[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Agatha All Along Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2.]
It’s been three years since viewers last saw Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) and she’s been trapped under Wanda Maximoff’s (Elizabeth Olsen) spell ever since, at least, that’s what viewers learn in the premiere episode of Agatha All Along.
The installment opens like a police drama, more specifically taking inspiration from HBO‘s Kate Winslet-led series Mare of Easttown, a funny nod when you consider Agatha‘s predecessor WandaVision competed against the series at the Emmys in 2021. Mare and WandaVision also had crossover casting in Evan Peters.
Still, the connections weren’t entirely the reason for the Mare of Easttown spin on Agatha’s continuing story. “The original idea is sort of older than this show,” showrunner Jac Schaeffer reveals. “It was a concept like doing a CSI procedural episode that was a carryover from the WandaVision [writers] room, or really my original pitch.”
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In Agatha‘s opening moments, she reports to the scene of a crime, as a Jane Doe — which is later revealed to be Wanda (although her face is never shown) — is recovered in the woods. As the episode continues, a credit sequence unfolds, featuring names of characters rather than real-life performers, seemingly spoofing True Detective‘s title sequence. It then leads to a title card reading Agnes of Westview, which according to the sequence is “based on the Danish series Wandavisdysen.”
Eventually, it’s realized that Agatha’s life under Wanda’s spell has made her believe she’s living in a police drama where she’s the lead detective. Donning a similar hairdo and flannel as Winslet’s Delco detective, the similarities are borderline eerie, right down to the way “Agnes” pronounces creek (as crick). When fed Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) steps in to help with the “case,” Agatha begins to awaken from her trance-like state, peeling back the various layers of her disguises, even ripping away some of her familiar looks from WandaVision before she awakens to Westview under no lens but reality.
But for the police drama format, Schaeffer noted that while working on WandaVision, “It was something that I was like, ‘I want to do sitcoms, then I want to break into other genres.’ And it was too much of a burden for that show. So we stuck with sitcoms there. That worked out fine. But in approaching a show for Agatha, I couldn’t let go of that. And when we were on the awards circuit for [WandaVision], we were with the Mare of Easttown crew who were all lovely people, from the creator to the cast.”
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“And so, when I started to develop [Agatha All Along] that was fresh in my mind. But it wasn’t just Mare, it’s True Detective, and it’s the Nicole Kidman movie Destroyer. It really became an examination of that trope, of the lady detective who’s great at her job and bad at her personal life. It was also the idea that sitcoms are a reflection of [Wanda’s] true heart. And if we’re doing a reflection of Agatha’s true heart, it’s going to be dark and twisty and murdery.”
Once the spell cast upon her is broken, Agatha is quick to discover her powers are no more (courtesy of Wanda), and when Vidal, a.k.a. Rio, reveals that the Salem Seven will be coming for her after letting the Darkhold disappear, Agatha sets off to try and fix her impending problem. When she tries to make a run, a young man who broke into her home the previous night, known only as the Teen (Joe Locke), asks her to help him access the Witches’ Road.
While she is reluctant at first, Agatha sees this as an opportunity to reclaim her powers and possibly protect herself from the Salem Seven, and so she agrees to form a coven and take to the road, just narrowly escaping the Salem Seven as they arrive in Westview. Although fans met Agatha previously, there’s still plenty of mystery surrounding her reputation, and executive producer Mary Livanos says, “Over the course of all these episodes [we’ll] peel back the mystery that is her. She is an incredible villain who is entirely selfish.”
Livanos adds, “It’s all motivated to meet her own ends. We’ll get to see more about her backstory as facilitated by some of our other characters that come into the mix. So you’ll be able to see all the shades of Agatha Harkness in the show.” We can’t wait!
Agatha All Along, Wednesdays, Disney+