Who Is [SPOILER]? WandaVision’s Real Villain Explained

Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for WandaVision episode 7.

With two episodes left, WandaVision has revealed the real villain working behind the scenes of Westview all along: friendly neighbor Agnes, who is actually a powerful witch called Agatha Harkness. The twist confirms a popular fan theory, given that Agnes’ names is a portmanteau of “Agatha Harkness” and she has been behaving suspiciously since the start of the show. Between freely popping in and out of Wanda and Vision’s house, and hints that she’s not fully under Wanda’s control, clearly there was more to Agnes than just being Wanda’s kooky new friend.

The big reveal comes at the end of WandaVision episode 7, “Breaking the Fourth Wall,” after Agatha intervenes to stop Monica Rambeau from breaking Wanda out of her fantasy. Agatha brings Wanda to her own house, where she was supposed to be babysitting Tommy and Billy – but they’re nowhere to be found. Agatha tells Wanda that they’re probably playing in the basement, but when Wanda descends the stairs she finds strange magical vines leading to a room filled with arcane objects. Agnes reveals herself as Agatha Harkness, declaring (via her own theme song) that everything that happened in Westview was “Agatha All Along!”

What’s still unclear, however, is why exactly Agatha Harkness decided to use Scarlet Witch’s recent trauma to constructed the Hex and create a sunny sitcom world inside it, what she’s done to poor Tommy and Billy, and what the endgame of her secret plan is.

Who Is Agatha In Marvel Comics?

Originally introduced as a nanny for Franklin Richards, the son of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, Agatha Harkness is an enigmatic magic-wielder who is known to be thousands of years old, though her exact origin story is still a mystery. She’s not actually a villain in the comics; if anything she leans towards the side of good, which suggests that her role in WandaVision may be more complicated than a straightforward villain (even if she did kill Sparky). Agatha’s son, Nicholas Scratch, is a supervillain in the comics, and it’s possible that “Señor Scratchy” is actually the MCU’s version of Nicholas, who has been transformed into a rabbit by his mother.

Agatha is primarily a background character in the pages of Marvel Comics. However, she played a crucial role in one of the biggest storylines of The Vision and the Scarlet Witch: the conception and birth of Wanda and Vision’s children, Tommy and William. At the time this happened Agatha was actually dead after being burned at the stake, but she appeared to Wanda as a ghost and taught her how to use magic to become pregnant with Vision’s children. However, Wanda actually used a combination of her own and Agatha’s magic to create the twins from a missing piece of Mephisto’s soul, which means that they were never real in the first place (and would vanish out of existence when she was too distracted to concentrate on them).

After being stolen back by Mephisto’s pawn, Master Pandemonium, and spending some time magically glued onto the ends of Pandemonium’s arms (creating the disturbing visual of “baby hands”) the children were absorbed back into Mephisto’s soul. To protect Wanda from the trauma of losing her children, Agatha wiped her memory of the twins’ existence. When Wanda was eventually reminded that she once had two children, she confronted Agatha about them and killed the old witch in a fit of rage before losing her mind. Agatha didn’t seem to hold it against her, though, as she returned as a ghost and spirit guide for Wanda in the most recent run of Scarlet Witch comics.

Clues To Agatha’s Twist In WandaVision

Though Agatha has been a friend to Wanda in the fake sitcom reality of Westview, WandaVision episode 7 reveals that she has actually been playing the role of a puppet master – something that’s apparent looking back on the series. Even before it was confirmed that Agnes is Agatha Harkness, there have been hints that someone else was pulling the strings in Westview. WandaVision episode 6 featured a disturbing commercial in which a shark tells a starving boy that he survived by “snacking on Yo-Magic.” Between this and the mysterious purple vines snaking down to Agatha’s basement, it appears that Agatha may have been using the Hex – and Wanda’s powers – as effectively a giant magical battery for whatever she has planned. There have been a number of references to Mephisto throughout the series, so it’s possible that Agatha is draining Wanda’s magic in order to summon him unless it’s all been misdirection. Wanda’s slipping control of her reality in “Breaking the Fourth Wall” could indicate that her magic is running dry.

Agnes frequently shows up at Wanda and Vision’s home and has been a confidant and adviser for Wanda on everything from organizing a romantic evening for herself and Vision to looking after the twins when they were born. As a hint to her involvement, she always seemed to turn up at the right time with exactly the right solution. That was initially suggested as a copycat sitcom trope, but it actually speaks even more to Agatha’s oversight. The “Agatha All Along” montage reveals that Agnes conjured up the recast Pietro, manipulated Herb to behave strangely and sow seeds of doubt in Vision’s mind, and in general has been “messing up everything” for Wanda.

It’s telling too that Agnes was one of the only Westview residents not shown on S.W.O.R.D.’s whiteboard of all of those trapped inside the Hex. Everyone else’s real identity was revealed (other than Dottie for some reason), suggesting that S.W.O.R.D. simply did not recognize her. Add that to her mentions of having magic up her sleeves and her allusions to the devil and Agnes was spelling her secret out all along.

What Does Agatha Want With Wanda?

While Wanda may be losing control, it’s clear that Agatha has been in control the entire time. Even Vision’s almost-escape was part of her plan; she staged her own “attempted escape” on the edge of town to make the synthezoid curious enough to try and break through the barrier himself – the result of which was Wanda expanding the range of the Hex. The overall purpose of this grand magic seems to be the creation of Tommy and Billy. In the second episode of WandaVision, town citizens gathered at the talent show chanted eerily that it was all “for the children.” Agnes offered to babysit the twins almost as soon as they were born, and brought them over to her house in WandaVision episode 7. Billy, who has developed psychic abilities that allow him to read minds, notes that Agnes’ mind is “quiet” – and the twins have now disappeared.

Agatha clearly wanted Wanda to find her secret magic room, as she directed her to look in the basement for the twins. There Wanda found a magical book, which bears a slight resemblance to the book used to conjure the Nexus Of All Realities in Marvel Comics’ Fear #11. The Nexus (which was also referenced in episode 7’s commercial break) is a gateway to all possible realities, so it could well be that Agatha is using Wanda’s magic to create the Nexus. What role the twins play – and whether poor Wanda will lose them like she did in the comics – remains to be seen.

Agatha’s Powers Explained

In the comics, Agatha is centuries old and is one of Earth’s most powerful witches. She’s also a member of New Salem and is as skilled a master of the mystic arts as is conceivable. Her powers allow her to conjure illusions, telekinetically move things, project force-fields (like the Hex, presumably) and to control the thoughts of others through projection and suggestion. She and Scarlet Witch share similar levels of power in the comics too, though in WandaVision, it appears it’s Agatha who has the upper hand. As another intriguing aside, Agatha killed her familiar, Ebony, in order to absorb more power, which speaks to a suggested power in the MCU too.

Though Wanda is aware that she’s controlling things in Westview, she revealed a gap in her memory when asked by Vision how exactly the fake reality began. It appears that Agatha was responsible for setting up Wanda’s Hex and manipulating everything that Wanda did while inside it – from creating her children to throwing out interlopers like Monica. And if the creepy basement of Agatha’s house is any indication, it looks like Agatha has actually been drawing on Wanda’s magic for her own purposes. That fits with the idea of her being able to absorb powers in WandaVision. She’s clearly able to control minds, as she seems to possess Wanda at the end of the episode and it would appear that her powers are tied to the mysterious book in her basement, which itself appears to be a crossroads of some sort, possibly to other dimensions.

About The Author

Hannah Shaw-Williams
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Hannah has been with Screen Rant since 2013, covering news, features, movie premieres, Comic-Con and more! You can follow her on Twitter @HSW3K

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