Agatha All Along Episode 7 Pays Tribute To Iconic Witches In A Clever Way

Are you a good witch or a bad witch? Either way, beware, there are spoilers for "Agatha All Along" ahead. 

Even in 2024, witches tend to get a bum rap in pop culture — something that the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe series, "Agatha All Along," is all too aware of. From its end credits lovingly referencing all manner of famous witchy iconography to the show's spell-casters and potions experts constantly complaining about the ways they're typically stereotyped and have had their practices crudely appropriated for mass consumption (sorceress capitalism, amirite folks?), the "WandaVision" spinoff has very much worn its love for all things witch-related on its sleeve. That trend has only continued with its seventh episode, "Death's Hand in Mine," which even manages the small miracle of accurately depicting tarot cards and how to interpret them. (Yes, contrary to what this year's surprise box office horror hit "Tarot" and other movies like it would have you believe, pulling the Death card does not necessarily equate to "Someone is going to die now.")

Just as with their previous trials, "Death's Hand in Mine" sees Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), the teenager formerly known as Teen, i.e. William Kaplan/Billy Maximoff (Joe Locke), and the remaining members of their coven granted a magically-induced makeover upon reaching their latest pitstop on the Witches' Road. Except this time, rather than being decked out in casual loungewear like the teens in an '80s horror flick or sipping (poisoned!) wine in turtlenecks and blazers as though they're the Monterey Five from "Big Little Lies," our gal Agatha and her crew are forced to handle this new challenge while dressed like the most famous witches that Disney owns the rights to. Well, that and those from L. Frank Baum's "Oz" books, which are now in the public domain and have been adapted by Disney multiple times over the years, more recently with 2013's "Oz the Great and the Powerful" starring James Franco and directed by Sam Raimi (a movie I would swear must've been made-up had I not seen it in a theater myself ... but I digress).

Which witch is which? In the case of our Agatha, Billy's ex-babysitter finds that she suddenly has green skin and a black set of robes topped off by a splendid pointy hat, making her bear more than a passing resemblance to the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz." (Agatha claims she was secretly the inspiration for the character; Teen, of course, doesn't believe her, but I'd buy it.) It's a fitting choice for our not-so-straight lady too, though less so because of the way the character is portrayed in Baum's source material and the famous 1939 film adaptation, and more in terms of how she's depicted in the book-turned-Broadway musical and soon to be two-part movie "Wicked." As all you witchy media-savvy readers no doubt already know, that work re-imagines said "Wicked" Witch — whose real name is Elphaba Thropp — as an outsider wrongly vilified by the Wizard of Oz in reaction to her quest for social justice for all Ozians, which leads to her embracing her "wicked" moniker as a means of self-preservation.

Admittedly, Agatha is a bit more actively malevolent than Elphaba, but "Agatha All Along" has already exposed the cracks in her own seemingly "wicked" facade, suggesting she may yet complete her journey from selfishness to selflessness by the end of the season. That goes double for Billy, who's made to look like Maleficent from Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" — a character who similarly got a "Wicked" inspired re-imagined origin story in "Maleficent," a film that refashioned the horned fairy not as the self-anointed "Mistress of All Evil" but as someone with a traumatic past whose prickly exterior is really just a defense mechanism (much like Billy's). Meanwhile, Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone) emerges as the most selfless member of the coven in "Death's Hand in Mine" as she jumps around mentally in time, only to find her true motivation: to help her witchy sisters by sacrificing her own life. That she does so while looking like Glinda — a character who ultimately emerges as a force for good no matter the "Oz" retelling — makes her final act that much more touching.

As for Jennifer/Jen Kale (Sasheer Zamata)? The last standing member of Agatha's coven gets made up to look like the transformed evil Queen from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," which mostly feels like an allusion to her potion-making abilities ... and perhaps a cheeky nod to the many legal charges the Kale Kare founder is facing back at home. Fortunately, Jen, Agatha, and Billy will all have a chance to properly redeem themselves when the final two episodes of "Agatha All Along" hit Disney+ just in time to round out spooky season on October 30, 2024.