And boy do we dive in. As soon as Agatha breaks free, Rio barges through her door in her full witchy glory to deliver vengeance. Though we don’t yet know exactly the grievance for which Rio wants revenge, their fight is dripping with the tension and betrayal of a lover scorned. Hahn and Plaza are electric when they share the screen, and their chemistry is palpable. Although Agatha convinces Rio to wait until she has her powers back to kill her, that doesn’t stop Rio from sending the mysterious Salem Seven after Agatha, presumably for their own revenge against the infamous power-stealing witch.
Agatha is back to her full self (minus her powers of course) at the start of episode 2 “Circle Sewn with Fate, Unlock Thy Hidden Gate,” and on the hunt for a coven powerful enough to get her to the Witches’ Road. Thus, we get to meet more of the series’ witchy co-stars in this episode, all of whom bring their own spark of power to the show. Just as their characters all have their own skill sets to contribute to the coven, Patti LuPone, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, and Debra Jo Rupp all bring something wonderful to Agatha All Along, and it’s so fun to watch them play off of, and even match, Kathryn Hahn’s slightly bitchy witch vibes.
Joe Locke is also a lot of fun to watch as the Teen. His energetic eagerness to learn more about witchcraft and traverse the Road is the perfect juxtaposition to Agatha’s selfish cynicism. His excitement for the journey ahead is infectious and makes me excited to go on this journey with them. There’s also the massive question of who he actually is, with some kind of protective magic hiding his identity from the witches he travels with and us, the audience. Time will only tell, but I will absolutely be seated when the big reveal comes.
As they all gather at Agatha’s house to sing the haunting “Ballad of the Witches’ Road,” (good luck getting this catchy song by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez out of your head) and open a portal to this magical realm, Agatha’s past catches up with her as the Salem Seven come to collect, just as Rio promised. Poor Sharon a.k.a. Mrs. Hart (Jo Rupp) gets swept up in all of this as the coven’s designated “Earth witch,” having just enough latent power to get the job done and keeping Agatha from having to seek out the true final member as determined by Lilia’s (LuPone) divined list – Rio. Rio’s name may not have explicitly appeared, but the designation of a black heart on the list, and Agatha’s odd insistence on trying to traverse the road without an Earth witch in the first place, points to her as the true final member of the coven.
Episode 2 ends with the coven finally reaching the legendary Road, to the genuine surprise of some of the witches who weren’t entirely sure it was real. Agatha narrowly misses the wrath of the Salem Seven (for now) and sets off down, down, down the Road with her new coven, ready to face whatever trials this mysterious realm might have in store for them.
Agatha All Along is already proving to be a spooky, campy, witchy good time, and potentially the gayest Marvel show in existence thus far, which we love to see. While it’s too early to say whether or not Agatha is as good as WandaVision, fans of the show will certainly be in for a treat. Jac Schaeffer has crafted a magnificently bewitching corner of the MCU, and it’s a world that is genuinely fun to spend time in.