#nick scratch

Full disclosure, my master's degree is in history (I'm really unfun to watch movies with).

However, there's a certain degree of inaccuracy that anything is going to have- and it's a marvel tv show, it's not that serious.

The caveat here is that this show has advertised itself as a puzzlebox, and that questions would be answered by the end; as well as, the rest of the show was so carefully crafted, with most of the details having significant meaning.

(And the handful of things they did do right in this episode were so, so good- the care was there, for those things)

Thus, I'm looking at this a lot more closely than I typically would when just casually watching tv.

This scene especially is driving me up a fucking wall- I have a lot of questions, almost none of which got answered.

So we're in 1750- apparently in Salem? At least that's what the track name for the score suggests, but we're not actually told.

Which leads me to my first, most minor concern: where the fuck did she get that lemon in New England, in 1750, decades before the use of citrus became common in the British navy to fight off the effects of scurvy. Lemons were common in Florida then, but not here. Obviously not our biggest issue here, but still (The answer being Rio gave it to her makes this entire situation even more cloudy, for reasons we'll get into in a minute).

Further, why the hell is she still in Salem? It's been 57 years since her attempted murder, so Agatha's at the ripe old age of 75, having apparently decided to stop aging when she was in her early 50s.

Staying in Salem, especially with the existence of the Salem Seven having already been established by the show, is a strange choice, re: safety.

If Agatha's been hunting witches and killing them for power semi-regularly (as is made clear later), why would she stay in the same location? At some point, word is going to start to spread to avoid certain areas, especially among a small, persecuted community.

So she's running through the woods while in heavy labor from... something. With absolutely nothing but the clothes on her back.

I don't think it's a narrative coincidence however that he was born next to a river.

Fleeing Rio makes zero sense, because she'd know she can't outrun death. If Agatha, master schemer, knew she was pregnant, why did she not set up a safe place for herself to give birth? And mind controlled a midwife into helping her?

Which leads me back around to- how is Agatha pregnant in the first place?

There's three theories on who did the deed- and the one that makes the least sense is the one that's been telegraphed as the truth by the creators, so that's interesting.

One- Agatha got knocked up by a random person. Fine, sure, but if we're supposed to accept that Agatha and Rio are having this tremendous love affair, does that make Rio spiteful over it?

Two- Agatha performed parthenogenesis, which is to say she immaculately conceived. Which is problematic on a biology level because chromosomally, she shouldn't have been able to have a son that way, only a daughter.

Three, Rio knocked Agatha up- which is the story that the creators are telegraphing, but probably stopped from doing via disney standards and practices. Death doesn't have a gender, so whatever magical or biological or combination thereof- Agatha's pregnant.

Did they do it on purpose? Was it an accident? Did Agatha and/or Rio fuck up re: siphoning or green magic and some combination therein?

I'm not going to dig into witching menopause here, but like- Agatha's biologically 75 years old. How does that work. (I've been fighting myself tooth and nail not to address it in my larger fics, but I think I'm going to get into it now)

Jac's said that Nick's father doesn't really matter, but as a matter of course, Nick's other parent very does matter- because there's a significant difference here between Rio granting an extension to an ordinary child of her lover, vs the magical practicalities that the son of Death might be antithetical to life.

We also don't know why Agatha is pregnant in the first place- because if she is, it's because she chose to be.

Attitudes about birth control, religion, and abortion were very different in the 18th century than they are today- you weren't considered actually pregnant until you "quickened", which is when you could feel the fetus moving. That period before, when your bleeding stopped, but you hadn't quickened, was a much more grey area, and there were herbal remedies that could restart your period, if that's what you so chose. (we're not getting into the entire thing; but it's a complex mess of religious philosophy, legality, actual practice, the physical dangers involved for the women, and geography- the american colonial attitude about abortion depended wildly on which colonial power's thumb you were under. There's a reason this is entire field of study).

The point behind this all historical backstory is: abortion existed in colonial America. Agatha clearly made a choice to be pregnant and to deliver the child.

Which then: why is Agatha having a child? What was the plan here, exactly? She's a serial killer in a love affair with actual Death, with no means or permanent home.

We get no answers to this. Which is incredibly frustrating, because this is supposed to be the Agatha backstory episode, and we were promised answers.

Let me gush a little bit about the costuming here- Rio has, for whatever reason (wanting to look pretty for Agatha) shows up in the absolute cutting edge of Parisian couture from 1750 (yes, that's how long Paris has been the center of the fashion world).

Everything from the lace on her sleevers to the stomacher with the little bow on it, to her little mouche on her cheek- it's a chef's kiss of historically accurate costuming. I love you Daniel Selon.

Anyway, back to this disaster in progress. I genuinely don't believe these scenes were filmed together, like at all. The pair of them are never in frame.

Which begs the question: if they're so in love, what the hell did Rio just leave her out in the woods will she's in fucking labor?

If they're not in love, why did Rio give her more time? But I'm getting ahead of myself in the illogical nature of this scene.

So, Agatha's in labor, and realizes that Rio is there for her child. This shouldn't have been so much of a surprise for her- the infant mortality rate before the mid-20th century was actually staggering. Up to 50%, and she's giving birth in the dirt in the woods by herself- infection, hemorrhage, disease; all of this a possibility.

Was it one of them or the other, given these facts?

Further, if he's the son of Death- how did he get to full term in the first place?

Was this Agatha's first try at this, or has this been a heartbreaking series of pregnancy losses?

The attitude Agatha had was just weird for the time period. But this entire sequence was weird for the time period, so maybe the fucking lemon was a hint.

Anyway, Agatha successfully manipulates Death. Why does this Rio let this happen? We have no idea. Agatha is very pretty and very persuasive, but we don't have any concrete idea why she's got such a grip on Rio. Can we wildly guess? Sure. But much like the dubious motivation behind Agatha's decision to have a child, it's incredibly vague.

To restate, this scene just doesn't work because we don't see what their relationship was like before everything went very sour. (Like that fucking lemon). And that's a big problem for the motivating force behind everything that's going to happen in the future.

There's a lot of build up about their past in the present day of the show- with the way they treat each other, and the things they reference. But Agatha's a constant liar and manipulator, and Rio is enthralled with her games, so there's no way to know the reality of anything they reference.

I wasn't even really looking for a first meeting scene; I wanted to see them doing their work and play bit- let us have seen what the relationship was, in its zenith. They had adventures? Where was that? How often were they actually seeing each other? Were they talking about and to each other, like at all?

Was this a toxic, jealous relationship based on sex and murder? Was there an actual romantic love affair somewhere in there too? Who knows!

Live look at the most divorced being in the universe, realizing she's fucked.

Clearly it meant something to the both of them, but without knowing the stakes, it makes their future and past relationship make less and less sense; and imo, generating the number of vastly different takes on their relationship, and on Rio herself, in this fandom.

This scene is the actual end of their love affair; Rio knows Agatha, and knows that no amount of time she gives is going to be enough- Agatha, much like everyone else, is going to hate Death for the rest of time. But without understanding their relationship better, we cannot know how deeply the betrayal runs. Is Agatha being betrayed by her on and off again lover? Or by the parent of her child? Those are vastly different things.

It would also help if we understood what the stakes are for Rio here. She's giving them time- is this costing her anything? If this is her son, is it a portion of her own might? Are there consequences?

Did she hold off as long as she could? The show just kind of shrugs at all of these questions.

I understand they focused on this specific episode in Agatha's life because they felt that Nick and his death were the central motivator for an otherwise incredibly treacherous Agatha's mostly honesty based relationship with Billy. But leaving these details out makes the Nick story ring hollow, because we can't understand exactly what was lost and the depth of Agatha's psychic scars around Nick.

There's some other, meta things at play here, but that's for the next post.

Obviously this isn't a newborn but like let's not split hairs- it's a great shot.

It is about to become exceedingly obvious that they shot this episode with nothing but five bucks, a roll of duct tape, and leaning heavily on kathryn's insane charisma. I blame the reshoots, personally, but again, next post.

She's acting her ass off (as per usual) and looks absolutely gorgeous.

Nick, being made from Scratch, is a cute pun; but there's also a zero percent chance that she didn't know that was Puritan shorthand for the devil, but I'll let it go.

So, rather than seeking out any kind of community to help, or avoiding doing the thing that will draw her now ex to her- Agatha recovers from labor, wraps her son up, and heads out to resume her favorite hobby.

Again, the lack of explanation on how her siphon works isn't helping. Was she just so hungry she lost control and started blasting? Did her labor/delivery/nursing impact her magic? Or is she just happy to be back in it? Could she siphon while she was pregnant? If he's Death's son, was her magic keeping him alive? Is she gathering power to try to keep him that way? Or is she just gathering power because she wants it? Is it a combination of these things?

Lots of misconception about whether Agatha made a deal with Rio to keep Nick alive- I think it's clear that she didn't. Whenever the two of them have previously made a deal on the show, Rio spells out the terms (even if they both are aware Agatha's not going to follow them). There were no terms here; Rio simply said she could offer time, then bounced.

Just to rebut a few things I've seen- there's no souls for time situation. And she's not distracting Rio from them; Rio is literally Death, and is everywhere at once. Without any other textual information, we can only see that Agatha this at this point is just serial killing for the love of the game. Which is just classic her- no matter what her other motives might be, if she has any.

Also, this is the first of several cost saving sequences where she just siphons off camera- saving cgi and stunt money.

Nick isn't fussy afterward because she finally ate (in more than one way) and was able to feed him then too.

The kid they cast here does look like a combination of Agatha and Rio- which turns out was intentional by the creators.

It is a little ironic that Nick is her first scamming partner, and she raises him to continue to assist her in murder scheming. She's also not lying to him about what she does- we never see her lie to him at all; just like Billy, when he's fully revealed as himself (expect for once, but we'll get into that).

That's the bell she's going to later use to dramatically ensure that her future victims are all in the key, before making them sing pre-murder.

The classic Agatha overacting. But like, who's fucking house is that? And this is very obviously just the same village they keep returning to, which isn't like, great for the production value if they're supposed to be wandering the countryside.

Further, I've got a bone to pick re: the population of witches. If Agatha's systematically eliminating them, and they're staying in one place, isn't she going to over hunt? Is Agatha Harkness responsible for the rarity of modern witches in the MCU?

Sorry to the goat truthers, but that goat is not Senior Scratchy. Jac said something about them killing and eating him off screen.

Costuming remains biblically accurate to the time period- I did an entire post yelling about the pockets, etc; just so good.

The twist with Nick and Agatha as the authors of the Ballad- I'm of two minds on, but this is the post about the actual content we saw, not what was altered. So, as a twist- I do love it. (On a meta level, the Road not being real is problematic, but again, next post.)

It's Agatha's own psychological warfare against herself- she took something that she and her son made, and weaponized her pain to bathe in the blood of countless others.

Not to be like I told you so, but I did say she'd been running this as a scam for a long time, and that Billy fell for a hook that she'd baited.

Agatha as a mom is just... so interesting. She's honest and open with him in a way that she's just not with anyone else- but she's still her dramatic ass self, blowing shit up to entertain him.

Her magic is so much lighter than it is in the future, even without the Darkhold.

Others have pointed it out, but the fact that healing, protection, and divination are the specific things Agatha looks for to round out her skillset on the Road- the things she couldn't do to save Nick.

Here's also where I'm calling some bullshit. There's absolutely no way that Agatha thee Harkness, one of the smartest and most ambitious witches of all time, wasn't going to use every moment of her son's life to try to save him from the return of his other parent.

She's the most stubborn and annoying witch who has ever lived. And she does continue her reign of serial murdering while he's alive, accumulating power, presumably for... what? Her own hunger? Does she burn through it like a vampire does? Does she need to eat? And other than the trauma, is that why she tells Nick they can't stay with the other witches- that he needs to get used to this feeling? Did she think she had more time?

Why did she not try to cheat her way out, the same way we see her try every other time?

Who knows!

Whatever else you can say about her (much), she was a really good mom. She was at least murdering people with him out of eyeline- Agatha's weakness for kids.

I am, however, also calling bullshit on Nick not having powers. But, imo, the son of Death probably couldn't access them in life- but that speculation is for another post.

Dandelion call back from the last episode, Nick handing Agatha flowers- very Rio behavior of him.

I am also calling bullshit on their murder-hobo, living in the woods lifestyle. That's all very well and good, but the snow drifts in winter in Massachusetts during this time period (pre-climate change) got up to four and a half feet deep- I checked historical records.

There's no way Agatha was raising her already fragile son mostly outdoors in a climate where fall, winter, and spring tended to be incredibly cold.

This is a beautiful shot- just wanted to highlight the things I actually liked.

Nick's really good at singing, but Agatha's scam based overacting sent me.

Lot of people are making a lot of hay over the "my mother needs me home" line, but considering he was looking directly at Agatha when he said it, we might be reading too much into that one, team.

His death had nothing to do with Agatha not siphoning that coven- Jac confirmed it as coincidence in a post interview.

His sad little cough killed me; I don't think him dying next to a river was by chance.

Nick dying while Agatha was asleep was a massive chickenshit move from Rio. We never see her able to say no to Agatha- her taking Nick in his sleep was her way to avoid Agatha's manipulation.

I'm not sure I'm sold on the theory he'd been wandering around with her at night- I do agree it's a little weird that he just went with her with no hesitation or fear, but if he's the son of Death, his own nature could have been calling to her, or she could have been luring him in but calling to the piece of him that's her.

I also think Agatha would have busted Rio if she'd been trying it, and despite the massive trail of bodies, it seems like they're avoiding each other.

It's hard to say, because we never actually see Agatha and Rio physically interact in the flashbacks. Even in the scene where they're "together" they're not in the same frame, at all.

And this would be where I started sobbing.

The singing, the pleas for more time, the grave in the woods next to the stream. "I bury my own heart/here with you my child." Just killed me.

There's an argument to be made here that this was all very meaningful as a story of loss of a child too soon. That here's a normal kid and a normal mother, who couldn't do anything for him, and that's the kernel at the heart of all the rest of Agatha's madness- he's a regular kid who was sick, and died too soon.

Agatha's continued descent into madness and her irrationality is a display of the all consuming grief of a parent who's lost their child. And that's meaningful, for sure, that this very normal, human thing, is what drives at the heart of this immortal magical being.

Agatha weaponized her grief, and her song, and turned the ballad she wrote with her son (that they were already using to lure witches to their deaths), to continue her pursuit of power, creating centuries of destruction behind her.

The Ballad and the Road were always a long con- Agatha in one, huge leap becomes the greatest witching scammer of all time, at the grave of her beloved son. Someone else noted that the song that Nicky sang- in a major key, turns minor after he dies.

But there's also elements of this that don't make sense (for example, Agatha was already very traumatized, and a villain as a result- she just goes back to doing what she was doing before he died? There's no sense that the Ballad helps her scale up, she was already wiping out entire covens?). See my next post for more.

Further, I genuinely want to know- if Agatha was so bothered by Rio pursuing her and "making her life hell" (how?)... why was she actively still serial killing, and doing the one thing that would attract her ex to her? Was she just getting out of there faster than Rio could materialize?

Does she need to kill to live or not? And what is she doing with all that power, besides protecting herself from being victimized again? There's no way Agatha thee Harkness doesn't have extra goals.

Anyway- it's interesting because she's literally dressed in the most sapphic way possible in every single one of these time periods; she's literally luring in other witches with the promise of power, but she's probably seducing the queer ones as well. She's a succubus, in multiple ways.

It's also so freaking funny she's making them do an entire song before murdering them, and that her entire power set is predicated on being as annoying as possible.

It seems like she's murdering people in the same thicket over and over again- presumably a budget decision.

She looked incredibly hot in every single one of these fits, let it be said.

It would appear the Maximoff family tell is randomly manifesting different things into reality. Inconvenient for them indeed.

So, she knew the entire time, as suspected- because she's the only person alive who knows the Road's not real. (Rio doesn't count as technically alive). And she's been subtly nudging him along the entire time, crafting the Road to suit her suggestions.

He's been using the telepathy to get a read on everyone for their trials- Agatha's was apparently weird because he couldn't get a grip on her mind, or on Rio's.

The fourth wall breaks were pretty funny- apparently there were a lot more of them that they cut, but they were usually using them when Agatha was doing some outrageous lying.

She is so fucking pleased with herself, a lot of which is driven by Kathryn's love for Hagatha.

So, we got a new fit. This isn't the way I wanted a new fit, but we got one!

It is beautiful btw, but you can also tell exactly where the wig money ran out.

Agatha immediately telling him she didn't sacrifice herself for him is like, sure Jan, but she also really did the math- one of them had successfully put a soul back in a body, one of them has not, and Rio wasn't letting anyone go until she was satisfied. So Agatha rolled the dice.

How she got away from her ex-wife is still very unclear. But ta dah! Biblically accurate Hagatha- because for some reason we suddenly care that things are comic accurate for the first time in MCU history.

Agatha tells him the biggest damn lie of the entire show- that the Ballad meant nothing. Apparently there was supposed to be a fourth wall break here too, but they cut it.

The Ballad means everything- it's a bleeding, raw wound that Agatha uses to exorcise her deep pain out upon others. It always meant something, even if it wasn't what everyone else thought. Much like Agatha herself.

Wanda mentioned- she's so fucking thirsty lmao. Speaking of Agatha's complicated love life, Billy are you not going to ask her how she skated past her ex, literal actual Death?

Billy comes to terms with his first ten murders (the Salem Seven + Alice, Lilia, and Sharon). Agatha's pretty maternal, in her own way, about trying to soothe his guilt- taking credit for Alice, justifying Lilia's decision making, and forgetting Sharon's name; as well as giving him the plus one on saving Jen from Agatha murdering her down in the basement from the start.

Which... I am again calling bullshit on, but that's for the next post.

Jen flies away from this mess like a beautiful fairy into the sunset. She still thinks the Road is real, and probably thinks their dumbasses are dead. I am very much looking forward to her return, and for her to have the Realizations- she's going to be so mad at them, again.

"If you wanna be a witch, get used to this feeling." The same thing she told Nick- that feeling, survival against all odds, no matter who you have to kill to get there, is the only feeling about being a witch she knows. Which is 1) very sad and 2) why she keeps trying to pass the lesson to her sons.

Because make no mistake- Billy is her son now. His goals are hers, and she's going to do everything possible to help him- because she sees Nick in heart, and herself in his mind, his survival instincts, and his weird, barely controlled power set.

It's a cherry on top that helping Billy absolutely screws over Rio. She's always going to take the path that twists that knife in her back, because she wants Death to suffer in the same way she did. She didn't forgive her- she instead started on the path to forgiving herself.

Meanwhile- Agatha is now having to deal with yet another Maximoff on a high horse; saying, "We'll see." re: that he won't get used to the price for survival.

Rio did make her a lovely grave, all other things aside.

Billy, suddenly faced with the horrifying realization that he's about to be haunted, possibly forever, by the world's most irritating serial killer, attempts to exorcise her.

He still has no idea about anything to do with Nick or Rio, or any of Agatha's weird and seemingly ever shifting motivations.

She pretends like she's going to leave him alone if he surrenders her brooch- which yeah right. She unfortunately loves you Billy, and you are stuck with her until you put her back in the flesh (and even then, after).

For the second time, he tries to break a spell on Agatha using his spellbook and her brooch.

"Into Rio's toxic embrace", son I don't think you want Rio to pop back in here right at this moment, you barely got rid of her once. But the reference to Rio being toxic is interesting.

This reference to Billy breaking Wanda's spell (or rather, not), is literally all the explanation about the events of episode one that we get. That's it.

I don't think she's bullshitting here- I think he did loosen the jar, but it took all three of them to spring her. Wanda's... very strong.

Meanwhile, Billy's irrationally bereaved self (I'm very pro Billy, but like, she literally just died to save you my guy, it was very dramatic and I know you saw it. She's slightly evil, and was puppeting you, but she's your step father, and you still don't know what you're doing re: magic, and she really does; you still need her) attempts to banish Agatha, and in her desperation to hold on, she reveals exactly one (1) piece of personal information: she can't face Nick.

Which also neatly torpedoes the idea that she was looking to raise Nick in Wandavision, and that she was gathering power and/or looking to use the Darkhold to do the same. She doesn't want to die because she can't face her son. (But she was serial killing while her son was alive, so why would he judge her further when he's dead?)

He closes the Road, they agree to team up after making up, acknowledging that everyone's hands are dirty, Agatha can touch stuff now, and they head out to locate Tommy- who's name Agatha suddenly can remember (I think she was testing to see if it was sigiled too, back on the Road).

They walk up out of the cellar and into the light- and that's it for the show.