Let’s Talk about Agatha All Along Episode 1-6

One of the high points of WandaVision was its fourth episode, the one entitled We Interrupt This Program.

In that episode, the story finally pulls away from Westview to recount what is happening elsewhere in the MCU.

Along the way, we learn more about the motivation of Monica Rambeau, who literally returns from the dead.

Parallelism is such a challenging storytelling attempt that few even attempt it, and most who try badly miss the mark.

Now, WandaVision’s companion series boldly walks a familiar path, leading to equally exceptional results.

Let’s talk about Agatha All Along episode 1-6, the one with the dead teen. But not that one. Err, mostly not that one.

Two Lifelines

One of the clever bits of this mostly flashback episode is that we encounter many of the witches before they tried to walk the road.

The story begins with William Kaplan, a teen who is celebrating his bar mitzvah.

As part of his party, Kaplan asks a fortune teller to tell him about his future. It’s Lilia as the truthsayer here, and she has bad news.

An alarmed Lilia notices that the kid has two lifelines, and she knows what that means, encouraging him to enjoy the present.

When prophets say that, what they mean is you’re about to die soon. Moments later, Kaplan dies.

This sequence is far from predictable, though. In fact, it’s a mirror on Monica’s rebirth.

In WandaVision, we learn that Monica had fallen victim to The Snap and turned to dust. She un-dusts back to life as the episode starts.

Another MCU event ends Kaplan’s life. It turns out that his party occurs near his home in…Eastview. Uh oh.

Yes, Kaplan’s parents are driving home when the great Rune Battle in the Sky occurs in the series finale of WandaVision.

While they’re rubbernecking, a car crash occurs, and William doesn’t make it.

As his heartbeat slows and eventually stops, his frantic parents chase a nearby police car in the hope of getting assistance.

While they’re offscreen, the spirit of Billy Maximoff enters the lifeless body of William Kaplan.

As the confused kid awakens in a new body, a police officer arrives to help.

It’s…Alice Wu-Gulliver, whom The Teen was mourning at the end of the previous episode.

Billy in the Before Times

From now on, I’ll just call him Billy because that’s his true identity, something he struggles to understand.

His parents take him home, not realizing he has good and truly changed.

The dog knows this and growls at him. Meanwhile, his parents worry about his seeming amnesia, which frustrates him.

That’s because, as you may recall from WandaVision, Billy is a mind-reader. He can hear their thoughts and knows he’s in the wrong place.

The kid spends the next three years trying to convince himself that he’s William Kaplan, even as he realizes he’s not.

Thankfully, Billy does meet a boy, Eddie, who makes his life bearable.

Alas, when Eddie mentally prepares to confess his love, Billy stops him to explain a bit about his true self.

A very supportive Eddie tries to understand. This is who The Teen was texting in the second episode. Eddie’s a good kid.

For his part, Billy obsesses on solving the mystery of his true identity.

He has compiled a list of the people involved with Westview’s weirdness.

Also, Billy has spoken with a sketchy dude who agrees to meet the two of them in an abandoned garage.

There, they’ll discuss what really happened in Westview. And hilariously enough, the sketchy dude is Ralph Boner.

In a different MCU, he was Quicksilver. In this one, he’s that poor dude Agatha Harkness made her love slave…and he’s not okay with it.

Agatha and Billy Meet for the First Time

In fact, Boner has suffered quite a bit of trauma, which makes him even stranger than he came across in WandaVision.

Actor Evan Peters is having the time of his life in this unexpected return to the (real) MCU.

The scene plays out as a comedy, but Billy’s psychic abilities allow him to learn about someone he has forgotten: Agatha Harkness.

So, what we’re witnessing is really the episode before the series premiere. It’s a recitation of the events that led The Teen to be tied up in her closet.

Basically, the dude google-stalks her until he learns her address.

When he encounters her, well, it’s a rehash of what we witnessed at the police station during the series premiere.

The difference is that we’re witnessing Billy’s reaction to Wanda’s in-character madness.

This spell makes her honestly believe that she’s a detective. So, actress Kathryn Hahn dramatically overacts repeatedly.

People will praise other parts of the show, but this may be the highlight for me. She’s trying to get her co-star to break on camera.

Given the editing, I cannot help but wonder how many times she got him. I bet it was double digits.

Anyway, we witness the world’s worst police chase and Agatha’s “interrogation” scene.

This one’s also funny because A) she’s wearing a Bohner Family Reunion shirt and B) we can see the normal events that she cannot.

When she stares at a living room painting, it’s a callback to her looking at the two-way mirror at the police station.

This whole sequence is very nicely done, and Hahn’s having the time of her life, which makes it that much better.

Back to the Witches’ Road

We get lots of comedy hijinks this week, but the whole thing is ultimately leading to two events.

The first is the addled Agatha kidnapping The Teen and hiding him in her closet.

The second is only possible due to the first. Billy DOES cast the spell to break Wanda’s curse.

This leads to Agatha pressing Billy for his identity. First, he answers William. Then, he replies that he’s Billy.

Neither one proves informative because of the sigil cast on him…by Lilia.

Yes, when Lilia read his fortune, she didn’t want him learning his own truth. So, she protected him with a sigil.

The Teen also watches a commercial starring Jennifer Kale, and Mrs. Davis runs him over with her Mercedes. The gang’s all here!

Actually, that’s not entirely correct. At the end of the previous episode, Rio Vidal was conspicuously absent as the other Witches died.

We don’t see her in this episode, either. But one of the other witches isn’t dead. Obviously, it’s Agatha because, you know, title character.

Muddying the Water

Agatha digs her way out from the mud pit and confronts the person she now knows is Billy…and she’s covered in mud the whole time.

The other three witches, at least one of whom is currently living, are nowhere to be seen.

Instead, we have a modest showdown between Agatha and Billy.

She has figured out his angle, which is that he’s searching for “Toby,” by which she means Tommy.

Since Billy just impressed Agatha with both his identity and his show of power, she’s in the forgiving mood.

As she says, the witch has killed “my share” of her enemies.

She’s also unexpectedly inspirational to her former familiar. Agatha gives a big speech about how he shouldn’t be ashamed.

Then, Billy dismisses her by saying he doesn’t need, only for his power to abandon him at this inopportune moment.

So, he realizes he DOES need Agatha all along. So, the remaining members of the Coven of Chaos head down the Witches’ Road.

Meanwhile, Rio hasn’t been seen since the end of the previous Trial, and we don’t know the fates of Jennifer and Lilia.

Since Agatha survived, I don’t know why they wouldn’t either, but the show is acting like they’re dead.

Thus far, everyone in that situation has been dead, but I remain suspicious, nonetheless.

Did Rio save them? If not, where has she been?

You know what? I don’t even care. Just stick Kathryn Hahn in some mud, stick her in a funny shirt, and let her have fun!

We’ve got three episodes to go before Halloween, and I cannot wait to see how this ends! This was a brilliant episode.

 

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