six's Yo-Magic commercial in the context of Wanda's life, it's best to remember the previous four. The previous commercials take us up through Captain America: Civil War in the Marvel timeline, which means that, if we're still going in chronological order, the events of Avengers: Infinity War are next. That movie, of course, famously ends with half of life in the universe disintegrating — including Wanda, moments after she's forced to kill Vision to try to stop Thanos, only for Thanos to reverse time and kill Vision himself to get the Mind Stone. In that context, the nightmarish yogurt commercial, which depicts a character dying (and gruesomely shriveling to bones) after an immense but failed effort, could represent the first failed battle against Thanos.

Given the events of the episode, in which Vision nearly dies after attempting to get out of the boundaries of Westview (and Wanda's magic), it also seems to be an allusion to Wanda's growing awareness that her magic can't defeat death forever. Yo-Magic, after all, sounds like a '90s pun on "your magic," and despite having the product right there, the child stranded on the island dies anyway.

There are, however, still a couple of questions that remain unanswered. The commercials up until this point have all used the same few "actors," presumably people of Westview who are being held within the illusion. This time, the shark doesn't have a clear counterpart in Westview, which has us wondering who he's supposed to represent. His creepy dialogue about "hunger" and his gift of unusable "magic" gives the whole thing a deal-with-the-devil vibe — which would line up with theories about the comic villain Mephisto having made a deal with or manipulated Wanda into this whole situation. It's also the first commercial with a child as the main character, which lines up with the notable presence of kids for the first time in the episode itself.

If you thought the theory behind Yo-Magic was a doozy, get ready for episode seven's Nexus Capsules. The commercial centers on a woman who feels depressed and is looking to be left alone with Nexus being "a unique antidepressant that works to anchor you back to your reality — or the reality of your choice." This ties to Wanda's idea of a quarantine-style staycation in the episode and the obstacles put in place to keep Vision from making his way back to her. It also hints at Westview's status as an altered reality, aka the reality of Wanda's choice.

Side effects of the drug as listed in the commercial include "feeling your feelings, confronting your truth, seizing your destiny, and possibly more depression." Essentially, all side effects Wanda will face should she actually stop playing into her Westview fantasy.

In the Marvel universe, Nexus refers to both the Nexus of All Realities and "nexus beings," aka rare individual entities with the power to affect probabilities. The commercial ending with the slogan "Nexus, because the world doesn't revolve around you. Or does it?" hints that WandaVision could be going in the direction of Wanda's role as a nexus being. According to the Watcher, Wanda is one of the most powerful nexus beings to exist and serves as an anchor point in the multiverse's reality.