In the first few episodes of Agatha All Along, all we knew 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. But in episode six of Agatha All Along, they finally reveal who he really is in detail — William Kaplan, a.k.a. Billy Maximoff, the son of the Scarlet Witch. Here’s how we got to that big reveal. And in episode eight of the series, he came into his full Wiccan powers.
Teen Has a Mystical Sigil Placed on Him
In the first episode, 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 was 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.
“Teen” Is Billy Kaplan, a.k.a. Wiccan, Son of Wanda Maximoff
The prevailing theory since day one, of course, is that Teen is really Billy Kaplan/Wiccan. That was confirmed in episode 5, after Billy confronts Agatha over the death of Alice Wu-Gulliver. His body starts radiating mystical blue energy (just as child Billy did in WandaVision). Then, a blue crown appears on his head, which looks just like the one Billy used to wear in the comics. Agatha mentions to him “You’re just like your mother.” In anger, he attempts to drown Agatha and the other coven members in the quicksand of the Witches’ Road.
Without a doubt, we know now that Teen is Wiccan/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 is also a founding member of the Young Avengers. Although right now the show seems to position him in a more villainous role, he’s actually only ever been a hero in the comics.
How similar is Billy to his (dearly departed?) mother? In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Joe Locke talked about working with Jennifer White, Olsen’s movement coach for the MCU. She helped develop the hand gestures for Scarlet Witch’s powers. Locke said “We worked to find similarities in both Billy and Wanda, the way they use their magic. Fans of the comic corner know that Billy’s powers are pretty much the same as Wanda’s with a few differences, so we wanted to find similarities with that, but also his own finesse.”
Agatha All Along Already Gave Us a Clue to Teen’s Backstory
In episode three, when talking with Alice Wu-Gulliver on the Witches’ Road, Teen mentions that he too suffered a tragedy when he was 13 years old. Teen is now 16, so exactly three years ago, around the time of the events of WandaVision. We should add, 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 how did this all relate to Wiccan? We now know.
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, in episode six of Agatha All Along, we got a more streamlined, MCU version of Wiccan’s origin story. We flashback to three years ago, during the events of WandaVision. After his Bar Mitzvah, William Kaplan and his parents wind up in a car accident in the adjacent city of Eastview. This is at the exact moment Wanda’s hex was coming down. William Kaplan technically died in this accident, and Billy Maximoff’s soul moved in. He has no memory of his life as William Kaplan, and pretends the accident caused amnesia for his new parents.
In this new body, Billy retained the magical powers of Wanda’s son, including telepathy. He eventually discovers the truth about what went on inside the hex in Westview, thanks to his former “Uncle Pietro,” Ralph Boehner. He knows he’s somehow Billy Maximoff in a new teenage body, and attempts to recruit Agatha Harkness in Westview to take him on the Witches’ Road. He doesn’t realize the extent of his own power, as the Witches Road they traveled on was actually a hex of Billy’s own creation. At the end of the series, Billy comes into his full power and becomes Wiccan. Together with the ghost of Agatha Harkness, he goes on a journey to try and find a way to find his missing brother Tommy. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we hear of a follow up to Agatha All Along soon, which will continue Billy’s story.
Originally published September 19, 2024.
