Let’s Talk about Agatha All Along Episode 1-7

When I recapped the third and fourth episodes of Agatha All Along, I mentioned some foreshadowing.

The series telegraphed the fact that it was fracturing time for at least one character.

At first, three different witches from the Coven of Chaos potentially appeared to foot the bill.

By the Second Trial of the Witches’ Road, it had become clear that Lilia Calderu was witnessing future events.

As we just learned, she’s re-living the past as well. Yes, the show just pulled off the old Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen trick. Well.

Let’s talk about Agatha All Along episode 1-7, the one where death becomes her.

Time in a Bottle

This episode is so nuanced and complex that I’ve already spent quite a while reading complaints about it on social media.

Some folks aren’t willing to put in the time to comprehend the plot here.

That’s because showrunner Jac Schaeffer has borrowed elements from Watchmen, Lost, Signs, Doctor Who, and many other stories.

Lilia Calderu is literally a woman out of time, someone who sees what’s behind the curtain.

When Lilia appears during this week’s Trial, her outfit even cheekily pays tribute to this fact, as Lilia dresses as Glinda the Good Witch.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Or maybe I’m too slow. With time just fractured but wholly obliterated, it’s hard to say.

After rewatching the episode and debating tactics, I’ve decided to tell this story in a straightforward manner rather than playing along.

So, I’ve resisted the temptation to follow the torturous timeline as Lilia experiences it.

Instead, I hope to help you understand an incredibly layered storytelling structure Schaeffer has masterfully distilled in 28 minutes.

The first thing you need to know is that Lilia and Jennifer Kale are alive.

As The Teen later reveals, he didn’t know the strength of his own powers.

Once his ability presented itself, he subconsciously controlled the two witches and kicked them off the Witches’ Road.

Something else you need to know is that we learn Rio Vidal’s identity in the episode, and it’s the one many had suspected.

The final thing you need to know is that The Teen and Agatha Harkness are ready to attempt another Trial.

This one is Divination, and it takes the form of Tarot cards. It’s Lilia’s Trial. She’s not there, though.

As such, they appear doomed to fail…but they don’t.

The Present

The episode begins with Lilia falling, which takes place in the present, although you could argue she’s experiencing a vision. She does that.

What’s certain is that The Teen and Agatha are awkwardly walking the Witches’ Road, with Billy trying to read her mind.

Billy’s first question is where Rio is, which Agatha won’t answer.

She playfully describes herself as “your mom’s ex-best friend.” Billy snaps that Wanda Maximoff isn’t his mom.

Still, The Teen wants to know whether Wanda is really dead. Agatha says yes and that she saw a body.

Billy doesn’t believe anything she says, which leads to the glorious reply of, “Hey, you want straight answers, ask a straight lady.”

That’s music to the ears of anyone shipping Rio and Agatha, although I thought the show had made no secret of their being exes.

The conversation ends when they notice a different type of home ahead. It’s a legitimate haunted house.

They’re a special kind of screwed, which we quickly learn. The Teen tries to take point during the Trial.

Someone must tell someone else’s fortune, and we know that’s Lilia’s thing since she previously did so with The Teen.

Still, the joy of the premise is that the members of the Coven wear costumes reflecting famous witches.

Agatha becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, while The Teen is Maleficent.

Fittingly, Lilia is Glinda, but there’s a very funny gag about Jennifer Kale being the Evil Queen from Snow White’s fairy tale.

Based on what happens in the episode, I wonder whether that’s future MCU foreshadowing.

The Most Dangerous Trial

This trial doubles as an escape room. Once The Teen begins, we learn that he’s only barely familiar with Tarot.

His laughable attempt to tell Agatha’s fortune leads to disaster: a sword falls from the ceiling.

The duo looks up and realizes that the entire roof consists of swords. Like Ralph Wiggum, they’re in danger.

Somehow, their situation degrades after another miss. They realize that the roof is closing in as well.

After their timing runs out, they’ll be simultaneously impaled by dozens of swords. It’s a decidedly high stakes game.

Help will come from an unlikely source. To the best of the duo’s knowledge, they’re the only living coven members.

That is absolutely not the case, and here’s where the conversation grows confusing. We travel back to…

The Very Recent Past

Lilia and Jennifer first appear in a creepy cave whose underlying theme is that it resides beneath the Witches’ Road.

At first, Jennifer explains what’s happening to Lilia, but that’ll be too confusing.

Instead, I’ll discuss this timeline as it unfolds, leaving out one part of the story that’s up for debate.

The conversation starts with, “Jenn, wake up.” A very confused and muddy Jenn opens her eyes to see a fully aware Lilia.

Without missing a beat, the seer informs her friend that “The son of the Scarlet Witch telepathically kicked us off The Road.”

Appropriately, Jenn replies, “I have a lot of questions. Actresses Sasheer Zameer and Patti LuPone shine throughout this episode.

Lilia adds that Agatha and Billy are performing her Trial right now, and the women must find the shelf that enters that Trial room, the one with the swords.

Yes, Lilia is the type of witch who runs toward the danger to save her friends, even when she knows her fate.

And that brings me to the time-opaque part of the story. She also encounters Rio at some point while underground.

I suspect that happens at the end, but Lilia’s appearance suggests it may have transpired moments earlier.

Then again, the whole thing could be her imagination. This part’s the one up for debate.

The challenge is that as soon as Lilia finishes explaining, she forgets. In a way, she’s Desmond in Lost, particularly the episode entitled The Constant.

So, during the cuts back to these witches, Jenn is the one explaining to Lilia, who doesn’t remember.

They may choose paths, one of which is an escape from the Witches’ Road. The other leads to the Trial.

Also, the Salem Seven are in hot pursuit. It’s a high-pressure situation.

The Way, Way Back

The underlying motif here circles back to Lilia’s vision when she had been poisoned.

Since childhood, Lilia has experienced her entire life at once but in flashes.

So, she jumps between times and must put the pieces together about where she is and why.

We meet Lilia when she was a child, imagery shown previously, during what proves to be her first session with her mentor.

The head of this coven doesn’t fear death and only wants to teach Lilia how to hone her craft.

At one point, Lilia laments that she warned the coven that they would die of the plague, yet nothing changed. So, they did.

The coven leader doesn’t even wince at the news of how she will die, instead pressing Lilia to learn her craft.

At one point, the witch asks Lilia to read the tea leaves, something she’d done as a child.

However, the elderly Lilia appears instead. She’s piecing together all the seemingly moments in her life. That’s the Signs part.

In that film, seemingly random events lead to someone swinging a deadly baseball bat to stop an alien.

Somehow, Lilia comes to an even more random conclusion in her story. And yes, she dies at the end of it.

Lilia knows the sacrifice she must make for the other coven members to walk the road and she does so. That’s why she’s Glinda the Good Witch.

The Trial

The Teen knows they’re in trouble and idly states, “I wish Lilia was here.” Right then, Lilia and Jennifer enter from the hidden bookshelf door.

The Teen expects them to be mad at him, as does Jennifer. However, Lilia isn’t currently in that moment in time.

She’s already seen The Teen and called him by his “full name,” The Teenager.

At this point, the kid freaks out and starts to argue his case, reading Lilia’s mind before she can even say the words.

Suddenly, Lilia remembers her original fortune-telling of the former kid whose body Billy inhabits. She even remembers the sigil.

So, her fury vanishes as she obsesses on the puzzle. It helps that The Teen would have saved Alice if he’d known about his abilities.

Lilia quickly refocuses on the Trial and unlocks the solution. And here’s where the pieces fit together.

Throughout the season, Lilia has said and seen things that provide the solution.

She performs a reading, although the first one is (mostly) wrong. Lilia tells The Teen his fortune.

Lilia experiences moments from previous Trials as well as her first meeting with Agatha and The Teen.

She needs The Teen to ask his question, which Agatha wants to be the location of an escape route.

As the other witches bicker, he kinda panics and then asks, “Am I William or am I Billy?”

While it won’t stay that way, the roof stops moving. Lilia reads more of The Teen’s fortune, but the swords start falling again.

At this point, she travels back to her first tutorial once again and solves the puzzle.

The Solution

Lilia explains the Tarot board as the “Safe Passage” spread, which makes sense for a Trial.

The first card is the identity of the querent. Others are:

• What’s Missing – the reason for the quest
• The Path Behind – wounds suffered and lessons learned
• The Path Ahead – a space for growth and discovery
• Obstacles – what prevents success
• Windfall – the reward for succeeding
• The Destination – self-explanatory

The solution takes a while since Lilia performs the wrong reading for The Traveler, the person whose fortune is told.

As fate would have it, Lilia is The Traveler. Here’s her solution as the Queen of Cups:

• What’s Missing – Three of Pentacles – she’s missing collaboration, aka a coven
• The Path Behind – The Knight of Wands –the wound suffered was Alice Wu’s death
• The Path Ahead – The High Priestess – It’s Jennifer Kale!
• Obstacles – Three of Swords – heartbreak, sorrow, and grief
• Windfall – The Tower (reversed) – disaster and destruction…but reversed, so a miraculous transformation
• The Destination – Death – here’s the reveal that Rio Vidal is Death

The news that Rio is Death has thrilled patient Agatha All Along viewers, but I’m more curious about something else.

Lilia has just identified Jennifer Kale as the future High Priestess, which indicates she has a bright future in the MCU.

That’s why I’m a bit obsessed with her costume, that of the Evil Queen. Is that foreshadowing or just a throwaway sight gag?

Anyway, Lilia freezes at the epiphany that Rio is Death, as she knows that signals her demise.

A terrified Agatha slams the card into place just before the swords descend and slay the party.

An iron maiden reveals the passageway back to the Witches’ Road.

The Aftermath

Members of the Coven of Chaos discuss Rio’s identity as Death, the “original Green Witch.”

The Teen accusingly glares at Agatha, who delivers an all-timer response, “What can I say? I like the bad boys.”

Then, the witches exit…except one. Lilia knows her time has come to an end, and she has even figured out how.

At this moment, the Salem Seven sneak into the Trial room, only seconds after the other coven members exit.

Lilia informs them that the Trial room usually experiences “something terrible” after a coven finishes the test.

That’s been visually demonstrated in previous episodes before being spelled out here.

In this instance, the tower they’re in, that spooky haunted house, will turn upside down and thereby reverse gravity.

Lilia makes this happen by slotting the Windfall card in its proper position. The magic happens.

Suddenly, the Salem Seven finds itself not at all defying gravity. Instead, the room is upside down.

That means the swords are on the ground, causing the Salem Seven members to die (?) by violent impalement.

Although Glinda the Good Witch tries to hang onto a chandelier, her strength eventually fades.

Then, she falls gracefully, just as she was doing at the episode’s start.

Lilia dies one of the most noble MCU deaths to date. Whether she’s done this season remains to be seen.

We get two new episodes next week, and she appears to have a date with destiny in the form of Death, who is her frenemy, Rio.

We’re coming to a finish, and it’s gonna be good!

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