Season Review: Agatha All Along

***Full Spoilers for Agatha All Along Follow***

I think I was pretty open about my feelings about Agatha All Along when the release date was announced back August or July or whatever. I thought the trailer looked a little cheap, the show looked a little cheap and it was likely that this was going to be a nine episode tangent designed to resurrect Wanda who may or may not be dead following the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I also thought it was an odd choice to spend half the season acting like the artist formerly known as Teen was anyone but Billy Maximoff.

That said, I think my misgivings about the first five episodes were largely alleviated by a very strong back half of the season. My issue with treating Billy as this mystery was based on the idea that Witches Road was a real thing that actually existed. The twist that The Road never existed before Billy manifested it like how Wanda manifested the Hex in Westview makes it work a little better since Agatha at the beginning of the show just needs to restore her power so she can put up a fight against Death. To Agatha, Billy's identity is less important because it's all about finding other witches from whom she can drain power so it's just a means to an end. I don't think this 100% solves the problem because it's clearly conversation-baiting but ending strong makes the first half weaknesses slightly better. Or it's recency bias.

I do understand why they bundled the last two episodes in one drop since the penultimate episode feels more like a traditional third-act ending we've come to expect from a Marvel Television show while the true finale feels like a bunch of additional context that is interesting and could not have come sooner, but it is a little bit of a weak for a final episode, even if it could potentially get Kathryn Hahn nominated for an Emmy. In a way, the ending reminded me a lot of Harry Potter where it is the mentor and the student going over what just happened and what has to be done next, something that was probably intentional. It doesn't make for a riveting season finale so bundling it into a two-part episode makes sense.

My biggest issue with the way the plot resolves itself is that the decision made by Death is a little weird. I get that Death's personal past with Agatha makes her more motivated to take Agatha but what she's dealing with in terms of the natural order of things with Billy appears to be vastly more important. The idea that someone can come back from the dead by possessing a dead body is something that Death should be far more concerned about, especially if he intends to do it a second time. Her willing to be like "well it's fine, I got Agatha so let's just call it a day" feels like too soft of a resolution when the original stakes were set as "this is a dangerous violation of the laws of nature."

It is interesting also that on Disney+ we now have a pretty solid lineup of Young Avengers cast members with no clear indication that we are getting that show or movie. Setting the stage, we have Hulkling from She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,  Ms. Marvel from Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop/Hawkeye from Hawkeye, now Wiccan and Speed (in the near future if the very end of Agatha All Along is to be believed), plus Ironheart coming next year. We could also count Stature from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, America Chavez from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and potentially (depending on the outcome of Thunderbolts*) Yelena's Black Widow. Hopefully we get a good show from this and not something like The Defenders was for Netflix. I do think it's smart if that is the case (Marvel Television building towards a big crossover series event) to not announce it out of the gate because this gives them room to make adjustments to the lineup and the show without worrying about the negative impact of backtracking on previous announcements.

The only question remaining is whether or not Wanda is still dead. The show addresses this question in a tongue-in-cheek way when Billy outright asks Agatha if Wanda is really dead but the definitive non-answer feels like confirmation that Wanda is alive and out there somewhere. On top of that, the backstory for Billy and Tommy is very comics accurate and everything Wanda-related and Young Avengers related in the MCU seems to be pointing towards an adaptation of 2010's Avengers: The Children's Crusade to be a possible movie in Phase 7. Perhaps another damning piece of evidence is the fact that the spell Wanda placed on Agatha was lifted and in the words of Doctor Strange in Avengers: Infinity War: "You'll find removing a dead man's spell troublesome." If Ebony Maw would have had a hard time dealing with a spell Doctor Strange set, you'd have to imagine that even the son of the Scarlet Witch couldn't accidentally lift a spell cast by the most powerful witch after her death.

★★★★

We still have to rework the rating system.

Agatha All Along
Showrunner: Jac Schaeffer
Starring: Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza, Joe Locke, Shasheer Zamata, Patti LuPone, Ali Ahn, Debra Jo Rupp
Streaming Service: Disney+
Release Date: September 18th, 2024