Welcome back to the blog readers. Agatha All Along has absolutely been killing it over the last seven episodes, and I cannot believe how much I have enjoyed this series. Last week's episode was incredibly fun and featured a brilliant performance from Patti LuPone and a story that will leave you begging for more. Now that more is here, how would we feel about the first episode of our two-episode finale, called "Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End," written by Peter Cameron, and directed by Gandja Montiero? Stick around to find out.
NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.
One of the main issues with Marvel shows, well Disney+ shows in general, is that they start off well (or even strong), but they do not know how to stick the landing. Take a look at shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) and Secret Invasion (2023), especially Secret Invasion. The finale of that show made that show go from a fantastic show to a good show. I was kind of afraid that this series could follow the same trajectory, but I am glad to report that this episode acts as a finale and completely sticks the landing for me. I love how all the plots are wrapped up and I love the performances from everyone, especially Sasheer Zamata and Aubrey Plaza.
One of the more underrated characters in this show is Jennifer Kale, played by Sasheer Zamata. I never imagined that I would do anything more than really like this character, but this episode made me really love this character because of the raw, emotional performance of Zamata. I especially want to point out the scene in the final trial where certain story elements get revealed and you see the emotion in Zamata's performance get dialed all the way up to 100. There are hints of relief, sorrow, anger, pain, and despair that Zamata is brilliantly able to portray in this one scene, and I would argue she is the best performer of the episode.
Finally, I would like to praise the performance of Aubrey Plaza as Rio Vidal/Death. I have taken notice and told you guys in weeks prior that Plaza has been having an insane amount of fun playing her character of Death, and now I think that fun is dialed up to 100 now that the cat is out of the bag and the other shoe has dropped. In this episode, Plaza gets to sit on a house and cackle maniacally like a witch and just have a blast. And there is a point that Plaza shows some genuine emotion (more on that later), and it is subtle, but it is noticable, and makes this character a lot more interesting.
Now we should talk about the story of this film because this episode is extremely fucking juicy. We start in the immediate aftermath of last week's episode with Jennifer and Billy mourning the sacrifice of Lilia as Agatha decides to flee. She gets stopped by Rio, who has taken Alice to the afterlife, who tells her that Agatha has been hiding Billy from her and calls him an abomination. Agatha agrees to give Billy to her in exchange for leaving her alone for the rest of her life. Rio agrees, and the three survivors embark on the final trial that leads them back to the beginning of the Road. They put their shoes on and find themselves in the final trial, which is a new version of Agatha's basement.
The final trial on the Road appears to be giving the survivors what they are embarking on the Road for. Jennifer learns from Agatha that Agatha was the one who bound her and Agatha claims that she was not aware that Jennifer was the person who she agreed to have bound. Jennifer performs the unbinding ritual and gets her power back but disappears from the road much to Billy's shock. Agatha then decides to help Billy find Tommy, which is why he is on the Road himself. She helps him realize that he has had Tommy's soul with him this entire time and helps him place Tommy's soul in the body of a drowning kid. Billy asks in a panic if he is killing this boy to give Tommy life before he disappears, but Agatha responds by saying sometimes boys just die.
Agatha, now running out of time, takes the strand of hair and the seed out of the Broche she has been wearing and plants them in the crack in the ground made from Billy's disappearance as she is able to complete the trial and escape. However, she escapes into her backyard where Rio is waiting to take her. The two confront each other and Rio attempts to kill Agatha, but Billy appears in a sick new getup and transfers some of his power to Agatha. The two try to hold Rio off until they realize they cannot kill Death and Billy decides to go with her. Agatha tries to sell Billy out but he projects his mind into hers and asks her if this is how Nicky died.
Agatha, moved, goes in to kiss Rio and give her life for Billy's. Rio, moved and emotional by this exchange, tells Billy he can go as he returns home to Jeff and Rebecca Kaplan who were worried about him. When he gets home, he looks around the room and remembers what he has seen on the Road, making him realize he may have been responsible for the Road altogether as he is startled by a laughing voice behind him. There is so much to discuss, but I want to start by saying this episode featured just the right amount of laughs, scares (not for me though), and emotion that you could have wanted from a show like this. I love how we get a lot of answers in this episode, but we are left with some burning questions that I will discuss in-depth in Theory Time.
That will do it for the review of the eighth episode of Agatha All Along. Now, it is time for the final installment of Theory Time for this show.
Welcome back to Theory Time, where we further discuss some of the big-picture details of this episode. I am a little bummed that this is the final installment of Theory Time for Agatha All Along, and this has been a fun ride, but that is what you get when a series ends. There are two big things that I want to discuss regarding this episode, and the first one is this.
The first thing I want to discuss regards the relationship between Agatha and Rio and how Agatha's son Nicholas Scratch fits into this. When Jennifer was talking to Billy in the third episode, she mentioned the rumor about Agatha sacrificing her son for the Darkhold, to which he expressed shock and disgust. This episode, however, casts doubt on that rumor being truthful. In the beginning of the episode, Rio asks Agatha why she lets everyone believe that horrible rumor about her, to which she replies because the truth is too awful. Then again, in the trial, like I mentioned in the review, when Agatha says the sometimes boys just die, that again casts doubt. And then when Agatha and Billy are facing Rio, when Agatha was about to sacrifice Billy, he asks her if this was how Nicky died to which she relents. This led me to conclude that that rumor is false and there is something more that has not been revealed to us yet. This is definitely something interesting and something I hope gets resolved in the final episode.
The final thing I want to talk about involves the ending revelation that Billy may have created the Witches' Road. This is something that multiple people have speculated on even since the sixth episode. I personally did not believe the theory, but now that we may have gotten concrete proof this is the truth, I have a lot of questions. If this is true, just how powerful is Billy and did he even realize it? We knew the kid could read minds and we learned this episode he can project his mind into other people, but for him to be able to have the same reality-warping abilities Wanda had is insane to say the least. I think the sixth episode may have had some clues regarding this, but I presonally did not expect for this rumor to potentially be true.
That will do it for this episode's installment of Theory Time, and that will do it for Theory Time for Agatha All Along. This has been incredibly fun and rewarding, and hopefully we get a show like this in the future that we get to talk and theorize about.
Agatha All Along delivers in its penultimate episode with everything I could have wanted, from stellar performances to incredible emotion to a wonderful story that will leave you begging for more. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
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