[Ed. note: This post contains end spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and WandaVision, and setup spoilers for Agatha All Along’s premiere episodes.]
When Disney Plus’ new Marvel Cinematic Universe present Agatha All Along picks up the story WandaVision began, protagonist Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) isn’t fairly in actuality — and even the MCU’s model of actuality. As WandaVision ended, Wanda bested Agatha in a battle of explosive CGI magic, and locked her away in her “Agnes” persona. Wanda went on her sad means, headed for a distinct showdown in Doctor Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity. And Agatha apparently merely went alongside as Agnes, trapped in a spell.
However the premiere of Agatha breaks her out, dangling a tantalizing element alongside the way in which by teasing the significance of the Darkhold. Should you keep in mind your MCU factoids, you’ll recall that that is the ebook Wanda turned to within the teaser on the finish of WandaVision, and the factor that in the end corrupted her in Multiverse of Insanity.
What’s the Darkhold, and the place is it within the MCU?
The Darkhold is mainly the E book of the Damned, Marvel’s model of H.P. Lovecraft’s cursed Necronomicon. The in-universe lore is that an historic Elder God wrote down all his evil works and spells at Mount Wundagore, and these writings grew to become a textbook of magic that would corrupt individuals. That’s precisely what occurred to Wanda within the MCU: She turned to the Darkhold after defeating Agatha in an effort to resurrect her happiness (and the imaginary youngsters she created together with her powers in WandaVision). She isn’t alone, both: As we noticed in Multiverse of Insanity’ alternate universe led by Professor X, making an attempt to make use of the Darkhold to defeat Thanos led Earth-838 to a universe-destroying incursion, which in the end led to the rise of Darkish Unusual.
Finally, nevertheless, Wanda realizes the error of her methods and joins the great facet once more, sacrificing herself to destroy all copies of the Darkhold all through the multiverse. Which leaves Agatha in fairly a pickle at the beginning of Agatha All Along…
Does Wanda seem in Agatha All Along?
Kinda? When Agatha believes she is Agnes, a hardboiled detective in a drama known as Agnes of Westview, she’s investigating a mysterious corpse that confirmed up on the outskirts of city. It’s a little bit of a wink-wink reference to WandaVision’s gimmick of basing particular person episodes on particular collection from all through TV historical past.
By the tip of the episode, it’s revealed that the useless physique is Wanda. (Her face is rarely revealed, seemingly so Disney didn’t need to pay Elizabeth Olsen for the cameo — or create a disturbing CG model of her crushed face.) Agatha visits the morgue, and as the reality dawns on her, the beforehand clean toe tag on the corpse shifts to indicate the title “W. Maximoff.” It isn’t that Wanda’s corpse is bodily in Westview; it’s an emblem that the witch who cursed Agatha is useless, and her spell is warping, both due to her loss of life or as a result of the Darkhold has been destroyed. Agatha wants somewhat assist to interrupt that curse.
Although technically, even earlier than Wanda’s title seems on that toe tag, there are a selection of clues hinting that she’s the mysterious (and metaphorical) corpse.
Mr. Policeman, I gave you all of the clues…
When Agatha first encounters the physique, the police on the scene inform her that it seems the sufferer died from crushing harm, attributable to heavy falling objects. This tracks with how Wanda died in Doctor Unusual 2, after she destroyed Darkhold Fortress and it got here crumbling down on her.
Later within the episode, one other officer tells Agatha that the soil beneath the corpse’s fingernails comprise a microbe pattern solely present in Japanese Europe. Within the comics, Mount Wundagore — the place Wanda finally sacrificed herself again in Multiverse of Insanity — is positioned in Transia, one of many numerous fictional Japanese European international locations within the Marvel universe.
The officers discover a library try card on the physique, indicating that the corpse checked out a ebook whose title anagrams out to “DARKHOLD.” Agnes goes to research the library, however learns that the ebook was stolen and all the opposite copies have been burned. That isn’t precisely the way in which the Darkhold was destroyed throughout the multiverse, however turning an enormous cosmic occasion into an earthly hearth tracks with the style shift for Agatha All Along’s premiere episode. And the outlet blasted in a shelf stuffed with books additionally displays the struggle Imaginative and prescient and his counterpart White Imaginative and prescient had within the library proper in WandaVision, proper earlier than deciding to speak their issues out through Ship of Theseus metaphor — one other little callback that makes its means into Agnes’ delusion.
And eventually, proper earlier than the reveal, Agatha describes the physique as 5 toes, 7 inches (Wanda Maximoff’s canon top), with inexperienced eyes, and (she takes a dramatic pause right here) scarlet hair.
There are different particulars — like the idea that the physique was moved by a particular automobile from a distinct city — that don’t essentially add to the procedural or the metaphor. However what’s thriller with out some scarlet pink herrings?
