Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Agatha All Along Episodes 8 and 9.
Between her gleeful cackling, metaphorical mustache-twirling, andremarkably catchy theme song,Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) was undoubtedly the villain ofWandaVision: a self-serving schemer who lied as easily as breathing, killed without remorse, and winked at the camera with a relish enticing enough to tempt us into becoming her cohort-in-crime. Trusting her would guarantee our swift demise, but at least it’d be a delightful and self-aware way to go — especially since villains are the one character archetype I was born to love. Good drama necessitates conflict, and nothing creates quality conflict faster than amultifaceted antagonist with good reasons(in their mind, at least) to oppose the hero. Beyond that, it’s human for us toenjoy the function they serve; villains are often a potent combination offrightening, fun, and stylish, as well as a convenient space to explore difficult topics.
In Agatha’s case, not only do all of the above apply (have you seen some of those costumes?), but as something of a villain connoisseur,I always knew there was more to my purple sorceress than just glinty-eyed sadism— a conviction showrunnerJac Schaefferhas vindicated viaAgatha All Along’s final episodes. Of course, characters who are evil for evil’s sake are immensely entertaining; modern media tends to saddle antagonists with unnecessaryredemption arcsthat water down a character’s straightforward appeal, not enhance it. But when done right, infusing a villain with redeeming qualities makes them more compelling.Unspeakably heinous acts and relatable human tenderness— like love, insecurity, and loneliness — needn’t cancel out one another. Agatha Harkness isn’t an antiheroine quite yet, buther profoundly tragic storyproves that she’s always been legions more than just a one-dimensional bad girl.
Agatha Harkness' Backstory in the ‘Agatha All Along’ Finale Is Human and Moving
AfterWandaVision, it’s easy for us to take the worst rumors about Agatha’s character at face value: that she traded her own flesh and blood for the untapped powers ofthe Darkhold.The truth is far simpler and more wrenching for that striking restraint. Across its nine-episode run,Agatha All Alonghas achieved a villain-as-protagonisthat trick: expanding a minor player into the main character without sacrificing her bite or condoning her noxious traits, but never losing sight of how much the world has scarred Agatha.
To start,Episode 5all but confirms that her mother, Evanora Harkness (Kate Forbes), was abusive; Evanora’s ghost claims her daughter is an abomination who should have died at birth, andher cruel presence terrifies Agatha out of her normallaissez-fairetheatricality. We don’t know why Agatha’s first and only traditional coventried to execute herin the 1600s, but with the benefit of hindsight, it’s not a massive leap to assume that Evanora’s hatred was a contributing factor. Regardless of Agatha’s culpability at that point in her life, a group of women who should be her protectors tied the young woman to a tree and ignored her pleas — both for mercy and magical guidance. All they taught her was fear and mistrust.
Years later, Agatha tells her son,Nicholas Scratch(Abel Lysenko), that she murders witches to survive. In what feels like a cruel twist of fate, draining their powers seems to beAgatha’s only natural ability.Witches are communal, but everything (including Agatha prioritizing her own survival) conspires against her, turning her into an isolated, coven-less witch. That makes Nicky, her “made from scratch” miracle, and the tenderly loving coven of two they form together, even more precious. Agatha Harkness is a woman whose greatest loves are the doomed son with whom she was never allotted enough time, andthe embodiment of Death (Aubrey Plaza). When not dashing into Rio’s arms for the thrill of it, she’s been fleeing from death her entire life, cherishing her time with Nicky because she knows every second is a stolen one. Agatha exists in the MCU, a universe wheredeath is easily rectified, butshe loses her son to the same inescapable force that claims every living being. It doesn’t matter how much magic she devours; herrestrictive skill setcan’t protect her child.
‘Agatha All Along’ and ‘WandaVision’ Confront the Messy Realities of Grief
Once Agatha loses Nicky to the inevitable, her last scrap of decency perishes with him. Instead of finding a different way to live that honors Nicky’s tender heart,she lashes out in an endless cycleof death that’s both ravenous and empty, becauseno coping mechanism can fill the hole in her heart. Agatha pouring her anguish into decades of mass murder isn’t catharsis; it’s soul-rotting trauma, and a metaphor for the atrocities we inflict upon ourselves and one another while in its clutches. What’s more, it can’t be mere coincidence that Agatha targets witches who wield magic that could have saved Nicky’s life: potions, protection, divination, and green. After Episode 9, Agatha isn’t just Wanda’s villain, buther mirror— a call-and-response of overwhelming grief.
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By constantly carrying Nicky’s hair in a brooch andrepurposing his innocent songinto an anthem that’s lived for the centuries he was denied,Agatha carries her greatest scar in open view. She joyfully embraces her role as a wicked witch, and it’s a fitting ruse both for a con artist and a survivor constantly clawing her way out of tight corners. Her earnest moments are rare — butHahn’s tour-de-force performanceis like a locked vault slowly cracking open under strain. Her bitter, rueful, and resigned expressions palpably show how deeply the other characters' distrust still cuts, even after centuries of rejecting ambiguity and responsibility.
Agatha Harkness Isn’t Redeemed, but She’s Been Humanized
Naturally, Agatha’s arc for this specific series culminates with her sacrificing herself forBilly Maximoff (Joe Locke), the boy who reminds her of Nicky.She fulfills what she couldn’t do for her son, but Agatha isn’t redeemed even by half. It takes Billy invoking Nicky’s name for Agatha to risk her Kiss of Death maneuver, one that lets her warp her deal with Rio enough to spare Billy’s lifeandbecome a ghost. She’s kept surviving this long out of spite and because she’s too ashamed of herself to reunite with her son — and she only admits the latter truth to Billy when she has nothing left to lose except his fragile affection.
Those decisions might be a future catalyst for Agatha, should shearrive at a truly redemptive crossroads. There’s also every chance she’ll keep nurturing and protecting Billy in morally gray ways, because that’s where Agatha Harkness thrives. She’s a sly, stubborn, murderous, and grieving mother who defies both the odds and “the hero/villain binary,” and that’s precisely the reason we adore her. Objectively, it’s difficult to say that Agatha deserves (harmless) happiness after her countless — and undeniably villainous — crimes. On the other hand, she undoubtedly deserves compassion, and the Witches' Road (Billy-induced or not) restores what she needs most, that beingher precious coven of two. They could never make me hate you, Agatha, even if you were just a delightfully despicable baddie without any dimensions. In the hands of Jac Schaeffer, you’re exactly what I hoped for: a deeply complex, humanized woman who’s an antagonist, victim, and survivor, slotted into each role both by unfair fate and choice, and someone who’s more than an “only” — with the capacity for even more.
Agatha All Along
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.
Agatha All Alongis available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.
