'VisionQuest' Recap: Plucky AI Characters? In This Economy?

For its latest batch of episodes, VisionQuest fleshes out its cast of AI characters living inside Vision’s head, and boy, did this show pick the worse time to dive into those waters. On top of the fiery AI debate, I’m typing this recap as a massive web vulnerability could start breaking all kinds of things at any moment thanks to, you guessed it, AI. If you’re somehow reading this review, thank Seth for his dogged efforts to keep our wobbly ship afloat.

All that said, sentient AI has been a science fiction trapping for decades. Christ, the main characters in this show were literally birthed in a superhero movie about the dangers of AI. Both Ultron (James Spader) and Vision (Paul Bettany) represented the far extremes of that spectrum, with the former immediately going to work destroying humanity as the latter protected it. However, there’s the thorny issue of the evil robot creating the virtuous one, and upon that dichotomous rock is where VisionQuest builds it church.

When we left our heroes, Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica) was tearing away in a stolen car with a badly injured Vision in the passenger seat after the two narrowly escaped a trap set by Paladin (Todd Stashwick). Unbeknownst to Tommy, Ultron is now walking freely inside Vision’s mind and talking to him in the real world. Although, no one else can see it. This is just one of the bumps in the road for Tommy and Vision’s father/son reunion, but not the biggest one (yet): That would be Vision’s refusal to believe that Tommy is actually his son from Wanda’s hex in Westview.

You see, Tommy wants answers, but Vision is very reluctant to give them on account of a.) he thinks the boy is crazy. b.) those adamantium bullets from the last episode wrecked his sh*t real good and c.) the bounty hunter with said bullets is still very actively on their tails. Eventually, they take shelter in a hotel where Grandpa Ultron continues to prod Vision to connect with Tommy. It does not go well, and this is where the show starts to lose me a bit.

Vision keeps saying that Tommy being Tommy Maximoff from Wanda’s hex is “impossible,” and my dude, you live in the Marvel Universe. You are a sentient AI brought to life by a magic rock and the lightning from a Norse god’s hammer. A purple Murder Grimace will later drop in from space, rip the magic rock out of your head, put it an magic gauntlet with five other insanely powerful stones, and wipe out half of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers. He’s only defeated by the Avengers traveling back in time to make their own gauntlet and killing an earlier version of Murder Grimace before Tony Stark dies blipping everyone back to life. Afterwards, your girlfriend will be revealed as the most powerful witch on Earth, enslave a New Jersey suburb with her grief, and then slaughter Doctor Strange’s entire wizard school before kidnapping a teenage girl who can punch through the very fabric of reality. Do I need to go on?

Everything I wrote above are facts that anybody can just Google in Marvel Land, but Vision — an advanced AI being — is still like, “Magic make fake son real? I dunno, seems crazy.” Weirdly, this whole conundrum is jarringly wrapped up in 20 minutes when Tommy reveals he has powers. Clearly, he should have led with that.

While all of this is happening, the other Stark AIs are working frantically to repair Vision, but mostly it’s an excuse for VisionQuest to flesh out their backstories. You see, F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Orla Brady) and E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hampshire) weren’t just clever names picked out by Tony Stark. They were based on real people. In an effort to humanize them, we learn that F.R.I.D.A.Y. witnessed the events of Avengers: Endgame up to and including Tony’s sacrifice. She was also based on Alison Hogan, Howard Stark’s secretary, who basically raised Tony while his father was too busy building their tech empire. So, Tony’s death was like a mother witnessing the death of a child.

As for E.D.I.T.H., she was based on a Stark test pilot, Edith Marks, who tragically died in a crash, and the AI version doesn’t love this information one bit. She preferred not knowing any of this and being the devil may care thrill-seeker she’s been this whole time. Still in his sagely professor mode, Ultron tells E.D.I.T.H. that no one can tell her who she is except her. It’s almost like identity is a major theme in VisionQuest, and golly, what’s this happening over here with Paladin?

In his hunt for Vision, Paladin has his drones look for traces of robot blood, which unexpectedly brings him to the scene of the latest murder by the Butcherbird, a serial killer dominating news coverage in the MCU’s London. Things go south when Butcherbird easily takes down Paladin and reveals herself as a synthezoid with surprising mind-melding abilities. She dives into Paladin’s head to find out who hired him, but he’s trained to resist her methods. She does learn something about him though: he’s not a true Paladin heir. He was adopted by the last Paladin and fully trained, but he’s not the real deal and that’s clearly a sore spot.

Paladin’s training proves itself when he gets the drop on Butcherbird with his drones and escapes. But the hits keep on coming. A Paladin’s contract is his oath, and that piece of his identity gets shattered when his mysterious client fires him for not delivering Vision fast enough. Whoever is behind those calls isn’t f***ing around and moves on to the next bounty hunter.

Back in the hotel, Tommy gets a fatherly pep talk from Vision who now fully believes he’s Tommy Maximoff, and he uses his speed powers to reboot his robot dad. However, that reboot created an opening for Butcherbird to invade Vision’s mind. He quickly deduces that she’s another synthezoid built to replace him, only to seemingly go rogue herself, and she makes her intentions very clear: She has another murder on the menu, so stay out of her way, or she’ll come straight for Tommy.

Not a fan of being threatened, Vision does a buddy cop routine with Ultron to track down Butcherbird’s next victim. Ultron is absolutely riveted by this whole thing, so that can’t be great. After some hijinks, the two learn that the target is Katerina Wells (Mary McDonnell) the head of an AI company, Markridge Biotech, that was acquired by Stark Industries. More specifically, Markridge’s AI templates were used to create the Stark AIs including Ultron.

With this information locked down, Tommy and his partner-in-crime, Lisa (Lauren Morais), help Vision get into a gala held by Katerina where the Butcherbird is obviously going to strike. At this time I should probably mention that Tommy has noticed Vision talking to himself. Instead of coming clean that he’s conversing with Ultron — who everyone in the MCU knows is a genocidal robot, and whose attack on Sokovia is being remembered at said gala — Vision tells Tommy that there are four other AIs living in his head that help with tasks. However, at the gala, Vision slips up and says there are five AIs, which does not go unnoticed by Tommy. As a conman, Tommy knows when Vision is trying to lie, and he quickly pieces together that Vision is talking to Ultron. He does not love that.

But that family conflict is about to get even worse. Butcherbird makes her move and drops the reveal that every Marvel head already knew: She’s Jocasta. Granted, she doesn’t use that name yet, but it’s coming. She is clearly a female version of Ultron and just as terrifying. When Vision tries to slow her down by saying the name of the human she’s based on, Jo Carrington (T’Nia Miller), an anguished Jocasta shifting into human form says, no, she’s not based on her. She is her.

That’s a problem for later because, right now, she is absolutely mopping the floor with Vision. He’s still injured from the whole Paladin ordeal and nowhere near 100%. This is going badly, which is why Vision agrees to an insane proposition from Ultron to “take the wheel.” Ultron assures Vision that he won’t kill Jo and he’ll end this quickly. Vision, a huge dummy, gives Ultron control.

Within the first few seconds, Ultron solves the Katerina problem by tricking Jocasta into disintegrating her. I forgot to mention that she’s been collecting biometric objects from her victims to unlock something and needs Katerina’s face. That’s not happening now! More importantly, Ultron notes there’s no reason for them to quarrel anymore. Quick, right? Jocasta apparently agrees and bolts. Now for Item #2: A nice chat with Tommy. Turns out Ultron is tired of watching Vision bungle things with the boy, so let’s see if grandpa can’t hash things out. That’s a cliffhanger.

Random Data

— Not a whole lot that wasn’t covered above. I’m still not loving the whole House inside Vision’s mind conceit. Ultron complaining the food still hurts my brain, and the other AIs, particularly D.U.M.-E. (Henry Lewis) and U. (Jonathan Sayer) are starting to feel a little too cute by half. Very Pixar-y. That said, I don’t hate the idea of them being the talking mice to Vision’s Disney princess.

— How does Vision know Wanda dropped a mountain on her head? Who told him about the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness if none of the Avengers have been in contact with him? Was he just hanging in the clouds watching it happen? Magic stones, Space Grimaces, I know, I know.