There’s a pretty big Easter egg for fans of Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) in the series premiere of Agatha All Along: a pointed reference to a character named Nicholas Scratch. But it’s not just an Easter egg for the series… It’s also a name that’s essential to the lore of Agatha from the Marvel Comics source material — and just may provide the emotional key to Agatha’s journey in the Disney+ series.
Spoilers for Agatha All Along past this point.
In the first episode, “Seekest Thou The Road,” Agatha is trapped in a spell crafted by the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) in the series finale of WandaVision. When we catch back up with her, three years later, she believes she’s a Mare of Easttown-style cop named Detective Agnes O’Connor. And that comes with all the same “quirks” as Kate Winslet’s Mare from that series: she’s grumpy, exhausted, perpetually over-worked, and treats murder as just another day at the job.
But what concerns us the most here is when Agnes heads home and takes a moment to look into an unused room in her house. It’s a child’s bedroom, and we see that the kid’s name is Nicholas Scratch. The implication is pretty clear, that Nicholas Scratch is dead or gone. It’s a classic trope of the genre, to have the cop trying to solve cases have one she can’t solve of her own. So it fits neatly into the whole milieu of Agnes of Westview, the show within a show.
However, there’s every chance that this is real, in some sense. Agatha did have a son named Nicholas Scratch, and now he’s gone. So where is Nicholas Scratch? And who is he?
Nicholas Scratch Is Agatha Harkness’s Son From Marvel Comics
Introduced by writer Len Wein and artist George Pérez in 1977’s Fantastic Four #185, before we break down Nicholas Scratch’s intro, it’s important to understand that by this point in time in the comics Agatha was working as a nanny for the Fantastic Four. Really. She was taking care of Sue Storm and Reed Richards’s son, Franklin, and therefore a major part of their storylines.
In any case, Nicholas Scratch first battled the FF after kidnapping Agatha and Franklin and taking them back to the witch community of New Salem. Though Nicholas was Agatha’s son, he felt betrayed by her leaving him behind years earlier and had turned the community against her. The FF beat him, Agatha stripped his powers, and then he popped up to antagonize them — and other Marvel characters — time and again.
If you’re wondering about his powers, they are: magic powers. By which I mean the sort of indeterminate, he does witch-type powers that other witches have. However, he does have a connection to some other characters we meet in this episode, the Salem’s Seven.
Who Are The Salem’s Seven, And What Is Their Connection To Nicholas Scratch?
In Agatha All Along, we hear from Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) that the Salem’s Seven are coming for Agatha, now that she’s free of Wanda’s spell and powerless. Then in the second episode, “Circle Sewn with Fate Unlock Thy Hidden Gate,” they do indeed come for Agatha, and they’re pretty scary. They show up cloaked in black, faces covered, moving like Samara from The Ring. They also can turn into various animals and are ultimately only stopped from destroying Agatha — for now — when she escapes onto the Witches’ Road with her new coven.
If you’re curious, here’s the cast list for the Salem’s Seven on the show: Vertigo (Okwui Okpokwasili), Coyote (Chau Naumova), Crow (Bethany Curry), Fox (Athena Perample), Owl (Alicia Vela-Bailey), Rat (Britta Grant), and Snake (Marina Mazepa).
We don’t get the backstory of the characters in the TV show, but in the comics, they are seven children of Nicholas Scratch, from seven different mothers, making them Agatha’s grandchildren. They were introduced the issue after Nicholas Scratch, in Fantastic Four #186, and go by slightly different names than on the show, with one exception: Brutacus, Gazelle, Hydron, Reptilla, Thornn, Vakume, and Vertigo. They all have transformation powers in the comics, except Vertigo, who can do what her name says – knock people off balance. Like Nicholas Scratch, they’ve fought various Marvel characters, including the Scarlet Witch and Vision.
Are they also Nicholas Scratch’s kids on Agatha All Along? Maybe, maybe not. The MCU plays fast and loose with comic book continuity, so there’s no reason to think they are. Unless they are!
However, that brings us back to the original question: who is Nicholas Scratch on the show? And is he someone we’ve already met?
Is Joe Locke Playing Nicholas Scratch?
There are two potential “characters” we’ve already met on Agatha All Along that could be Nicholas Scratch. The first is Agatha’s rabbit, Señor Scratchy, who pops (hops?) back up in the first two episodes. Back when he was first introduced in WandaVision, fans speculated, given the name, this was Nick Scratch. So perhaps he’ll be turned back human again by the end of this series.
Another, more intriguing possibility: is Joe Locke playing Nicholas Scratch? Locke is playing a character named Teen, and we’ve seen that he has some sort of curse on him that prevents Agatha from hearing his name or learning any significant details about his life. The popular speculation has been that Locke is playing Billy Maximoff, the son of the Scarlet Witch, also known as Wiccan in the books. And introducing him by having him quickly repeat a spell — just like Wiccan does — certainly seems to indicate that. But what if fans are supposed to think Locke is playing Billy… But he’s actually Agatha’s son?
That also could explain why the cantankerous witch seems to immediately graft onto Teen, and not push him away like everyone else in her life. Perhaps she suspects that Teen is Nicholas Scratch, returned to her. And that would also give the whole series a ton of emotional resonance if Teen and Agatha are heading off on the Witches’ Road to get power; but discover that what they actually need is each other, as mother and son.
Regardless, that seemingly toss-away moment with the child’s bedroom is a key part of understanding what Agatha will be going through in Agatha All Along. It’s something that fleshes her out more beyond the power-hungry witch we’ve seen on WandaVision, and even in these early episodes. It gives her emotional depth, a greater motivation, and a potential for redemption. Will she take that path? And will we see Nicholas Scratch, for real, by the show’s finale? We’ll just have to keep walking down the Witches’ Road to find out.
Where To Watch Agatha All Along:
Agatha All Along Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
The first two episodes of Agatha All Along premiere September 18 at 6 pm PT / 9 pm ET on Disney+. It will stream weekly episodes after that, leading up to the two-episode finale on October 30. There are nine episodes, in total.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Agatha All Along Season 4, with premiere dates:
- Wednesday, September 18, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 1: “Seekest Thou The Road”
- Wednesday, September 18, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 2: “Circle Sewn With Fate Unlock They Hidden Gate”
- Wednesday, September 25, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 3
- Wednesday, October 2, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 4
- Wednesday, October 9, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 5
- Wednesday, October 16, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 6
- Wednesday, October 23, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 7
- Wednesday, October 30, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 8
- Wednesday, October 30, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 9