Agatha All Along episode 1 recap and ending explained: The witch is back!

After what has felt like an endless wait, Agatha All Along has finally arrived on Disney+ bringing back Kathryn Hahn’s scene-stealing witch as the lead of the latest Marvel Studios series. 

A sequel of sorts to WandaVision, Agatha All Along puts the focus on Agatha as she breaks free from Wanda’s spell and sets out to reclaim her powers with help from a makeshift coven of witches, and a mysterious teen. Of course, before her journey begins, we have a bit of catching up to do after the events of WandaVision as Agatha is still very much under Wanda’s spell as the series begins. 

Needless to say, spoilers are ahead, so if you haven’t yet watched the first episode of Agatha All Along, this is where you’re going to want to leave us. For everyone else, let’s head on down that witches’ road to recap the events of the first episode of Agatha All Along! 

Agatha All Along channels True Detective

As the series opens, we see Agatha taking on yet another new role; detective. In the opening sequence of Agatha All Along, Agatha – who is going by Agnes it seems – arrives at the scene of a crime where a Jane Doe’s body has been discovered in the woods. All signs point towards Jane Doe having been crushed, but clearly her death didn’t occur in the woods of Westview. 

While exploring the scene, Agnes discovers a strange broach, which fans will recognize as being the broach owned and worn by Agatha both in the comics and in WandaVision. She’s then called back as they prepare to turn the body, but we never get to see the face of the Jane Doe before the credits begin to roll. 

Cue a True Detective-inspired opening and a fun tongue-in-cheek nod to WandaVision in the form of a credit that Agnes of Westview is based on the Danish series WANDAVISDYSEN.

After the credits role, Agnes heads to the library to track down a lead and asks the librarian to help look into the book connected to the borrowing card found at the crime scene. The book in question, Dialogue and Rhetoric Known History of Learning & Debate, wasn’t checked out but rather stolen three years ago according to the librarian. She points Agnes in the direction of the section of the library where other copies of the book can be found, only for Agnes to discover the entire shelf has been scorched which is when a mystery man informs her there was a fire and every last copy of the book was destroyed. 

For those who haven’t connected the dots just yet, this is a clear reference to the Darkhold that Wanda took from Agatha in the finale of WandaVision which she then later destroyed in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The first letter of each word in the book title associated with Jane Doe spells out Darkhold, while the library fire refers to Wanda destroying every copy of the Darkhold across the multiverse in Multiverse of Madness. 

Following her trip to the library, Agnes heads back to the station to begin working the case which is when the Chief arrives to give her an update that the soil samples found under the nails of Jane Doe tracked back to fibers found only in Eastern Europe, again typing things back to Wanda with a nod to Mount Wungadore where the Scarlet Witch seemingly perished. 

She then gets a visit from FBI Agent Vidal (Aubrey Plaza), who remarks that it’s been a long time as she tells Agnes she’s not there to take control but that Agnes wants to be in control she can be. Their interaction is by far the most fascinating of the episode as it becomes immediately apparent that Agent Vidal knows Agnes isn’t really a detective and is trying to subtly coax her out of the trance she’s under. 

After Agent Vidal leaves, Agnes takes the locket she discovered to the pawn shop which is when we discover that inside the locket is a strand of hair – whose hair exactly remains to be seen. She returns to the station to work on the case and starts to piece together the book title spelling the word Darkhold, but is interrupted by the Chief before she fully spells out the word and is sent home. 

Once she gets home, Agatha opens the door to what appears to be a child's room and we see references to a Nicholas Scratch, hinting that perhaps Agatha once had a child of her own and perhaps it was his hair in the locket. Before we get more insights, Agent Vidal shows up at Agnes’ doorstep. She again questions Agnes subtly by trying to get her to remember things such as why Agnes hates her, hinting that these two characters share a complicated history but Agnes is unable to remember anything. Her attention is then pulled away from the conversation with Agent Vidal when she hears a noise from upstairs. 

Agatha is freed from the Scarlet Witch’s spell 

The noise Agatha heard from upstairs was coming from a mysterious teen who had snuck into her house. Agnes chases after the teen and manages to bring him in with a little help from Mrs. Hart. 

Agnes brings the teen in for questioning which is when things begin to really unravel. As she questions the teen, he tells her he is after the road and that she all of all people should know what he’s talking about. She notices black ink-like marks on his fingers that mirror those on Jane Doe, and begins to question him about the case showing him photos of the body… or so we think. 

Teen tells Agnes that the photos are just pictures of flowers which is when things begin to unravel around her, with Agnes next noticing what she thought was a two-way mirror was actually a painting. The mystery teen begins changing a spell of some sort, but Agnes quickly cuffs him and says he can spend a night in jail as she heads out to the morgue. 

Upon arriving at the morgue, she notices the body is not there which is when she rambles off some details about Jane Doe, late 20s, green eyes, 5’7 with scarlet hair. A body then appears and we see the library card from the book tied to her foot. As Agnes examines the tag, W. Maximoff magically appears on the final date. 

Agent Vidal arrives and tells Agnes that the witch is gone and she took all copies of the Darkhold with her. Agnes begins to feel hot and begins taking off layers of clothing that lead to a series of callbacks to the looks Agatha donned while Wanda was under her spell in WandaVision coming to an end with the black and white era Agatha we met in the WandaVision pilot. She tells Agnes that there are two Jane Does, Agnes knows the name of one already but she needs to remember the second. 

Just then, A. Harkness appears on the body tag, and the spell Wanda placed upon Agatha is broken as Agatha finally remembers who she really is, fittingly as “Agatha All Along” plays in the background. 

Agatha All Along episode 1 ending explained

After Agatha finally breaks free from the spell Wanda put her under, she finds herself standing naked in the middle of the living room of her house in Westview and lets out a scream. Agatha races out the door, approaches her neighbor Herb, and seeks out answers about what has happened to her. 

Herb informs Agatha that she’s been here for three years now and has mostly been a good neighbor until the last few days when she’s not been herself. He tells her that it’s almost as if she had been bitten by the true crime bug, which is when Agatha realizes that the various characters from her visions were all residents of Westview. When he calls her Agnes, she storms off back to her house reminding him that it’s Agatha, not Agnes. 

Once home, Agatha attempts to conjure up her magic but has no luck. She heads down to her basement and discovers Señor Scratchy, her pet rabbit from WandaVision, and confides to Señor Scratchy that Wanda has stolen everything from her. Her pity party is cut short though when she hears a noise from up above and races off to find the source. 

The noise leads her to the closet where she finds the mystery teen tied up. It turns out the jail Agnes told the teen he’d be spending the night in was actually her closet, but she’s unable to get answers as her door explodes open and in walks Agent Vidal aka Rio Vidal, a witch with a history with Agatha. 

Rio tells Agatha that she’s missed her as she proceeds to attack her, but we learn that Rio can’t kill Agatha with Agatha telling Rio that she should allow her to get her purple back so that when they face off she gets Agather at her best. As Rio prepares to leave, she reminds Agatha that she’s not the only one who wants her dead and warns her that the Salem Seven will be coming for her soon. 

Before leaving, Rio heals Agatha’s injured hand with the lick of her tongue after Agatha admits her heart beats for her – hinting at a very complicated shared past between the two witches. 

The episode ends with Rio making her exit, as Agatha then recalls the teen is still there, with the mystery of who the teen is and why he came to see Agatha being left up in the air as the episode ends. 

Agatha All Along is streaming now on Disney+ with new episodes releasing Wednesdays at 9/8c!