Agatha All Along Poster Hints at Debra Jo Rupp's Fate

Episode 3 takes Sharon off the board in a shocking conclusion.

Agatha All Along Episode 3 managed to break everyone's hearts with the death of Debra Jo Rupp's Sharon this week. The Witches' Road claimed its first victim from Agatha Harkness's coven. Episode 3 saw the witches tasked with completing a challenge centered around potions and the character posters for the series telegraphed the eventual demise of Mrs. Hart. In the featured image for Debra Jo Rupp's character, Sharon is reaching for a bottle of wine with the Harkness locket on the label. Unfortunately for her, the background of the image is cracked glass, symbolizing the water threatening the coven in the last third of the episode and the tragic death of a WandaVision favorite. Needless to say, this one caught some of the fans off-guard.

The stakes have been raised a bit for the rest of Agatha All Along. All throughout the run-up to this Disney+ series, showrunners and producers have teased that Kathryn Hahn's show would get more serious than fans might expect. Sharon's death after all that poisoned wine would definitely fit the bill here. But, it's not just the beloved character actor being the first one taken off the board, it's also the traumas that each of the witches has to stare down to complete the potion. From harrowing hallucinations of a doomed mother to not-so-subtle allusions to electroconvulsive therapy, there was some real tension during Episode 3 of Agatha All Along. Now, the viewer is all too aware that some of these big names can die during any trial on The Witches' Road.

agatha-mrs-hart-episode-3-poster-explained.png
(Photo:

Drown your sorrows. :(

- Marvel)

There's also the lingering question of what the coven is going to do now? Down a member, they're going to have to continue on their journey at less than full strength. "The Ballad of The Witches' Road" seems to argue that they would have the best chance at completing these trials if they had the full complement of magic-users. Maybe Teen steps in? Is there a "Phone A Friend" option on The Witches' Road? I suppose we'll find out next week during Agatha All Along's fourth installment. If that weren't enough mystery heaped on the rest of this show, there was a massive elephant dropped in the room as well.

Agatha All Along Eases Marvel Studios Into Even More Horror Territory

marvel-mcu-supernatural-horror-universe-agatha-werewolf-by-night-blade.jpg
(Photo:

So much horror.

- Marvel)

Agatha All Along got scarier this week and some Marvel fans might be noticing more of that horror content making its way into the MCU. You're not alone! Marvel's head of TV talked to Entertainment Weekly about the different projects coming up during a recent interview. Brad Winderbaum thinks there's a spectrum for spooky projects and Agatha All Along definitely qualifies as somewhere near the lighter side. Blade, Werewolf By Night and things like Daredevil: Born Again are pushing things into a slightly more mature direction. But, it's really about offering MCU fans a bunch of different looks in genres that they love. Everybody can find something that they enjoy in that shuffle.

"I think that it goes back to the filmmaker's intent," Winderbaum explained. "The horror on screen in Agatha is going to be different than the horror on screen in Marvel Zombies, is going to be different than the horror on screen in Blade. It was different than the horror on screen in Moon Knight. It really depends on the vision of the filmmaker on what horror cues you're pulling from. And that's not just unique to horror. It's unique to any genre we're playing with. Obviously, there's many different ways to tell a story."

Through three episodes, a lot of these scares aren't going to rattle hardened horror fans. But, that's not really the intention here. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness really shocked some moviegoers because of how brutal some of the kills in that movie were for a Marvel movie. (Fast-forward to now and those reactions and the concern looks quaint after most of the people who visit theaters went to see Deadpool & Wolverine. The amount of blood and guts in that one absoltuely dwarfs anything in Doctor Strange's last MCU appearance.) Still, the audience has been rattling their cage for more "mature content" this entire time and they're getting it in spades now. 

Were you shocked by Agatha All Along this week? Check out all the pop culture discussion over at @ComicBook!