Agatha All Along Episodes 5 & 6 Review
‘Agatha All Along’ released two episodes over the past two weeks, with episode five taking a look at Agatha’s past, resurrecting her mother. It also teased Billy Maximoff aka Wiccan, which the sixth episode confirms, and delves into the backstory of the character, showing the audience how he came back after the twins disappeared at the end of WandaVision.
The fifth episode is an exploration of Agatha’s past. The trial is an incredibly 1980s sleepover, where the coven and Teen must play with an ouija board to contact someone from Agatha’s past, which initally turns out to be her mother. Agatha’s mother starts to possess her daugther, in an extremely effective and creepy sequence. Agatha’s mother chastises her child, saying she was evil from the minute she was born, and that the covern must finish the Road without her. To that end, Agatha’s mother starts to absorb her daughter.
This is when Alice steps in to save Agatha, despite everyone warning her not to, and Agatha’s own misdeeds making her someone not worth saving. It shows that Alice wants to save everyone, no matter the potential cost. But it’s Agatha that transacts this cost, and sucks away Alice’s power, killing her ,everyone when the Teen contacts Agatha’s son to get her to stop.
It leads into the ending of the episode, which is where it gets explosive. The Teen is extremely upset at what’s just transpired, and annoyed that all the witches seem to want with the road is power. When Agatha starts to mock him, and starts to hint at one of his parents being Wanda, magic starts to spark at the Teen’s fingertips, and he compels Jen and Lilia to throw Agatha into the mud, and then kills Jen and Lilia. A magical crown appears over his read, as Billie Eilish’s ‘You Should See Me In A Crown’ plays. This is the moment where audiences get more concrete confirmation that this is Wiccan, aka Billy Kaplan. It’s a moment that hits hard.
Episode six digs into Billy’s past, and how he became Wiccan. It’s an episode tinged with sadness, as William Kaplan was essentially hijacked by the departing spirit of Billy Maximoff evicting Kaplan’s former identity after a car crash. It does get a bit confusing, as Billy Maximoff has also forgotten his identity, but this leads to a funny sequence whre Billy is searching for clues about his identity, coming across Ralph Bohner and asking him what happened. Billy also brings his boyfriend along, and it’s great that there’s some representation.
Evan Peters makes a cameo as Bohner, portraying an image of a broken man, after Agatha ruined him. He helps point Billy in the direction of Agatha Harkness, which then leads into the series showing Agatha’s and Billy’s first meeting from Billy’s perspective. It’s a hilarious meeting, reminding audiences of the comedy that the first episode brought audiences.
Back on the road, Agatha manages to drag herself out of the mud, and goads Billy, mocking him about his powers and lack of parents. She demands to know what he wants at the end of the road, and he states he wants his brother, Tommy aka Speed. It’s curious that he doesn’t want to try and resurrect Wanda or reassemble Vision, but perhaps the reasoning for that will be explored. For now, the dynamic of Agatha and Billy was very fun to watch, with the two of them fully aware of each other’s nature. Neither trust each other, but they both accept that they need each other to complete The Road and go off to find the next trial.
Episodes five and six are great midpoint for ‘Agatha All Along’, with some important mysteries answered and the stakes raised for the final third of the series. It’s fantastic to see that the show is unafraid to kill off some of the coven (who were largely without too much note), and will now be able to focus on its core characters. The trials and show continue to show creativity, which will hopefully last for the final three episodes.