Through its first six episodes, Marvel Studios’ first WandaVision spinoff, Agatha All Along, has been nothing short of spellbinding. In Episode 5, “Darkest Hour/Wake They Power”, creator Jac Schaeffer revealed that Joe Locke‘s unassuming Teen was actually Wanda Maximoff’s son, Billy. Though it was certainly not a surprise to hardcore fans of either the MCU or Marvel Comics, general audiences who don’t read comics or scour the internet for every leak, rumor and scoop may have found themselves not only surprised but a little confused about how Earth-616 Billy, who disappeared when Wanda undid The Hex, could be alive and rather well. More multiversal shenanigans? More magic? Fortunately, the wait to find out was not a long one as Episode 6, “Familiar By Thy Side”, set out to explain the previous episode’s twist.
Though the big Billy reveal was indeed part of multiple and widespread leaks about Agatha All Along, the “how” of it all was not necessarily front-page news. And as is Marvel Studios’ way, Schaeffer chose not to follow along step-by-step with the way Marvel Comics handled Billy Maximoff’s “rebirth”, opting to create a more connected in-universe option. For those who haven’t seen it yet or find themselves a little confused, let’s look at how it all went down.
Even if the mechanics of it all aren’t quite clear right away, the bare bones explanation for what’s going on is that just as Billy Maximoff and his brother, Tommy, disappeared as their mother ended the hex that created them, a teenager named William Kaplan (Locke) was killed in a single car accident. As Kaplan’s soul left his body, Billy’s soul moved into the “empty vessel” and as the body reanimated, it was Billy behind the wheel.
As he explains in the episode, Billy has none of William Kaplan’s memories and has been essentially posing as the teen for three years, a stranger within the body of another person. Interestingly enough, Billy retained the psionic powers he displayed in WandaVision while also, obviously, learning spellcraft along the way.
Moving forward, it should be clear that Locke’s Teen is truly Billy Maximoff wearing the skinsuit of William Kaplan. How the studio will choose to proceed with identifying the character is already a topic of conversation among Marvel Comics fans with the very simple solution of calling him Billy Kaplan deemed as a solid compromise. Whatever the case, it’s now clear that Locke’s character has a future beyond Agatha All Along, though with the studio taking its time producing new streaming series, it could be years until we see the next chapter.
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