Welcome back to the blog readers. Agatha All Along was one of those series that I had some genuine excitement for, but I was worried that I may not feel the same way for this one that I did when I was watching WandaVision, but I found myself very entertained by the two-episode premiere. The new characters are all lovable, Kathryn Hahn is fun as hell, Joe Locke is witty and entertaining, and Sharon Davis may just be my favorite Disney+ character. Sorry, Kamala Khan. With that being said, would I be as entertained at the one-third mark of the show? Stick around to find out of my review of this episode, titled "Through Many Miles / Of Tricks and Trials," written by Cameron Squires and directed by Rachel Goldberg.
NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the film.
While I said that I was nervous about this series, my fears were instantly quelled when I enjoyed the hell out of the first two episodes. Joe Locke really shined for me, and Kathryn Hahn proved why she is worthy of playing this character. But usually Disney+ series (especially from Marvel) start strong but end on a bit of a low note. And I am happy to report that this is not the case, at least for this episode. All the performances in this episode were exceptionally solid (especially Locke and Hahn), and a heartbreaking story on top of that adds to the fact that this was a great episode.
I praised the performance of Joe Locke as "Teen" last episode, but he completely steals the show this week. In the last episode, we got hints that "Teen" had a bit of a dark side, but we see that on full display this week as we see some new things from Locke that we have not seen yet. Just look at the nuance in "Teen's" conversation with Jennifer Kale. A lot of that conversation involves Kale talking but he really won me over with his mannerisms and his eyes. This week was a mainly physical performance for him, but it still impressed me with what he has done over these two episodes. Also, the bit of darkness about midway through after that conversation is just like chef's kiss. I really cannot wait to see where this kid goes later in his career.
It has been three episodes already, we are at the one third portion of the series and Kathryn Hahn has been brilliant in all three episodes. Like seriously, how can someone maintain the quality of their performance three episodes into a series as effortlessly as she can? This will definitely be studied by film and television theorists. It really is just how Hahn is able to portray this character as a flawed, yet flawless diva and look great while doing it. But this week, we see something new out of her: sadness and regret. This goes back to the conversation I alluded to (and will speak more on later) between Kale and "Teen" that reveals a bit of information that comes back up in the climax and we see these things from Hahn that really start to make you feel for this character. This will certainly be good.
I had said this week's story was a heartbreaking one, and I will stand by it. We start where we left off last episode, with Agatha and her coven (consisting of Jennifer Hale, Alice Wu-Culliver, Lilia Calderu, Sharon Davis, and "Teen") beginning their journey down the Witches' Road, where Sharon wanders off and the rest of the coven learns of "Teen's" sigil hex preventing any personal information from coming out. The group face their first trial when they come upon a house and they are required to drink a poison and figure out how to create an antidote. They are also plagued with hallucinations of their past and are able to combat them and create the antidote and escape before the time runs out on them. Unfortunately, Sharon did not survive the events and was pronounced dead by "Teen." Shockingly, Agatha asks who Sharon was as the episode airs. I am surprised they decided to end the episode like this and have a lot of questions about what we have seen in the episode. Some of those questions we will be pondering in this week's edition of Theory Time.
And that is it for my review of the third episode of Agatha All Along. Now, we shift to my most anticipated portion of these reviews, when we get to shoot the shit about what we think will happen in Theory Time. We got some real juicy shit in this week's episode so this installment of Theory Time will be fun as hell.
We obviously need to talk first about the previously mentioned conversation between Jennifer Kale and "Teen" because some real juicy stuff comes out in that conversation. She brings up to "Teen" that he should not trust Agatha because she would go so far as to sacrifice her own son for the Darkhold (this makes sense why when she first saw "Teen" she asked Agatha if this was another child sacrifice). I have learned (and thank you to Erik Voss of New Rockstars for this) that Agatha's son is named Nicholas Scratch, and what Kale said about him is how it goes in the comics. She also mentions what his ultimate fate could have been, whether he was killed, became a demon, or an AGENT OF FUCKING MEPHISTO. Yes, she actually spoke the work Mephisto out loud in a Marvel show. All I have to say is we won baby! Nine episodes and three and a half years of waiting and we finally got a mention of Mephisto, and "Teen's" horrified reaction to this statement really makes me think my far-fetched theory about Mephisto and "Teen" being connected that I presented last week is a little less so than I thought.
I also have an inquiry about the fate of Sharon Davis after she was seemingly killed at the end of the episode. Apparently, the actor who plays Sharon, Debra Jo Rupp, was asked about her character's fate and asked how many episodes the asked had watched. When they replied with four, she replied back saying you would have to keep watching. So does this mean they plan on bringing Sharon back? Are we getting some voodoo magic shit in future episodes As long as they don't make us suspend our disbelief a whole lot, I will be fine with it.
That will do it for this week's installment of Theory Time, and I will see you guys next week as we talk about Mephisto!
Agatha All Along shines in its third episode, giving us great performances, great laughs, great horror, and a shocking twist ending that will sadden and leave you begging for more. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
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