Agatha All Along: What if we use Agatha’s powers completely wrong?

This week Agatha all the time“Darkest Hour/Wake Thy Power” marked the midpoint of the Disney+ series and was the wildest episode yet. The episode not only saw a shocking death for the coven, but also the revelation of Teen (Joe Locke’s) true identity, shortly before he completely alienated Agatha (Kathryn Hahn), Lilia (Patti LuPone) and Jen (Sasheer Zamata). the street watched as the witches sank into the mysterious mud. While there’s a lot to clarify – and the unexpected death of Alice (Ali Ahn) – not only does this dark twist feel like a tough shift for the series, but Episode 5 may have also raised a big question about everything, what we know about Agatha Harkness and it’s possible we don’t know the witch very well at all.

What we know about Agatha actually begins with this WandaVision. In the eighth episode of this series, “Previously On”, we learn that in 1693, a coven led by Agatha’s own mother Evanora tried to kill her for practicing dark magic, but instead of falling at the hands of the coven, Agatha died dying drains them of their magic and life forces and kills the Circle instead. This act is revisited in some ways in the second episode of Agatha All Along, “Circle Sewn With Fate/Unlock Thy Hidden Gate”, when Agatha explains to Lilia that she can only take on another witch’s powers if she is from will be destroyed by them. The explanation serves to clarify why Agatha has not simply stolen powers now that she is no longer under Wanda’s spell, but is also a kind of foreshadowing for Episode 5. Episode 5 tells the third test of the Witches’ Path is said to belong to Agatha and revolves around a ghost who declares that Agatha must be punished. The ghost of Evanora appears and briefly takes possession of Agatha. He then explains that Agatha was born evil and attempts to repossess her, which is presumably part of Agatha’s punishment. However, Alice tries to intervene and attacks, using her powers to expel Evanora from Agatha’s body. Although the act saves Agatha, Agatha quickly begins to absorb Alice’s magic, leading to her death.

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While this seems very much in line with Agatha’s previous actions – absorbing the magic of others and killing them for her own gain – and certainly interpreted this way by the others, especially Teen, there is something to be said when you consider the Watching the episode closely The message there is more nuanced and suggests that we may all be critically misunderstanding Agatha’s powers. When Alice initially hits Agatha and the energy absorption begins, Agatha looks genuinely horrified and briefly appears to be trying to resist, although after a short while we see her begin to use more and more energy. When it is over, Agatha looks affected and even horrified by Alice’s death and quickly leaves the challenge. Agatha is briefly alone on the street and is visibly shaken. When Teen arrives shortly afterwards and confronts her, Agatha tries to explain herself and insists that it was a coincidence, even though the young man doesn’t want to hear it.

But here’s the thing: I think Agatha is telling the truth. Agatha is clearly too devastated by Alice’s death for what happened by chance to be intentional, and what’s more, Agatha seemed genuinely resistant to taking over Alice’s powers at the start, although she was quickly drawn into it. There’s no denying that Agatha doesn’t seem relieved or even happy to have power again, but she just doesn’t seem very happy with how things turned out. Furthermore, the only time we know of Agatha plunging another witch to her death occurred in a similar situation – when Agatha’s own life was in danger. In 1693, when Agatha took the magic of the coven that attacked her, these witches tried to kill her. It is possible that Agatha reflexively seized her power as she tried to save her own life. This could mean that Agatha really can’t control her ability to absorb other witches’ powers. It could simply be an automatic reaction to her being spanked, like a self-preservation instinct kicking in that she has little to no control over.

If we misunderstand Agatha’s power and she is not truly in control of it, our perception of Agatha changes greatly. Agatha may not be quite as scary as she is made out to be, and while that certainly doesn’t excuse her from the things we can confirm she did – she still killed Sparky – knowledge of her powers does provide us with one Opportunity to take a closer look at the witch through a trauma-informed lens. Even though Agatha cannot truly control her powers, much of the malice and evil she experienced in her life, including that she experienced from her own mother, was undeserved. It’s absolutely something that would leave her exhausted, but she would also likely rely on her possibly undeserved reputation as some sort of armor. If people distrust her and think of her as “evil”, they are less likely to attack her and therefore she is less likely to accidentally take another life when her powers are activated again.

What is perhaps most heartbreaking, however, is that when we misunderstand Agatha’s powers, Alice’s death becomes all the more tragic. While Teen assumes that the Circle has a disregard for life when it comes to gaining power and therefore makes being a witch a selfish affair, Agatha actually accidentally killing Alice is just another general misconception about witches and one more unfair viciousness that held them back and made them vilified for centuries. It’s the kind of misunderstanding that causes division, even in a group that needs solidarity now more than ever, and could make the rest of the journey even more treacherous for everyone involved. That is, if they survived being thrown off Witch Street. Only time will tell.

Agatha all the time is now streaming on Disney+. New episodes appear Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.