A long road to get right back where you started.
Last time on Agatha All Along,
we saw things from Lilia’s perspective. The coven’s divinator has been
experiencing time out of sequence since she was introduced in episode 2.
Screaming at things that aren’t happening, trying to give warnings without
context, or being nostalgic when it wasn’t warranted. Her mental loops through
time finally hurled her all the way back to training under her master when she
was a girl in Sicily something like 3-400 years ago. With her master’s
encouragement, Lilia was able to piece together what she needed to do to solve
the fourth trial. She did a reading on herself and used each of the tarot cards
she’d been calling out throughout the show: Queen of Cups, Three of Pentacles,
Knight of Wands, High Priestess, Three of Swords, Tower Reversed, and Death. She
also revealed to the others that Rio is in fact an incarnation of Lady Death
herself. She let the others go ahead of her as the Salem Seven tracked them
down. She slammed the door on Jen, telling her that she’s the future and that
she loved being a Witch. While alone with the Seven, she warned them that it’s
dangerous to linger in a trial site when finished as bad things tend to happen.
She switched the Tower from reversed to upright position, triggering the trap
in the tower. It flipped the tower around and dropped the Seven and Lilia onto
rows of swords. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
Ep 8: Me My Friend / To Glory at the End
We find Alice lying on the floor among
scattered pages in the Third Trial room when a clawed hand strokes her face.
She wakes up and sees Rio in her true guise of Lady Death. She tells Alice that
it’s time to go. She asks “Where?” and Rio gestures at Alice’s body on the
floor. She has trouble believing that his is the end, saying that this should
have been the beginning, as she just broke the curse and now has access to her
powers. Rio just asks if she’s a Protection Witch, when she says yes, Rio shrugs
and says, “you died protecting someone,” she then asks if Alice is ready. Alice
says no, but they head out anyway.
In the Fourth Trial exit, we find
Jen pounding on the door and begging Lilia to not do whatever she’s planning on
doing. Billy comes back to check on what happened, and they both hear something
shift behind the door and they know she’s dead. Meanwhile, Agatha made it
outside and tries to run for it, but she’s cut off by Rio. Rio points out that
Agatha’s coven is shrinking rapidly, and complimenting her on letting the
bodies stack up like she promised. Agatha asks if Rio doubted her. Rio admits
she did, saying she was expecting a trick, and has finally realized there was
one. Agatha was using all of this to hide Billy from her. Distracting Death by
giving her what she wants. Rio says that Billy is an abomination and that he’s
disrupting the sacred balance. Rio claims to know that Agatha cares about
Billy. Agatha tries to deny it, but Rio says that she watches her like Agatha
watches everyone else. She chastises Agatha for walking down the road with
another woman’s son that leads to something, but Agatha cuts her off before she
can say. Rio tells Agatha that no one in history has had the special treatment
that she received. Agatha scoffs at this, saying that Rio didn’t give her
anything, she just took and took from her. Rio counters by saying that’s
usually her MO. She then asks why Agatha lets the others believe the things
they do about her and “Nicky.” She says it’s because the truth is too awful.
Meanwhile, Jen confirms that Lilia
chose to stay behind and stop the Seven. She then waxes poetic about how Rio
told them from the beginning that she was THE Green Witch. She finally explains
what that means, saying that Green Witches are in tune with the cycle of all
living things, growth and decay mixed. Billy says it plainly, that Agatha’s ex
is Death and Jen says that tracks.
Outside, Rio tells Agatha that what
Billy wants is a violation. Agatha scoffs and says finding his brother is such
a minimal reward that they’re borderline wasting it’s time. Rio says that Tommy
isn’t out there, not yet. She says that Billy stole a second life, and she
cannot allow him to steal another for Tommy. She has to take him. Agatha tells
her to do it then… but then realizes that she can’t. She theorizes that if Rio
tries to just take Billy, he’ll just use his powers to reincarnate again, and
she’ll have to start the search all over again. He needs to turn over to her
willingly. Agatha says she can arrange it, get him to the finish line and turn
him over. In exchange, Agatha wants Rio to leave her alone. Rio points out that
she will eventually die. Agatha agrees, but she wants Rio to stop actively
hunting her, and when she does finally go, she doesn’t want to see Rio’s face.
Rio agrees. Guess she wants that Billy soul badly. Rio walks off, cutting a
hole in reality before disappearing through it.
Jen and Billy walk the Road. Billy
asks how they could have even met, with Jen saying that it was probably over
corpses. Billy says that this is proof that Agatha actually has feelings, but
Jen shakes her head at his interpretation of the data. Billy says that he’s not
defending her, and that he knows that at the end of the day Agatha will always
be a Coven-less Witch. Agatha overhears that last bit, says ouch, and announces
they need to finish their Walk. They’re down to the last Trial and then they’ll
get their prize. Billy says that they’re doing the Green Witch Trial without
someone who can do Earth Magic. Agatha scoffs, saying that Earth Magic and
potions have a lot of overlap. Jen agrees there’s some. Agatha says that she’s
impressed that Jen is one of the last Witches standing, admitting she thought
Lilia would beat her out. Before she can keep jabbing at the others she trips…
over their shoes. They return to the start of the Road. Billy says that the
Road is a circle, and Agatha starts visibly freaking out that this was it. She
checks if she’s gotten her power back and it seems like she can only call up
the little that she drained out of Alice. Billy starts hypothesizing that they
missed the trial somehow, but Agatha tells him to shut up unless he knows
something. She says that they’ll just go again and this time it’ll work. Jen
refuses to go through that hell a second time, and Agatha tells her to just sit
there then. She sees them looking at the left-over shoes and mocks Billy,
asking if he’s going to have them bronzed. Billy says that they took tehri
shoes off out of respect for the Road, he says screw the Road and slips his
shoes on.
He wakes up in a body bag in a
sterile looking basement. Another drawer rolls out of the wall and Agatha pops
up. Jen comes out a second later. Once all three are out, they realize they’re
in a version of Agatha’s basement. The room has been overhauled slightly, what
with the body drawers in the walls and grow lights above. Jen checks the door
and confirms they’re locked in. When she notices the lights she suggests that
maybe they need to grow something, Agatha scoffs at doing that without soil or
water… but admits that follows a Witches Trial MO. They check their bags and
find their personal effects. Agatha puts her broach back on, Billy checks his
spell book but the inside is burned and useless. The drawers shut and they get
their countdown, this time in the form of the lights going out one by one. Agatha
notices that Jen is weirdly calm with this situation, Jen says that she
couldn’t save Lilia, she didn’t try to save Alice, so now she won’t let the
others die. Agatha mocks her from trying to do that without her powers. Billy
points out that she has been doing that without her powers the whole time. She
makes an offhand comment about how the man in Boston didn’t take her powers
away, she gave them up, then. Agatha starts acting a bit coy, and when Jen
starts needling her to figure out why, Agatha says that she didn’t realize that
Jen went through Boston. Jen realizes that Agatha’s the one that bound her and
screams at her for leaving her cut off like that for a hundred years. Agatha
says she didn’t know it was Jen, in the 20s she did magical odd jobs for
banknotes. Jen grabs her and rips out some of Agatha’s hair, wraps her wrists
around in it and tries to do an unbinding spell. Agatha tease-compliments her
for actually trying this. Jen repeats the line “You hold nothing” until finally
she lets go of the hair and can call up her power again. Jen starts sobbing as that
metaphorical weight was lifted from her. Billy looks away from her for a
second, looks down and finds Jen is gone. Agatha explains that Jen came here
for her power, she got it, so the Road let her go. She tells him that they can
end this trial right now the same way. Agatha came for power, Billy has it, so
he just needs to blast her, let her drain him and they can move on with their
lives. Billy isn’t buying this time, thinking he’ll be forced to rot on the
Road if he just gives Agatha his power or leave him for dead. Agatha says she
wouldn’t, but he calls her a liar. She tells him to sit down and they’ll find
his brother. Agatha tells him that Tommy isn’t waiting out there, that he’s not
in a body just yet. She says that that is what is got Rio in a tizzy, that she
knows that he could force Tommy’s soul to reincarnate again. Billy isn’t sure
he believes her, saying he’s not sure how he did it, and Agatha says he never
does. She tells him to do it.
Billy sits and she tells him to
think about his last moments with Tommy. He remembers Vision and Wanda saying
goodbye and the feeling of fading away. Agatha coaches with through it, to keep
matching Tommy’s breath and breath for him. Agatha grabs his head and says he
can’t hold Tommy in him. Billy starts breathing rapidly, saying he can’t hold
it in, that he can’t find a place for Tommy. Agatha scoffs and says that 120
bodies ‘empty out’ every minute, so just find one. He sees a boy being forced
under water in a prank gone wrong. He says that this boy has no one, is unloved
and alone. He asks Agatha if he’s killing this boy so Tommy can live. He breaks
the connection, coughing up water as he does before vanishing. Agatha, when
alone, says no he isn’t, as sometimes Boys die. She opens her broach and takes the
bit of hair out of it. She looks again and sees a dandelion seed inside it. She
mutters “out of death, there is life.” With just a single light left she plants
the seed in a bit of dirt and drops her tear over it. The dandelion sprouts and
the lights come back on. Then soil and rock started dropping on her. She runs
to the exit and hammers it to let her out.
She escapes out of her storm cellar
a moment later. A top her house Rio cackles, saying that she’s sorry she didn’t
have a ribbon set up for her to run through. Agatha demands to get her prize, as
she played by the rules and got Billy out. Rio asks where is he, then? Because
he didn’t surrender himself to her, she’s considering their contract null and
void and says she’ll collect Agatha’s soul via death by a thousand cuts, shattering
her windows to hurl the glass at her. The rest of Agatha’s neighbors see the
storm localized over her house and are terrified that the Hex is happening
again. Agatha sees that the moon is in it’s fire phase and starts trying to do
a spell to expel evil. She claims that she is the natural end and is not evil.
She shouts that Agatah is a coward, and Agatha remembers Lilia’s advice and
hits the deck. She just barely dodges some debris that Rio threw at her. She
cuts her Achilles tendon, and slashes Agatha with roots, demanding to know why
Agatha doesn’t want her. She straps Agatha to a post and prepares to end her,
but she gets blasted aside by Billy in his new Wiccan look. Agatha tells him
that he looks good, she says she doesn’t. He then tells her to not take it all
and blasts her. Agatha starts draining a LOT of power out of Billy, his blue energy
shifting purple as she drains. She reforms her witch gear, and just before
killing Billy breaks the connection. Rio
recovers and gives them the option that one of them can stay and the other goes
with her. Agatha blasts her with her new power and Billy gets thrown into the
garden shed. He recovers and finds the Witch and Death dueling with magic. Rio
blasts Agatha to the ground, and Billy hurls her into the house. He goes to check
on her and Agatha says that this is futile, as they can’t fight death. She says
that it should be her, and that he’s not bad. He says she isn’t either, but Agatha
says he’s the only one that thinks so. Billy offers himself up, Agatha recovers
and agrees that Rio should take Billy. Billy is clearly betrayed by this, but
Agatha says she’s just a coven-less witch. As she tries to walk away, Billy
projects his own thoughts for the firs time, asking her if this is how Nicky
died. She fingers her broach before turning around, walking to Rio and kissing
her until she’s consumed by blackness and drops. Her body quickly decays into fungus
and flowers as the sun appears. Billy sees her broach in the middle of the
greenery and grabs it. He looks at Death, who has dropped her Rio guise almost
entirely, who tells him that he may go. He gets in his car and drives away.
Billy returns home and his parents instantly
barrage him with questions, asking where he’d been gone all day. Billy has a
shower and then goes to his room. He starts looking around his room and starts
noticing some… oddities. Lorna Wu’s poster next to one for the Wizard of Oz.
Figures of the Wicked Witch of the West and a bedazzled tree. He remembers Agatha
saying that the Road isn’t real. He remembers Agatha winking at him during the trial.
And the line, “You and your mother have the same tell,” and realizes that HE
made the road. Using objects from his life to shape his reality.
Okay, I’ll just say it, the Salem
Seven were a neat concept but completely pointless. Role could have easily been
taken by Rio doing both the back up Green Witch part and the masked hunter or
something. That’s like my big negative takeaway from this one. I liked the reveal
that Billy was… not completely correct in thinking that Tommy was out there.
The whole bit of him guiding Tommy’s soul to a vessel for him to take was
really well done. And even if they don’t answer the philosophical question of
if Billy is Billy or William, I do like that Agatha at least to herself lets us
know that Billy transferring Tommy’s soul into a new body isn’t killing the
original boy, just… taking up a vacated vessel. Still a bit dark, not going to
lie, but better than killing someone. All I’m saying. Part of me wonders if
they had some scenes cut with Jen. I don’t know, it feels like they cut her
storyline short with the reveal that Agatha bound her and was thus the one she
needed to be freed. Like, I wouldn’t be shocked if there were a few scenes dropped
about what happened in Boston. Otherwise, why hire that actor and dress him in
1920s gear for a 15 second moment with Jen? The final confrontation with Death
was neat, having both Billy and Agatha show off a little with their new and
newly restored powers. As villainous as Agatha is, I am glad that she 1. Chose not
to Drain Billy completely and 2. Ultimately sacrificed herself for him. It’s a classic,
“worst person you know does one good thing” thing, but hey, she’s on the board
now. I am very curious to see how they’ll wrap this story up now. I assume the
last episode will give us the real story about what happened to Nicholas Scratch
and how Billy ended up making the Road, but I can’t think of how that’ll wrap
up. I’m sure it’s going to end with Billy setting out to find Tommy and that
the first Champion’s (read they’re going with that name instead of Young
Avengers) team up will involve finding him or take place just after Billy does
so. But we’ll have to wait and see on that. So yeah, good penultimate episode,
curious to see the end. Have a good night.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/116979773
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
No comments:
Post a Comment