This article contains: spoiler Agatha All Along Episode 4 “If I Can’t Reach You, I’ll Tell You With My Song.”
Last week’s episode of “Agatha All Along” ended with a big cliffhanger about what the witches would do with Mrs. Sharon’s body. At her first trial in Big Little Lies, Hart (Debra Jo Rupp), whose group failed to protect her (Not the official name). The Sorcerer’s Coven needs another witch to count Sharon down and get her way, so they agree to summon a “spare Green Witch”.
As a result, Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) is a warrior witch known as the Green Witch, an old enemy of Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), and perhaps the most powerful woman in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is one of the dangerous forces. We already met Rio this season, with Agatha still believing herself to be Detective Agnes O’Connor, but posing as a federal agent. She stayed with Agatha and gradually realized what Scarlet Witch had done to her, which gave her the chance to drop the pretense and help bring Agatha back to reality.
Rio and Agatha go back in time as witches, with the former thrusting a knife into the latter in the most charming way possible. Watching the two fight is like watching an episode of “Killing Eve,” with the action punctuated by uncontrollable sexual tension. When Rio finally cuts Agatha’s hand open, she licks the blood and Agatha strangles her. I don’t know if anyone in my room has ever been to an all-girls leather party, but… i see you. Rio agrees not to kill Agatha in her weak state, but the two promise to join their wits again when Agatha is at full strength, so the two are a ticking time bomb, with Rio agreeing not to kill Agatha in her “horizontal” state. ” We already know what you prefer.
Rio Vidal is practically driven by anger towards Agatha, but it seems to be a kind of revenge, only against someone who has ruined his life or broken his heart. If the final moments of episode 4 are any indication, Agatha All Long is Marvel’s biggest problem, unless they flip out and admit that Rio and Agatha are at odds because they’re ex-partners. may finally resolve one of the issues. I’m not talking about law enforcement.
Agatha knows every nook and cranny of Rio Vidal.
Before the episode ends, the coven spends time around the fire sharing stories. Rio announces to the group that he has a scar, to which Agatha replies, “No, I don’t.” How can you know that unless you know every inch of Rio Vidal’s body? Rio clarified, “Once upon a time, I loved someone and had to do something I didn’t want to do, even though it was work. And it hurt them. She is my hurt.” As she tells the story, she tries not to look at Agatha, but her eyes occasionally glance in her direction. Agatha excuses herself to “stretch her legs,” and Rio soon follows. Unseen by anyone else in the gathering, the two embrace, with Agatha holding Rio’s face in her hands.
She leans in for a kiss, but Rio stops her and says, “He’s not yours,” referring to Teen (Joe Locke), and at this point Agatha’s dead son Nicholas Scratch. A possibility is hinted at. Agatha takes a moment to smile and leaves Rio alone in the forest. Indeed, a cliffhanger In terms of story While Rio left the audience with more questions about the teenager and why someone would put a seal on his identity, the real cliffhanger is when Agatha and Rio kiss in “Agatha All Along.” Or not, damn it!
Red carpet before the series premiere at the Plaza asked on variety show Regarding rumors that the film will be “Marvel’s gayest project in history,” she promised, “There’s going to be an explosion of gay people by the end of it.”
Listen, I’m not here to doubt anyone as beloved as Aubrey Plaza, but I’ve been through this song and dance with Marvel before. When I was first promised to be “the first openly gay character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” in a group therapy session, a straight man talks about dating a man for the first time in five years. Director Joe Russo will appear in a cameo role. After the blip. I don’t care how much the “sad man” loves baseball or misses his person. do not have gay expression.
Agatha All Along Should Be Queer Beyond Subtext and Casting
“Agatha All Along” is full of queerness on a fundamental level. Because witches are always inherently queer. And the cast is packed to the forefront with people the queer community considers icons (hello, Patti LuPone!). Joe Locke’s teen character is definitely queer, but we never see him with a romantic partner. And of course, queer people being single or asexual doesn’t magically stop them from being queer, but not showing queer love, joy, and intimacy does not make queer people would deny us the ability to see it on screen, which straight people would never do. To think that it was denied.
Both canonically and textually, allowing a character to be gay legitimately changes their lives. In fact, that’s the case for one of the show’s stars. “Saturday Night Live” alumnus and “Agatha All Along” co-star Sasheer Zamata recently spoke out. they She realized she was a lesbian late in life, and part of that realization came from having played so many queer roles.
“I continued to play queer women. I played a lesbian in ‘Home Economics.’ I played a lesbian in ‘Woke.’ She played a lesbian role in “Tuca & Bertie.” I was a lesbian in The Last OG and kept getting these roles, but this was before I understood my identity. “Oh my god, what are these casting directors seeing that I don’t see? ” I thought. ”
Zamata joked that “Hollywood made her gay,” but anyone with half a brain cell knows that’s not what happened. Zamata had always been gay, but playing these characters opened him up to possibilities in his life that he didn’t know existed. That’s the magic of movies and television. Movies and television give us insight into a world beyond our own experience and show us that we don’t have to accept the roles we’re born into.
Agatha All Along is certainly a fun show about a witch in a world of superheroes, but it’s also an opportunity for Marvel to double down on its creepy queerness. Bigots already think this show is “too woke” for just having a female-led series with a diverse cast, so I wonder what the losers who don’t even watch the show will think. Do you need to? People watching “Agatha” are already cool with queerness, so there’s no reason Marvel and Disney+ can’t fully embrace it.
I wish I didn’t have to doubt it
I’ve been around long enough that I don’t need representation from multi-billion dollar corporations to feel “legitimate” or worthy, and I’m starting a project to tell my story. You never expect anything less from a four-quadrant entertainment conglomerate. I actually have gay issues to worry about. For example, I wonder if my marriage will be delegitimized, or if it’s acceptable for a doctor to refuse me medical care.
But I’m not such a nihilist buzzkill that I can’t see how important it is to the millions of queer people who are still in that same place in their lives. do We need these stories. If “Agatha All Along” was content to “make fun” of queerness but not actually live up to it, what message would that send to them all? What if one of the biggest and most influential voices in Hollywood is trying to push our lives into a corner in order to not upset the hateful creeps who might complain? What would you tell people?
At this point, the onus is on studios and streamers to either commit to telling queer stories or avoid it altogether and return to the time-honored tradition of queer coding. This half-hearted “allusion but no action” exercise is exhausting, boring, and disappointing. As the saying goes, go big or go home. After this week’s episode, I can’t imagine “Agatha All Along” whining and not completing Agatha and Rio’s will-they/will-they arc, but I’m also very skeptical. Marvel at the past about this (“The Eternals”, Innocent). The company has certainly made strides in recent years, but there’s still a lot more it can do. If you let the witch kiss you, there will be no problem!
“Agatha All Along” is available to watch on Disney+.
