Agatha All Along ep 1: is the corpse Wanda or the Darkhold?

The opening of Agatha All Along wants us to believe the body in the woods belongs to Wanda Maximoff. I'm not convinced. My theory is that the corpse is the Darkhold itself, taking human form inside this TV reality, and possibly pointing to Agatha's lost son. Here are the Easter eggs, references and clues I spotted in the premiere.

The series premiered on Disney+ in 2024 with Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness, Aubrey Plaza as Rio Vidal and Joe Locke as Teen. For the first time, Marvel Studios unveiled its Marvel Television bumper, which opens with the same rapidly flipping comic book images as the Marvel Studios logo.

Is the Agatha All Along corpse Wanda? The "really most sincerely dead" tease

The show teases us right away when Herb says she is "really most sincerely dead." That refers to the moment when the temple collapsed and we saw a mysterious red glow in the rubble. That glow could have been Wanda's death, her teleportation, or her transition into some other realm or form. Over the years Kevin Feige and Elizabeth Olsen have indicated that Wanda could come back in some form. At the time this episode premiered, people had also discovered a copyright notice for a Scarlet Witch movie that might be coming in 2026.

The wording itself comes from The Wizard of Oz, where the coroner of Munchkinland pronounces the Wicked Witch of the East really most sincerely dead. Agnes sees this Jane Doe and reaches for her chest as if to touch the brooch that would normally be there. Later, when she changes costumes, she always starts with a reach to that spot. She finds her brooch in a puddle, with her reflection placed so the brooch lines up exactly where it would be pinned.

The corpse is barefoot and has black fingers. Discolored fingers and toes are a common crime drama trope, but here black fingers are a side effect of using the Darkhold. The body is identified as female, it was crushed by something heavy, and scarlet hair hangs from under the sheet. So why are her feet bare? Did Wanda go to the Witches' Road? I don't want to deny that this body could be Wanda. I think Wanda is still alive somewhere and will return in some form. I'm just not positive it will be on this series.

My alternate theory: the corpse is the Darkhold, and maybe Nicholas Scratch

This episode likens the corpse to the Darkhold. Its toe tag is a Westview library card, which would make the body a book, with Wanda and Agatha as its previous possessors. So I think the corpse is the Darkhold taking the form of a human body. I also think turning the book into a body could point to Joe Locke's character, who might be Agatha's son Nicholas Scratch. Agnes may see the corpse as female because the Darkhold has a feminine quality as a text that foretells the Scarlet Witch. Later there's an exchange in which the question "why do you assume it's a woman" gets the reply "I don't know sounds more titillating."

Wanda's hair was never as red as the hair under that morgue sheet. In Multiverse of Madness it was more of a dirty blonde or strawberry blonde. So the Scarlet Witch here may be a red herring. The chain I'll keep pointing to runs like this: corpse equals Darkhold equals Nicky Scratch equals Teen equals Agatha's sacrificed son.

The Mare of Easttown parody borrows True Detective's opening titles

Since Mare of Easttown has no opening title sequence, the show borrows from HBO's True Detective, with the Lopezes' recording of the Ballad of the Witches' Road done in a crime version with the same male Western vocals as True Detective's season one theme. We see the main road past the Westview welcome sign, where Monica Rambeau and Jimmy Woo stood in WandaVision episode 4. Yellow police tape stretched across the forest floor keeps returning, visually forming the Witches' Road. Its color makes it look like the yellow brick road, and this series is definitely pulling from The Wizard of Oz in several ways.

Instead of the actors' names we get character names, since Agatha cast them within the spell: Agnes O'Connor, Norm, Dottie Jones, Herb, Dennis and Mrs. Hart, which is hilarious because Agatha doesn't even know Mrs. Hart's first name. A football scoreboard shows Westview against Eastview, tied at 14 in the fourth quarter, with Eastview in possession at first and 10, in a decent position to win. One team's mascot is the Blue Devils, an interesting contrast with the Scarlet Witch. There's also a quick insert of either a toppled statue or a severely dehydrated corpse of a woman.

A title card says it's based on a Danish series, which is funny because many compare True Detective to the Danish crime series Forbrydelsen, also known as The Killing. The final card reads Agnes of Westview, clearly a take on Mare of Easttown.

The Westview library card spells Darkhold and hides MCU birthdays

Agnes meets librarian Dottie Jones, real name Sarah Proctor, which was the name of a real 16 year old in the Salem colony accused of witchcraft in 1692. This is the Dottie who said in WandaVision episode 2 that the devil's in the details, but that's not the only place he is. The library card is for Dialogue and Rhetoric: A Known History of Learning and Debate, whose first letters Agnes later works out spell Darkhold. The author is Andrew Ugo. Ugo is an Italian boy's name meaning heart, mind or spirit, and playing around with it, Andrew Ugo is an anagram of Wundagore's without the S, so we almost got there.

The card lists nine dates with names erased, suggesting nine people have possessed this edition of the Darkhold. We later see W. Maximoff on October 13 and A. Harkness on January 21. January 22, 2021 was the release date of WandaVision episode 3, when Wanda gave birth to Billy and Tommy. February 16 is Elizabeth Olsen's birthday, August 28 is Jack Kirby's, June 2 is Kevin Feige's and December 28 was Stan Lee's.

Dottie says the book was stolen three years ago and there are more copies in Natural Sciences. That implies the Darkhold might be tied to earth magic, which makes Rio Vidal an even more interesting figure from Agatha's past. Agnes asks where Dottie was between 1 and 3 a.m., as she later asks Teen, a time often known as the witching hour. Westview does have a real library, where Vision fought White Vision, but I wonder if this one connects to Sarah Proctor's own past in Salem.

Dennis whispers creepily through the stacks that there was a fire. That could refer to Wanda destroying every version of the Darkhold in Multiverse of Madness. I think we need to keep an eye on any mention of burning, drowning, hanging or trials, because they seem to nod to how witches were historically persecuted. If the Darkhold is a person, that person might have been burned.

Rio Vidal appears like a witch invading Agatha's hex

Agnes arrives at the station with a donut in her mouth, another Mare of Easttown nod, since Mare was always eating junk food in her car. Phil Jones, real name Harold Proctor, is now her chief, and he points out a spot on her shirt and tie, which she says was a smoothie. That reminds me of Dottie's line in WandaVision about getting a bloodstain out of white linen. Agnes's office is huge for a small town detective, I guess because she's the star of her own show. A filing cabinet holds an old photo of a boy with a rabbit statue, which I assume connects to Nicholas Scratch. I could be wrong, but I think the Holy Grail from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is under her desk lamp. Maybe she collects movie prop replicas.

The chief says the soil under Jane Doe's fingernails matches dirt only found in Eastern Europe. That lines up with Wanda's end atop Mount Wundagore, but it could also refer to where the Darkhold ended up. Then he introduces federal agent Rio Vidal. Agnes's eyes are on the chief the whole time, so she would have seen Rio walk up, yet she's shocked to see her. Rio seems to have apparated. Just as Agatha invaded Wanda's illusion, Rio seems to be invading the hex Wanda placed on Agatha, for revenge.

In the Mare of Easttown structure, Rio parallels Evan Peters's Colin Zabel, the young agent assigned to Mare's case against her wishes. That's ironic, since Evan Peters played Ralph Bohner, the Westview resident Agatha manipulated. The station clock reads 3:33, as does the interrogation room clock, and they never change. Could that be the time in the outside world, or the power of three times three, the witch's number of maiden, mother, crone? I'm trying to be careful with numerology, because focusing on numbers usually ends up being nothing.

Agnes's mug reads get a clue. Several of her replies sound like Agatha breaking through, such as telling Rio she doesn't want her here. As Rio leaves, she says something in Spanish that means I see you. Aubrey Plaza says it like a goodbye, but it means I see what you're doing, similar to the threat Agatha slipped into the WandaVision episode 7 opening titles.

The brooch is a triple goddess locket holding a lock of hair

Norm returns as a pawn shop jeweler who dates the brooch to the late 17th century and says it's made from cowrie shell. Cowrie shells were used as currency in many parts of the world and appear in bohemian and beach jewelry. They're also part of spiritual rituals, believed to have healing properties, and used in some African cultures for divination. I'd say it's unlikely 1693 Salem had much cowrie shell. Agatha got the brooch from her mother Evanora, but I wonder if it first came from the witches' travels to places like Greece.

Norm explains it shows the triple goddess, maiden, mother, crone, a neopagan archetype for the stages of the female life cycle and the phases of the moon. It's a locket containing a lock of hair, and I think that hair belongs to Agatha's son Nicholas Scratch.

Nicky's bedroom suggests Agatha is grieving her son

Agnes comes home past a barking dog she calls stupid. I assume it's the dog that later helps her catch Teen, and it's a reminder that Agatha doesn't like dogs: she killed Wanda's dog Sparky. She peeks into an empty boy's bedroom with a drawing signed Nicky, rabbit figurines everywhere, and a first place award to Nicholas Scratch for best vocals in a children's choir.

Nicholas Scratch is a common euphemism for the devil, and in the WandaVision days we assumed Señor Scratchy the rabbit could reference him. In Fantastic Four #185, Nicholas Scratch was Agatha's son, part of a hidden community of sorcerers called New Salem in Colorado, and he fathered seven children known as Salem's Seven. Agatha is clearly grieving Nicholas, who I think is Joe Locke's Teen. I don't think he's a ghost in her mind. I think his soul reincarnated in the body of a teen named Billy Kaplan, and his singing award could connect to the Ballad, which Teen seems very aware of.

Agnes tells Rio there was a car wreck in Eastview an hour before the time of death, and that two people might have transported the body. If the corpse is the Darkhold, those two could be Wanda Maximoff and Stephen Strange. When Agnes says she's well traveled, it feels like Agatha and Rio might have traveled the world together, maybe to Santorini to meet the witch goddess Hecate. Wanda does this with Agatha's ghost in James Robinson's 2016 Scarlet Witch comics, which first introduced the Witches' Road.

Teen's black fingertips tie him to the Darkhold

Agnes finds Teen masked in her bedroom holding what looks like the brooch, framed with her reflected in the mirror, as if whenever Agatha looks at him she sees herself. After a foot chase, Sharon Davis hits him with her car. Agnes reacts not like a detective but like a mother watching her child run into the street. Between the collision and her kicking him, I don't think Teen has a normal human constitution. Agnes says he's roasting her, and I think the word choice reflects another instance of burning witches.

Teen says he was seeking the road. When Agnes notices his black fingertips, he gets defensive and claims it's fingerprinting ink. Dark fingertips are also a sign of a Darkhold user, and they connect him to the corpse. Agnes then realizes Rio's photos of Jane Doe's corpse are just photos of Herb's fence line and yellow flowers. The one way mirror becomes a painting of Macbeth and the three witches by Francesco Zuccarelli from the 18th century. Shakespeare's Macbeth was perhaps the most important work in popularizing our image of witches as three sisters over a cauldron speaking in rhyme.

Teen, now in Agatha's living room armchair, speaks uncaptioned Latin. Based on Joe Locke's vowel sounds, I think he's saying something that roughly translates to incarnate, exit, women, fixed. It's plural women, suggesting the spell is for more than one. Is the other woman Wanda, Rio, or the Salem Seven? I think a spell strong enough to undo the Scarlet Witch's hex would have to be broad and sloppy enough to empower witches like Rio and maybe the Salem Seven to find Agatha.

Agatha's costume changes and bumping the lamp

In the morgue the corpse reappears with scarlet hair, which could reflect how the Darkhold prophesied the Scarlet Witch rather than Elizabeth Olsen's blonder hair. The tag reads W. Maximoff in cursive red ink, then A. Harkness in sloppy purple. Rio's way of teleporting in and out recalls Aubrey Plaza's Lenny in Legion, a form of the Shadow King who haunted David Haller's mind.

Agatha strips through her WandaVision wardrobe: the purple sweater from episodes 7 and 8, the black sweats with Naughty bedazzled on them from the episode 6 credits, the 80s workout gear from episode 5, the episode 3 Brady Bunch look, and finally her monochrome episode 1 look, skipping episode 2's Bewitched era. I love the idea that she had to pile each new costume on top of the last during Wanda's broadcast. The swinging lamp blends the black and white effect with the practical set. It references bumping the lamp, a trick from Robert Zemeckis's Who Framed Roger Rabbit that gave animation physical weight, which She Hulk also nodded to.

Agatha emerges naked in her home. One thinks of Eve, but I think Lilith, associated with witchcraft and feminism, is more apt. Her robe with purple flowers and a snake feels inspired by Eden. I think this is the first nudity on a Disney+ show and the first time in the MCU it's a woman, and it's a comedic bit rather than for the male gaze.

Rio Vidal and Agatha share a romantic past and a rule against killing

Agatha's basement is back to normal, but she finds Señor Scratchy, likely named after her son. Matt Shakman mentioned a removed WandaVision finale concept in which the rabbit transformed into a giant hell demon. Near the fridge are a creepy witch drawing and a geometric sketch of circles and pentagrams that looks like an attempt to open the Witches' Road.

Rio bursts in and accuses Agatha of acquiring the Darkhold and then losing it. It sounds like Agatha gained the book and left Rio behind. The two have an interesting exchange, "you can't kill me," "you can't kill me," "it's not allowed," which sounds like a code among witches, maybe a spell between these two. I'm reminded of Jacob and the Man in Black on Lost, who needed John Locke's body as a loophole, and I wonder if Joe Locke's Teen is a similar loophole. Coincidence, maybe.

These two clearly had a romance, and Rio comes off like a spurned lover left behind for the Darkhold. Agatha asks to get her purple back, and Rio agrees to wait while telling the Salem Seven, descendants of the Salemites Agatha drained. When Agatha says Rio has no heart, Rio replies, "it's black and it beats for you," and licks a cut on Agatha's palm to heal it, which suggests to me that perhaps green magic could have healing powers.