Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet watched Agatha All Along’s two-episode finale via Disney+ subscription, so be warned!
The Wizard of Oz’s Scarecrow doesn’t need brains to know Agatha All Along has been the biggest treasure on the 2024 TV schedule for theorists and binge-rewatchers. As it usually goes with marquee stories within the MCU saga timeline, the Disney+ miniseries’ finale delivered huge twists and insights while setting up the titular witch’s next chapter. It also left viewers with many lingering questions about Billy, Jen and more, but I’m focusing here on the life and death of Nicholas Scratch.
Ever since his name was first seen adorning the hallucinated award plaque — technically, since pet rabbit Señor Scratchy was introduced — Nicholas Scratch has been a major touchstone for speculation about Agatha’s motivations, her actions on the Witches’ Road, and her fractured relationship with Aubrey Plaza’s Rio (eventually revealed to be Death herself). Indeed, the young boy’s backstory provided an almost surprising amount of emotional depth, but with some frazzled narrative strands that I need to iron out.
I Still Don't Know If Nicholas Scratch Has A Father Or Not
Ever since his name was first seen adorning the hallucinated award plaque — technically, since pet rabbit Señor Scratchy was introduced — Nicholas Scratch has been a major touchstone for speculation about Agatha’s motivations, her actions on the Witches’ Road, and her fractured relationship with Aubrey Plaza’s Rio (eventually revealed to be Death herself). Indeed, the young boy’s backstory provided an almost surprising amount of emotional depth, but with some frazzled narrative strands that I need to iron out.
For all the times that Marvel Comics stories have pulled apart every possible detail surrounding certain characters' origin stories, Nicholas Scratch's early days remain as murky as ever on the page, and the TV show doesn't quite fill in all the blanks. Given that “Mother, Maiden, Crone” starts off with Kathryn Hahn’s character fully pregnant and on the verge of labor, we’ve no knowledge of what was happening in her life in the 6-12 months prior, nor in many of the years that followed her initial coven-killing actions.
So we don’t know if Agatha was in a loving or unloving relationship during which Nicholas was conceived, or even if Death was somehow involved in that conception process, which has been theorized about throughout the season. All we know is that the baby wasn’t the product of her own witchcraft, though that knowledge is based on Agatha’s own words seen below, and is thus viewed with a grain of salt.
I spoke no spell. I said no incantation. You were made from scratch.
Agatha Harkness
Are we meant to believe Nicky’s conception was as immaculate as Jesus’ within Mary’s womb, even if spearheaded by a far less benevolent entity? Did Agatha’s evil actions somehow make her a target for demonic seeding and breeding?
Or is this perhaps a situation where Agatha used her more human wiles to seduce a man and take his “power,” so to speak, in the form of conceiving a child? Presumably leaving the man (or men) for dead afterward. That would largely track with the way she handles other witches.
I Don't Fully Get Why Agatha Wouldn't Want To See Her Son In The Afterlife
Near the very end of the finale, viewers learn one big reason why Agatha has been avoiding death (and Death) for so many years: "Because I can't face him!" With the him in that case being her son Nicholas. With all of the emotion that Hahn put into the line, combined with her ghostly form knocking the brooch from Billy's hands, it was easy to accept the line at face value.
Afterward, however, I kept bouncing between possible explanations for why Agatha wouldn't want to see her kid again in the afterlife, since it doesn't 100% track with her other actions. If he's the main crux of her centuries-long grievances, enough that she seemed to hold out hopes for Billy harboring Nicholas' spirit, then reuniting with him in any form would presumably be a longterm goal.
So what would be holding her back? One idea is that she'd be too ashamed or guilt-ridden to face him after killing untold numbers of witches over the years using the song that was so special to their bond. But she was already deep into that behavior before he died, and Agatha isn't someone who has worn shame or guilt in other respects, so even if it's the likeliest answer, it's not entirely satisfying.
A somewhat similar explanation could be that she feels maternal guilt over not being able to save him from Death's hand. But given how much she prefers to blame others instead of engaging in accountability, I also don't wholly embrace this idea.
Perhaps a more intriguing answer would involve Nicholas Scratch, as a fatherless abomination whose existence broke Death's rules, becoming more of a vengeful and evil demonic entity over time that skews closer to the comic book interation. Maybe Agatha is literally afraid to see what her baby boy has become, and what he's now capable of doing to her and others, possibly with the almighty Mephisto as the devil on his right shoulder.
I Wanted Agatha's Hatred For Rio To Be Justified Instead Of Selfish Toxicity
Agatha and Rio's conversations and arguments from the series premiere can be seen with completely new eyes after the context of the full season is brought in. But all along, I was waiting for showrunner Jac Schaeffer & Co. to supply their purple witch with universally understood and justified animosity towards Rio, possibly tied to the rumor that Agatha traded her son for the Darkhold.
In the end, though, Rio proved herself to be a bastion of empathy who, despite oozing inherent glee about scooping up those bodies, largely did not harbor malice for others while doing her reaperly job. She broke the laws of nature to give Agatha and Nicholas six years that they weren't fated for, and seemed truly somber about having to eventually take his soul.
Only to have Agatha spend the next 275 years treating Rio as if she's the worst thing to have ever existed, spewing much hatred, vile and ill will at her former lover. Rio did exactly what she was asked, and gave Agatha enough years with Nicholas to develop her deep love for him. I get wanting to blow up at Rio without there being a more suitable target, but surely Agatha knows in her heart that her son's death was a blameless incident.
Considering audiences don't actually see the witch/Death relationship play out, it's unclear what those dynamics were, but I can only assume that Agatha exhibited similarly toxic behavior during that time, since that's core to the character. And I can appreciate that a character as beloved as Agatha Harkness can be portrayed as a cruel and vindictive asshat without worrying about audiences turning on her.
But I was mentally invested enough in Agatha and Rio's past that I downright needed the latter to have been actively malevolent regarding Nicholas' death. I needed someone else in the show to be the bigger monster than Kathryn Hahn's character. Alas, it was Agatha's toxic, grief-fueled pettiness all along.
I can only hope that Nicholas Scratch returns in some form for an upcoming Marvel movie, possibly with breadcrumbs popping up in WandaVision director Matt Shakman's Fantastic Four: First Steps on the way to emerging in full for whatever Young Avengers project happens with Joe Locke's Billy. (And if Patti LuPone's comments about Lilia's fate hold water, I'd love to see her back as well.)
