Why did Agatha kill witches? The reason is simpler than you think

Agatha All Along Episode 9 journeys back in time, revealing the titular witch’s tragic (and villainous) backstory – and if you think she killed witches for a noble reason, you’ve missed the point.

Agatha Harkness’ powers are extraordinary, but one is especially dangerous: if a witch attacks her, she can steal their power and drain them until they die. We saw this happen in Episode 5 when Alice Wu-Gulliver tried to save Agatha from her mother – and in return, she killed Alice.

However, as uncontrollable and unquenchable as her hunger seemed, she can stop herself. In the Agatha All Along finale, Billy (aka Wiccan) gives her some of his power and says, “Don’t take it all” – and she obliges.

So, if she didn’t need to suck out all of their power, why did Agatha kill all of those witches? Well, I’m sorry to say, it’s really this simple: she’s not (or at least, she wasn’t) a good person.

Agatha killed witches… because she wanted to

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By the end of Agatha All Along, she’s more of a Marvel anti-hero than a villain. She sacrifices herself to Death to save Billy, who’s allowed to live despite “stealing a second life” in Rio’s eyes. That doesn’t mean she always had a good reason to murder witches – she just wanted their power, and that’s that.

Remember in WandaVision, she tells Wanda, “I take power from the undeserving, it’s kinda my thing.”

Agatha All Along’s finale makes that abundantly clear. It opens in 1750, with Agatha pregnant and ready to give birth. It’s implied that her baby dies in the womb, but she begs Death (Rio Vidal, the Original Green Witch) to let him live, so she offers her an indefinite length of time.

While her son, Nicholas Scratch, is alive, she wanders from coven to coven, stealing their powers and killing them all. When Nicholas grows up, she trains him to con witches and lure them to her traps.

Two things can be true: she wants to be as strong as possible so she can survive to look after her son, and she’s also power-hungry and out of control.

However, when Nicky’s time runs out, she fills the void by killing even more witches, numbing her grief with power.

Agatha may have been killing witches for Rio, aka Death

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Agatha and Rio’s relationship still isn’t entirely clear, but their love affair may have come with a deal: Agatha could have been granted immortality in return for killing witches.

Let’s look at the evidence: Agatha has been around for hundreds of years, and while witches appear to live longer than ordinary humans, they can’t survive that long.

Early in the series, Agatha told Rio, “You can’t kill me, it’s not allowed.” Could it be that killing Agatha would violate their agreement? If witches take so long to die, they effectively evade Death – or as she puts it, the natural balance, so Agatha simply sped up the process and allowed her to collect more bodies.

Death also hinted this could be true in the penultimate episode, telling Agatha: “No one in history has had special treatment like you.”

“You call what you did special treatment? You gave me nothing, you took,” Agatha says, suggesting that her ability to outlive anyone she could ever care about has left her cold and compassionless; is eternal life worth living if you don’t have anyone to enjoy it with?

With Agatha All Along over, check out our list of every upcoming Marvel movie & TV show, and our rankings of the best superhero movies and best superhero TV shows. If you’re in the mood for something spooky, make sure you take a look at our list of the best horror TV shows too.