By Hope Sloop
Published
Oct. 18, 2024, 8:00 p.m. ET
Agatha All Along is all about the reveals. During Episode 6 (“Familiar By Thy Side“), several major revelations were made, including the explanation for how Teen (Joe Locke) is really Billy Maximoff, a.k.a. the son of the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).
Spoilers for Agatha All Along‘s first six episodes.
In the final moments of Episode 5 (“Darkest Hour/Wake Thy Power”), the show confirmed that Teen is one of Wanda Maximoff’s twin sons, first introduced in WandaVision. It was a welcome and heavily predicted reveal that left just one question for fans of the Marvel projects: How is this possible?
In the latest installment of the Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) centric show, however, the show’s creators finally offered up an explanation for how Billy — who fans watched dissipate into thin air as Wanda brought down the hex in Westview at the end of WandaVision — is alive and well.
Just as we suspected, Billy Maximoff’s existence comes in the form of a soul-swap scenario, much like how he is “born” in the Marvel Comics. In print, Wanda’s twins, Billy and Tommy, have their souls (or their essences) taken from her by Mephisto after she used her reality-bending powers to create them. Being made from the all-powerful Scarlet Witch herself, however, Billy and Tommy are able to overthrow Mephisto and their souls are reborn into the bodies of two young boys in the real world — Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd.
Similarly, the show does introduce Teen as Billy Kaplan at the beginning of Episode 6, showing the audience Billy’s bar mitzvah, which ends abruptly as families are warned to evacuate the venue due to issues with the nearby “anomaly in Westview.” While driving home in a hurry, Billy’s mom Rebecca (Maria Dizzia) and dad Jeff (Paul Adelstein) almost collide with another vehicle before wrapping their car around a tree, killing Billy Kaplan in the process.
Seconds later, as he lay bleeding in the backseat of the car, we hear the same audio from WandaVision of Billy and Tommy telling each other goodnight before the Hex collapsed. It’s at that moment that Billy Kaplan is shocked back to life having the soul of Billy Maximoff now in his body. It’s not shown explicitly via an ethereal orb or anything like that but it’s confirmed as the first word out of Billy’s mouth after waking up — still bloodied and awaiting medical help — is “Tommy.”
The big difference between Billy’s television rebirth and his Marvel Comics rebirth comes down to history. After his soul is reincarnated into the body of Billy Kaplan in the comics, Billy has no prior knowledge of his time as Billy Maximoff, whereas Agatha All Along shows Billy struggling to come to terms with being in an unfamiliar body.
Just like Billy Maximoff in WandaVision, our teen Billy is shown to have mind-reading powers as he sits in the hospital while interacting with his parents. We then watch him adjust to his new body, home and family — even interacting with the three witches who would later accompany him on the Witches Road alongside Agatha.
At his bar mitzvah, Billy receives a palm reading from Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone), and it’s also revealed that she is the responsible party who put the sigil on him, which prevented the coven from hearing his name. The EMT who rescues Billy from the car wreck happens to be Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn) and as Billy is explaining his reincarnation theory to his boyfriend (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), his laptop is opens to a YouTube skincare tutorial starring Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata).
After a three-year time jump, we catch back up with Billy, now a 16-year-old who has become obsessed with finding answers about his reincarnation. It’s his many questions about the Westview, New Jersey Hex that leads Billy — accompanied by his boyfriend — to meet up with Ralph Bohner (Evan Peters), a former Westview resident with first-hand knowledge of both Agatha and Wanda’s abilities. It’s a redemption cameo for showrunner Jac Schaeffer who faced significant backlash for using Peters — who played Peter Maximoff in the FOX X-Men prequels — as a gag character, rather than a mutliversal player.
Ralph, having been in the same house as Agatha throughout the Hex and being puppeted by as a way to manipulate Wanda, tells Billy and Eddie that the infamous purple witch is still living in Westview but advises them to steer clear of her. “Don’t go sniffing around there or you’ll end up buried in that yard with that dog, or worse,” Ralph tells Billy and Eddie in the dark recesses of a parking garage. “You seriously do not know what kind of crazy that lady eats for breakfast.”
Alas, Billy is a stubborn teenager and he immediately flocks to Westview, breaking into Agatha’s house and ultimately releasing her from the spell that Wanda left her in at the end of WandaVision. This, of course, leads us back to the pilot of Agatha All Along, which saw Agatha in a trance and imagining herself as a detective working for the Westview Police Department. After the events of Episode 1 and Episode 6 merge into one cohesive storyline, Billy is finally able to say his name without the sigil as his identity is unmasked.
With Billy’s name and origin story now confirmed, only one major question for this character remains: What is his motivation? Luckily for the fans, that, too, is answered in Episode 6. While fans had hoped that Billy would be in search of his supposedly dead mother at the end of the Witches Road — it is said the road will give a witch the thing he or she desires most — it’s actually his twin brother that he is after.
It should be no shocker considering that the first word out of Billy’s mouth after the accident just so happened to be his brother’s name. Later on in the episode, as we catch back up with Billy and Agatha on the Witches Road, she teases the young witch about his motivations and his dismembered family, post the Westview Hex.
“What does Billy Maximoff want at the end of the road? Big magic is already in the bag,” Agatha states. “Is it find mama? No, she chose a town of strangers over her own flesh and blood. What about robo-papa? Who knows where he is and in how many pieces? Who’s left?” she asks rhetorically before saying he’s looking for “Toby,” another name mishap that follows her “Who’s Sharon?” gaff at the end of Episode 3.
“He’s out there, I can sense him,” Billy tells her, adding that they will need to get to the end of the Witches Road together, but that he does not trust her, whatsoever. “Got it. Let’s go find the next trial. Last one there is a nice person.”
And with that, we look forward to Agatha All Along Episode 7, which will surely provide us with more questions, laughs and wickedly delightful witchery.
Agatha All Along episodes 1-6 are currently streaming on Disney+ and new episodes drop Wednesdays at 9 p.m. PST. You can also catch up on all episodes of WandaVision on Disney+.