Isn’t it nice when a fan theory works out? What a relief. It’s OK, everyone, we can stop calling WandaVision’s number one most suspicious neighbor “Agnes” now. She was Agatha all along.
In true WandaVision fashion, learning that Agnes/Agatha Harkness was actually a powerful witch controlling the Westview hex answered one question and raised a million others, but of those million there are three that are most relevant to figuring out WandaVision’s endgame. The first important question is how Agatha Harkness trapped Wanda and Vision in a hexagonal sitcom reality. The second important question is what exactly she’s been doing with them while they’re trapped. The third and biggest question is why she cooked this scheme up in the first place.
How did Agatha start the Westview hex?
WandaVision only offers a few clues as to how Agatha was able to get the Westview hex going. It’s clear that Agatha has magic of her own, but the fact that Wanda has the power to expel people from, change things within, and expand the size of the hex suggests that Wanda’s powers are instrumental in keeping Westview under control. It’s possible that Agatha is using her powers to control Wanda’s powers, piggybacking off the Scarlet Witch’s immense magic to achieve her own ends.
The mysterious grimoire seen in Agatha’s basement at the end of episode 7 is another clue, especially if it’s the Darkhold — a book of spells that’s appeared in both Agents of SHIELD and The Runaways. The Darkhold has the power to show anyone exactly how to achieve their greatest desire and is capable of accessing other dimensions to help them along the way. Agatha’s greatest desire is apparently to screw with Wanda, so the Darkhold may have given her instructions on how to blend her powers with Wanda’s to achieve her ends.
In addition to the Darkhold and its inter-dimensional capabilities, WandaVision’s commercial this week was for a fake antidepressant called Nexus, billed as a way to “anchor yourself back to your reality.” In Marvel comic lore, the nexus is the locus of the multiverse, a point at which every alternate universe touches. Casually bringing up “nexus” as a solution to Wanda’s unbearable grief hints heavily at the idea that Agnes used the nexus or the multiverse itself to lull Wanda into a false sense of security. It also may provide an answer for why Evan Peters’ Pietro Maximoff showed up in episode 6 — because Agatha yoinked the wrong Pietro out of the X-Men universe and hexed him to act like Wanda’s MCU brother.
For now, the “how” question is best answered by assuming a blend of Agatha magic, Wanda magic, multiverse nexus magic, and the Darkhold. The “what” and “why” are more difficult to figure out. Strap on those tinfoil hats, folks. Let’s get conspiring.
What has Agatha been doing all along?
Image: Marvel Studios
The “Agatha All Along” theme song that accompanies Agatha’s’ big reveal is a The Munsters–style bop that recontextualizes WandaVision’s entire run by showing how much of the plot was caused by Agatha being a jerk to Wanda and Vision. Watching the early episodes with the knowledge that “Agnes” is a villain makes one of her motives clear: She wants Vision to leave Wanda.
In episode 1, Agatha convinced Wanda to throw a sexy anniversary surprise when Vision’s boss was coming over. In episode 2, she likely orchestrated Vision’s gum-drunk shenanigans during the talent show, and began to make him suspicious of his reality in episode 3 when he interrupted a disturbing conversation between “Agnes” and Herb. She then messed up her entrance in the ’80s episode and all but encouraged Vision to leave the hex and die on Halloween. All of the “help” she’s given them has actively contributed to the dissolution of trust between Wanda and Vision and she would have succeeded in separating them if she hadn’t made one big mistake.
Watching the early episodes with the knowledge that “Agnes” is a villain makes one of her motives clear: she wants Vision to leave Wanda.
Well, two mistakes. Her first mistake was bringing the wrong Pietro in from the multiverse. Even though Agatha was likely controlling Pietro, his changed appearance and weird behavior put Wanda on the defensive. Her second mistake was underestimating the Maximoff family’s love for each other. She couldn’t predict Billy alerting Wanda to Vision’s pain or Wanda expanding the hex to save Vision’s life.
A bigger hex is harder to control, and the effects of the faltering magic are apparent as Wanda’s reality begins to warp before her eyes in episode 7. That’s why Agatha had to strike now and take Billy and Tommy away from Wanda. With Vision delayed and the hex collapsing, her plan can’t wait any longer.
Why is Agatha doing this and what is her plan?
Agatha needs Billy and Tommy for something. She acted quickly in the beginning of episode 7 to remove them from Wanda’s side and they are mysteriously missing by the time Wanda arrives. Billy and Tommy are superpowered twins who technically shouldn’t exist, which makes them doubly powerful where reality and magic are concerned.
WandaVision has hugely deviated from the comics when it comes to the twins, but one hard-to-ignore fact about Billy and Tommy in the written material is that they aren’t fully “real” people. They are fragments of a villain called Mephisto’s soul, which he comes to claim by reabsorbing them into his body. In the comics, Agatha Harkness wipes Wanda’s mind to spare her the pain of losing her children, but the Agatha in WandaVision doesn’t seem like the type to spare Wanda anything.
When an Avenger does it, we call it a love story; when Agatha does it, we call it a villain origin story.
If Mephisto is in WandaVision — and there are hints that he’s been lurking in the background from the beginning — then Agatha’s plan may have something to do with using Billy and Tommy to complete Mephisto’s soul. One theory suggests that Mephisto is Agatha’s notoriously missing husband Ralph, and if that’s true then Agatha’s twin-stealing, soul-completing motives may be startlingly similar to Wanda’s.
Picture this: The love of a powerful witch’s life is literally shattered by an apocalyptic event. The witch then disappears for five years and is snapped back into a reality where her trauma is fresh but the world has moved on. She resolves to do everything in her power to bring the fragments of her lover back and make him whole, even if she must commit morally abominable acts to do so.
When an Avenger does it, we call it a love story; when Agatha does it, we call it a villain origin story. How is that fair?
What if that’s not it at all?
It’s probably not! Unless it is. Maybe Mephisto isn’t involved at all and Agatha’s just beefing with Wanda because she thinks Wanda could have crushed the Mind Stone earlier and saved the universe from Thanos. Could be she just thinks the twins are cute and wants to be their new mama. Or there’s always the option that Agatha was bored and hell fed up with having nothing to watch on TV.
It’s anyone’s game to guess what will happen in the final two episode of WandaVision — and guessing is half the fun. We’re in Agatha’s endgame now.
WandaVision is now streaming on Disney+.