If someone is the title character of a TV show or movie, we’re led to think that they’re the hero of the show. Except the finale of Agatha All Along spent a lot of time reminding us of one thing: Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) is a villain. She’s not the good guy, even though there is some kindness in her. But if you’re still rooting for her anyway, you might be wondering: why does Agatha kill witches?
Spoilers for Agatha All Along past this point, but in Episode 9, “Maiden, Mother, Crone,” we jumped back in time to 1750 and caught up with a pregnant Agatha, about to give birth in the woods. She does and gives birth to Nicholas Scratch, her son… Though he was supposed to be a stillbirth, Agatha makes a deal with Rio Vidal, aka Death (Aubrey Plaza) for more time. Hold on to that thought for a second.
Next scene we see Agatha cradling baby Nicholas, and walking through the woods. She comes on a coven in a protective circle. She explains that she and her baby haven’t eaten for days, so the coven welcomes her into the circle. As thanks, Agatha uses her siphoning powers to suck them dry.
What follows is a montage of scenes of the now six-year-old Nicholas and Agatha walking around, developing the song that would become “Ballad of the Witches’ Road,” and pulling cons so Agatha can steal the power from various covens. Why does she kill witches? In Agatha’s explanation, it’s to survive… But there’s a little more to it.
Agatha Kills Witches For Power
The simple explanation here, as noted above: Agatha Harkness is a bad guy. She’s a villain and a mass murderer of witches. After Nicholas Scratch dies, she pulls the same con for years, gathering covens to walk the Witches’ Road, and when it doesn’t appear she screams at them until they blast her. She takes their power and leaves their husks to rot in the woods. And she would have pulled the same con on the coven in Agatha All Along, except Billy Maximoff (Joe Locke) created the Witches’ Road, for real, with his powers.
So why does she do it? For power. She explains when Nicholas asks for food that she can’t heal, she can’t protect him from Death. She can blast things, move things with her mind, and expend her power. Other than Nicholas, she’s unable to create things, she can only destroy them. The likely implication here is that as she uses her power, she spends it, and replenishes it by stealing the power from other witches. The other implication in these scenes is that while Nicholas needs to eat food, Agatha stays young and powerful by killing other witches. That’s what keeps her going for centuries.
So that’s the simple explanation, but what about the more complicated one?
Agatha Kills Witches To Protect Nicholas Scratch
To be clear, Agatha definitely enjoys murdering witches, and she doesn’t feel bad about it. But there’s another motive here which is to give her more time with Nicholas. He was supposed to die in childbirth, so there’s likely an underlying motive Agatha has to stay alive and powerful long enough to protect Nicholas from Death.
She doesn’t succeed in that, of course. Nicholas seems to convince her to maybe stop murdering witches, and while they sleep Rio/Death comes for Nicholas. He kisses his mother on the cheek and leaves. And when she wakes up in the morning, it’s next to her dead body.
Past that point, it’s likely due to revenge, inertia, and having nothing else left to live for that keeps her killing witches. She’s done it for so long, without her moral compass — Nicholas — she keeps killing witches because that’s all she has.
In her interpretation, it might even go as far as kill or be killed. She tells Billy in Episode 6, “You survived, like witches have been doing for centuries… That’s what kept you alive. That’s what makes you special. That’s what makes you a witch.” Granted, she’s the number one killer of witches, so there’s a bit of a lie there. But she’s talking about herself… All she has is survival.
And that also explains why she ultimately gives herself up to Rio in Episode 8: Billy reminds her of Nicholas, and she realizes the only reason she’s been going so long is inertia. She has the chance to save Billy from Death in a way that she couldn’t with Nicholas. So she does. And she dies. Sort of. Because now she’s Ghost Agatha. So, redemption arc, right? Nope.
Agatha Kills Witches Because She Likes It
The point here is that while the surface reason Agatha kills witches is power, the real reason is she likes it. She may be using Nicholas as an excuse, but she clearly enjoys manipulating and murdering witches. There’s an emotional underpinning with Nicholas Scratch — first to save him, then to “avenge” him — but ultimately Agatha loves killing, taunting, and manipulating.
Even at the end when she saves Billy, she doesn’t totally give up… She hangs on to life. And even as a seemingly helpful ghost, wherever we see Wiccan and Agatha again, it’s likely she won’t be up to any good.
Agatha Harkness is a witch-killer, a murderer, and a villain. And hey, we love her for it anyway. Sorry, witches.
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