Agatha All Along: is Rio Vidal the MCU's Death?

Episode 7 of Agatha All Along, Death's Hand in Mine, revealed Rio Vidal's true identity as the cosmic entity Death in the MCU, and it built its trial around Lilia Calderu and her own relationship with dying. Once again the show did a great job with an incredibly fitting title, because death itself is a huge theme in this episode.

Agatha All Along (2024) is the series starring Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza and Joe Locke. This yellow stretch of the Witches' Road centered on Lilia, the witch the others called wispy and kooky, and it ended with her sacrifice.

Lilia's fall into darkness opens Death's Hand in Mine

The episode opened the way it would unfortunately end, with Lilia falling to her death. Unlike the way it played out at the end, though, here we saw Lilia falling through a sea of darkness within the coldness of the void. I read that as strong symbolic foreshadowing of the dark, cold embrace about to take her.

Death in the MCU is tightly associated with darkness. When the cosmic entity Death was first made canon in Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, she was carved on the walls of the Power Stone temple on Morag alongside Entropy, Infinity and Eternity. Each entity in that carving points toward a particular Infinity Stone color, and Death fittingly has her hand hovering over the red Reality Stone, the stone forged out of the darkness of the primordial void by Malekith himself. This is also why I believe Odin cast Hela, the goddess of death, into the lightless realm of Hel once her obsession with death became too much for him. Darkness and death go hand in hand in the MCU.

The Witches' Road colors appear to follow the Infinity Stones

As I brought up at the end of my last breakdown, the color of each area of the Witches' Road appears to be strongly tied to the Infinity Stones, specifically the order they appeared in during the Infinity Saga: Tesseract blue, then Aether red, then Power Stone purple, then Mind Stone yellow, followed by Time Stone green and likely Soul Stone orange at the very end. If you know how the stones' energies relate to science, I believe you can see how each color was meant to challenge each witch.

The blue first stretch forced Jennifer Kale to expand her potential as a witch without access to her powers, much like how blue energy in the MCU is tied to the expansion of the universe. Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. were familiar with this concept while studying the Tesseract at the dark energy facility before Loki arrived. In astronomy, dark energy is thought to be responsible for the continued expansion of our universe, and in the MCU, Kevin Feige has purposely colored that invisible dark energy blue. Ego from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was a living dark energy brain whose whole mission was expansion, and Carol Danvers and Tony Stark had their potential expanded through Tesseract energy too.

The red area was themed after the Aether, the weapon of dark, unseen forces like the Dark Elves, whom not even Heimdall could see. Red haired Alice Wu-Gulliver had to confront her own invisible darkness, just as Thor had to fight Malekith and the Aether. The purple area was about Agatha's power hungry nature and her obsession with absorbing energy, reflecting the absorptive and destructive nature of the Power Stone. Then came yellow, centered on Lilia's scattered mind, challenged to conquer her random quantum leaps through time so her sisters and nephew in the craft could continue without her. Just as I theorized the week before, the end of this episode showed the next area would be green, matching the Time Stone's debut in Doctor Strange not long after Ultron exposed the yellow Mind Stone. Kevin Feige truly went out of his way to color code his universe to thematic and scientific perfection.

Billy questions Agatha about Rio and Wanda

As Billy and Agatha walked the yellow road in awkward silence after the tension of the last trial, Agatha encouraged him to ask her whatever was on his mind. His first question was about Rio's whereabouts, which Agatha wouldn't answer, likely because she knew Rio was probably attending to Alice's body. Changing the subject, Agatha asked if he had questions for his mom's former best friend and babysitter, referencing her time with young Billy and his brother Tommy in Wanda's Westview.

At the mention of Wanda Maximoff, Billy immediately rejected the idea of her as his mother, seeming to prefer Rebecca Kaplan. That's interesting, but Billy did spend most of his life as a physical person as Rebecca's son, so I don't blame him. Then he asked what we've all wondered since Multiverse of Madness: is Wanda dead? Agatha said yes to see his reaction, then no, maybe to reflect her true uncertainty. She said she did see Wanda's body, which is technically true if seeing it while trapped in her crime show illusion counts, and I don't think it does.

Billy told her he doubted her experiences and whether she'd ever been on the road at all. I think that's very likely the case. I feel like Agatha is lying, as she hasn't shown deep familiarity with the road during this whole journey. The two then reached a castle whose drawbridge carried the same moon design found at the start of every trial. Billy didn't explain this waning crescent, but the Behind the Ballad trailer seems to indicate it's the air phase.

Glinda, the Wicked Witch, Maleficent and the Evil Queen costumes

Inside, the coven's outfits changed in the most drastic transformation yet, with each witch dressed as a famous witch from popular media. Lilia was Glinda the Good Witch and Agatha the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, while Billy was Maleficent from 1959's Sleeping Beauty and Jennifer was the Evil Queen's old hag disguise from 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. These outfits aren't random; they point to a core part of each witch.

Lilia was likely given Glinda because in L. Frank Baum's 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Glinda looks young but is incredibly old, a witch who knew "how to keep young in spite of the many years she had lived." That's exactly like Lilia, who used her powers to prolong her life. She's also the most pure hearted and wise of the coven, and her telling the witches she loved them was probably one of my favorite moments of her character. Agatha as the Wicked Witch fits her wicked life, and just as the Wicked Witch wanted Dorothy and Toto, saying "I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too," Agatha hunted Wanda in WandaVision and said "and I killed Sparky too" after killing Wanda's dog.

Jennifer as the Evil Queen is perfect for several reasons. Like the queen, she's concerned with being the most beautiful, as her Kale Care beauty line shows. Like the old hag, she sells goods that don't work as advertised, and the Evil Queen is a proficient potion mixer, as is Jennifer. Finally, I believe Billy as Maleficent points to both being the most powerful witches in their universes, with powers to hypnotize, shoot energy blasts and tap into cosmic knowledge. Both also have a more powerful second form. Maleficent's is her fire breathing dragon, and while Billy has no dragon, in the comics he's revealed to carry the powers of the Demiurge, an all powerful being destined to rewrite the laws of magic and reality, which he has tapped to go toe to toe with some of the most powerful cosmic entities.

A tarot trial built for Lilia Calderu

The tarot table at the center of the room bore the words "your path winds out of time," the first and biggest clue that this trial was designed for Lilia, the witch unwound from time. Billy tried a reading himself and drew the Chariot, which sent one of the swords on the ceiling falling. The Seven of Swords did them no favors either, so an impatient Agatha threw a pile of cards down to prove tarot is a farce, laughing like a proper Wicked Witch while forcing Billy out of his chair to dodge an impaling sword. Then the ceiling began to descend, and Billy wished Lilia were there.

Lilia's time jumps explain episodes 3, 4 and 5

Lilia had survived Billy's attempt to get her and Jennifer swallowed by the road. Returning from the moment before her death, she was shocked to learn from Jennifer that Teen was the Scarlet Witch's son, and even more surprised that she was the one who told Jennifer. When Jennifer said she'd been acting wispy and kooky, Lilia was sent back to episode 4, finally explaining why she asked Alice that question earlier. Apparently she couldn't finish her warning to Alice in episode 4 because she finished it with Agatha in episode 3, saying "try to save Agatha," meaning Alice shouldn't try to save Agatha in episode 5, the mistake that killed her.

The young woman in yellow whom Lilia followed in episode 3, into a room with a dead older woman in red, apparently were past versions of Lilia and her mother, practicing magic centuries ago in Sicily. Judging by what we learned later, my assumption that the robed skeleton behind that woman was Death seems to have been correct. Lilia's teacher noticed her mind was possessed by her future self and switched from Sicilian to English. At her first tea leaf lesson, Lilia claimed she'd always be bad at tea leaves, and her teacher scolded her for that prophecy before telling her to look at what she sees.

Back in the tunnels, Lilia told Jennifer she'd always experienced her life out of order since childhood, and that it had returned with a vengeance, possibly because she was close to the end of her life. Then she leapt forward to just after Agatha saved her from a sword, attacked Billy, and realized he could read her rage at him for not saving Alice. She remembered meeting William Kaplan at his bar mitzvah, and Agatha called her Dory, the amnesiac blue tang from 2003's Finding Nemo. Lilia revealed she placed the sigil on Billy three years earlier because she saw the accident and his split future. Briefly back in episode 5, after the Ouija board channeled death, she returned to her lessons, where I noticed the table was a hexagon, evoking WandaVision's hexagon theme. Asking how to control this, she was told her role was not to control but to let go and see.

Lilia reads Billy's cards

In the tunnels Lilia found the spellbook Billy lost earlier in the season, and following the sound of Agatha and Billy bickering, she and Jennifer reached the tower right as Billy wished for her. Lilia took over the reading, first pulling the Magician for Billy, pointing to his enormous potential and his ability to turn goals into reality. That's strong foreshadowing of his future as the Demiurge. The Sun followed for what's missing in his life, and since the Sun represents reunion, it points to his desire to reunite with his hex family, especially Tommy.

Then the sword Agatha saved her from fell, and Lilia went back to her lesson. Her Maestra reminded her that death comes for us all, and that no matter how good she was at seeing the future, nothing could change what's set in stone. Instead of fearing her fall, Lilia realized she needed to focus on what was in front of her to save her coven.

The Westview subway and a Loki style breakthrough

Back at the moment she and Jennifer landed in the tunnels, Lilia told Jennifer everything as her mind filled in the gaps. Jennifer spotted an abandoned Westview subway car and wondered if it led off the road. I think taking that path might have done that, because a subway under the road points to something Westview Historical Society member Sharon Davis said early in episode 3 about expecting to find remnants of the old public transit system down there.

After hiding from the Salem Seven, Lilia begged Jennifer to help save Billy and Agatha, calling her a sister in the craft. Accepting her coven seems to unlock Lilia's ability to jump through her timeline at will, much like Loki learned that time slipping meant focusing on the people he cared about most: "It's not about where, when or why, it's about who."

Lilia's spread ends on the Death card

Lilia realized she was the Queen of Cups, an intuitive woman whose mind should be trusted. The Three of Pentacles, for what she'd been missing, represents the coven she finally accepted. The Knight of Wands, for the path behind, represents the fallen Alice, fitting for the protection witch and cop. The High Priestess for the path ahead apparently represents Jennifer, with immense spiritual power she's unable or unwilling to use, likely pointing to a block she placed on herself without knowing. The Three of Swords, the obstacle, is what Lilia said in episode 4 as Billy nearly died. The Tower reversed, the windfall, is what she saw at the bar mitzvah.

For the final destination she pulled Death, and she came to underground seeing Rio approaching with a knife in one hand and vines in the other, much like the Death card. That confirmed Rio is MCU Death, as I theorized before: one of the most important cosmic beings in Marvel, most famous in the comics for fueling Thanos's cruelty.

Who Death is in Marvel comics

Death is the physical embodiment of death itself. She often appears as a woman, but Death has no gender and takes whatever form suits the viewer. Since Marvel's stories center humanoids, she usually appears as a humanoid woman or her skeleton. Death was born with the Big Bang of the 616 universe alongside entities like Infinity, the personification of space, and Eternity, the personification of everything and everyone.

Before the Big Bang there was only nothingness, ruled by Oblivion. Death became Oblivion's only favored sister and cosmic successor, sharing his hatred of life, and the natural enemy of Eternity and Infinity, the personifications of life and light. Together they maintain the universe's balance, and Death regards herself as Eternity's dark twin, meant to keep life from overpopulating the universe. Because she's so important to existence, Death is virtually impossible to kill.

Death's history with Thanos and Deadpool

In 2013's Thanos Rising, Death found Thanos as a boy on Titan among the Eternals. Taking the form of a female Eternal, she warped his mind toward loving death, led him to bring friends, including his childhood crush, into a cave she knew would collapse, then urged him to wipe out the lizards that ate them. Over years she pushed him to kill and dissect Eternals in the name of science, and eventually to kill his own mother. After he left Titan and fathered many children, she convinced him to hunt them all down and sacrifice them, then revealed herself, promising to return his love only once he'd destroyed all life. He then devastated Titan.

Thanos faced competition. In 1998's Deadpool/Death annual, Death visited Wade Wilson as Weapon X's Francis tortured him and fell for him because he could see her, something only Thanos had done. Wade wanted death itself, while Thanos wanted her love, so she was far less resistant to Deadpool. Furious, Thanos cursed Deadpool never to die. If Death flirts with you in Marvel, it probably means you could provide her many bodies, which is why MCU Death fell for Agatha while she drained countless witches with the Darkhold.

Can Death be killed, and where she appeared in the MCU

Technically yes, but not by anything below her on the cosmic ladder. The only entity able to eradicate Death at will is an aspect of the Living Tribunal called the Death of Death, which first appeared in 2019's Valkyrie: Jane Foster #6 and #7 and judges whether a universe's Death should live or die. Separately, the Avengers of the Cancerverse once used a dark magic technique called necropsy to eliminate one of Death's avatars, which by comic logic eliminated that universe's Death and made it a place where nothing could die, as established in 2010's The Thanos Imperative #3. I'm not sure how all that works.

In the MCU, Death has technically been canon since that 2014 Morag carving, and another carving appeared in statue form at the Gates of Eternity in 2022's Thor: Love and Thunder.

Lilia's sacrifice and one last trip through time

As soon as everyone learned Rio was Death, the Salem Seven attacked. Lilia ordered the coven into the iron maiden, a famous torture device, making it much like the stove exit from episode 3 that everyone was reluctant to use to leave the first trial. She told Agatha to hit the deck as soon as she called her a coward, likely referring to the Agatha and Rio fight in the midseason trailer, gave Billy his spellbook, and told Jennifer she had truly loved being a witch before shutting the doors, reversing the Tower and killing the Salem Seven.

The credits rolled to Jim Croce's 1973 hit Time in a Bottle, the second time we've heard it in a Marvel production after the Quicksilver scene in X-Men: Days of Future Past. The episode itself ended with the bittersweet implication that Lilia made one last shift right before her death, back to the very beginning of her tea leaf lessons, to squeeze in a little more time with her old teacher before she departed to the next life.