“Agatha All Along” Season 1, Episode 8 & 9 Review

(*This article contains major spoilers regarding the two-part finale. Read at your own discretion.*)

The two-part finale of the Disney+ miniseries, “Agatha All Along,” fittingly aired on Mischief Night, October 30th. The episodes, titled “Follow Me My Friend/To Glory at the End” and “Maiden Mother Crone”, respectively, were filled with plot twists and an unexpected death as the remaining coven members struggle to struggle through the last leg of the Witches’ Road and beyond.

Episode 8 began with the sad confirmation that Ali Ahn’s Alice Wu-Gulliver and Patti LuPone’s Lilia Calderu are officially dead. As Teen/Billy/William attempts to comfort Jen over Lilia’s sacrifice underground, on the surface, Agatha is freaking out.

While it seems odd to see the callous Agatha panicking, it becomes clear that the reason has to do with Teen, who, Rio declares is “disrupting the sacred balance.” Rio shares that “the son of the Scarlet Witch stole a second life” and he certainly should not have done that.

The tension in the conversation between Agatha and her past love, Death, grows until Agatha declares “if I deliver Billy, you’ll let me go.” Rio appears hurt but agrees and leaves, cutting through the scenery like wallpaper as she goes.

Teen and the incredibly saddened Jen catch up to Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha, who precedes to put on her typical whimsical act until the trio arrives back at their shoes. They have arrived back to where they began their journey and Agatha freaks out.

Joe Locke’s Teen decides to put his shoes on because he has lost his respect for the road, and he wakes up in a body bag in a dystopian-looking morgue. Sasheer Zamata’s Jen and Agatha follow suit, and the trio realizes that this is the trial for the missing green witch of their group.

With Rio M.I.A. and Mrs. Davis dead, the trio decides that Jen’s potion knowledge will get them through the trial. Jen realizes that Agatha is the witch who bound her magic for the last hundred years. Through a series of increasingly powerful “you [Agatha] hold nothing” statements, Jen’s purple magic returns, and then she disappears into the ground.

With the glowing clock ticking above them, Agatha decides to help Billy find his brother, Tommy. Through Agatha’s guidance, Billy is able to find Tommy but struggles to secure a vessel for Tommy to live in.

When Billy sees a young boy drowning as the result of a cruel prank, he realizes that the young boy would be a perfect vessel. Yet, he struggles. Billy cries out to Agatha, “Agatha am I killing this boy so my brother can live?” Agatha responds in a calm manner. “No, Billy. Sometimes, boys die.”

The floor cracks open and Billy disappears, leaving Agatha holding a piece of her son’s, Nicholas Scratch's, hair in the empty dystopian room.

Somehow, Agatha is able to complete the last trial by growing a dandelion with her son’s hair and a tear right before the room comes crashing down. She steps out into her backyard and is confronted by Death, who is deliriously furious and immediately tries to kill Agatha by a thousand cuts.

Agatha manages to remember Lilia’s advice of “when she calls you a coward, hit the deck,” which saves her from being killed. However, Rio quickly gains the upper hand against the powerless Agatha.

Somehow, Billy arrives, decked out in a superhero costume, cape, powers and all, just in time to save Agatha from being brutally murdered.

He transfers some of his power to Agatha. For a split moment, it appears that Wiccan has made a mistake and will suffer the same fate as the coven’s protector, Alice. However, Agatha spares Billy at the last minute and is restored to her full power.

Agatha declares to Billy that the battle is futile. “We know it. We can’t fight Death. It should be me.” Billy, being the kind teen he is, disagrees. The duo go back and forth until Billy tells Death to take him. Agatha promptly agrees.

Billy is stunned as Agatha walks away and mind-shouts after her. Through a surprising change of events, Billy is able to convince Agatha to change her mind by reminding her of her young son.

Agatha and Rio share an intimate kiss, until Death’s kiss takes Agatha’s life, shriveling her up. Purple flowers grow around Agatha’s body and she becomes one with the earth. Her locket lays on the ground until a shaken-up Billy takes it with him.

The day changes from malicious green to sunshine blue, causing Agatha’s Westview neighbors to watch as Death and Billy part ways.

The second part of the fascinating finale finally unveils to the audience what happened to Agatha’s young son, Nicholas.

It’s 1750 in America and Agatha is in labor. A young and innocent-looking Rio appears, horrifying Agatha who realizes that Rio is here to take her baby. Agatha begs, in early modern English, to Rio, who declares “I can offer only time” and disappears.

While the reasoning behind Agatha’s persistent need to kill witches’ is never fully explained, for six years Agatha and her son are the perfect mother-son witch-killing team until Nicholas comes down with a grave cough and Rio takes him away in the middle of the night.

As Agatha sings her and her son’s song over his grave, a young witch hears her singing and asks for her to guide her on the Witches’ Road. This is where Agatha’s scheming begins.

She gathers a makeshift coven, has them sing the song and then kills them by draining them of all their power. She continues this con for centuries until the last attempt, where the Witches’ Road actually appears.

As Teen begins to look around his magic-themed bedroom, the audience is able to connect brilliantly pieced-together dots: the Witches’ Road was never a real thing, or at least not until Teen made it real. Teen created the Road.

Quickly the guilt of killing Mrs. Davis, Alice and Lilia begin to chip away at Teen, who is comforted by the ghost of a gray-haired Agatha who reveals that she was planning on killing everyone before the trial, so Teen technically saved a life (Jen). Agatha adds “If you want to be a witch, get used to this feeling.”

Teen rejects Agatha’s attempt at comfort and returns to Agatha’s house and draws a pentagram over the Witches’ Road’s door. As he attempts to banish a terrified Agatha to the afterlife, he questions why she won’t die. In a frightened voice, Agatha cries “Because I can’t face him.”

As the realization hits Teen, he decides to not banish Agatha. He seals up the Witches’ Road and creates a dedicated grave for the three fallen members of the coven. Agatha offers her ghostly mentorship to Teen and Teen accepts. The mentor-mentee duo heads out to find Tommy, Billy’s speedster brother whose soul is in the drowning boy’s body.

While this mentor-mentee pairing probably wasn’t the brightest move on Teen’s part, it will certainly set up plenty of interesting storylines for future MCU projects.

Aubrey Plaza’s performance as heartbroken Death was spectacular and devastating to watch. Rio’s fall from innocence to destruction after extending a life for her noxious lover, Agatha, forces the reader to have some sympathy for her and her actions.

Overall, “Agatha All Along” was a fascinating miniseries. It showed that Marvel has not lost all of their superhero-centric magic. Perhaps better films and series will be on the horizon.

Rating: 4/5

Sarah Taylor is a second-year majoring in telecommunications. To contact her, email smt6314@psu.edu.