Agatha All Along rushed its journey down the ‘Witches’ Road’

when agatha forever First announced as a music-focused sequel in 2021 wandavisionit was hard to imagine how showrunner Jac Shaffer could recreate the magic that made the original such an inspired piece of storytelling. wandavisionIn addition to being one of the first Disney Plus series, its show-within-a-show premise and clever use of practical effects helped differentiate it from previous Marvel projects. But I also used Schaefer wandavision By interweaving beats from notable films in the series to create a coherent narrative, The entire MCU enters the multiverse era.

From that first episode, agatha forever They went to great lengths to show us that, wandavisionlead died Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessthere was still a lot of meat, perhaps too much, for Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness to chew on. The show’s two-part finale stayed true to its title in many ways, making it a solid hit. MCU interconnectivity feels increasingly unstable post-wandavision, agatha forever It ended in a way that felt like it was ready to get (at least part of) the franchise back on track. And with another follow-up series already in development, Marvel seems to understand that these particular stories are their best shot at knocking it out of the park.

This work contains the following spoilers agatha foreverThe finale.

wandavision The coven is briefly mentioned in a flashback to the 17th century, when Agatha kills her mother Evanora (Kate Forbes) and a group of sister witches. but agatha forever Delving deeper, we are introduced to characters such as Agatha’s ex-boyfriend Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) and a mysterious teen whose name cannot be said (Joe Locke). Agatha herself had already been portrayed as a unique threat to magic users, so it was hard to guess what kind of danger awaited the coven when they recruited her and the teenage fortune teller. Lilia Cardel (Patti LuPone), Potion Master jennifer kale (Sasheer Zamata), Guardian Witch alice woo gulliver (Ari Arn), and ordinary Jersey woman Sharon Davis (Debra Jo Rupp) join their ranks.

but agatha forever We have established a very clear focus for all players. “Witch’s Way” – The area where the coven that sings “” enters.Witch’s Way BalladAnd her ability to grant the wishes of those who had overcome the trials gave the witches a reason to cooperate. And in a similar way agatha forever‘s invoice Mare of East Town It was a callback to wandavisionThe Witch’s Way, a sitcom parody of The Witch’s Way, felt like the show’s greatest way to emphasize the power of practical effects.

A reminder of just how memorable The Road was, with all the hand-painted leaves and trees that transformed the set into an otherworldly forest. agatha forever‘s creative team used its small budget wisely to create magic that felt more real than its predecessor. And The Lord’s horror-movie-inspired trials of witch skill gave the show a similar yet distinct enough narrative structure. wandavisionThis is to make it look like agatha forever It really was second chapter of the trilogy Not just a spin-off, but a story.

As is often the case with genre TV shows with big-name casts, agatha forever I sometimes had trouble keeping all the plates spinning at the same speed as Agatha. Each of the witches faced different challenges and had a chance to shine, but some of their backstories, especially Jennifer and Alice’s, felt rushed and had little to no elucidation. . Some of the trials themselves were a bit fluffy. (At one point, the witches dump a large amount of ingredients into the sink to brew an antidote.) agatha forever But sometimes they were willing to kill off characters with a finality that only became sharper as the season progressed.

I still had questions about what exactly it was, but agatha forever‘s big bad could be over by the midway point of the season, when Sharon and Alice had already bitten the dust. However, in episodes 5 and 6, it is revealed that this teenage boy is Billy Maximoff/William Kaplan, one of Scarlet Witch’s sons who was possessing the body of a dead person, and everything about the show is revealed. The pieces of the puzzle are starting to fit together.

One of the most impressive things is that wandavision It takes some of Marvel’s most complex comics, Scarlet Witch and Vision, and reworks them into stories concise and compelling enough to consistently engage non-comic book readers. It was a successful method. Much of Billy’s comic book legend, in which he and his brother have their souls reabsorbed by the demon Mephisto before being reborn as strangers, is even wilder than the story of his spiritual mother. be. but agatha forever many of those beats, wandavision‘s “We Interrupt This Program” is a clever departure from the series’ sitcom conceit.

Unlike Alice and Sharon’s arc, that was evident early on. agatha forever teased something important about Lilia’s many confusing moments stemming from her ability to see the future. But what wasn’t so obvious was that the show was using her to set the stage for a time-jump episode that would provide important context for some of the show’s most satisfying developments. Rio was actually an incarnation of death in disguise.

Of all the Marvel characters that could appear in a Disney Plus show, it was a real surprise considering how they died in the comics. she is a cosmic being most often associated with Thanos (and sometimes spiderman clone). But the arrival of death also brought a fascinating gravity to everything that happens at the gathering. This added context to the show’s growing body count and added a new layer of intrigue to Agatha and Rio’s romantic past. This is another beat that could have benefited from more fleshing out. Death gave Jennifer, Billy, and Agatha a clear enemy to rally around as they near the end of the road. And while the witch’s final battle with the Grim Reaper wasn’t anything to write home about, it agatha foreverYour story and your deep connection to it. wandavision Get a clearer focus.

agatha forever‘s final two episodes prove that the Witch’s Way never actually existed until just before Agatha and Billy’s gang sing a ballad together to make an entrance. It was just a myth that started in the early days when Agatha was a witch and a new mother to her son. By spreading the idea of ​​the existence of roads, Agatha had an easy way to lure witches into the forest under the guise of opening a portal, but she only stole their magic. That was her plan from the beginning of the current coven, and she probably would have followed through with it too. However, in the show’s final episode, Agatha returned as a ghost to tell Billy that things took a very different turn, as she wanted the witch’s ways to become reality this time.

That plot point, and Agatha’s insistence on remaining with Billy as leader of the Spectra, fleshed out that extent. agatha forever It really lasted wandavision‘s story — moves the characters forward and pushes what a Marvel show can do.