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Mon: Hello and welcome to a witchy episode of Stereo Geeks. We’re reviewing Marvel’s Agatha All Along. I’m Mon.

Ron: And I’m Ron.

Ron: This episode is full of spoilers. So, please, watch Agatha All Along and come back to listen to our episode.

Mon: We’ll also break up this episode in two parts. The main section is about the first 7 episodes. And then we’ll dig into the two-part finale. 

Ron: Agatha All Along is the 2024 spin-off of Marvel’s hit Disney+ show, WandaVision. Agatha Harkness, played by Kathryn Hahn, was introduced in WandaVision as Wanda and Vision’s quirky neighbour, Agnes. Near the end of the series, Agnes was revealed to be Agatha Harkness, a powerful witch and custodian of the only other copy of the Darkhold. Full disclosure, I had to do some quick research to figure out the Darkhold stuff because I remember we encountered it in the Ghost Rider season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Anyhoo! Back to Agatha. To our immense surprise, the song ‘Agatha All Along’ got so popular that Marvel announced a spin-off series soon after.

Mon: I was shocked and surprised that people were calling for an Agatha show. Partly because I’m not all that into witches and occult lore. But also, I couldn’t figure out what the Agatha show could be about. A prequel set before WandaVision could turn her into a one-dimensional villain. One set after? She’s depowered, what’s the point of that?

I was sceptical about this interest. And even more so when Marvel announced the show was definitely happening. I was least interested in watching Agatha All Along. But, this is Marvel, so I was definitely going to check it out.

Ron: I was listening to something which reminded me that it’s been three years since the show’s announcement. Honestly, I forgot it was even going to happen. The turmoil at Marvel and Disney? Seeing so many promising projects cancelled for no reason? There was no reason to think this show was going to get a chance. Especially not if it was set to focus on female characters.

Mon: Yeah. It fell off my radar, as well. And then I heard about the 2024 Fan Expo Canada surprise panel about Agatha All Along. Followed by an invite from the Disney PR team to attend the activation at the event. 

Ron and I have written about how meh the activation was over at WWAC. That didn’t enthuse me to the show, but I began to feel that familiar pull of intrigue and excitement. Listen, this is the MCU – this is our childhood dream come true. Superheroes every year, every week? You know I’m down for it. So, my spidey-senses were tingling well before we attended the panel.

The Agatha All Along panel recap is also at WWAC. It was at the panel that my interest was piqued.

Ron: Agreed. The activation at Fan Expo didn’t really excite me. It was three outfits and we could barely see them because of the dark lighting. The witchy volunteer who surprised us was the most fun part of it. But the panel started to change my mind. Jac Schaeffer and Kathryn Hahn talked about the othering of witches by the patriarchy and how Agatha All Along will see the coven reclaim witchiness. Feminism. Witches? I was definitely intrigued.

Ron: Agatha All Along picks up three years after the events of WandaVision which left Agatha powerless and living out a fantasy in Westview. The pilot episode of the show sees Agatha living out a true crime parody of Mare of Easttown. Agatha is able to break out of the fantasy with the help of Teen, played by Joe Locke. He’s not actually called Teen, but his identity is hidden by a sigil so nobody can hear him say his name.

Ron: Teen wants to travel the Witches Road to get power and guess who else doesn’t have power? Agatha! They team up to access the road, they’ll need a coven with specific witchy abilities. Agatha is the powerless Spirit Witch. Among her reluctant recruits are the Divination Witch Lilia, played by Broadway legend Patti LuPone. Then there’s Powerless Potions Witch, Jennifer Kale, played by Sasheer Zamata. Next, Protection Witch, Alice Wu-Gulliver, played by Ali Ahn. And randomly Mrs Sharon Davis, aka Mrs Hart, played once again by Debra Jo Rupp. Mrs Davis is recruited as the Green Witch, although she is not a witch, but a regular Westview citizen.

Ron: That’s an amazing cast. And it’s rounded off by Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal, the actual Green Witch of the coven, who has a ton of history with Agatha. That history is romantic and bloody. Teen also gets to go as part of the coven but not as a witch. He accesses the road as Agatha’s familiar. This is how I find out humans can be familiars. How fascinating.

Mon: I know nothing about witchy terminology. So I’m fascinated by everything.

Ron: I had no idea what to expect from Agatha All Along and I really wasn’t as invested in this show as so many Marvel fans. But that first episode was so entertaining, I was instantly in love. Though I am a bit sad that the first episode confirms that Wanda Maximoff is dead. Boo to Multiverse of Madness for killing Wanda like that.

Mon: Ufff, do not talk to me about Multiverse of Madness! As mentioned, I was not sure about the show at all. But that first episode was like… what am I in? Because I love it and I want more. I love that Agatha All Along continues the same theme of WandaVision – each episode is a different genre of television. I didn’t expect that on Agatha, but it’s a great way to tie the two properties together. And showrunner Jac Schaeffer makes the genre changes on both shows make sense.

Ron: The best thing about getting different genres every episode is that we also get different sets, different costumes, and a whole new vibe. 

Mon: This show looks so good. The sets and costumes, my word. Love, love, love the look of this show. After all the boring CGI Marvel’s been throwing at us, Agatha All Along is a nice change of scenery. 

Ron: Not to mention, this show was basically an adventure-of-the-week show. I don’t know why we don’t have stories like that on our screen anymore. I love adventure stories. Between Agatha All Along and the new Tomb Raider show on Netflix, I finally felt like someone had got the memo that adventure stories are the best.

Mon: See, this is what I like about Agatha, and it was a huge reason why we all loved WandaVision. These are serialized stories, but told in an episodic fashion. So you get that half-hour of fun, while knowing there’s more to be revealed later. 

Mon: And, I want to point out that one thing I loved about Agatha was how each episode stuck the landing. You ended on a high. This has become a huge problem in today’s streaming age. Studios want tv to be one long movie, so they don’t know how to make short-form stories that have an ending or a cliffhanger. Disney is particularly guilty of this. Like, I love The Acolyte – best Star Wars show out there, in my opinion – but that show has to be watched all at once, not weekly. 

Agatha, on the other hand, even if the episode had some slower moments, it knew how to get you excited while the credits rolled. What do you mean Agatha doesn’t know who Sharon is? Wait, is the whole coven dead? Is Teen a witch? You’re left asking so many questions. And you’re pumped. That’s how you end an episode – or seven.

Ron: You’ve hit the nail on the head. WandaVision and Agatha All Along know they’re TV shows. Each episode needs to tell an entire story while also giving you teasers for future stories and arcs to come. We got cliffhangers every week and that made me desperate for every Wednesday. And with every episode, I was satisfied and exhilarated.

Mon: Talking about the first 7 episodes only, my one big disappointment in Agatha is that I wish the show had been more obvious and direct about why women have been condemned and cast out as witches. Now, in the universe of the show, witches are real. But, keeping that in mind, why were they hunted, mistreated, killed? Jac Schaeffer had hinted the real-life vendettas against women declared to be witches informs the show. It’s there in the show, but doesn’t play a big part. 

After all, women who have broken the so-called norms of society have always been punished. The coven in Agatha has as well. I wanted to see more of a through-line between reality and fiction.

Ron: I agree with you. And I think I know why we didn’t get to see these backstories of the witches. The show is only nine episodes long. If it was a 22-episode series, we could have delved deep into the coven’s lives before this show. We could have seen how they were wronged by their societies, communities, and the patriarchy. But in nine episodes? There just isn’t time.

Mon: That being said, I’m glad they didn’t show us a ton of violence against the ladies. We didn’t need that to understand what they’d been through.

Ron: Yes. Just listening to Jennifer Kale talk about how her powers were taken by a man she’d trusted as her mentor? That was enough to make me squeamish.

Mon: There were so many great moments in this series but what are our favourites?

Ron: Am I going to sound insane for saying I loved watching the witches fly on broomsticks. 

Mon: Not going to lie, despite the janky CGI during the flying scene, I loved that moment of profound joy the ladies were having. 

Ron: The coven was being rather disparaging about having to ride sticks but that shot of them flying across the moon on their brooms warmed my heart. For the witches in the MCU, that’s become a derogatory image because witches have been so maligned. But they get to reclaim the power of flight and pay homage to their true witchy selves. It was quite an empowering moment. Also, I really need to see someone, anyone, reclaim the witches from that TERF in the UK.

Mon: Absolutely! 

Ron: Also, I really loved the part of episode six where we see Teen’s point of view of his meeting with Agatha. It was so funny. 

Mon: So dang good. Like, this is what I love about the show – it’s unpredictable, but so perfectly acted. And executed. Black hearts everywhere. 

Ron: Also, so eminently rewatchable. I already can’t wait to rewatch this show because of episodes 1 and 6, but also episode 7, and all the easter eggs that we have most definitely not clocked.

Mon: Oh, Agatha demands a rewatch.

Ron: There were also some characters moments that I can’t stop thinking about. Like Jennifer shoving everyone out of the way to escape the first trial. Every witch for themselves! 

Mon: Oh, Jennifer’s so much fun to watch. That woman’s a survivor for a reason. Get out of her way. 

Jennifer also gets some really funny lines. Like in Episode 7 when Lilia goes, ‘we are not cool, teenager’ and Jennifer retorts ‘ooo, using the full name’—the dialogue delivery, the expression, the line. Jennifer’s memorable. 

Ron: And, this shouldn’t be a funny moment, but when Teen announces that Sharon Davis is dead, Agatha’s only comment is ‘who’s Sharon’? That was hilarious! It’s supposed to be a sad moment. We’ve lost a coven member and someone that Wanda meanly tortured for no reason. But Agatha just has to be Agatha and straight up forgets Sharon’s name. The entire coven calls Sharon Mrs Hart for so long. I love a good running gag and this one worked for me.

Mon: Oh, Agatha. You are the worst. We love you.

Ron: I feel like we need to talk about Easter eggs. But there are so many we’ve missed. We need to rewatch it. Obviously, the biggest one is Mephisto. I don’t know what the obsession is with Mephisto but MCU fans have been predicting Mephisto’s appearance for years. So many people thought he’d be the big bad in WandaVision. People were greatly disappointed and are now very excited that Agatha All Along has confirmed his presence. I don’t really care about Mephisto but he’s apparently such a big deal to fans that I had to mention him.

Mon: This Mephisto thing is so annoying. I get it; he’s an integral part of the boys’ history. But these shows and stories about female superheroes – like WandaVision, She-Hulk and Agatha All Along – they aren’t just vehicles to introduce dude characters from the comics. It frustrates me that people will tune into watch these amazing ladies and their fabulous stories, just to find out which man is going to swoop in to steal the show. 

Of course, I’m about to eat my words, aren’t I? I want to be mad at all the people invested in Agatha All Along because of Joe Locke’s addition and the identity of his character. The show was much more than that, but they were right. 

Ron: We should probably talk about Teen’s real identity. In a way, we all knew Teen would turn out to be Billy Maximoff because of the amount of speculation online. Sometimes I wish people would share their theories with their friends’ groups instead. Literally the moment Joe Locke was cast, everyone was screaming he was Billy. It probably doesn’t help that there are so few gay characters in Marvel that casting an out gay actor was a dead giveaway. But having said that, until Teen’s spotlight episode, I was still unsure. He could’ve been Nicolas Scratch, Agatha’s son. But Rio was pretty categorical when she told Agatha that Teen wasn’t hers.

Mon: Yeah, they set up the mystery of his identity well, but all the speculation ruined it. It’s a no-win situation. If you make a story assuming everyone knows who he is, you’ve lost a sense of mystique around Teen’s appearance. But, they went with all mystery, and well, so much for that. 

Mon: Despite the lack of a surprise, I must say, Joe Locke has been impressive. His performance is superb—he’s the right amount of campy, adorable, and emotional. 

It’s rare to see a film or show with a bunch of adult and older ladies with one young dude, so I was intrigued by how Agatha All Along would work that dynamic. Unlike a property where the genders are reversed, there is no ewwww or creepy factor to Billy being a young man amidst a bunch of ladies. He’s also not automatically mothered by the ladies — he has a different relationship with all of them. 

I have genuinely enjoyed watching Locke on the show. Which is a relief because it’s obvious that Marvel is setting up the formation of the Young Avengers. 

We have a solid group of characters played by a mostly great cast of actors. Now, if they can strike the right balance of introducing a young generation of characters without alienating us older fans, that would be amazing. 

Mon: So, the grande dame herself. What do we think of Agatha Harkness?

Ron: She’s a bad guy. And she’s the best! I cannot believe how much I’m loving Agatha. Hahn was fun as Agnes in WandaVision but in this show, incredible. Agatha is mean and she isn’t afraid to lean into the meanness. The way she refuses to call Sharon by her name but the fake Mrs Hart name she got used to in Wanda’s hex. And she’s dripping with sarcasm, which I’m pretty sure is her way of hiding her vulnerability. That scene in episode two when she’s hallucinating her child’s cradle. There’s deep pain and loss and trauma in Agatha. And she’s hiding it all under layers of sarcasm and caustic wit. Just shows you how tough the witches of the MCU have to be, I guess.

Mon: I’ll start with one big criticism—what’s up with Marvel screen adaptations turning old, white-haired ladies into younger brunettes? I said this about Madame Web, and Cassandra Nova in Deadpool & Wolverine, and now I need to say it again about Agatha. Don’t get me wrong, Kathryn Hahn is amazing, but I wish Hollywood would cast older women in roles that are literally made for them. Notice how the ‘comic-accurate’ crowd never complain when a younger, hot lady is cast in the place of an old woman? Oh, but try and make comics more inclusive, and everyone loses their minds! 

Ron: Yes. That’s a good point. Agatha in the comics is much older. She’s also kinda stoic which is not like the MCU Agatha, who is hilarious. That’s what you get when you cast a seasoned comedic actor like Hahn. The expressions. The comedic timing. You get everything with Agatha. And she’s delightfully queer! Now that Marvel has cast a younger Agatha, that just means we should be getting more Agatha stories till Hahn is 90. 

Mon: I agree. We could definitely do with more of Hahn’s Agatha. I genuinely never thought I’d be saying that. She was fun on WandaVision, but Hahn gets to flex her evil side here on Agatha All Along. What I love about Agatha is that she’s good with being bad. She’s mean, and nasty. But she’s not cruel. Agatha is looking out for herself, which is what all the witches in the coven are doing. I found her compelling to watch; especially because she’s a baddie. 

Ron: Let’s talk about favourite episodes. What’s my favourite? Can I say all of them? How can you make me choose? Oh wait, I’m the one making us choose. 

Mon: You’re so dramatic! Oddly enough, the episode that confounded me the most is also my favourite – it’s got to be Episode 7, “Death's Hand in Mine”. 

Ron: I love Lilia’s episode. I might cry. It was so beautiful.

Mon: Yes, it was the one episode that made me super emotional. The melancholia of losing oneself, of trying to find oneself. And Patti LuPone is a legend for a reason. She carries that discombobulation so well. The way the episode was edited and structured, we feel lost like Lilia, but we also feel rewarded for having gone on this journey with her. 

Ron: I mentioned this to you while watching Lilia’s episode but it made me think of the first season of Castle Rock. The seventh episode of that season gave viewers the point of view of a character with dementia. And the episode fills in all the moments that the character had been losing through the show. It was heartbreakingly beautiful. Sissy Spacek got a lot of accolades for her performance and I hope Patti Lupone gets the same. She was so stunning in Agatha but Lilia’s spotlight episode was everything.

Mon: Episode 7 there too? 

Ron: What a coincidence, right? I must check whether there’s a connection between these two shows. I learned that the reason Agatha All Along’s first episode was a parody of Mare of Easttown was because the showrunners of the two shows are good friends. And they both have an Evan Peters connection.

Mon: Interesting. I was reminded of the fifth episode of The Haunting of Bly Manor. In that episode we also follow a character losing time and place. And we experience a similar sense of melancholy and loss as we do with Lilia.

Ron: Also, I don’t know much about Tarot, but the way Lilia’s episode leaned into tarot was really interesting. I love the way the Tarot deck tied up so many plot threads from earlier episodes. What a treat. Lilia stole my heart in that episode. But who is your favourite witch?

Mon: ALICE! I love her so much. I’m so predictable, eh? Give me a silent, brooding morally-ambiguous protagonist with a bleeding heart and heart-breaking backstory, and she’s my queen. I’m still angry at Agatha for killing Alice. And Ali Ahn portrays Alice with so much pathos – I couldn’t stop watching her. Plus, Alice is the only one in the coven who’s looking out for someone else. Alice is protective of Teen, but not in the usual maternal way. She’s a kind person; she’s been burned before. She’s been a cop, and she’s literally the Protection witch. Of all the coven, Alice seemed the least selfish. The friendship she and Teen formed was adorable. I could have watched more of that. New fav. Unlocked.

Ron: I really loved Jennifer Kale. Maybe I’m biased because I’ve been listening to Sasheer Zamata for a while on the Best Friends podcast she does with Nicole Byer. But I was pretty hyperfocused on Jennifer in this show. She’s sarcastic, she doesn’t take Agatha’s nonsense. She’s on this quest for herself but she takes the time to warn Teen about how dangerous Agatha can be. Zamata has such a wonderfully expressive face. I loved watching her react to Agatha and the coven’s general weirdness. So fun.

Ron: Nobody warned us this show would be scary. Like, hoo boy, jump cuts, unnaturally-moving characters, straight up demons and demonic possessions. What a ride! I love that this show had just the right level of terrifying. Enough to make you recoil in fear but not enough to keep you up at night. Though, now that I think about it, I don’t think our parents would be able to watch it? They don’t like horror and the scary moments in Agatha are pretty scary.

Mon: There are definitely a few ‘keep the lights on at night’ jump scares in this show. And it starts from the first episode. I love that. I wish we had more of it.

Ron: I don’t know when this happened, but Aubrey Plaza is incredibly hot and queer. I used to find her too quirky but I loved her in Happiest Season. I still think Kristen Stewart’s character should have ended up with Plaza’s character in that film. 

Mon: Not gonna lie, Aubrey Plaza in Happiest Season is super hot. I still can’t get over it. And in Agatha All Along, sizzle!!!! Loved her here. Needed more of her.

Ron: In Agatha All Along, Plaza is deliciously queer and hot. It was obvious from the trailer that she would be naughty and fun, but I really loved her in this. And her chemistry with Hahn is insane. I was screaming ‘kiss already’ everytime they were in the same frame. Also, nothing like queer longing and betrayal to get one excited, eh?

Mon: The MCU began in 2008, but Agatha All Along is the first property where we have multiple out gay protagonists. It’s the first one where two women are very obviously into each other and, at least in the first seven episodes, go in for an aborted kiss. It’s only the second MCU property where we have a gay romance between two gay lads. It’s 2024, nearly two decades after the franchise started. And we’re only now catching up with the fact that gay people exist! I mean, poor Valkyrie is dying to be her bi self in the Thor movies, but Marvel didn’t let her. An absolute shame.

Mon: Now, alongside The Eternals, the Netflix Marvel shows did have gay characters, romance and kisses. But aside from Daredevil, I don’t know if those shows are part of the MCU or not. So,some of those firsts still stand.

Ron: What’s canon and what isn’t? It’s all a mystery. But here’s the thing, is Agatha All Along going to be considered pure MCU? Since it’s a TV show? Are we getting into discourse? Okay. Let’s get into discourse.

Ron: Have you heard all the discourse online? Particularly the discourse around who Billy should have wanted to bring back?

Mon: Eh? Agatha discourse has completely passed me by, mate. Enlighten me. 

Ron: First up, I completely missed all the hate the show was getting from dudebros. They can go suck it. But there was some weird talk online about when Billy comes to life, and why was he looking for Tommy? A lot of people were wondering why Billy wouldn’t first want Wanda back. Now look, we love Wanda. I don’t think anyone who watches Marvel films dislikes her. MCU-Wanda is universally loved in a way comics-Wanda has never been allowed to. I get the disappointment of losing Wanda in Doctor Strange 2. I hate it, as well. I want Wanda back. I’ve loved her in the comics, I love her in the MCU.

Ron: Having said all that, people saying Billy should have wanted his mother back before Tommy shows a fundamental misunderstanding of these two characters and Wanda and Pietro. I haven’t read much of Billy and Tommy, but whenever I’ve encountered them, it’s obvious that they’re very close twins, like their mom and uncle. The Wanda, Pietro and Vision trifecta is basically recreated in the next generation with Billy, Tommy, and Billy’s boyfriend, Hulkling. How can anybody expect Billy to find life and not immediately go looking for his twin?

Mon: Wait a ruddy second here. You’re telling me people are confused that Billy wants Tommy back and not Wanda? Have they met any twins in their life? Do they not understand story and characterization? Billy and Tommy are two halves of the same coin. They’re inseparable whenever we’ve seen them in the MCU. Of course, Billy wants Tommy back. 

But, aside from that, from a narrative standpoint, Tommy as Speed needs to enter the MCU to kickstart the next phase of the franchise. The Young Avengers aren’t coming; they’re here. We’re waiting for them to fill in the blanks now. People have absolutely no media literacy. Thank goodness I didn’t read this silliness. 

Mon: Ok. So the two-part finale. The show takes a complete turn here. The last trial looks very different from the others. And Jenn discovers that Agatha was the one who bound her and left her powerless — though, and it’s not clear — Agatha may have done so on the behest of the patriarchy. It’s all a convenient ploy to give Jenn her power back. 

Then we move onto Billy who asks Agatha for help to find Tommy. Or rather, they need to find a newly dead boy who can become Tommy. In the end, Agatha is left to grow life in a dead space and that’s how she accomplishes the trial. 

Ron: Except, Agatha’s trial has only just begun. We learnt in the previous episode that Rio was actually Death. Agatha makes a deal to give up Billy to save herself. But Billy has to be willing to do it. Because if he dies otherwise, he can just reincarnate and the next time, Death won’t be able to find him. 

Mon: Yeah. And Agatha is clever. She almost succeeds in her plan to sacrifice Billy. But then he reminds her of her son and Agatha makes the sacrifice play instead. Sealing the deal with a pretty hot kiss with Rio. Took them long enough. 

Ron: Can’t deny that I was waiting with bated breath for the finale. But Marvel did its Marvel thing and didn’t quite stick the landing. The two part finale was a great length but way too much exposition. And I also didn’t feel the performances were as layered as previous episodes. Like the almost-kiss scene had me thinking the best of Agatha. But in this episode, things just happen and there’s no sleight of hand to keep you on your toes.

Mon: It’s really weird how the show stuck the landing throughout the first 7 episodes and then completely fell away in the two-part finale. 

Mon: Tonally the two finales were different from the rest of the show. And you could feel them changing the protagonist — from Agatha to Billy.

Ron: Technically it wasn’t Agatha all along. More like Billy all along, eh? 

Mon: You’re not wrong. I was concerned the show was just a vehicle for Billy to enter the MCU. But, the first 7 episodes kept proving me wrong. And I was like, yes, we have a show with all these awesome ladies in it. Yay. And then the finales happened, and yup, the show was indeed just a vehicle for Billy. You cottoned on pretty quick during the finale that Billy reality-warped the whole witches’ road. 

Ron: It never even occurred to me that Billy’s presence in this show would be a distraction from Agatha. And the first seven episodes, it wasn’t. I think some of my disappointment about this finale is that the show was basically an illusion. Not exactly Lost levels of “it was a dream”, but close enough. Having said that, I did like the twist that Billy created the Witches Road purely from his desire to get his brother back. It’s a great callback to Wanda creating the hex on Westview to have a family. 

Ron: I wonder now, wouldn’t it have been interesting to swap the finales? Have us see Agatha’s journey with Nicholas and then see her make the sacrifice play to save Billy. 

Mon: So, the whole Agatha and Nicholas thing — I think they went too hard on that. The overreliance on the maternal aspect of female characters in the MCU is a problem. I thought WandaVision handled it well before Multiverse of Madness made it an obsession. And we see that here in Agatha as well. She can have a dark past with a dead child without that having to be the only humanizing aspect to her. Actually, why does she need to be humanized? Let her be evil. 

Ron: Yep. I agree wholeheartedly. Do we need such a long part of the episode dedicated to a mother’s love? It would have been more interesting to see why she enjoyed killing witches despite having so much love for her son. 

Mon: Like, seriously. In the final episode, we see Agatha and Nicholas’s life together. And honestly, it’s a drag. I thought the con artist part was interesting but the mother-son connection wasn’t strong at all. She was using Nicholas. 

Ron: We should have seen the other cons Agatha made Nicholas do with her. I like the con artist-witch angle. 

Mon: And their only bond was singing iterations of what would become the Witches’ Road song. That’s not layered storytelling. 

Ron: Question: did Nicholas make up that witches road song on his own? Or was that an existing melody he co-opted? Because it starts off as wandering road and then becomes winding road, before finally landing on witches road, aka Agatha’s centuries’ long opportunity to scam and kill witches. That I liked. A lot!

Mon: See, the problem with the finales is this — everything that’s special about these ladies is the boys in this story. And the bad stuff is the ladies fighting each other. The finales totally undermine everything that was awesome about the previous episodes. 

Ron: That’s a bit harsh. 

Mon: I know. But I’m disappointed. 

Ron: I think Agatha and Rio were connected by more than just Nicolas and his death. 

Mon: Was that on screen? No. 

At the very least, I would rather have known why Agatha kills witches and steals their power. What does she get out of it?

Ron: Nicholas even asks her to stop doing it and she just brushes it off. Lean into that. Agatha being a grieving mother isn’t new or unusual. Her insistence on taking lives is!

Ron: Of course, I would have loved to see how Rio and Agatha got together. Rio is literal death and she falls so deeply in love with Agatha? Where was that story?

Mon: Totally! Where was the romance between these two?

Ron: I had really enjoyed the queer yearning, mostly from Rio in the earlier episodes. But by the finale, it was just hate from Agatha. Is Rio’s love for her purely because Agatha keeps her in business with all those witches she kills?

Mon: The layers and depth to the characters disappeared in the finales. I think that’s what I’m struggling with the most. 

Ron: Yes, and I’m feeling that lack of a 22-episode season even more. We get a short scene of Alice being taken by Death and she really doesn’t want to go. But what does it mean for her? Does she get to be with her mother? Did she really live in fear of a curse her whole life just to die for a boy and coven she met a few days ago? 

Mon: So many questions. You’re right to ask them because we’re never going to get these answers. The story has moved on from the coven. It’s on to the Young Avengers now. Agatha is a ghost with white hair and she’s a bit player again. She’s Billy’s guide. He’s running the show.  

Ron: This is such an issue with the Marvel shows. There are all these nuggets but then it’s all wrapped up with an untidy bow. We’re never going to see more of Jake Lockley from Moon Knight and now I’m not sure where Jenn Kale’s life is going to go. I’m glad she got her happy ending. Jenn going ballistic at Agatha for binding her. Agatha really is the worst. But that’s why we’ve grown to love her!

Mon: Ok, so in the end, Agatha and the coven were simply the catalyst for Billy to become a witch. Is that the takeaway from the show then?

Ron: I want to say that’s reductive. Because it wasn’t just about Billy. This show was about Jenn getting her power back from the patriarchy and an agent of that patriarchy, aka Agatha. Lilia also got a happy-ish ending. She got the answer as to why she lived her life out of order and she got to save her coven in the process. And it was about Agatha finding the kindness in her own black heart to give her life instead of taking lives. Why Sharon and Alice had to die, I can’t tell you. 

Mon: You are kinder than I am. They should have closed the loop with Alice and said she’s going to be with her mom. Missed opportunity there. And Sharon — yeah, that was bad luck, I guess. 

Mon: Overall feelings about Agatha All Along? 

Ron: I loved disappearing into this show every week. It definitely had the energy and intrigue of WandaVision and was just as unpredictable. I loved the characters. The witches were all so layered and had incredible backstories that I would have loved to explore. 

Mon: The first seven episodes were a blast and I want to rewatch them. Even when some of the moments slowed, I was invested in this group of complicated and flamboyant witches. I loved a lot of the production design and the character dynamics. More than anything, I’m so glad we finally have more out and proud queer characters in the MCU. 

Ron: As much as I don’t like that this show ended up being a tool to introduce Billy to the MCU, he’s also a fascinating character that I’m feeling quite invested in. I want to see where he goes and I desperately want him to find Tommy. 

Mon: Agreed. At least Joe Locke is compelling to watch and Billy is already a conflicted character. That’s something to look forward to with the Young Avengers. 

Ron: Onwards to the Young Avengers indeed. But until then, we’re going to be singing the Witches Road song so much.