Agatha All Along: Con All Along

Episode 7 from last week was so impactful that the two remaining episodes released concurrently today on Halloween struggled to match. They were still good and answered a few remaining questions, regardless.

Episode 8 brings us full circle minus the witches that died on the way. Death isn't playing around. Dead is dead. But she is a professional doing her job, so there are no theatrics with her... well... Firm, but patient she allows Alice to rue how short-lived her curse-liberated life has been before asking, "Are you ready?". Rio/Death has also one of the most meta moments early in the episode when she uses her knife to slash the scene like it was a stage backdrop -- which it is -- and disappears into the rift.

As in the Wizard of Oz, Billy's shoes get them home, or at least to the site of the last trial. Agatha recognizes it as her basement, though it seems she is joking at the time. The final trial, though supposed to be for the green witch, is for everybody to pass individually. Jenn, High Priestess "unable or unwilling to use her power", pieces together who had put the binding spell on her (it was Agatha All Along) and frees herself. Having made a deal with Rio, Agatha helps Billy Maximoff get what he's missing even though it is specifically what Rio does not want for Billy to have. Agatha's busy betraying everyone left and right at this point. She passes her trial on a technicality, but what she is missing she does not get back.

The 3 surviving coven members finally return home. Back in William Kaplan's room, Billy realizes how alike he and Wanda are. The Witches' road and Coven Harkness' journey on it was entirely made up based on the items and knick knacks that decorate William Kaplan's room. Billy Maximoff has created a Wandavision-like hex bubble in Agatha's (or rather Ralph Boehner's) basement  through which the coven traveled. If not for Billy's imagination, the Road doesn't exist at all -- and Agatha has known it all along!

Which brings us to the finale. I was wrong about Agatha being secretly good. She's a very horrid person, perhaps due to her mother and original coven being dead set on killing her way back in the 18th century. Ever since then, she's lived with a persecution complex, surviving on preemptive strikes on any coven she discovers. Rio asks Agatha why she lets people believe she sacrificed her son for the Darkhold, to which she replies that the truth is much worse.

While it is not clear how Agatha and Rio became so close, Rio allowed Agatha's son, Nicholas, 6+ years of life although he was supposed to die at childbirth. The Ballad of the Witches' Road was cobbled together by Nicholas and Agatha while they celebrated their bond and their journey together 'down the wind-y road' which was Nicholas' original lyric. The Ballad spread as Nicholas performed it in public places to make money. After Death finally came for Nicholas, Agatha took the opportunity to use the song that once was about the love between mother and child, turning it into a con in which she traded the lives of entire covens for their power. This story doesn't explain the Darkhold, but it does show that Agatha betrayed the innocence, purity and beauty of her son's memory just to feed her addiction to power. The one good thing that came of her life corrupted into a scam.

In my analysis of this entire series, I never asked one very crucial question. If this story mirrored The Wizard of Oz so closely, who is the Wizard of Oz? The con artist. The trickster. The one with no power, but made use of the power of others to get his way. It is Agatha All Along.

Agatha All Along Ep 7: it's about time

As the season is winding down, the revelations are coming thick and fast. The trial is for Lilia, the coven's seer. My guess about the road under the Witches' Road proved correct. Lilia and Jen, having been hurled into the bog, get sucked under and deposited in an underground passage. The route to this trial, though, takes place within the fractured and improperly sequenced timeline of Lilia's centuries' old existence.

The creativity of this episode in telling the story through a disordered jumble of scenes -- that gives the audience a taste of the disorientating kind of life Lilia has lived -- and still making them all make sense to the overall narrative so far is amazing. When all the pieces fall into place for both Lilia and us, her sporadic and incongruous outbursts throughout the season turn out to be spot-on premonitions and warnings acquired from the future, but are too fragmented and devoid of context to be useful. This is exactly Lilia's gift and curse, and the reason she has chosen to neglect her power. Just because she can see the future does not give her any ability to alter it, so what's the point when all she sees is Death?

Lilia's trial helps her understand her true purpose, finally giving the lion the courage to face her visions and see them through to the end. When seen in their totality, her visions are not really as bad as when she just catches glimpses of incomprehensible bits and pieces which are scary because without proper context they seem so random, hopeless, and futile. This key realization gives her the means to literally turn the tables on the Salem's Seven with some apparent finality, and not a moment too soon. For Lilia, herself, it's bittersweet that the end of her trial gives her a new beginning too.

Also, it seems to me that each episode, like in Wandavision, moves our characters through time. In AAA, the movement is backwards through history. Episode 7 puts us in a medieval setting, but the costumes are based on contemporary Hollywood depictions of fairy tale witches. Agatha is the classical Wicked Witch of the West, which is the persona she projects in front of people. Billy is Disney's Maleficent (I admit I don't yet see the symbolism, though he does brag about having the cheekbones for it, referencing Angelina Jolie who played the role). Jen is dressed as the Disney version of Snow White's evil stepmom in disguise as the hooded fruit vendor bearing a poisoned apple as a reference to Jen being a shyster hawking toxic products prior to the Road. Lilia is dressed as the classical Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, who although takes offence at the cultural stereotyping heroically plays out the role for real by the end of the episode. While Agatha already knows who Rio is, Rio's true identity is revealed in this episode too, although among the rest of the coven only Lilia gets to see it.

Agatha All Along Ep 6: Heeere's Billy!

I love that Episode 6 is a complete break from the pattern that began on the Road, and was starting to get repetitive. It's clear that Teen is Billy, Wanda's kid. And now we get some answers about how that came to be. The clues were there all along.

Half the episode is spent on connecting the dots of Teen's backstory which in itself is a lot of fun as we see fragments of the puzzle fall into place, explaining how a life conceived in a delusional woman's fever dream could possibly manifest itself in corporeal form, along with his true motivation for walking the Road. The other half is a complete re-shoot of Episode 1, but from Teen's perspective rather than Agatha's. It's hilarious as we get to see how her neighbours would have interacted with someone whom they would have rightfully considered delusional for the past three years. It's nice that they treated her kindly all that time while she behaved like a complete lunatic in their midst.

Although it's Agatha's show, this episode is almost entirely Billy's vehicle. Agatha survives her attempted drowning in the bog -- which seems to be her forte -- so she gets to be the sole audience to hear Billy's sigil-uncensored self-reveal. I'm not clear how she knows, but with Billy seemingly having killed off Jen and Lilia in the previous episode, Agatha senses a kindred witch-killing spirit in him. As the two surviving members of the coven that started this journey proceed further down the Road looking for the next trial, their relationship dynamic is now more unwilling master-apprentice, less owner-goldie. In the meantime, Rio's whereabouts are unknown and no one's looking for her anyway.

How will Coven Harkness pass the next trial if it's meant for Lilia or Rio? Could a resurrection be in store for Lilia if it's hers? Will we return to formula and the Oz motifs in the next and subsequent episodes? Only a week to find out.

Wait. I just realized that Billy has replaced Agatha as Dorothy. Like Dorothy who recognizes that her travelling companions on the Yellow Brick Road are people she knows and met in real life, so too has Billy/William Kaplan encountered the members of Coven Harkness before their journey on the Witches' Road. The Oz theme is still driving the story, but it's taken an unexpected detour. Awesome!

Agatha All Along Ep 5: you can't go home again

Consider me thrown. This episode has upset many of my expectations. First, we're no longer on a merry jaunt through the creepy woods. This episode is really leaning a lot more into the 80's horror vibe. The reintroduction of the pursuers, the Salem's Seven, puts them directly in contact with Agatha's coven, who manages to get away this time. We also get a backstory about the Seven's origins, as told by Lilia and Rio. It's interesting that Agatha, herself, neither confirms nor denies the story. After all, she was there when it happened, and was also probably responsible for how it turned out -- but she says nothing other than "mercy is overrated". Hmm...

The trial begins with the coven dressed like teenagers having a sleepover Cabin in the Woods style. They are comfortably dressed for bed but are made to commune with the dead instead. Surprisingly, this trial is Agatha's. Instead of it being the climactic trial like I expected, Agatha's trial takes place at the mid-point of the season. Again, the parent-child relationship is at the heart of trauma. The ghost that manifests is Agatha's own mother with whom she has had a very different relationship from Lorna and Alice Wu's of the last episode. It seems that Agatha had no love from her mother since birth. Instead of protection, Agatha's mom wants to punish her daughter and tells the coven to continue on the Road without Agatha.

In the tussle over Agatha's fate, history repeats itself and once again, Agatha gains power at the expense of a coven member. I'm not sure if Agatha passed her trial, but she certainly got what she wanted out of it. Her response, though, doesn't look like she was happy with the price she paid. Agatha is a complicated woman. I speculate that Agatha would rather everyone believe the worst of her, than pointlessly defend herself for her mistakes.

While Teen usually takes Agatha's side in arguments, this act of betrayal disillusions him. When Agatha spitefully tells Teen how much he and his mother are alike, she has clearly accepted that he is not her son. Her trial confirms what Rio told her in the previous episode, so Agatha's hopes are finally dashed. Having eliminated one possibility, Agatha suspects another witch who could be Teen's mom, Could he really be Wanda's?

We don't find out immediately as Teen lashes out with a power we never knew he had: mind-controlling the remaining coven to toss Agatha into the bog that threatened to drown Sharon Davis in Episode 2. He also uses telekenisis to toss the coven (sans Rio -- where is she?) into the bog too. These are Wanda's powers, though not her colour. It's a jaw-dropping moment as Teen stands alone, magical sparks crackling from his fingers, and wearing what looks like Wanda's headpiece, with Billie Eilish's "You Should See Me in a Crown" playing in the background.

If Agatha is Dorothy's parallel, in a way, she did go home to her mom, but found no welcome there.

I wonder if next episode, the journey takes us literally "down the Road" -- as in down underground -- since that's the direction the coven has taken, thanks to Teen.

Agatha All Along Ep 4

I have to be honest and ask if this series needs to be 9 episodes long. While it kicked off with an intriguing premise, and gathered a quirky, dysfunctional coven of mediocre witch people, we seem to be repeating a formula for each character's trial. Episode 3 was a scavenger hunt of common household items. This episode involved nothing more than singing a song. While it was a competent performance with the occasional dramatic moment, that was it. Trial complete and let's move on.

In performing the song, Alice discovers that her mother composed it as an expression of love for her daughter. It also functioned as a spell of protection over Alice, saving her from the fire that killed her mother. So, the tin-man finds her heart when before she was empty of belief, and had numbed her emotions (except anger) having never got over the loss of Mommy. It's a redemption arc, neatly summed up in the title of this episode.

We also learn that each trial represents an element that will kill the aspirants on the Road should they fail. The previous episode threatened them with drowning, while this one would have offered them to the flames. So far, both causes of death are common means employed to execute witches.

Perhaps the depiction of Alice's trial had to be shortened for scenes of the coven members starting to respect each other and begin the process of bonding over past trauma. But I feel that Sharon "Mrs Hart" Davis deserved better than a simple burial, which while mostly respectful was unceremonious. To also have her immediately and dramatically replaced by Rio Vidal (which was not unexpected) did her dirty. I suspect we're not quite done with Sharon yet, though. She's had too much build up to not return in perhaps a different form later.

As for Agatha, Rio more or less confirms our suspicions of her intentions towards the members of her current coven. As for Agatha's seemingly maternal behaviour towards Teen, Rio seems sincere in informing Agatha that Teen isn't Agatha's. But Rio also looks to be carefully curating these information drops, so if she inadvertently lets a proverbial cat out of the bag, it was perhaps no accident.

Overall, I found this episode exposition heavy while going through the motions of yet another trial. A show loses its fun factor when it repeats formula and becomes predictable Here's hoping that Episode 5 will do something crazy, or at least different, to throw my expectations for a refreshing loop..

Agatha All Along Ep 3 -- character notes

'Agatha' episode 3 scatters a lot of little clues about the company on the Road. Other than introducing the first trial on the Road, the Wizard of Oz theme takes a backseat. Good choice, as now we can follow each character's backstory without needing to forcibly connect them with their Oz doubles (oh, really?).

Let's start with Agatha. She becomes very unlikable as her cowardice and selfishness amp up in this episode. She is either lying about having walked the Road before, and she's just winging it, or judging by her behaviour on this current journey, she might have survived the last one at the expense of her travelling companions back then. While she has no inclination to face the dangers of the trial, she unexpectedly becomes very protective of Teen when he offers himself as her replacement. Could there be some maternal instinct kicking in? Possibly. Jen recounts a rumour that Agatha had sacrificed her child for the Book of the Damned (the Darkhold?), and if that were true, she doesn't seem willing to repeat the experience. The glimpse she has into her past suggests how horrified she is about what she did, but it's too early to say. Terrible friend though she is, she is a terrific coach, giving Jen a heartfelt pep-talk that snaps her out of a panic attack, allowing her to complete her crucial task.

Teen, the Gen-Z representative comes in clutch navigating the trial which is set in a modern yuppie house. Making use of the kitchen sink as a makeshift cauldron, Jen the Potions witch needs to bring her brew to a boil fast. Teen immediately comes up with a 21st Century solution. In fact, early in the episode, Teen figures out that the trials are meant to be faced without witchy magic but with practical magic, emphasis on the "craft" in "witchcraft". This realization opens up for us a glimpse into the witchy codenames for what are otherwise ordinary household ingredients like "eye of newt" referring to mustard seed, and "gut of a eusocial insect", meaning honey. We also learn that none of Agatha's coven can hear Teen's backstory either. It's been censored by a sigil that keeps his secrets secret from the witching community.

It is Jen's expertise that is under trial in this episode. It is up to her to remember the ingredients of the potion needed to save the lives of their coven. A vision of her past shows how terrified she is of a mysterious Victorian-looking man who calls her "an inconvenient woman", appears to have abused her and possibly stolen her power. When Jen freaks out, being unable to remember the last ingredient of the potion, Agatha reminds her that knowledge IS power. Jen the fraud, the scarecrow, finds her brains and completes the potion, ending the first trial. Jen is the first to name-drop, Mephisto, who is widely speculated to make his MCU debut in this series, but it could be just as well be a fan service red herring.

We get only a fragment of Lilia's past in her vision. Giving off a Renaissance horror vibe, her vision hints that her trauma has to do with survivor's guilt. "They're all dead", Lilia says in Italian when she returns to reality. If Lilia is the Lion, she may have stayed quiet and hidden while she watched some horrific event happen to the people around her. As such, her trial may have to do with confronting her act of cowardice. We'll see in subsequent episodes.

Similarly with Alice, her vision is fragmentary. It speaks of a generational curse, and hints at Alice's abandonment issues. She tells Teen that her mother "wasn't well", and in her vision, her mother drinks out of a suspicious-looking vial immediately after declaring that she was "next". Perhaps the heart Alice the Tin-man is looking for has to do with forgiveness for her mother.

'Mrs Hart'. The whole of this episode, she has been responding as a normal, non-magical person would, having been dragged unwittingly on a magical journey. She constantly reminds us that she is "Sha-ron" which is the identity badge she carries around with her throughout the episode. She is endearingly hilarious with her lines and behaviour. Her character is built up a lot, so what happens to her at the end is unexpectedly heart-wrenching. With Agatha simply responding "Who's Sharon?" to close the episode, I suspect that the human "Sharon" identity will take on a new magical form, which would be crucial at the trial of the Green Witch. Or if Rio Vidal is actually meant for this task, it's important for Sharon to be separated from this group so that she can transform into the Good Witch whose role is yet to be filled.

No sign of Rio or the Salem's Seven, but I believe their absence gives us a chance to understand the underlying motivations of our main characters before pursuit begins again.

Anticipating along with Agatha

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 whereabouts.

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.