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This article contains spoilers through episode 5 of Agatha All Along.
Like its predecessor, WandaVision, Agatha All Along has invited all kinds of theories and speculation about what this journey down the Witches’ Road is truly about. Episode 5 especially has turned the mental gears of many fans after showing us Agatha’s (Kathryn Hahn) trial so soon. Some have speculated that this trial wasn’t actually Agatha’s, but Teen’s (Joe Locke) or Rio’s (Aubrey Plaza) instead. However, series creator and showrunner Jac Schaeffer, has since confirmed that this trial was, in fact, Agatha’s and the type of witch that Agatha is.
When asked about whose trial we see in episode 5, Schaeffer told The Wrap that “this is the spirit witch’s trial, and that is who Agatha is.” She says that she wanted Agatha to “be something sort of separate and kind of a surprise, in that the audience is trying to sort of parse who is what, and what are the skill sets, and it’s a lot of world building. It’s a lot to digest. And we didn’t want to be The Last Airbender you know?”
With that context, it does make sense that this trial was Agatha’s. A Ouija board is the pop-culture conduit for spirits, and Agatha has left a tremendous amount of them in her wake. She absorbs the power of any witch who attacks her, taking in their essence as her own. But even though Agatha’s trial may be done far earlier than we expected, it’s highly doubtful that her role in the coven is finished. As with many theories circling this series, “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road” contains some clues as to Agatha’s role in the coven.
The Ballad is pretty clear in its instructions on how to traverse the Road. “Gather sisters fire, water, earth, and air” is the second line of the song and refers to each type of witch needed for a coven to succeed in the trials. We’ve seen water with Jennifer’s (Sasheer Zamata) trial and fire with Alice’s (Ali Ahn). We already know that Rio is the earth witch, or green witch after Sharon Davis’ (Debra Jo Rupp) unfortunate demise. But “spirit witch” is notably absent from this section.
But, if you continue listening (as you should because this song is a banger), verse two contains the phrase “if one be gone, we carry on, spirit as our guide,” which now seems to refer to Agatha’s role as leader of this coven. Schaeffer even says of their decision to make Agatha a witch outside of the four elements that “our notion was like, she is just kind of the leader of the Coven, and that she would occupy this piece of witchiness.”
Once again, this ties back to the Scarlet Witch comics that first introduced the Witches’ Road. Scarlet Witch (2015) saw Wanda traverse the road searching for answers to a curse plaguing witchcraft in the real world. She may not have had a coven, but she had the spirit of her teacher, Agatha Harkness, as her guide throughout her journey.
Alice’s death marks the first true death of the coven. This isn’t to make light of Sharon’s death, but she was never really meant to be a part of the coven in the first place. According to the black heart on Lilia’s (Patti LuPone) divined list of names, Rio was always meant to be the earth witch. The coven wasn’t truly whole until they summoned her to the Road. But now that Alice has died, by Agatha’s hand nonetheless, it seems like it might be up to Agatha to channel her powers as the spirit witch to keep the “coven true” and guide them to the end of the Road. There are also still scenes we’ve yet to see with Alice, per the most recent trailer, which means we could still see her spirit interacting with the others.
Agatha’s trial might be done, but the true test of her powers is likely still to come. Agatha didn’t get the big empowering ending to her trial like Jennifer and Alice did, all her trial did was punish her for her past. As they continue down, down, down the Witches’ Road, maybe we’ll get to see Agatha come into her true power as a spirit witch beyond just taking the power of others. Schaeffer has already proven that she knows how to tell powerful stories of trauma and grief through WandaVision, so we’ll just have to wait and see how Agatha’s journey progresses in the remaining episodes of Agatha All Along.
New episodes of Agatha All Along premiere Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET on Disney+, culminating with the finale on October 30.
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