Agatha All Along, Season 1, Episode 5: Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power
Okay, this is a surprise change in tone. After the two-episode setup, Agatha All Along seems to be pretty intent on keeping the next couple of episodes be rather formulaic, pretty 'easy-watching' and episodic sequences focusing on the three secondary characters. Alice got a pretty nice one last episode, Jen got a serviceable one, and surely this would be Lilia's, and then we can wrap things up with the two clear authors' favourites, Rio and Not-Wiccan, right?
Apparently, wrong. This episode ends up having Agatha's trial in more ways than one, as it's not just the Witches' Road that puts Agatha on trial, but also her new coven and a member of her old one. It is pretty unexpected, but considering this is supposed to be the Agatha show, it has been admittedly rather light on heavy Agatha moments. She's there, of course, in every episode, hamming things up and chewing the scenery, but her character isn't really being explored all that much.
The faceless antagonists, the Salem Seven, finally show up after their context-less appearance in episode 2, appearing as animals that apparently found their way in because their summoning of Rio left the door open. Rio gives us an explanation of who the Salem Seven are -- they are the children of the witches that Agatha killed in the 1600s, which leads to Agatha's gem of a punchline: "The moral of the story, kids, is to finish what you started". We also get a comedic moment where all the witches complain about Not-Wiccan's suggestion to escape on broomsticks, with Lilia in particular being very incensed that they are perpetuating a hurtful stereotype.
The sequence here is intentionally campy and low-budget, but honestly, with most of what's going on in the Witches' Road, the fact that it's all magic -- and partially personalized magic at that -- it's way more forgivable and far more fitting to the tone of the show compared to something like She-Hulk or Secret Invasion.
The coven escape the Salem Seven member that has the horrifying ability to burst into a swarm of murder hornets and enter another cabin in the woods, which puts them all into... uh... I don't exactly know what this theme is, or how it relates to it being Agatha's trial. But it sure is supposed to be? The cabin none-too-subtly forces the coven to play with an Ouija board, and despite the other witches pointing out that it's obviously Agatha that has to do stuff, she's as usual evasive and flippant. We get to see her pull off a rather fun impression of "Mrs. Hart", which doesn't actually turn out to be the plot twist. The actual Ouija spirit turns out to be 'Death', who wants to 'Punish Agatha', and we get something finally halloween-worthy as Agatha gets possessed by the spirit of her mother Evanora Harkness, pulling off some moves that would make the makers of The Exorcist proud.
Evanora demands they leave Agatha behind and they can go off an finish the road. Jen is very quick to throw Agatha under the bus, but surprisingly, Rio -- who was okay with killing Agatha -- panics and refuses to leave Agatha to the clutches of Evanora. We don't really get much context for why Evanora hates Agatha so much, but maybe there isn't any context. Agatha sounds genuinely hurt when she asks Evanora why she still hates her, and Evanora just says stuff about her being 'born evil', and that she should've killed Agatha the moment she was born.
As the climax builds up, it is Alice who ends up shooting some brand-new protection magic abilities to drive Evanora out... but then Agatha ends up ripping this orange magic from Alice and in a rather brutal and drawn-out scene, kills Alice while the rest of the cast -- most especially Not-Wiccan, who's been bonding and befriending Alice over this episode and the previous one -- scream in horror. It's been kind of set up early on that at some point Agatha's going to drain the power of any witch that shoots magic at her, but the way this scene plays out it almost looks as if Agatha did so involuntarily... or is that what Agatha wants to pretend to be?
Oh, and there's a brief moment where the Ouija board spells out 'Nicholas Scratch', which seems to be another spirit whose voice breaks Agatha's murder attempt. Nicholas is the name of Agatha's son -- both in the comics and implied through various background stuff throughout the first couple of episodes. Also also, Rio just kind of disappears through all this, and I'm not sure where she is after Alice's death. Presumably she's scuttled off to do something? I like Aubrey Plaza, but I don't really care for Rio all that much, I'm sorry.
Regardless, Alice is dead, which honestly isn't that big of a surprise since her character arc was kind of wrapped up with a bow last episode. It's a fair bit more shocking this time around, though, because Alice's developed a proper bond with the rest of the cast (or at least with Not-Wiccan) instead of just being a meme.
Not-Wiccan is absolutely distraught at losing Alice, demanding the other witches do something to bring her back, but while Jen and Lilia are pissed off, they're more pissed off for the principle of Agatha betraying them moreso than Alice's actual death. They are, after all, witches. And Agatha's reaction is... interesting. It's really unclear whether she's telling the truth or not here on whether Alice's death was an accident (her expressions during the scene do seem surprised) but then she goes straight to what she usually does -- cruel comedy and personal attacks. And this personal attack goes into something that most fans have guessed the moment Not-Wiccan shows up on the show... Not-Wiccan is actually Wiccan.
And Agatha pushes Not-Wiccan a couple of steps too far, saying that he is 'so much like [his] mother' and calling him a 'pet' one more time. And then Wiccan's fingers crackle with energy, and he takes control of Jen and Lilia, have them drag a screaming Agatha and toss them into the swamp-muck that killed Sharon... before blasting Jen and Lilia into the swamp too. As the witches scream and drown (they're totally not dead, but it's dramatic enough), we zoom up upon Wiccan's face, showing him with a blue version of the Scarlet Witch's crown. End scene, in a pretty fun revelation.
So... yeah. Shaking up the formulaic one-character-per-episode sequence with the arrival of the villains and a death was pretty fun. But the highlight is obviously the pretty cool dramatic entry for Wiccan. He sure is Wiccan. The question is... how? Some boring Multiverse bullshit, or is there something that would suitably be magical and dramatic for this setting? How much did he know before seeking Agatha out, and how much of his fanboy persona is fake? Who put the sigil on his mouth? Did he just regain his power right now because of emotions, or was he just pretending to not be able to cast spells before? I honestly don't care for some of the stuff around this show -- the show hasn't really given me too much reason to care about the Salem Seven beyond them being a nebulous threat, but the Wiccan mystery definitely is a nice wrinkle.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Obviously, Wiccan's appearance at the end is based a bit on the MCU's take on the Scarlet Witch tiara as seen in WandaVision and Multiverse of Madness. But, y'know, blue.
- Also, Wiccan's thematic outfit for the Ouija board cabin is almost identical to the outfit that little Billy wore in WandaVision, with a blue headband, and a red-blue-white shirt with the red parts extending from his neck down to his sleeves.
- Evanora Harkness and the scene seen in the recap of the previous incarnation of the Salem Seven killing Agatha was seen in WandaVision.
No comments:
Post a Comment