It’s the witching hour, and that means it’s time for another episode of Agatha All Along. This one’s called “If I Can’t Reach You / Let My Song Teach You,” it’s a really fun episode, and yes, there’s more singing involved. They were clearly feeling the music on this one. There’s a Fleetwood Mac vibe going on, a whole lot of Stevie Nicks. And as always I brought my good witchy adviser with me, Mrs. Know-It-All.

They bury Mrs. Hart, they end up needing a new green witch, they summon one, and who is it? It’s Rio. “Heard you guys were having a party.” Aubrey Plaza is Rio, and she is something else.

The Second Trial Belongs to Alice

They hit their second trial along the road, and the house and everything in it is clearly directed at Alice Wu, the fire witch. It’s all centered around her life. The minute they walk in it’s the Bee Gees meets anything you think of from back in the day. “Don’t drink anything, don’t eat anything, don’t touch anything.” Feels like there’s a story there.

Mrs. Know-It-All liked that we went into another trial right away, with no time wasted. What got her was that as the episode went on, you realize it was all just a curse on Alice and her mother, and that made a lot more sense to her.

It’s like we talked about last week. Whatever the road creates, it shows itself as something that has to do with one individual, but the whole group has to deal with the repercussions. So this one’s about Alice facing that family curse, and now everybody has to deal with what that looks like. I thought it was pretty interesting, them learning a little more about each other as they go.

The Sound Booth

Agatha’s trying to stay away from Rio. She wants nothing to do with her, and she’s kind of upset the summoning even happened. At one point on the road they have a quick conversation, and Rio tells her it’s all legit. She was going to stay away, but apparently the summoning worked a little too well. The magic took the path of least resistance and pulled in the closest, most appropriate candidate, and she was the nearest one.

Then they break off, and there’s that conversation between Rio and Agatha in the sound booth. Rio sounds like she’s trying to lure Agatha, or trick her, into revealing something. So Agatha hits the button on the microphone, like the principal’s button, so the rest of them can hear what Rio says. What happens next? “I get the pleasure of watching you do what you do best.” Which is kill all the witches around you. And then Rio tries to play it off, like, I would never do that. Whatever.

It was super clever. And later on Lilia says to her, don’t think for a second I’ve forgotten what you said in the sound booth. They all heard it. That’s going to be interesting.

Agatha Got to Teen First

In the middle of all this, Teen gets hurt. He gets picked up by an invisible force, presumably the curse, and he gets hurled through a glass window. And damn it if Agatha wasn’t the fastest one to his side. She flew over there. I’m sitting here like, really, Agatha? I thought you didn’t care so much. Clearly you do.

They keep dropping hints about the situation with her son. Clearly she had to do something, whether it was a sacrifice or whatever it was, and she’s really sad about whatever had to happen. So it’s not hard to say she’s kind of imprinting. This is a young person on the road with me, and technically he’s my responsibility. It mirrors what may or may not have happened, or at least what they’re implying happened.

Mrs. Know-It-All saw the same thing. Agatha’s trying to maintain being herself, and at the same time she’s suddenly got this motherly instinct. I liked it. I hate to be that critic, but it added pathos. It made the moment.

A Drama in the Same Way The Penguin Is

I was making the comparison last week that The Penguin and Agatha All Along are very similar, and what I mean is they’re both dramas. There’s not a lot of high action. There’s no guns flying. Hell, there’s not even spells flying. Obviously there’s some supernatural stuff, but they have to reason it out. They can’t punch their way through it. They have to think, and sometimes that means exploring internally. The same thing’s happening over in The Penguin. There’s a lot of introspection, it’s not all bang ‘em up, shoot ‘em up, and both are fascinating in their own way.

This still feels like it’s borrowing heavily from the dramedies of television of old. In the beginning it was very procedural. Now it’s becoming this Thursday night dramedy on ABC. I was going with the Desperate Housewives analogy, something along those lines. Mrs. Know-It-All has watched more of that kind of TV than I have, so I asked her, and she doesn’t see it that way. To her it’s just very unique, maybe because it comes from the comics and that’s not her world.

I find it interesting because the more people want Marvel to be Marvel and the MCU to be the MCU, the less they’re ready for when it takes strides like this. Captain America: Civil War was a very different movie from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Winter Soldier was this cerebral spy action thing and it lived on its own. Other things had a hard time finding their own voice until WandaVision, which started with a very unique premise and then about episode three or four decided to pull the curtain back.

People keep wanting to compare WandaVision and Agatha, and I don’t see them as comparable. Yes, this is an extension. But Agatha is doing a very unique show all its own, the way Loki stood on its own. You’re seeing very familiar pieces, but each of those three has a tone of its own that really works. When we get shows like Daredevil, they’re going to feel like that dark, gritty corner of the MCU. Everybody’s owning a corner, and I’m really liking Agatha’s version of what that looks like, especially because we’re seeing the character grow.

Did You Put the Sigil on Me?

At every stage of this show I want to find out more details. Mrs. Know-It-All has been really big on who is or isn’t Teen.

They’ve made Agatha an unreliable narrator. Teen asks her flat out, did you put the sigil on me? “No. Actually, I wouldn’t. A sigil works on the witch who casts it as well. That’s why we don’t use them as much. They’re super irritating.”

To me that was his way of asking without asking: are you my mom? Mrs. Know-It-All wasn’t sure that’s what it was. But they’ve already established the sigil is a form of protection, and who would protect a young person other than someone who feels responsible for them? It’s a new dimension to the spell they hadn’t put forth before, and it makes sense to me now.

I’m still maintaining what I’ve been maintaining, though I feel like the fact that he’s Wanda’s son may almost itself be a red herring. I don’t know, man. Mrs. Know-It-All still thinks he’s Agatha’s.

Rio, and the Job She Didn’t Want to Do

Last week, when Lilia was having her vision, we saw an image of what they call Lady Death, or Mistress Death. At least she looks like the one in the comics that Thanos is in love with. Skull face, female form, cloak and hood. I said hoodie. She wasn’t wearing a hoodie. There’s a big difference between the proper version and the hoodie version.

There’s a spoiler going around about who people think Aubrey Plaza is, and if you want to look it up yourself you can. I never thought she was just Rio. I thought she was more Morgan le Fay. Other people have speculated that she’s Death, Lady Death, or some form of death. I don’t know if that’s true or not.

But then she has this line. It’s after the trial, they’re sitting on the road, and it’s the Stand By Me moment, only with witches. Each of them talks about their scars. Agatha gets back from dealing with Teen, who wakes up, and Rio speaks up. Oh, I have a scar. Agatha’s like, no you don’t. Yes I do. Very much like she’s messing with her.

And then the implication, and I don’t know how reliable these narrators are: a long time ago I loved someone, and I had to do something I did not want to do, even though it was my job, and it hurt them. She is my scar.

It’s the doing my job part. Whoa, time out. What is your job? I can see the MCU making the tangential connection. Death puts your body in the ground, so that would make her a form of earth witch. But calling her a witch is way simplifying it. If she’s not Death, she’s some form of an avatar of death.

Mrs. Know-It-All took that and ran with it. At the end of the episode Rio tells Agatha it’s not him. If we’re assuming Agatha is the scar, because Rio loved her, then why wouldn’t it be the son? She’s sticking with Agatha’s. Fair enough. I think both of our ideas are possible.

Why I’m Not Getting My Hopes Up

We’ve already confirmed, hands down, that he’s eventually going to be Wiccan. The question is which interpretation of Wiccan they’re using, because there are two. One is actually Billy, and one is Billy from another dimension. It’s very confusing, I explained it last week, and it could go either way. That’s the flip-floppiness of the Marvel universe now.

A lot of us might be gun-shy, because during WandaVision we thought the character who ended up being Ralph Bohner, the neighbor, was Quicksilver. We thought he was Wanda’s brother, even if he was Wanda’s brother from another universe, and it ended up being some other guy. So I may think it’s Billy, and they may do something different with him, and that’s totally fine. I’m trying my best not to get my hopes sky high. I just like the mystery of it all right now. Maybe that’s another reason I’m really enjoying this. I’m guessing all over the place.

We’ve also been name-dropped Mephisto. When Jen was looking at that wall of devil masks, with all the eyeballs, all I could think was, is one of these supposed to represent Mephisto? He’s a red face and the whole nine yards. Mrs. Know-It-All says it’s so funny, because I’ll be whispering Mephisto this and Mephisto that, and she’s going, see, I told you, it’s Agatha’s. I’m surprised we even make it through an episode. We’re both watching for different things, in a wonderful way.

The Ending, and the Guy in the Wings

The ending felt slightly on the abrupt side for me. It wasn’t the usual dead cold abrupt ending, and everything was resolved the way it should have been. But even an extra moment of Rio walking away and Agatha watching her go would have helped. That’s a preference thing. I don’t think it’s like The Acolyte and other shows I’ve complained about, where they just chose to cut at a random moment.

Mrs. Know-It-All didn’t think it was like that at all, because it kept her guessing. Then again, who is it? Which I guess is the ultimate point of a cliffhanger. Appropriately done.

What she wanted was more of the scary guy, the curse. They come so close, they get you right up to being a little nervous and scared, and she wanted them to commit to it.

I think we had just enough of him, and this is me seeing it with old school industry eyes. I don’t know that the effect was holding up too long. It kind of reminded me of Supernatural or Buffy. For me it was the moment Alice invokes the flames and he’s standing there with his wings flapping. The wings look very material, almost like parachute material, or that squirrel suit flying suit material. I was like, uh, guys, really? And then they had him evaporate in a very bad effect.

What’s funny is Mrs. Know-It-All noticed it too. She just didn’t want to believe it, even though she wanted more scary, until I had to go and say something.

The Verdict

Agatha All Along Episode 4 is holding steady at an 8 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.

Mrs. Know-It-All gave her number first this week. She’s been doing 8, 8.5 for the most part, and she’s giving this one an 8, down the Witches’ Road. I’m lining up with her. I think the 8 is a solid score.

I know there are people out there who want to criticize. I’ve seen nothing egregious about this show yet. It’s fun, and I’m having fun watching it.

Who do you think Teen is? Is he Billy, is he Agatha’s son, is there a connection there, or do you have a completely different idea and we’re way off base? Tell us your score and what you think is going on in the show. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.