VisionQuest Season 1 Episode 7 Review: Vision Finally Confronts His Grief

On VisionQuest Season 1 Episode 7, “Immolation,” Vision confronts his biggest obstacle yet.

“Immolation” takes a major narrative swing, plummeting Vision deep into his own head and confronting himself. It’s the kind of high concept storytelling that made WandaVision and Agatha All Along so successful. VisionQuest not only takes a swing, but it knocks it out of the park.

Throughout his tenure in the MCU, Vision provides profound statements on love and grief. However, many of the things he says and does serve the arcs of other characters, not typically his own. This episode facilitates the deepest dive into Vision’s character.

So much of VisionQuest has circled around the “denial” stage of grief, but “Immolation” forces Vision to confront his grief head-on. His constant insistence that he is a different version of Vision actually stems from his inability to deal with the grief.

This iteration of Vision is the result of someone who refuses to mourn. In doing so, he closes himself off from experiencing the emotions he desperately wanted to experience early in his sentient life. He also closes himself off from fully having a relationship with Tommy.

By protecting this new version from the pain, he completely shuts himself off from experiencing any other feeling or understanding of humanity. It ties together the overarching themes of the trilogy beautifully. Grief is inevitable but there’s also a beauty wrapped up in it; both exist in tandem.

The other interesting thematic element of VisionQuest is the exploration of the weight of expectations. Vision is well aware of what he is capable of emotionally, but again uses being a “new version” as a shield.

As he points out to himself, he’s put this version of himself on a pedestal so high, not to honor him, but because he’s afraid of the climb. Why bother when the bar is so high? 

What Vision fails to grasp, though, is that he very much can be that again. The capability is deep within him if he allows himself to access it. It’s a great moment of reckoning for Vision, a character that has often been an anchor for others.

VisionQuest as a whole feels like an experiment in interiority for a character that largely grounds others. “Immolation” is a culmination of that experiment. The series plays with fun and dynamic visual concepts to articulate the inner workings of Vision, but this episode is the most ambitious and emotionally charged.

A lot of this episode takes Vision away from the physical action building, which is a risk. However, the momentum doesn’t feel inhibited since so much of Vision’s personal search for humanity has remained consistent alongside the larger conflict.

This is the most fleshed-out Vision has ever felt. His journey centers on finding humanity and embracing it, but we rarely get to see him do so with the uglier pieces of the human experience. Paul Bettany gets to take this character to heights unexplored and does so with flying colors. 

This moment soundly justifies the existence of the series as a whole. It also elevates Vision from a character in other people’s stories to an interesting and dynamic character that can stand on his own in the MCU.

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VisionQuest airs Tuesday on Disney+.

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