TV Review - Agatha All Along Eps 7-9

 

Episode seven takes a further step beyond the initial premise to tell something of a time travel tale centred around Lilia. Her powers of premonition prove vital to solving the next trail which takes place inside a suitably gothic mansion. Agatha and Billy  - with temporal interjections from Lilia and Jennifer - have a limited time to complete  a game of tarot and there are literal swords hanging over their heads one of which drops each time there is an error. Presented with Lilia and Jennifer’s scenes popping back and forth incorporating flashbacks to previous episodes show how deeply plotted the show has been. We also see Lilia as a child learning the skills that will now help her win the game albeit at a cost.

Patti Le Pone has been something of a calmer presence amidst her more raucous cast mates and she takes on this episode with consummate skill making us feel for her and intrigued with her story. Her experience shows up in key moments and once it becomes clear where this is leading for her character then it becomes more serious. She works so well with Sasheer Zamata’s Jennifer, their banter in the tunnels providing the lighter side of the situation.  It’s a low-key episode of Agatha herself though all four of the ladies are fitted out in fairytale costumes inspired by the likes of Wicked and Malificent. 

The teen may well have been deceitful but the real surprise of the episode is the reveal that the currently absent Rio is in fact Death. I’m not sure if Agatha’s expression means she has always been aware of this. If you are having a relationship with someone it’s probably a fact that needs establishing.

There is such a lineage in this type of story and in presentation it closely resembles (and may indeed have been inspired by) Steven Moffat’s’ knottier “timey wimey” episodes of Doctor Who. It’s given similar imagery especially what we presume is Lilia’s final scene as she falls in slow motion to operatic incidental music. Naturally such a plot means that the writers don’t need to explain how Lilia and Jennifer survived their muddy incarceration at the end of episode five, they just did.

Its traditional in fantasy generally – and with Marvel in particular- that however unconventionally a story begins it will end up with spectacle and big clashes. While there is a little of that, Agatha All Along largely eschews a noisy climax for something cleverer and more considered. The trials end in part eight amidst a more spartan environment that enables a least one of the party- Jenny- to have a happy ending.

That episode nine is the most unusual of the whole series says a lot about the show’s ambition. The last two episodes, released together, provide a mystical, thoughtful conclusion to what has been a winding, twisting road of a journey. I do reckon that the content might have been better as an extended single episode lasting around an hour, as it is part nine seeks to drill down on plot points we’ve already seen. Yet it does possess a poised grandeur and some moving moments though they are always counterpointed by Agatha’s behaviour. On the one hand the story asks us to sympathise over the premature loss of her son yet at the same time she has taken many lives herself. Then again Kathryn Hahn plays all of this so wonderfully that you are as easily forced to empathise just as all those witches Agatha has tricked fell for her charm.

Whilst the Witches Road song is used frequently here and to good effect, the biggest reveal is that the Witches Road itself was something made up by Agatha centuries ago to lure those witches and was only brought into existence by Billy, who outlined his fanboy credentials in the first episode so maybe we shouldn’t be too shocked. His bedroom s full of visual signatures relating to the different scenarios we have seen. The bond between Agatha and the character formerly known as Teen has been at the heart of the series and now we know why she liked him as he reminded her of her son. Both Kathryn Hahn and Joe Locke have been excellent throughout; both versatile and unpredictable and enabling even the oddest scenes with humanity

Agatha All Along has certainly restored an artistic credibility to Marvel that recent films have been criticised for losing. It is never predictable, often bold, frequently amusing and visually interesting. More than anything though it has been an ideal playground for the versatile skills of Kathryn Hahn who gives one of the performances of the year.