“Agatha All Along” so far has been a fun show. Though it’s not yet over, it’s been declared a hit, thanks to strong viewership and the lowest Marvel TV budget in recent years. Apparently the days of inflated $150 million and over budgets for these things are long gone.
Thankfully, the show itself has also picked up the pace, though it has so far stumbled over its ensemble cast, while finding ways to give star Kathryn Hahn, who plays the titular Agatha Harkness, time to do what she does best: Command the screen.
Episode 5 delves deeper into Agatha’s backstory, with this week’s trial grounded in her past. This week, everyone dons 1980s-inspired garb, with the challenge being talking to spirits via a “Ouiji” board (Yes, the one produced by Hasbro).
But beware: One wrong move can set the spirits free.
As such, the spirit in question is Agatha’s mother, Evanora Harkness (Kate Forbes), who still hates her daughter and flat out says she was born evil. This is seemingly substantiated when Agatha is possessed by her mother, and she accidentally kills one of the witches in her new coven.
I won’t spoil who it is — the death successfully plants more seeds of doubt about Agatha, but there isn’t much emotional weight to it. That’s because none of the witches in her coven are particularly well developed — they’re all people we’ve just met, who have barely managed to gel over the last few episodes. They’re all likable, but they’re flat characters.
However, I will spoil the big reveal at the end of the episode, because it overshadows the whole thing. This is your warning for that.
We finally find out who Teen (Joe Locke) is: He’s Billy, the son of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlett Witch. How this happened, I have no clue: At the end of “WandaVision,” her children are revealed to be nothing more than illusions Wanda created via her spell over Westview. But they were real to her, as they served as the driving force behind her villain arc in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” a film that unfortunately ignores and undermines her growth in “WandaVision.”
This clearly puts Billy in opposition to Agatha, who tried to kill his mother in the previous show. Agatha’s killing of a coven member cements this, as he renounces her shortly after.
I do think the two will make up sometime, because Billy has gotten to know a softer side of Agatha Wanda wasn’t able to. And the death of her coven member seems to be an accident, although her lack of regard for the demise of Ms. Hart is still concerning.
Still, I expect that we’ll see some change from them both, though I admit the show needs a villain. With Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal almost reigniting her fling with Agatha, that leaves Billy as the clear choice.
This episode accomplishes a lot in about 30 minutes. The show still looks cheap, with this episode featuring an almost laughable green screen broom sequence, but it seems to embrace its campiness in the spirit of Halloween.
So far, it’s a cut above most Marvel TV projects, but it doesn’t reach the pinnacles of “WandaVision” and “Loki.”
“Agatha All Along” Episode 5 gets an 8/10
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