Agatha All Along, Season 1, Episode 8: Follow Me My Friend; To Glory At The End
Agatha All Along's first season, meanwhile, has what's basically a two-parter conclusion, and I am genuinely surprised to see that the big action scenes are done and dusted in the penultimate one. And... it's an interesting way to tackle the ending of one of Marvel's more unconventional shows.
Which is why we're starting with the supposed 'focus' character of this episode, Rio Vidal, a.k.a. the Green Witch, a.k.a. the cosmic entity Lady Death. We start off with her walking and escorting Alice to the afterlife, showing that despite her over-the-top mannerisms and taunting, she is still the cosmic manifestation of death. Terrifying, but ultimately also the friend that greets you at the end of the road that is life.
After Lilia's death at the end of the previous episode, Rio and Agatha finally confront each other after Rio's brief absence. Rio gives us her motivation -- she wants the 'scales balanced', because Wiccan is an 'abomination' that shouldn't be alive. As a cosmic entity, Rio refuses to let him roam around in the world of the living... much less summon another thing that should not be alive in Billy's brother. However, there is a bit of a complication. Thanks to the uniqueness of the magic that created the entity that is Wiccan, he can't exactly die. He has to come willingly with Death, otherwise he'll just continue reincarnating to the next corpse and the next corpse.
And throughout this episode, the main focus and character lynchpin is Agatha Harkness herself, which is quite appropriate. Throughout her run in this show and in WandaVision, Agatha has been defined by her sheer 'gives no shits' attitude. She doesn't care about any of her coven, she views everyone else as stepping stones to her ambition... but Wiccan is the one sole exception that she seems to care about. And, of course, Agatha gives the easiest self-defense as Rio demands Wiccan... "take him". They make a deal, with Agatha not ever wanting to see Rio ever again (and even when she dies long, long in the future, she doesn't want to see Rio's face). In a cool bit of magic mindfuckery, Rio uses her knife to cut the sky as if it's the background in a stage show, and walks through it.
With only three members in the coven left, Agatha, Wiccan and Jennifer continue the trial. They end up at the beginning of the Road, discovering that it's a circle. Wiccan throws a temper tantrum, putting the shoes he took off out of respect for the Witches' Road back on... and they end up in a morgue, struggling out of body bags. This is the episode's very short trial, which is supposed to be assigned to the 'earth' or 'green' magic of Rio.
As everyone panics while the timer counts down, Agatha accidentally lets slip the fact that she was the one behind Jen's curse 100 years ago, although Agatha never knew the target of the spell. Jen grabs Agatha's hair, chants an unbinding spell, regains her power and disappears from the Witches' Road. It's... it's really bizarre. It is a conclusion to Jen's story arc, I suppose, but the character has been on the sidelines so much that I barely mustered caring about her. We get to see her float off all alive and well into the distance at either the end of this episode or the next one, and I really don't care all that much, unfortunately. She just got interesting here, and I really would've liked this revelation to happen earlier in the season -- maybe episode 3 or 4 or something, and then we could've had an antagonistic Jen for the second half of the season... but it really did feel like the showrunners just wanted her out of their hair while we focus on the primary three protagonists.
Agatha guides Wiccan to look for what he wants from the Road. Jen wanted her power back, and Wiccan wants his brother back. Agatha coaches Wiccan as he looks for a suitable body, which, of course, coincidentally is a dead boy who's also called Tommy (most likely from a family called the Shepherds) who's drowning in a pool due to a terrifyingly irresponsible prank. Wiccan is confused about it all, asking Agatha if he's killing this other boy so his brother can live... but he never gets to hear Agatha's answer as he blips out of the Road. So yeah, Speed at some point in the future, I guess.
Agatha manages to figure out something to get life to grow or whatever, pulling out a dandelion seed from the locket with her son's hair that she's been wearing all season, and manages to unlock the doors to the trial room and she explodes out of the cellar door in her Westview house. Rio/Death is waiting for her, and here we have the final battle. Rio is pissed off that she didn't get Wiccan, so she's attacking Agatha with some magical blasts. Agatha dodges an initial kill-shot thanks to one of Lilia's last parting words, before Wiccan arrives in his full suprehero outfit glory. Which... is... all right? It's not the best Disney+ superhero outfit, but it's all right for what it is.
Wiccan fights Rio a bit, but then they realize that Agatha needs her magic back. And this is what the show has kind of building up to throughout the season. Is Agatha capable of not being a selfish prick for once in her life? Wiccan, always a nice bleeding heart, unleashes his magic on Agatha, knowing very well that Agatha could do the same parasitic drain she did on Alice. But despite some moments where it looks like Agatha's about to betray Wiccan, she doesn't. Agatha Harkness returns in her full glory, dressed up in her WandaVision climax outfit. And then we get a bit more of a fight before they realize that Lady Death is way too powerful for them, and one of them needs to die.
We get a darkly comedic sequence of Bugs-Bunny-ing, as Agatha offers to sacrifice herself, then Wiccan offers himself... and Agatha agrees almost immediately. The heartbreaking expression on Wiccan's face is perfectly acted, and this seems to be the next in a series of moments in this episode on the question of whether Agatha Harkness can care at all. Agatha walks away, with her full power, willing to leave Wiccan in the tender hands of Death... and then Wiccan asks a bombshell of a question. "Is this how Nicky died?"
We've had hints of Nicholas Scratch throughout the show, although frustratingly never anything concrete. It's clear that there's a bit more than meets the eye instead of just Agatha sacrificing Nicholas for power. And we get again, another very well-acted dialogueless scene of Agatha going through so many emotions in her mind as she tries to process this accusation. She doesn't try to defend herself, not with her usual biting sarcasm or any kind of earnest pleading... but she did finally change. She walks up to Rio, kisses her in the mouth, and allows Rio to kill her and spare Wiccan.
Boom. The final fight. Agatha Harkness, the titular character, dies in one episode before the end. Our main antagonist Lady Death flutters off, her goals accomplished. We get a short scene of Wiccan returning to his house and explaining to his parents (mostly offscreen) what he's been doing in the past couple of days... before he walks into his room and sees a lot of suspiciously familiar things in his room. The heavy implication, of course, just like how Scarlet Witch was behind the creation of everything in the Westview shows, Wiccan was the creator of the Witches' Road unconsciously. And then he gasps in an admittedly lame cliffhanger, and we cut to credits.
And... there are some complaints that I do have about this show so far. The antagonists just aren't that interesting, with the Salem Seven being taken off the board before they even had the chance to be interesting; and the establishing of Rio as Death being so rapid that we never really learn too much about her. Oh, and the rules of witch magic is always frustratingly vague as ever (didn't Agatha gain some power from killing Alice?), and I had my complaint about Jen earlier. But I do feel like the show did a great job at building up the Agatha/Wiccan relationship, as well as establishing just what a gigantic douchebag Agatha is and how willing she is to normally kill people and leave a trail of dead witches in her wake. Having this climactic finale an episode before the end of the season is pretty well-done, and while it's not a perfect climax, I felt that it's one that fit the show almost perfectly.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Wiccan's costume is based on his most iconic outfit from Young Avengers, albeit with a tiara that resembles his mother's and an additional hoodie.
- Right before she dies, Agatha wears her outfit from WandaVision, symbolizing her coming to full power.
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