Agatha All Along: The Witches' Road, Explained
Here's what the Marvel Comics reveal about Witches' Road on Marvel Studios' Agatha All Along.
"The Road is wild and wicked, winding through the wood — where all that's wrong is right and all that's bad is good," goes The Ballad of the Witches' Road. "Through many miles of tricks and trials, we'll wander high and low. Tame your fears, a door appears. The time has come to go down, down, down the road. Down the Witches' Road. Follow me my friends, to glory at the end."
Marvel Television's Agatha All Along sends the covenless witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) down the Witches' Road with a bewitched teen (Joe Locke), who frees her from the distorted spell cast by the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) in the WandaVision finale. Corrupted by the dark magic contained within the Darkhold, the centuries-old witch was stripped of her powers and sentenced to live out her role as Wanda Maximoff's nosy neighbor, "Agnes," in the formerly hexed town of Westview, New Jersey.
"The Witches' Road will give you the thing you want most, if you make it to the end," the teen tells Agatha. To survive this magical gauntlet of trials, Agatha gathers sisters in their darkest hour — Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata), Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn), Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone), and Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) — to assemble a coven, walk the road, and get their powers back.
Here, with Agatha All Along testing the witches and their knowledge of witchcraft, let's go "down, down, down the Witches' Road..."
"I've often heard the spells I cast referred to as chaos magic... but in actual fact they're far from 'chaotic.' Their power and intensity are linked to the energy of the Earth and womankind -- revered by ancient pagan faiths -- feared by men. Its name is Witchcraft." – The Scarlet Witch
In the All-New, All-Different Marvel Scarlet Witch comic, Wanda discovers that Witchcraft is broken. To find the source of the sickness, she travels to the realm of the Witches' Road with her mentor and spirit guide: Agatha Harkness. The two witches walk the plane of existence where only witches can tread and encounter the spirit of Wanda's biological mother: Natalya Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch before her.
"She called herself the Scarlet Witch..."
"Did you think you were the first?"
– Wanda and Agatha
Suspecting the dark magic of a witch, Agatha realize that their culprit isn't a witch — but a warlock. Wanda duels and defeats the Emerald Warlock Dian on the Witches' Road, his powers outmatched, as any witch who knows how to walk the pathways of the Witches' Road draws strength in the realm of the Mother Goddesses. Wanda's mission to save Witchcraft brings her to her native Serbia, where her mother's ghost reveals that the answers she seeks lie along the Witches' Road.
You must walk it further than any witch -- further than anyone. When you get to the end, you'll learn what is needed of you ... it's all about the journey.
- Natalya
Over the 15-issue volume, Wanda's trials pit her against ghosts, dark magicians, ogres, and Witch-Demons. Wanda's long walk down the Witches' Road spans weeks, slowed by an onslaught of magical battles with creatures sent by someone trying to prevent her from discovering the cause of Witchcraft's sickness. Natalya appears again to reveal that her foe is Chaos — a cosmic entity whose being is at the heart of her chaos magic, the oldest form of witchcraft.
Wanda's final trial is her traumatic past: as foe of the X-Men, wife of the Vision, ally of the Avengers, lover of Wonder Man, sister of Quicksilver, daughter of Magneto, mother to magic-born twin sons Billy and Tommy. At the end of the Witches' Road, farther than any witch has traveled in the dimension of the witch goddess, the trio of Wanda, Natalya, and Agatha form the classic "Witches' Trio": Maiden, Mother, and Crone.
Using their Witches' Sight, the three witness the home realm of the deity that witches throughout the universe serve. Wanda encounters Witchcraft — the goddess of witches — sickened by the magical embodiment of Chaos, as magic and chaos are intertwined within the Scarlet Witch.
Witchcraft (left) and Chaos (right).
)The trio meld together into one — not as three witches, but as witches three — to cast a hex that banishes the eternal entity from the realm of the Witches' Road. But the goddess is still sick, and if she dies, witchcraft is gone forever. Natalya sacrifices her soul to heal Witchcraft and resurrects Agatha, and the Scarlet Witch claims her prize: a fresh start.
Agatha All Along premieres September 18th on Disney+.
