From the first three episodes of Agatha All Along, all we know officially about Joe Locke’s mysterious character, simply called “Teen,” is that he’s a 16-year-old gay kid with quite an interest in witchcraft. He helps to break Agatha out of the spell that Wanda Maximoff placed her under at the end of WandaVision. A spell that lasted three whole years, only weakened by Wanda’s death in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He essentially tells her he’s the ultimate Agatha fanboy, a fan who knows way too much about her life.
Teen Has a Mystical Sigil Placed on Him
But when Agatha asks Teen who he is, his words sound muffled and she can’t hear what his name is. In fact, a series of cursive letters appear over his mouth, which prevents Agatha from knowing who he really is. Agatha then explains that the letters are part of a sigil, which is a concealing spell. Who (or what) placed that spell on Teen is a mystery. It’s certainly a mystery that annoys Agatha to no end since she can’t break the spell in her current powerless state.
Later on in episode two, the two characters take a car ride together. Teen attempts to explain to her where he’s from to make small talk. However, the very same magic prevents Agatha (and the viewer) from hearing it. We imagine lip readers will have a field day trying to figure out what he’s saying. This only annoys Agatha further. It’s evident to her there is something special about the boy.
In episode four, Teen is seriously injured but healed by Jen during their second trial. An obviously worried Agatha is by his side when he awakens, and Teen has a few questions for her. She doesn’t answer his inquiry about what happened to her son. But she does answer his questions about the sigil. She says she did not place it on him… at least, not to her knowledge. Apparently a sigil works on the witch as well when they cast it on someone to keep everyone safe. And, she tells him that the sigil can only be destroyed and not lifted. The sigil will destroy itself when it is no longer needed. Agatha tells Teen that you don’t have to know someone’s name to know who they are, which is a touching moment from the typically callous witch.
Is “Teen” Billy Kaplan, a.k.a. Wiccan, or Someone Else?
The prevailing theory, of course, is that Teen is really Billy Kaplan. Billy in the comics is the reincarnated soul of Billy Maximoff, Wanda’s son she created in the Hex in WandaVision. In the comics, he becomes one of Marvel’s most important LGBTQ heroes, Wiccan, a Young Avenger.
There are other possibilities though. He could also be the son of Agatha, the one she supposedly gave away centuries ago in exchange for the Darkhold. In the comics, that son was Nicolas Scratch. Although, why her son would still be a teenager after hundreds of years is perplexing. We have a strong suspicion that we may not find out the true identity of Teen until the very end of the series.
Agatha All Along Episode 3 Gave Us Another Clue to Teen’s Backstory
In episode three, when talking with Alice Wu-Gulliver on the Witches’ Road, Teen mentions that he too lost his mother in a tragic way, when he was 13 years old. Teen is now 16, so exactly three years ago, around the time of the events of WandaVision. Was the tragic way he lost his mom some kind of accident? And did he almost die in the very same accident? In the closing credits of the show, every actor’s name covers an image corresponding with their character. In Joe Locke’s case, it’s a newspaper headline that states “Near Death in Westview.”
So what does this have to do with Teen being Billy Kaplan? Well, the origins of Wiccan in the comics are a bit murky. In the 2016 Scarlet Witch series, Wanda explains to her therapist even she doesn’t know how her “imaginary” children’s souls reincarnated as Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shephard, a.k.a. Wiccan and Speed. Either their souls went back in time to when she was still a teenager herself, and were born to different mothers, or they took over the bodies of existing “normal” teens in the present, effectively killing them. Either option absolutely horrifies Wanda.
However, we think the MCU is giving us another option. We think that Teen is indeed Billy Kaplan, a resident of Westview. He and his mother both possibly died in an accident three years prior, right around the time Billy Maximoff vanished with the end of Wanda’s hex in the WandaVision finale. Perhaps Billy died, but was revived. But what if Billy Kaplan’s soul moved on, and Billy Maximoff’s wandering essence took residence in his body?
That would mean he’d have Billy Kaplan’s memories, but his soul is that of Wanda’s son. He could take over his body without killing him, because Kaplan already died and his spirit moved on. In this new body, Billy Kaplan might have retained the magical powers of Wanda’s son. Kaplan might not even know who he really is. Maybe Wanda discovered who he was, and placed the sigil on Billy before her death? We still have questions.
Agatha All Along Episode 4 Seemingly Debunks Rumors that Teen Is Nicholas Scratch
In the show’s fourth episode, Rio Vidal joins the coven as the actual Green Witch after Mrs. Hart/Sharon Davis’ death, which seems to be permanent. There’s obvious tension between them throughout the episode but they pass the second trial involving Alice’s generation family curse. At the end of the episode, Agatha and Rio embrace each other and nearly kiss before Rio pulls back and tells Agatha “that boy isn’t yours.” Now, there’s a chance that Rio could be telling a lie but why would she do that? She seems to know what’s going on with Teen and could be hiding that information for her own benefit in some way. We shall see.
When Will Agatha All Along Reveal the Truth about “Teen?”
We do hope that Marvel Studios understands how important the character of Wiccan is to fans, especially LGBTQ fans, and doesn’t wind up dropping the ball on the perfect way to formally introduce Joe Locke’s Teen character. As much as we loved WandaVision, we’re still a little bitter about Evan Peters’ character who they teased as Quicksilver from the Fox X-Men universe, only to really be some dude named Ralph Bohner. If the same producers pull that trick again, we might be more than a little annoyed. Right now, our money is on Teen being some form of Billy Maximoff, but who knows what the producers of Agatha All Along have in store?
Originally published September 19, 2024.
