Agatha All Along may have come to an end, but at least it’s going down in queer Marvel history. Not long after confirming yet another queer character, the two-part finale introduced Marvel’s first ever on-screen lesbian kiss.
Spoilers for Agatha All Along below
From the very moment Agatha All Along was announced, fans suspected it might represent the queerest Marvel series to date. Given Marvel’s history (or lack thereof) with queer characters, that’s not exactly saying much, but Agatha All Along seemed poised to turn this trend around.
Beyond the witchy premise, the cast alone had the gays excited, casting queer actors and icons like Aubrey Plaza (Rio Vidal/Death), Joe Locke (Teen/Wiccan/Billy Kaplan), Sasheer Zamata (Jennifer “Jen” Kale) and Patti LuPone (Lilia Calderu).
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The series would go on to confirm Locke’s character as Wiccan, a canonical and fan favorite gay superhero—now an official part of the MCU.
Fans also noticed that an intimacy coordinator had been booked for Episodes 6 and 8, leading to speculation that a lesbian sex scene was in store. As the series progressed, all eyes were on Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) and Rio, who were exhibiting enough chemistry to make us wonder whether they were more than old friends.
Although Episode 6 came and went with no sex scene in sight, Episode 7 did confirm that Agatha is queer. In the episode, Billy asks Agatha whether his mother (Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch) is really dead. “Yes. No. Maybe. Hard to say,” Agatha answered. “Hey, if you want a straight answer, ask a straight lady.”
While that could have amounted to a throwaway coming out line (Loki fans will recall his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to his bisexuality), Agatha is willing to walk the walk in the season finale.
Long story short, the episode comes to a climax when Rio/Death seeks Billy as a sacrifice, considering he should not be alive in the first place (due to the complicated events of WandaVision). Agatha ultimately sacrifices herself to save Billy, and she does so with a passionate kiss of death that seems to confirm the sapphic nature of her and Rio’s relationship at last.
The lesbian kiss is a first for Marvel, and sapphic fans online couldn’t be more excited. Of course, the kiss does immediately result in Agatha’s death, which might make history yet again for the fastest sprint from gay reveal to Bury Your Gays.
Then again, this is Marvel, one of the biggest indulgers (if not the inventors) of the ‘comic book death’ trope. It’s hard to say whether a dead character is really dead, especially where magic and multiverses are involved. Billy, after all, should have died in WandaVision, and they were literally just discussing the idea that his mother might not be really dead as well.
But one way or another, with the series at an end, Agatha All Along has moved the needle in Marvel’s queer representation. Here’s hoping Marvel can build on that momentum and the positive reaction to the show.
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