With all the introductions taken care of (technically) and almost all the players on the starting blocks of the Witches’ Road, I guess it’s time for Agatha All Along to finally get down to the nitty gritty. Tasks is the name of the game here as the Road not only throws it’s first obstacle at our leads, but also possibly reveals the exact format the next couple of episodes will most likely take – namely Saw with witches.
That’s right, we almost get the whole nine yards with riddles, ticking clocks and fatal consequences if our coven of flawed heroines can’t rise to the task at hand. But while some will be straining to see Billy the Puppet make his MCU debut (tough luck, guys), the episode manages to stir in a whole bunch of name drops, hints, counter mysteries and even a death before the timer ticks to zero. So get to it marvelites, there’s still a long road to go.
After making it to the Road, the ragtag coven of Agatha Harkness now have to figure out what to do and ground rules are quickly established when the very human and thus utterly out of her league Sharon leaves the path and nearly perishes thanks to the sucking pull of a muddy bog. But once all the other obvious rules have been established (no phone reception, no way back, etc), the coven presses in to hopefully get their reward.
The Road offers up their first test fairly promptly as they soon arrive at a lush house that would look more at home located in the Hamptons rather than on some Wizard Of Oz meets Legend trail found in some dark fantasy dimension, but a deal’s a deal and rules are rules so in they go. They find that the inside is just as plush as the outside and furthermore, their attire has changed to fit the scenery, but no sooner has the group relaxed enough to drink some wine that suspiciously appears, their test begins thanks to the fact that their beverage has been poisoned by some mystical potion. Once they get over the immediate effects of the poison (swollen faces all round), it’s down to their master of potions, Jennifer Kale, to prove her worth and concoct an antidote to save them with a mixture comprised of household items in the agonisingly short time they’re allotted.
However, while the other witches are on a house-wide scavenger hunt for the necessary ingredients, weird vision afflict the group as they’re all forced to confront moments from their past that hint if the traumas they’ve survived. It’s here we get more of a hint about exactly how dark Agatha’s past has really been as we learn she once had a son that possibly came to a very sticky end due to his mother’s duplicitous nature and lust for power. But as time runs out, the group have to work together to nullify thr poison before the windows of their prison breaks and floods the house with sea water. But not everyone will make out of the first task alive and if the coven is broken, how can they possibly continue?
With its third episode, Agatha All Along has revealed how it’s going to take up the bulk of it’s hefty, nine episode run and like I mentioned earlier, the trials the coven will have to wrap their various expertise around take the form of mystical themed “traps” that present a deadly conundrum that has to be overcome in a limited amount of time. It makes a certain amount of sense as it means that the overarching plot can take something of a backseat to the puzzling shenanigans (What, you didn’t think it would be nine whole episodes of them literally walking along a path, did you?) while keeping each installment full of varied incident.
While it might sound like a bit of a cheat yo find that Marvel Television is borrowing from the Book Of Saw in order to pad out the episode count of Agatha, the showrunners have made sure that they’ve rubbed enough of the MCU’s influence on it so that the similarities aren’t that brazen, hence we get yet another nicely perky and largely enjoyable half hour as the third installment props up the puzzle solving with some sizable namedrops, a dash of backstory and an actual attempt to alter our guesses when it comes to the identity of Joe Locke’s mysterious Teen. First, however, we should focus on the actual episode first and while it’s probably Agatha’s most messiest episode so far, it’s also the most fast paced that spoon feeds you character beats while keeping our leads proactive. However, what keeps Agatha on track is that lingering scene of WandaVision as the episode still makes an effort to keep up that TV homaging, rubber reality that made the earlier series so innovative. This means that when the coven enters that posh house their clothes change to something akin to Desperate Housewives, but while the nods may not be as laser focused as WandaVision’s it’s still a welcome bit of connective tissue to the show that introduced us to our duplicitous lead.
As for Agatha herself, we get some juicy tidbits concerning her earlier years and even though we already know she was ruthless enough to kill her mother in her quest to stockpile power, we also find out that in order to get her hands on the evil tome known as the Darkhold in the first place, she traded in her own infant son. But who did Agatha trade him in to – well, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to welcome you to the MCU’s first proper namedrop of Mephisto, Marvel’s Satan equivalent and a character who has been the subject of so many previous fan theories you’d believe he himself was responsible for them. It’s quite a sizable moment, not just because the character is due to make his long awaited MCU bow in the upcoming Ironheart, but it also hints that the Teen may very well be in quite a lot of danger if Agatha needs yet another youthful bargaining chip. Speaking of the Teen, did anyone else get the feeling that the episode was trying to steer us towards the idea that maybe he could be Agatha’s child? I mean, I don’t buy it for a second but at least the show is trying to concoct other theories concerning his parentage.
However, I have to admit that the inclusion of each witch having startling visions while already trying to figure out how to escape the task gives episode 3 something of a messy feel and the final, shock reveal that Sharon (aka. Ms Hart) has run out of time and succumbed to the poison feels a little weird – assuming she’s actually dead of course (Hello? Marvel, people. Remember?). However, I’m currently uncertain how to feel at this turn of events as a death of an “established” character does raise the stakes, but similarly it makes me a little at odds with why they bothered to bring her back in the first place and it stirs uncomfortable memories at how staggeringly unimpactful the shock deaths in Secret Invasion were.
Still, despite some flaws that still have plenty of time to get ironed out (this is the second episode where Aubrey Plaza is still a no show), Agatha is still flying high and is also managing to get me to bond with the rest of her coven too. No mean task.
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