Agatha Harkness Is Now Canonically Dolly Parton’s Nemesis

This article contains mild spoilers for Agatha All Along episode 6.

There’s no doubt that Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) has made a number of enemies across the centuries that she’s been alive. From her ex, Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza), to the Salem Seven to her own mother, Agatha is infamous for seeking power above all else. But now, it seems that her list of enemies also includes America’s sweetheart Dolly Parton. 

Episode six of Agatha All Along “Familiar by Thy Side” sees Billy Maximoff/William Kaplan (Joe Locke) go down an internet rabbit hole looking for answers regarding his true identity. During his search, he discovers that Agatha has been at the scene of numerous historical tragedies. But the most interesting tidbit is that Agatha just might be the one and only Jolene.

Yes, that’s right. The Jolene. The very woman that Dolly Parton wrote her famous song about. Now according to Parton, the song was written about a bank teller that flirted with her husband after they were newly married. The name and looks, however, were inspired by a young fan that Dolly met while signing autographs.

In the MCU, however, Jolene is none other than Agatha Harkness herself. Sure, the Agatha we know doesn’t have “flaming locks of auburn hair” or “eyes of emerald green,” but she’s a witch who once possessed the Darkhold, I’m pretty sure she could change her hair and eye color if she really wanted to.

#agathaallalong spoilers : //
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agatha being jolene 😭😭 I’M SCREAMING pic.twitter.com/3rIGqUPS4O

— cam 🔮 (@camandfilm) October 17, 2024

It’s really no surprise that Agatha would find a way to piss off Dolly Parton enough that she would write a song about her. Even though it seems like she still has some lingering feelings for Rio, Agatha isn’t above flirting and manipulation to get what she wants. Why she felt the need to get under Parton’s skin so deeply is still a big mystery, but we know that Agatha seems to enjoy creating chaos where she can.

Who knows, Dolly Parton could be a witch herself and this song is a way to somehow get back at Agatha. Parton doesn’t seem like the type of person to straight up curse someone, no matter how much she may despise them, but the lyrics and haunting melody of “Jolene” are scathing enough that hopefully Agatha got the message. As we saw in episode 4, music is a powerful conduit for magic, and there are few more powerful than Dolly Parton in that regard, in the real world or a fictional one.

There’s really no way that Agatha could have avoided hearing this song in the decades since it was first released, which makes this whole scenario even funnier. Just imagining Agatha in a store or in the car or literally anywhere in modern times hearing the song play and both loathing and reveling in the fact that she made herself a nemesis of Dolly Parton is enough to bring tears to my eyes.

“Jolene” is genuinely one of the best songs ever written in any universe. Even though the song already has some lore in the real world, this twist in the MCU is fun as hell. Will this have any impact on the story at large? Probably not! But it’s hilarious, and I applaud Jac Schaeffer and the writers for adding it for the simple fact that it means Agatha made an enemy of Dolly Parton at some point in her life.