Who is Ultron based on in VisionQuest? Explaining episode 7 ending and the Client reveal

*Warning: Spoilers ahead for VisionQuest episode 7*

The penultimate episode of VisionQuest was an absolute doozy, ending with a reveal of the mysterious Client’s face. He’s got the exact same face as James Spader’s Ultron, suggesting he could be the original human behind Ultron’s avatar.

But who actually is he? Well, episode 7 has given us some pretty interesting clues. But first, let’s rewind a little, because a lot happened before that final scene. 

When we last saw Vision (Paul Bettany) and Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica), they were desperately trying to save Lisa (Lauren Morais) after Jocasta (T’Nia Miller) infected her with one of her nanobots. Unfortunately, removing it would kill her, so they need to find another way.

Enter the Client. He offers Vision access to his hidden source code, which could save Lisa’s life. There’s just one catch: Vision has to surrender himself afterwards.

And there’s another issue: accessing it requires a huge amount of power. But Paladin (Todd Stashwick) has something that could do the trick. It’s Corvus Glaive’s glaive, which was stolen from Wakanda and previously used to stab Vision in Avengers: Infinity War.

Using this, Vision enters his own programming and comes face-to-face with versions of his past. He eventually encounters J.I.M., the original Human Torch. And he makes Vision confront something he’s been avoiding since WandaVision.

Despite having his memories back, Vision has been refusing to accept the grief that comes with losing Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and their family. But after a rather emotional conversation with J.I.M., he finally accepts who he is.

And in one of the episode’s biggest moments, White Vision transforms back into the red-and-green Vision we all know. As J.I.M. says to him, “Finding your way through this pain has made you a real boy.”

Oh, and he also gets the code he needs to save Lisa. So, happy ending? Not quite.

Vision still has to honour his agreement with the Client. Before leaving, he records a heartbreaking message for Tommy. He shows Tommy their family and finally calls him his son, telling him that he loves him. 

As for Jocasta, she and Ultron (James Spader) have travelled to a rather familiar house. It once belonged to scientist Phineas Horton, who created J.I.M. back in 1939. And it turns out the property has a much bigger connection to the show’s AI experiments than we realised.

Jocasta begins recovering memories of her former life as Dr Josephine Carrington, including a mysterious man she worked with. The pair were also romantically involved, and he has the face of Ultron’s human avatar. 

Then comes the ending. Vision arrives at Horton’s old estate, only to find himself surrounded by armed guards. Jocasta is captured too, and both are powered down.

And just when we think we’re finally about to learn who’s been orchestrating everything, the camera pans around to reveal the Client’s face. And it’s James Spader… again. 

This isn’t the human Ultron we’ve been following throughout the series. The Client seems to be a separate person who shares his human appearance. 

So, we now know what the Client looks like, but we’re not sure of his actual identity or his motives. However, there’s a leading theory after VisionQuest episode 7 dropped a big clue.

Do we finally know who the Client is yet? 

We don’t know for sure who the Client is just yet, but one of the most convincing theories after episode 7 is that he’s Phineas Horton’s grandson, through his daughter Victoria. And there’s actually a pretty interesting clue to back this up.

In episode 7, ‘Immolation’, we get a flashback to 1939, when Horton is working on J.I.M., the first synthetic human. But it’s a seemingly small moment involving his daughter Victoria that has caught all the attention.

As Victoria leaves, she takes one of her father’s notebooks with her. And if that sounds familiar, it’s because what appears to be the same notebook later turns up in the hands of Dr Carrington’s AI research group.

So, could the Client be a descendant of Horton who inherited his grandfather’s research? Well, a number of Marvel fans certainly think so. 

As one wrote on Reddit, “So after watching ‘Immolation’, my new guess for the true identity of The Client is… Phineas Horton’s grandson, child of his daughter Victoria who we see snatching her father’s notebook. 

“This is the notebook we saw was in the hands of Jo Carrington’s project group. Victoria herself would be 90-plus years old, but her son’s age would be a close match for James Spader.

“If this is correct, it will be really interesting to find out what his goals and motivations are, and whether or not his persona was always a part of Ultron, or if that ‘Ultron’ inside Vision is not really Ultron but a copy of Dr. P. Horton’s grandkid doing… who knows what!”

Another said, “I haven’t seen anyone on the internet talking about Victoria Horton swiping her dad’s notebook. Seems like James Spader’s new character is connected to the daughter, my guess is it’s his mother and he bought back the family home. I just have no clue how Ultron has his likeness.”

And there’s another clue in the episode. As the final scenes are playing out, Vision’s voice plays over the top as he reads out his message to Tommy. And the Client is revealed just as Vision says, “After all, family is forever.”

Others have pointed out the previous theories that the Client is either J.I.M. or Horton somehow, especially after the trailer showed Bettany as J.I.M. in flames. It makes this latest reveal a true surprise. 

“They played fair. I was one of the people that saw Bettany JIM in the trailers and thought I was ahead of the show by guessing Horton,” said one. 

“Wonderfully retroactively constructed out of the lore elements they had to play with. I’m curious what the Grandson’s plan is, why he unleashed Jocasta to kill for him, and especially how Ultron is going to react to him.”

Why does Ultron look like the Client in VisionQuest?

Well, that’s the other big question after episode 7. And unfortunately, Marvel hasn’t given us a proper answer just yet.

What we do know is that Ultron’s human appearance isn’t random. As we’ve now seen, Vision shares his face with Horton and J.I.M. So it would make sense if Ultron’s appearance had a similar explanation.

And given that the Client appears in Jo Carrington’s memories, there’s a possibility he was involved in the research that came before Ultron’s creation. Although Tony Stark and Bruce Banner created Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron, they weren’t the first people experimenting with AI.

We’ll have to wait for the finale to find out. But in the meantime, VisionQuest showrunner Terry Matalas has explained why Ultron spends so much of the show looking human.

Speaking to Polygon, he said, “It’s funny, people say it’s a budget thing, it’s not, it’s a James Spader thing. I love James Spader. Who doesn’t love James Spader? I just want to see James and I want to see Bettany.

“You’ll get plenty of robot action in the show. The show is very much inspired by that last scene in Age of Ultron between the two of them. But watching Spader and Bettany chew up the scenery was something I saw in my head from the very beginning.

“It is prohibitively expensive to do a CGI robot 24/7, but I also don’t want to see a CGI robot. It’s not going to be able to emote and do the things that James Spader can do with just the twitch of an eyebrow. So that’s pretty much the main reason.”

And Spader himself had a big say in how Ultron would look. Speaking to The Direct, he explained that Ultron had been trapped inside Vision’s mind for more than a decade. “He’s been a prisoner here for 12 years or however long it is, and you can establish that with long hair and a big beard,” he said.

The actor also described the human avatar as the person Ultron aspires to be, which could be another clue. 

Of course, Spader wasn’t specifically talking about the Client. And none of this tells us why the Client has the exact same face. But after that episode 7 ending, it’s certainly an interesting detail to look back on.

For now, we’ll have to wait until the finale to find out how all of these clues tie together. 

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Featured image credit: Disney+