The Fantasy Review’s review of Agatha All Along Episode 5 – Darkest Hour / Wake Thy Power.
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Spoiler-Filled Review of Agatha All Along Episode 5
Burning Brightly
The first thing we see in Agatha All Along Episode 5, Darkest Hour / Wake Thy Power is a short clip of Agatha in 1695, Salam. She’s tied to a pyre and the Salam Witches are trying to kill her, but when they use their magic on her, she drains them all and takes their power, killing them.
The only reason to show this is to foreshadow the same method being used in the episode. However, because this is obvious, there must be a twist…
And the episode title also links to this idea, with “wake thy power”.
Mercy is Overrated
The Salem Seven, in the present day, enter the Witches’ Road looking for agatha. These people/creatures are so well done – they are terrifying!
Lilia sees them in a dream/vision and warns everyone. They “left the door open” when they summoned Rio. It is revealed to the audience – instead of immediately running – that these Seven are the children of the witches Agatha killed, who became “feral”.
They start putting some broomsticks together – while complaining about the cliché of it all – and manage to fly off, escaping one of the Seven who attacks Teen, but is hit over the head by Alice.
There is a lovely, peaceful joyful moment when they are all flying in the light of the orange moon. It’s almost like an act of reclaiming the cliché for themselves and they revel in it.
Teen asks the obvious question: “Why haven’t we been doing this all along?” and the Road answers by pulling them all down.
They see the text Trial, running inside the building to escape another of the Seven who was waiting for them (who turned into bees/hornets, or something, which really grossed me out).
Kiss. Marry, Kill?
They enter the Trial and discover that the Seven can’t reach them there – at least not immediately. They are dressed up in some very strange outfits this week – like they are at a sleepover in the ‘80s or something.
I think certain Twitter accounts are going to enjoy some of these clothing decisions… This show knows what it’s doing.
Teen can’t find his spell book and panics. I can’t tell at this point in the episode if this is relevant or just something that happened.
It turns out that this Trial is for Agatha. The Blood Moon indicates that this Trial is about talking to the dead, which is her department, not Lilia’s.
“And who better to commune with the dead than someone who’s put so many in the grave.” – Rio
We Have Ouiija
Teen gets out the Ouija board and reads the rules, which will probably be broken. Now, Agatha has to face whoever is there waiting for her.
We get a fake-out from Agatha, pretending that “Mrs. Hart” is talking to them, but of course it’s not, because her real name is Sharon. Kathryn Kahn does then proceed to do a great impression of Mrs. Hart/Sharon, though, which made me laugh.
Agatha repeats the process, this time with more conviction, and it works. Apparently, Death answers – wait, I thought that… okay, nevermind for potential spoilers.
Death wants to punish Agatha. Agatha gets scared and lets go of the board. There’s screeching and howling wind with the release of the spirit (broken rule) that stops when Kale realizes it’s for them to punish Agatha. She says it with such glee too.
Humiliation Would Work Too
Agatha disappears before anyone can get their hands on them, and the lights shut off. Agatha’s been possessed and she does the bridge-crawl-thing you see in The Exorcist (and every horror movie about possession) and disappears again once Lilia turns the circuit breaker back on.
A ghost appears – turns out Rio hates ghosts – and reveals itself to be the ghost of Evanora Harkness of the Salemites. Agatha – normal this time – peeks over the canopy:
“Hey mom. It was nice having you in my body for a second there. I’ve never felt so close to you before.”
Evanora claims that she and her coven risked everything to kill Agatha, and is angered that these witches are helping her. She demands that they leave Agatha with her to be punished, and they should go and finish the Road without her.
Rio is the one who says no. There’s a clever line here where someone says that Rio was the one who suggested slitting Agatha’s throat, and Rio responds, “yeah, but her mother can’t have her.” Oh, sorry, potential spoilers, again.
Evanora tells Agatha she was born evil and she should have killed Agatha the moment she was born. Jesus, parenting goals right here…
Kale goes to leave, and Agatha begs for them not to leave her behind. Evanora possesses Agatha again and Alice tries to save her, by using her magic.
Agatha immediately expels her mother’s ghost from her, stealing Alice’s powers. Teen runs over to the Ouija board which gives him a name – Nicholas Scratch – which he then shouts, stopping Agatha from killing Alice.
It stops Agatha in her tracks, but Alice dies anyway.
This is Agatha’s punishment. Nicholas Scratch (who has an awesome comic book history you should only check out if you are okay with potential spoilers.)
Teen is Confirmed to be Wiccan
Outside the Trial, Teen and the others tell Agatha off for killing Alice. I mean, they’re not surprised (other than Teen), so they don’t make a huge deal out of it.
But Teen refuses to let it go, telling Agatha he won’t be the kind of witch who kills others to get what they want. Agatha then puts on all her bravado, and says, “Are you sure?… You are just like your mother.”
Teen then reveals the extent of his powers, controlling Kale and Lilia to hold Agatha and throw her into the soil at the side of the road. He then puts Kale and Lilia in the soil too, and all three witches are taken by the ground.
It’s then revealed, by Teen’s fancy new blue headwear, that he is Wiccan, Wanda Maximoff’s son.
Concluding Thoughts to This Review of Agatha All Along Episode 5
It is a shame that this episode is so short. Much more could have been done inside the Trial, extending the creepy, horror thing going on. Alternatively, they could have used a little more time giving us some more characterisation for these newer faces.
We got plenty of characterisation for Alice, who has had a full arc and then they killed her, leaving us with Kale and Lilia who we know nothing about and don’t really care about.
The final “twist” was unfortunately obvious, and it didn’t work as an engaging mystery box. It did, however, work well as a device used to show another side of Agatha earlier on in the series. So, there are pros and cons.
Now Wiccan has gone and planted the surviving witches in the flowerbeds – with Rio being suspiciously absent from these final scenes – I can only assume we either find out you don’t die in there, as previously stated, or he comes to his sense and realizes he needs them to get to the end of the Road.
