‘Agatha All Along’ – Episode 3 Review

Agatha and her coven take their first steps along The Witches’ Road

Credit: Disney

With episode three, Agatha All Along further cements itself as an entertaining show and gives us an indication of what the structure of the rest of the series will be like. As Agatha and her makeshift coven begin their quest for power along The Witches’ Road, they come upon their first trial, one that will require all the skill of the potions witch, Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata)

When Agatha recruited the other witches in the last episode, it was a little unclear what their purpose was exactly. The Witches Road, too, was a little vague. All we knew was that reaching the end of it would grant the witches power. Episode three elaborates on both of these concepts.

I like the idea of The Witches’ Road being a series of trials, each requiring one of the talents of a specific witch, and each episode being a different trial will make for a fun second act for the overall show, I think.

Given how much time it looks like we’re going to be spending with the witches of Agatha’s coven, this also feels necessary. All we’ve had so far were some brief introductory minutes with the characters, but if each episode is going to focus on a different one, they’ll actually have the chance to develop into real characters and not just set dressing.

Heads Will Roll

Credit: Disney

While this is ostensibly the ‘Jen’ episode—the house the witches find themselves in is filled with Jen’s skincare products and transforms their clothes into the kind that her upper class customers would wear—the events of the episode also give us glimpses into the various traumas these witches have suffered in their individual pasts.

I liked this as a tease of further exploration to come—some of these sequences were quite creepy, too—but I do think the episode was a little shallow. Jen is forced to put her witchy powers to use despite being ‘bound’ by a curse, but what could’ve felt like a strong arc or exploration of her character felt very rushed.

On the other hand, I do like how the episode played in the same realm of shifting aesthetics as WandaVision. I hope future episodes continue to place the coven in different visual palettes.

The episode was also filled with a few winks and references of things to come that had me excited for the future, but ultimately the episode lacked a really strong, satisfying arc in and of itself. This isn’t ruinous—there’s enough fun interplay between the witches and brief glimpses into their deeper characters to keep things interesting—but I do hope next week’s episode is stronger.

It’s just one of those issues that frequently affect limited series these days (but one that The Penguin managed to avoid). When the full series is out and you can jump straight into the next episode, this mightn’t feel like as much of an issue. I just wanted more, but for now, let’s take that as a good thing.

***

Some Nerdy/Spoilery Notes!

-  Mephisto name drop! If Mephisto turns out to be the Big Bad of the series, I think that’s Very Cool

- Who’s speaking through Lilia? “I love you, guys”? “Try to save Agatha”? Genuinely, who cares if Agatha lives or dies? I have some outlandish theories around Wanda’s alternate universe kids and the true identity of the Teen, but I’ll keep them to myself for now…

- None of the other witches can learn the Teen’s identity either, hm? Wonder who did that to him?

- “Who’s Sharon?” got a good chuckle out of me. Also, oh nooo, Sharon…

- These end-credit songs rule so far.

***

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