Death is cheap in the MCU. We’ve seen it. Characters get dusted, they come back through time heists, or they simply reappear as multiversal variants that look exactly like the person we mourned. But death in Agatha All Along felt different from the jump. It wasn't just a plot point or a tragic backstory trope. It was a physical, breathing, flirting presence in the form of Rio Vidal.
Honestly, the reveal that Aubrey Plaza was playing Lady Death—the literal personification of the end—changed how we have to look at the entire mystical side of Marvel. It wasn't just a twist for the sake of a "gotcha" moment. It reframed Agatha’s entire 300-year history of soul-sucking and power-grabbing as a long, messy, toxic breakup with the universe’s most inevitable force.
The Lady Death Identity Crisis
For years, fans expected Lady Death to show up in the Infinity Saga. Thanos, in the comics, was obsessed with her. He killed half the universe basically to get her to look at him. When the movies swapped that out for a weird Malthusian overpopulation theory, a lot of hardcore readers were bummed.
Then comes Agatha All Along.
Jac Schaeffer and her writing team didn't go for the hooded skeleton look. They went for Rio Vidal. She’s the "Green Witch," but her green isn't just about plants; it’s about the cycle of decomposition. Life leading to death. It’s a messy, dirt-under-the-fingernails kind of vibe. When Rio tells Agatha, "I am Death," it isn't a boast. It’s a statement of fact that explains why she’s been following Agatha through the centuries.
Agatha Harkness is a survivor. She kills to stay alive. She steals magic to stay relevant. By making the primary antagonist—and love interest—the literal manifestation of death in Agatha All Along, the show turned a superhero spin-off into a gothic romance about mortality.
Nicholas Scratch and the Price of the Darkhold
You can't talk about death in this show without talking about Nicholas Scratch. The show confirms what many suspected: Agatha traded her son for the Darkhold. Or, more accurately, she reached a point where she couldn't stop the inevitable, and her connection to Death (Rio) was the only thing that gave her more time with him.
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The tragedy here is layered.
Agatha didn't necessarily "murder" her son in a ritual. It was more of a cosmic debt. He was never meant to live long. Death comes for everyone, even the children of powerful witches. The trauma of losing Nicholas is what drives Agatha to be the monster we see in WandaVision. If you can't have life, you take power.
This adds a massive amount of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) to the narrative. It’s not just "magic is real." It’s "grief is the engine of magic."
Why the Witches' Road was a Death Trap
The Witches' Road wasn't a real place. Billy Maximoff created it. But because Billy is a "Son of Scarlet Witch," his manifestation of the Road pulled in real cosmic consequences.
- Sharon Davis: Her death was the first "real" shock. She wasn't a witch. She was just a neighbor who liked party snacks. Her passing set the stakes.
- Alice Wu-Gulliver: She died protecting Agatha. It was a subversion of the "selfish witch" trope. Alice broke her family curse only to end up as a spirit on the Road.
- Lilia Calderu: Her exit was legendary. Patti LuPone’s Lilia embraced her death because she finally understood her "trial." She saw time out of order. For her, death was a completion of a circle, not a hard stop.
The Mechanics of the Afterlife
Marvel has been vague about what happens when you die. We've seen the Ancestral Plane in Black Panther. We saw the Duat in Moon Knight. Now, we see the "Sacred Return" or the lack thereof in the Witches' Road.
When Rio Vidal claims a soul, it’s permanent.
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This is where the show gets gutsy. In the final episode, Agatha chooses to die to save Billy. But she doesn't go to a "heaven." She becomes a ghost. She lingers. Why? Because she’s terrified of what’s on the other side, even if her ex-girlfriend is the one running the place.
The portrayal of death in Agatha All Along suggests that the MCU is moving away from the "everyone comes back" philosophy. When Lilia flips those cards and stays behind to face the Salem Seven, there’s no hint of a resurrection spell. She’s gone. The stakes are finally back on the table.
Aubrey Plaza as the Ultimate Reaper
Plaza’s performance is what makes the concept work. If she had played it cold and robotic, the "Death" reveal would have felt like a Wikipedia entry. Instead, she played Rio as someone who is deeply, painfully in love with the woman who keeps slipping through her fingers.
Every time Agatha kills another witch, she’s "giving" a gift to Rio. It’s a twisted, horrific way to maintain a relationship.
Think about the scene in the finale. Rio is literally trying to pull Billy into the earth. She isn't doing it because she’s "evil." She’s doing it because the scales are tipped. Billy is a soul that shouldn't exist in a body that isn't his. Death is just the cosmic auditor coming to collect an overdue debt.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Ending
A lot of viewers thought Agatha "beat" death. She didn't.
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She negotiated.
Agatha’s transition into a ghost is a loophole. It’s a classic Harkness move. She’s technically dead—Rio got what she wanted—but Agatha found a way to stay in the game as a spiritual mentor to Billy. It’s a stalemate.
This tells us a lot about the future of the MCU's supernatural wing. Death isn't an enemy to be punched or blasted with purple energy. It’s a force to be bargained with. This sets a much more interesting tone for future Doctor Strange or Midnight Sons projects.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Theorists
If you're trying to track how death in Agatha All Along impacts the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, keep these points in mind:
- The Identity of Death is Fixed: We now know Death is a person (Rio). This means any future mention of the "afterlife" or "reaping" has a face attached to it.
- Ghost Mechanics: Agatha proves that witches can stick around if they have enough ego or unfinished business. This opens the door for other "dead" characters to return in non-corporeal forms.
- Billy's Power: Billy Maximoff didn't just create a road; he cheated Death. Rio is likely still coming for him. The "balance" is still off.
- The Darkhold's Cost: The show reinforces that the Darkhold always takes more than it gives. Agatha’s lose-lose situation with Nicholas Scratch is the blueprint for what happens when you mess with the Chthonic arts.
The most important takeaway is that the show stopped treating death as a temporary inconvenience. By making it a character we actually cared about—and were slightly afraid of—the stakes felt grounded in a way Multiverse of Madness never quite managed.
If you're re-watching the series, look at Rio’s early interactions again. Every line about "the bodies I've buried" or "heart beating" isn't just flirting. It's a reaper doing her job while trying not to get distracted by her favorite target. Agatha might have spent centuries running, but in the end, death caught up. It just looked a lot different than she expected.
Moving forward, expect the supernatural side of the MCU to lean harder into this "gothic" cost of magic. If you want the power, you have to be ready to pay the reaper. Literally.
Next Steps for Deepening Your Understanding
- Audit the Rio/Agatha Dialogue: Go back to Episode 4 with the knowledge of Rio’s identity. The "I have a heart (it's black and I keep it in a jar)" line is a direct reference to the lore of Death.
- Compare the Afterlives: Watch the Duat sequence in Moon Knight alongside Lilia’s final scene in Agatha. Notice how different cultures/magics perceive the transition.
- Track the "Green Witch" Mythology: Research the "Green Man" and decomposition cycles in folklore to see how the writers grounded Rio’s powers in real-world occultism.