(warning: this contains full spoilers for the Disney + series, Agatha All Along).
While witchcraft has been the subject of stories in cinema and television since both media were invented, every now and then, one property “gets it right,” in terms of its themes and vibe, if not actual accuracy. Last week was Samhain, but it was also the finale of the Disney + limited series, Agatha All Along, a complete pop culture sensation that has taken the world of witchcraft by storm.
With Agatha Harkness loosely based on a 1969 character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for Fantastic Four #94, head writer and showrunner Jac Shaeffer, and her team, the creative force behind both this show and Wandavision, have transformed the character based on modern pop culture witch tropes. Indeed, the series implies that those very pop culture tropes are due to Agatha’s own infiltration of popular culture.
There are so many occult elements I could write about with this show. I could go into detail about Lilia’s tarot reading that builds throughout the series, only making sense once we see her story in episode 7. I could talk about coven dynamics, the inaccurate use of the term “sigil, or the various references to popular witches in the show and in the closing credits.
I spoke about many of the meta qualities of the show in the recent season three premiere of Pop Occulture with Lilith Dorsey and Jason Winslade. But here I want to talk mainly about how the show manages to reframe the traditions of witchcraft as well as its occultural context. And yes, I threw the title of my blog in there. For very few properties embody the occulture aspect of witchcraft as well as Agatha All Along. The series is astonishingly resonant when it comes to its presentation of witchcraft, despite the fact that the witchcraft it presents is utterly the product of comic book fantasy. The show knows exactly what it is and who its audience is and leans in heavily with a wink and a cackle.
Envisioning Magick
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), we were first introduced to Agatha in the first Marvel series for Disney +, Wandavision (2021), which comforted us during the pandemic with nostalgic nods to sitcoms past. While that program was hailed as an homage to everything from Bewitched to The Brady Bunch and beyond, we find in that program that the sitcom framework actually had an in-story explanation, as a manifestation of Wanda’s trauma response to losing her brother and her lover, Vision. In Wanda’s backstory, watching old American sitcoms with her family provided a sense of stability and safety during her childhood in war-torn (fictional) country of Sokovia. So when she creates that fantasy life that she magically imposes on the hapless residents of Westview, she draws from those nostalgic media memories.
As I’ve stated in my piece on Wandavision, despite her trauma, Wanda should be condemned for manipulating and traumatizing an entire town. But this construct of pop culture as a framework for psychological growth works for the audience as well as it does for superheroes. The creators of the show have hit on a striking conceit that many of us collectively share – the way we use pop culture and nostalgia as a way to process our emotional journeys and mark the stages of our development.
Agatha All Along does something similar with occulture – the way that we associate the idea of witchcraft with popular films like The Wizard of Oz, for instance. But in the new series, it turns out that much of what we are seeing is the product of a gay teen’s fantasy life – of what he imagines witchcraft and magic to be, and further, how that occulture defines his identity. And just like his mother, Billy Maximoff (in the body of William Kaplan) has cast the people around him in his imaginary roles, which leads them to danger and even death.
I Put A Spell On You
In both shows, Agatha is at once witness and manipulator behind the scenes. In Wandavision, she inserts herself into the various sitcoms as the nosy neighbor archetype (i.e. Gladys Kravitz in Bewitched), until she is revealed as a hidden antagonist in the background. Being behind the scenes allows her to push things in the direction she wants, and what she wants ultimately, in both shows, is power.
We see in Wandavision, and revisited in Agatha All Along, that Agatha was a witch who kills her mother and her coven in self-defense when they try to execute her for crimes against other witches. Based on that, we know that Agatha gains her power by draining the power from other witches.
At the beginning of the show, Agatha is still in the spell that Wanda has set upon her, which has evolved into Agatha casting herself as a downbeat detective investigating a murder, a little subplot in which her subconscious is telling her that Wanda has died, as seen at the end of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Even here, the show is referencing another genre, true crime drama, specifically Mare of Easttown.
Creating a Coven
We then meet the nameless Teen, who we later learn is Wanda’s imaginary son, Billy, somehow made real and inhabiting the body of young William Kaplan, a boy who dies in a car accident when Wanda’s hex collapses at the time of the Wandavision events (don’t think about it too much). Because the teen has had a “sigil” placed on him, we can’t hear his name when he tries to speak it. After Agatha breaks free from Wanda’s spell, with the Teen’s help, and remembers who she is, of course the first thing she wants is to regain her power.
The Teen also says he wants power and suggests they travel the witches’ road, a legendary quest that leads to power and glory at its end, though Agatha is supposedly the only witch to have survived it. To do so, they need to gather a coven of witches who each represent elemental power.
We first meet Lilia, the tarot reader, played by the sublime Patti Lupone, who will represent the element of air. Then, we meet Jennifer Kale, a potions witch representing water. Apparently, Jen has been bound from using her power and is forced to market questionable beauty products all over social media, as the most “witch-Tok”-type practitioner.
The fire witch is Alice Wu-Gulliver, who works as a security guard and represents a “protection witch.” We also find out that her mother was a famous singer in the 70s who recorded the most well known version of the “Ballad of the Witches’ Road,” a song that serves as a magical chant to open the way to the road.
The Earth witch role is….complicated. First, we have the non-witch Sharon (Debra Jo Rupp, reprising her Wandavision role), but when she doesn’t survive long, Aubrey Plaza’s character Rio, an ex-lover of Agatha, takes over. And we find out by episode 7, that Rio is in fact Lady Death herself, the “original” Green Witch.
Building the Road
In the show, all of the witches seem to be aware of the witches’ road, especially Alice, since her mother sang about it. They have varying degrees of skepticism and belief in the road’s existence and their likelihood of surviving it. We get the sense that the road is a bit of a legend among the witch community, though few if any have ever traveled it.
Yet all the witches know the song, except of course, Sharon, who is struggling to understand what’s happening. Not only do they all know the words, but they know the five-part harmony! At first, nothing happens, but as the Salem Seven (the daughters of Agatha’s murdered coven who have become ghastly shapeshifters) approaches, a doorway opens in the floor, and the Teen rushes everyone into the portal. The witches then descend into an underworld of sorts, with a road winding through a spooky woods, on an incredible indoor set.
Immediately, we see parallels to the Yellow Brick Road from Wizard of Oz (and later, Aubrey Plaza’s character solidifies this connection by doing the “Dorothy skip”). But also, the road evokes the faerie pathways of folklore that you don’t want to leave lest you’re lost forever. Or the underworld journey referenced in the Scottish traditional tune with the lyrics, “You’ll take the high road, and I’ll take the low road.”
The road also leads to the various trials that are specific to each witch and her element. For Jennifer, the setting is a wealthy suburban household where the women are dressed like New Age housewives. Alice’s trial takes place in a 70s glam rock recording studio with outrageous costumes. For Agatha, it’s an 80s horror setting with a cabin in the woods, ouija board and Exorcist references. Much to Lilia’s embarrassment, her trial is in a Disney fantasy castle, with Agatha as the Wicked Witch, Lilia as Glenda, and Billy as Maleficent.
Down, Down, Down the Road
When Agatha All Along was filming, the first sequence they shot was the song. Also, the first time we were introduced to the whole cast was when they performed the song at the D23 Expo in August. Written by the wife and husband team of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who also wrote the “Agatha All Along” song from Wandavision, and a few other little things like Frozen, the Witches’ road song pervades the show, its lyrics providing episode titles. Several different versions are included in the soundtrack and performed on the show.
As soon as I heard the song, I instantly knew I’d be hearing it at rituals and festivals. Within a week, I had heard it played at a burlesque club, as pre-show music for a folk horror-themed show. My favorite version has to be Lorna Wu’s “The Ballad of the Witch’s Road,” a very 70s rendition with some different lyrics, played on vinyl by Billy in episode 6. In fact, it reminded me quite a bit of a few witchy musicians I know personally, such as Ginger Doss and Lynda Millard, especially in their 90s band, Velvet Hammer. The show’s witches perform their cover of that version during Alice’s trial in episode 4, with Patti Lupone on triangle, no less.
When we see Billy in flashback researching Agatha and the legend of the Witch’s Road, we finally understand that he thinks he can find his lost brother Tommy at the end of it, which explains his particular obsession with the road. It is his idea for Agatha and the coven to travel the road, after all.
And here’s where things get interesting. These trials and their associated dangers are unquestionably real, as we lose some of our beloved coven members along the way. But the show waits until the final episodes to reveal that Billy has unwittingly colluded with Agatha to create the witches’ road in the first place.
The Minds of Billy Kaplan
While the witches’ road is ultimately a scam that Agatha came up with centuries ago to steal other witches’ powers (more on that in a minute), it’s Billy who imbues it with reality and creates its existence with all its trials, just as his mother created the sitcom world of Westview. Thus, the various trial settings, from New Age mansion to glam rock recording studio to cabin in the woods, to fantasy castle, are all various manifestations of pop culture witchcraft seen through the eyes of a queer teen desperate to learn about witchcraft.
Billy himself has a complicated identity, since he doesn’t quite remember his life as a young child of Wanda and Vision, but he also doesn’t remember William Kaplan’s teenage life either. And clearly, there are strong similarities between the two personalities. By looking at William’s bedroom, he obviously reveres the fantasy classics with posters and toys from The Wizard of Oz, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Alice in Wonderland, The Dark Crystal, The Black Cauldron, and others.
As time passes, and Billy Maximoff has taken over, the goth side of his personality emerges, and his room transforms to darker colors, with horror movie posters, as well as The Craft, the Buffy musical, Rocky Horror, and others. There are also blink-and-you’ll-miss-it portraits of Aleister Crowley and Madame Blavatsky.
Accordingly, Billy has clearly immersed himself into the realm of pop occulture and that fully informs his construction of the witches’ road and its associated trials. However, when he finally takes on his superhero identity towards the end of the series, he does don his comic-book accurate costume, though fortunately, he doesn’t take on his superhero name: “Wiccan.”
The Long and Winding Road
In the final episode, we also learn of the origins of the witches’ road legend. We see Agatha after she has killed her coven, wandering the countryside with her sickly son, Nicholas Scratch. It’s also important to note that part of Agatha’s reputation among the other witches is that she sacrificed her own son to gain the secrets of the Darkhold, the MCU’s version of the Necronomicon. In the final episode flashback, we see that this is actually not true but is part of the legend that Agatha has created around herself to cover her own grief. Like Wanda, Agatha grieves over the loss of a son, but over centuries.
In a brilliant sequence of scenes, we see that the witches’ road song started as merely a walking song with simple rhymes that she sings with her son. Oddly enough for the villain of the show, the song starts from a place of love. At first, there is no mention of witchcraft or magic in the song at all, with only references to “down the winding road.” We see the mother and son build the song together, as they sleep rough and Nicholas reluctantly tags along as Agatha continues to infiltrate covens to steal power from and kill other witches.
Ultimately, the road song becomes witchy and we see Nicholas singing it in a pub, ostensibly as a way to signal other witches and set them up for Agatha, a task which takes its toll on the ailing boy. Yet the song itself is ironically about witches coming together in harmony and unity to seek the mysteries. It is no wonder that the song attracts witches trying to find their way through this world and beyond.
The key scene that solidifies this path, set after Nicholas eventually gives in to his illness, is when a young witch approaches Agatha asking her about the witches’ road. Agatha sees that her seeding of the legend has worked and now, she has her centuries-long scam. We see her bringing in various covens over time, having them sing the song, berating them when it doesn’t work, and then goading them into attacking her, which allows her to steal their power and kill them.
And Agatha ultimately tells Billy that this scheme is what she had planned with our current coven, but she was surprised to see the road actually appearing, thanks to Billy’s power.
The Nexus of Witchcraft
Thus, with Agatha, we see the folklore origins of the witches’ road legend, and with Billy, the modern pop occulture application of that concept. While Agatha uses the rhyming language of old spellbooks and early Gardenerian Wiccan ritual, Billy’s tools are the pop occulture he has consumed through movies, music, and social medp
Agatha’s process is worth looking into a bit more closely. By nature, she is a disruptor, a troll of sorts, feeding off the anguish, fear, and hatred of others. The rest of the coven characters, especially Billy, at various moments in the series, long for and thrive off the notion of the coven, and as viewers, we want that bonding to happen. And we absolutely love it when we see that bonding offscreen, such as various interviews in which the actors talk about “the coven,” or Aubrey Plaza and Patti Lupone taking part in a spooky Hot Ones challenge.
But on the show, Agatha undermines the bonding at every turn. We see in the flashbacks how Agatha trained herself to be solo to the point where other witches only exist to her as sources of power, and not, unfortunately, as sisterhood. She sees it as survival. Only in her final sacrifice to save Billy from Death, does she emerge as a spirit who will be a positive mentor for the teen, bringing her closer to her comic book character, who served mainly as a teacher and protector for other magical characters like Wanda.
But Agatha’s disruption works on a meta level as well. In Wandavision, when she is finally revealed as the villain behind the scenes, it is through a reframing of show’s sitcom element, as if it’s Agatha’s own show already, through the Emmy award-winning, Munsters-inspired song Agatha All Along. In further meta fashion, the magical Agatha All Along “show” becomes the actual spinoff Agatha All Along.
And further, we see how Agatha has inserted herself into witchcraft tradition with the song, the legend around the song, and the stories associating her with the legend. For the witches in the MCU, that legend has power and meaning. This is especially the case for Alice, since her mother adapted and transformed the song as part of a protection spell for Alice against the family curse. It is through a full band performance of the song, owning her legacy, that Alice is finally free of the curse. And even though some characters do not survive the quest, we do get the beautiful scene where Billy and Agatha restore Jen’s powers, allowing her to continue as a witch in the MCU (crossing fingers)!
Witches’ Road Ritual?
All in all, the “Ballad of the Witch’s Road” is an excellent example of how occult tradition works. Often what starts as a hoax, creative work, or a practical joke, becomes very real to the practitioners who carry it forward. And thus, tradition is born. Whether it’s the Rosicrucian Manifestos, the Golden Dawn letters, James Frazer’s Golden Bough, Gardner’s Book of Shadows, the Necronomicon, or any number of texts and practices. The same way modern witches sometimes incorporate dialogue from The Craft or Buffy the Vampire Slayer into their rituals.
And I expect Agatha All Along to be no exception. The Ballad of the Witches’ Road is just begging to be included in your next ritual, whether it’s the “traditional” sacred chant version or the Lorna Wu rock adaptation. I suspect that it would be a great introduction to pathworking and opening portals. Will you follow, down, down, down the road, down the witches’ road?
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In