Summary
Agatha All Along finds a superb balance in Episode 7, delivering the best major character send-off yet while once again dropping a bombshell revelation (even though it was spoiled weeks ago.)
I’ll say this for Agatha All Along – it isn’t afraid to kill off its cast. Episode 7, “Death’s Hand In Mine”, features another heroic self-sacrifice and major character revelation like Episode 5, steadily wiping out Agatha’s new coven, as well as what seemed like the show’s Big Bads. That’s fine, though, since there’s a new villain in town in the form of Rio Vidal, aka Lady Death, although we mustn’t forget that Agatha herself is a villain, as I’ve been reminding you all season.
But Rio isn’t really in this episode. It largely belongs to Lilia. Even though it seemed like Billy had killed both her and Jennifer when he revealed his real identity, they both survived and spend “Death’s Hand In Mine” roaming the tunnels under the Witches’ Road while Lilia riffles through an endless Rolodex of recollections, trying to fill in the blanks of her worsening memory by putting together the jigsaw pieces of the premonitions and past-life flashbacks that have dotted her story until now.
Needless to say, then, Agatha All Along Episode 7 is almost impossible to recap coherently, so sorry about that! But on the plus side, the episode is tremendously fun to unpack since it’s a dense and interconnected bundle of themes, ideas, plot points, and character beats that is quite miraculously well put together when you think about it.
The essentials are as follows: Lilia has been experiencing time nonlinearly, with the Road only complicating this, showing her snippets of what’s ahead and allowing her to blurt out kooky clues and references without truly understanding what she’s saying or doing. Her trial is a Tarot reading of herself that requires her to finally come to terms with the nature of a gift that has tormented her all her years, from her first encounters with her Sicilian Maestra to her final act of self-sacrifice.
Agatha and Teen/Billy in Agatha All Along
Fear is a key theme; fear of being ostracised, of having too much responsibility, of knowing everything in advance and being unable to change it. There’s a very specific pleasure in how Lilia is able to free herself of these shackles a bit at a time, feeling the outline of each piece of her personal story until she’s finally able to slot it into place. She has been cursed throughout her life, and especially throughout her journey on the Road, to not be able to remember everything; here, it all comes to her in powerful floods of realization that empower her more and more.
I think Tarot, like any other form of mumbo-jumbo, is nonsense, but Agatha All Along gets closer than any other story has to letting me see a side of it that resonates. It probably helps that each card is handily explained and pertains very specifically to a part of Lilia’s life, but you can see how the same logic could be applied to anyone, and the appeal almost reveals itself. Of course, most Tarot readings don’t end with a conclusion as definite as this one, with Lilia literalizing the Tower Reversed card and using it to upend the entire trial, sending the Salem Seven sailing to the swords mounted in the ceiling. They’re all skewered, and Lilia with them, having accomplished what she needed to in saving Agatha, Teen, and Jennifer, who I’m convinced still has more to do.
Aubrey Plaza as Rio Vidal aka Lady Death in Agatha All Along
The deaths of the Salem Seven are particularly unexpected, but the revelation that Rio is the long-teased Lady Death creates a villain to take their place. It was spoiled weeks ago by the reveal of some Funko Pop! toys, of all things, but whatever – the MCU nonetheless now has a sexy embodiment of Death to play with. What’s not to like?
That same sentiment can be applied to Agatha All Along Episode 7 as a whole. It’s a very solid work of craftsmanship with everything from the set design and costuming to the acting – take a bow, Patti LuPone – pulling their weight. There are some killer line readings – Agatha herself gets little to do, but her shrugging, “What can I say? I like the bad boys” in response to the Rio reveal is great – and easily the strongest writing of the series thus far. Perhaps more importantly, it lays the groundwork for a two-part finale that still has a lot to do but is suddenly very exciting in the possibilities it presents for the more cosmic side of the MCU going forward.
I’ll see you there.
