Agatha All Along combines WandaVision, Doctor Strange and Darkhold lore

(Editorial note: This post contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness And WandaVision, and set spoilers for Agatha Always Already(‘s premiere episodes.)

When Disney Plus’ new Marvel Cinematic Universe show Agatha Always Already picks up the story WandaVision began, protagonist Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) isn’t quite in reality — or even the MCU’s version of reality. WandaVision ended, Wanda defeated Agatha in a battle of explosives CGI magic, and locked her away in her “Agnes” persona. Wanda went her unhappy way, heading for another confrontation in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessAnd Agatha apparently just went along as Agnes, caught in a curse.

But the premiere of Agatha breaks out, dangling a tantalizing detail by teasing the Darkhold’s importance. If you remember your MCU trivia, you’ll recall that this is the book Wanda was looking at in the teaser at the end of WandaVisionand the thing that ultimately corrupted her in Multiverse of madness.

The Darkhold is essentially the Book of the Damned, Marvel’s take on H.P. Lovecraft’s cursed Necronomicon. The in-universe lore goes that an ancient Elder God wrote down all of his evil works and spells on Mount Wundagore, and those writings became a handbook of magic that could corrupt people. That’s exactly what happened to Wanda in the MCU: she turned to the Darkhold after defeating Agatha in an attempt to find her happiness (and the imaginary children she created with her powers in WandaVision). She’s not the only one either: as we saw in Multiverse of madness‘ alternate universe led by Professor X, who attempted to use the Darkhold to defeat Thanos, led Earth-838 to a universe-destroying invasion, ultimately leading to the rise of Dark Strange.

Eventually, however, Wanda realizes the error of her ways and rejoins the good side, sacrificing herself to destroy all copies of the Darkhold in the multiverse. Which leaves Agatha in quite a precarious position at the start of Agatha Always Already…

Sort of? When Agatha thinks she’s Agnes, a hard-boiled detective in a drama called Agnes van Westview, she investigates a mysterious body that has turned up on the edge of town. It’s a wink-wink reference to WandaVision‘s trick of basing individual episodes on specific series from television history.

At the end of the episode, the dead body is revealed to be Wanda. (Her face is never revealed, presumably so Disney wouldn’t have to pay Elizabeth Olsen for a cameo — or create a disturbing CG version of her crushed visage.) Agatha visits the morgue, and as the truth sinks in, the previously blank toe tag on the corpse changes to the name “W. Maximoff.” It’s not that Wanda’s corpse is physically in Westview; it’s a symbol that the witch who cursed Agatha is dead and her spell is warping, either because of her death or because the Darkhold has been destroyed. Agatha’s going to need a little help breaking that curse.

Technically, even before Wanda’s name appears on the toe tag, there are a number of clues that point to her being the mysterious (and metaphorical) corpse.

When Agatha first comes across the body, the police on the scene tell her that the victim likely died from crushing injuries caused by heavy falling objects. This is consistent with how Wanda died in Doctor Strange 2after she destroyed Darkhold Castle and the castle collapsed.

Later in the episode, another agent tells Agatha that the soil beneath the corpse’s fingernails contains a microsample found only in Eastern Europe. In the comics, Mount Wundagore — where Wanda ultimately sacrificed herself in Multiverse of madness — is set in Transia, one of several fictional Eastern European countries in the Marvel Universe.

The agents find a library card on the body, indicating that the corpse had checked out a book whose title is an anagram of “DARKHOLD.” Agnes goes to investigate the library, only to find that the book has been stolen and all other copies have been burned. That’s not exactly how the Darkhold was destroyed in the multiverse, but turning a major cosmic event into a mundane fire follows suit with the genre shift for Agatha Always Already‘s premiere episode. And the hole blown in a shelf full of books also mirrors the battle Vision and his counterpart White Vision had in the library, right in WandaVisionjust before they decided to take their problems through Ship of Theseus metaphor — another little reference that finds its way back to Agnes’ delusion.

And finally, just before the reveal, Agatha describes the body as being 5 feet 7 inches tall (Wanda Maximoff’s height), with green eyes and (she takes a dramatic pause here) scarlet hair.

There are other details — like the theory that the body was moved from another city by a specific car — that don’t necessarily add to the proceedings or the metaphor. But what’s a good mystery without a few scarlet herrings?