Agatha All Along Finale Explained: Billy Built the Witches' Road

The Agatha All Along finale reveals that Agatha made up the Witches' Road, and that the road her coven walked was built by Billy Maximoff with his own reality-shaping powers. As far as we know, that gave us only one season of Agatha All Along, though it looked like the story would be picked up in another series. I think they knocked it out of the park.

I didn't enjoy the first couple of episodes that much. Once they got on the road, I loved it from there on out. Overall, I think this show was a grand slam. Here is what episodes 8 and 9 mean and what they set up for the future, because they set up a lot.

Agatha and Nicholas Scratch wrote the Witches' Road song

Many of us thought Agatha probably made up the fact that she had survived the road. If you thought that, you were partially right. She did make up the entire road herself.

It came from a song that she and her son, Nicholas Scratch, wrote together while walking roads as witches. That was the birth of the Witches' Road song.

Billy Maximoff made the road with his reality-shaping powers

So what was the coven traveling on all this time? It was a Witches' Road, but Billy Maximoff, the son of the Scarlet Witch, created it. It might come as little surprise that his powers are very similar to his mother's, and that he can shape and bend reality the way she can.

The show alluded to this in episode 7, when Lilia drew the Magician card for Billy. She told him he had enormous potential and the ability to turn all of his goals into reality. That wasn't a metaphor. It was a straightforward, literal statement about Billy, who has the power to shape reality the way the Scarlet Witch did in WandaVision. She created kids out of nothing but magic, and by the end of the finale, two of them have been reincarnated.

By the end of episode 8, Billy realizes he can turn his wants into reality. What's interesting is that he ends up giving Jen her powers back. This is very powerful magic, and it's very important for the future of the MCU. But the road was not what the song described, because Agatha made up the song and Billy made the road. That's why nothing happened when Agatha completed her trial.

In the last episode, Billy realizes that since he made the road, he blames himself for everything bad that happened, including the deaths. In my view, that isn't quite fair to him. Alice died because of Agatha. Lilia sacrificed herself. Sharon Davis being on the road was Agatha's fault, and Agatha said she was going to kill her anyway. He blames himself regardless.

Agatha helped Billy bring back his brother Tommy

With the help of Agatha, Billy manages to get his brother reincarnated too. As Billy guided his brother's spirit, he saw a young boy drowning. Right when the boy drowned, Tommy's spirit went into his body, reincarnating Wanda's other son, Tommy, known as Speed in the comics.

So Agatha did do some good. She used real witch knowledge to help Billy bring back his brother, which was a big no-no for Death.

Death explains why Billy can't simply die

At the start of the finale, Agatha and Death talk, and Death explains that if Billy, or Wiccan, dies, he'll just reincarnate again. He is an anomaly, most likely because he's the son of the Scarlet Witch, who according to Agatha Harkness is also not supposed to exist, and because his magic is so powerful.

If Billy dies, his spirit will find another body, but Death won't know whose, so she won't be able to find him. She hates that, because he is essentially spitting in her face and saying, you can't kill me. He doesn't know he's doing it, but that's what's happening. As a cherry on top, he would be bringing another soul back to life in his brother. Death did not want any of this to happen.

Agatha knew Rio was Death all along

Across the series, we learned that Agatha and Rio used to be lovers, and it seems they were for an incredibly long time. When Rio, as Death, comes to take Agatha's child Nicholas right as he's born, Agatha begs her: no, no, please, my love. That "my love" is aimed at Rio, Death. There's no confusion about whether Agatha knew Rio was Death when they got together. She absolutely knew.

The show tells us this was 1750. By then Agatha had already killed her mother and her mother's coven, back in 1693, and we assume probably other covens too, since after having her son she goes right back to killing covens. This is essentially, we are assuming, when they broke up. Agatha says that if Death takes him, she will hate her forever, and sadly Death does take him. Your lover taking your son away is a deal breaker.

It seems Death really did love Agatha. When she arrived as the baby was being born, you could tell from her face she didn't want to be there, and in some scenes she borderline looks like she's going to cry. She gave them time, and I believe this is what she meant at the start of episode 7 when she said Agatha's special treatment was unlike anything she had given anyone. She essentially paused death itself so Agatha could have a handful of years with her son.

In episode 4, when everyone talked about their scars, she said that long ago she loved someone and had to do something she didn't want to do, even though it was her job, and it hurt them. She was referring to taking Nicholas Scratch, because that is her job as the cosmic entity responsible for death. Insiders had told us at the time that we would see more of Death in the MCU. I hoped that would be the case, even if it came after the Multiverse Saga. I wanted to hear more of her story, her relationship with Agatha, and whether she had interacted with anyone else in the MCU. I'm looking at you, Deadpool.

Agatha's broken deal let Death come for her

As Death said, all roads lead back to her. When Agatha completes her trial on Billy's road, she returns home, or rather to Ralph Bohner's home, and Death is waiting. The road did not grant Agatha her powers back. That's most likely because Billy probably didn't want her to have them, since he didn't trust her. Eventually he does come to her aid.

Death can kill Agatha because they made a deal. Agatha would get Billy to surrender himself, so Death wouldn't have to kill him and have him reincarnate. Apparently, if he surrenders willingly, he can't be reincarnated, according to their conversation at the start. In return, Death would leave Agatha alone for a very long time, and when Agatha died, Death couldn't be there.

Since Billy didn't turn himself in, Agatha didn't keep her side of the deal, so Death gets to take her life. It's the perfect opportunity because Agatha has no powers. That's why Death came for her in the first episode. She could do it anyway, but it's certainly easier against a powerless Agatha.

Death isn't evil, she's a jealous former lover

Yes, Death can seemingly cause physical death, as when she attacks Agatha in episode 8. But she is the cosmic entity who typically doesn't cause people's deaths; she takes them from one life to the next. It's balance. In the comics she is necessary, and when they kill her, they decide to bring her back because death is a necessary part of the life cycle. So it wasn't her choice to kill Agatha's son, but as Death, she was responsible for taking him.

Agatha tries some analog magic to keep evil away, but Death isn't evil. She tells Agatha, "I am the natural order of all things baby and you love me." That's an important moment. Death seems evil throughout, but what we're seeing is a jealous former lover. That's why she says "and you love me," why she wants to take Agatha, and why moments later she asks why Agatha doesn't want her. It comes down to a lovers' quarrel.

In a cool moment, Death attacks and calls Agatha a coward. That's a callback to the last episode, when Lilia, before sacrificing herself, told Agatha to hit the deck when Death called her a coward. Lilia had seen the future, because she lived her life out of time and out of order. Sweet Lilia saved Agatha's life momentarily. But Death prevails, cutting Agatha's Achilles tendon so she can't walk. Agatha tries to heal it with water, and Death comes in to deliver the final blow with her dagger.

Wiccan's arrival and Agatha's sacrifice

Agatha is saved by Wiccan, who comes flying in at full power, in his full costume, accurate to the comics. I absolutely loved it. This scene was incredible. Because Agatha helped bring his brother back, he now trusts her, and tells her not to take it all, meaning his power. He gives his power to Agatha, and surprisingly but unsurprisingly, since she's grown attached to him, she doesn't take all of it. She is repowered.

They land some blows, but they know they can't kill the embodiment of death in the cosmic universe, and the Multiverse for that matter. Fun fact: the comics never specify whether it's the same Death in every universe; they leave it vague. One of them has to go with her, and Death lets them decide. Agatha says it should be her. I'd say she is the logical choice. It's hard to give yourself up, but she has lived a very long time.

Agatha tells Billy "you're good," Billy says she's good too, and she replies, "you're the only one who thinks that." Rightfully so. She has killed many people. She may be good in her heart now, and the show didn't tell us why she killed. Perhaps she was taking power to keep herself immortal, which is selfish. Maybe she was trying to save her son. Who knows. In the finale she even admits she was going to kill their entire coven when they summoned a road she knew was fake.

Billy, being a good-hearted kid, sacrifices himself. Agatha plays along, telling Death to take him, as promised. Billy is confused, and he asks her telepathically, "is this how Nicky Scratch died?" That strikes a chord. She turns, kisses Death, and lets Death take her. Death lets Billy go, since he would only reincarnate. If not for the finale, I would have believed Agatha was going to let Death take Billy, and you still could. But she saw a lot of her son in Billy, so it makes sense she sacrificed herself for him.

Agatha's calculated risk brought her back as a ghost

When Agatha returns as a ghost, she says she did not sacrifice herself for Billy, then says she took a calculated risk. I think this is her playing it off like she doesn't care. I think she did take a calculated risk, but she did sacrifice herself for Billy. The risk was whether she'd come back as a ghost.

In episode 5, when Agatha's mother appeared as a ghost, Lilia explained that emotion ties ghosts to this plane, because they have unfinished business. Agatha's emotion is Billy. She got attached to him, probably because he reminded her of her son, and that bond probably amplified when she helped reincarnate Tommy. So the calculated risk was that she cared enough about Billy to come back. The unfinished business is finding Tommy, which is what the ending sets up.

Billy closes the road and sets out with Agatha to find Tommy

Billy has had it with Agatha. He probably thinks she really was going to let him die, and he's upset because he believes he killed everyone on the road. When she reappears, he's annoyed, rightfully so, because she's keeping up her evil act. She explains the song never meant anything. It meant something to her originally, but ultimately she used it to lure witches, steal their powers and kill them. So Billy came up with the road all by himself.

There is a happy-ish ending. Agatha explains that Billy did save a life, Jen's, by giving her powers back, and Jen flies off into the sun. Then Agatha tells him to get used to it, because he's a witch and he's going to kill people. That angers Billy, so he heads to Ralph Bohner's home, Agatha's old home, to find his book and banish her.

Agatha makes it seem her pendant connects her to this plane, but she gets it back and is still there, because her tie is Billy. When he asks why she won't go, she says she can't face him, meaning her son, and adds that when Billy says things like that, he reminds her of him. Billy closes the road and makes a memorial for the witches who died: Sharon Davis, not Ms. Hart, Alice Wu-Gulliver and Lilia Calderu. They were all awesome, and I'm sad they're gone.

I love this ending, because in the comics it's Agatha Harkness, as a witch, who originally guides the Scarlet Witch down the Witches' Road, and the road is real there. Here they swap it, so instead of Agatha guiding Wanda, Agatha as a ghost guides Wanda's son. I think it's awesome. I loved this series. The first two episodes were meh for me, but as it went on it got amazing, and I loved the characters and the cast who played them. I definitely hoped we would see more of Agatha and Billy.