Agatha All Along episode 5: is Rio Death and Teen Wiccan?

Episode 5 of Agatha All Along, Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power, is the darkest stretch of the series so far. It also implies that Teen is Wiccan, the son of the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff. It doubles down on the hints that Rio Vidal is Lady Death, and I'm no longer afraid to say I think that's who she is. The show is the 2024 Disney Plus series starring Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke and Aubrey Plaza.

The title card lingers on the words darkest hour, perhaps to prepare us for what follows: the death of Alice, and the reveal that Agatha's son Nicholas Scratch was old enough to say "Mama, stop" when she sacrificed him. Melodically, darkest hour wake thy power is a shorter transitional part of the ballad, where the other titles needed longer breaths to sing. That fits a shorter episode, but these 25 minutes are rich with detail. I don't think there's any filler.

Did Rio Vidal leave the door open for the Salem Seven?

The Witch's Road opens more morbid than usual. In past episodes it seemed unaffected by weather, but now a creepy breeze rustles the leaves. That could be a clue that a door was left open. In film and TV, a flapping curtain or a flickering candle often signals that someone is now in the house. There's a leafless, body-shaped patch on the path where the coven summoned a new Green Witch in episode 4. The Salem Seven emerge from the same hole Rio crawled out of. This is the door that was left open.

So did Rio leave it open on purpose? Did she leave that chunk of obsidian there so they could follow the trail? Throughout the episode, Rio never seems afraid of them, almost as if they couldn't kill her. The episode confirms the Seven are the daughters of the Salemite witches Agatha killed in 1693, seen in WandaVision episode 8. In the comics, Salem's Seven were animalistic villains fathered by Nicholas Scratch in Fantastic Four #186 in 1977, with Vertigo as the eldest and leader.

Their extended headpieces look almost extraterrestrial, jerking with the actors' movements, and they wear lace masks over dresses straight out of 1693. Their animalistic movement implies they've been so driven by rage for 300 something years that they never evolved. They whisper "Find them" because, as episode 3 established, a burden carried by one witch is carried by all.

Lilia's obsidian and Jen's root working

The obsidian is the piece Lilia placed during the Green Witch invocation, asking that the witch be strong, wise and best at her craft. For Lilia, it seems to have divination power in the moonlight, shimmering as if warning her to wake up. A goofy detail: Jen has fashioned a sleeping mask out of wide leaves. I love her character.

In episode 4, Jen called herself an 11th generation root worker. That refers to a hoodoo tradition of spiritual practice, conjuring and botanical knowledge stemming from central Africa, which came to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. Eleven generations could trace her lineage back over 300 something years before the United States was founded. Root working was a proud practice passed from mother to daughter, maintained by the women of her family through everything they endured.

Why I think Rio is Lady Death

Rio's attitude toward Agatha shifts line by line. She's mostly antagonistic, but she defends Agatha when it comes to taking lives. I'm now willing to speculate that she is Lady Death, or Mistress Death, the embodiment of death in Marvel Comics. The evidence includes her hooded black costume, and the show's Death tarot card holding Rio's black heart and curved dagger. In episode 4, Rio said she wanted to take lives, and Agatha begged her to spare Teen when he was fatally wounded.

Then there's the spectral form of death behind Lilia's maestra in episode 3, which matches the statue of Mistress Death in the chamber of cosmic entities in Thor: Love and Thunder. So Agatha's relationship with Rio seems to be a romantic expression of flirting with death. In the comics, Death was the object of Thanos's affection in the Infinity Gauntlet storyline that inspired Infinity War and Endgame, and at one point a partner to Deadpool. I can imagine Aubrey Plaza having fun with that in Doomsday or Secret Wars.

Agatha's mercy may date the Nicholas Scratch sacrifice

Lilia says Agatha spared the Salemites' children. Agatha replies that she should have finished what she started and that mercy is overrated. Sit with that. Back in 1693 she set a rule against killing kids. To me, that suggests the trial came after she sacrificed Nicholas Scratch for the Darkhold, and she spared the daughters out of guilt.

If that's true, Evanora put Agatha on trial for that sacrifice. It would also mean Agatha had the Darkhold in 1693 and has had it ever since. It may be the trade she meant at her trial when she said, "I did not break your rules. They simply bent to my power."

The Hexenbesen, the Latin chant and the divine mother

Teen proposes a Hexenbesen, German for witch's broom. Most of the coven hates the idea, but Rio says yes right away. Lilia complains that brooms have been co-opted by the holiday industrial complex as an emblem of witch culture and an obvious symbol of female domesticity. She's calling out Spirit Halloween, and the fact that witch trials were a form of institutionalized misogyny. Each witch decorates her broom differently, from Jen's basic twigs and vines to Lilia's greenery and flowers.

They chant in Latin. According to the Twitter account Mad Latinist, it translates to "for you, beloved, I open the way," with a root that works for friends or lovers. When Alice says it, the masculine form should apply, but she doesn't change it for Teen. I love the idea that witchcraft requires cooperation. Zach compared it to pouring tea for someone to show you trust each other. Agatha and Rio pair up but don't seem to chant, leaving Alice and Teen, who bonded in episode 3. Then the red-eyed owl of the Seven pounces on Teen and Alice swings for the fences.

In flight, Lilia tells a panicking Teen to pray to the divine mother. That could be Gaea, or Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft sought in the 2016 Scarlet Witch run that introduced the Witch's Road. But who are we kidding? The divine mother has to be the Scarlet Witch, especially given Agatha's words at the end. Agatha turns and reacts when she hears it. She hates the idea of anyone praying to Wanda, the way Sharon seemed to in episode 3.

The blood moon flight and Vertigo's cicadas

The coven flies across the blood moon, silhouettes framed against it, taken directly from Steven Spielberg's shots in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Lilia says she hasn't done this in centuries, maybe from her aversion to the broom stereotype, or because her coven died 300 something years ago. When Agatha glances at Rio, a distorted child's scream is buried in the mix. Maybe it's Nicholas Scratch, something Agatha hears every time she looks at Rio. As the road pulls them down, Rio cackles like the Wicked Witch of the West. If she's Death, she'd be the least afraid of dying.

Vertigo hovers and spews cicadas. Wanda found a cicada in Agatha's house in WandaVision episode 7, which Agatha later fed to Señor Scratchy. I love the idea of Vertigo as a dormant but perpetually resurrecting force of nature. The cicadas also recall Candyman spewing bees.

The cabin trial blends 80s horror influences

Like the past two trials, the literal cabin in the woods is an amalgamation of influences: Evil Dead and Cabin in the Woods, 80s summer camp horror like Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp, the costumes of Poltergeist and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Agatha's possession recalling The Exorcist and Hereditary. It's largely a Stranger Things approach to 80s horror, with a Ouija board instead of D&D. Pennants for Westview and Eastview echo an earlier scoreboard between the two, so I think we'll explore Eastview at some point.

The coven wears 80s digital watches, this trial's countdown device. Agatha's purple jersey resembles Diane's in Poltergeist, but number three, which I think represents the triple goddess. Teen's red sleeves and blue headband match Wiccan's comic colors and Billy Maximoff's WandaVision Halloween costume, and also give off Johnny Depp in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Rio's camp shirt seems to reference Camp Crystal Lake, with two green leaves I think refer to her being the Green Witch. Jen's pink pajamas remind me of Carol Anne in Poltergeist.

I think Agatha stole Teen's spellbook

Teen realizes he's lost his spellbook. I went back through every shot of him on the broomstick and never saw it separate from him. The costume designs show it's attached by a strap and chain to his thigh, which Joe Locke described as uncomfortably snug. So I think Agatha snatched it, possibly as he passed her in the doorway when the costumes changed. That's why she moves on so briskly. Brandon suggested the spellbook could become the show's new Darkhold, and I think that's why Agatha wants it.

The Ouija board and Lilia's warning to Alice

Rio says this is Agatha's trial, and Lilia notes it's a blood moon, when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest. Lilia says talking to spirits was just a con. Captain Cupcakes on Twitter, via Air Chronicles on TikTok, realized her outbursts connect: "Alice, don't" from episode 4 and "try to save Agatha" from episode 3 form a warning, Alice, don't try to save Agatha. Using her power that way will let Agatha steal it and kill her.

The vintage board says Parker Brothers, Salem, Massachusetts, where the company was really located. A Point Reyes poster, a location in John Carpenter's The Fog, plus a Redwood National Park poster make me think the cabin is in California. Teen finds the clues in every trial so far. The box says ages three and up, when Ouija boards are commonly eight and up. I think that's the power of three, and also a reference to Nicholas Scratch's age when he died.

The planchette spells MRS HART, a prank by Agatha, since only she would call Sharon Davis that, and Kathryn Hahn does a solid Debra Jo Rupp. Taunting the dead breaks the rule. Then it spells DEATH, and Rio laughs, another clue. She may be moving the planchette when it spells punish Agatha. Death doesn't want to kill Agatha, just punish her. Through the chaos, Rio enjoys every moment.

Evanora Harkness returns, and my theory of Agatha's deal

Agatha appears possessed against the ceiling, like Toni Collette in Hereditary, with makeup and a spider walk nodding to The Exorcist. A white vapor drifts downstairs like the 80s effects in Poltergeist and Raiders of the Lost Ark, becoming Evanora Harkness, with Kate Forbes returning from WandaVision. Rio says, "I hate ghosts," another Death clue, I think, since ghosts refuse to move on. Evanora wants Agatha left with her, but Rio refuses.

Here's my theory. Evanora and Agatha were part of the Salemite coven, a well-organized matriarchal society. A younger Agatha wanted the Darkhold, maybe to seek vengeance on the men who tortured witches, or to become the Scarlet Witch. She made a deal trading her son, but couldn't do it herself, so she turned to Mistress Death. Death could resent Evanora for punishing Agatha, and perhaps gave her the power to absorb witches' powers. That's my theory for now.

Alice's death and "Mama, stop"

Agatha pleads, "I can be good," echoing her 1693 trial. Alice blasts Evanora out, and Lilia shouts Knight of Wands, a tarot card of decisive action. Then Agatha reaches forward. That's not an accident: she changes the sorcery from orange to purple and drains Alice's life force. Agatha later says she couldn't control it. I feel it's a reflex from an old decision; being bad is muscle memory.

The board spells NICHOLAS SCRATCH. Hearing that tells Agatha it wasn't the name under Teen's sigil, so he must be Wanda's son. Then a child says, "Mama, stop." Some may think Nicholas possessed Agatha and drained Alice, but I don't. I think his ghost reached through the board to stop his mother. That he spoke means he was a boy, not a baby. That's heartbreaking.

"You're so much like your mother" points to Wanda

Rio looks down at Alice and doesn't follow them out, perhaps staying to ferry her soul. Teen says killing for your own agenda isn't for him, and Agatha whispers, "Are you sure?" I think coming at the series midpoint makes this a literal turning point: Agatha owning her villain role, Teen stepping forward as hero. Then: "You're so much like your mother." Even if Teen is Billy Kaplan, Agatha sees the Scarlet Witch in him, and the WandaVision closing credits theme by Christophe Beck plays.

Wiccan's comic origins are a mess. I think the MCU is simplifying by making Billy a piece of Wanda's soul from Multiverse of Madness, respawned in Billy Kaplan, perhaps around his near-death at 13. Jac Schaeffer said the sigil was meant to look rushed and amateur. I think Wanda placed it to protect him, and shouting Nicholas Scratch may have broken it. I think Nicholas Scratch is a whole separate entity from Billy Kaplan.

Teen's blue crown marks him as Wiccan

Teen controls Lilia and Jen to throw Agatha into the mud, since direct magic would let her absorb it, then sinks them too. I don't think he hid these powers; Joe Locke's performance feels authentic. I think they woke after connecting with Nicholas and Agatha confirming his divine mother. He ends wearing a blue crown, which costume designer Daniel Selon said drew on Damascus steel and water ripples. To me, that recalls Rio's dagger and Jen's water trial, Agatha's two biggest threats. The tower tarot card shows a blue crown and falling witches, so could Teen kill the Salem Seven?

Billie Eilish's You Should See Me in a Crown plays, using Billy to introduce Billy. Maybe that road just leads through the mud. But Wanda also had a habit of controlling people. It's not spoken aloud, but this is a pretty unambiguous coronation of Teen as Wiccan.