Is Wanda Maximoff really dead and other burning questions

• September 21, 2024
• Madellina Monica
• popnews

Is Wanda Maximoff dead?

Since her sacrifice in Multiverse of Madness that I believed that the Scarlet Witch could be killed by something as silly as a mountain falling on her. The MCU has had its problems of late, but we're above the cliche of letting proverbial houses fall on witches, you might think. Part of what has me so hooked on these first two episodes of Agatha All Along, though, is that they both aggressively signal that Wanda is alive And and repeated that she was dead.

The specter of Wanda's memory still haunts the residents of Westview, but none more so than Agatha (Kathryn Hahn), who has several conversations that suggest the Scarlet Witch is still alive. The first is with Herb (David A. Payton), who at the time plays a fellow cop in Agatha's little detective series but is later just her neighbor. He notes that anyone could die when crushed by such a force, to which Agnes (still Agatha) casually replies that she's not so sure. The second is with Rio (Aubrey Plaza) — posing as an FBI agent at the time — who notices that the corpse's toe tag has two names on it, which helps Agatha identify who she is and implies that none of the witches were truly dead, but simply powerless.

Finally, the relocation of Wanda's body is mentioned several times in Agatha's little CSI episode. If Scarlet Witch had transported herself home to be closer to her and Vision's supposed home, the residents of Westview would have found her. But that doesn't rule out the possibility that someone took her there. Perhaps the car with the bloody back seat that Detective Agnes mentions is more important than it seems.

Why do Rio and Agatha hate each other?

What you should know about Agatha Harkness is that most witches aren't huge fans of her. They don't really like the whole power-stealing thing, and that's before you consider that in 1693 she stole the power of her own mother and coven and killed them (as seen in WandaVision). With all that in mind, there seems to be more between Agatha and Rio. Once the former is freed, the latter immediately attacks her and eventually sends the Salem Seven to deal with Harkness and her indiscretions. Still, Rio was actively involved in freeing Agatha from Wanda's spell. Why help her just to kill her? If I hated someone with all my heart, I would happily watch them struggle, trapped under a spell that leaves them powerless and seemingly insane!

There's more going on here, but we'll have to wait and see what that “more” might be since there's no Rio comic book history to refer to.

Who is Agatha Harkness' child?

With Agatha still under the Scarlet Witch's spell, the lonely detective goes upstairs and looks longingly into an empty bedroom that clearly belongs to a child. Agatha Harkness having a child is nothing new, but the child's comic history is not as cheerful as his mother's, and the reference to him in this new series is notable.

In the comics, Agatha Harkness is (mostly) one of the good guys. Both she and her son have a strong bond with the Fantastic Four, but while the mother works with them and helps raise young Franklin Richards (Sue and Reed's son), her own son – Nicholas Scratch – mostly just wreaks havoc as a villain.

For now, it seems like Agatha All Along is only hinting at Scratch's existence rather than welcoming him into the fold. The reference to a child comes and goes after Agatha is freed from the spell, but I'm not convinced that Scratch won't play a larger role in the series. First of all, in the comics themselves, the Salem Seven are all Scratch's children. But whether or not they're connected to the Harkness bloodline in the MCU remains to be seen.

Who are the Salems Seven?

The Salem's Seven are made up of, you guessed it, seven witches. As mentioned, in the comics they are all descendants of Nicholas Scratch. At the time of Agatha All Along's premiere, we don't yet know what role they will play in the MCU itself. The members of the Seven are Brutacus, Gazelle, Hydron, Reptilla, Thornn, Vakume, and Vertigo. Each of them transforms into something their name suggests (Brutacus is a lion, Gazelle a deer, Hydron a fish-man, etc.), like weird, witchy Eeveelutions, with the exception of Vertigo. The eldest of the Salem Seven doesn't need a different form, but still does exactly what her name suggests: she throws off your balance. Not for nothing, Vakume simply transforms into a faceless purple, humanoid thing that can create vacuum and fly by manipulating air. Currently, it's assumed that they'll make him a little less silly for the series.

It's actually quite possible that we've already seen their new forms, as far as the MCU is concerned. At first, I thought the animals Agatha saw were just omens. But given the Seven's penchant for transformations, we might have seen them in their animal form in Episode 2 when Agatha and the teenager (Joe Locke) put the coven together. We didn't see them all, but there was a raven, a rat, and a wolf.

Is the teenager Billy Maximoff or someone else entirely?

With Wanda being dead, I never believed that the teenager was Wiccan, i.e. Wanda's son Billy (sort of, it's really complicated). I know it's a popular theory, but I just don't follow you there.

Be that as it may, Agatha All Along is really Really wants us to believe the young man is Billy Maximoff (or Kaplan or Kaplan-Altman). He can't say his name or reveal his backstory, he's gay, his name is conveniently left off the coven's list despite his powers, his mother is dead (I know I just contradicted the above, stay tuned)… and for all of these reasons, my conviction has only grown stronger. This isn't Billy.

Instead, I am currently convinced that the young man hanging out with Agatha Harkness and playing the loving sidekick is none other than her own son, Nicholas Scratch.

It's the teenager's answer to Agatha's question about why he wants to find the Way that was so compelling to me. The boy says he's looking for power, and I just don't see that coming from the character who, canonically, was literally offered ultimate power and turned it down to return to his human form (it's a long story, but Wicca eventually becomes a god). Nicholas Scratch, on the other hand? He really, really wants power badly.

If I am completely honest, I also think that Wiccan (and his brother Speed) have too confusing a comic book origin for the MCU to do something other than simply bring back Julian Hilliard (the young actor who played Billy in WandaVision) when he's old enough, or recast the character as an adult version from an alternate timeline. In the comics, it's always “He's Billy, but he's not Billy, and they're twins, but they're not really twins, and they're reincarnated, or are they…?” Get out of here. MCU fans have little patience for Tiamut, the guy from Eternals who “sticks out of the ocean,” to go unnoticed.

However, if the teenager turns out to be Billy, it is quite likely that his mother Is dead and he wants to take the path to bring her back. Or, even if he continues down the path where she is alive but powerless, the “power” the teen seeks may very well be Wanda's power so he can give it back to her, rather than something he wants to control alone.

One reason Agatha All Along has worked so well so far is that it keeps us guessing. That feeling has been sorely lacking since WandaVision, and I was worried this show wouldn't be able to deliver it. I was wrong! (I still don't think I'm wrong about Scratch, though.)

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