This review contains full spoilers for Agatha All Along episodes 1 and 2, "Seekest Thou the Road" and "Circle Sewn with Fate Unlock Thy Hidden Gate"
They always say the sequel is darker. That’s certainly true for Marvel’s WandaVision follow-up, the ominous and delightfully wicked Agatha All Along. After being defeated by Wanda Maximoff in the previous series, Kathryn Hahn reprises her role as the evil yet deliciously entertaining Agatha Harkness – and this time, she’s even more sinister. One might think that losing her magic and spending three years trapped by the Scarlet Witch’s spell would humble Agatha, but she wastes no time breaking free and enacting a new scheme to restore her lost power. Agatha All Along’s two-part premiere does an excellent job of continuing the story of WandaVision while building out the witchy side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
WandaVision wowed us with the way it parodied different eras of television to tell Wanda’s story of building a family, and Agatha All Along continues that trend to catch us up with Agatha. She’s been trapped in a variation of the TV world Wanda created for herself, forcing her to act out the life of a fictional character with no memory of who she actually is. Spoofing Mare of Easttown is an inspired choice, because it allows us to follow “Agnes of Westview” as she investigates a murder, which also forces her to investigate the cracks in her bizarre new reality. Hats off to Hahn for truly nailing Kate Winslet’s junk-food-eating, line-cutting, hard-nosed investigator whose hair has never known the touch of a comb. The show’s murder mystery elements are utilized well, too, to set up a chilling moment about the former owners of the ancient book of dark magic known as the Darkhold.
Helping Agatha escape is the mysterious goth teen known only as “Teen,” played with earnest enthusiasm and an adorable amount of naivete by Joe Locke. He’s the silly guy to her straight woman, a goofy Agatha fanboy eager to learn more about witchcraft despite her treating him with utter disdain. He sees her as a mentor but she sees him as, in her words, a pet. They’re an enjoyably odd pairing brought together by a shared goal of wanting to walk the fabled Witches’ Road to be granted what they are “missing” – which they each claim is the power they want. Who wants to bet that what they want isn’t what they need, and the mystical road will end up giving them something else entirely, like the magic of friendship?
As for the identity of Teen, the going fan theory says he is none other than Billy Kaplan, grown-up son of the Scarlet Witch, who in the comics is a teenage superhero sorcerer known as Wiccan. It seems WandaVision and Agatha All Along show creator Jac Schaeffer understood that his identity would be a point of great interest to fans, so rather than beat around the bush, the show explicitly acknowledges this and makes it a mystery Agatha must solve. It’s a very self-aware approach, but perhaps it will prove to be a wise one, considering how we fans tend to obsess over these kinds of things, which can distract from the actual story being told. (Who else remembers endlessly theorizing about WandaVision’s missing witness, aerospace engineer, apparent Mephisto references, and fake Pietro, only for them to end up not mattering?) Doing it this way, it doesn’t matter whether you’re tuned into Marvel Comics lore and already know the answer or not, because Agatha doesn’t know. The fun comes from watching her try to figure it out, and we can all relax a little instead of spending our every waking hour on YouTube watching theory videos.
It’s almost funny to watch Agatha try to shoo Teen away like an annoying pest when she has literally no friends or allies to speak of. Her list of enemies, on the other hand, is looking scary and growing fast. We don’t know much about the Salem Seven yet, but their super creepy entrance does its job by giving Agatha seriously dangerous adversaries to fear. Then there’s fellow witch Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza), who invades Agatha’s TV-world and helps her escape – only to attack her while she’s vulnerable. Rio and Agatha’s face-off in the kitchen practically crackles with electricity. They clearly have a juicy past, and it’s plain to see that meeting again brings a lot of intense emotions to the surface. It does seem a tad too easy for Agatha to talk Rio out of attacking her, especially after Rio spends so much time and effort tracking her down and helping break Wanda’s spell, so here’s hoping we’ll learn more about their troubled relationship and why Rio was so willing to change her mind.
In order to access the Witches’ Road, Agatha is forced to gather enough witches to create a new coven, which proves difficult thanks to her reputation as, you know, a notorious witch-killer. Watching Agatha go about recruiting Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata), Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn), Mrs. Davis/Hart (Debra Jo Rupp), and Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone) proves to be devilishly fun. She’s a powerless witch at the end of her rope, yet she can’t stop it with the pretentious attitude and scathing remarks, even to save her own life. She does achieve success, but in the most Agatha way possible: with insults, lies, and emotional manipulation – all while wearing a venomous smile on her face. It’s this recruitment drive sequence that proves why Agatha deserves her own show: she’s the nastiest piece of work the MCU has ever seen.
That said, episode 2 does feel a tad rushed as it tries to squeeze in enough time for Agatha and Teen to visit all of the witches. With so little time spent convincing them to join, it’s hard to believe they’d all choose to show up like they did. Still, it’s interesting how each witch has a specialty that focuses on a different aspect of witchcraft. I’m familiar with the idea of a witch being good at potion-making and one who can read the future from a crystal ball, but what’s the skill of a protection witch? Color me intrigued.
The premiere ends with Agatha and her reluctant coven singing “Down the Witches’ Road” to open a magical gateway, making great use of the ensemble musical talent. You don’t cast Broadway legend Patti LuPone as a witch if she’s not going to use those pipes to chant some spells! Their beautiful voices and the haunting melody give immense power to the song and bring the premiere to a fantastic climax. The song’s tone is miles away from WandaVision’s breakout hit “Agatha All Along,” yet is no less catchy.
Other Thoughts
-During the first scene, the song that Agatha hums in the car and the music that plays after is the tune to “Down the Witches’ Road.” I like how Agatha is already on the path to the Witches’ Road even before she knows it.
-The sequence where Agatha breaks free of the spell by going back through all of her WandaVision guises, culminating with the black-and-white Agnes, was freakin’ awesome.
-It was neat to see the residents of Westview again, and how they treat Wanda’s name like the characters of the Wizarding World treat Voldemort’s. When Agatha passes by the plot of land where Wanda’s house used to be, we can see it’s been vandalized with anti-Scarlet Witch graffiti. That’s what you get for traumatizing a whole town.
-Agatha’s signature necklace was revealed to be a locket containing a lock of hair inside. When Teen is begging Agatha to take him with her to the Witches’ Road, it’s not until she pauses to look at the locket and gets lost in thought for a moment that she changes her mind and agrees, so something about it must have great personal significance to her.
-Rio Vidal is not a character from the comics, so I’ll be interested to learn more about her and see if a connection to the comics is eventually revealed.
-When Agatha tears down Teen’s “WELCOME COVEN” sign, all the letters come down except the “W.” Could that “W” stand for Wiccan?
-Agatha’s new costume and hair style at the end of episode 2 are a direct homage to Agatha's classic comic book appearance.
-Mrs. Davis was so, so cute during the musical performance. “Am I supposed to know this song?” And then the way she excitedly bounces around and starts to sing along once she learns the words? Protect her at all costs!
-Remember when the MCU tried to treat magic like it was super science and not actual magic? I’m glad that’s in the past now, because watching the supernatural corner of the MCU being built out like this has been great.
-Marvel Witch Songs: 2. Star Wars Witch Songs: 0.
