A controversial idea seen in the Agatha All Along finale was one that creator Jac Schaeffer had to fight hard to keep during the development process.
Agatha All Along's finale was already a historic one thanks to the series delivering two episodes in the final week - a first for a Marvel Studios Disney+ finale.
Interestingly, Episode 9 was largely a flashback-filled episode, which showed some of Agatha's origins over the hundreds of years of her life before setting foot in Westview. While flashbacks in the MCU are far from uncommon, this finale took a unique path in uncovering so much of that part of the story at the very end.
Agatha All Along Creator Pushed for Non-Traditional Finale
Speaking with The Ringer-Verse, Agatha All Along creator Jac Schaeffer addressed one major decision she made pertaining to the show's finale episodes.
"It was a bit of a fight to retain Episode 9 in its form," Schaeffer explained, as the episode was described as "kind of a 'non-traditional finale' finale."
However, her reasoning behind it was that she had Episode 8 tease the question of how Nicholas Scratch (Agatha's son) died before Episode 9 answered that. This is a tactic she likes using in her work, which she says helps to push viewers into each new episode:
"And also, one of the other problems we had…it was a bit of a fight to retain Episode 9 in its form because it’s kind of a 'non-traditional finale' finale. And my way of sort of buttressing that, sort of supporting that within Marvel, to sort of help them understand my vision, was by having Billy say in that moment, ‘Is this how Nicky died?’ I was like, that’s the question of our next episode. I always want a question in an episode that you answer, and so we’re putting this piece here because it’s successful in getting her to stop, but it also springboards us into our next episode. The defense rests."
Additionally, the showrunner shared insight into Agatha's overall journey through the show through the lens of her making progress as a character through the trials on the Witches' Road.
Schaeffer specifically pointed to "the final scene" and "the moment in the basement" with Joe Locke's Billy Maximoff. There, she told him, "It’s when you say things like that that you remind me of him," bringing back memories of her late son.
Through moments like this, she showed her ability to connect to people while being brutally truthful with them:
"I do believe, to use your term, there is progress, and I would point to the final scene, the moment in the basement where she says to Billy, 'It’s when you say things like that that you remind me of him.' That is Agatha Harkness speaking truth to a person and knowing that they are hearing the truth. She speaks truth a lot, but she usually does it when she knows someone will assume she’s lying. But this is emotional truth that she is showing to another human person, and so I believe she’s making herself available to connection with another person. So, that’s what I point to for progress."
Also of note in this discussion was how Kathryn Hahn's villain "did not arc out" like other Agatha All Along characters, some of them winding up dead at Agatha's own hands.
Part of that was her decision to save Billy, which Schaeffer admitted was "a lot up to personal interpretation" for viewers as the moment came to fruition:
"This lady did not arc out, everyone else in the show arcs out. So, the moment that you’re talking about with the sort of big moment, ‘Does she save Billy, does she not?’ Putting our big characters in this crucible moment. First of all, I feel it’s a lot to personal interpretation. In terms of our process, this was something that we went over and over and over again, and it had many forms, and we were always sort of talking at it and talking around it and ‘What are we saying?’ and ‘What’s happening here?’ The pieces of it and the mechanics of it kind of remain the same, but the conversation continued to point at our ambiguity and Agatha's."
Later on, she addressed the moment where Agatha shared a kiss with Aubrey Plaza's Rio Vidal, who was finally revealed to be the MCU's Death.
Describing the "element of emotion and attraction and reflexiveness" in that scene, Schaeffer noted how Agatha took "a calculated risk" with that kiss, not knowing whether it would result in her death or becoming a ghost:
"And the thing that I always held onto was that I always wanted the kiss to feel like a rush, that it’s like a reflex. There’s an element of emotion and attraction and reflexiveness. It’s not 'I’m Agatha, I’m saving Billy.' It’s that she has to kiss this woman in this moment and it means all these other things, and then later, she says it was a calculated risk, because I think that’s about, she’s like, ‘I knew I would turn into a ghost.’ She didn’t know for sure. It’s all the things all at once. It’s attraction to Rio, it’s her caring for the boy, it’s her knowing she’s doing the wrong thing."
Did Agatha All Along's Controversial Decision Work?
Before Agatha All Along concluded with Agatha turning into a ghost, the show's final two episodes brought plenty of intrigue and excitement behind Agatha, Billy, and dozens of other characters. Showing Agatha's backstory in this unique manner helped fill in some of the mystery behind her terrifying backstory teased earlier on.
For the time being, this seems to conclude Agatha's journey with the character being dead, all while she and Billy seek out the spirit of Tommy Maximoff.
Delivering all of this material while catching up on other MCU characters (including further confirmation of Wanda Maximoff's death) helped close this chapter of Agatha's story while setting up new moments for her future on screen.
The big question moving forward is when and where the fan-favorite could potentially make her comeback, particularly with so many new MCU movies and TV shows already confirmed for the rest of Phase 5 and Phase 6.
All nine episodes of Agatha All Along are now streaming on Disney+.
