There’s a lot to like about the two-episode premiere of Agatha All Along. There’s the great cast, of course. The killer song list. And then there are some things not to like, such as the fact that the show bizarrely kills Mr. Hart, the character Fred Melamed played on WandaVision character, off-screen.
Spoilers for Agatha All Along past this point.
In the season’s second episode, “Circle Sewn with Fate Unlock Thy Hidden Gate,” Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) is trying to assemble a coven as quickly as she can. She wants to travel the Witches’ Road, a dangerous series of trials that will give her back the power the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) stole from her. But she also has a ticking clock in the form of the Salem’s Seven, witches who want to obliterate her now that she’s powerless. And they’re going to do that at sundown.
Most of the coven has already been assembled: Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata) on potions; Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn), a protection witch; Lilia Calderu (Patti Lupone), who has sporadic amounts of divination; and Teen (Joe Locke), who is also there. However, the coven needs a Green Witch, someone skilled in horticulture. And Agatha knows the perfect person: Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza), a powerful witch who also wants Agatha dead. So given that last part, she’s definitely not going to recruit Rio.
Instead, she heads outside her house in Westview and goes to see Sharon Davis (Debra Jo Rupp), who seems to be coping well after the events of WandaVision. Agatha sees her garden and tells her there’s a party over at her house. She also repeatedly calls her “Mrs. Hart,” the name she had while stuck in Wanda’s TV wonderland in the previous series. But the weirdest moment by far comes when Agatha asks after Sharon’s husband, to which she casually explains that he passed away about a year ago.
Which… What? Huh? Veteran character actor Fred Melamed played Todd Davis, aka Arthur Hart on WandaVision. He was great! You might remember him from his scenes playing Vision’s (Paul Bettany) boss. Very fun, and worked excellently opposite Debra Jo Rupp. But now his character is dead, so I guess that’s it for him?
It’s weird, too, because there doesn’t seem to be a clear reason to kill the character. Fred Melamed is not dead, in case you were curious. He recently appeared on FX’s Clipped, and the year before that on The Boss Baby: Back in the Crib. He’s also not canceled for anything; by all rights, everyone loves him and loves working with him.
Perhaps the reason for killing Mr. Davis is to allow Sharon to freely walk the Witches’ Road with the coven? If Mr. Davis was still around, she would have invited him to the “party” or had to check with him before leaving. As is, there’s nothing really holding her back. But also he could have been out of town on a business trip, or relaxing inside, or… Well, literally anything other than killing him off-screen.
Is this a big deal, though? I guess not. It’s not like there are legions of diehard fans of Todd Davis who were looking forward to him paying off his big storyline from the comics (he was not in the comics). But still, Melamed is a fun presence, and while we most likely would have never seen him again, it feels rude to murder him in one off-hand line. Granted, Black Widow came back in her own feature film after dying, so perhaps Marvel Studios’ Todd Davis: The Movie Prequel is being developed somewhere? Probably not, though.
So RIP, Todd Davis, aka Arthur Hart. We’ll always those two-ish episodes of WandaVision. And Boss Baby.
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