Agatha All Along S01E02 Review: Gathering the Party

Agatha All Along, Season 1, Episode 2: Circle Sewn With Fate / Unlock Thy Hidden Gate

That is a lot better than the first episode. I was a bit worried that this was going to be yet another MCU TV show that I didn't enjoy, but "Circle Sewn With Fate, Unlock Thy Hidden Gate" is a lot more fun than I expected it to be. It's a bit more basic, but not being stuck with a confused protagonist for half an episode, and giving me the 'Kathryn Hahn chews the scenery like she did the corn dog in that one scene' that they promised is a lot more palatable to watch. 

So we very quickly establish that Agatha is going to team up with the mysterious "Teen", who all Marvel Comics fans know is either Wiccan or a gigantic red herring. Not-Wiccan can't actually speak his name, however, with some mysteries involving an inky signature that replaces his mouth when he tries to say his name, as well as a loud droning noise that blots out his attempt to explain his backstory to Agatha. So we've got that mystery, all the while the two of them go and recruit a Coven to access something called the Witches' Road. I'm still not very sure why Not-Wiccan wants to hang out with Agatha beyond fanboyism, but Agatha just wants power, and she goes on a 'time to recruit my wacky team' montage. 

Which... I always have a weakness for a good recruitment montage, so that part of this episode is quite enjoyable. The actual characters themselves are a bit of a mixed bag. Agatha is fun, and Not-Wiccan is... servicable. He's a bit over-the-top sometimes in his fanboyism, and I don't really know if that's intentionally annoying as part of what his character should be, or just bad direction. 

Meeting the witches gives us some context to just how badly Agatha has been viewed by other contemporaries, since we've not seen any other witches other than the coven in that WandaVision flashback. Of course, Agatha's just recruiting some has-beens, but she did talk about getting a 'divination' and a 'potions' and all these Dungeons & Dragons terminology that... feel a bit weird coming out of the very dismissive-towards-everything-else Agatha. 

The three witches we got are... interesting? The elderly Lilia Calderu initially seems to be a crystal ball fate-reading huckster, but turns out to actually be the real deal. She's on a bit of hard times, and was convinced to join in, and scribbles down four names on a paper that will form Agatha's coven. The second witch they recruited is Jennifer Kale, who's a more modern witch who sells... hippie bullshit candles, I guess. She runs a business that's fallen on a lot of hard times. She's the one that didn't give much of an impression to me, with the highlight of that scene being Not-Wiccan and Agatha kind of high-school-girl-mocking her for the lawsuits that she's in trouble with. Rounding up the group is Alice Wu-Gulliver, who's a 'blood witch', which is a child born to a witch. She just feels grumpy, but I do like her "I was a cop, remember" blasé reaction to everything, and seemingly having a connection to a major witch does give her a bit of a backstory. 

(Agatha and Not-Wiccan also totally fuck Alice up by causing her to lose her job, which isn't nice but Agatha is also not meant to be nice.)

They're all... all right. There's only so much you could do when you rapid-fire introduce a bunch of characters one after the other, and it's clearly meant to be an ensemble cast for the rest of this 9-episode TV show. I'm... cautiously optimistic. Just because they aren't really based on well-established Marvel characters (most of them have like 2-3 issues' worth of appearance, and the one that doesn't, Jennifer Kale, is an in-name-only adaptation) doesn't mean that they can't pull a Phil Coulson on us. Out of these three witches, only Lilia get a fair bit of characterization -- you could feel the exhaustion and defeat radiating off of her after surviving things like the Salem witch trials. 

Eventually everyone convenes in Agatha's house, and the other witches note that they need a 'green witch'. Agatha had previously very immaturely swallowed the prophecy paper when questioned by Not-Wiccan. Lilia also rather ominously note that she didn't write a name, but a 'black heart', which is most certainly a reference to the Marvel comics' demon Blackheart... but Agatha just waltzes out and picks up "Mrs. Hart", or rather, Sharon Davis, who's one of the recurring characters from WandaVision. 

I actually find Sharon to be the most ridiculously weird of the cast, and I can't decide whether I like her inclusion or not. She just pulls on her purse and is just so happy to be included in something that she goes from questioning if this is a 'drug cult' to just singing along with the Ballad. Which takes up a chunk of the climax -- Agatha and her new coven start singing this Ballad, and... it's okay. They open up a door in the floor that the party (and Not-Wiccan) go through, and of course after the door is closed, it disappears, locking them into this alternate dimension. 

Oh, just to make sure that there's some threat, Not-Wiccan, while in the process of playing with Agatha's bunny, walks out to see the Salem Seven show up. And... the Salem Seven is a dark-hooded lady that can split into seven, and there are some basic spooky effects like loud droning music, mist, stuntmen contortion and sudden jump-scares. Oh, and there's the implication that all the animals that has been spying on Agatha (crows, rats, a wolf) are the familiars of this Salem Seven. They're a'ight, certainly a fair bit more Halloween'y than anything in the first episode. 

Again, this is pretty all right in that it's fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. I also kind of like that the show is happy to highlight Agatha's very self-centered motivations, very much willing to blackmail, gaslight and even cause people to lose their jobs to get what she wants. Oh, and recruiting some random civilian to join her coven, too. Again, it's not super engaging, but it's no Secret Invasion or She-Hulk -- it's at least fun enough to keep me around for a while. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Jennifer Kale is a supporting character in the 70's Man-Thing comics, a woman who had a psychic link with Man-Thing. During the many escapades, she would learn sorcery, and would eventually recur in multiple other comics, including X-Force, Ghost Rider (she's a cousin of Johnny Blaze) and Midnight Sons.
  
• The other two witches borrow names from minor witches in Marvel history., whose appearances number in the single digits. Lilia Calderu is a minor Dr. Strange antagonist who briefly was the lover of Baron Mordo. "The Wu", a.k.a. Alice Gulliver, is the policewoman and daughter of a magician, and briefly aided Scarlet Witch. 
• Alice's mother in the comics had the title of 'August Wu of the Coral Shore'. In this show, 'Coral Shore' was instead the band that she played in. 
• Lilia mentions the term 'black heart' with the show zooming in to seemingly emphasize it. Blackheart is the son of Mephisto in the Marvel comics, and a constant antagonist for mystical characters.
• The Witches' Road is a magical dimension that only magic-wielding witches can access, and was first introduced in the 2016 Scarlet Witch run. 
• The Salem Seven appearing as a single witch that splits into seven is a reference to, ironically enough, Ultimate universe Agatha Harkness.