It would be almost impossible for me to rank my favorite Marvel TV shows on Disney+ but I can name my top three quite easily: WandaVision, Loki and now Agatha All Along. Even just ranking these three would be impossible, however, as they’re each excellent in their own way. I will, however, do my best to rank their finales. Spoilers follow.
In first place, I have to go with Loki, which absolutely hit the mark so hard I still think about it sometimes. Not only was Loki’s fate holding the timelines together incredibly well-done (and cleverly—almost miraculously—tied back to the first Captain America movie) the rest of the characters also had such satisfying endings. I got downright emotional in Mobius’s last scene.
In second place, I’m going with Agatha All Along. Overall, I think WandaVision might still win out for me, if only because it was so novel at the time, but that show fizzled out by the end. Agatha All Along saved the best for last. I’m honestly so impressed with how this show tied everything together that I’m determined to go back and watch the whole thing all over again. The big twists revealed in the two-part season finale will cast a whole new light on the preceding events.
Down The Windy Road
All things witchy come in threes, and so we have three big revelations in the Agatha All Along finale:
- First, we discover—after Agatha perishes in a big showdown with Death—that the Witch’s Road was Billy’s creation. It was an accidental hex he cast when the Salem Seven were attacking and the witches below were singing ‘The Witch’s Road’. Everything that transpired came from his own imagination and the the various posters and memorabilia scattered about his room. Of course, Billy is devastated by the deaths this led to, showing true remorse. “I planned on killing all of them in my basement,” Agatha points out (I’m paraphrasing). Still, Billy did cast a spell that led to several deaths. Not even Wanda’s Westview hex was so deadly.
- Second, we learn that the Witch’s Road was all just an invention of Agatha’s, part of a con used to trick witches into attacking her so that she could absorb their magic. This was her plan in the beginning of the show, too, foiled by the advent of an actual magical road. This was also when Agatha realized who Billy truly was. “You’re so much like your mother!” sure has more resonance now. In a heartbreaking twist, we learn that the song itself was written by Agatha and her son, Nicholas Scratch, as they wandered the 18th century New England countryside together. It was, at first, The Windy Road and only became The Witch’s Road when Agatha incorporated it into her witch-killing schemes—something she involved her young son in despite his distaste for killing. (We also learn why she called him Scratch, since she didn’t use magic in making him, but made him “entirely from scratch.”)
- Finally, we learn that Agatha did not, in fact, trade Nicholas’s life for the Darkhold spellbook. She begged Death, her lover, to spare him but Death only promised more time. In the present, Billy—deeply shaken after he finds a body to put his brother, Tommy, into—asks Agatha if he killed a boy to save his brother. “No,” Agatha replies. “Sometimes, boys just die.” This is the hard truth she was afraid to tell anyone. Agatha would rather have people believe that she traded her son’s life for power than to know how much she loved him. She’d rather keep playing the monster than reveal any vulnerability. In the end, she can’t keep the secret from Billy. He’s too much like her son.
All of this is really great, and the two-part format worked wonderfully. We discover the truth about Billy’s hex at the end of Part 1, and then learn the true nature of the Road in Part 2. Layers upon layers of revelation, all of which change how we view the earlier episodes entirely, similar to how last week’s episode revealed Lilia’s true powers and how that changed the hue of what came before. WandaVision’s big reveals were, in some ways, better, but this show does just as good a job at reorienting the narrative and I’m surprised they were able to pull it off again so deftly. I certainly didn’t see either of these coming, whereas I had a much better idea of what was coming in WandaVision. (Still, it’s hard to beat Wanda processing her grief vis-a-vis sitcoms and the “It was Agatha all along!” reveal was also so great in that show).
I’m also glad that Billy’s quest was centered around his brother rather than a big Wanda resurrection. That was always a red herring, and it just works better here not to have Wanda at all. There is such a thing as too many witches in the coven—at least Agatha seems to think so, having killed hundreds of them over the years, if not more.
If I had to complain about anything it would be the somewhat clumsy showdown between Agatha and Death. The “hit the deck” bit fell flat. It would have been more impactful if Lilia’s prophetic words hadn’t just given Agatha a well-timed dodge, but maybe helped her save Billy. It was also weird to have Billy give himself up and then have him act so surprised when Agatha said “Yes, take him!” I didn’t love that it was Billy asking her (via telepathy) “Is this how Nicholas died?” in order to get her to sacrifice herself. I would have preferred it if she’d given up Billy without him offering himself, and then having him say that. Or, if he’d given himself up, have her come to this realization on her own rather than with Billy’s voice in her head. Maybe Death could have said something about Nicholas.
Jennifer Kale’s arc was wrapped up kind of quickly, also, with her realizing that it was Agatha who bound her in the first place, locking her powers while doing some freelance work for extra scratch. Why would Agatha bind her when she could steal her power like every other witch she came across? That bit felt a little off. I think Jennifer dying would have made more sense in the context of this story; there was really no reason to kill the other witches while letting her live, at least from a story standpoint.
Still, other than these relatively minor issues, I really loved this finale. It fundamentally enriched the series as a whole. That’s quite the opposite of WandaVision which was so great up until the lackluster, overly-Marvel ending. The payoff was much better this time around. Agatha becoming a ghost was perfect also, as she fulfils her comic-book role as a ghostly mentor (though to Billy rather than Wanda). And the two working together—after he very nearly banishes her—to find Tommy means that we might have a third series from creator Jac Schaeffer down the (windy) road. Hopefully.
I know some people were hoping for more backstory on Agatha and Death’s relationship, but I think it’s better left to our imaginations. Not everything needs to be explained.
Billy’s belief in Agatha’s goodness is touching, as was her line “It’s moments like this that you remind me so much of him.” It’s almost like she’s given another chance, another shot at redemption, even if the son this time around belongs to her once-rival, Wanda Maximoff. Whether she deserves that shot is another question.
My colleague Paul Tassi wasn’t as impressed by the finale as me, so if you’re looking for another perspective read his review here.
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