It has stories of sorcerers, super soldiers, rag-tag alien teams and the adventures of a billionaire play-boy philanthropist. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has pulled off the unlikely feat of adding a witch-propelled era-traversing sitcom to the roster of bizarrely brilliant concepts that all somehow seamlessly slot into the same universe. For all the spells cast by Wanda and Agnes, it’s Kevin Feige and his team of producers that have pulled off the real magic – yet again.

WandaVision is exactly the type of show that Marvel simply wouldn’t have been able to make six years ago. Sure, Disney+ wasn’t a thing and the Netflix domain clearly had a disconnect to the MCU films despite subtle syncing attempts and mentions of magic hammer wielding maniacs. But more than the issue of platform, Marvel didn’t own the position of creative power that they have now.

We’re all truly invested in the MCU story. We’ll watch every movie and TV show. Lap up every concept. Marvel has confidence to take big swings and we have the faith in them to hit a home run every time.

And make no mistake, WandaVision was a superb first swing at fully-integrated MCU premium television. The sheer scale of the show was impressive, with movie calibre special effects, amazing performances throughout the cast and interconnectivity that was deeply satisfying. That’s not to mention the joy of the mystery posed in the early weeks of the series, where we were trying to figure out how this bizarre sitcom set-up was going to fall into the universe we know.

Episode four, our first spent outside of the Hex, was the strongest episode of the series. It introduced us to dynamic triumvirate of truth Jimmy Woo, Monica Rambeau and Dr Darcy Lewis, providing connective tissue to Ant-Man, Captain Marvel and Thor. It pulled back the curtain on the mystery in a hugely satisfying way, showing us what we were really watching across the past fortnight.

The series kept trying to keep the mystery momentum going, introducing the quasi-Pietro Maximoff and later revealing that Agatha Harkness was the instigator of that particular manipulation. However, that’s where the irresponsible speculation truly began to ramp up online and ultimately led some fans to be the instigators of their own disappointment.

Just like when Snoke theories ran rampant on social media in the lead up to Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, WandaVision fans were propelling wild theories regarding finale cameos for Doctor Strange, Mephisto, Magneto or Charles Xavier. Even a Baron Mordo appearance was a part of the conversation.

People took press junket comments from Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany – where they are doing everything within their power to promote the show – and turned their tongue-in-cheek comments into grandiose guarantees of appearances that were never really on the table and wouldn’t have done anything to enhance this story.

It’s difficult to avoid boarding the irresponsible speculation train when it’s barrelling along, but WandaVision is a lesson to the MCU fanbase. We don’t need all of the characters all of the time. The Avengers have only just defeated Thanos’ army. Doctor Strange is busy catching up on the inter-dimensional happenings of the past five years. The X-Men universe is separate.

Admittedly, that last one is a challenge to deal with. All those multiverse theories cooked up when Evan Peters reprised his role as Peter ‘Pietro’ Maximoff were thrown out of the window and shunned by dick joke.

Should Marvel have cast Evan Peters, knowing full well the speculation and ultimate misunderstanding that it would cause? If anything, the fact that they chose Evan only for him to be Ralph Bohner would suggest that Feige and co will likely never looked to integrate the old X-Men cast into the MCU. How could they after such a seismic bait and switch? How you feel about that depends on your opinions of the Fox X-Men movies and, yet again, how loudly you shouted online about how multiverse was going to rock the WandaVision finale.

Chapter nine would no doubt have been better received without the X-Men-centric multiverse chat that has been building for weeks. As it turns out, one of the biggest perceived questions regarding the series was not even a question at all.

Yet another misplaced expectation for what this final episode would be. Even calling it a season finale in many ways is a misnomer, as this was always going to be a series that sets up Wanda’s new identity within the MCU. The Scarlet Witch practicing astral projection at the end of this show is a tantalising tee-up for Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness. The suped-up Monica Rambeau meeting with a Skrull messenger nods to Secret Invasion and Captain Marvel 2. This finale is no more a finale than the third act of Infinity War – nor was it ever going to be more conclusive in the overall context of the MCU’s narrative.

We didn’t slam Infinity War for being inconclusive and we shouldn’t aim that criticism at WandaVision either.

We were served satisfying conclusions to the Westview anomaly, true emotional weight between Wanda and Vision as they said goodbye for a third time and great springboards for the stories coming next.

Marvel fans are meant to like these cliff-hangers. These open threads are what keeps this crazy series rolling. This Marvel fan absolutely loves the spot in which this narrative leaves it’s characters. Let’s not over-hype things in the future. Let’s just enjoy the ride as it unfolds.

Speculate responsibly.