This article contains spoilers for VisionQuest season 1 episode 3.

We watchers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe know that Robert Downey Jr. is coming back in mere months, this time as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. But the MCU still isn’t over Tony Stark, a point that VisionQuest makes when F.R.I.D.A.Y. tearfully recalls to E.D.I.T.H. her last final moments with her maker.

Despite the talents of Orla Brady and Emily Hampshire, the scene rings false. We still love Tony Stark, but the MCU’s substandard output over the past few years and its constant nods back to Avengers: Endgame means that we don’t love him as much as we did. Maybe 2000 or 2500, but not 3000. Yet, unconvincing as it is, F.R.I.D.A.Y. and E.D.I.T.H.’s remembrance is one of the few missteps in an episode of VisionQuest that otherwise successfully uses robots to reflect upon humanity.

Episode three keeps Vision and Thomas on the run from Paladin, doing some awkward father/son bonding, while facing the prospect of death. They’re not the only ones with mortality on their mind, as Paladin himself needs to heal after his beatdown at Vision’s hands in the previous episode. As the principals all take a moment to rest and think about their mortality, a new threat makes herself known, a hooded figure with glowing eyes who poses just as great to threat to Paladin as they do to Vision.

The episode opens with a visceral scene of the hooded figure attacking, and checks back in on them from time to time. Anyone who has seen the cast list can probably guess the figure’s identity, we won’t spoil that here, in part because we don’t need to. The figure’s assaults have value on their own, visceral and visually striking scenes of the assailant moving through the darkness, red eyes providing just enough moody illumination. The smoothness of the action and the vividness of the colors put these moments not only among the best in Marvel television, but near the top of the MCU altogether.

So good are the fight scenes that it’s hard to complain about the fact that constitute the only real action of the episode. In my review of episodes one and two, I argued that VisionQuest needed more forward propulsion, that the scenes of the AIs in Vision’s Mindscape dragged. This episode doesn’t completely invalidate that critique, but director Gandja Monteiro grounds the scenes a bit better, making them feel like proper character interactions instead of self-indulgent actor games.

Not, it must be said, because of the main purpose of the Mindscape scenes. To give Vision the processing power he needs to stay alive after his battle with Paladin, J.A.R.V.I.S. chooses to sacrifice himself, allowing his program to be deleted. The AIs meet in the Mindscape to hold a funeral for J.A.R.V.I.S., which leads to the aforementioned remembrance by F.R.I.D.A.Y.

Given that we only spent two episodes with him—and otherwise only saw him during one scene in the time heist sequence of Avengers: Endgame—J.A.R.V.I.S. hasn’t endeared himself to viewers enough to be missed. Fans of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., who have fond feelings toward James D’Arcy’s take on the butler Jarvis may be moved by the funeral scenes, but even that’s a big “if,” since VisionQuest reminded us several times that D’Arcy is playing an AI visually modeled on the Stark family’s servant.

Yet, even within the unconvincing funeral scenes, the episode finds worthwhile moments. The reveal that D.U.M.-E can deliver a thoughtful monologue and that U possesses the singing voice of an angel is a bit obvious, but Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer sell the gag well. Even better, F.R.I.D.A.Y. reminding E.D.I.T.H. that they both echo real people allows Hampshire to play something other than a broad caricature of a can-do woman in a screwball comedy, giving her a reason to pull back the performance and find some human touches.

Those touches come when E.D.I.T.H. begins to seriously contemplate death, a structure that the episode will repeat with other characters. At two points in the episode, Paladin must face his mortality, first while he patches himself up from wounds sustained earlier, and second when the hooded figure reads his mind. Interesting as the hints about Paladin’s origin certainly are, the real power of those scenes comes from Stashwick’s performance. Gone is the swagger he brought to his earlier encounters with Vision, lost is the tough professional he pretended to be. Now, Stashwick plays Paladin as just a man, trying his best to live by the code he was taught by his adoptive father.

Vision faces the same problem as he tries to connect with the son he’s been forced to take on. The two share an unlikely bond in that they’ve both died, only to have memories that feel alien forced upon them. For Vision, the experience came when the Vision resurrected by Wanda’s hex sent his memories into White Vision in WandaVision. We learn about Thomas’s experiences now, but they should be familiar to anyone who watched Agatha All Along. In the same way that the spirit of Billy Maximoff entered the body of Billy Kaplan at the moment of death, Thomas Shepherd is drowned by bullies, allowing Tommy Maximoff’s body to find a new home.

As with the gritty asylum flashback that opened episode two, Thomas’ death sequence reminds us that he’s lived a life of almost Dickensian difficulty. The sitcoms that he watches point to something he doesn’t have and can never have, even though he’s found something of a father in Vision: a happy, functional family.

In that way, Thomas’ plight recalls that of Wanda, who similarly found comfort in sitcoms. So it makes a sort of sense that the standout sequence in episode three briefly elevates VisionQuest to the level of WandaVision. Prompted by Ultron, Vision runs through various scenarios in which he tries to bond and speak honestly with Thomas. We watch as variations of Vision layer over one another on screen, each collapsing in frustration and defeat as Thomas storms out of the room in anger, all while the dreadful ’80s sitcom Small Wonder—about a family who adopts a robot girl—plays in the background.

The Small Wonder sequence synthesizes VisionQuest‘s themes about androids contemplating humanity, identity, and death and marries it to a clever television conceit. In that moment, we find ourselves suddenly caring about Marvel characters again, not because they remind us movies and shows we really liked—not Avengers; Endgame, not Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., not WandaVision, and certainly not Small Wonder. Rather, we care about them because they remind us of ourselves.

VisionQuest streams new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.

The post VisionQuest Episode 3 Review: Fake People, Real Emotions appeared first on Den of Geek.