Warning: This article contains big, and I mean big, spoilers for Agatha All Along episode 5.
Five episodes in, and it’s become extremely clear for all paying attention that Agatha All Along might just be the smartest MCU TV series we’ve yet had in terms of the sheer amount of hidden details, references, and foreshadowing woven throughout. Sure, sometimes its callbacks and crossovers are about as subtle as a witch’s cackle, but there’s much else going on beneath the surface for those who care enough to take a deeper look into the cauldron, so to speak.
Episode 1, for instance, is well worth a rewatch to catch the various hints that what we’re watching is all happening in Agatha’s head. Then there are the teases at who Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal might really be. Episode 5 continues this dedication to the small details, even when the show unleashes its biggest moment to date — the revelation of the true identity of Joe Locke’s Teen. Everyone who called it weeks back, or else saw that Funko Pop leak, pat yourselves on the back, you were right.
Yes, Teen is, in fact, Wiccan — aka Billy Kaplan, the reincarnated son of Wanda Maximoff. Although neither his true name or superhero alias is spoken out loud in the shocking final scene of episode 5, the connection to Wanda is obvious once Teen starts deploying his own magical powers and a blue crown forms around his head, much like Scarlet Witch’s own crimson tiara in the series finale of WandaVision.
What’s most impressive about this scene, however, is the neat musical callback slipped into the score by composer Christophe Beck. Fans who’ve listened to the WandaVision soundtrack way too much over the past three years immediately noticed that the three-note refrain from Wanda’s theme in that series is reused and adapted for Wiccan’s big crowning moment in Agatha.
Kudos to X user @gatorcoptor for spotting this clever connection, impressing their fellow fans in the process. “How do u make this connection omg” someone asked them, to which they quipped “autism.” Others pointed out that the closest iteration of this motif that mirrors the Wiccan moment occurs in the WandaVision track “Ascendant,” i.e. the music that plays when Wanda finally becomes the Scarlet Witch in episode 9.
So, just in case you were somehow still under any doubt that Teen was actually Billy, Beck’s canny composing surely confirms beyond all shadow of a doubt that he really is our Wiccan. Thanks to this reheated melody, the spirit of the Scarlet Witch lives on, even if Agatha‘s pilot episode confirmed her body is dead. And yet with her son coming to the end of the Witches Road, maybe she won’t be for long.
Fingers crossed Beck gets to use the Wanda theme once more for the finale, this time to accompany Elizabeth Olsen’s grand return to the MCU after her boy Billy has brought her back to life. The truth will out as Agatha All Along continues Wednesdays on Disney Plus, concluding Oct. 30.
Published: Oct 10, 2024 09:15 am