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Agatha Cackle is the main antagonist of the 2017 CBBC adaptation of The Worst Witch.
She's the evil twin sister of Ada Cackle, the headmistress of Cackle's Academy. She was passed over for inheriting the academy in favor of Ada, in spite of being the older twin, due to Ada being far more responsible and disciplined and taking her studies more seriously than Agatha. Sometime afterwards, the Cackle twins tried running the academy together, which ended in total failure. Since then, Agatha has repeatedly attempted to usurp Ada as headmistress and take over Cackle's.
She's portrayed by Clare Higgins in the present (who also portrayed her twin sister Ada Cackle in the same series), and by Sarah Gower as a child.
Her Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Her Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- She's an expert at putting on a facade of friendliness and hospitality when it suits her needs, or if it benefits in her plan. But when it ultimately comes down to it, her true personality is a ruthless, evil witch who will stop at almost nothing to achieve her goals, and doesn't care who gets harmed, or potentially killed in the process. She may have a genuine affability with Miss Gullet, but this is overweighted by her faux affability with nearly everyone else, including her own sister.
- On paper, Agatha had a sympathetic past: As a child she was sent to Wormwood's Academy, due to being labelled as a "wicked witch" and was forced to work hard labor, under very poor conditions, with a very demeaning matron. However, this doesn't make Agatha tragic for a number of reasons: In the present day, Agatha never seemed to be heavily traumatized or even affected by her time at Wormwood's. She never even mentions this place during dialogue between other characters. Not to mention, all of her heinous actions and everyone she's harmed don't seem to have anything to do with Wormwood. It's also worth mentioning that even before being sent Wormwood's, Agatha was already a troublemaker and a very naughty girl, and likely would have turned evil regardless of whether she was sent there.
- She has no genuine love for her mother, the (now-former) headmistress. On top of the fact that Agatha was a serious troublemaker and rebel who constantly disobeyed her mother's rules, she was also on board with Ada's plan to use an extraction spell to give her, Ada and Mona some of Alma's power. Except, Ada mostly did it because she wanted Alma to respect them as witches. Agatha, on the other hand, simply wanted to be headmistress. Also, while crafting the spell, Agatha collected far more of each ingredient than necessary, declaring that she wanted to steal all of her mother's power, rather than some of it, like Ada wanted to.
- In spite of everything she done, her twin sister, Ada Cackle is extremely forgiving towards Agatha. While Ada's willing to fight and/or discipline Agatha when the latter endangers her girls, she still tries to see the good in her twin sister, believing she could have been a better person, and yet every single time Agatha continually rejects any chance she's given to turn over a leaf, or get a fresh start.
- She's a good example of a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist, as despite her supposedly having good intentions for wanting to take Cackle's from her sister -- running a school without rules where the pupils had more freedom -- it's eventually made clear that this is mostly a justification for her real goal: Wanting to have ultimate authority. She doesn't actually care about the academy's students, or their safety --in spite of them being children-- as shown numerous times throughout the show.
- Her relationship with her Ada is very complex. While she tried to take over her academy and occasionally harm her, a number of conversations between the two of them have shown that their relationship is still quite strong, and that Ada still cares about and loves her.
- It's made clear that the Cackle twins used to be very close, and genuinely loved each other as children, in spite of Agatha's shadiness. Even as an adult, she seemed to have standards (and a possible caring side left in her) during Season 1, as she didn't actively try to kill Ada with her magic or by other means, even though she definitely had the power to do so. Even when she takes over Cackle's, she simply seals her away in a painting, rather than killing her or severely torturing her. However, come Season 4, her caring side for Ada became basically non-existent, considering she became far more hostile and actually placed her in a situation that nearly got her killed (turning Ada into crystal shards, that would be destroyed if Hardbroom does any magic), showing no sympathy or guilt for it whatsoever.
The Past[]
- Even as a child, Agatha was a serious troublemaker and rebel (albeit a playful, non-malicious one), in stark contrast to Ada who was far more responsible and took her studies more seriously. Headmistress Alma hated Agatha's reckless, rebellious nature. It got to the point where Alma lied about Ada being the older twin, and thus, the heir to academy, because she knew Agatha would never run the academy by the rules and do whatever she felt like.
- As a child, Ada plotted to use an extraction spell to give the three of them some of Alma's power, claiming it would make her finally start respecting them as witches; to which Agatha and Mona were completely on board with. However, Agatha collected far more of each ingredient than necessary, declaring that she wanted to steal all of her mother's power, rather than some of it, like Ada wanted to. She tried to convince Ada rule with her side-by-side, where they'd run a school without rules where the pupils were in charge. When Ada refuses to get on board with this, and betray her mother, Agatha turns on her, claiming she'd run the academy herself.
- When she manages to find her (Agatha's) mother's spell book and steals it, Mona would get caught in Alma's office and nearly expelled, unbeknownst to the Cackle twins. And when Ada wonders what happened to Mona, Agatha's response is a simple, "Who cares?" This showcases that Agatha's so-called "friendship" with Mona Spellbody during her pupil years is complete ingenuine, and that Mona was basically a tool to Agatha.
- Sometime after being released from Wormwood, the Cackle twins tried running the academy together. Not much is known about this attempt, other than the fact that it was a "disaster", though it's heavily implied that Agatha had tried to harm Ada, pupils, and/or the staff. This lead to the twins parting ways for five years.
Season 1[]
- She returns to Cackle's Academy on Selection Day, seemingly wanting to make amends with Ada, and claiming she was writing a piece about the school. However, she was really there as part of another attempt to take over Cackle's Academy from Ada, which involved placing a powerful obedience spell on the soup that was intended for Ada for drink from:
- When Mildred fails her entrance exam and has to be sent home, Agatha impersonates Ada, takes advantage of Mildred's sadness, and makes her (Mildred) feel worse to get her tears as one of the ingredients for Agatha's spell.
- She tricks the chef into going in the storage room, and magically seals her inside so she can alter the soup with her spell.
- After Mildred interferes with her plan by warning Ada not to drink the soup, Agatha reveals herself, declares that she should be headmistress, and challenges Ada to a witches' duel, where the loser forfeits their powers.
- After Agatha wins the duel, Mildred tries to protest and apologize for meddling, only for Agatha to hold Mildred hostage and threaten to turn her into a snail unless Ada forfeited the school to her (Agatha). Ada's forced to oblige, and so Agatha lets Mildred go and turns Ada into a snail. If it weren't for Mildred exploiting a loophole in the Witches' Code, and Hardbroom's guile and subtle wording, Cackle's Academy would have been Agatha's, and the staff and pupils would have suffered under her power.
- Some time after getting her powers taken away, Agatha visited Ada claiming she wanted to apologize, but when things went south, Ada tries to put Agatha into an enchanted sleep, only for Agatha to use a pocket mirror against her, putting Miss Cackle herself into the sleep.
- She then (with help from Miss Gullet) wrote an anonymous letter to the Great Wizard about a series of incidents that happened over the past couple days to have the wizard arrive at Cackle's, pretends to be Miss Cackle again during his visit and has Mildred prove she belonged at the academy, purposely getting Mildred to screw up and embarrass herself, in an attempt to cause Ada to lose her position as headmistress, allowing Agatha to take her place. Her plan almost succeeds, but she accidentally revealed she didn't have her magic, allowing Mildred to connect the dots and foil Agatha's scheme again (with help from Maud). This time Agatha's banished to Darkwood Cottage.
- Thanks to some help from Miss Gullet, Agatha's able to escape her enchanted imprisonment from Darkwood Cottage, leading to Hardbroom placing extra protection spells over Cackle's safety for the students' safety. And when Mildred suspected that Agatha had somehow taken Ada's place again, she flies over to Darkwood Cottage to rescue Ada. Agatha takes advantage of this, and returns to Darkwood Cottage, posing as a sick, powerless Ada and nearly tricking Mildred into transferring her magic into her.
- When that fails, she and Miss Gullet try to grab Mildred and force her to give up her powers, only failing due to Mildred spelling them to trip.
- She and Gullet return at the academy -- with Agatha impersonating Ada again, and "Ada" claiming her powers were stolen, with Gullet helping her, and needed Esmeralda or Ethel to give up their magic for her. Ethel offers to give up her magic for "Miss Cackle", but Esmerelda insists on doing it. Thus Agatha had gotten her powers back with Esmeralda realizing the truth too late.
- After learning she was the older twin, and thus the heir of the academy by default, Agatha takes over Cackle's as the new headmistress, and seals Ada away in a painting.
- She turns Miss Drill into a snail simply for protesting that she (Agatha) couldn't be headmistress, due to her lack of powers. This was partially done to showcase that she had her powers back, but was still unnecessarily cruel. It's also implied she would have done the same, or worse, to anyone else who questioned her leadership.
- She has Miss Gullet place alarm spells all over the school, with Agatha claiming they were protecting the students from danger, but really it was to prevent the students, and even the staff, from calling for help or trying to rebel against Agatha with any kind of magic.
- While she made Ethel head girl in the Season 1 finale, it was mostly as a means to have her basically become her minion, and make sure everyone followed Agatha's standards.
- She and Gullet brought Maud to the office, demanding to know where Mildred was (she had been expelled), and threatening to turn her into a dung beetle, head louse, or toilet brush if she refused to tell them.
- She had an annihilation spell planned to destroy the academy if the Great Wizard tries to take it away from her, claiming "if I can't have this place, no one can".
- After The Great Wizard destroys Agatha's birth scroll, rewrites the Witches' Code, and planned on punishing Agatha for her abuse of power, Agatha retaliates by getting Gullet and Hardbroom (Hardbroom doing it against her will) to help her turn the Great Wizard into a balloon.
- She allows Miss Gullet to serve her three mini-cakes to the pupils at the end of term celebration, despite knowing full-well those cakes were actually transformed pupils. This would have make Agatha and Gullet guilty of triple child murder.
- She and Gullet catch Hardbroom trying to rescue Ada from the painting, and they use their combined magic to seal Hardbroom away with her.
- After Maud exposes Agatha and Gullet's crimes to the pupils and staff members, Agatha refuses to show any remorse or guilt for her actions, claiming that her being the rightful headmistress meant she was allowed to do that stuff.
- Finally, when all the students plan to walk out so Agatha would have no one to be headmistress off, she uses the annihilation spell in an attempt to destroy the academy and make the walls collapse on everyone, not caring that the students and staff members were everyone still inside. If it weren't for Miss Drill using a counter-spell to contain Agatha's spell long enough, Agatha's spell would have lead to dozens of causalities, and possible deaths.
Post-Season 1/Pre-Season 4[]
- In spite of her being absent during Season 2, she still had a lingering influence over the season's events considering Marigold Mould, the school's new art teacher, is revealed to be a member of Agatha's coven, and tried to release her from the painting where she was trapped.
Season 4[]
- During the final head girl challenge, Agatha takes advantage of Ethel Hallow's desperation to become head girl, by providing her and Felicity with spell to sabotage Mildred's spell, claiming she'd help her. However, said spell would lead to Miss Cackle turning into a crystal statue that shatters into pieces, with Mildred and Hardbroom's attempts to magically repairing her being ineffective, and Mildred getting wrongly accused of the spell and being sent to Wormwood's. Ethel didn't even intend to endanger Ada with her mechanisms.
- She tricks Ethel into freeing her from the painting after Ethel feels remorse for what she (Ethel) had done, as Agatha claimed things would be fine.
- When she learns Mr. Daisy had a machine that could bring someone back even after they were shattered, she instantly disposes of him.
- Agatha impersonates Miss Cackle yet again -- claiming she had a protective spell in place -- and gets everyone to go to the hall for a special assembly where Ethel's to become the new head girl, and has to do a reading of the Witches' Promise. However, Agatha had altered the promise to have it send nearly all of the students and staff members into Vanishment, endangering nearly everyone, and breaking her promise to Ethel.
- And to make things worse, Everything -- and everyone-- in Vanishment was set to be magically recycled at midnight, and become part of a cauldron, spell book or potion bottle. Not only does this make Agatha a would-be mass-murderer, she's also guilty of attempted mass-mutilation and almost giving everyone a Fate Worse Than Death.
- She gives Hardbroom a brooch to wear before the assembly. However, the brooch she gave Hardbroom was actually a monitor so any magic from Hardbroom would lead to Agatha's necklace -- made of the crystal remains of Miss Cackle-- getting a signal, which would permanently destroy it.
- She talks with the Great Wizard, threatening to leave the students to die in Vanishment, unless he handed his title over to her, and made her the Grand High Witch.
- Later on, after nearly everyone escapes from Vanishment, Ethel does a scroll reading, where the Great Wizard had seemingly surrendered his position. And yet despite this, Agatha goes back on her promise to release everyone from Vanishment, and still tries to leave them all to die. Granted, the retirement scroll was actually fake and simply a trick for Ethel to grab the crystals from Agatha's neck, but still, this showcases that Agatha had no intention of saving everyone from Vanishment, and would have left them all to be recycled, regardless if she got what she wanted.
What Prevents Her from Being Pure Evil?[]
- Her final moments before her death are played for sympathy. In the series finale, Miss Cackle tried to sealing Agatha back inside her painting, which the latter clearly disliked. And yet, Agatha tearfully decided to accept her defeat, and chants the spell that sends her to Vanishment while it was still recycling. Both Ada and Hardbroom both plead Agatha to stop, and when Agatha's teleported to Vanishment, everyone reacts with sorrow, considering Agatha was basically committing suicide. Miss Cackle felt sad over Agatha's fate, and even Mildred and her mother showed pity for Agatha during this moment.
- She was shown to have a genuinely healthy relationship towards Miss Gullet. On top of being grateful to Gullet for freeing her from her magic imprisonment, she promised Gullet that when she (Agatha) became headmistress, she'd reinstate Gullet as spell science mistress. As shown in the Season 1 finale, she actually kept that promise by giving Gullet her job back -- despite not having to -- and letting her assist in her plan, treating her like a partner, rather than an expendable tool. This showcases that she has some level of honor.