Agatha All Along: Maiden Mother Crone

 "I do tend to... kill my coven members."

I suppose, in terms of bare plot, and certainly in comparison to recent episodes, what happens in this finale is quite simplle. We see a pregnant Agatha in the 1750s with her son Nicholas Scratch, wandering around killing witches to survive. Yet Death was supposed to take Nicky at birth. She grants Agatha what turns out to be six extra years, but in the end (and, as a parent, on balance I agree) it's more heartbreaking to lose a child of six than a newborn you had never known.

So this is the truth of what happened in the past... although how Agatha came to become Death's lover (like Thanos!) is not explored. Yet, perhaps not surprisingly after last episode... the Witch's Road was a lie, born ofva song she devised for Nicky and turned into a myth intended only as a trap for her witch victims. Agatha was as surprised as anyone when this time the Road appeared... but it was all Billy.

So that's it. Otherwise it's all character- Agatha bonding with her son in 18th century colonial America while cheerfully being a serial killer of witches. How Billy reminds her of her son, hence the fondness. How she would have killed all the witches anyway... but Jen (the only actual comics character!) survives... is she now  going to meet "Ted"?

Not, perhaps, the greatest finale ever, but I enjoyed it. And, as Joss Whedon once did in Buffy, it's brave and iteresting of Jac Schaeffer to allow the penultimate episode the true mantle of finale.

Agatha All Along: Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End

 "So, Agatha's ex is death".

"That also makes sense..."

Wow. So much happens here in forty-odd minutes. Agatha All Along has been a slow burn, but these last episodes, with all the cleverly set up reveals, have been incredible.

So Rio (reference to the River Styx or summat?) literally is Death: we see Alice meeting her at the moment of death, incredulous that she should die now, upon the lifting of the curse, in a scene very reminiscent of similar scenes in Sandman, although we don't talk about Neil Gaiman these days. We also see some very cool subtle skull effects on her face, which is nicely done.

But wow.I mean, Agatha passes the last trialon the Witch's Road- just- but this is almost an afterthought. We discover that it was Agatha who bound Jennifer, and she is thus able to rather dramatically unbind herself. It's hinted that Agatha did not do the terible things to her son Nicky that everyone supposes, but istaking on the opprobrium to avoid something worse- for next episode, no doubt.

Then we have the episode-long  see-sawing of whether or not Agatha will betray Billy. She doesn't, she does... and then she doesn't, seemingly dying for him.

Yet the end- so clever, with all the elements of the Rosad being within Billy's bedroom- seems to hint that bigger and even more fundamental reveals are to come. Wow.

One more to go...

Agatha All Along: Death's Hand in Mine

 "We can be culturally offended later..."

Yeah, I know. They're all dressed like famous witches from popular culture- Wicked Witch of the West, Maleficent, etc... but they do have the tendency to be the Disney versions, don't they? Gosh, I wonder why that is.

Grumbling about the corporate cultural appropriation of folk culture aside, this episode is a thing of genius from the beginning to that wonderful and highly appropriate Jim Croce song at the end, as Lilia's entire life goes full circle. The little apparent lapses from Lilia suddenly make sense as we follow the conversation from her own, very timey-wimey perspective. It's so sad: she only gets to find fulfilment and purpose just before she dies. But wow, what a triumph, what a character and what a tour de force from Patti LuPone.

Also... Rio is literally Death? As in Thanos' lover Death? And... she's Agatha's ex? Wow. We get a lot of minor answers here- Lilia cast the sigil- but that's quite the reveal. What's her angle, and is she going to be showing up in all sorts of other contexts?

Overall, though, this is near perfection. The superb sets. the gleefully cliched trial. And the funny, tragic and incredibly clever script. Wow.

Agatha All Along: Familiar by My Side

 "Don't you dare feel guilty about your talent!"

And this is where we realise how clever Agatha All Along is, I've no doubt much cleverer than I've grasped,. This episode is, yes, a flashback, to the Teen's background. But it's so awfully clever that we see all thosesame scenes between him and Agatha in the first episode, but this time as part of his narrative.

And the whole flashback is so well handled. We follow William Kaplan, an ordinary teen, living in Westview,  just having had his Bar Mitzvah... and that night he suffers a permanent amnesia. It's hinted throughout that another personality has taken over, nicely laying seeds. He and his boyfriend (Eddie is a very nice kid indeed).

The conspiracy theorist chap reminded me of Clive from Rose in Doctor Who, albeit giving off much stronger nutter vibes... the irony being that everything he's saying is true.And (Easter egg) in a certain light he looks a bit like Quicksilver...

So... Teen, whose words we finally see and hear without the sigil, is Billy Maximoff, and he's looking for his brother, as Agatha so entertainingly works out. It seems the rest of the coven are dead?

The whole episode looks great, delivers bombshells that have really been earned, and both of its two leads are extraordinary. This just keeps getting better and better.

Agatha All Along: Darkest Hour / Wake Thy Power

 "We have to ouija."

"It's not a verb!"

At first, this seems like yet another test on the Road and just another episode in what we supposedc to be the series format... but no: this episode pulls the rug out from us and does it superbly. Despite the splendidly meta riffing on broomsticks at the start, with everyone hating how they're both a terrible cliche anda symbol of female domesticity (good point), the humour is much less foregrounded here, despite Agatha's initial witty efforts. Insyead things get surprisingly dark.

The ouija scenes (P-U-N-I-S-H A-G-A-T-H-A) are bloody terrifying... and so is Agatha's mother. But we're reminded that, witty and entertaining protagonist though she is, and capable of what she thinks to be maternal love, is not actually a very nice person simply becaudse she's the main character. She's done terrible things, and is by no means a reformed character.

... Indeed, Teen aside, she has no actual friends among the coven, as we soon discover. All of them are quite happy to let Agatha be punished, and survive.

And then unexpected things happen. Alice dies! Teen turns against Agatha... and all of them. We discover who he is... and he's not Agatha's son, but someone else's entirely.

Wow. Nicely done. Agatha All Along continues to toy with out naive exoectations at every turn of what we may think we're watching.

Agatha All Along: If I Can't Reach You / Let My Song Teach You

 "You don't have to know a person's name to know who they are..."

I've enjoyed Agatha All Along up until now, but this episode is another level. It's superb. Suddenly this is feeling like first class television drama. We've got to know the characters, now we get the deeper drama... alongside the wit we've come to expect. And it all looks amazing, too.

Agatha's callousness about Sharon is hilarious. As it the fact that a new green witch has to be summoned, and it's Rio. Oops. Yet she and Agatha have a truly fascinating and nuances dynamic- lovers, arch enemies, something very deep indeed.

The A story here is Alice and her generational curse, all very cleverly plotted and unveiled. Perfectly, the curse is expunged through rock 'n' roll. A song, as a protection spell... a superb twist.

And then there's the hints as to the teen's identity: is he Agatha's son? Her upset at him being hurt suggests she feels he might be, but Rio says not. The sigil confuses things, but apparently a sigil isvdestroyed once it's no longer needed. I love the ideas in this show.

We also get hints as to Rio's backstory... Agatha is her "scar" and made her hurt someone? Oh, and why does Lilia seem perfectly lucid most of the time but occasionally forget things? So much is going on. I'm loving this.

Agatha All Along: Through Many Miles / Of Tricks and Trials

" He's not in the coven. And he's underage..."

Once again, this episode is filled with wit, fun, and four witch characters we're a;ready getting to know and enjoy... although, as ever, Kathryn Hahn's performance is utterly wonderful. And we get a possible hint of the format: four types of witch- divination, green, potion and whatever Agatha is- and four trials from the Road.

But, simple though the format is- a posh house, a timer, poisoned wine ("Ugh! Cheap!"), and a race against the clock for Jennifer to make a suitable potion- it's so much more than that. Each character has a weird flashback, possibly telling us something. Jen is seemingly drowned by a man in early 20th century clothing. Alice seems to be facing a curse passed through generations from mother to daughter. And... did Agatha give her son to Mephisto (first MCU mention?) for a magical book?

Oh, and who is the Teen?

Yet it all looks brilliant, and the conceit works perfectly not only in entertaining us but in making us feel that wealready know all of these characters. But... Sharon is dead? There has to be more to her, surely? Regardless, I'm loving this.

Agatha All Along: Circle Sewn with Fate / Unlock Thy Hidden Gate

 "Witches like you are the reason people think we poison apples, and steal children, and eat babies."

"Babies are delicious..."

This is, of course, a wnderful piece of television. Agatha is a glorious protagonist- a baddie, and unashamedly so. Witty, humorous, amoral and delightfully free wit all the meta humour.

I've no idea where this is going, of course, but it's fun. The only characters I know from the comics are Agatha herself and a version of Jennifer Kale, not that I have in fact read Steve Gerber's Man-Thing issues. I suspect the fact we (and Agatha) are censored so very diegetically as to who the teen is means he's someone we may have heard of. But otherwise this is continuity-lite. Oh, and it's an almost entirely female cast with one gay boy. This is going to annoy all the right people. Good.

This episode is a fun riff on a kind of dark fairytale structure, which is of course enormous fun... and they all get into the road just before Agatha's hooded assassins arrive. Our motley crew is now on the road, and I have no idreawhere this is going, or who or what all those animals are. But I'm proper hooked.

Agatha All Along: Seekest Thou the Road

 "Did you know that it's a universally acknowledged truth that a lasy cop cannot be good at her job and have a happy home life at the same time"

Just one episode... and, yeah, on present evidence this is going to be as good as WandaVision. Jac Schaeffer, at this point, can seemingly do no wrong.

We 're in Westview, and Agatha is apparently a maverick detective in a cop show, which allows for all sorts of fun with the genre and winys to the fourth wall, from assaulting a suspect to a boss who boss who appears to be the very person for whom the word "lugubrious" was coined. Best of all, of course, is the spoof opening titles proclaiming the show to be based on a Danish original, a nice genre touch.

Of course, we don't see the face of the mudrdered woman... but, of course, it's Wanda. And hints of both Wanda and the Darkhold slowly penetrate through the layers of Agatha's reality in time for a showdown with the rather awesome Rio Vidal.I have no idea where this is going, but it's awesome. The closing titles themselves, with Donovan and every witch in popular culture to which Disney has access, are a thing of wonder. More please.