VisionQuest - Episode 2

2. Theseus

Thomas Shepherd (Ruaridh Mollica) figures in a drowning incident that leads to a psychotic breakdown. He claims that he has memories that are not his, those of Vision and Wanda being his parents in a life within a sitcom. He is about to be sent to a sanitarium but he meets pickpocket Lisa (Lauren Morais) on the prisoner transport bus and they manage to escape. They have been living as pickpockets and con artists in London since then. Paladin takes him to the institution and locks him in a cell after he replaces the staff with his own men. Vision meets Paladin after some convincing from Ultron and is led to a trap. He manages to break Tommy out but not without getting serious damage from the adamantium bullets Paladin uses on him. As his hardware breaks down from the damage, all of the AI he houses within are on the verge of deletion until J.A.R.V.I.S. deletes himself to transfer his processing power to the remaining ones. Tommy hotwires a car and escapes with Vision, not wanting to let him go because he’s the only one that could give him answers about his identity.

We are back to the Ship of Theseus! Is a ship replaced part by part over the years still the same ship? This philosophical question is so enticing because it forces you to think about identity as a concept. This is why it always comes in handy in storylines involving cloning and AI. The dilemma of father and son just mirrors one another. You have Vision who is not really Vision but trying to be, perhaps to make sense of his purpose in life other than being AI and then you have Tommy whose body was basically hijacked from some random Scottish chap. It’s nuts, but their storylines run parallel. Of course we already know that it is not Vision, but rather Billy who made all of this possible. Since Joe Locke has already been announced as part of the cast, I guess we’re just going to have to wait until Billy and Agatha enter the picture. For now, I just feel a bit shortchanged when it comes to Paladin as the current villain. Whoever hired him is obviously the big bad, but I wish they could’ve scoured the Marvel universe for someone who could actually go toe to toe with Vision.

“Yeah, I was at the pool. Kids were having a laugh, holding me under but for too long. Then it was like a... Like a bolt of lightning. And then, and then I wasn't just me anymore. I was someone else. Like, someone else just moved into my brain with me. How can it feel so real? When I know it's impossible! I cannot have two lives! Please!” –Tommy

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