Marvel's latest Disney+ series, "Agatha All Along" began with a 2-episode drop. The first 2 episodes set up what looks like a "Wizard of Oz" journey, leaving lots of references and parallels in the plot and characters they introduce. What follows is a list of "Agatha" characters that parallel Baum's classic tale.
Wanda's body is discovered. Cause of death: being crushed by something large and heavy. The Wicked Witch of the East (WWE) is killed by Dorothy's house falling on her. Wanda's body is repeatedly shown to have no shoes. Dorothy subsequently takes possession of WWE's ruby slippers and wears them for the rest of the story. Agatha finds a locket which she wears presumably for the rest of the series. The power Dorothy is looking for is in the slippers she wears. Presumably, the power Agatha is looking for resides in the locket. The power in both objects are unlocked at the end of the journey. Perhaps then we will understand the significance of the lock of hair in the locket -- a secret possibly closely connected to the character played by Joe Locke(!).
Agatha parallels Dorothy. Unlike Dorothy who wakes from her dream at the end, Agatha wakes from her dream at the beginning. She finds herself in the town whose inhabitants were terrorized by Wanda, like the Munchkins were terrorized by WWE. The locket and the lock of hair inside it are likely to be connected to the empty child's room in Agatha's house. Joe Locke's Teen says that what is "missing" is at the end of their journey, so perhaps what Agatha is missing is a son. It'll be too convenient for Teen to be Agatha's son, though. I anticipate further complications.
Agatha introduces Teen as "Toto", the name of Dorothy's dog, who is a silent companion on the journey. While Teen proves very smoothly loquacious, a spell keeps him silent about his origins. Teen is the instigator of Agatha's journey, just as Toto, for whom Dorothy is searching, keeps her from reaching shelter in time, thus resulting in them both being sept away by the cyclone that starts their journey.
Lillia, the Divinations witch, parallels the Lion. Agatha calls her "Coward" which is the Lion's identifying trait.
Jen, Potions, likely parallels the Scarecrow. Agatha calls her "Fraud", which is what a scarecrow is. It's job is to scare crows by pretending to be human.
Alice (and here I admit I'm stretching the parallels) is the Tin-Man. Agatha calls her "Disappointment", but the parallel I'm seeing is that as an ex-cop and the Protection witch, she carries a badge of law-enforcement that was once made of tin in the USA's early days.
Rio Vidal is probably the Wicked Witch of the West (WWW) who is Dorothy's pursuer. There is bad blood between Rio and Agatha, a love-hate relationship. There is betrayal between them, and I wonder if Agatha's missing son might have something to do with that. Jen accuses Agatha of child sacrifice, so could something have happened to Agatha's son, Nicholas Scratch, that might have given the impression that she had sacrificed him in the past?
Salem's Seven: for the moment I see them as the flying monkeys WWW sends after Dorothy the same way that Rio had informed the vengeful group of Agatha's hereabouts.
The one wildcard is Sharon "Mrs Hart" Davis whom Agatha brings in as a misdirect. It is likely that Mrs Hart is an undiscovered witch. She is a substitute for a Green witch required to complete the party (so Agatha isn't lying when she invites Mrs Hart to a "party"). Mrs Hart describes herself as having a "green thumb", and her dress is full of botanical motifs, so she could very well be as magical as her counterparts, she just doesn't know it yet. She is the only one wearing white, though. By process of elimination, Mrs Hart could be the equivalent of the Good Witch of the North, Dorothy's adopted fairy godmother along her journey.
It'll be another few hours before I can watch Episode 3 at time of publication. I really want to see how this series will continue and twist our expectations now that the players are set and the journey has begun.
No comments:
Post a Comment