Agatha all the time

Darkest hour, awaken your power

Season 1

Episode 5

Editorial review

3 stars

***

Photo: Chuck Zlotnick/MARVEL

The theme of the evening is clear before “Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power” even properly begins. The first shot of the “earlier, op Agatha all the timeThe montage recalls Agatha’s chilling backstory and flashes back to the Salem Witch Trials-era moment WandaVision showed us after she revealed her true Harkness identity. We see Agatha once again tied to the stake, surrounded by her circle of witches, and begging her own mother to spare her life. We see her destroyed again by their blue lightning, screaming in pain, and then sucking every last drop of power from their bodies until everyone – including her mother Evanora – falls to the ground as nothing more than husks. As Jen in particular tries to remind everyone, Agatha is not one to share, and her track record doesn’t exactly indicate that she’s interested in helping others when she could otherwise be helping herself.

On the other hand, Rio has a different interpretation. “Her own mother tried to have her executed,” she reminds them, sharply and especially defensively of a woman whose throat she keeps trying to slit. She may not really have a counter to the accusation that Agatha is too power-hungry, but her soft spot for Agatha seems rooted in at least some kind of understanding of what led her to that funeral pyre and everything that followed. As with most villain origin stories, it seems that Agatha’s can be traced directly back to a particularly harsh parent.

Motherhood — the nature of it, the generational wounds it can inflict, the inevitability of re-entering cycles you swore you would never do — stalks “Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power.” The opening scene does this very literally by revealing that the Salem 7 hunting Agatha are in fact the alien offspring of the witches Agatha turned into mummies. Apparently our fearless witches “left the door open” for the Salem 7 after summoning The Road, and now they’re hot on Agatha’s tail. I hope Lilia is speaking metaphorically here, because if not, such a stupid move is actually indefensible. The first rule of escaping an enemy is to close the door behind you, come on.

As with their appearance in the premiere, these hooded horrors immediately set up a scene tailor-made for a Disney ride with the witches’ daring escape on – horror of all horrors – broomsticks. Everyone (except Rio) opposes this suggestion from Teen, because brooms are tacky and overplayed. Moreover, Lilia sighs, they are “a clear symbol of feminine domesticity.” But there’s no time to argue (or ask if she’s referring to a particularly iconic scene from… Batman: The Animated SeriesSo let’s say yes, because that would make me very happy). So they take to the skies, reluctantly enjoying their ‘simple’ mounts as they fly over a blood-red moon. Even though Teen loses his precious spell book, the boy who predicts The Road with a wholesome “WELCOME, COVEN!” banner couldn’t be happier.

Of course, the concept of joy is completely foreign to The Road, which quickly sends them all crashing back down into the unhinged jaw of a bug-infested Salem 1. It’s absolutely terrible, and yet things are about to get much worse!

They escape by the skin of their teeth to the house that sets the stage for this episode’s trial. Everyone’s attire changes to ’80s pajamas (and matching side ponytails) as they enter a candlelit cabin for a sleepover. While they may have preferred to play Parcheesi, the game of the day is obviously a group Ouija board session to communicate with the dead. Rio immediately identifies this as Agatha’s process and deduces that her worst nightmare – aside from having to embody this preppy ’80s aesthetic – would be facing the many deaths she has caused over the centuries. Agatha is so concerned about the whole thing that when they join forces over the board, she is quick to pretend that Mrs. Hart’s spirit is possessing her, instead of the person she should actually be contacting. Kathryn Hahn exaggerates Ms. Hart’s impression: “there I lived my little life in the suburbs, baking casseroles, linking to conspiracy theories on Facebook, drinking before noon….” — just enough that it’s clear that Agatha is full of shit, but that’s pretty much the last moment of levity we get all episode, so we’ll cherish it anyway.

When Agatha finally gives in, her mother’s spirit emerges, driven by angry resentment and… Casperkind of CG. Her demand that they “punish Agatha” destroys the team spirit the coven had during their broomstick joyride less than ten minutes earlier. Rio, who clearly hates Agatha’s mother on a cellular level, hisses in protest, but Jen in particular is more than happy to listen. It seems harsh, but the fact that Jen’s ultimate Road fear comes true in such a horrible way at the end of the episode indicates that maybe she had a point.

If the last episode was ultimately about the fierce beauty of a mother’s protective love, this one is pretty much the opposite. While Alice’s mother spent her life trying to protect her daughter from a curse, Agatha’s mother spent her life believing her daughter. was the curse. Although the script makes a few attempts to keep the banter alive (“Stop embarrassing me in front of my friends, Mom!”), the episode takes an inevitably nasty turn from here. “You were born bad,” Evanora spits at her dejected daughter. “I should have killed you as soon as you were born.” It’s a slap in the face, and everyone – especially Agatha and Rio, but even Jen – feels the pain of it.

It’s so terrible that, as Evanora tries to suck the life out of her daughter, as Agatha once did to her, Alice steps in to try to put things right. But even shooting a possessed Agatha turns out to be a terrible idea as her instincts, or else something deeper and darker, kick in. No one can do anything but watch as Agatha sucks the life out of Alice, another undeserving victim of The Road.

With an episode running just 24 minutes, the series’ shortest running time to date, “Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power” doesn’t allow for much of a grieving period for Alice — who, like Mrs. Sharon Davis Hart, deserved better. That is both correct and a bit surprising Agatha all the time really isn’t playing with the life and death stakes here, but Ali Ahn brought a welcome warmth to the show that will be missed.

The trial ends at the same time as Alice’s life, apparently because a distraught teenager learns that they are supposed to recognize the ghost of Agatha’s son, Nicholas Scratch. At this point it should be said that this “trial” isn’t really the strongest of the show, if only because the inciting incident and the end goal aren’t nearly as cut and dry as the previous two. Is it punishment enough to have Agatha hear the voices of her mother and son if she also manages to get her purple powers back? Although she seems genuinely surprised at what she has done, she is secretly not too happy to feel the spark between her fingers again.

Teenager, grieving and furious, notices this. ‘So that’s what it means to be a witch? Killing people to serve your own agenda?” he asks her. “No. Not for me.”

Agatha, hungover from the worst EMDR session imaginable, seems less convinced of his attempt at justice. She sidles up to him, her face curling in an amused look of disgust, proving once again why Kathryn Hahn is truly one of the greats. “Are you sure?” she asks in a sickening, sing-song voice, with a Rio-esque grin. Agatha hooks her fingers under his chin and drops the bomb: “You look so much like your mother.”

At this, Teen’s anger manifests itself into something colder quite quickly. Jen and Lilia – now seemingly under the spell of someone (teenager?), with eyes glowing an icy neon blue – throw Agatha into the quicksand. When they turn to Teen, he does the same to them, watching them choke on mud and their own screams. The camera pans out to show him, back in his Hot Topic eyeliner and earrings – but also in an extremely Scarlet Witch-esque metal crown that seems to confirm all our suspicions. Congratulations to Joe Locke for landing the role of (we can assume? Probably?) Wiccan, aka Billy, aka Wanda Maximoff’s not-so-imaginary son.

“Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power” is dark, dramatic and ultimately overstuffed; again, all of the above happens in less than 25 minutes, and not always convincingly. But as the 80s cabin (and again questionable wigs) kept bringing Stranger things in my mind, I appreciated the show’s commitment to editing. It’s remarkable that every episode of scripted TV threatens to become completely formless again and again Agatha all the time made an effort to have a clear purpose as part of the overall story, rather than pushing things forward for the sake of the story. I have to admire Agatha‘s efficiency, even if I wish it wouldn’t rush past us faster than a broomstick from hell.

• I didn’t go into it in depth Agatha There are no fan theories yet, but the one about Rio being an emissary of Death feels more plausible by the minute. In this episode alone, we see her burst into laughter at the idea of ​​Death visiting the cabin and then noticeably disappearing from the coven’s side between Alice’s demise and Teen’s confrontation with Agatha. Arrange business perhaps?

• On that note, I now mention that her and Agatha’s story will be explained in an episode titled “The Ballad”: “I Hold Death’s Hand in Mine” (how awful Dickinson).

• Kathryn Hahn Rule of the Week: It’s tempting to “pack your things!” to say, but it should be like this: ‘Is that you?’ Certainly?”, which will definitely haunt my dreams this week, cheers.

• Did anyone else miss the singing? I’ve missed singing a bit! At least we still have a great needle for the end credits with Billie Eilish’s “You Should See Me in a Crown.”

• On closer inspection, Evanora Harkness’ ghost animation looked worse Casper than A Muppet Christmas Carol‘s Ghost of Christmas Past… what makes me a lot of more scared of her, that shit was terrifying.

• Agatha: (possessed by her terribly rude mother, shouting angry nonsense, clinging to the rafters like an albino bat) Rio: “Sweetie? Are you okay?’ That’s romance, baby!