Category News, TV Shows

WandaVision: What happens to Agnes? Will she continue to live in Westview?

Author dsuprb Staff Published on 6 min read

WandaVision‘s finale has left us all stumped with its high-octane action, paradoxical thought experiments, and an ending that is nothing short of a tear-jerker. But even though the finale does a great job of tying up loose ends, enlightening us with new material, and answering the questions that the audience was left with at the end of the penultimate episode, there is still much that is left up in the air. This is Marvel we’re talking about, after all. For starters, what becomes of Agnes (Agatha Harkness) in the finale? Well, here’s all you need to know about it.

Advisory: Wandavision finale Spoilers below

Agatha vs. Wanda – the Battle of the Witches!

As soon as the classic Marvel intro subsides, the two witches lock horns. But Wanda soon finds out that whatever she throws at Agatha will simply be absorbed by her, just as she did from the witches of her coven. She can’t, however, dodge the car that Wanda throws at her, ramming her against the house. Agatha manages to slip away in the nick of time and disappears.

Later, while Wanda is wandering through the streets of Westview looking for Agatha, she reappears and shows Wanda the truth of the suffering that she’s brought upon the inhabitants of Westview. They can’t live, they can’t die – they’re the “meat puppets” that feel the agony of Wanda’s own grief all the time, a harrowing situation for the Westviewers that brings all their continued torment into perspective.

But Wanda soon finds out that she can’t just let the Hex go as the fate of her children and husband are tied to it. Agatha keeps attacking her, forcing Wanda to use her magic so she can leech off of it.

Wanda takes control of Agatha’s mind, giving her a nightmare of the time when her coven tried to kill her. But Agatha quickly takes control of the illusion, proposing that Westview and her family will be spared (and even made better) if she gives all her powers to Agatha. Wanda relents and starts attacking Agatha for her to absorb her powers. Agatha accepts gladly, with a maniacal laugh, and once Wanda is all but spent, reveals that the deal is forfeit since her spells can’t be changed once cast. So, Wanda’s left with a broken world to call her home.

Agatha Defeated, but not Destroyed!

But Wanda has a trick or two up her sleeve as well. Turns out that Wanda had cast runes on the walls of Westview without Agatha knowing about them. The result? All of Wanda’s powers return to her, as well as Agatha’s own, giving Wanda her true form, that of the Scarlet Witch, with a red diadem and all.

But Wanda doesn’t kill Agatha. She simply turns her back into her previous role as Agnes, now forced to live in Westview until the Scarlet Witch has any need of her.

Agatha and the Darkhold

We knew from episode 7 that the mysterious book in Agatha’s basement lair was actually the Darkhold, a literal book of the damned written by the Elder God Chthon himself, full of dark magic beyond belief.

Agatha’s had it since the 1600s when she was tried by her coven for trying to learn from the book. She tells Wanda that the book has an entire chapter devoted to the Scarlet Witch, that she is “not born, but forged”. Furthermore, that she is even more powerful than the Sorcerer Supreme, and it is Wanda’s “destiny to destroy the world”. Quite a bag of bricks to throw at someone who’s just trying to peace out in a quiet neighborhood.

But it is just this fear about what the Scarlet Witch could end up doing that drives Agatha to oppose Wanda. That, and to “take power from the undeserving”. A greed witch if there was ever any. Still, we’d be going too far to call Agatha the villain of the show. She did inadvertently took on the role of Wanda’s therapist in Episode 8 and has always been wary of the Scarlet Witch myth that Wanda has now materialized.

What happens to Darkhold we are not shown, that is until the post-credit scenes reveal the Scarlet Witch going through the book in her astral form, learning all that she can about her craft and even perhaps of darker things that we’re yet to learn about. Could this be the danger that Agatha was referring to? Possibly, but Wanda has to learn to become better somehow, even if it is from the book of an Elder God.

Will Agnes continue to live in Westview without the Hex?

The Hex is no more and the people of Westview are free from their tortured, imprisoned lives. But though Wanda has relinquished her control of Westview, she still has control over Agatha who’s forced to live in Westview as the ‘nosy neighbor’ that she was in the sitcom.

That means Agatha will continue to live in Westview, in the same old house, bound to the Scarlet Witch’s magic and disconnected from reality. Wanda doesn’t even have to introduce any sort of TV narrative for Agnes for her to be the ‘nosy neighbor’.

Fans have already started theorizing about how the one person under Wanda’s control would be managed, with Jimmy Woo being the most certain candidate for the job of monitoring Agnes’ house arrest. Given how easily Wanda could control thousands of lives through complicated interactive narratives, it shouldn’t be much of a bother for her to control one old witch sucked dry of her powers even if it is from afar.

But the fact that Agatha wasn’t just killed off in this episode means that there’s room for her in the MCU phase 4. Sure, Wanda has got the Darkhold for now, but she is still a fledgling when it comes to being a Scarlet Witch and truly understanding the reach of her powers. She may need Agatha at some point in time and we could see the possible return of Agatha Harkness.

Can Agnes return?

We don’t expect Agnes/Agatha to stay caged for very long. Agatha is, after all, an age-old witch who’s got the experience and the knowledge that Wanda lacks. Perhaps we may even see her in the role of Wanda’s mentor and a guide in the future (as she was in the comics) and Marvel has left the door wide open for that possibility. But even if Wanda doesn’t come for her and breaks the spell, it is possible that Agatha might end up slipping away on her own.

“I’ll be seeing you again, Agnes,” says the Scarlet Witch, to which she replies, “Not if I see you first, hon.” Quite the line for a witch trapped inside the role of a garrulous house-wife from the 60s sitcom.

You may also like