Apparently the Client is closely tied to Vision and this is made clear throughout the eighth and final episode of VisionQuest. As the concluding chapter of the Wanda Trilogy, it finished its narrative arc while opening up new avenues for the future and clarifying some fundamental steps. From the very first episode, we learned that someone is hunting Vision, though the motive remains unclear. Over the season, a revealing truth about the Client emerges: he is not only pursuing Vision, but is also interested in Jocasta, and in the eighth episode we discover precisely why he needs both. But first, let’s understand who the Client really is and why he seems to bear the human avatar of Ultron.
Warning: the following contains references to events from the last episode of VisionQuest, so we recommend proceeding only after you’ve completed the viewing.
VisionQuest, everything you need to know about the Client: who Virgil really is and how he’s connected to Vision and Ultron (SPOILERS)
VisionQuest begins with a hunt for Vision. Paladin has been hired by a mysterious Client to carry out the mission, but ends up becoming a valuable ally to him, forcing the Client to adjust his strategy. The seventh episode ends with the capture of Vision and Jocasta, and the eighth episode reveals not only the reason, but also the identity of the puppeteer who has operated quietly behind the scenes since the very start.
We meet Virgil Horton, the nephew of Phineas Horton, the scientist who created the first synthetic man, also known as the Human Torch, in the 1940s after losing his son. Virgil lives in Phineas’s same residence and is determined to reunite with Jocasta, with whom he had built a scientific and emotional partnership. What happened to Phineas (the failure of his experiment) tainted the family name, and years later Virgil collaborated with the Dr. Josephine Carrington to perfect the artificial intelligence project, hoping to redeem his surname. It’s a pity that he then decided to sell everything to Tony Stark.
Dr. Josephine Carrington dies from a terminal illness, but Virgil Horton turns her into Jocasta, bringing her back to life—an achievement completed thanks to his time as an infiltrator with the SWORD. Thus we learn that it was Virgil who made the reconstruction of Vision possible during the events of WandaVision. Involved with SWORD’s team of engineers, Virgil restored Vision and used the opportunity to create a synthetic body for Jocasta as well, but he chose to erase from her memory every recollection of him because he deemed himself unworthy of her love. Yet his plan is only half-realized and he needs Vision to complete it.
Virgil believes that a Goddess like Jocasta can love only a God, so he intends to transfer himself into Vision’s body. Only in this way can the two of them love freely and subjugate humanity with their creation. Too bad Virgil overlooked Ultron: it is he whom Jocasta loves and who she wants at her side.
Virgil Horton is the reason Ultron took on the human likeness of James Spader
But how can Ultron share the same human features as Virgil? The answer ties back to Virgil’s actions, who, together with Jo, developed an artificial intelligence using their own minds and personalities. When he later sold his technology to Stark Industries, betraying Jo, Tony used that exact codebase to develop Ultron, and that’s why, in VisionQuest, Ultron inherited the human avatar, the same voice, and even certain personality traits like the outsized ego and cynicism. Virgil’s plan then unravels because Jocasta falls in love with Ultron and wants him as her partner in every sense. Ultron, for his part, remains tied to Virgil, and this bond likely fueled an attraction toward Jocasta.
The future of Ultron and Virgil in the MCU: the post-credits scene
What happened in the final episode of VisionQuest paves the way for only one of these two characters. Virgil kills Jocasta in a firefight, and the AI dies in Ultron’s arms. Deeply wounded, Ultron decides to punish not only Virgil, who crushes him beneath him, but also humanity by setting in motion the plan laid out from the very beginning by the one who gave form to his human avatar. Only Vision’s intervention offers Ultron a way out—a second chance.
The series closes by revealing that Ultron isn’t dead; he has used some nanobots to escape and live freely. He phones Vision, but in the post-credits scene he clutches a hard drive labeled Jocasta. We see him again at the Horton residence, which now bears Virgil’s likeness, and he ponders what to do next: will he bring Jocasta back to life soon? It seems that this is precisely his intended course of action.
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