VisionQuest episode 3 is now out, and the new episode gives us a fresh insight into a major event in MCU canon. Alongside Paul Bettany's synthezoid, a number of Stark AIs appear in VisionQuest, including F.R.I.D.A.Y., who was the AI in Tony's suit during the events of Avengers: Endgame. And her perspective on Tony's sacrifice play is heartbreaking.
Talking to E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hampshire) following J.A.R.V.I.S.' own sacrifice at the end of episode 2, F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Orla Brady) recalls her history replacing J.A.R.V.I.S. inside the Iron Man suit, and her fateful final day on the job.
"You know I already replaced him once?" F.R.I.D.A.Y. says. "I ran everything for Stark, for the Avengers. I mean, I was a younger program then. But still the 2.0 of every tactical security initiative that Jarvis pioneered.
"And I was good. I protected heroes, saved lives, advised. I had purpose. But friends became enemies and tyrants invaded our Earth. Thanos. War. I was there, at the end of all things. There were heroes everywhere, fighting and falling. And I was there when Tony died. I ran over a quintillion strategic calculations that day, and I still couldn't save him. Half the world came back that day, and I lost half of mine."
Now that's just… devastating. I'm not sure I gave F.R.I.D.A.Y. much of a thought during the Avengers: Endgame finale. After all, Rhodey, Peter, Pepper, and more heroes are right there, already mourning as Tony draws his final breaths. But VisionQuest has humanized F.R.I.D.A.Y. and the other Stark AIs to such a degree that it's now added another layer of heartbreak to what was already the MCU's saddest moment.
It's also interesting to think that F.R.I.D.A.Y. was constantly working on a way to save Tony, running a quintillion strategic calculations on the day of his death alone. This puts Doctor Strange's 14,000,605 possible futures to shame, but the difference is that Strange could see a winning strategy with certainty, whereas F.R.I.D.A.Y. was always playing the odds, hoping that her strategy had the desired outcome despite the countless variables in play.
F.R.I.D.A.Y. isn't the only Stark AI with added layers in VisionQuest. Vision actor Paul Bettany told us how liberating it was for him to tap into a more ruthless Vision for the show, while Ultron actor James Spader said he was "constantly surprised" by how much his genocidal murder bot changed.
That's not all, Emily Hampshire also brought elements of Tony Stark into her role as E.D.I.T.H., telling us: "Tony's legacy is in there, and he named her E.D.I.T.H. for Even Dead, I'm The Hero, so that really informed that there's something in her that wants to be the hero, but also has that sense of play that Tony has, and yet her idea of fun is blowing things up, and so that is what has created who we meet in VisionQuest." Seven years on from his death, Tony continues to loom large over the MCU.
VisionQuest continues on Disney Plus. Stay up to date with when new episodes drop by bookmarking our VisionQuest release schedule, or read what E.D.I.T.H. star Emily Hampshire had to say about her big scene with Ultron.
