Agatha All Along is certainly not your typical, tired superhero TV show. Disney+‘s latest addition to the MCU canon features Patti LuPone as a loopy witch with the gift of prophecy, an extended Mare of Easttown pastiche, and Aubrey Plaza playing a vengeful witch who licks a wound on Agatha Harkness’s (Kathryn Hahn) hand better. Sure, there are Easter eggs galore connecting Agatha All Along to its parent show, WandaVision, and the rest of Marvel lore. However, it’s the rare superhero show that’s able to keep even this long-time fan on their toes.
Case in point: Agatha All Along‘s very first episode, “Seekest Thou the Road,” features a full Kathryn Hahn nude scene!
**Spoilers for Agatha All Along Episode 1 “Seekest Thou the Road,” now streaming on Disney+**
In Agatha All Along Episode 1 “Seekest Thou the Road,” anti-heroine Agatha Harkness finally bursts out of her magically-induced fugue with the help (or hurt?) of mysterious “Teen” (Joe Locke) and former rival/foe/flame Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza). However, when Agatha comes back to reality, she’s not only still stuck in suburban Westville, but bare ass naked.
After unleashing an unholy howl of horror, Agatha dashes out of her house to confront neighbor John Collins (David Payton), aka “Herb” within the Hex. Only, she doesn’t bother to put on any clothes. The centuries old witch is far more concerned with figuring out where she is and how long she’s been without her powers. The scene that follows is comic, as Agatha fumes about her state while her normie neighbors cringe at her lack of decorum.
Agatha All Along series creator and episode director Jac Schaeffer punctuates the scene with a shot of Kathryn Hahn’s bare butt hanging out in a suburban street.
Okay, so what’s the deal with Kathryn’s nude scene in Agatha All Along? Sure, we’ve seen butts before in the MCU. Chris Hemsworth famously showed off his buns of steel in Thor: Love and Thunder while Chris Evans got to cheekily celebrate Captain America in Avengers: Endgame, saluting his own derriere, proclaiming, “That’s America’s ass!”
But why would Marvel open a Disney+ show with a Kathryn Hahn nude scene? Is there a deeper meaning to it? Or is simply something fun and silly? As my incredible Decider colleague Hope Sloop quipped to me, is Agatha All Along just the “Bare Witch Project”?
I think it’s a bit of both.
From a symbolic perspective, the reason why Agatha would be naked in this moment is to show just how vulnerable she is after the events of WandaVision. She’s been literally stripped of her powers, ergo she’s basically naked and exposed compared to other witches. So Schaeffer’s decision to have Hahn prancing around in her birthday suit is conveying something deep to the audience. Furthermore, Agatha has spent most of her time in the MCU dressed up in costumes and disguises. Here, she is laid bare. Agatha is simply Agatha, not Agnes.
However, Schaeffer plays this moment for laughs. We’re supposed to giggle at how weird it is that Agatha can’t take a hint that the other folks in Westville are uncomfortable with her nudity. Perhaps, we’re also supposed to delight in how confident Agatha is in her own skin, proving she’s a witch who walks to the beat of her own drum (or down her own Witches’ Road).
And I think we’re also supposed to take the moment as sensual. As HBO’s Mrs. Fletcher made abundantly clear a few years ago, Kathryn Hahn is a beautiful, sexy woman. It’s exciting in an erotic way to see her strutting naked down a street. As if to confirm this, minutes later, Agatha is fighting another witch, Rio Vidal, and the showdown feels sexually charged with sapphic energy.
So it seems that Kathryn Hahn is naked in Episode 1 of Agatha All Along for a few reasons. It’s there to show us just how profoundly Agatha has fallen. It’s there to let us know this is Agatha without any conceit masking her true intentions. However, it’s also there just to be fun. We’re supposed to laugh at how silly it is. Moreover, we’re supposed to acknowledge how sexy it all is.
Kathryn Hahn’s nude scene in Agatha All Along is a mission statement from creator/director Jac Schaeffer. Agatha All Along is not going to play it safe. It’s a show that intends to be dark and funny and weird and sexy. Agatha All Along is going to be a ride.
