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Is your favorite color Morally Gray? If it is, that might be why you tuned into Agatha All Along. The show, centering around the antagonist of 2021's WandaVision Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), has just wrapped its 9-episode run. The premise was that three years after the end of WandaVision, Agatha Harkness is still under Wanda Maximoff's (Elizabeth Olsen) spell. Once she breaks it, she realizes she's still powerless. She meets Teen (Joe Locke), who we later find out is Wanda's son, Billy who asks to watch The Witches' Road.
Ever the opportunist, Agatha takes him up on the offer, despite knowing the Road is a complete farce she herself made up. In the end, Agatha does get what she says she wants out of the road: power, after Billy allows her to siphon magic from him and Billy is on his way to getting what he wants: to find his brother Tommy. Though the actual road itself ended up being a fabrication of Billy's own making (unbeknownst to himself) it still provided significant personal and emotional growth for nearly every member of the coven walking the road. When showrunner Jac Schaeffer spoke to Collider's Christina Radish about the show, she talked about how Agatha is the coven member who didn't grow the way the others did.
"Every member of the coven, with the exception of Rio, reaches a point where they are a better version of themselves by the end, except for Agatha." We do see these positives including our coven members breaking generational curses and accepting death for what it is. She says of Agatha, "I think there’s growth, in that she lets Billy in and she partners for the first time in centuries, but she is a ghost because she hasn’t fully arced out."
Agatha Is Still Looking For the "Truth of Herself"
Image via Disney+ Schaeffer, who also created WandaVision, makes it clear that she doesn't think Agatha is "hero of her own story. I think that she still has work to do, and I think that’s why she’s a ghost." Schaeffer explained to Collider that Agatha dying had been the plan from the start of Agatha All Along. A common theme with ghosts is their unfinished business, which is why Schaeffer says Agatha "still has work to do." At the end of the series, she's walking off (albeit incorporeal) with Billy to go find Tommy but she's far from the sage mentor Yoda-esque archetype (though a Yoda force ghost comparison would be absolutely hilarious in a future MCU project) that a lot of people would expect from someone in her position. She's not a hero, but she's not a villain either.
Agatha is selfish. That's indisputable. She's probably got a sign somewhere that says: Me, Myself, and I are My #1 Priority but she's not stupid and that's how the growth weaseled its way in. She doesn't fit a hero or a villain archetype and, according to Schaeffer, that's intentional.
" I find the hero/villain binary reductive , and that’s why I do these shows. I want to explore it and I want to be like, 'You think this person is a villain? Just a second, they’re a hero. And then, vice versa.' Like everything, it’s a flow. It’s a pendulum."
Schaeffer says Agatha "hasn’t fully made peace and accepted the truth of her life and the truth of herself." She says, "If you look at it too closely, yeah, Agatha is a mass murderer and that’s not okay. But this is the MCU. This is a genre space, it’s a supernatural space, and there is a little bit of latitude in there." While no one is meant to sit at home and excuse Agatha's actions, (no matter how many of us are buying 'I support a woman's rights and her wrongs' t-shirt with Agatha's face on it) Schaeffer explains, "What I’m most interested in is, why did she go on a mass murdering spree after son died? It’s because she couldn’t cope. It’s just a metaphor. She’s not a real human person killing real human people. She can’t fill herself, and that’s what the metaphor is."
Rather than expecting growth from Agatha in future MCU projects as she provides a spiritual guide for Billy, Schaeffer is actually sounding the alarm. She says "... it’s interesting that, at the end, she’s still capable of being flippant about the people she’s killed, and Billy is 100% not. That is the important distinction between them. The body count is real."
Schaeffer explains:
"I couldn’t really say this through press [before the finale had aired], but we didn’t want a redemption story for Agatha . We wanted to thread the needle of, yes, she and Billy end up partnered at the end of the show and off on another adventure, but we are not redeeming this villain . There should be concern that the ghost on Billy’s shoulder is Agatha Harkness. That should make everyone nervous. "
Whether Agatha will end up being the demon or angel on Billy's shoulder, we'll hopefully not see the last of her in the MCU. She's already set to appear in an episode of the final season of Marvel's What If...? series. You can read our full interview with Schaeffer here. All 9 episodes of Agatha All Along are available to stream on Disney+.
Agatha Harkness, following the events of "WandaVision," embarks on a quest to reclaim her lost powers. Teaming up with unlikely allies, including the son of her former enemy, she faces new mystical threats while navigating a complex world of magic and intrigue.
Release Date September 18, 2024
Seasons 1
Creator(s) Jac Schaeffer
Story By Jac Schaeffer
Writers Jac Schaeffer
Number of Episodes 9
Streaming Service(s) Disney Plus
Franchise(s) Marvel Cinematic Universe
Directors Jac Schaeffer , Gandja Monteiro , Rachel Goldberg
Showrunner Jac Schaeffer
Character(s) Agnes O'Connor / Agatha Harkness , Teen , Jennifer Kale , Alice Wu-Gulliver , Salem Seven / Vertigo , Mrs. Hart , Lilia Calderu , Rio Vidal , Herb , Dottie , Jones , Norm , Dennis the Mailman , Customer #1 , Customer #2 , Salem Seven / Coyote , Salem Seven / Crow , Salem Seven / Fox , Salem Seven / Owl , Salem Seven / Rat , Salem Seven / Snake
English (US) ·