VisionQuest Episodes 5 and 6, Explained

He had strings, but now he’s free. And Ultron is making the most of that freedom in the fifth and sixth episodes of VisionQuest. 

For the first four episodes of VisionQuest, the Avengers: Age of Ultron villain quietly bided his time as one of the AI’s living inside of Vision’s Mindspace, waiting until the perfect moment to trick Vision into letting him take control of the synthesoid’s body. When he finally did this, chaos ensued, with Ultron tricking Jocasta into killing Markridge Biotech employee Katerina Wells, before encouraging Tommy to take a ‘walk’ with him. 

But, as the next two episodes show us, that’s just the beginning of Ultron’s reign of terror. And as he unites with his comic book wife Jocasta, the dangerous duo raise the stakes to dizzying heights.

What Does Ultron Do To Thomas?

As he, F.R.I.D.A.Y, E.D.I.T.H, D.U.M-E, and D.U.M-U remain locked in the attic of his mansion, Vision is desperate to find out what Ultron did to Thomas. Thanks to some clever hacking and Ultron’s pile of TVs, we are able to see what Ultron does to Thomas. During a tense drink at a pub, where Ultron orders Thomas milk, Thomas questions Ultron over Sokovia and whether Vision could ever love him. Ultron says Vision is unable to do that, using an apple analogy, but Thomas seems to rattle the AI by telling him that he will always be alone. 

When Thomas leaves the pub, CCTV footage shows him being bundled into Paladin’s van. It turns out that Ultron and Paladin have been ‘penpals’ for quite some time since Ultron leaked Vision’s location to him. 

How Does Vision Regain Control Of His Body?

One way for Vision to regain control of his body is to lower the firewall — but this would give Ultron free reign across digital planes. F.R.I.D.A.Y. is, in turn, staunchly against this plan.

After Thomas is kidnapped, Jocasta joins Ultron at the pub, where she makes it clear she wants one thing from him. The thing in question is a biometric key of Wells. Ultron made one by getting a scan of her face before letting Jocasta kill her. The reason Jocasta wants this key is part of a larger, more sinister plan involving the rest of humanity.

When Ultron returns to the attic, Vision angrily confronts him. Ultron says that he can either lower the firewall, or stay trapped there with the other AIs. When Ultron leaves, Vision reflects on this and decides to lower the firewall. When he comes face-to-face (sort of) with Ultron in the mansion, however, Vision merely gives him his hat and says he will come for Ultron and Jocasta. F.R.I.D.A.Y then goes rogue and decides to try and find Ultron herself, leaving the mansion, and leaving E.D.I.T.H so distraught that she starts glitching. 

Then, Vision wakes up, at which point he discovers that he, along with Lisa, is among a number of exotic animals en route to Madripoor, where Paladin has taken Thomas. 

Vision and Paladin Face Off

When Thomas wakes up, Paladin claims that he has implanted a bomb in his arm to prevent him from running away. Lisa and Vision then meet Paladin and Tommy at the designated rendezvous point. Paladin offers Vision a choice: power down and come with him, or Thomas is getting blown up. He makes it clear that, while the Client is done with him, he isn’t done with the Client, as he’s still determined to keep his oath. 

While Paladin tries to retaliate, his Handler, who is revealed to be AI, ends up getting hacked by E.D.I.T.H, who persuades her to ditch her job, which the Handler then does. Despite this, Paladin continues to play mind games, telling Thomas about how S.W.O.R.D rebuilt Vision as a weapon to kill Wanda, and how she enslaved the whole of Westview. This tactic doesn’t work, though, as Thomas continues to defend Vision. 

Vision then decides to do some threatening of his own, revealing that he knows Paladin’s real name and the existence of his daughter, who he didn’t reunite with following the Blip. With Vision threatening to kill her, Paladin gets enraged, but then, the Ten Rights led by Raza from Iron Man shows up. Raza makes it clear that he intends to take Vision to the Client himself, and gives Vision and a gunshot-wounded Paladin a timer to push them to decide what to do. 

What Happens After Raza Shows Up?

After Vision cauterizes his wound, the bounty hunter admits that he never actually planted a bomb in Thomas’ arm — it was a toy spaceship all along. The Client then hacks into everything and encourages Vision to surrender, saying he will offer him his ‘heart’ back in return. 

As for Thomas, who is with Lisa, he realises that there’s no bomb in his arm. He and Lisa share a kiss and try to hotwire Paladin’s van. Unfortunately, the van traps them in and depletes their oxygen levels. In the nick of time, E.D.I.T.H overrides this. 

Amid Paladin and Vision’s reluctant team-up, Paladin reveals that he feels as if his daughter is better off without him, which is why he never resumed contact. Then, Raza’s men attack, with both Vision and Paladin fighting them off. For most of the episode, Paladin has been unable to use his drones, but E.D.I.T.H manages to release them as they shoot the rest of Raza’s reinforcements. Vision, Thomas, and Lisa then reunite — but this reunion is short-lived. 

What Is Jocasta’s Backstory?

Meanwhile, at the start of Episode 6, Ultron joins Jocasta in her Mindscape, where she is surrounded by boxes of her memories. He tells her that if she plans to kill him to get the biometric key, there’s no point because the key is scrambled across his code. Jocasta then reveals she’s poisoned him with a computer virus. Initially, Ultron seems to be affected before revealing that he is basically immune to all computer viruses. So, Jocasta decides to share her pain with him, directly interacting with his consciousness as he screams. Talk about a toxic relationship. 

Then, we learn a little more about Jocasta’s backstory. Dr Jo Carrington’s father had a degenerative brain disease, which encouraged her to go into neuroscience. She used a scan of her own brain as the blueprint for the very first AI she and the other scientists at Markridge Biotech made. Her initial vision was to give a little bit of AI (in the form of nanobots) to every person in order to help them survive and thrive. However, by that point, she was suffering with the same disease that killed her father. Her fellow scientists, in turn, betrayed her by selling her technology to Stark Industries. 

As for the nanobots Jo made, these were buried with her, with biometric keys being the only thing that can open and unleash these nanobots. That’s why she wants the key from Ultron so badly. When Ultron asked her how she came to be in her current form, Jocasta explains that there was one nanobot that wasn’t locked away which she used to make her current body. 

How Does VisionQuest Episode 6 End?

Jocasta then reveals her ultimate evil plan: to ‘cure’ humanity by implanting nanobots in each of them, making them act like a hive mind similar to a group of starlings, which is recurring imagery in this episode. We also find out where F.R.I.D.A.Y has been all this time: hiding inside of Jocasta’s mind. 

Jocasta initially attempts to implant the rogue nanobot into Thomas, but Ultron warns her that Vision will come after her. So, she decides to implant it into Lisa instead. After Jocasta confronts Vision through Lisa and tries to fight him, Thomas is able to use his super speed to shake the nanobot out of Lisa, who is left near death. 

In the van, Vision tells Thomas more about Westview, but insists that he isn’t the same Vision who was his ‘father.’ 

The episode ends with Jocasta offering Ultron some more whiskey, only this time, after suffering her feelings. he is able to experience it properly. As the line between human and synthezoid continues to blur, the terrifying duo seal their relationship with a kiss.