Most things we "learned" about Agatha as Agnes in WandaVision, are called into question by the way Agatha hides truths behind rumours, and plays parts for cons. The comment Wanda makes about Agatha's "unusually high libidio" is funny in the episode, but like her fake husband, her fake marriage--all of it is part of the role of the nosy neighbor. The part she plays, pushing those boundaries, allows her to get closer to her targets, without them questioning as much.

When Agatha does fully reveal herself to Wanda, she states, “she does look shocked to meet the real us, doesn’t she?”

This is an Agatha whose hair is wild, wearing a sweater and button-up, and wide-legged trousers. I bring this up as important, because this contrasts largely with her dresses and skirts that made up the majority of her Agnes costumes. Nosy Neighbor Agnes is by-and-large a very hammy character that Agatha is playing. Costuming is important when it comes to considering and discussing Agatha, given she is a con artist. Her facades are more character parts she is playing, given what ends she needs to meet. Many of the facets we see of her are, in fact, personas used to keep the outside world from seeing within.

((I am not going to rehash too deeply Agatha and clothing, the gender of it all, here. I have done that already in another ramble. (I write this now, and who knows, half-way down I could completely go off the rails, but let's hope.)))

It is important to consider that Agatha is someone who observes, who schemes, who gets to know people and their weaknesses (and strengths). And on the other side, Agatha does not like being known (a point of contention in her relationship to Death herself, Rio Vidal).

The central kernel of Agatha All Along's plot has to do with Nicholas Scratch, and what happened to him. We are introduced to the grief surrounding Nicholas in the first episode, tucked away in a room in her hex-addled brain. We do not fully understand the extent of what happened to him at this point in the plot.

And this is where we come to the rumours and Agatha Harkness. Episodes 2 and 3, Jennifer puts forth the rumour of Agatha's relationship to her son: that Agatha traded Nicholas for the Darkhold, or that possibly Nicholas is now an agent of Mephisto. While Agatha is visibly upset by hearing this in episode 2, we do not know what the reality is at that point in the narrative. Furthered by episode 3, Agatha seeing the Darkhold in a cradle.

I want to point out, I personally think that being Agatha's hallucination is fascinating. Yes, it could be Billy collapsing two concepts together, but... For me, one of the ways I read this is that Agatha has been outrunning Death using the Darkhold. In outrunning Death, Agatha is also avoiding Nicholas, and so those two things are genuinely very tied up. And Agatha clearly has guilt over a lot concerning Nicholas. BUT, that is an aside, so back to the topic at hand! The rumours surrounding Nicholas are important, because these are rumours that Agatha does not refute, that she allows to go on. As she says to Rio, in episode 8, "the truth is too awful."

Another place we get the most understanding of the rumours related to Agatha is Billy's research onto Agatha, including websites like Brujapedia. This is potentially one of the most interesting points of reference to Agatha, because it is quick online research, and we as viewers are asked to think about what is said about Agatha on these sites. How do we read them?

Do you take it at face value that Agatha is a succubus, or do you question it because it is on a site that has her name spelled as Agatha Harkkness? Who put together the website? How did they come across those rumours! Is Agatha Jolene? Did she hit on Dolly's husband? On Dolly? Is Dolly Parton a witch?

Do we take Agatha at face value, or question who is the woman beneath those cons, those rumours? Because I do think we see cracks in Agatha's facade a handful of times during the show that reveal more about a closer to honest self.

These moments are with Nicholas, Billy, and with Rio.

With Nicholas, we see her as a mother, and even then she does keep some of her truths close to her heart. She does not reveal truly her trauma, why she does not trust other witches. He is a child, it is fair to an extent she does not, but she also asks him to be part of her cons/murders, so it is complex! Agatha is a tangled web of complexities.

With Billy, we see the crack in her mask, as she sits and watches him heal. Instead of the selfish witch we are expected to see Agatha as--instead, she has draped her coat over him. A coat that has runes of protection in it, that she wears as armour. But she closes off.

With Rio, if we take Detective Agnes as a genuine kernel of who Agatha can be, beneath her cons and costumes: we see what they may have been like in a past, less complicated part of their relationship. If we do not read that as a genuine kernel of Agatha, then we can look to how she softens briefly at the end of episode 4. When she is willing to open her arms and draw Rio in to her, offering comfort to someone she has vowed to "hate forever."

Rio asks why Agatha allows these rumours to persist: the rumours around her killing her coven, around Nicholas. Why does Agatha allow others to think poorly of her over things that were beyond her control? And perhaps that last word is operative here: control. Many of the rumours give Agatha more control than she truly had in the reality of those situations.

Agatha is a character who longs for control, and much of the time, lacks it. She scrambles, she pleads, she begs. Stories where she has more power over the worst times in her life, are not comforting, but it allows her agency, and makes others stay further away/fear her more. Agatha isolates herself, feeds her anger, and continues to run from grief (from Nicholas, from Rio).

Is she a succubus, or is she someone who has struggled with a power she cannot (or could not at one point in her life) control? Is she the Nosy Neighbor, feminine, horny and in an unhappy heterosexual marriage, or is she a witch obsessed with murder and mysteries (and lacks the respect of her peers and a fulfilling home life)?

Who is Agatha when she is not playing a con? I feel like we got glimpses beneath that mask, and I believe the show asks us to think more about Agatha, to look at the angles and question what we learn about her. I believe this is the journey to an extent that the viewers join Billy on, because what he takes at face value as something he can easily control, spirals out of it quickly.

Thank you for joining me for another Agatha ramble. I think this is a bit all over the place, but I am going to call it here. I may return and tighten this up later, but I have had a chunk of it sitting in my drafts forever, so...