Agatha All Along Episode 1 recap: Seekest Thou the Road

❘ Published: 2024-09-19T01:00:00

Disney+

Following the Scarlet Witch’s spell at the end of WandaVision, Agatha is back as Agnes – but when will the penny drop? This is one of many questions answered in the MCU’s Agatha All Along Episode 1.

As any Marvel fan will say, WandaVision remains one of the best superhero shows ever made. In the grand finale, Wanda Maximoff becomes the Scarlet Witch, trapping Agatha as her sitcom counterpart Agnes.

After being corrupted by the sinister magical tome, the Darkhold, she leads the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. At the end of the MCU movie, Wanda destroys all copies of the Darkhold, as well as its source of power, Mount Wundagore.

This event seemingly crushes Wanda to death (although this is still up for debate). All of this brings us to Agatha All Along, with Episode 1 of the Disney Plus series introducing us to returning and new characters. Warning: major spoilers ahead!

Agatha All Along starts with a crime scene

We open with the title card reading, “Seekest Thou the Road,” before cutting to Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) driving in a car and humming to a mysterious tune that sounds a lot like ‘The Ballad of the Witches’ Road’.

She reaches her destination – a crime scene. In this version of WandaVision’s Westview, she’s still Agnes and she’s a detective this time, fighting crime alongside her former neighbor, John Collins, aka Herb (David Payton).

He gets her up to scratch on the incident: a woman has been found dead in the woods, having been killed by “blunt force trauma.” He hands her a piece of evidence found at the scene: a library card with no names on it.

When they reach the body, it shows the woman’s scarlet hair and blackened fingertips… almost as if she had been corrupted by the Darkhold. But if it is Wanda, why would she be here in Westview?

For now, she’s Jane Doe. Something about seeing the body stirs something in Agatha, and she rubs her neck as if reaching for her pendant.

Seconds later, she finds the brooch abandoned in a puddle of water, much to her puzzlement. When Herb approaches, she hides it in her pocket – clearly she knows it means something but she’s not quite sure what just yet.

The MCU goes True Detective

After the MCU’s take on a True Detective opening sequence, Agatha heads to the library where she meets with the receptionist, Dottie Jones, who if you remember correctly is Sarah Proctor (Emma Caulfield) from WandaVision.

She and Agatha don’t appear to have the best working relationship. Dottie is not particularly forthcoming when she hands over the library slip, which only features dates and the title of the book, Dialogue and Rhetoric: Known History of Learning & Debate by Andrew Ugo.

After threatening to question Dottie in front of the queue, she relents and searches for the book in the system. Turns out, it had been stolen three years prior.

When Agatha goes to search through the archives for copies, she discovers the shelf has been torched, learning “every last copy” was destroyed in a fire.

Back at Westview Police Department, Agnes explains that it looked like somebody took a flamethrower to the library shelf, and she’s telling none other than Harold Proctor, aka Phil Jones (David Lengel).

In this world, he’s the police chief, and he’s got more pressing news: the test results for the soil under Jane Doe’s fingernails came back and it doesn’t match the soil where she was found.

Introducing Rio Vidal

There were traces of a particular microbial sediment only found in Eastern Europe. This news paves the way for Aubrey Plaza’s MCU debut as Rio Vidal, an FBI agent (and a character who isn’t in the comics, FYI).

She’s here to help solve the case, but Agatha’s not so keen on the idea. “Eat my a**, chief” is her exact reaction to Phil’s “strength in numbers” pitch.

When he leaves, we learn that they already know each other. “It’s been a long time,” says Rio, to which Agnes asks, “What are you doing here?… You want to take control of my investigation.”

“If you want to be in control, you can be,” Rio replies. Agatha starts discussing the case, triggering a rather elusive response from Rio, who asks, “Is this really how you see yourself?”

Agatha looks confused, so Rio decides to revert back to the task at hand, examining theories about what happened to Jane Doe and how she ended up in Westview.

But there’s still so much to be read between the lines. The FBI agent points out that there’s no indication of a perpetrator even carrying Jane Doe to the scene, almost as if she “magically appeared.”

Agatha wants to stick to the facts, saying these cases are always about the place – “the specific small town, the history of it, the people in it, the secrets buried beneath it.”

Rio sarcastically says Agatha’s the best person for the job. “I mean, you’ve lived here your whole life. Isn’t that true, Agnes?” Clearly, what she’s said has rubbed her up the wrong way, as she gets up and demands Rio leave.

The return of the brooch

In the following scene, we see the return of Abilash Tandon as Norm (Asif Ali), who’s now working in a pawn shop. He takes a closer look at the brooch, showing a motif of three women dancing together.

From his estimations, the pendant is legit. According to his expert knowledge, it appears to be from New England, originating from around the late 17th century – which happens to be the same time period Agatha was captured during the Salem witch trials in 1693.

Norm points out that it features triple goddesses: maiden, mother, and crone. According to ancient mythology, the Triple Goddess is a neopagan symbol that represents three stages of the female life cycle and three phases of the moon.

But that’s not all. As they’re discussing the artifact, Norm discovers it’s not a brooch after all – it’s actually a locket, and it’s got a lock of hair inside.

Who is Nicholas Scratch?

Back at the police headquarters, Agatha’s looking at the library card when she notices something unusual: Dialogue and Rhetoric: Known History of Learning & Debate is an acrostic for Darkhold.

This revelation causes her to jump back, at which point Phil interjects and tells her to go home. She reluctantly agrees, and we soon see why she chooses to stay late at the office.

Agatha arrives at her empty house, entering a bedroom that, in this world, appears to have once belonged to her child. As the camera scans the room, we see an award featuring the name Nicholas Scratch.

Comic book fans will know Nicholas was Agatha’s son who went on to become a supervillain. Little else is revealed about his role in Agatha All Along at this stage, though we’ll no doubt learn more in the episodes to come.

Agatha’s heartbreaking aside is interrupted when she gets a knock at the door. It’s her frenemy, Rio, and she’s brought pizza.

After an awkward silence, she tells Rio of a lead in the case: there was a car wreck about an hour before the time of death in Eastview.

Rio makes a quip about her “turning into a pumpkin” if she goes anywhere outside of Westview, to which Agatha insists she’s traveled. But when she tries to recollect where, she seems to have a problem accessing her memories.

After a discussion about the car wreck, Rio brings the subject back to their relationship, asking Agatha, “Do you remember why you hate me?” She replies, “No.”

Down The Witches’ Road

Their eerie conversation is interrupted by banging from the other room, where Agatha finds a masked intruder.

He makes a run for it, and the pair embark on a chase before the intruder is knocked down by Westview resident Sharon Davis, known in this world as Mrs. Hart (Debra Jo Rupp).

Agatha pulls down the mask to show Joe Locke’s character – known only as Teen for now – who she and Rio swiftly arrest and take in for questioning.

He won’t give his name and he’s not in the system. After a snarky back and forth, Teen confesses what he was looking for in Agatha’s home: The Road.

This is a reference to The Witches’ Road, a magical pathway in the Marvel Universe that only witches and sorcerers can tread.

Agnes has no clue what he’s talking about but she spots his blackened fingertips, which he claims is due to the ink from taking his prints.

She’s having none of it, believing he’s the perpetrator responsible for Jane Doe’s murder. But when she presents him the images of the deceased woman, he responds by asking, “What are you talking about? These are just flowers.”

The camera pans back to the images to reveal they are, in fact, of a beautiful green garden lined with flowers. Agatha is understandably baffled, but when she turns to Rio for help, there’s no one there.

Teen starts chanting in an unknown language, and Agatha, not knowing what else to do, decides to lock him up in jail for the night.

Peeling back the layers

Determined to prove to herself she’s not going crazy, Agatha heads to Westview Coroner, which she finds empty. She closes her eyes and looks up again to find Jane Doe’s corpse, with her scarlet hair hanging out from underneath the sheet.

Attached to Jane Doe’s foot is the library card she’s been fixated on. As she takes a closer look, a name magically appears on the latest date: “W. Maximoff”.

Rio also manifests out of nowhere, telling Agatha, “That witch is gone, and all the copies of the Darkhold with her, leaving you trapped in her distorted spell. But you don’t have to stay there, do you?”

She urges Agatha to “claw your way out,” which she does by ripping off her clothes to reveal her sitcom form from WandaVision, with each layer representing a different decade until she’s back in the ‘50s.

“There are two Jane Does in this case,” adds Rio. “And you know her name, so what’s yours?” Agatha looks at the library card once more, where “A. Harkness” magically appears.

Finally, she rips off her final layer, but before we get to see Agatha in her true form, the scene cuts to her seemingly waking up in her living room, wearing nothing but her birthday suit.

Under Wanda’s spell

Finally, her memories are back, but it’s not too helpful right now. She storms out to interrogate John, naked as the day she was born.

He explains that she’s been in the real Westview for around three years, and she’s been acting a bit odd the past few days, almost as if she’s been “bitten by the true crime bug.”

Agatha realizes she’s been under one of Wanda’s spells. But when she tries to summon her own magic, she’s all out of powers.

After finding her furry friend Señor Scratchy at home, she tells him, “I got mugged, mister. She took every little bit of power I had and left me with household appliances. We’ve gotta get back on top.”

Once again, she’s interrupted by a banging sound, only this time it’s the unnamed teenager, who’s been tied up with tape across his mouth.

Before she can free him, Rio makes an explosive entrance – literally – bursting through the door looking like she’s ready for a day in Arrakis.

Rio wields her power and flies over to her, pointing a knife at Agatha’s chest. “How long’s it been Agatha, since you acquired the Darkhold?” Rio says. “You hid behind all that dark magic but then you lost it.”

The Salem Seven are coming

The pair start to fight, but Rio gets the upper hand thanks to her powers. However, Agatha starts bargaining with her, saying she’s not allowed to kill her and that it’s “undignified” to fight her without her powers.

“Let me get my purple back and then come find me,” she says, but Rio says she’s not the only one who wants to see her dead.

Eventually, Rio agrees not to kill her, but she’ll be sure to tell “them” where to find her. “Who?” Agatha inquires, to which Rio replies, “The Salem Seven… I expect you’ll see them at sundown.”

For the uninitiated, the Salem Seven are Nicholas Scratch’s children who become villains in the comics, and eventually seek vengeance for their father against Agatha.

The episode finishes with Rio healing Agatha’s wounds (by licking her hand), heading off after the Salem Seven threat, and leaving her to deal with the kidnapped teen. In other words, roll on Agatha All Along Episode 2.

Agatha All Along Episodes 1-2 are streaming on Disney Plus now. For Episode 3, check out our guide to the Marvel show’s release schedule. You can also read about why Jonathan Majors won’t be in Agatha All Along, and check out all the upcoming MCU movies and shows.