Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprise their respective roles as Wanda Maximoff and Vision from the film series, with Teyonah Parris, Evan Peters, Randall Park, Kat Dennings, and Kathryn Hahn also starring.

Peters played a different version of the character in the X-Men film series, and he was cast for WandaVision because of the meta and thematic implications.

Critics praised the episode for its opening titles and theme song, and for its progression of the series' storylines, while Peters' appearance as "Pietro Maximoff" was widely discussed.

In the fictional WandaVision program, now set during the 1980s/early 1990s, Wanda Maximoff and Vision struggle to stop their newborn sons Billy and Tommy from crying.

He breaks the trance over his co-worker Norm, a real Westview resident named Abilash Tandon, who begs Vision to stop "her".

[3][4] He and head writer Jac Schaeffer executive produce alongside Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Victoria Alonso.

[10] Schaeffer felt the entire decade of 1980s sitcoms was an inspiration for the episode, highlighting Family Ties, Full House, Growing Pains, Who's the Boss?, Roseanne, and Just the Ten of Us in particular.

Early drafts had elements of the house such as the plumbing starting to go "haywire" as another sign that Maximoff was losing control, but this idea was eventually moved to "Breaking the Fourth Wall".

Other ideas from early drafts that did not make the final episode include Maximoff trying to distract Vision by having neighbors appear at the house, such as Phil arriving with a band or Dottie coming to hold an exercise class.

[15]: 17:48–22:57 Schaeffer was interested in starting to show differences of opinion seep into Maximoff and Vision's marriage, leading to a more "authentic" domestic picture of them compared to the depiction of their relationship in earlier episodes.

[12] Cameron wrote the scene where Maximoff and Vision argue at the end of the episode, and his initial version did not have any superhero elements in it, so he could focus on the grounded drama.

Bettany later added a line where he says "I'm scared", which Cameron felt was a beautiful addition to the scene since it shows Vision's vulnerability within the argument.

[27] The way film was transferred to video in the 1980s caused a red channel bloom in the picture, so this effect was added to the episode during the digital intermediate process.

[10] Editor Nona Khodai found the episode's theme song to be quite long compared to the amount of footage that was available to use in the opening sequence, and was not able to cut it shorter.

[40] DeMarco used Vision's introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), which was primarily created by Lola VFX, as the definitive version of the character when approaching the visual effects for him in WandaVision.

Bettany wore a bald cap and face makeup on set to match Vision's color, as well as tracking markers for the visual effects teams to reference.

[38] Complex 3D and digital makeup techniques were then used to create the character, with sections of Bettany's face replaced with CGI on a shot-by-shot basis; the actor's eyes, nose, and mouth were usually the only elements retained.

Claus added that the visual effects work for Vision's face is aided by the subtle performance that Bettany gives to the character.

The shot was inspired by similar "morphs" from the 1990s,[43] such as those seen in the music videos for Michael Jackson's "Black or White" and the Backstreet Boys' "As Long as You Love Me".

Lopez added that it was easy for them to find those emotions because he and Anderson-Lopez have children the same age as Maximoff and Vision's in the episode, and they were also "trying to make things work even as the world kind of crumbles around us".

[47] Lopez and Anderson-Lopez said they were channeling 1980s rock and pop singers for the song, such as Michael McDonald, Kris Kristofferson, Huey Lewis, and Taylor Dayne.

[45] A soundtrack album for the episode was released digitally by Marvel Music and Hollywood Records on February 12, 2021, featuring composer Christophe Beck's score.

[54] Nielsen Media Research, which measures the number of minutes watched by United States audiences on television sets, listed WandaVision as the third most-watched original streaming series for the week of February 1 to 7, 2021.

The site's critical consensus reads, "'On a Very Special Episode...' of WandaVision, there are no new answers, but some well played twists open the door for a host of new questions—and one very unexpected guest.

[57] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Chancellor Agard said the episode lived up to its title and enjoyed seeing Elizabeth Olsen continue to "flesh Wanda out", creating a performance that makes the character "painfully human", pointing to the standoff with S.W.O.R.D.

Christian Holub, Agard's colleague, likened the scene where Maximoff begins playing the sitcom's credits to avoid talking with Vision to the short film Too Many Cooks (2014).

[13] Matt Purslow of IGN gave "On a Very Special Episode..." an 8 out of 10, saying it tore up the series' established rule book and almost achieved the ideal balance between family sitcom and MCU drama.

[60] The episode's theme song and opening titles were praised, with Robinson calling the theme song "treacly" and comparing the title sequence to the "paint-by-numbers cast 'portrait'" sequence of Family Ties,[57] and Riesman saying it was the most artistically interesting part of the episode with Anderson-Lopez and Lopez's singing being "genuinely wonderful".

[21][62] Polygon's Matt Patches called the appearance a "haunting vibe" and "both a nod to the knotted rights issues" that previously applied to the character before Disney acquired 21st Century Fox and also a "mind-bender on its own".

[21][60] For the 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Nona Khodai was nominated for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her work on the episode.