‘That ending broke my heart’: Marvel fans are crushed over Agatha All Along episode 7’s big death and stunned by Rio Vidal’s true identity reveal

Full spoilers immediately follow for Agatha All Along episode 7.

Agatha All Along episode 7 has emotionally rocked fans after two gut-punching moments brought the Disney Plus show’s latest chapter to a close.

The Marvel series’ seventh entry, titled ‘Death’s Hand In Mine’, primarily focuses on Patti Lupone’s character Lilia Caldera, the Sicilian witch whose divination ability allows her to view time in a non-linear fashion. Or, to put it in layman’s terms, see into the future while also being able to live in the past and present.

Until episode 7, Lilia hasn’t had a huge role to play in Agatha All Along; the centuries-old magic wielder comparatively existing in the show margins when sharing the screens with her cohorts. In ‘Death’s Hand In Mine’, however, Lilia takes center stage and ends up sacrificing herself to allow Agatha, Jennifer, and Teen – or Billy Maximoff as we now know him to be – to escape the Salem Seven’s clutches after completing the Witches Road’s latest trial.

Agatha All Along is the first time that non-comic book readers have been introduced to Lilia. Nonetheless, given Lupone’s *ahem* towering (if you know, you know) and heart-rending performance in episode 7, fans haven’t been shy in revealing how devastated they are over the death of a character they only met six weeks ago (at the time of writing, anyway) on September 18.

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On Reddit, user caitling98 wrote “that episode made me so emotional it was so wonderful and sad, I need to sit with that for a while wow”, while rjmrh95 chimed in to say: “When she was falling, it made me teary eyed. When the song kicked in, it made me bawl”. Elsewhere, cxtx3 simply opined “our Queen of Cups” – a reference to Lilia’s persona as defined by the Queen of Cups Tarot card she pulls as part of episode 7’s trial – before MBordy said, “Lilia’s death is hitting me the hardest” out of the characters who have perished so far in the series.

Similar sentiments have been expressed on ResetEra and other social media platforms, including X/Twitter. ResetEra user Bushy-Doe Blade said “that ending broke my heart”, while Surakian wrote “I’m not okay… this was such a great episode” and JTSilver called episode 7 “the best episode of Marvel Television ever”.

Death comes for us all

Lilia’s demise wasn’t the only big talking point to emerge from ‘Death’s Hand In Mine’. As the episode’s official title teases, Death – or, rather, the personification of Death – itself makes its grand entrance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) for the first time. In even more surprising news, episode 7 comes that Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal is actually Death, too.

Well, the reveal would’ve been more shocking if a Funko Pop figurine leak (as reported by Forbes) in late September hadn’t accidentally confirmed Rio was Death incarnate. That’s the view of multiple fans, anyway, including Redditors TheCommish-17, scarletstar517, and noob_sr_programmer, who all suggested that Rio’s true identity reveal would’ve evoked stronger reactions if it hadn’t been spoiled a month earlier. ResetEra users, such as GreenMamba, agreed, writing: “Oh how I hate how this was leaked so far ahead of time. Can only imagine how crazy of a reveal it would have been had I not already been spoiled.”

There are audience members who didn’t see Rio’s identity reveal coming in the Marvel Phase 5 project, though. Indeed, those who managed to avoid the Funko Pop leak, such as Reddit users anthonystrader18 and HulklingWho, were blown away by the surprise. Over on ResetEra, WhySoDevious expressed their wish for Marvel “to do something with Death in the MCU besides this show”, too. Considering Death – or, to give the character their full name, Lady Death – plays a prominent role in multiple Marvel comic book storylines, there’s certainly scope for Plaza to appear in future movies and shows.

Of course, much will depend on how Agatha All Along ends. One of the best Disney Plus shows will bow out next week (October 30 in the US, October 31 in the UK and Australia) with a two-episode finale, so we’ll see if Lady Death – not to mention Agatha, Billy, and Jen – has a future in the MCU post-Agatha All Along very soon.