Unraveling the Magic: The Enchanting CHARGE of Agatha All Along

‘Agatha All Along’ is about all about a cast of characters in a magical world teetering on the verge of a mundane world – and its titular song crackles with electricity. Because the Disney series it accompanies, WandaVision, is so full of mysteries – and because so much of it is already unravelling, one layer at a time, each episode – the show’s back stories must be fun to speculate about. And here we go, gathered in this cauldron are a bunch of the most-asked questions about the show proposed so far in order to serve them up, spelling out some charmed answers, and ending with some of the most charged theories posited so far.

The Mystery of Wanda Maximoff's Fate: A CHARGED Debate

Is Wanda Maximoff really dead after all? If we watch the premiere of Agatha All Along, we’re being sent mixed signals that keep us evenly poised between charged potentials of doubt and suspicion. Wanda’s apparent demise – buried under a mountain in Multiverse of Madness – works as Batesian misdirection, of the type where Agatha’s chatter is being tinged in the charged quality of potentials alluding to a reality where Wanda remains as being in-between life and death. With this duality there is a potential charged narrative that treats the difference of two realities, one where Wanda’s life continues while the other where she has been killed.

Agatha and Rio's Fiery Clash: A Spellbinding CHARGE

There’s a sparking tension between Agatha Harkness and Rio that suggests a complicated history. They are volatile and hostile, probably with good reason. How could they not be? One of them, at least, is clearly holding back a secret charge. There’s a lot going on among these super-powered characters, and I can’t wait to find out what their story is!

The Curious Case of Agatha's Child: A Hidden CHARGE

But that glimpse of an empty stage – a spare bedroom in Agatha’s house – is pregnant with possibilities. It deals a tiny charge of pathos and mystery. What if Nicholas Scratch, Agatha’s real son, a legend of the books? The series runs a charge of narrative suspense past this barely noticed moment, letting us glimpse the next part of the story before we see it. We don’t get it yet: but we might. This is the beginning of Scratch’s story? Perhaps.

Who Are the Salem's Seven? A CHARGED Enigma

The arrival of the Salem’s Seven, a group of characters plucked from the Marvel Universe of comics, infuses the show with a new level of mystery. That charged potential for transformation hinges on an interplay between the powers and secrets of the characters on that ‘charm brush’ and the audience’s increasing anticipation of how the witchy beings into which they’ll morph are going to influence Agatha’s story and the series’ larger arc.

The Enigmatic Teen: A CHARGED Identity

Perhaps the most turgid mystery is that of the Teen, the boy who accompanied Agatha. The show drops breadcrumbs and table-rapey double-takes and other assumptions-busters, building a narrative thread that threads through a loaded alphabet of text: is he her son? Is he Agatha’s son? Is he Billy? Is he Agatha’s creation, Nicholas Scratch? The narrative is charged, weaving through a sensual storyline into which fans rush headlong to decipher.

The Specter Haunting Lilia Calderu: A CHARGED Secret

And here is where Lilia Calderu’s hair-raising history steps in. The mystery of the occult world and the supernatural ‘hauntings’ that afflict her add a disquieting charge to the narrative. As the narrative deepens, the greater mystery of her, the haunted woman who has a past that implicates her and the Book of Cagiliostro, promises to unspool in some strange fashion.

The CHARGED Legacy of Agatha's Broach

Although the symbolism attached to the broach – the tiny silver symbol of the shape Agatha’s breasts used to have – is fairly small, the mention of the broach itself is intensely charged: its significance and origins and the history of unhappiness and scarring it represents introduces a symbolic charge to the story that foreshadows further layers of narrative.

Understanding CHARGE

At its heart, ‘charge’ in ‘Agatha All Along’ is something more than just an electrical phenomenon, more than just a pun – it’s the storytelling itself. The shocks and surprises that fill our lives, that charge our narratives, that have us turn the page, are the connections between characters and situations and ideas. It’s the magnetism of a mystery laid bare, the sparks that fly between one character and the next. Charge is the invisible magic of the fantasy world that is Agatha Harkness.

All Again by Agnes Obel Charge is weaponised in ‘Agatha All Along’ not merely to highlight arcane hidden forces in a narrative but as an underlying current – a latent energy that makes the whole story irresistible. The explosive potential of these relationships, of the magical mysteries existing quietly below the surface, or of the quiet charge waiting to explode, are all laid bare by the show.

There’s just more electricity as Agatha and the coven walk down the witch’s road. What secret will be revealed? What new and awesome charges will emerge? I can’t wait to watch and find out. The magic of ‘Agatha All Along’ is full of charges I hope Disney+ will keep asking: ‘What else can we do?’ I hope we keep releasing the lightning. I hope we keep enjoying the ride.