Were you wondering why, after the magically created Vision (Paul Bettany) imparted his memories into his doppelganger, the White Vision didn’t run into the arms of the Scarlet Witch? Or why Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) didn’t immediately start hunting for her husband 2.0 in the WandaVision finale? There’s an answer, and it’s a good one — namely, the white Vision is not her husband at all.
In an interview with CinemaBlend, WandaVision show creator and head writer Jac Schaeffer explained why neither the Scarlet Witch nor the new Vision (a.k.a Cataract) wanted anything to do with each other after the Hex went down.
“The point is that he’s not her guy. That’s not the man that she had children with. That’s not the one who’s been in the sitcom world with him. That’s not the one that she said goodbye to on a hill in Wakanda,” Schaeffer said of why WandaVision’s finale didn’t follow up with where Cataract went. “That’s the body and the data.”
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Just because the Vision gave Cataract his memories of his time spent with Wanda (which she doesn’t know about, of course) he can’t impart the emotions he felt to his twin, because they are two separate beings. Imagine Twin A telling Twin B how much he loves Powerful Witch C, and telling Twin B all about their wonderful time together. You wouldn’t expect Twin B to fall in love with Powerful Witch C, right? No matter how many ships Theseus builds!
The confusion comes from the fact that Vision and Cataract are both androids, which literally gives them the ability to wirelessly pass data to one another’s heads. But Vision’s memories are just data Cataract received, and not the experiences. Even though Cataract is using Vision’s old body, that doesn’t mean he’s not a different person in some ways. You can explain Vision’s individualism, self-awareness, and ability to emotionally connect with others because the Mind Stone was a fundamental part of his creation if you need to, which Cataract never had access to — certainly, in his brief time on the show, the white Vision seems to be much analytic and emotionless, even as Wanda’s recreation of Vision reaches out to him — or that SWORD couldn’t fully replicate Tony Stark’s incredibly advanced, seemingly fully sentient AI. But it could be simply that despite what they share in common, they are still two separate beings with very different life experiences defining them.
“Vision’s whole thing is identity; his whole thing is, ‘I was a voice and then I was a body. And now I’m a memory.’ There’s a constant sort of self-analysis of ‘What am I?’” Schaeffer continued. “So to me it doesn’t feel like a Marvel cheat of like, ‘Now there’s another one out there.’ It actually feels very, very right.”
The Vision had a years-long relationship with Wanda by the time Infinity War opens, and as well as their time in the Hex. The white Vision had been online for less than a day, fought his twin, learned about experiences the original Vision had, and decided to take his own path, because he’s his own, separate being simply wearing the guise of Wanda’s former lover.
That’s not to say there won’t be some major psychological drama when/if Cataract Wanda crosses paths with Cataract — just as there was when Wanda encountered the new, white West Coast Avengers-era Vision body in the comics. And it’s very possible that Wanda and Vision 2.0 will also fall in love in the future, because that’s often how these sort of superhero romances work. However, if they do, that won’t be the Vision Wanda loved and married and distorted reality to be with. It’ll be someone else entirely.