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It took more than a decade, but vision quest Episode 4 finally has Ultron (James Spader) fulfilling his original vision, literally. The show has been complete. Avengers: Age of Ultron reunion of Vision (Paul Bettany) and Ultron, except now the AI villain is literally living rent-free inside Vision’s head. There, Ultron sports a human avatar with Spader’s own face and a giant beard, a look that EDITH (Emily Hampshire) couldn’t help but poke fun at during the show’s second week on Disney+. Halfway through its run, the series just closed its final episode with a monumental moment that was supposed to happen a long time ago. Age of Ultron.
At the end of vision quest In episode 4, “Malware,” Ultron has officially taken over Vision’s body. After being trapped in Vision’s mind since his disaster in Sokovia (or near-victory, depending on who you ask), viewers have seen Ultron spend the first half of the season slowly gaining Vision’s trust.
That trust eventually comes back to affect Vision during a fight with a new android enemy, Jocasta (T’Nia Miller). Ultron convinces him to give him control of their shared body and tells Vision that he can get them out of there safely and that he won’t kill Jocasta.
The transfer plays out as well as any long-time MCU fan would expect. The second Ultron is in charge and locks Vision’s AI roommates inside his mental mansion. He then grabs the helm of a ship inside his mental room while singing “I’ve Got No Strings”, the same Pinocchio melody he famously used in Age of Ultron.
In the physical world, Vision’s body finishes the iconic line while Bettany’s voice transforms into Spader’s.
It’s a cool MCU moment, because it’s the full realization of what Vision was supposed to be in the first place: the final evolution of Ultron. The icing on the cake is being able to see for the first time a diabolical Bettany playing Ultron, a true delight.
In case anyone forgot, back in Age of Ultronthat synthezoid body was never meant to be Vision at all. Ultron used the scepter carrying the Mind Stone to brainwash Dr. Helen Cho (Claudia Kim), the same Infinity Stone that ended up on Vision’s forehead.
Under his control, she began building him a new form in her strange cocoon machine (Regeneration Cradle) out of synthetic fabric and, of course, some Wakandan vibranium. It was supposed to be Ultron’s ultimate upgrade, the body he would step into.
That plan fell apart once Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) glimpsed its true end, inside the crazy robot’s messy head: human extinction. That’s when she and her brother Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) decided to side with the Avengers.
The Avengers were able to intercept the Cradle, and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) loaded JARVIS (also voiced by Bettany) into it. Then, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) brought Vision to life with Mjolnir and plenty of thunder.
From that very moment Vision’s story began, and it’s been a wild ride, now in his second (or third) life, depending on how you tell it. Anyway, the original idea of Ultron was also just part of Vision’s origin story in the MCU.
It’s crazy to see, after all this time, Ultron finally have control of the body he first created, 11 years after the Avengers took it from him.
Is Ultron the villain of VisionQuest?
At this point, the Ultron from his early days in the MCU appears to be back and badder than ever. After giving Jocasta a warm greeting, he forced her to vaporize his final target: Katerina Wells.
Jocasta is also still on the run. Now unmasked as Butcherbird Killer, the synthezoid who is the same as Dr. Josephine Carrington, Wells’ colleague and artificial intelligence researcher who died in 2008. She’s been taking out Carrington’s former research partners, and there’s clearly more history to reveal as the series continues, and her origins seem a little murky.
As for Paladin (Todd Stashwick), the hitman quickly took a backseat after he lost the contract with the mystery client in Episode 3. In that same episode, his handler mocked his tough record, which hints at run-ins with the Punisher (Jon Bernthal). Werewolf at nightThey are Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal) and Daredevil (Charlie Cox).
With four episodes left, there’s plenty of room for surprises. One of the most interesting aspects of the series so far is that now, none of the perceived “bad guys” are even working with each other in Episode 5, and they all have different goals.
However, Jocasta was Ultron’s girlfriend in the comics, so that warm greeting could be the setup for an evil team-up to come. How Ultron, now that he has taken over Vision’s body, moves next will explain a lot of what is to come. Hopefully, FRIDAY, EDITH, and Vision will somehow find a way to strip Ultron of his newfound power from inside the mindscape.