TL;DR – Our penultimate episode takes some big swings, and I think it nails them all.  

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Agatha All Along Review –

We are fast running to the end of this. Well, if the viewing numbers are any guide, it will probably be the first season. However, we have been luxuriating on the road, but time is running out, and it is still an open question if this series can tie up all the many loose ends before those credits roll.

So, to set the scene, we open with Death (Aubrey Plaza) overlooking a sleeping Alice (Ali Ahn), but she is not there to wake her but to take her to the other side. Meanwhile, while Jen (Sasheer Zamata) and Billy (Joe Locke) lament over Lilia’s sacrifice, Death finds Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) alone and gives her a bargain, but only if Teen dies. But before they can process their loss, they come to the final trial and discover that the road is not a path but a circle. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

If nothing else, this is the episode where it felt like they took the gloves off and just started swinging wildly with reveal after reveal. I liked that the real core of the season is about whether Billy should even live given he cheated death, something that Death has taken quite personally. That threat of a deal holds over everything that happens in the episode because I think we know deep down that Agatha would absolutely take that wager if she thought it would save her.

All of this makes that last trial probably one of the more interesting moments in the show so far because it is almost paired back to nothing, and it relies on the actors’ performances to sell the moment. Had it been any other character, I think it would have been a bit rich to have Agatha be the one who bound Jen, but it was so long ago she forgot. That is not the worst thing we have seen her do to her fellow witches. But it is the quieter, more tender moments when Jen is breaking the spell or Billy is guiding his brother to a new host that makes the episode work. Agatha’s quiet ‘sometimes boys just die’ was haunting in its delivery because it is true.   

This brings us to the big bombastic fight sequence that every Marvel show and film must have at the end, but then this is only part one, which should be the clue that this show is doing something a little different. Yes, we got our big showdown between Death and Agatha, and yes, Billy flies in to save the day. But there is a realisation that you can’t fight Death and win. So, it is almost shocking that, one, Agatha does not steal all of Billy’s magical power, and two, she sacrifices herself in what might be one of the most beautiful morbid sequences in the show.

Much of this episode is the interplay between Death and Agatha, and I am glad that we got to see those two not hold anything back. There is this wildly meta moment when Death walks into the background and then cuts her way through a matte painting at the border of the set. Both reinforcing the throughline from WandaVision about the blurred lines between show and audience, slightly more subtly than She-Hulk. But also how powerful Death is because she can slice through reality. We also get to see a lot of range from Agatha, with some moments that I think cut through the story she has made for herself.    

In the end, do we recommend Agatha All Along: Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End? Yes, we would. This is an episode that does not hold back anything in reserve for the end. I was still surprised that they dropped the last two episodes back-to-back rather than making a feature episode. But if you wanted an endpoint to demarcate the two, this would be it.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Agatha All Along yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Agatha All Along
Directed by – Gandja Monteiro
Written by – Peter Cameron
Created by – Jac Schaeffer
Based On – Agatha Harkness created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby & Wiccan created by Allan Heinberg & Jim Cheung
Production/Distribution Companies – Marvel Television & Disney+
Starring – Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Maria Dizzia, Paul Adelstein & Aubrey Plaza with David Payton, David Lengel & Asif Ali