Marvel Studios took us all on a trip down, down, down the Witches' Road with Agatha All Along. The Disney Plus series is a spinoff to the original Marvel Cinematic Universe streaming show WandaVision, with Kathryn Hahn returning to play the titular role of covenless witch Agatha Harkness. The character was a breakout in WandaVision, with Hahn's performance earning her an Emmy nomination (and turning a lesser-known Marvel Comics character into a global phenomenon) so it was a necessity to bring her back at some point.
Agatha All Along did that, and just like the many titles it had leading up to its debut, it took us all on a wild ride that wound and wove in different directions just like the Witches' Road itself. Not since WandaVision has an MCU Disney Plus show gripped audiences in the way that Agatha did on a weekly basis, and it certainly went out in the same fashion.
The final two episodes, "Follow Me My Friend / To Glory At The End" and "Maiden Mother Crone", served as a two-part finale to the series, wrapping up some of the main storylines with some long overdue answers. But they arguably left us with even more questions in doing so, leaving room for a continuation to carry on that story in the future. If you have made it to the end of the Witches' Road and would like some answers, here's what you need to know.
Billy Maximoff created The Witches' Road
There were two big twists in the final episodes of Agatha All Along, and both of them had to do with The Witches' Road. The mystical dimension that supposedly gave the witches who made it to the end the prize that they were craving played a big part in the series as Agatha Harkness and her coven entered through the hidden gate in the second episode after singing the infamous "The Ballad of the Witches' Road". But that's not all we need to remember from the show's sophomore episode.
"The Witches' Road doesn't exist" Agatha told Billy in the opening moments of that episode, and it turns out that this was one of the few things that she wasn't lying about. But if The Road wasn't real, how did the coven end up on it? Well, look no further than the person who wanted to go on the Road in the first place: Teen, a.k.a. Billy Maximoff, a.k.a. Wiccan.
Agatha told Billy in the moment before he revealed his true identity that he was "so much like his mother" and that was truer than we could have ever known. Just like his mom, Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch, Billy possesses uncontrollable levels of chaos magic, which means that his mind can literally create whatever it is he wishes to... even if he isn't aware of it. So, when Agatha told Billy that the Road was conjured, he unwittingly made that happen, summoning the door whenever the coven were chanting The Ballad in Agatha's basement.
In a way, that makes Agatha All Along the perfect sequel to WandaVision, because Billy's creation of The Witches' Road mirrors Wanda's accidental Hex on Westview. Agatha knew it all along too, simply because she knew from the beginning that Road wasn't real. And that brings us to the other big reveal of the season: The Ballad was never designed to open the door because there was no door to open.
It really was Agatha All Along
Agatha All Along truly had the world gripped with its mysterious plot, but there was another element of it that became just as much of a phenomenon: The Ballad of the Witches' Road. From the moment that Agatha and her coven members, Lilia Calderu, Alice Wu-Gulliver, Jennifer Kale, and Sharon Davis (a.k.a. Mrs. Hart) sang it in the second episode, the Sacred Chant became a Halloween hit, launching TikTok trends and amassing millions of streams on multiple platforms. It even charted at No. 45 in the UK Singles Chart! That's the impact of the Ballad.
It's quite fitting, really, since the Ballad was a major part of the show, with the lyrics influencing how the witches' behaved and providing clues for each and every trial. We even got to see that epic performance of Lorna Wu's version of it in the fourth episode (while also learning that this particular version was a Protection Spell Lorna crafted to protect her daughter Alice). However, it was also the source of the season's biggest twist.
Along with the reveal that Billy made the Road came the reveal that it didn't exist in the first place, exposing the Ballad as a con that Agatha used to lure other witches to their deaths. The finale showed us this first hand as Agatha would sing the song with them before turning on them after "the door didn't appear", taunting and provoking them until they blasted her with their magic - which she would then absorb and steal for herself.
Agatha had planned on doing this with Lilia, Jen, and Alice in the beginning of the series too. That explains why she didn't need a Green Witch, and drafted in the very human Sharon as a substitute. There was no need for a Green Witch because there was no Road. No trials. No prize at the end.
Even if Billy hadn't conjured The Road, Agatha's plan wouldn't have worked this time. Lilia realized what she was doing and warned her fellow witches not to attack her or they would lose their power. But with Agatha running out of time due to the arrival of the Salem Seven, Billy's conjured Road appeared just in time to save her - and the witches she planned to kill in her basement on day one.
As for how The Ballad came to be, it was a song that started from a melody that Agatha's son Nicholas Scratch began singing by her side one day. Together, the two would bond over adding lyrics to it day by day, before Agatha then came up with the idea of using it to lure other witches' to their demise. Having Nicky sing it in pubs and local gatherings, it began to catch on and other witches would seek each other out in the hopes of walking The Road to claim the prize.
Agatha Harkness had a reputation for being the only known survivor of the Witches' Road, and that part wasn't necessarily untrue. The Witches' Road was a con that she used to obtain more and more power through the centuries, killing countless witches along the way. If you sought out Agatha to walk the Road with, only she would survive. And that's how she got her reputation for being a coven-less witch.
It truly was Agatha All Along.
Agatha sacrificed herself to save Billy (and now she's a ghost)
Agatha may been one of the only ones to survive her one - and only - time on The Witches' Road, but she didn't survive the battle that came from it. The ancient witch completed all of the trials (and helped Jennifer and Billy complete theirs) but when she arrived back in Westview, she didn't get her powers back. Worse than that, Rio Vidal, a.k.a. Death herself, was waiting on her, ready to claim her soul once and for all.
Billy saved her and offered up most of his magic to recharge her, and the two had a brief bonding moment when battling Death. However, Agatha managed to convince Billy to surrender himself to Death, the trade that would have saved her skin once again. And, for a moment, she was going to follow through on it. That is until Billy telepathically asked her about Nicky's death, which prompted her to prevent history from repeating itself. She kissed Rio in full-Death mode, sacrificing herself so that Billy could live. Rio accepted the trade and watched the woman she loved die before her.
If you're wondering why Agatha couldn't simply take Death's power, that was actually foreshadowed in the first episode of the series when Rio asked her to do just that, knowing that the answer was that it would kill her. Death's power surrounded Agatha during the kiss, ensuring that - in spite of the love that they had for each other - what we were all witnessing in the penultimate episode of Agatha All Along was the Kiss of Death.
Even though Agatha claims that she didn't sacrifice herself to protect Billy and that she simply took "a calculated risk", it's clear that she did care a great deal about him and didn't want him to die. So, perhaps there is some truth to the calculated risk - maybe she did try to take Rio's powers with the kiss and was overwhelmed by Death's energy, but whether that was true or not, she did it so that Billy wouldn't have to die.
Yes, she was momentarily going to let him surrender himself to death. She's an inherently selfish person and she used his inherent goodness against him, but in the end, when she remembered that she lost a son she loved to Death once already, she wasn't going to let it happen again. So even though Agatha Harkness nearly faltered for her own selfish gain once again, she died in what was undoubtedly the most selfless act of her entire life.
But that wasn't the end of her.
Why Agatha is now a ghost (but the rest of her coven isn't)
Agatha Harkness may have died in Agatha All Along but that wasn't the end of her story. Like her mother before her, she was now a ghost. That's right, a house-haunting, translucent, cackling ghost. And she kinda loved it. But she was the only member of her new coven that ended up meeting this particular fate, as she confirmed that Alice, Lilia, and Sharon had not become ghosts after their deaths on the Witches' Road. The reasoning for this was subtly explained earlier in the series, so you could be forgiven for missing it.
In the show's fifth episode, Rio remarked that she hates ghosts whenever the coven encountered Evanora Harkness' spirit. At the time, we were supposed to believe that this was simply down to the hatred between Rio and Agatha's mother, who treated her daughter horribly. But that's not the case, as it soon became clear that ghosts are simply the remnants of the souls that Death cannot claim.
Agatha made a deal with Rio in the eighth episode of the series that, whenever she dies, Death won't come to collect her, telling her former lover that she never wants to see her face ever again. Although the witch didn't intend on dying later that same day, she did follow through on her end of the bargain to present Rio with a soul to claim by having Billy surrender himself. Her last-minute sacrifice to save him changed things only slightly, but the deal remained intact, so Death could not claim Agatha and take her into the Afterlife.
The eighth episode also opened with Death claiming the soul of Alice, taking her into the Afterlife after her death in the fifth episode. That showed us what was supposed to happen when someone dies (and presumably what happened when Sharon and Lilia died too). But as Agatha had decided that she didn't want Rio to take her with her, she was able to remain behind as a ghost.
What really happened to Agatha's son, Nicholas Scratch
One of the lingering mysteries throughout Agatha All Along was the truth about what happened to Nicholas Scratch, the son of Agatha Harkness. Jen told Billy early on the myth of how she seemingly sold his soul for The Book of the Damned (a.k.a. the Darkhold). Though he refused to believe it, it remained on his mind - and ours - throughout the course of the show. And Agatha knew that, refusing to dispel those rumors. Why? Because in her mind, the truth was too awful to talk about.
The finale, "Maiden Mother Crone", answered the questions surrounding that mystery by taking us back to the past, showing us all what happened to Nicky, and it's a heartbreaking watch. The child almost died in childbirth, as Rio came to collect him, but Agatha pleaded with her to spare his life. All she could offer her was more time.
Nicky was a sick child but, for six years, he and Agatha were happy. They played together, survived together, and killed witches together (although Nicky would have preferred if that wasn't the case). And then one night, Rio came to take him - but not before ensuring that he kissed his mother goodbye.
Agatha and Rio have a complicated history. Lovers from a time long before Nicky was born, but when Rio had to do her job as Death, taking Nicholas to the Afterlife, it created centuries of hatred. In spite of Rio's belief that she gave Agatha special treatment, Agatha believed that she gave her nothing; instead, she took everything from her.
Finding Tommy Maximoff
That brings us to the closing moments of the finale. Agatha Harkness is now a ghost but she's not gone, and Billy Maximoff has a mission to carry out: Finding his brother, Tommy Maximoff. The Maximoff siblings were created by Wanda Maximoff, along with a fictional version of their father Vision, during WandaVision's nine-episode run, and seemingly died when Wanda brought the Hex down. But now we know that Billy reincarnated in the body of William Kaplan and the search for his brother begins.
With Agatha's help, Billy was able to find a body for Tommy to reincarnate in, and he wouldn't have been able to do that on his own. Also known as Speed in the comics, Tommy is a speedster like his uncle Quicksilver, but he needed magic to place his soul into another body. That's where his witch of a brother comes in as, in his final trial on the Witches' Road, Billy was able to do that for him.
Agatha All Along wrapped up before Billy could find Tommy, but now with the help of Agatha once more, the pair are setting out to locate him. When that happens remains to be seen, but we know that they will pull it off as they overcome every obstacle that has been put in their way so far (whether that was on the Road or not). And there is no doubt that we will see Kathryn Hahn and Joe Locke together again on-screen at some point.
Billy and Agatha's relationship is a complex one. Just moments before they agreed to work together, Wiccan was intent on banishing the ghost of his former babysitter, but once those overwhelming emotions he was feeling (after the discovery of Witches' Road's real origins) washed over him, the pair began to communicate on a level once more. As untrustworthy as she was in life, Agatha had a soft spot for Billy, and he clearly cared about her. He was also in need of guidance, so who better to be his mentor than the best educated witch of them all, Agatha Harkness.
The WandaVision trilogy arc continues in Vision Quest, but we know that we will see Agatha and Billy again. Regardless of whether there will be another season of Agatha All Along or a Wiccan spinoff, their stories are set to play an important role in the franchise's future as the Young Avenger-in-training and his ghostly witch mentor search for the other son of Wanda and Vision.
Agatha isn't ready to move on and face her son, and Billy isn't ready to be alone. And thus, their unlikely bond shall continue into the MCU's future as they set out to find Tommy.