After a bewitching six-week run, Agatha All Along has come to an end on Disney+. The series is essentially a WandaVision sequel, following the Scarlet Witch’s son and her enemy as they embark on a dangerous quest for power. Huge twists and exciting new developments for the MCU arrived with the release of the Marvel series’ two-part finale, but unfortunately, the awkwardly paced episodes didn’t exactly stick the landing.
[Warning: major spoilers ahead for Agatha All Along and finale.]
Agatha’s relationship with Death
The biggest problem with Agatha All Along lies in the curiously absent relationship between two of its main characters. After weeks of teasing and gently fleshing out the contentious relationship between Agatha Harkness and the cosmic embodiment of Death itself, there’s a confounding lack of exploration in their history in the last two episodes. We see Death take Agatha’s son six years later than she was supposed to, making a special exception for her lover by granting her extra time with her doomed child, but there’s no exploration of their centuries-long love.
The circumstances of Nicky’s death offer some much-needed context to the showdown in the eighth episode, but it still doesn’t explain any of Agatha’s true history with Death. There’s no mention or depiction of how Agatha and Rio met in the first place, how Rio fell in love with Agatha, or what Death is doing frolicking around on Earth as a Green Witch in the first place. While that last point may not be as important, it’s strange to pull off a twist as big as Rio being the personification of Death while simultaneously avoiding how that totally re-contextualizes her history with Agatha.
“Show, don’t tell” is a key concept when it comes to movies and television, and it’s advice Agatha All Along sorely needed in its finale. We see the violent fallout of Rio taking Nicky’s life and the messy end it brings to Agatha’s own life; but all of these moments would hit so much harder if we actually understood how their love blossomed and could see their need for each other develop.
The idea of Agatha being in a toxic relationship with Death is fascinating, but it only becomes evidently toxic during their final battle. For most of the series, they just seemed like two crazy witches who found someone to match their freak, as they flowed between flirting and fighting with a glint in their eyes. Spending any amount of time with them when they were truly in love would develop the toxic aspect of their relationship better, and add some hard-hitting emotion to Agatha surrendering to Rio’s deadly kiss, but refusing to follow her into the afterlife.
As it stands, there’s far too much reading between the lines. You’re left with an understanding of why Agatha and Rio split up, you see the deliciously dramatic fallout it causes, you see the fatal end of their relationship, but you never saw them at their strongest. It’s like Eternals – you see Ikaris and Sersi meet for the first time and then smash cut to them having broken up 500 years ago. Why not take the time to make the audience care more about these characters’ feelings for each other? Why introduce such an interesting, complex, centuries-long relationship but never dig into how it truly affected these people over time?
It’s hard to be invested in a relationship you never see. Incredible acting coupled with subtle touching moments can only go so far. The theory that Death fell in love with Agatha because she kept leaving dead covens on her doorstep was a really great one, but the final episode shows that Agatha was already in love with Rio before she began killing witches in earnest. It’s an unbelievably huge missed opportunity to not dig into one of the most interesting dynamics in the MCU. What we got was fantastic, but what we didn’t get to see severely undercuts everything else.
Agatha Harkness’ lack of history
For a show titled Agatha All Along, there are many unanswered questions about our protagonist by the time the credits roll. Agatha’s history was a tantalizing tease in the seventh episode of WandaVision, with her own coven attempting to execute her at the age of 18 for practicing “the darkest of magic”. There wasn’t room to explore that history in Wanda’s show, but it’s very disappointing to see no room made for it in a nine-episode series about Agatha herself. And no, her mother’s ghost saying she was “born evil” doesn’t offer any explanation, since we still have no idea what she was doing as a child to gain that reputation.
In addition to Agatha’s history (or lack thereof) with Rio, there’s no exploration of her time with the Darkhold. After numerous mentions and a hallucinatory appearance in the first three episodes of the series, the Book of the Damned doesn’t make a peep in this series. Despite its importance to Agatha in WandaVision and how it led to mass destruction and death in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The only hint we get is that Agatha seems to acquire the book after the 1970s since her fingers aren’t blackened during the witch-killing montage.
There’s another interesting theory that Agatha turned to the Darkhold to bring back her son, much like Wanda does in the final end credits scene of WandaVision, but there’s nothing to support that theory in the show itself. In fact, Jac Schaeffer seemingly refuted that concept in a recent interview with Deadline where she says Agatha had no interest in attempting to resurrect Nicholas because she understands the finality of death.
It’s a huge letdown to not dig into Agatha’s psyche and explore how she became this messed-up, evil person to begin with, especially when she was already murdering witches by the dozens long before she acquired the evil book that ruins your life. This series was the time to explore Agatha’s backstory, and yet everything, except Nicholas, was left unsaid.
Fixing the Agatha All Along finale
After seven strong episodes, Agatha All Along inexplicably tripped over itself at the end. This series claims to be about Agatha Harkness but feels desperate to avoid focusing too much on her in the back half. Her time with Nicholas is an awkward prologue/epilogue sequence shoved into the end of the series in an episode where it doesn’t have any impact on the main plot. It’s a baffling writing or editing choice that severely undercuts the show when it was at its strongest.
The messy pacing of both episodes 8 and 9 leaves a lot to be desired. The episodes are packed full of interesting new developments and overall, they are a decent ending to the series, but they feel out of place with the rest of the show. Episode 8 is very rushed and lacks context for its big emotional swings, while episode 9 grinds to a halt to provide only some of the context that was needed an hour earlier.
Instead, the flashbacks in episode 9 should have been cut throughout episode 8 (for example, the episode should have opened with Agatha giving birth to Nicholas and Rio offering them time together before proceeding to Rio guiding Alice to the afterlife). Episode 8 should have solely focused on the Nicholas flashbacks and the final trial, ending with Billy resurrecting Tommy and Agatha escaping the Road, while Death could have taken Nicholas in the final moments of the episode.
Episode 9 should have begun with a longer version of the battle between Agatha, Rio, and Billy – not necessarily more action, but certainly more dialogue and exploration of Agatha and Rio’s relationship. The second half of episode 9 could then proceed as it unfolded and it would have felt like a more satisfying finale, pairing Nicholas’s burial and the Witches’ Road flashbacks with Billy’s realization that he created all of it.
Telling a story in a non-linear fashion can work, but it’s inexplicable to stick much-needed information about a character’s past at the end of a series to act as a makeshift epilogue after the climax has taken place. Agatha’s history with Nicholas deepens the emotional stakes in episode 8 much more so than it applies to the final conversations Agatha has with Billy in episode 9.
It’s frustrating to see a show that was firing on all cylinders trip over itself at the end, but it’s a disappointing hallmark of Marvel Disney+ series at this point. Few have managed to stick the landing. Unfortunately, Agatha All Along falls prey to what’s becoming a classic Jac Schaeffer trap: creating an incredibly engaging story and characters with mind-bending twists but failing to stick the landing after an incredible buildup.
Seeing Jennifer Kale being positioned as “the Path Ahead” by Lilia and triumphantly reclaiming her power only to do nothing but fly away into the distance gave me flashbacks to WandaVision dramatically powering up Monica Rambeau only to completely ignore her character arc in its own finale. Yes, this is all part of the MCU, but standalone stories need to reach a natural conclusion in their own projects while leaving threads open for future projects to follow up on.
Moving on from Jen with little fanfare instead of properly concluding her story is exactly what WandaVision did with its own supporting characters. It’s great that her powers returned, but what does that even mean for her? What “real work” was she doing that Agatha referenced in episode 3? Why did she leave Billy behind with Agatha without a care in the world when she bonded with him and refused to abandon Lilia just one episode earlier? It makes her story feel unfinished rather than complete but open for more, and that’s exactly how Monica’s story in WandaVision felt as well.
The best parts of this Marvel series
All that being said, this series was exceptional for most of its run. Although the unanswered questions and lack of depth to the show’s central relationship do hurt it in the end, watching Agatha All Along week to week was a very special experience. Every witch felt perfectly cast and had a huge part to play in the story. Each episode felt like an actual episode of television and not a sliced-up movie like some other Disney+ series. The construction of the series really stands out among other Disney+ shows thanks to Jac Schaeffer’s clever ideas and execution.
Billy Maximoff got so much character development by the end of this series, something that surprised me because I didn’t expect his identity to be confirmed until the show was almost over. By pulling off the twist halfway through, Billy and Agatha had time to build up the new status quo of their relationship and are left in an exciting place to start a new adventure.
I’m still conflicted about Agatha actually dying in her own series because the moment of her sacrifice felt quite rushed, but I do love the concept of her taking a “calculated risk” and returning as a ghost to mentor Billy. Ghost Agatha is totally ridiculous in the best way possible and I can’t wait to see more of their coven of two.
Regardless of the Road being Billy’s version of the Hex, most of the character deaths still feel earned. I loved Alice’s final scene with Rio. It offered closure to her death, while Lilia’s may be the best way I’ve ever seen a character be killed off. Jac Schaeffer said she wanted to explore the finality and natural order of death in Agatha All Along and I do think she succeeded.
Lilia’s story in “Death’s Hand in Mine” is absolutely perfect. Never has a character’s death felt so fitting and so earned, because it finally gave Lilia peace and fulfillment in her life. That episode is one of the best things Marvel Studios has created and the praise heaped upon it is absolutely deserved.
The future of witchcraft in the MCU
Despite my gripes, let me be clear: Jac Schaeffer is one of the best writers working for Marvel Studios at the moment. I love her work, I love her ideas and her worldbuilding and her characters, but both of her Disney+ projects have started on incredibly good tracks only to end with weak finales that are unsatisfying in too many respects. At least with WandaVision, Schaeffer stuck the landing with Wanda and Vision’s character development in the finale. The same cannot be said for Agatha Harkness due to her own series’ lack of interest in exploring her character properly.
What we got was great, but too much was left on the table in favor of supporting Billy Maximoff. As a Scarlet Witch fan I’m happy to get so much of Billy in Agatha All Along, but it’s just frustrating to see that some smarter writing and editing choices could have given us what we needed to see of Agatha’s life while keeping the same amount of Billy’s. I’m not saying we needed less of Billy, I’m saying we really needed more of Agatha.
Jac Schaeffer said in an interview that Rio and Agatha’s history can be explored in future projects, but these things need to stop being left on the cutting room floor. Agatha’s own series was the time to delve into her deadly lover and history with dark magic. I don’t want to see their backstory in another project three years from now when it was sorely needed in this one.
Agatha All Along makes it clear that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t the only reason the ending of WandaVision fell a bit flat, with Schaeffer admitting that finales “are not my strong suit” in her Deadline interview. Jac Schaeffer should absolutely continue fleshing out this corner of the MCU – if that Scarlet Witch movie is happening, she needs to be the one writing it. But I would love it if someone else could come in to give notes on the finale or do a final draft of the ending because we’re 0 for 2 on getting a truly satisfying wrap-up to her Disney+ shows.
So much of Agatha All Along is excellent and the series is totally unique among MCU entries. It’s a top-tier MCU Disney+ show in no small part because it does avoid many of the issues plaguing the others, although it still fell prey to underdeveloped villains and a choppy ending with too many loose ends. Regardless, I can’t wait for Agatha and Billy to find Tommy and to see how a new showrunner’s work fits into the WandaVision corner of the MCU, with Terry Matalas working on the upcoming Vision series. Wanda may be “dead”, but at least her family lives on!
Agatha All Along is now streaming on Disney+. Did you enjoy the series? Let us know what you think on social media @mycosmiccircus! And keep an eye out for our Across The Queerverse podcast discussion about Agatha All Along coming soon!
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