Writing Analysis
This is the BEST Scene in “Agatha All Along”
“Ain’t that just like a witch?”
Just like a sly witch, “Agatha All Along” doesn’t share its best scene until the last episode.
Recall from Screenwriting 101 that a scene has to do at least one of three things: 1) advance the plot, 2) advance the character, or 3) advance the worldbuilding.
The best scene in “Agatha All Along” is when Agatha gives her son, Nicolas, a funeral.
When Agatha buries her son, you see her pain, her grief, and her sorrow. Even though we know how wicked Agatha is, we feel sympathy for this woman who has just lost her son. The fact that Death gave her more time to enjoy life with her son, instead of snatching him away at birth, doesn’t make Agatha’s loss any less devastating.
But the scene doesn’t end there: in the middle of her grieving, some poor unwitting witch approaches her to inquire about “The Witches’ Road” and whether Agatha can guide her there. She’d heard the “Ballad of the Witches’ Road” and knew that Agatha had something to do with the song’s origin.
Katherine Hahn brilliantly conveys what happens next with zero dialogue. In the span of moments, we see from Agatha’s face and body language that she: 1) collects herself 2) overcomes confusion about what the naïve witch is asking 3) considers what she could gain from saying “yes,” and 4) decides, with a wicked grin on her face, to go ahead with this deception.
Does this scene advance plot? Yes. We advance from Agatha living her life, to Agatha starting what will come to be a centuries-long con. Before this scene, she’d leeched other witches’ powers through ad-hoc schemes, but now, she can exploit the Ballad of the Witches’ Road as a way to systematically lure victims.
Did this scene advance character? Yes, absolutely. We get to see both sides of Agatha: the sympathetic and the damnable. What’s more, we see the exact moment that she shifts. We can infer that while Agatha was not an angel before she lost her son, it was losing her son that pushed her over into the dark side unconditionally and unapologetically. In a way, losing her son freed her to be the wicked witch that she is (at least until she meets another boy that reminds her of Nicolas).
Did this scene advance world building? Hell, yes. This last puzzle piece crystallizes exactly what the Witches’ Road is: a non-existent place based on nothing but a child’s fanciful imagination. We already knew Agatha and Nicolas jointly came up with the Ballad of the Witches’ Road by taking turns adding lines that made little sense other than rhyming. Thanks to this scene, we know that the Ballad’s role in Agatha’s story doesn’t end there: Agatha has been using the “Ballad of the Witches’ Road” as free PR to lure witches and steal their power. That is why she has been able to live throughout the centuries.
Simply put, this two-minute sequence proves why Jac Schaeffer and team are amongst the best writers not just on a Marvel project but in entertainment right now. We have been blessed — or should I say cursed? — to be on this journey with them.
