AGATHA ALL ALONG: Complete Series Breakdown Compilation

Close. your eyes. and ate it in the fifth. water. There's a boy that they tricked. him. He's going to drown. [music]. >> Welcome back to New Rockstars. I'm Eric. Boss and this is a complete breakdown. compilation of Marvel's Agatha all.

along. With Vision Quest now here, many. are now revisiting this amazing 9. episode series 2 years later to. rediscover the devious delights, the. witchy lore and iconic moments that made. up the second act of the W division. trilogy. From the brilliance of Lilia. Calderoo's timeline spanning catharsis. to the heartbreaking history of Agatha. and Lady Death to the inspiring. imagination of Billy Maximoff, there's. really so much to love in this series. At the request of many of our viewers, we have now merged our nine breakdowns. from fall 2024 into this one extended.

compilation video for you to enjoy, to. relive, and even to vibe to. And we've. decided to leave in the wild takes and. even incorrect theories because any trip. back down the witch's road deserves to. be done fully and sincerely, warts and. all. Specifically, I think this video's. chapter on episode 7, Death's Hand in. Mine, remains a top 10 analysis I've. ever done in all my years as a YouTuber. And I hope you will continue to join us. this month for same night after shows. for vision quest, next day Easter egg. breakdowns, and Friday live stream Q&As. here on the New Rockstars channel.

Please subscribe and consider joining. our channel as a member. Join me as we. go down down down the road down the. witch's road. This is a breakdown of. Marvel's Agatha Allong episodes 1 and. two, seekest thou the road and circle. sewn with fate unlock thy hidden gate. Okay, for the first time, Marvel Studios. unveils its Marvel television bumper. It. uses the same initial rapidly flipping. comic book images that Marvel Studios. title bumper opens with. For example, we. once again see this armored fist. This. is the fist of the Iron Man armor model.

22, the Thorbuster armor from 2003's. Invincible Iron Man number 64. This and. several other familiar images are now. filtered through an MTV inspired '90s. television graphics package that. flickers with interference and glows the. logo through these RPG cells and then. sharpens into a flat logo with kind of a. Netflixworthy sound effect. Starting in 2024, Marvel has aimed to. brand titles like Agatha Allong and. Daredevil: Born Again as Marvel. television to distinguish these stories. from the Marvel Studios films. We open.

on the road, not the road, but a rainy. New Jersey road being driven on by Agava. Harkness or Detective Agnes Okconor as. she thinks she's named. She hums. This is the Ballad of the Witches Road, a song that will come back throughout. the series. And the fact that Agnes is. humming it here tells us that it's. really a song that's already in her. heart. Every time she journeys down any. road, there's really only one road that.

she wants to be on. Later, Agnes even. likens this particular road with the. witch's road. >> I was on a road this morning. It led to something pretty awful. So, remember Wanda Vision ended with Wanda. taking Agatha's powers and leaving. Agatha in her own mental spell. To think. she's still living in a TV themed world. despite the sitcom Hex Over the Town of. Westview being lifted. So, this series. is set 3 years after that. So, in the. MCU timeline, it would make this 2026. The character of Aartness really began.

as the governness of the family of the. Fantastic 4 of Reed Richards and Sue. Storm. She came back in the8s West Coast. adventure story line as kind of a nanny. figure to Wanda and Vision's kids. revealed to be a witch who's really. serving meto. She's never really had her. own solo run. So, this show has quite a. bit of bandwidth to just make the. character of Agna Harkness whatever they. want it to be. It's truly a classic TV. spin-off in which Kathern Han is just. making the character her own. Now, back. in Wision, Wanda spell seems specific to. light-hearted sitcoms, but now Ag is in. a crime drama reality that's based on.

the HBO series Mayor of Easttown. Kathern Han is dressed like an emulating. Kate Winslett's working-class. Pennsylvania detective. And these. opening shots are recreating the opening. minutes of the second episode of May of. East Town when Mayor is driving up to. the crime scene in which a young woman. is found dead in a creek in the woods. Wanda Maximoff's defeat in Doctor. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. seems to have altered the spell to be. focused just more on death. Thus, the. switch from sitcom to crime drama. Now, of course, Agatha is not in reality. driving here, but as we see in episode. 2, she's really just sitting in her. living room pressing her feet on boxes.

of cereal. And I love that the A of the. writers went to the length to justify. that. David Payton returns from W. division as Westview resident John. Collins or Herb the neighbor as he was. known in Hex. He says, >> "Hey neighbor.". >> Of course, he greets Agnes as neighbor. And he's behind a line of yellow police. tape, which in reality is probably Jon. saying, "Hey neighbor," from behind his. row of yellow flowers. Agnes references. her disciplinary action of punching a. suspect. >> Oh, now a convicted felon can't be right. and wrong at the same time. I assume. Agatha's suspension might have come from.

her brawl with Wanda Maximoff, who the. people of Westview actually now see as a. villain. Herb says. >> Jane Doe found her down here by the. water. >> John Collins makes a subtle inflection. choice here in the way he says water. Mayor of Easttown was parodyied by. Saturday Night Live in this hilarious. murder dur sketch. >> I didn't murder no one's dirt. I got no. idea how she ended up in the Wooter. >> What woo? >> But locals to the area will note that. Wartter is closer to how they say it in. Baltimore. In the Philly suburbs, it's. Wooter. So, Payton really did the. research and he nails it here. Herb says.

>> she was crushed. >> by what? >> Something big and heavy. >> Yes. Referring to Wanda's end in. Multiverse of Madness when the Darkhold. temple at top Mount Wundugor collapsed. on top of her. The walls of that temple. actually contained Cathon's original. etchings of the Dark Hold's text. So, in. a way, it was kind of the original. Darkhold that closed on her. But then. they tease us. >> She is dead though, isn't she? Herb. >> Oh, she's really most sincerely dead. never know. >> They're referring to the fact that when. the temple collapsed, we did see a.

mysterious red glow in the rubble. That. could have been Wanda's death or it. could have been her teleportation or. just her transition into some other. realm or some other form. Over the. years, Kevin Feige and Elizabeth Olsen. have indicated that Wanda could come. back in some form in the future. And. indeed, in the past week, people have. discovered a copyright notice of a. Scarlet Witch movie that might be coming. in 2026. >> Be dead, right? >> I think so. You don't know or you won't. say. >> I assume as much. >> The rocks landed on her. >> Yeah. And there was a red light.

>> And there was a red light. >> of explosive energy. >> stuff. Yeah. >> But the wording of really most sincerely. dead actually comes from the Wizard of. Oz. In the corner of Munchkin Land. pronounces the Wicked Witch of the East. this way. >> She's really most sincerely dead. So. Agnes sees this Jane Doe corpse and. reaches for her chest as if wanting to. touch the brooch that would normally be. there. Like later notice when she's. changing all of her costumes, she always. starts with a reach to this region. The. corpse is barefoot and has black. fingers. It's a common trope of corpses.

in crime dramas to focus on the deceased. discolored fingers and toes. But in this. case, the black fingers is a side effect. of someone who uses the darkold. Agnes. finds her brooch in a puddle and her. reflection is placed perfectly over it. so that it aligns the brooch exactly. where it would be pinned to her chest. They roll the body, but Agnes' position. and the head being hooded obscures the. appearance of this person. This opening. scene and much of this episode clearly. wants us to think that this body belongs. to Wanda Maximoff. They identify it as. female. It was crushed by something. heavy, the scarlet hair from under the. sheet. But then we must ask, why are her.

feet bare? Did Wanda go to the witch's. road? I don't want to deny that this. body being Wanda is possible. I think. Wanda is still alive somewhere out there. and will return in some form. I'm just. not positive if it will be on this. series. So, here is an alternate theory. This episode also likens the corpse with. the book of the darkhold itself. Its tow. tag is a Westview library card, which. would make this body a book and the. previous possessors of it being Wanda. and Agatha. So, I think the corpse is. just the Darkhold taking the form of a. human body in this TV reality. Also, I.

think the fact that they're making this. book into a dead body could be pointing. to the possibility that it may end up. being Joe Lock's character who might be. Agatha's son, Nicholas Scratch. And. right now she's just seeing the corpse. as female because the dark hole text has. really a feminine quality to it as the. text that foretells the Scarlet Witch. Later Agnes even says, "She dead.". >> Then why do you assume it's a woman? >> I don't know. Sounds more titillating. >> And we should acknowledge that Wanda's. hair was never as red as the hair under.

the morg sheet in that scene. Her hair. in Multiverse of Madness was more of. like a dirty blonde or a strawberry. blonde. So it may just be that the. scarlet witch in this case is just a. scarlet herring. As we proceed, I'll. point to some other clues that corpse. equals Darkhold equals Nikki Scratch. equals teen equals Agatha's sacrificed. son. Since Mayor of Easttown doesn't. have an opening title sequence, they. used HBO's True Detective with the. Lopez's recording of the ballot of the. Witches Road, the crime version, with. the same male western vocals as the True. Detective theme song from season 1. In. this montage, we see the shot of the. main road that leads into West View past.

the welcome sign. This is where Monica. Rambo and Jimmy Woo stood in Wanovision. episode 4. We see yellow police tape. stretched across the forest floor. And. we keep returning to this police tape as. we see that visually it forms the. witches road. Its yellow color actually. makes it look like the yellow brick road. from the Wizard of Oz which this series. is definitely pulling from in several. different ways. Instead of the actor's. actual names, we get their character. names as Agatha has really just cast it. within the spell. We see Agnes Okconor, then Norm Gentiluchcci, Doy Jones, Herb. Feltman, Dennis Weber, and Mrs. Hart,

which is hilarious because Agatha. doesn't even know Mrs. Hart's first. name. We see a scoreboard for a Westview. versus East View football game. One of. these teams mascots are the Blue Devils, which would make an interesting contrast. with the Scarlet Witch, right? They're. tied at 14 with 226 to go in the fourth. quarter, but East View's in possession. at first and 10, which would put them in. a decent position to win. And True. Detective's title sequence is known for. being surreal and spooky. And here there. is a quick insert of either a toppled. statue or a severely dehydrated corpse. of a woman. Very creepy. And as the. police tape stretches into the midst of.

the forest, we see based on the Danish. series Wanda Vizden, which is hilarious. because many compare True Detective to. the Danish crime series for Bridlesen, aka the killing. And the final title. card reads Agnes of Westview, which is. clearly a take on Mayor of Easttown. So. Agnes goes into the Westview library and. meets with librarian Doy Jones, real. name Sarah Proctor, which we should note. was the name of a real life 16-year-old. citizen of the Salem colony who was. accused of witchcraft in 1692. Doy. remember was the one who in Wision. episode 2 said this. >> the devil's in the details be.

>> that's not the only place he is. >> and broke my brain. The library card is. for a book titled dialogue and rhetoric. known history of learning and debate. which of course Agnes later deduces the. first letters to spell out Darkhold. The. author is Andrew Ugo. Ugo is an Italian. boy's name meaning heart or mind or. spirit. I was playing around with this. Andrew Ugo is also an anagram for W. danger. without the s. We almost got there. Now, there are the following dates on the. library card, just with the names. erased. January 18th, October 22nd,

February 4th, February 16th, August. 28th, June 2nd, December 28th, January. 21st, and October 13th. We later see W. Maximoff on October 13th, and a Harkness. on January 21st. But by this logic, in. total, there have been nine total people. who have possessed the Darkhold over the. years, or at least this edition of it. January 18th, 2021 was the release date. of Wanda Vision episode 3, when Wanda. gave birth to Billy and Tommy. February. 16th is Lizzie Olsen's birthday. August. 28th is Jack Kirby's birthday. June 2nd. is Kevin Feigey's birthday. And December. 28th was Stan Lee's birthday. Do says.

that this book was stolen 3 years ago. And there are more copies in natural. sciences. And natural sciences is. interesting because it implies that the. dark hold might be tied to earth magic, which makes Rio Vidal an even more. interesting figure from Agatha's past. Agnes asks Doy where she was in the. hours between 1 and 3:00 a.m., which she. also asks of the teen later. And that. time of night is often known to be. around the witching hour, a time of. night when supernatural events take. place. Now I have to ask, what is the. library outside of Agatha's illusion? Westview does have a library. Remember. Vision fought White Vision there by.

hitting him with the shipthesius. paradox. But I wonder if Sarah Proctor. might actually go back to Salem Times. and this might actually be like her own. personal connection of old books. Agnes. goes to the bookshelf and Dennis. whispers creepily through the stacks. >> There was a fire. >> Now we don't know Dennis's real name. He. was just the delivery guy within the Hex. who was revealed to be a pizza delivery. guy in the town of Westview. But the. fire could be referring to Wanda. destroying every version of the Dark. Hold in Multiverse of Madness, as they. explained at the end of the movie. >> So, she destroyed the Darkhold in every.

universe. >> She did the right thing. >> Yes, she did. >> And I think we need to keep an eye on. any mention of things like being burned. or drowned or hung or put on trial in. the series because they all seem to be. nods to the ways that these witches were. historically persecuted. So, if the. Darkhold is a person, we have to imagine. that that person might have been burned. Agnes shows up to the police station. with a donut in her mouth. Another mayor. of Easttown reference. Mayor was always. chowing down on junk food in her car. Bill Jones, real name Harold Proctor, Doie's husband, returns now as Agnes'. boss, the police chief.

>> You got a spot on your shirt. >> Oh, >> and your tie. >> She said it was a smoothie, but I'm. reminded of Doy's weird line in. Wanovision episode 2. >> How does a housewife get a blood stain. out of white linen? By doing it herself. >> Now, Actis' office is huge for a small. town detective. Detectives normally sit. at like desks and bullpens, but she is, I guess, the star of her own show in. this case. On a filing cabinet is an old. photograph of a boy with a statue rabbit. in front of it. I'm assuming this is. probably connected to her son, Nicholas. Scratch. Also, I could be wrong, but I.

think that's the Holy Grail from Indiana. Jones and the Last Crusade under a desk. lamp behind Agnes. I don't know, maybe. she's collecting old movie prop. replicas. Chief Phil says that the soil. in Jane Doe's fingernails matches the. dirt only found in Eastern Europe, which. would line up with Wanda's end at top. Mount Wonderore in Eastern Europe, but. it could also refer to where the. Darkhole ended. Chief Jones introduces. Agnes' new backup, Federal Agent Rio. Vidal, played by Aubrey Plaza. She. initially appears directly behind Chief. Jones, but what's weird is Agnes' eyes. are on Chief the entire time. So, she. would have seen if Rio was walking up.

behind him, and now she's like totally. shocked to see someone standing there. So, Rio just kind of like apparated. here. It seems like what Agatha was to. Wanda, invading a witch's mental. illusion to try to get something out of. her. Rio seems to be doing the same to. Agatha, invading this hex that Wanda. placed on Agatha to score revenge. Now, within the mayor of Easttown structure, Agent Vidal parallels Evan Peters. character, Colin Zable, the young state. agent assigned to Mayor's case against. her wishes. Clearly some irony there, right? As Evan Peters played Ralph. Boner, the Westview resident being. manipulated by Agatha. The clock in the. background of the station reads 3:33,

which is also the time on the clock in. the interrogation room later. These. clocks never change from 3:33. Why do. the clocks never change? Could 333 be. the time it is in the outside world? Are. we looking at the power of three * 3, the witch's number, maiden mother crone? I'm going to try to be careful with the. numerology in these analyses because. most of the time focusing too much on. the numbers ends up being nothing and. the creators are like, "Wait, wait, we. did what now?" I also like how Agnes'. coffee mug reads, "Get a clue." Rioall. says, >> "It's been a long time. What are you. doing here? >> My job.

>> Now, Agnes' response sounds like it was. coming from Agatha in this moment, not. from the detective version. Rio does a. similar thing. >> Is this really how you see yourself? >> And then after Rio sarcastically says. Agnes has been in Westview her whole. life, we get another bit of the true. Agatha here. >> I don't want you here. >> And as Rio walks out, she says in. Spanish, >> Deo, >> Teo means I see you. So, even though. Aubrey Plaza says it as like a goodbye, like see you, it really means I see what. you're doing. It's similar to the creepy. threat that Agatha inserted into the.

Wanda Vision episode 7 opening titles. I. see what you are doing. Wanda Norm, real. name Abalish Tanden, returns from Wanda. Vision to play a jeweler at a pawn shop. He appraises the brooch. >> late 17th century. I guess it's made. from cowry shell. What's a cowery sea. snail? >> Cowery shells were used as currency in. many parts of the world and now in. Bohemian and beach inspired jewelry, but. it's also known to be part of spiritual. rituals. believed to have healing. properties and even in some African. cultures used in indivination practices. to predict the future. I would say it's. pretty unlikely that the residents of.

1693 Salem, Massachusetts would have. their hands on that much cowery shell. And I know that Agatha got the brooch. from her mother, Evan Norora Harkness, but I wonder if this originally could. have come from some of these witches. worldly travels to places like Greece. More on that later. Norm explains. >> these hotties here. It's triple goddess. Maiden, mother, crone. So, the maiden. mother crone are a neopagan archetype. representing the different stages of the. female life cycle, also the phases of. the moon. He reveals it's actually a. locket containing a lock of hair. I. think this hair belongs to Agatha's son,

Nicholas Scratch. Agnes' arrival home is. reflected in a pothole puddle, like her. puddle reflection in the crime scene. We. hear a dog barking. [music]. >> Stupid dog. >> She's a stupid dog. I'm assuming this is. the dog that barks at the teen later and. actually helps Agnes catch him, but it's. just a reminder that Agatha doesn't like. dogs. She actually killed Wanda's dog, Sparky, and then laughed about it later. She peaks into an empty boy's bedroom, a. kids drawing with the name Nikki, figurines of rabbits everywhere, and an.

award for a Nicholas Scratch for first. place as best vocals in a children's. choir concert. So, Nicholas Scratch is, well, a common euphemism for the devil. And during Wivision times, we assumed. Mr. Scratchy the rabbit could have been. a reference to him. In the Marvel Comics. Fantastic 4 number 185, Nicholas Scratch. was Agatha's son, part of the hidden. community of sorcerers called New Salem. in Colorado. He fathered seven children. known as Salem's seven. And we will have. a Salem 7 in this show, just has a. slightly different origin. Agatha is.

clearly grieving the death of her son. Nicholas, who I think is Joe Lock's teen. character. I think it's his dark hair. that she keeps in the brooch locket. I. don't think he's a ghost, someone who's. like just in her mind, obviously. I. think his soul reincarnated in the body. of a teen named Billy Kaplan. The award. for Nicholas's singing could connect to. the ballot of the Witches Road. Like we. don't see Teen joining the ballad, but. he does seem very aware of the song. Agnes' lampshade, you'll notice, has a. tree branch design, which reflects the. Witches Road tree aesthetic of the. Agatha Allong logo. Agnes tells Agent. Vidal that there was a car wreck in East.

View an hour before the time of death, and that there might have been two. people responsible for the death who. transported this body. And if we're. sticking with the corpse equals dark. hole theory, then the two people. responsible for its destruction could be. Wanda Maximoff and Steven Strange. Agnes. says, >> "I travel. I'm worldly. Where have you traveled?". >> Another moment where Agatha breaks out. of her illusion briefly to reflect on. her life as a witch. It really feels as. though Agatha and Rio might have. traveled the world together. Maybe to.

the Greek isle of Santorini to meet the. witch goddess Hecate or Hecate. all. different ways to pronounce it, but it's. heate. Actually, Wanda does this with. Agatha's ghost in the 2016 James. Robinson Scarlet Witch comics, which. first introduces the Witches Road. concept. Rio again asks a question that. speaks to their past together and then. packages it with something within the. detective world. >> Do you remember why you hate me? >> No. >> Are you hiding [music] evidence?

>> Rio says that Agnes is only lying to. herself. And we should note that while. Agnes' home is filled with evidence. boxes that she took home, even when. she's out of Wanda's spell later, there. are still evidence boxes in the house. Agnes finds Teen hooded and masked in. her bedroom holding what looks like that. brooch. And I love the framing showing. Agnes reflected in the mirror, showing. that whenever Agatha looks at this kid, she really sees herself. We see that. same glass reflection effect in the. interrogation room. Later, Agnes chases. the teen in a Marave Easttown style foot. chase through the neighborhood alleys. And then the kid gets run over BY SHARON.

DAVIS. SO Agnes's reaction in this moment is. very important because she reacts not as. a detective chasing down a burglar, but. rather honestly like a mother watching. her child run into the street. Even her. saying, "Don't you run after me." was. kind of like a mom trying to put her. toddler in timeout. So Teen sasses Agnes. later. >> What were you looking for in my house? >> The respect of your peers and a. fulfilling home life. But you were fresh. out of both. >> She kicks this poor boy. Between this.

and the car collision, I don't think. Teen has a normal human teenager. constitution. He's pretty tough. Agnes. says, >> "The things that you're roasting me for. are the things that make me dangerous.". >> Again, roasting. Now, yes, technically. the teen is roasting her, mocking her, but for things that a normal kid. probably wouldn't know or care about. when it comes to a normal detective, but. roasting implies an audience among. peers, right? And I think the word. choice reflects another instance of. burning and drowning witches, that sort. of thing. Teen says he was actually. seeking the road. And we hear a Cynthy. version of the ballot of the witch's.

road. >> What road? You of all people should know. >> She notices his black fingertips and. teen gets defensive saying it was ink. from fingerprinting. So I wonder A, why. would he get so defensive? B, dark. fingertips are also a sign of a sorcerer. using the Darkhold, especially the. notion that the reader would be running. one's fingers over fresh or living ink. And C, it also connects Teen to the. corpse in the woods as someone with.

darkened fingers. But also, please use. ink to get a Perb's fingerprints, as. well as using that same kind of ink to. get the finger and handprints on a. corpse that they find. Agnes realizes. the photos of Jane Doe's corpse, photos. supplied by Rio, remember, are just. photos of Herb's fence line yellow. flowers. The detective reality glitches. The oneway mirror is actually this. painting in Agatha's living room. This. is called McBth and the Three Witches by. Franchesco Zukarelli. It's from the 18th. century. Shakespeare's McBth was perhaps. the most important literary work to. popularize our western cultural. archetype of witches as we continue to.

see them in the modern age. As you know, three sisters huddled over a bubbling. cauldron speaking in rhyme, brewing. potions, telling the future, etc. Shakespeare opened his play McBTH with. them because he felt his tale of royal. intrigue needed some spooky supernatural. delights at the top to hook the. groundlings in the pit. And that's. pretty much why these shows are popular. now. The teen speaks in Latin and notice. how he's now sitting in a different. chair. This is actually the armchair in. Agatha's living room. The Latin words. are not captioned, but listen closely. >> What are you saying?

>> What is that? I think he's saying. incarnate exoa feminum defixum based on. Joe Lock's vowel sounds and whether each. of these words are one-word sentences or. all together in one sentence. I guess it. roughly translates to incarnate exit. women fixed and it's definitely plural. women which suggests that the spell is. designed for multiple women as opposed. to just one. We're reminded of teen in. episode 2 stressing witches plural. possessive road. But I wonder who is the. other woman or women besides Agatha in. this Latin spell. Is the other woman.

Wanda or Rio Vidal? the whole of the. Salem 7, the whole of Wanda's coven. collectively. I think for this spell to. be powerful enough to undo the Scarlet. Witches spell even after her defeat, it. would have to be a spell broad enough. and I guess sloppy enough to empower. other witches like Rio Vidal and maybe. the Salem 7 to be able to locate Agatha. Agnes returns to the corner and. initially sees no corpse on the table, but then bam, suddenly the corpse. appears under the sheet. Agnes sees hair. the color of scarlet dropping from below. the sheet. If this corpse is meant to. represent the Darkhold, it could be. scarlet hair, which would be contrasting. Lizzie Olsson's blonder hair, because.

that's how the Darkhold prophecy that. Scarlet Witch to appear. W Maximoff. appears in cursive red ink, which would. be the most recent possessor of the book. as opposed to the ID of the body. When. Agath then checks it again, a Harkness. is written in sloppier print in purple. ink. Rio of it all suddenly appears in. the morg. The way she kind of teleports. in and out of scenes recalls Aubrey. Plaza's role in the FX Marvel series. Legion, where she played David Holler's. friend and fellow mental patient, Lenny, who was later revealed as one of the. forms of the devil with the yellow eyes, aka the Shadow King, who haunted David.

Holler's mind in a similar way. Agatha. gets warm and strips off her layers of. clothes. There's this abrupt same angle. cut showing Agatha now in the purple. sweater that she wore in Wavision. episodes 7 and 8, which showed her. Modern Family sitcom era. She strips off. that to the black sweats with Naughty. Bedazzled on the butt, which only made. one appearance in the episode 6 Malcolm. the Middle inspired credit sequence. For. the rest of that episode, she was in a. Halloween costume as a witch. Next, she. appears in the '8s workout gear, her. wardrobe from the episode 5 Growing. Pains full house era. Then she rinses. her face and pops back up as the episode.

3 Brady Bunch look with the Jan sweater. and the skirt. Then she hits the hanging. lamp causing the light to swing and now. her monochrome hand grasps the gurnie, which itself is kind of creepy, kind of. like the hand of Samara crawling under. the TV in the ring. But I love this idea. that each of these outfits were really. costumes that Agatha had to quick change. into without having time in this scene. transition or act break of Wanda's live. broadcast to take the previous outfit. off. Instead just kind of had to cram a. new outfit on top of the previous one, which by the end of it would lead her to. this place in which she's like. struggling to move, nearly suffocating.

Agatha is now back to her initial. episode 1 look from the early '60s Dick. Van Djke show era. They skipped the. episode 2 Bewitched era look. And I love. how they use the swinging light in the. scene because they would have had to. shoot Katherine Han on a separate plane. to make her black and white and they. would have had to have matched the. swinging light on her body and matched. it with a background. Doing this blends. the visual effect in with the practical. background to create this unsettling. feel like the way we see it. Something. monochrome should not be in a. technicolor environment with us. It's. also a literal reference to the industry.

term of bumping the lamp. This comes. from Robert Zmechus' groundbreaking. film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? In which. they initially were struggling to try to. sync the animated Roger Rabbit's. movement with the practical environment. of Eddie's office. So, they invented. this trick of having Roger bump the. lamp, which they accomplished by. physically moving the practical lamp so. that they could add in the animated. cause of that bump later on, and it gave. the animated effect a physical weight to. the scene. She-Hulk made a similar. reference to bumping the lamp when. She-Hulk carried her muscular date to. bed and they bump the lamp, which just. kind of helped sell this illusion to.

keep us from going into that uncanny. valley. The swinging lamp also creates. an unsettling effect on Aubrey Plaza's. face. She goes from shadow to exposure. as her eyes are open super wide that. only Aubrey Plaza can do. The white. cordia going all the way around her. pupils kind of like Penny Wise and it. And notice how the word warning is in. the background behind her. The bass. notes of the Lopez's Agatha all along. bum. It plays as Agatha strips off this. outfit and orgasmically transitions into. the light and she finds herself in her. home naked. One thinks of Eve in the. Garden of Eden, but I think a more apt.

figure would be Lilith, a feminine. figure from Mesopotamian and Jewish. mythology, theorized to be the first. wife of Adam, who was banished from the. Garden of Eden for not obeying Adam. Since then, Lilith has been romanticized. as a figure associated with witchcraft. and with feminism. Later, Agatha puts on. a bathrobe with purple flowers and a. purple snake, which definitely feels. inspired by the Garden of Eden, with a. serpent, of course, representing the. devil. Agatha gets answers from Tom. Collins. >> You mostly been a good neighbor. A bit. too casual with your boundaries. >> Call me nosy, I'll cut out your tongue. >> Nosy neighbor is how Agnes was initially.

described, but I like that Agatha takes. it personally given the stereotype for. witches of having long pointy noses. Katherine Han bears it all. Oh my god. This isn't the first time we've seen. butt in the MCU. There was Thor and Love. and Thunder. Hulk and Ragnarok, but I. think this is the first time on a Disney. Plus show. And I think the first time in. the MCU, it's a woman doing it. And it's. nice to see that it's not done for the. male gaze like Nudity is in Game of. Thrones and in Sopranos, but really, it's just kind of a comedic bit. Agatha. tries to conjure magic, pinching her. fingers and pulling away from her palm. And it's the same gesture that she did.

to conjure the insect while questioning. Wanda in episode 8. Agatha goes down to. her basement, likely hoping to find the. witch dungeon that was down there in. episode 7 and 8 where the Darkhold was. being stored. But now without her powers. and without those runes creating that. barrier, it's back to being just a. normal basement. She finds a rabbit. senor Scratchy. And now based off of. Nicholas Scratch, I assume she named. this rabbit after her son. A reminder. that Matt Shackman mentioned a removed. scene concept for the W division finale. that would have shown the rabbit Senor. Scratchy transforming into what he. called its true form, a giant hell demon.

and chasing the kids around the. basement. As Agatha follows the sound of. teen thumping, on the refrigerator is a. very creepy kids drawing of a witch. Was. this something drawn by Billy and Tommy. when she had them over there? On the. kitchen countertop on the right side of. frame is yeah, another rabbit figurine, but also a paper on the side of the. microwave with a geometric drawing. incorporating circles and pentagrams. that looks like something he would draw. to try to open the portal to the witch's. road by herself. Agatha mentions having. been down there before. Maybe this is. how she got down there. Rio Vidal. smashes into the home and draws a dagger. and leaps at Agatha bouncing from the.

wall. A move that I believe we saw. happen in the battle in the craft. Rio. says, >> "You acquired the dark hold. You hid behind all that dark magic, but. then you lost it.". >> It sounds like Rio and Agatha had a. relationship in the past, but Agatha. might have gained the Darkhold and left. her behind. They have this interesting. exchange. >> You can't kill me. You can't kill me. It's not allowed. >> It sounds like there is a code among. witches. Maybe just a spell between. these two witches where they're unable. to kill each other. I'm reminded of the.

cosmic relationship between Jacob and. the man in black on lost where they were. bound in a certain way where they were. unable to kill each other and it. required the man in black to find a. loophole in the form of the body of John. Lockach to kill Jacob. I wonder if a. similar loophole is being exploited with. the character of Teen played by Joe. Lockach. Coincidence? Maybe. As Rio. prepares to torture Agatha, Agatha. negotiates that Rio should fight her. when she's at her best. >> You prefer me. >> horizontal. in a grave? >> Yeah, these two definitely boned. Rio. Vidal comes off like a spurned lover. angry at Agatha for leaving her behind.

for the darkold. It's kind of like a. sacriiggious version of breaking off a. romance to pursue a vocation with the. Bible and with God as a nun. Agatha. says, >> "Just let me get my purple back." "My. purple?" I love that Agatha embraces the. MCU's color-coded BFX sorcery as just. being essentially purple stuff. Rio. promises to wait, but will tell the. Salem 7 where she is. So, the Salem 7, inspired by Salem's 7 from the Fantastic. 4 comics, are in this show the descended. daughters of the Saleommites whom Agatha. drained during her trial. Agatha says,

>> "You don't have a heart.". >> Yes, I do. It's black. and it beats [music] for you. >> And Rio licks Agatha's palm cut to heal. it, which suggests to me that perhaps. green magic witches could have healing. powers. And she tells Agatha again, >> as in, "I see you. And I see all of you. out there wishing you might have been. able to celebrate this Agatha season of. the witch with some amazing merch. And. you're in luck because Nerd Riot.shop. has some amazing Agatha inspired designs. that I'm going to be wearing throughout.

this Halloween season. Grab one of these. at nerd riot.shop. And as we finish. episode one, behind teen in the closet, there is a stack of DVDs. We reminded of. the DVD collection that Wanda Maximoff. had. Could Agatha have taken those DVDs. and watched a lot of them to study up on. the pop culture references that she. would end up in in the phases of Wanda's. Hex? Now, the closing credits are set to. Donovan's season of The Witch. I'm going. to break down all the imagery here. There is a lot here, so if you want to. skip to the episode two breakdown, skip. to the next chapter. Okay, first off, on. the right side of the page is an article. about the trial of several witches in.

New England. The left side of the page. text reads in cursive down the witch's. road, follow me, my friend, to glory in. the end, which is the final words of the. Ballad of the Witches Road. Then. printed, we see, ye shall remove your. shoes before touching the hallowed. ground. In order to connect to the power. of the earth, you must touch your feet. to the soil and channel her divine magic. through you. There must be nothing in. between. No rubber, no wood, not a soul, just your soul, which is obviously. instructions on why they must take their. shoes off when they enter the witch's. road realm. Then we see how someone is. circling the witch shoe in red and. crossing it out and the word trial in.

red and then crosses out the word shoe. and circles remove. And then under that. an article headline, can you talk to the. dead? with the first few words of the. article. Fiction thinkers and. theologians have something something. spiritism. Next, a Google search for. witch witches road ballad of the witches. road by Lorna Woo. That's Alice Woo. Guliver's rockstar mom whom we hear. about in episode 2. There's a woman in a. witch costume posing behind the sign. entering Salem established 1626. We see. Agatha as the witch from the bewitched.

opening credits. Episode two of Wavision. did this with Wanda. We see this. painting but altered titled Trial of. George Jacobs Senior for Witchcraft by. Tomkins Harrison Madison that depicts. people fainting and causing disorder. during the first witch trial. It seems. like the male witch in the original. painting has been replaced by a female. witch in this credits painting. An. article titled modern witch of the 21st. century in the enchanting landscape of. modern witchcraft PR or something. weaving a spellbinding tapestry that. travels far beyond. We see a print of a. man and a woman in the stocks. This is. Pillery 17th century the witch number.

two. We see cats in a circle. This is. Black Cat Dance Grand Gallup Day. concert, which is actually the cover art. of some old Halloween sheet music. We. see the evil witch from Disney Snow. White and the Seven Dwarves. And of. course, that animated film showed up. playing in Wanda's 838 Universe House in. Multiverse of Madness. We see a raven. against some text. It looks like the. lyrics of the ballot of the witches. road. Next, some art of a woman with her. arms raised out. This is the witch. number one by Joseph E. Baker. The. partial description of the full art is a. bolt of lightning releases the handcuffs. on a woman accused of being a witch and.

strikes down her inquisitor in this late. 19th century lithograph of a colonial. era trial. Next we see Lorna Woo. singing. This is Alice's mother. This is. her album cover. Next, a press photo of. Irene Ray in Rochester, Indiana 1938 who. had been accused of being a witch. She. was known as the witch of Rochester. She. was basically driven out of town based. on accusations. From the article on May. 11th, 1938, Irene Ray and her husband. Charles were driven from the town of. Rochester, Indiana due to allegations. that Irene was a practitioner of. witchcraft and had hexed several town. folk. It was alleged that her hexes had.

caused personal property damage, serious. illness, and even death. Irene and. Charles had moved to the town 6 years. prior to this unfortunate episode along. with their daughter and their cat. A. strange fact that many of the newspaper. stories were sure to include. And then. on the left, a section of a dictionary. showing the definitions of witty, witness, whittling, which are words. close to witch or witchcraft. Then some. artwork. Then we see a common clip art. uh drawing of a skull. And then some old. art from the wonderful Wizard of Oz. Text on the side reads cotton mather and. witchcraft. This guy was a Puritan.

minister who was heavily involved in the. witch trials. And then little Lisa. Simpson, which would be from Treehouse. of Horror number 19. When Milhouse tells. Lisa he likes her witch costume and she. responds, "I'm not a witch. I'm a. Wiccan. Why is it when a woman is. confident and powerful, they call her a. witch?" Then we see a silhouetted woman. in a witch costume walking away from us. Then we see a white rabbit and a black. cat playing banos. They're having fun. This is some more vintage art. It's been. recreated so many times by many places. online, but I think the original was. from 1896 in the Black Cat magazine. published in Massachusetts. To the right. is an image from Damis Atheian Melurvius.

or on witches and female soothsayers. which is a witchcraft treaties by German. scholar Oric Moltor published in 1489. The image on the right depicts two women. preparing a potion. Then on the right, an image known as the astrological man. from a manuscript by Jandiseri Busco in. 1488 showing the perceived influences of. the zodiac signs were thought to have. over the body. Then we see a shot from. the movie The Craft where Feru Valk is. going nuts and screaming and levitating. herself toward Robin Tunny and just.

letting her toe tips drag on the ground. We see a woman in a witch costume. We. see various article headlines on witches. including the role of witches in modern. society. Witch saves town with love. spell. Ancient secret society exposed. Accused witches face unjust trial as. witchcraft claims divide Salem. Then the. lyrics to Down the Witch's Road. Then. some spooky white-on-black art of a. woman using a Ouija board. And then a. ceramic witch with a stereotypical green. face. The lunar phases. The headline. near death in West View. Then some. hippie crystals. Probably we're. referring to the events of Wision. Then. a pentagram on the floor with candles.

which dissolves into an overhead map of. Westview with a pentagram on top of it. Also probably indicating the area of. Wanda's hex. Then we see a kid in a. Halloween witch mask. The text next to. it, witchcraft, twin superstitions, makes it look like the cover of a book, but we couldn't find it. And then some. drawings of flowers. Some cursive words. are circled, including common mother of. time and lemon time. Both types of. ground cover plants. Toward the bottom. there is an anagalus. The flower in the. middle is a kala lily, which does invoke. the name Lilia Kaluru. Then the tarot. card of the magician and around the. edges of cycles of the moon. So the. magician is a representation of pure.

willpower. We see a spooky spider. walking over us. And then a bunch of. witches paddle boarding. Love this. And. then a full moon. And then we end with. the road through the wood. And I'm. assuming it's witch's road with the. title Agatha all along over it. Okay. On. to episode two. Circle sewn with fate. Unlock thy hidden gate. Another lyric. from the battle of the witch's road. We. see Agatha frantically pacing the house. >> Whose shoes are these? >> Ah, another Wizard of Oz parallel there. Remember the wicked witch of the west? Wanted the ruby slippers or the silver. slippers in Alfred Bomb's text. I also. remember reading Rald Dolls the witches.

a detail that witches would have to like. cram their feet in shoes and like cut. off their toes to fit them in. There's. also more rabbit art on the wall where. Teen peels the tape off his mouth. And I. find it interesting that Teen unseals. his mouth here just to have this. mysterious spell cover his mouth again. when he tries to reveal his name. Teen. says, "The road will give you the thing. you want the most if you make it to the. end.". >> Another Nod of the Wizard of Oz where. Dorothy the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and. the Lion go down the yellow brick road. seeking a way home, a brain, a heart, and courage. The Witches Road was. introduced in James Robinson's 2016. Scarlet Witch comics. The Witches Road. is a dimension accessed only by witches.

and warlocks. A ghost form of Agatha. Harkness accompanies Wanda Maximoff down. this road as they're investigating a. supernatural issue in Ireland, finding. the emerald warlock. Along the way, they. run into a version of Wanda's mother. Agatha says that if Teen could undo a. Scarlet Witch spell, why does he even. need the road? >> I mean, I've I've studied, don't get me. wrong, but that can only take you so. far. I want to blast, to shield, to. levitate. >> This reminds me of the line in. Oppenheimer, theory can only get you so. far. And it kind of sounds like Teen is. intentionally listing these juvenile. applications of sorcery to sound.

immature and naive to Agatha as a kind. of tactic. Like I don't think a. 16-year-old who knew enough to break her. out of that trance would be like, I just. want to fly and scare off my bullies and. make purple. Agatha finds the brooch. locket with the lock of dark hair. inside. It's in this moment where she. turns to ask, >> who are you? >> My name is. >> And she approaches and asks again. >> Say again. I'm. >> okay. So, I broke down Joe Lock's mouth. and chin movements to deduce that he is. clearly saying either three or four.

syllables, but anyone who listens to. this audio thinking they're able to. reassemble it in their heads back into. something discernible is kidding. themselves. They clearly muted the audio. and just inserted a completely different. sound. The symbol over the mouth was. actually confirmed by Scarlet Witch. Updates on Twitter to be found on the. Agatha Crew sweatshirt and on the corner. of the series of tarot cards that were. released as promo artwork. It looks like. it's a combination of a W and an M, but. we'll probably learn exactly what it. means as the series goes on. Closed. captions on a trailer that was released. since then listed Joe Lock's character. as Billy. But when Joe Lock was asked at.

Press Junkets if he did the research. into the version of Wanda's son, Billy. Maximoff, played by Julian Hillyard in. Wanda Vision and Multiverse Madness, Joe. Lock seemed to be legitimately confused. and insisted that he's playing a. completely different character. Billy. Maximoff, as we met him in Wanda Vision, a multiverse madness, was a creation of. Wanda inside of her hex initially, who. happened to have a real version of him. who existed in the 838 universe of the. multiverse. They did address him up as. Wiccan for Halloween in episode 6 of. Wision. Joe Lock could be playing Billy. Kaplan, aka Wikcan from the comics, the.

young Avenger revealed to be Wanda's son. reincarnated, a piece of Mefisto's soul. That's the very confusing comics. backstory to the character. I could also. see them naming this character Billy. Kaplan on the show, but he actually has. just a different backstory that's more. connected to Agatha Harkness as perhaps. a reincarnated soul of her son from her. Salem days. Considering it was seeing. the lock of dark hair that inspired the. question, I think we have to consider. the possibility that Teen is actually a. reincarnated form of Agatha's son. And. it might have been Maliss that he said. here. He could be Agatha's son who died.

and reincarnated in the form of this. modern-day goth teenager Billy Kaplan. But the question would be, does Billy. know? Does he know about his real. identity? Or is he just a normal kid who. was just interested in witchcraft who. ended up having the soul of Agatha's son. possessing his body? And as far as he. knows, he's just still a goth kid. interested in witchcraft, and he's. completely unaware of this dark. passenger. Agatha tells Teen that she'll. need a full coven to access the witch's. road. >> Of course, that makes sense. It is the. witch's plural possessive road. >> As a grammar nerd, I love this. Which is.

apostrophe after the s then road. It's. like a generation of students thinks it. looks weird to have a piece of. punctuation hanging off the end of an S. like that. But I'm telling you, that's. how you show multiple things possessing. a single thing. The road really belongs. to all the witches. And I like how. Agava, as someone who probably didn't. spend a lot of time looking at this. printed anywhere, just kind of heard it. and forgot that it had punctuation at. the end and thought it just belonged to. her. Agatha sees graffiti all over Wanda. and Vision's plot of land, including. evil witch, stay away, and also the. sigil of the Scarlet Witch's tiara, but. then crossed out, which means it's.

someone in Westview was like, I got to. figure out what Scarlet Witch's. iconography is. H, I'll make it this. That looks cool. And then, GOD, I'M SO. BAD AT HER. THE WESTVIEW welcome sign. now reads the population as 2,251, which. is down from what it was in one. division, 3,892. That means over 1,600 people left the. town after the Westview incident, which. would be devastating to the city's. economy and its tax base and all the. businesses there. Black Hands on My Mind. plays as teen's ringtone when his. boyfriend calls and he's listed on his. phone as boyfriend. This actor's Miles. Gutier is Riley and it's believed that.

this character's name is Eddie. Agatha. explains the Covenstead rule. Within any. three mile radius, there will always be. a collection of witchy enough people to. form a coven. And I like how she says. witchy enough, which I suppose is how. Sharon Davis gets in. In several of. these driving scenes, there is a car in. the background tailing them despite this. being a very small town and no car is. following them. When we cut to a wide. exterior shot, they stop at Madame. Calderoo's psychic readings. The window. reads, "1099 for your future, 5.99 for. the past." Broadway legend Patty Leone. plays Lilia Calderoo, who is a.

450-year-old Sicilian witch. She was. originally a villain in Doctor Strange. comics with a history of Baron Moro in. the book of Kagglestro. Here she. specializes in divination and Agatha. performs this kind of test on her which. is really like a reversal of the scene. in the Wizard of Oz with Professor. Marvel where he's clearly bullshitting. Dorothy. In this case, Agatha gives her. a [ __ ] story about a dead husband. with gold bars in the backyard. And. Lilia just plays along with that and. says that the gold is in a bowling bag. But then Lilia proves that she actually. knows what she's doing. >> There's something else. You've been. under the influence of another. They. took your agency. And there's a cool.

lighting effect here where passing cars. outside reflect a glare through the. windows as if to show Lilia's divination. light illuminating the truth that Agatha. is hiding. The necklace that Lilia wears. shows a tarot card of the queen of cups, a hand above and below a cup. Her sash. actually shows a diamond patterns. containing other tarot cards. Agatha. shows Lilia the eviction notice from. three star rentals with this symbol. And. this actually comes from the tarot card. of the three of pentacles which. according to an amazing breakdown of all. the shows tarot card imagery by Jessica. Clemens represents learning, dedication, and completion. and working to overcome. your challenges. So that really is what.

inspires Lilia to go into this trance. state to write down a list of names for. Agatha's coven. Outside, Agatha notices. a crow. This is the animal form of one. of the Salem 7, the one played by. Bethany Curry. Next stop, the shop of. Jennifer Kale, played by Sashir Zeda, who you may remember from SNL and a. hilarious UCB improviser. In the comics, Jennifer Kale is a sorceress who is part. of the cult of Zered Na. She's also been. a member of the Legion of Knight and the. Midnight Suns. Even this is a different. take on the character witch who. specializes in potions. Her necklace. seems to depict the tower, which is one. of the tarot cards associated with this.

coven as well. Agatha asks for jade. eggs, referencing yoni eggs that some. women buy from like places like Gwyneth. Paltro's goop. And you know, they are. inserted for various claimed benefits. The fact that she offers to go splits on. one of these with these two strangers is. hilariously disgusting. >> Sisterhood of the traveling kgles. No. No. >> We learn that Jen is bound from a. binding spell that left her without. magic for the past century. Jen asks, >> "Who is this?" Another child sacrifice. >> Aha. So, Agatha's reaction shot is a.

pretty solid clue of what's going on. here. It seems like Agatha might have. sacrificed her son, Nicholas Scratch. It. seems like she's keeping Nikki's hair in. that locket brooch. Teen could be the. soul of that son reincarnated in this. modern youth body of Billy Kaplan. Teen. pulls up a news headline where that. reads, "Kale Care founder drowning in. class action lawsuits." Ah, drowning. Another instance of a common treatment. of witches, which Agatha kind of reminds. us of here. >> Historically, we as a group don't do. well in courtrooms. >> Next, they seek out a blood witch, which.

is the child of a witch, Alice Woo. Guliver. Teen realizes that her mother. was Lorna Woo of the Coral Shore band, which is a reference to the August Woo. of the Coral Shore, a magical guardian. of Hong Kong, whom Doctor Strange meets. when following Dormamu to China. In the. comic run Doctor Strange, Last Days of. Magic from 2016, August, Alice becomes a. police detective who uses magically. powered weapons. here. She's like a mall. security guard and former cop who now. kind of has to patrol a hot topic. Teen. mentions his mom. >> My mom went to see her last tour right. before she died. RIP. >> So, grammatically it's not clear if he's. talking about his mom dying or Alice's.

mom, Lorna dying. I assume he's talking. about Lorna, but I will admit. grammatically we are kind of in a he was. in the Amazon with my mother researching. spiders right before she died situation. here. But this is teen referencing a. mother and there is a Rebecca Kaplan in. a Jeff Kaplan cast for the show. So, he. must be just a normal team from East. View who has some kind of possession. going on with him. Agatha sees a rat, which is probably not the rat from. Avengers Endgame who saved us all. This. is another form of one of the Salem 7, the witch played by Brida Grant. Like. the crow, this rat seems to turn to. stare directly at Agatha. Agatha says.

Laura Woo was lost to the witch's road. And Agna invites her to the coven as a. protection witch and promises her a. chance to find out what really happened. with her mother. And you'll notice that. Alice's necklace looks like it could be. the tarot figure of either the high. priestess or just of death. Agatha asks. where the teen is from. >> Where are you from? me originally. I mean, I was born and. the sound fades out as he continues. Lip. readers activate, but we do hear him. initially saying he was born and raised. in East View. So, my hunch is that Joe.

Lock is monologuing about some pretty. basic bioats for a teenager. He was. probably born Billy Kaplan. He just also. has some cosmic link to Nicholas. Scratch. And Agatha sees a coyote. This. is another one of the members of the. Salem 7 played by actress Chiao Namova. hangs a welcome coven banner that Agatha. tears down, but the W is left standing, which some are speculating could be a. sign that he is William Kaplan or Wicken. or somehow connected to Wanda. I think. every comedic tape from Kathern Han. needs to be studied. >> Please come in, right, Agatha? >> I don't care. Whatever.

>> Lilia and Alice show up, but they refuse. to proceed without a green witch. Lilia. says that she drew a black heart on the. list, obviously referencing to the black. heart of Rio Vidal, but instead Agatha. goes after Sharon Davis, whom she still. just calls Mrs. Heart. Yoohoo, >> Agnes. >> This kind of like how Mrs. Hart in. Wision episode 1 would call over to the. kitchen. >> Hoohoo in there. Hoohoo. Back to you. >> She says, >> "I haven't been to a party since Mr. Davis passed away.". >> When are you outart? >> Oh. >> Uh, Fred Malamemed played Mr. Hart, who.

probably would be Mr. Davis. And in. episode one, he did nearly choke to. death. Jen asks, >> "So, who's going high?". >> Oh, no, thank you. I don't take drugs. I. love this joke because with Deborah Joe. Rup and the single character framing. with all these people standing in a. circle in the basement. Yeah, this is. totally a That7s show joke. On the. ground level, teen hears an owl. The owl is another form of one of the. Salem 7. The character played by Alice. Vela Bailey. Agatha begins the ballad. It comes from the witches and.

Shakespeare's McBth. It was meant to. express the falseness of appearances. that we're going to see in that play and. I think also what we see on this show. The Salem 7 appear and they are led by. Okpuasili aka Vertigo in the new Salem, Colorado storyline with Nicholas Scratch. of the Fantastic 4 comics. Vertigo is. one of the daughters of Nicholas and she. leads this group of elite warriors. The. character's form here seems to be that. of the cicada. In fact, she might have. even been that cicada that Wanda saw in. Agatha's home in Wan Vision episode 7. On the third verse of the ballad, I love. how Patty Leone just takes the top notes. as of this group of wonderful singers. She definitely has the most powerful.

belt. [music]. >> Yeah, they had to get a shout out to. Wicked in there. Nice teen tries to. board up the house. >> [screaming]. >> We hear them whisper, "Ag of the. Harkness." And then when they jump scare. to grab Teen, one of them screams, "Haggatha!".

>> Agatha tries to bait the others into. blasting her, "Oh, >> I don't have time for this. JUST BLAST. ME, YOU BITCHES." BUT WHETHER through. their song or just this tension, a. pentagon-shaped door opens on the floor. Pentagrams and pentagons, a very. important shape to witchcraft. They run. down to escape the Salem 7. Just as. Vertigo crawls down the stairs, looking. like Rean and The Exorcist, they find. themselves in the witch's road, which. production built a practical set of. which looks very Wizard of Ozie, and I. love it. The Coven reverently takes off. their shoes and proceeds leaving their.

empty shoes behind. Like the Wicked. Witch of the East, this episode opened. with Agatha trying to put on her shoes. It ends with her taking them off. And. this is a breakdown of Agatha Allong. episode 3 through many miles of tricks. and trials. An episode that will forever. live in infamy as the first and perhaps. only instance in which our dark lord and. absent savior was finally named in the. MCU. >> An agent of the fisto. >> Hearing this sent me spiraling through a. state of euphoria. But now that I've. seen beyond the cosmic event horizon, my.

eyes have dilated to catch countless. details, references, and clues in this. episode. So, this is the episode where. we get a sense of this show's episodic. structure. With each trial along the. witch's road operating kind of like its. own escape room based on some pop. culture reference of sisterhood and. witchcraft, showrunner Jack Schaefer. said that this really came from the. original trials witches would have to go. through, including a fire trial, a water. trial. We open with our coven on the. witch's road. It's exactly how I. pictured it.

>> Yes, suits you. >> An interesting compliment coming from. Agatha. And I think she's talking about. not just the teen's goth vibe, but the. DIY nature of his approach to. witchcraft. The production design of the. witch's road set was all done. practically. And you can see in behind. the scenes featurettes that some trees. designed to eliminate colors like teal. were really bent in a way to kind of. look like a hooded ghost. Mary Lavanos. also talked about how they use. miniatures for the background locations. that were seen from a distance. It's all. done to evoke the practical nature of.

Victor Fleming's 1939 The Wizard of Oz, which used a lot of the same techniques. These witches note that the Salem 7. chased Agatha down here, but not all of. them. But as Agatha walks ahead, Katherine Han does this kind of arm flap. gesture that kind of makes it look like. she's calling them chickens. Jennifer. Kale says that she's going to call the. teen's parents, and he says he's 100%. certain they're asleep. Could we take. that to mean they're dead? It's just he. keeps talking about parents, but you. know, we don't really know what's going. on with his team. Sharon says, >> "Okay, I am a member of the Westview.

Historical Society.". >> Ah, so Westview has a historical. society, and I'm going to go out on a. limb to say that Sarah Proctor might be. another member of that group. A theory. that I posed last week is that when. Agnes went down to the library to talk. to the librarian version, Doy, when. Agatha was still in her mayor of. Easttown spell, that since all of. Agatha's movement seemed to really be. confined to her and her neighbors. houses, that might have actually just. been Sarah's house. And Sarah Proctor, with a name dating back to real world. Salem witch trials, could have possessed.

the Dark Hold in her personal book. collection in her house. Actress Emma. Caulfield Ford was in Buffy the Vampire. Slayer. And this talk of a failed public. transit system beneath West View, a town. that never seemed like it had more than. a few thousand people living in it, reminds me of an old W division theory. that I had that there might be a. Hellmouth under West View, the way. Sunnydale High School had a hellmouth. beneath it and Buffy. Like Sharon is. definitely talking about some Jordan. Peele us tunnel beneath Westview. And I. want to know what's really down there. and what that beekeeper who we saw in.

Wanda Vision episode 2 and then in W. division episode 4 was really crawling. through. Also, why West View, New. Jersey? Like why did Vision choose this. town for him and Wanda? And how far was. Agatha when she first sensed Wanda's hex. forming? And look, I know the show is. implying that witches and witchy people. are like everywhere in any three mile. radius, but like Lilia Calderoo, Jennifer Kale, Lorna Woo's daughter, Alice Woo, are pretty high-profile. witches to all be within just a few. miles of where the Scarlet Witch caused.

her big stir. And I just think it's. possible that Vision might have chosen. this town because his mindstone and its. divine wisdom sensed a wellspring of. magic in this town in New Jersey that. would just end up being important to. helping Wanda unlock her true self. And. speaking of Agatha's run-in with Doie, aka Sarah, and what she was really doing. there, Scarlet Witch Updates on Twitter. pointed out a promo shot showing the. moment that Agatha kicks Teen out of the. chair, but in the real world outside of. the spell. So, that tells us that in.

some future episode, we're going to. revisit the events of episode 1, but see. it from the point of view of Teen and. the other neighbors, including probably. Sarah. Now, Agatha hilariously still. cannot remember Mrs. Hart's actual name. >> Hey, she has a name. It's Mrs. >> Now, for this, I actually blame Wanda. Spell for just being that effective on. Agatha's mind that like any great TV. show, we don't even care what the. actor's name is. We just know them as. the character they played. Teen. encourages this coven to embrace the. crack in witchcraft. [music].

>> Well, I'll be someone's put a sigil on. that boy. >> H. So, in this instance, it looks like. Joe Lock's mouth moves even less. Like. one, but definitely not more than two. syllables, which could fit Billy because. the Lee a Billy doesn't require the jaw. to drop a second time. Like think Billy. like the Lee is just kind of slipping in. there under the chin. Definitely check. out my video with all the evidence that. he's probably Billy Kaplan, but there's. also probably a bit more to the story. Jack Schaeer explained more of the. decision behind this sigil to the rap,

saying, "For the aesthetic on his mouth, the original idea was that it was a. redaction bar because that is what the. spell is. It's something being held back. in a manner that is uh it's a spell. that's kind of clumsy, like a more. sophisticated spell would just hide the. whole thing." But it sort of shows its. amaturess. So, the original idea that I. wrote was that it was a redaction bar. that sort of had the sound that goes. with it. So, by describing the spell as. clumsy and amateur, it kind of suggested. the teen might have placed it on. himself. Schaefer also described the. sigil as sand serif as a contrast to the.

serif witchcraft of the more experienced. witches and like typography. It's just a. curved little tail that goes in certain. typed fonts like Times New Roman is a. Saraf font. Ariel is a sans serif font. Teen asks Agatha, >> why would someone want to hide me? look. >> And then Agatha literally pushes Teen. behind her body to hide him from the. point of view of the camera angle. Agatha claims this type of sigil magic. is beneath her, but I think she knows or. at least suspects more of the reason why. Teen might have this sigil on his mouth.

than she's letting on. Agatha goes down. the line to remind each of these witches. of their wants. For Jen, it's to unbind. For Lilia, it's to reverse her fortunes. And then for Alice, it's to learn what. really happened to her mom. And it's. very Wizard of Oz in the way that the. wizard goes down the line to award each. member of that group their prizes. But. Sharon's not there and she nearly gets. swallowed by the mud under a tree that's. right off the path. And Agatha has to. explain that the lyric I stray not from. the path means literally to never step. off the road. Which makes me think that. these fallen leaves that cover the path. and seem to change color as they go.

further down the road based off of. trailer footage might have a kind of. floor is lava logic to them that. protects the witches from the muck of. the rest of this forest. They find their. first trial, a beachside mansion. >> Maybe this is the end. >> Don't be such a bummer. >> Ah, this house will end up being the end. for Sharon. And after teen responds, notice that Agatha side eyes him for a. beat, carefully watching this kid who. seems to be enjoying this trial more. than the rest of them are. Lilia. observes the carving on the door. matching the phases of the moon. And. Teen sees the circle in the middle.

matching the craters visible on our. moon, meaning that this house represents. the full moon. And he says the water. phase. Now, we've been seeing a lot of. lunar imagery in the closing credits, and I even speculated in our July. trailer breakdown that the trials might. actually correspond to the phases of the. moon. So, that's one theory I got right. out of probably a hundred wrong. But, there are varying correlations online. between the phases of the moon, which. are new moon, waxing crescent, first. quarter, waxing gibbus, full moon, waning gibbus, third quarter, waning. crescent, and the four elements of. water, fire, air, and earth. I've seen.

some sites even saying new moon is. really the water phase, but full moon. also makes sense because that's when the. moon is slightly closest to the earth at. perigee and tides are higher than normal. as a result. And notice that as soon as. the door closes inside the six of them. suddenly shift into this preppy country. club attire like straight out of a Norah. Efron movie or in this case straight out. of Big Little Lies. The HBO series even. gets referenced if you listen closely to. the background. >> Have you seen Huge Tiny Lies? >> Yeah, they say huge tiny lies which is. like big little lies. Now, I don't think.

there's any witchcraft and big little. eyes, unless you consider Meil Stre's. acting a form of sorcery because it is. that enchanting, I'll admit. But it is a. show with a bunch of white women and one. black woman. And then there is a dead. body at the end of season 1. But I'll. say I think of Deborah Drew Rup in this. episode as being kind of the season 2. Merryill Streep scene stealer. You'll. also notice that the moment we go. inside, the aspect ratio has changed. from the more cinematic widescreen. outside on the witches road to a more TV. HBO commoner ratio inside. Wision would. often shift aspect ratio to signal a.

changing TV format aesthetic. They also. note that they all still have their. emulets. And let's look closely at these. because you can get them at Hot Topic. Apparently, Jennifer Kales looks like a. potion bottle. Lilia's necklace. According to the jewelry artist who. designed it called this the sun tarot. card in silver, saying that it. represents love, joy, satisfaction, accomplishment, and success. Before I. said that it might be the queen of cups. tarot card, but that tarot card. according to Jess does have a sun that's. behind the figure. Alice's to me looks. like a heart, which might connect to the. three of swords tarot card. Rio's. necklace, which we don't see in this.

episode because Rio's not in this. episode, is the dagger that she carries. And this specific curved dagger is also. carried by death in the death tarot. card. And we have some amazing designs. that are inspired by Agatha Allong, available at nerd riot.shop, including. this really cool witches shirt. We have. a blood moon shirt. These are the best. way to support what we're doing here at. New Rockstars. Please grab one of those. It's a great holiday gift option. Nerd. Riot.shop. Sharon says, >> "Oh my god, >> bury me in that kitchen.". >> Ah, more foreshadowing. That kitchen.

will literally be the room where she. expires. Teen finds a card on the. mantle. The witches road cordally. invites you to the first trial. And. there's a painting behind it over the. mantle showing two women floating in a. pool. Or maybe it's just the same woman. mirrored in the surface of the water. Agatha says, >> "What is this? A wedding? Please God, not a baby shower." Hm. If Agatha. sacrificed her baby boy for the dark. hole, it makes sense that she wouldn't. want to be around babies. And sure. enough, this episode will end with her. crawling toward a baby crib. Jen reads. the riddle on the back of the card. >> My age has value. I'm no fun alone. I.

mess with your mind. My [music] tricks. are well known. >> Agatha says it sounds like a witch. Jen. says it sounds like Agatha. And Agatha's. like, but then Sharon realizes it's. wine. They find a bottle of Spanish red. Raina. 2016. In episode one of W. division, a bottle of mison de had all. of us thinking that this was going to be. a house of M story. Here we have Raina. Rioa and it's just like a type of red. wine. But you know, if you were to. change the spelling to R E I N A Rioa, you might get like some kind of version. of Red Queen. Jen warns Teen to watch.

his back with Agatha. >> Did you know she traded her own child. for the book of the damned? >> So this confirms it. The reason the. library card attached to the corpse. belonged to a library book, a book whose. first letters spelled out darkhold. written by Andrew Ugo, which is an. anagram for Windigor, is that the corpse. was a projection of Agatha's sacrifice, the child sacrifice that Jen hinted at. in episode 2. Agatha's [clears throat]. son, Nicholas Scratch, in exchange for. the Darkhold. The episode ends by. showing Agatha reliving her memory of. finding the Dark Hold and Nicholas's.

baby crib. This actually could have been. what pissed off the Saleomite witches. that much. You stole knowledge above. your age and station. You practiced the. darkest of magic. >> They simply bent to my power. >> Additionally, if you look back at. Wision, it gives some context to one odd. moment in episode 5 that was never. resolved or explained. >> You can fix anything, Mom. Fix it dead. >> What? No, >> you can do that. >> And the fact that in that moment, Agatha. was cradling a corpse in her arms as she. was asking that makes me now think she.

might have been dwelling on Nicholas in. that moment. In fact, maybe the previous. time Agatha went down the witch's road, she was trying to get her son back. Now, Jen seems to be hinting that there is. some trace of Nicholas Scratch. possessing the teen. For now, I'm going. to stick with the theory that I posed in. Monday's video that he's Billy Kaplan of. East View, future Wiccan, and that he. might have been in that car accident and. the near death in Westview that we see. under Joe Lock's name in the credits of. every episode, an article dated December. 14th, 2023, and that he was only saved. by some spirit possessing his nearly. dead body. That could have been Nicholas.

Scratch. We get another clue in this. episode pointing to this possibility in. just a bit. Ah, but we've arrived at the. moment. Jen goes on to say the words. that might have been written just for. us. >> They say no one really knows what. happened to him. They say he might be. dead. Others say he might be a demon or. an agent of the fisto. >> They said it. They actually said it. It. doesn't feel real. And I don't care if. this is the only time the MCU utters. this name or if it was just thrown into. the script as like a one-time pity.

gesture to nerds like us. We'll take it. Okay, before we start severing our head. off with wire and hailing payment in a. treehouse, some real talk. I would be. surprised if this show actually links. Nicholas Scratch to Meto if they come. out and say it right here in episode 3. If they were going to do Meisto here, I. think the writing would just more. cautiously hint at it in other ways. Unless they're going to still do Meisto. and they're actually going to surprise. us with like a big cast cameo. Like. maybe they're saying his name here and.

then they're going to reveal that's who. Rio Vidal actually is. We should also. note that there is room in the cast. billing for another high-profile name. like Sasha Baron Cohen who has been. rumored to be playing Misto and Iron. Hart. Like all three episodes so far, closing credits have shown the main cast. members one after the other with. corresponding images. But then after. Ali, there are two open slots. the. pentagram over the map of West View and. then the girl in the Halloween mask. followed by with Dober drove her up with. Patty Leone and Aubrey Plaza or at least. Aubrey Plaza was in episode one on that. tarantula shot and the next two episodes.

the tarantula shot has just been empty. Now when it comes to cast order that's. something negotiated by agents in these. actors contracts. The lead star is. always first build and then after that. you have the other smaller names. But. the biggest names after the lead come at. the very end preceded by the word with. and and hey it could just be that Jen is. referring to the common historical. associations with the name Nicholas. Scratch with the devil. Also when Marvel. comics introduced Nicholas Scratch's egg. of the son and leader of Salem's 7 and. Fantastic 4 number 185 in 1977. That's. really where they derived the name. But. also Nicholas Scratch's most recent.

appearance in Marvel comics was back in. 2006's Marvel Nights or numbers 26 and. 27 where Nicholas Scratch resurrects and. poses as Doctor Strange with a plan to. summon Schumagorath to Earth. Franklin. and Valyria Richards banish Nicholas. Scratch to hell. And in hell, Nicholas. Scratch agrees to become an agent of. Meisto in a coming war. And we never. really hear from Nicholas Scratch after. that. So, we'll see if Meto comes up. again. But for now, I think it goes. without saying. Agents of Meisto, spin. that off as a Disney Plus series and let. me cameo in it, please. But as I rewatch. this scene, which I have like a dozen.

times now, I'm increasingly interested. in Teen's reactions. He starts off in. denial, but he gets increasingly tense. as Jen speculates. And when Meisto comes. up, there's something in his eyes that. looks downright hostile. As Jen walks. away, notice his hand claws angrily or. anxiously, but there's something going. on there. This could all just be the. team grappling with these uncomfortable. truths that he's learning about his. idol. But I think there's some part of. him feeling threatened about being. exposed. Like there's something that. changes in teen after this scene. He. gets more urgent, more forward. Agatha. pours the wine and Sharon just downs.

hers. Behind Sharon is a painting of a. woman in a red dress that's waiting out. into the sea and he offering herself to. the sea to just end it all. 30 minutes. are now on the timer and Agatha says, >> "So Harbingers of Doom, >> no, this is not a Dr. Doom reference.". They cheers and teen notice Penttoime's. having a wine glass just to join in the. pun and he asks, >> "Can I have some?". >> You bet. >> While the others all say no, Agatha. says, "You bet." If she is projecting. Nicholas Scratch on this kid, she is. totally okay with this youth endangering. himself. So, notice that we see these.

women drink and finish their wine in. this order. Sharon chugs her initial. pour immediately and then refills and. then finishes that before we see anyone. else finish. That second pour is the. pour that was going to go to the teen. So, in a way, she was kind of his sin. eater. Alice finishes second. Jen, we. see having drank some of her wine, but. then just sniffs it. Similar with Lily. Calderoo, who's just kind of like. nursing hers, but then Agatha pours her. wine out in the plant. And that's the. order that we see the effects take over. these witches. T notices Alice's tattoo. Alice says that she got it in Colorado. when her mother Lorna Woo was playing. Red Rocks. So, the Red Rocks.

Amphitheater is one of the country's. biggest and most famous outdoor venues. rivaling the Hollywood Bowl. It's. rumored to be haunted. There's a witch. of Red Rocks and even a hatchet lady of. Red Rocks who appears at the highest. point of the Rock Peaks and it's. described as headless. Teen recognizes. the tattoo as something gained to ward. off spells. The outer ring are Chinese. ideographs, but the ones in the inner. rings we couldn't make out. Overall, I. think this might be a similar kind of. rune as what Agatha and Wanda used in. their final battle to draw the line of. where dark magic can and cannot be. Alice says that the trauma with her. mother happened at age 13 for her. And. Teen says this,

>> "Well, it happened to me at 13, too.". >> Ah, so since Teen is now 16 years old. and this show is set 3 years after. Wanovision in 2026, he might be. referring to that near death in Westview. headline that was dated December 14th, 2023. It kind of seems like after Jen. calls him out, Teen is now shifting to. being more open, more forward, and. trying to endear himself to the other. witches. Like, notice how later he. starts to turn on Agatha and call her. out for cheating. >> Drink, fine, then I will. >> So, Agatha's wine glass refills. automatically, kind of like the spell.

Doctor Strange places on Thor's mug that. automatically refills with beer in the. Doctor Strange postredit scene and in. the scene in Thor Ragnarok. That was a. practical effect at the time. And now, which is really fun when Alon picks up. the glass and they cut to a new angle. where there must be a concealed hose. running up her arm. I love that kind of. stuff. And the fact that they have to. have to drink it all reminds me of. regulous black spell and Harry Potter. and the Half-Blood Prince hiding a fake. locket horrux at the base of the bowl. with a potion that must be drunk to. completion. And it really took a toll on. Michael Gam. He was like, I don't want. to go. Hey, you want to know something. crazy? I just learned that Jared Harris.

is Richard Harris's son. Jared Harris. Lane Price from Madman was just calling. out the new HBO Harry Potter show LIKE. WHY DO YOU NEED TO DO IT? THE OTHER one. was perfect. It's just crazy how. everyone's relieved. Anyway, so Sharon's. face puffs up to a Botox infection. nightmare. Same for Alice and Jen and. Lilia. And Lilia don't seem to mind the. change, but the swelling goes back down. and Jen identifies the poison as awife's. revenge. So, an alewife is a fish, a. herring. There was a very obscure X-Men. character named Aewife from 2011's Shame. Itself, a fish mutant who pops up. briefly in a dream reality created by.

Professor X to test the X-Men. I don't. know. Awesome reminds me of like the. phrase a red herring, right? Like just. kind of a tedious distraction that. distracts you from the real threat. Agava cracks the window glass, which. creates a dilemma later when the flood. water uses this weakened pressure point. to break through, making me wonder, would that flood water have been as much. of a threat if Agaba hadn't cracked the. glass? Teen forces her to drink and she. chokes it down. Sharon says, >> "Let him breathe, please.". >> She seems to be returning to the moment. in Wavision episode 1 in the Hex when. Mr. Hart was choking at dinnertime.

>> Stop it. Stop it. >> But what's odd is Sharon is now using. different words. She's not repeating, "Stop it!" while laughing and crying. She's saying, "Whanda, I'm begging you. Let him breathe." This could be what. Sharon was really saying in her heart in. that moment. Or it could be a prayer. that Sharon said later on when her. husband, Mr. Davis actually died in. reality recently as she was telling. Agatha about in her garden. And if. that's the case, that would be so sad. that she prayed to the Scarlet Witch to. return to Westview to help her the way. she envisioned helped them in the Hex.

And Agatha in this moment might feel a. twinge of jealousy that a Westview. resident sought Wanda for help. A witch. who's clearly hated, but still viewed by. some as a hero who could help them. Like. Agatha might be learning that there's. another way for a witch to be. Jen lists. off ingredients for an antidote. Uh, I. need frankincense and the gut of a youth. social insect. >> Ah, frankincense. One of the gifts given. to baby Jesus upon his birth. It's a. resin produced by trees and used in. perfumes and incense. And it's just. interesting that Agatha finds her baby. in a kind of manger. And remember, she. referenced Synindor Scratchy is playing. baby Jesus in a child's play. Now, the.

gut of a yusocial insect. Uocial means a. species that organizes socially like. bees and ants. So, that's how they got. honey. And then a corpse that's been. decaying for at least 30 million years. They're referring to zuop plankton and. petroleum products. Jen and Lilia find. Jen's kale products, assuming that they. contain petroleum despite her claims. And Lilia suddenly says this. >> Try to say, "Yes, I love this plan.". >> H Okay, so these outbursts seem to be. part of Lilia's divination. Her sincere. I love you guys earlier might have been.

another example of that. Is this. something Agatha's mother, Evanora, said. when Agatha was younger and Agatha has. held this guilt with her since she. betrayed Evanora on the night of her. trial? Was Evanora actually trying to. spare her daughter's life? And that's. something she said to the other. Saleommites. So, in this part of the. episode, Alice, Jen, and Lilia all. hallucinate their greatest traumas, their greatest fears. So, let's take. each character one by one. Alice is. initially frozen in place while her. reflections on the mirrors on either. side of her create this infinity effect. We saw this with Steven Grant and. Moonnight in the museum bathroom in the. first episode of that series. Alice.

hallucinates a steam room, and the steam. becomes smoke in the dressing room of. her mother, singer Laura Woo, who flips. a lighter. She says, >> "Your grandmother died today.". >> And then Lorna drinks poison. Lorna. believes the women of this family share. a blood curse, which reminded me of It. Follows in that when the person who gave. you the curse is found by the entity, the entity now shifts direction to come. after you. Final destination works in a. similar logical framework. Meanwhile, Jen's vision is triggered with this. really, really cool shot. She goes to. get Eye of N aka Mustard Seed. And. without the editor cutting, we stay in.

this one shot where she walks into the. pantry. The camera pans to follow her. and then pans back to follow her into. the kitchen. And the lighting has. practically changed to be blue and. aquatic like Jen herself is underwater. and the doctor is now standing there. This whole idea of hey nothing to miss. Shift the camera return back to show a. startling reveal. This effect is. something that we've seen a lot in. domestic horror cinema. Like a. poltergeist to Toby Hooper or really. Steven Spielberg had the mom return to. the kitchen with all the chairs suddenly. arranged and stacked in the six sense. Might Shyamalan had Tony Colette walk. into a different room to do the laundry. and without cutting return to the. kitchen with Cole do ah all the.

cupboards are open. And I love it when. horror movies do this because it means. some PA had to go in there and like move. a whole bunch of stuff around. Jen finds. this doctor and he's wearing early 20th. century medical gowns. Now, this guy is. described as the doctor in the credits. He's played by Scott Butler and he says. this, "An inconvenient woman." That. could mean a lot of things. He drowns. her. So, this is all part of a new. invented backstory for the character of. Jennifer Kale. I feel like this doctor. might have like killed a patient or just. done something unethical. and Jen as. like someone else who worked with him, his assistant, his drugist, another.

doctor. She caught him doing this, maybe. told the authorities the truth or. threatened to tell the authorities. And. now that he would be facing the. consequences, he takes out his wrath on. her. But Jen later claims that this. whatever happened here resulted in her. being bound and that this doctor stole. her power. So, I'm curious to know more. about this doctor. Is he still around. somewhere as a sorcerer? We obviously. already have a medical doctor in the MCU. turned sorcerer in Steven Strange, but. hey, this could be a pretty fun. backstory for Dr. Nicodemus West, Michael Stoolberg. Hey, I'm always. trying to get Michael Stolebar back in.

the MCU. I'm a stool stand. Restore the. stool. Ag and Lilia pass a ghost girl in. the foreground, which is another visual. horror trope. Remember might Shyamalan. in the Six Sense had the bathrobe woman. ghost past Cole in the foreground when. he was in the bathroom. But this girl is. a younger version of Lilia according to. the credits played by Khloe Camp and she. asks in Italian. >> Ah, so the Italian word for see is very. similar to the Spanish word for to see. the air. And I should correct last. week's breakdown where I said that Rio's. repeated to is I see you present tense. when she was really speaking in future. tense. I'll see you. But I think it's.

still worth pointing out that for both. of these witches, this whole idea of. sight and divination is kind of like. equally multi-disiplinary. Lilia follows. her ghostly younger self into this old. house that's overgrown with weeds. So. between Lorna's fire, Jen's doctor's. water, and this earthly house, we're. kind of seeing three ways witches were. persecuted. Burned, drowned, buried. alive. They all kind of take these. different elemental forms. Lilia sees. this old rotting woman who suddenly. looks up at her while the shadow of. death creeps up behind her. This imagery. is very similar to the nun in the way. that the nun would just kind of move via. shadow, right? Very creepy. The credits.

describe this woman as Lilia's meestra, which means teacher. She's played by. Laura Bachelleti. I wonder if this could. have been a witch who taught Lilia her. witchcraft at a younger age. Agatha. finds Lilia speaking in Italian. >> H. So, there was an Italian plague from. 1629 to 1631, which was part of the. larger black death from the previous. centuries. So if Lilia is a 450-year-old. Sicilian witch, this would have been. something that she lived through. So. they add the ingredients to form the. antidote. Teen gets it all boiling using. a suvid saying that his dad loves this.

his dad. Hm. Along with the mention of. his mother, Rebecca Kaplan, seeing Laura. Woo's final concert. And now this. mention of his dad would be a reference. to Jeff Kaplan. It's just kind of. interesting how the parents keep coming. up. Jen tells Teen to start clockwise. and he doesn't know what clockwise. means. Apparently schools are now. removing clocks from classrooms because. Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids can't tell time. on analog clocks. But later this season, Agatha and Teen are going to be in an. interesting location with ceiling lights. that form the shape of an analog clock. Since Agatha was the last to drink her. wine, her hallucination of her greatest. fear comes a bit later and she hears a. baby crying and she follows a sound to a.

baby basket and pulls back the blanket. to reveal the darkold. So, one wonders. if this is like a metaphorical nightmare. for Agatha sacrifice of her son Nicholas. Scratch to gain the Darkhold or if this. is literally how it happened for her. Like she made this deal with whomever, either the Dark Hold's author Cathon or. maybe with Meto and then she woke up in. the night to the sound of her baby Nikki. crying and went to him, but found. instead this book of the damned. Do you. think that Agatha knew that her son. would have been taken when she made that. deal? There's another cool practical.

transition here that's pretty easy to. miss. As Katherine Han turns away from. the kitchen sink, the blue aquatic. lighting of the kitchen fades away. In. the shot, the lighting shifts and. without cutting, the camera dollies. back. And next, when we see that kitchen. island in the background, the other. actors have discreetly cleared the set. But then after Agatha reacts to the. book, the lighting shifts again and the. actors have all returned. But this whole. moment of like a mother going to what. she thinks is going to be her baby is. taken directly from Roman Palansky's. shot and Rosemary's baby. When Rosemary. confronts the Satanist cult, but is. suddenly transfixed by her baby and. slowly pulls back the curtain to see.

>> What have you DONE TO IT? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ITS EYES? >> AH, THOSE vocals of a woman wailing. totally inspired the Lopez's music of. the closing credits of every episode of. W Division. After Agatha returns from her Darkhold. hallucination, the first person to talk. to her is Teen. >> What did you see? Nothing. >> I think he knows what she saw. So, they.

have to use a strand of each of their. hair for the brew, which recalls Agatha. using Wanda's hair to open the memory. journey in Wision episode 8 and Doctor. Strange plucking a strand of Thor's hair. to locate Odin and Ragar. And Strange, I. think, even using Peter Parker's hair. for the memories fell in Spider-Man No. Way Home. Agatha reassures Jen. >> They can take your power, Jen. Jen. remembers they need blood from the. unpoisoned. And without hesitation, Agatha slices Teen's palm. They drink. the potion. With 10 seconds left, they. pass the potion like a fire brigade down. to Sharon, and the oven pops open. >> That happened to a friend of mine once.

She had a lovely house, too. >> Obviously referencing the witch from the. Grim Brothers Fairy Tale of Hansel and. Gretle, the kids who shoved that witch. into an oven. But the flood waters rush. in. Now, behind the scenes footage shows. that they actually flooded this set. And. that's really cool because actors. actually get paid more if they get wet. enough in a scene to be visibly. dripping. According to her colleague. Joanna Robinson, the cast and crew of. Lost called this a wet bump because it. was often raining on that set. But. sometimes it was just humid and. drizzling or wet from a recent rain. shower. So the standard for a wet bump. in your pay on that day is that you must.

be visibly dripping and that's why the. water only comes up to these actors. knees. I suspect Agava doesn't want to. save Sharon. But she reluctantly doubles. back to help them move her. And when she. gets into the oven, notice she cackles. like a pirate. >> [screaming]. >> So, the witches glide down this. practical water slide, which seems like. a direct homage to the Goonies, where. Richard Donner's team built a whole. winding water slide on the Warner. Brothers massive and historic stage 16. sound stage in Burbank, which they. actually flooded and used for the. massive pirate ship. And it seems like. they used the stunt performers to do the.

actual sliding because they smack into. each other pretty hard. But notice they. rotate the camera in this overhead shot. and they must have hid a cut there. because when the camera angles up, now. we see our actors standing up and they. are damp and they are muddy. But notice. they are not dripping. No wet bump. The. aspect ratio also condenses back to. widescreen. The teen reveals. >> Sharon's dead. >> Who's Sharon? >> Solid call back. But it also shows that. Agatha is still so solidly unsure of her. reality. Still in Wanda's trance that. she cannot shake what this woman was to.

her through Wanda's eyes. Over the. credits play the yayya's heads will. roll. This is a breakdown of aa all. along episode 4. If I can't reach you, let my song teach you. Which we learn. this episode is among the new lyrics. added to the ballot of the witches road. by Alice's rockstar mother, Laura Woo. [music and singing]. >> And this is one of those rare moments. where being a channel called New. Rockstars randomly actually applies to. what we are talking about here. Actually, a lot of rock music history.

that we're going to cover here. Okay, episode four opens with this interesting. music and Agatha reflecting over. Sharon's corpse. I'm pretty sure the Lopezes based this. music on the Pushing Daisies theme song. because both tonally and literally. that's what we're seeing here. Sharon, their witchy companion selected as their. placeholder green witch because of her. green thumb with a secret to fluffy. Aelas that we will never hear is now. pushing daisies herself. Though it does. sound like Deborah Joe may come back in. future episodes either through flashback.

or some kind of ghostly form. Despite. the witches successfully brewing an. antidote, they never got a strand of. Sharon's hair in that potion. The oven. did open, which seems to have been an. effect of the witch most tested by this. trial, Jen, completing the potion. But. members of this group can still leave. each of these trials with mortal wounds. as we see the teen later. I think it's. kind of sad to think that the fun. Goonies water slide was really ending. with Sharon's already dead corpse just. kind of flushing and flopping up the. rear. Agava clearly didn't care about. anyone's well-being, especially since if. you watch closely, she kicked Jen twice.

Like, she went out of her way. So. Sharon's floral top matches the leaves. of the witch's road beneath. And notice. these leaves have changed color. In. episode 3, they wore a blue or indigo. color to match the water trial that. awaited them in the beach house. Now. they are atominal shades of red and. orange and yellow to match the fire. trial that awaits them. Also to reflect. the seasonal shift as we approaching. winter and death. Agatha says, >> "I didn't think you had it in you. >> You didn't think you would want them.". >> Huh. So there are a lot of ways to look. at this. Like Teen might remain angry at. Agatha for dragging an innocent witch.

adjacent neighbor to be sacrificed on. this road. And Agatha's ongoing callous. attitude towards Sharon as he is digging. the grave. Teen is also probably annoyed. that Agatha won't answer his questions. And deep down, he feels miffed that. Agatha thinks that witchcraft cannot be. learned because learning witchcraft is. his ultimate goal. But also, he's. probably still reeling from Jennifer. Kale's [ __ ] talk last episode about what. Agatha did to her son. On some level, he. may have something in him that Agatha. cannot or just refuses to see. In. addition to the leaves that form the.

walking path of this road turning fiery. autominal colors, the exposed roots that. glow different colors each episode have. also changed here. The ones behind Teen, you'll notice, are now glowing orange. Alice projects her own mother on Sharon. as she mourns her. Alice's function in. this coven is also the protection witch, so she also feels responsible for. everyone's safety. >> Well, where were you when Mrs. Hart. needed [music] protecting? Since Lorna. Woo died in a fire, Alice's trial will. be firebased. Lorna said that the road. would protect her from the demon that. follows the women of this family. And I. just noticed that Agatha really labeled. which witch is which when she sang this.

part of the ballad in episode 2. And. another detail from that episode, Alice. Woo wiped away a tear as they finished. the song because we'll learn this. episode her mother recorded the most. famous cover of it. Agatha explains that. they needed the whole gang to access the. road, but now it's anybody's game. It's. like the ballad says, "Burn and brew. with coven two.". >> With coven true. Glory shall be thine. >> It's coven two. >> That doesn't make any sense. >> Now, they did actually all sing with. Coven true in episode 2. I went back to. check. But we didn't see Katherine Han.

in frame when they sang that part. So, Agna might have actually said Coven 2. And I love how this kind of matches how. none [clears throat] of us ever really. know the exact lyrics to songs, but we. have equally as valid emotional. connections to whatever we hear. So, that's why we get so defensive in those. kind of debates. For Agatha, Coven 2. reflects how in her alleged previous. trip down the road, she says that she. just had one other companion. First, I. thought this was Rio Vid Doll, but later. Rio seems to not recognize this road. So, I'm wondering if her companion could. have been her son, Nicholas Scratch. Teen lays baby's breath on Sharon's.

grave. These are a common filler in. bouquet for all occasions, but we're not. sure where on this road Teen could have. picked these flowers. I'm going to. assume they were actually tucked in the. pocket of Sharon's gardening apron. And. now I'm sad again. Teen says, "I wish we. could go home.". >> H, there's no place like home. Dorothy. vibes from Teen. Huh? Or would Teen be. Toto? I'm just struggling a bit because. if this is supposed to be the Wizard of. Oz, we don't really have a clear onenu. protagonist as our Dorothy figure. So, in a way, Teen would be the closest. thing we have to just like kind of a.

classic hero, right? They have to summon. a new green witch. >> People can't be replaced, can't they? That pause after the exchange suggests. that Agava is hinting at her own past, treating witches in her coven is. expendable and you know the fact that. she replaced her baby son with a dirty. old book. So they use a teen spell book, the one that Agatha nearly threw out the. window to read a new Latin spell to. summon a green witch. >> Adwamus. sorm. weary supra. >> Our Twitter Latin expert Mad Latinist.

translated this to we summon a green. sister above. She goes on. >> supra infra intra. extra essay. nonest. ful. >> according to Mad Latinist this. translates to above below within without. and hilariously it's not easy being. green. Oh god if only Kermit the frog. could have crawled out of the dirt here. Maybe vampire Kermit was actually the. two-fanged vampire who bit Lilia.

Calderoo. But since they are reading off. Teen's notes from his Moleskin spell. book in my head cannon, Teen was just. goofing around with a Latin translator. and Agatha just kept reading and didn't. realize that this wasn't part of the. spell and Teen just kind of awkwardly. stayed silent because he was embarrassed. about his Muppets's obsession. Behind. them in the sky, notice the moon is. full, which could be there to show that. the most recent past challenge was one. that corresponded to the full moon. They. clear [clears throat] a patch of leaves. in the shape of a body, reminding us of. a chalk outline at the scene of a crime. in police procedurals like, you know,

Mayor of Easttown or Agnes of Westview. But really here, they're allowing the. earth to breathe as this green witch. represents the soil. Now, I only bring. this up because half of this cast on. Agatha came from a background of long. form improvisation, like most of us in. New Rockstars. But this ritual that. we're seeing is really an invocation, the summoning of a spirit. But in. improv, an invocation is an exercise and. common opening to a halfhour show format. we call the herald. One of many ways. performers brainstorm ideas for upcoming. scenes on stage in front of the. audience. In an invocation, the team. gets suggestion of an object and then.

invokes it by endowing it with physical. descriptions like banana like it is. yellow, it is cold, it is rotting, you. know. And the second phase is how you. use it, its function, and you say you. are. So like you are a snack, you are a. weapon in Mario Kart. The third phase is. its metaphorical meaning where you say. thou art. So, thou art a two penetrable. shell masking a vulnerable heart. And. then ultimately you end with like one. word summations like I am delight. And. then everyone together says I am banana.

This thing was developed by a guy named. Dell Close who was like the cultlike. guru of this whole improv art form and. was actually a practicing Wiccan in. Toronto. And I know all of you improv. nerds felt it when Sashir's the beta, one of the funniest improvisers I've. ever seen perform, judges Catherine hard. for thinking a coven of two is. sufficient instead of a group of six. As. improv is way better as an ensemble art. form. And too many improvisers these. days are doing twoman shows. And 95% of. them suck. As New Rockstar Zach says, get a third friend. Similarly here, each.

witch endows the invocation with their. own desire from the summoned. And like. any improv invocation, one of them is. bound to be jokey. >> Can she bring some Advil? So Rio bursts. out of the ground like something out of. Evil Dead. Or when Billy Butcherson. comes out of the ground zombified and. hocus pocus, she presents Agatha with. the flower that Agatha placed on the. ground for the invocation. Rio meets the. gang. >> You're a a green witch. Less a green. witch, more the green witch. >> H with a pretty scary demon voice. Rio. is establishing herself as the original.

green witch. Her costume designed by. Daniel Salon is made of a jacket formed. by snaking green vines with mesh. elements that kind of look like moss on. a tree. Her bells looks like angled. branches. It's just interesting that Rio. took the black hooded form when she. attacked Agatha in episode 1, but now. she adopts this look. Like, we wonder if. this might be her natural form or just a. costume that she's wearing to kind of. play a part here. Now, if you've been. following Agatha all along closely, you. may have heard some details about Aubry. Plaza's character. At this point, I. can't pretend like I didn't see this, but I don't want to like talk about it.

here. We have been doing our best to. moderate the comments of our videos, too. But if you are interested, we are. adding an addendum to this video, a. spoiler section called Double Double. Spoil in Trouble. And I will talk about. all this stuff down there. In the. meantime, I still will be talking about. Aubry Plaza's acting, the aesthetics of. her look, other really cool interesting. details about this character. Just not. going to get into the spoilers yet. But. the reason I'm assuming that Rio was not. Agoda's one companion in her past trip. down the road, if that past trip even. happened, is really just Rio's reaction. to her surroundings here. >> Oh, witch's world, huh? [whistles].

>> H, this is cool. >> Now, all this could be performative. because she knows the other three. witches are listening to her, but she's. just so aloof and kind of beused by it. all that the whole realm just kind of. seems like it's a curiosity to her. Or. maybe she's always been part of it as. the original green witch, just kind of. connected to the soil. And this is the. first time she's just kind of sprouted. from that soil to see what it looks like. on the surface. And this little skip. that Opry Plaza does is similar to. Dorothy's initial skip dance down the. yellow brick road as she was off to see. the wizard. And that kind of seems like. she's leaning into it here. They come.

upon the second house. Joe Lock pointed. out in interviews that this structure. actually has five sides. It's an overall. pentagon shape just like the door to the. witch's road. Alice looks up to see the. moon is in a waxing crescent which. cross-dissolves into the shape on the. door which has a similar configuration. to the beach house door. I don't know if. the show is going to connect to. Moonnight, but this phase of the moon is. Moonnight and Konshu's favorite phase. These are always like cross-dissolving. into it. Once inside, the aspect ratio. opens up as it did last episode. The. interior is a 1977 era recording studio. with deep orange colors familiar to.

interior design of that decade and even. a rock wall surface similar to the Brady. Bunch set. Along the top of the wall is. a pattern that looks like interlocking. M's. And since last week mentioned the. guy by name, I feel like we have to at. least entertain the prospect that Meisto. could be involved here. Otherwise, the. M's could be interlocking W's and it's. like a Wanda or a Wiccan thing. And now. they are all wearing clothes reflecting. 70s era singers. Alice is dressed up. like Janice Joplain with the hair to. match. Teen is wearing a shag jacket. evoking MC Jagger and he's got the. flowing locks of musicians like Jim. Morrison or George Harrison. Both Agatha.

and Rio are wearing outfits that I think. evoke the looks of share. like both. their outfits seem to have the most open. blouses. And you'll notice that Rio is. back to wearing her black hooded form, similar to what we saw in episode 1. Jen. seems to be going for a Diana Ross look. Lilia is definitely rocking Eliza. Minnelli haircut and heavy eye makeup. that Liza wore and which is interesting. because Patty Leone and Liza Minnelli. are on a very short list of beloved. Broadway and cabaret icons. So, it's. probably to pay respect to her. colleague. One costume detail I. appreciate, the flower that Agatha used.

for Rio's invocation that Rio has been. tossing around in her hand. Rio has now. tucked into her hair. The horror vibe of. this house seems to be pulling from the. 1977 film Susperia. Dario Arento's story. of an American ballet student and a. German dance academy that she realizes. is a front for a coven of witches. The. paintings on the wall of this structure. resemble the menacing paintings that we. see in the studio in Sesperia. These. paintings include a child or a young. person screaming in a cage. Could this. be Nicholas Scratch? We see a woman in. stocks boiling alive in a cauldron. A. waxing crescent moon above her head. a.

woman burning with her hands tied behind. her back at a stake. A full moon behind. her. Then a woman in a white dress with. her arms tied up with some shackles. beside her while outside that looks like. another full moon. And then on the far. right, an older woman that's tied to a. chair. And if you look closely, that. chair is being lowered into a lake to. drown her with a waxing crescent moon. above her. So these all kind of look. like different ways that witches and. witch associated people were tortured. Lilia reacts to the white dressed woman. as she hears him screaming in the. distance. Maybe her meestra in Sicily or. another witch that she knew from that. time could have died this way. Jen,

meanwhile, finds a series of devil. masks, and the camera rotates on her as. she becomes transfixed by them. The one. that she stares at for the longest has a. faint glow in the eyeholes. A glow that. creepily disappears as the camera moves. Alice passes framed printouts on the. wall. Two clippings from a music. periodical called Dropbeat, reviewing. shows with the ticket stubs framed. below. Then, a poster for a band called. Pinhole performing at the Black Cat. Music Hall in New Orleans on Saturday, May 21st, 1977. Now, yes, Black Cat is. the moniker of Spider-Man associated. character Felicia Hardy in the Marvel. comics, and there doesn't seem to have. been a Black Cat music hall in New.

Orleans in the 70s, but you know, it's. also just like a common name for bars. and venues and just black cats, you. know, a superstitious creature. associated with witches. And then Jen. focuses on a poster for Fleetwood Mac, a. show in Oakland Stadium on May 7th, 1977. This image of Fleetwood Mac comes. from their Rumors live album. This is an. actual concert that they played with the. Doobie Brothers and Gary Wright. Rumors. released in 1977, and it's considered. the band's masterpiece album. It's one. of my all-time favorite albums. It was. recorded while two of the couples in the. band were seeing their relationships. fall apart. The McVes were divorcing. after eight years of marriage. Lindsay.

Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were in a. real rough patch in their on again. off-again relationship. And only through. the music were these four able to. connect with each other. And you can. actually hear their pain and their anger. and their grief pulsing through all of. their vocals. That's what makes it such. a great album. And it's pretty similar. to what the women of this coven have to. do. They have to play through their own. pain and channel it into the music. And. an odd little detail at the bottom of. the Oakland show poster is a little. cauldron that kind of looks like Jen's. potion bottle amulet. Later on during. the hot mic scene, there is another. poster for jazz singer Nancy King's. apologies tour. Alice stops at a poster.

for her mother, Lorna Woo, as Alice's. own face reflects on the glass on top of. and beside her mother's. This is a. common Marvel film visual motif. Steve. Rogers reflected in the glass of the. army soldier uniform but being too. short. Miles Morales and Into the. Spider-Verse similarly framed with Peter. Parker's Spidey suit. In Alice's case, her fear that she'll suffer the same. fate as her mother without ever fully. understanding that demon is what she's. seeing here. Alice and Lilia reveal that. Lorna was trying to open the Witches. Road with her version of the ballad and. that her fans were her coven. Now, for.

musicians as well as very religious. individuals, there is a belief in the. power of the masses singing or chanting. something together in unison as a way to. heal. This was particularly a ' 60s7s. new age concept of healing and uniting. the world through song and then like. Coca-Cola ruined it, man. But I like. that this episode like takes it back and. makes it a very real thing. Alice says. Laura had to sell the back catalog to. keep the house, but it sounds like the. ballot had an ongoing literal cult. following. Lilia has another. nonsequittor outburst. >> Which is it? Am I wispy or am I.

cookooky? Alice. Alice, don't. >> don't what? >> Lily. So Lilia had a similar outburst in. episode 3, which first had an innocent. line that was followed later in the. episode by a dire warning. >> I love you guys. try to save Agatha. >> Now, Jessica Clemens has a whole video. breaking down what's going on with Lily. Calderoo that you have to watch. One. theory I posed last week on the. breakroom was that Lilia's divination. powers could make her kind of unstuck in. time, like Desmond in Lost or Billy. Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse 5. And Lilia's.

mind is revisiting and reliving moments. in her past and in her future. And in. upcoming episodes, we're going to see. Lilia's life from her point of view. And. these lines will make sense in some. future event. The way Lost did this with. Desmond in the Constant episode. for. Lilia. All of these nonsequittors, I. think, are going to line up in a way. that makes sense. Trailer footage shows. an upcoming episode that might be the. air themed trial that's centered around. Lilia, where they're all dressed up as. pop culture witches from the Wizard of. Oz and Snow White, and Lilia could be. playing dress up to try to figure out if. she's a wispy witch or a cookie witch. And then maybe in a later scene, we're. going to see Alice and Agatha in danger.

Now, there's a very interesting scene. between Rio and Agava, and it's one of. these scenes that you have to take line. by line, starting with this. Hm, you're. too early. makes it sound like Agava. always intended on Rio crashing this. journey and she just wanted to stall. Rio's arrival for as long as possible. That could be why Agava wasn't surprised. that Sharon died and wanted to move on. as quickly as possible from her corpse. And when they did the invocation, maybe. Agatha was hoping for any other green. witch and was surprised that crap, it's. her lover that took this form. Rio. implies that Agatha's choice of Sharon.

and the magic from the invocation. manifested as a path of least. resistance. Magic flowing in the path of. least resistance. I feel like she's. suddenly dissing Ned somewhere, but she. says down or up. Now, does Rio mean that. Agatha took the path of least resistance. by carrying Sharon down with him and. then just the magic pulled Rio up? Or is. she saying that the magic moved in. either direction in Rio's case? Either. way, I think Rio is implying that she. could have been brought to the witch's. road from above, from the surface world, the same origin as the rest of them. Or.

she could be saying that she was brought. up from below, from some realm even. deeper, even darker, a realm like hell, that she was always part of the bedrock. of the witch's road. And I think that's. just such a cool concept. Rio shifts to. this though. >> Why did you bring that boy? Many hands. >> H. So Agava doesn't want Rio to linger. her gaze on teen. So only now does she. stand up and change tactics. She uses. this moment to approach Rio to offer a. truce to sensually offer to flee with. her on another adventure. But really,

it's another trick to make Rio look bad. to the others with this hot mic moment. >> Kill all the witches around you. >> One by one, and I get my bodies. >> Hm. Notice how Rio said, "I get my. bodies." My bodies. Rio seems to be on a. mission similar to that of a debt. collector. As Morto says, the bill comes. due. But uh I got to save more of this. conversation about Rio for the double. double spoil and trouble section. Their. outrage is interrupted by a distorted. sound from the record player. This is. from team looking for a welcome card. among these records and finding one. marked with play me and the player was.

set in reverse and this music is. obviously creepy. Now just out of curiosity we actually. reversed the footage here and when you. play it back it forms a really creepy. distorted version of Laura Woo's cover. of the Ballad of the Witches Road. Take. a listen. >> Yeah, they put a creepy distortion. effect on it to just make it sound. demonic. This comes from a lot of urban. legends you may have heard dating back. to the 60s and the 70s of bands hiding.

satanic messages in their albums when. they were played backwards. This is. called black masking. Led Zeppelin. Stairway to Heaven is a popular example. of this. There's this verse. If there's. a bustle in your hedro, don't be alarmed. now. But when you reverse that, listeners think it sounds like this. [music]. >> [music].

[music]. >> Also famously, the Beatles, Revolution 9. spawned the whole Paul is dead urban. legend. But really, these rumors mostly. were spread by Christian groups going. through the satanic panic in the8s, which led to a lot of them destroying. their albums. And the camera work just. gets really fun and inventive. At this. part of the episode, we get an example. of split focus with this close-up of. Teen while Jen is yelling at him in the. background. Teen holds up this sleeve.

and it says, "Play me." As the camera. zooms in on Alice's face through the. hole. And there's absolutely a Louisis. Carol Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. reference here. They eat me versus drink. me notes to shrink and to grow. and. seeing our Alice framed through a. metaphorical rabbit hole. Here, Agatha. smashes a record player. Another. parallel to the trial in episode 3 where. Agatha smashed the wine glass on the. upholstery. WE GET A quick zoom on. Lilia, which is another trope of 70s and. '8s horror. Stanley Kubri used a lot of. zooms in the shining, specifically when. Wendy ran around the hotel and began to.

see all the ghosts. in place of the. countdown timer last episode. Now we. have a metronome which doesn't countdown. time like a stop clock does, but it does. match the ticking sound of a clock and. is a tool to help musicians keep tempo. The ticking sound ends up giving a lot. of tension to the rest of the sequence. Hearing this reverse music cursed them. all. As a firebased trial, Lilia. collapses to the ground and begins to. smoke like the wicked witch of the west. when she's melting. And protection witch. Alice jumps in and takes Rio's dagger to. scratch a protection circle around her. while chanting Latin. The circle stops. the burning but leaves them with burn.

scars on their shoulders. And since it. was a demonic beast that physically. grabbed them and scarred them. I'm again. reminded of it follows an entity that. hunts prey one person at a time and is. invisible to anyone it's not currently. targeting. We hear the demon flapping as. the camera swoops around them. This is a. point of view camera technique that Sam. Ramy loves to use in his horror films, Evil Dead, Drag Me to Hell. The other. songs on Lorna Woo in the Coral Shores. album include Mary, which could be a. Bloody Mary reference. I hope they. actually play Bloody Mary in the. sleepover episode. Red-haired woman, maybe a reference to Wanda Maximoff, the.

Scarlet Witch. Cinnamon and Sage, which. would be spices and herbs used in. witchcraft rituals. Flick of the wrist, which has got to be a Cinderella Bippity. Bobby Boo reference, right? And then. Swan Song, which could be the final song. that Laura Woo ever sang to say goodbye. to her fans and to her daughter. Alice. reveals that it was she who brought in. this generational curse, that she bore. these shoulder burn scars since. childhood, thinking they were. birthmarks. They realize that they have. to sing Lorna's cover of the ballad. That when Lorna came down the road, she. was trying to save her daughter Alice. And that by making the song so popular,

at any point somewhere on Earth, someone. is always singing this song. So, it. works that way as a protection spell. And I just think that's so beautiful. They assume the different positions in. the band. I love how Lilia says that she. just played obscure instruments when, of. all of these women, Patty Leone is. clearly the most musically gifted. The. Lopez's arrangement for the Laura Woo. version embraces musical influences of. Fleetwood Mack, Janice Choplain, and. Jefferson Airplane. Like maybe it was. the Alice and Wonderland connection, but. I kept hearing one pill makes you larger. and one pill makes you small. While.

Agatha sings the lead vocals, we cut to. Alice on the piano as she sings new. lyrics that Lorna added to make Alice. feel protected. First, the title this. episode and then this beautiful. sentiment. >> Notice how Ali an belts the high note. there to just punch the heartbreak. While the flames are surrounding them, she is just feeling the warmth of her. mother. Alice finally can see the. demon's physical form and her pulling. away from the piano results in only Rio. dumping the bass drum, creating an. accidental bridge of the song. [screaming].

[cheering]. >> But it also indicates that unlike all. the others who stop playing their music. because they're so terrified, this thing. does not scare Rio. Keep that in mind. Now, this demon is the show's physical. manifestation of the generational curse. It's a classic practical demon, humanoid. in shape, but wings extending from the. hands, a protruding snout face, exposed. ribs, but clearly female. Like, it could. be that all the women in the Woo. ancestry have to see their mothers and. their grandmothers in this, and that's. what makes it so awful to see. Alice. fearlessly sings, "See you at the end,". which is such an apocalyptic thing to.

scream at your beastly attacker. The. demon goes up in a plume of smoke, and. the piano lid opens to an exit like the. oven in episode 3, but the demon. throwing teen into a glass resulted in a. serious wound. They take him back to the. witch's road. They remove the glass. shard. Agatha begs them and specifically. Rio this. >> don't. >> Jen bru a potion from water and. moonlight. >> Wool noose abqua kur. >> Yeah, it kind of sounds like the Latin. words for wound water. And I'm guessing. just from the context, maybe heal. Lilia. says. >> three of swords. >> Ah, referring to the three of swords. tarot card. Now, it's not clear if Lilia.

is endowing that card to teen or to Jen. or just a situation as the three of. swords. But when the three of swords is. facing up, it means heartbreak, emotional pain, sorrow, grief, and hurt. So, I think teen being hurt represents. the betrayal he really feels from. Agatha. That I think is the real wound. that must be mended. Jen pours the water. on the wound and it heals them. It wipes. it away. It kind of reminds me of the. way that they poured the water and it. just kind of fizzed up on Shan Connory's. wound and Indiana Jones the Last Crusade. when they got the water from the Holy. Grail to heal him. Jen tells them,

>> "I'm an 11th generation root worker and. midwife.". >> Ah, so this gives some context of the. doctor from Jen's past who called her an. inconvenient woman before trying to. drown her. Seems like part of Jyn's. inconvenience involved the birthing. delivery process, and I'm curious to see. where the show goes with this in future. episodes. Alice asks how Jen was bound. >> I was invited to the brand new. Obstetrics Association of Greater. Boston. It was a trap. Hm. It sounds. like Jen wanted to help impart her. midwife insights to the medical. community of the time to do things more.

safely than the doctors were doing in. the early 20th century. But it sounds. like there was a trap that ended up. leaving her bound. We still have a lot. of questions about what this association. was. Lilia says that the worst part of. being a witch are all the misconceptions. >> that we talked to goats. We've all got. an extra nipple. You guys don't have. extra nipples. I'm covered in nipples. >> Now remember, Lilia also complained. about the green skin, the pointy noses. in past episodes. It seems like her. trial will be that air trial that shows. her going through some of these pop. cultural depictions of witches. Ten asks. Agatha if she put the sigil on him. >> A sigil works on the witch who cast it.

as well. >> Can it be lifted? >> Sigils are destroyed. >> If the sigil is designed to prevent. Agatha from seeing anything that reminds. her of her son. And if Nicholas. Scratch's soul lives in teen, that would. mean that when Agatha exercises Teen, that could lead to the sigil being. destroyed. Lilia shows them a vampire. bite, one whose teeth she I guess. knocked out. Just reminder that vampires. do exist in the MCU. They were. referenced in Loki and in Eternals and. hopefully someday Blade. This whole scar. comparison reminds me of the men sharing. their battle scars and jaws, but it's. like a group of women doing it and I.

kind of love it. Agatha says. >> knitting needle to the elbow. You ever. hear of the Daughters of Liberty? >> Uh-uh. >> No, exactly. >> During the American Revolution, there. was a group called the Sons of Liberty, but also a Daughters of Liberty who. protested the Stamp Act and a number of. other laws from the crown. But they. would often spin needles from sun up to. sun down. And I just love the idea that. Agatha Harkness tried to thwart the. American Revolution just because Rio. says that her scar comes from a long. time ago that she loves someone and had. to do something that she did not want to. do even though it was her job and it. hurt them. And basically Rio is saying.

that Agatha is her scar. Whatever form. Rio actually takes, I think she helped. carry out the sacrifice of the son. Nicholas Scratch in exchange for the. dark hold. And while that gave Agatha. what she wanted, it did leave their. relationship scarred. So we end this. episode with Agatha and Rio. They. embrace, but Rio cuts it off by saying, >> "Agatha, that boy isn't yours.". >> Whether or not Nicholas Scratch in some. form is possessing teen, I think the. sigil means that Agatha sees him as. possessed, as bearing some resemblance.

to Nicholas Scratch. Rio, I think, is. trying to help Agatha by telling her to. just let go of this fantasy and to let. go of what she did to Nicholas. Okay, we. are now shifting into our spoiler. section. Double double spoil and. trouble. We're going to talk about some. stuff we learned about Aubrey Plaza's. character. So, if you don't want to. know, feel free to stop watching now. Thanks so much for watching this video. Okay, here we go. Spoilers ahead. It. came out this week via Funko Pop. figurines that Aubrey Plaza is playing. death, presumably Lady Death in the. Marvel comics. And based on everything. she does in this episode, it's kind of.

hard to talk about her without. acknowledging this. Lady Death is. Marvel's physical embodiment of the. concept of death. She was famously wooed. by Thanos as his motivation to snap half. of all life out of existence in the. Infinity Gauntlet story line, a story. line that also involved Mythto at his. side, we should note. And Lady Death. also later had a fling with Deadpool of. all people. The clues have all been. pointed in this direction. The death. tarot card that we see for the show is. holding Rio's black heart in one hand. and her curved dagger in the other. Rio's wardrobe is black hooded. And we. saw a more traditional form of death.

behind Lilia's maestra in episode 3. And. in this episode, Agatha says, "You're. too early." Which seems like a reference. to death arriving too early. And Rio. says that she wants to get my bodies, showing her eagerness to claim these. lives. Her knife is used to cast a. protection spell around these witches. And really, only death would be powerful. enough to ward off other fatal threats. And while Ten is dying, Agatha begs her, "Don't." as if to say, "Death, please do. not take this boy yet." So, it seems. like Agava had a past romantic. relationship with Lady Death. That's how.

she avoided death this long, death may. have given her her powers. And death. seems like made a kind of vow not to. kill Agatha. That's why she can't kill. her. But if Agatha were to breathe in. some of death's powers, that would kill. her and overwhelm her. Maybe even death. took the life of Nicholas Scratch to. give Agatha the dark hold. A deal that. might have been with someone else like a. Meisto figure. But that ultimately is. probably why death recognizes that Teen. is not Agatha's son. That would also. explain all the talk that Aubrey Plaza. could be returning for MCU future. titles. Lady Death does have. relationships with Thanos and Deadpool.

and lots of the cosmic figures who are. probably going to show up in Avengers. Doomsday in Secret Wars. This is a. breakdown of Agatha Allong episode 5, Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power. An. appropriate lyric from the ballot to. pull as this is our darkest hour or. rather 25 minutes of the series yet. But. wakes the power of Wiccan whom this. episode implies is the son of the. scarlet witch one of Maximoff. All. right, we open with the title darkest. hour wake thy power. But notice we. paused for a long time on just the. darkest hour part of it. Perhaps to.

prepare viewers for the dark elements of. this episode. The death of Alice Woo. The reveal that Agatha sacrifice of her. son Nicholas Scratch happened when he. was a boy old enough to realize what was. going on and to say the words mama stop. And we should also note that melodically. darkest hour wake thy power is kind of a. shorter transitional part of the song. lyric where all the other episode titles. so far have required longer breaths to. even sing. So, in a way, it also kind of. prepares us for a much shorter episode, but I must say in these 25 minutes, it's. still quite rich with detail. Like, I.

don't think there's any filler and. there's a lot to talk about. So, we open. on the witch's road looking far more. morbid than usual. Whereas in past. episodes, the witch's road seemed. unaffected by any weather elements. Now, notice a creepy breeze blows through and. rustles the leaves, which could be a. clue that some door was left open to. allow the Salem 7 to enter. Often in. scary moments in film and TV, a flapping. curtain or a suddenly flickering candle. is just kind of a way to indicate. someone is now in the house. [music] And. you can see the leafless patch in the. shape of a body on the path. So this is.

the same part of the road from last. episode where they conducted the. invocation to summon a new green witch. And it's from that new hole in the dirt. nearby that Rio Vidal crawled out of. that the members of the Salem 7 emerged. from as well. This is the door that was. left open. And now we must wonder, did. Rio leave that door open on purpose for. the Salem 7 to follow? Did she. intentionally leave that chunk of. obsidian right there so that they would. know how to follow the trail? You'll. just have to notice that throughout this. episode, Rio never seems that afraid of. them when they're approaching, almost.

like they would be unable to kill her. The verse to crawl out is the fox. That's a member of the Salem 7, played. by Athena Peemple. The fox has its mouth. open, which could be the flemen response. where animals will sniff the air often. with their mouth open when they're. looking for prey. Then the crow, that's. Bethany Curry's member of the seven. Then the snake, Marina Mazipa's. character. Now the others of the team. include the rat, that's Britta Grant's. character, the coyote, Chiao Noomova's. character, the owl, Alicia Bailey's. character, and the leader of this group, Bertigo, the cicada, played by Oki.

Oakpokei. I'm sorry if I mispronounced. that. So, the Salem 7 is confirmed in. this episode to be the daughters of the. Salemite witches whom Agatha killed in. 1693 showed in the flashback in Wavision. episode 8. In the comics, Salem's seven. refer to a group of anim animalistic. super villains formed by their father. Nicholas Scratch, the son of Agatha. Harkness from New Salem, Colorado in. Fantastic 4 number 186 in 1977. In this. comic, Vertigo is really the eldest of. the group and their leader who becomes. high priestess of New Salem. And you'll. notice that the Salem 7 are adorned with.

extended headpieces that make them look. almost extraterrestrial, but really. function in tandem with the actor's. movement, so that when they jerk their. heads, the back parts of their. headpieces jerk around their whole. silhouettes, and they wear these. interesting lace masks. But otherwise, the dresses that they're wearing seem. straight out of the 1693 Salem era. And. the fact that they are just so anim. animalistic in their movement imply that. they have just been so driven by rage. for the past 300 something years that. they've never been able to just evolve. properly. As these hands wrap around the. tree trunk, we hear the seven whisper.

>> And then they continue to whisper. >> Find. them. >> The women say find them because as we. learned back in episode 3, a burden. carried by one witch is carried by all. >> Is that because coven share blessings. and burdens alike? On the road, they. find a piece of obsidian, which is what. Lilia Calderoo placed on the ground. during the Green Witch invocation in. episode 4 when she requested that the. Green Witch be strong and wise and be. best at her craft. Obsidian is a.

volcanic glass that in many cultures is. believed to have healing properties. At. least that's what the tour guide told me. on the bus ride from Cancun to. Chinchinita. And really, I just ended up. with worse back pain after lugging 10. extra pounds of rocks on the flight. home. Yuck, yuck. But for Lilia, this. piece of obsidian has some divination. power in the moonlight. Notice it even. seems to shimmer as if it is moving, like it's actively warning Lilia to wake. up. Now, a goofy little detail here. While the coven sleeps, Jen has. fashioned a sleeping mask to block out. the moonlight using a few wide leaves. I.

love her character. In episode 4, Jen. said that in addition to being a midwife. who was screwed over by some Boston area. obstitricians, she was an 11th. generation root worker. The screener I. saw when I was writing that episode did. not have captions, so that I couldn't. really make out what the actress sash. was saying. But thanks to it's Johnny. Utah on Twitter and Lisa Tennial on. YouTube for clarifying that a root. worker refers to a hoodoo tradition of. spiritual practices and conjuring and. botanical knowledge stemming back to. central Africa and it made its way to. the Americas from the transatlantic.

slave trade. And Jen says 11th. generation which would mean that she. would have to trace her lineage of this. tradition back to over 300 years before. the United States was even founded as a. country potentially to an ancestor from. central Africa. and root working for her. and her family was just a proud family. pastime passed down from mother to. daughter to mother to daughter. maintained by the women of this family. throughout everything that they endured. in history. Lilia and Jen recall the. Salem 7's origins from Agatha's coven. and Rio defends Agatha. >> because her own mother tried to have her.

executed. Are you really defending a. noted serial killer? You creepy lurker. >> So, you'll notice Rio's attitude toward. Agatha seems to shift line by line in. this episode. While she seems mostly. antagonistic, she also defends Agata's. actions when it comes to taking lives. Rio might defend a lot of serial killers. because last episode hinted strongly, and this episode doubles down on it. So, I'm not afraid to speculate at this. point that she is actually Lady Death or. Mistress Death, the embodiment of the. concept of death in Marvel comics. Evidence includes Rio's hooded black. costume. The fact that the tarot card.

for death in this show carries Rio's. black heart in one hand and her curved. dagger in the other. Rio saying that she. wanted to take lives in episode 4. And. Agatha begging Rio in episode 4 to spare. the teen when he was fatally wounded. And then the spectral form of death. appearing behind Lilia Calderoo's. childhood maestra in episode 3. And that. form matching the statue of mistress. death that appeared in the chamber of. cosmic entities in Thor Love and. Thunder, a chamber that also included. the living tribunal, the watcher, the. celestial one above all, death, eon, and.

infinity, who is a sibling to eternity, who presided over this chamber, and then. actually resided in the watery chamber. beyond. So, it would seem that Agatha's. relationship with Rio is really just a. romantic expression of flirting with. death. Death is depicted as a romantic. figure in the Marvel comics. The object. of Thanos's affection when he snapped. half of all the universe out of. existence in the Infinity Gauntlet. storyline that inspired the Infinity War. Endgame events. >> To challenge them is to court death. >> And of course, death was at one point a.

uh partner to Deadpool. So you can. imagine Aubrey Plaza having a lot of fun. with that arc of the character in future. Doomsday or Secret Wars events. And. remember towards the end of episode 4 at. the campfire, Agatha walks up with the. orange flower in her hand that she and. Rio had exchanged throughout the. episode, the one that Rio was wearing in. her hair, suggesting that Agatha and Rio. might have before that moment been doing. something offscreen. So, while they did. not end episode 4 with any kind of kiss, maybe they were just, you know, [music]. spent. Lilia says Agatha spared the.

children of the Saleommites. Agatha says. that she should have finished what she. started and that mercy is overrated. But. let's sit with that for a second because. Agoda back in 1693 set a rule when it. came to killing kids. To me, that would. suggest that the trial in 1693 happened. after she sacrificed her son Nicholas. Scratch to get the Darkhold. She spared. the Salemite's daughters out of guilt. after what she did to her son. And if. that's true, it would mean that Evan. Nora did put Agatha on trial for. sacrificing Nicholas Scratch for the. Darkhold. And that Agiva in 1693 did.

have the Darkhold in her possession at. that point. And that she has had it for. all of this time. And it was the. Nicholas Scratch Darkhold trade that. Agatha was referring to when she said. this when she was on trial. >> I did not break your rules. They simply. bent to my power. >> So Teen proposes a hex investin which is. a German term translating to witch's. broom. Why German? Well, Germans just. have a lot of cool words for things that. we just don't have words for in English. like shod and frea happiness at the. misfortune of others or shang a. cognitive worldview for philosophy. Yes, I chose two examples from songs in.

Broadway musicals. shot and Friday and. Avenue Q and Velton Shaolin as the. winning word in 25th annual Putnham. County Spelling Bee. And I do this in. honor of Patty Leone and the Lopezes who. actually did the music and lyrics for. Avenue Q. When teen suggests brooms, the. witches all talk over each other. Most. hate the idea, but Rio right off the bat. says yes. >> What about a hex? >> Brooms. >> Horrible idea. >> Oh, that's a terrible idea. >> Yes. >> So, they rip up these exposed roots to. use as broomsticks. And Lilia explains. that brooms have been co-opted by the. holiday industrial complex as an absurd.

emblem of witch culture and that they're. an obvious symbol of female domesticity. Basically, she's calling out spirit. Halloween and the fact that historically. witch trials have been a form of. institutionalized misogyny. Each of the. witches fashion their broomsticks with. different flora, some with basic twigs. and vines like Jen, some with more. greenery and flowers like Lilia. They. circle each other and chant in Latin. >> According to our Twitter Latin expert, Mad Latinist, this translates to for you. beloved, I open the way. And this.

account points out that delecta comes. from diligo, which means to love or to. esteem, which would work both for. friends and for lovers. This count also. points out that when Alice says it, the. masculine should be pro delect periovm, but it seems like Alice doesn't change. the incantation for teen. And I just. really love this idea that, you know, part of witchcraft requires cooperation, strengthen numbers, the power of many, you might say. And on the break room, Zach compared it to like Japanese tea. sharing that you pour tea for the person. you're spending time with as a way to.

show that you trust each other. Agatha. explains that the broomsticks must be. given to each other as a sign of. selflessness, and Lilia and Jen pair up. Aka and Rio pair up, but notice they. don't appear to go through the Latin. chant. But that leaves Alice and Teen to. pair up, which is really nice because in. episode three, they share that moment on. the couch where Teen started happening. for both of them when they were around. the age of 13. But then the owl of the. Salem 7 flaps up and if you look. closely, it has red eyes. It pounces on. Teen and Protection Witch Alice swings. for the fences. So they mount the Hex. and Besson. Rio brings up the rear,

sitting on her side saddle, screaming, "Woo!" Lilia shouts back to Teen, "Oh. god! Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh. god. >> Try praying to the divine mother. Get. up. >> Okay, so the divine mother could refer. to a few different people. There's Gaya, aka Mother Earth in the Marvel comics, which is derived from Gaia, the name for. the earth goddess in Wikah. But Gaya is. just kind of a godly figure that has. appeared in certain Doctor Strange. comics that just kind of represents. Earth in its kind of natural form. But. another divine mother could be Hekate or.

Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft, who was the sought-after figure in. Santorini and James Robinson's Scarlet. Witch run in 2016 that actually. introduced the concept of the witch's. road. But who are we kidding? The divine. mother has to be the Scarlet Witch. Want. to max him off, right? Especially with. what Agatha tells Teen at the end of the. episode. And notice that right after. Lilia brings up the divine mother, Agava. at the top of the pack turns around and. reacts. She hears this. Obviously, Agatha has the most history out of any. of these with the Scarlet Witch, except. for maybe Teen, which we'll talk about. later. But she hates the idea that. anyone would pray to the Scarlet Witch.

the way Sharon seemed to have done in. episode 3 when she asked to save her. husband, Mr. Davis. >> Wanda. Wanda, I'm begging you. Let him breathe, please. >> So, they fly up above the witch's road. across the blood moon, and it's just an. incredible visual. Their silhouettes. frame against the moon and the music. soarses and we cut to each of their. gleeful reactions. It's all taken. directly from Steven Spielberg's iconic. shots and ET the extraterrestrial which. let's not forget is a Halloween movie. even though I watch it every summer for.

whatever reason. Lilia says that she. hasn't done this in centuries. Maybe out. of her progressive aversion to the. witch's broom stereotype. Or that could. have just been the last time she had a. coven to share broomsticks with because. you know we saw her maestra. They all. died like 300 years ago. Now, there is. this moment where Agatha looks over at. Rio uncertainly, and we hear this sound. under the music. [music]. Yeah. Notice there's a distinct. distorted scream of a child buried in. the mix there. Like maybe it's a scream. of Nicholas Scratch, which could be.

something Agatha hears every time she. looks at Rio. The road pulls them back. down and they all scream, but Rio emits. this unhinched cackle, which is very. Wicked Witch of the West. [laughter]. If she is death, it would make sense. that she would be the least afraid of. dying in this moment. They're back on. the road and they fly right at Vertigo, who hovers above the ground and spews. cicas. Now remember, it was a cicada. that Wanda Maximoff found on the curtain. in Agatha's house in Wavision episode 7. A cicada that Agatha in episode 8.

bewitched and fed to Senor Scratchy. There are two subspecies of cicas. One. with a 17-year life cycle, one with a. 13-year life cycle. And in the past. year, those two groups actually. converged. in many states in the Midwest. to the absolute horror of her friends in. Missouri. But in the case of Vertigo, I. just love this idea that she's this. dormant but perpetually resurrecting. force of nature. Her release to the. cicas also reminds us of the way. Candyman would spew bees from his mouth. Very creepy and gross. They find a. literal cabin in the woods for their. next trial. And like the past two. trials, this setting is not one specific. movie, but more of a vibe amalgamation.

of several different influences. Like. the cabin setting, recall Sam Ramy's. Evil Dead and Drew Goddard's 2012 meta. deconstruction of that trope, Cabin in. the Woods. the fact that it's an 80s. time period. Even something like an 80s. summer camp horror vibe recalls Friday. the 13th and Sleepaway Camp. The 80s. costumes also recall Poltergeist and. Nightmare on Elm Street. And with. Agatha's possession later, definitely. some vibes of The Exorcist and. Hereditary. We're going to point out all. the specific details referencing these. films, but yeah, this is largely a. Stranger Things approach to 80s horror, but with a Ouija board instead of D and.

D. When they first run in, we can see. throughout the cabin troll dolls with. Barbie doll legs sticking up, walkie-talkies, a broom leaning against. the left of the door, and above the. door. Later on, we see our school. penants for West View and East View. Just a reminder that in the Agnes of. East View opening credits, there was a. high school football scoreboard showing. a game between Westview and East View. So, I think we're going to explore East. View at some point. There's a stained. glass window showing the cycles of the. moon, and this trial emphasizes the. blood moon. The Coven tire has been. updated to reflect that '8s horror. aesthetic. They're all wearing 80s. digital wrist watches like the egg timer.

and the metronome. This is the countdown. device of this trial. This brand is. G-Shock, which was a popular brand in. the 80s for kids. Agatha's brooch amulet. has moved to a bracelet over her. wristwatch. She wears a purple sport. jersey as a pajama night shirt, like no. pants, I don't think, which is similar. to Dian's jersey in Poltergeist, but. instead of number 65, it is number. three, white on purple, which I think is. meant to represent the triple goddess. made in Mother Chrome. Teen, meanwhile, wears a long sleeve sport tea, red. sleeves with a blue headband, which are. the colors of Wiccan's comic book.

appearance. Now, remember the Halloween. costume that Billy Maximoff wore in. Wavision episode 6 used the same. approach with the blue headband. And. we're going to talk about the connection. between those two forms of Billy later. I'll say that teen look also gives off. Johnny Depp in a nightmare on Elm. Street. And since this is a camp cabin, kind of Kevin Bacon in Friday the 13th. and if that was the inspiration, I just. love the implication that Joe Lock could. become a future A-lister who really got. his start as a teenager in a horror. title like this. Rio Vidal wears a camp. shirt that seems to be a reference to. the Camp Crystal Lake counselor shirt. with the red trim, but the logo on the.

breast pocket is just two green leaves, which I think is a reference to her. being the green witch. Rio throughout. this episode still has her curved. dagger, but it's the handle to her. hairbrush, which she often wields as a. microphone like teenage girls will do in. a lot of these movies. But another. moment, she just brandishes the blade. end around threateningly. Jennifer Kale. wears pink pajamas. Printed on the. breast pocket is an icon of her amulet, the potion bottle. Her pink pajamas. remind me of Carolanne from Poltergeist. Alice's amulet that was previously worn. in her necklace now appears as a hair. clip. Her teal athletic top draped over.

one shoulder in the iconic '8s workout. style. It has some X's embroidered on. it. And I don't know if this connected, but Martin Scorsese's The Departed. characters who were doomed to die are. marked with X shapes in the frame with. them throughout the film. And then as we. continue to look around the cabin, we. see there's a tire swing with a knit. blanket over it. The8s TV set is covered. in static, which is another reference to. the iconic shots of Poltergeist. The. sofa in the room has a plaid print. design and a knit blanket draped over. it, which many are pointing out looks. like the couch from Roseanne. And. forgive me for getting crazy here, but. there are some concentric hula hoops.

hanging behind Jenn in the background. Outside in, we go yellow, then purple, then pink, then blue, which I don't. know, maybe that's like Alice, then. Agatha, then Lilia, then Billy the teen. I don't know if there's anything to. that. Agabet tells them that they must. continue with the trial before the Salem. 7 can breach and continues to wrestle. her hair looking for any clingy cicas. Makes me think that if one cicada is on. you, vertigo could like manifest. But. then noticed how teen realizes he lost. his spell book, the Moleskin notebook he. had attached to his hip before. So I. went back through every shot of Billy on. the broomstick in the first part of this. episode, including their tumble back on.

the road. And you never see the spell. book separate from him. And honestly, it. shouldn't have because we looked at the. costume designs and this is attached via. a strap and a chain to his thigh. So. much so that Joe Lock has described it. as uncomfortably snug. So I think that. Agatha snatched it from him at some. point and that's why she briskly moves. on from the conversation here. On the. break room, Brandon said that Teen. Spellbug could become the new Darkhold. of the show. But I think that's why. Agatha wants it. While Agatha is almost. always in front of him during the chase. scene, he does pass her in the doorway.

right as their costumes all change. And. in that transition, Agatha could have. lifted the book off him without him. noticing. I don't know, maybe she's. hiding the book in that fluffy hair and. that's why she's wrestling it. Alice. suggests that they have to play Kiss. Mary Kill, which I love because this is. Disney Plus and they can't say Mary. kill. As they search the cabin for clues. for the next trial, we hear this creepy. synth keyboard music. It's kind of like. the score for Nightmare on Elm Street. Rio says that it's Agatha's trial. And. Lilia seems to affirm that by pointing. out that it's a blood moon when the veil. between the living and the dead is at. its thinnest. So, a blood moon happens.

when Earth's moon is in total lunar. eclipse, which means Earth is directly. between the sun and the moon. And. Earth's atmosphere causes the light. bending around this planet to cast a. reddish hue on the moon. A total lunar. eclipse or a blood moon happens about. once every 2.5 years, and I think the. next one is coming in March 2025. Lilia. says that she cannot communicate with. the dead. >> I read people, I read time, but talking. to spirits was just a con. So, we have. been keeping track of all of Lilia's. nonsequittor outbursts throughout the. season, and this episode might be the.

one that finally connects the dots. Captain Cupcakes on Twitter via Air. Chronicles on Tik Tok realized that in. episode 4, Lilia says, "Alice, don't.". And back in episode 3, Lilia says, "Try. to save Agatha." And when you go back in. time and put those together, you get. this. >> Alice, don't try to save Agatha. >> Alice, don't try to save Agatha. It's a. message of warning to protector blood. witch Alice to not try to save Agatha. because as we'll see in this episode, using her power that way will allow. Agatha to steal Alice's power and kill.

her. Rio says, >> "And who better to commune with the dead. than someone who's put so many in the. grave.". >> Now, Rio seems impressed by Agatha's. body count, but if she's deaf, she would. have put billions of humans on this. planet in the grave. So, a Ouija board. flies out from the stack from under. Challenge the Zodiac and Pente and above. Clue and Sweet Valley High. I love that. it's clearly a practical effect caused. by like a spring or an air jet. In. close-ups of the board, we see that it's. a vintage version from William Bold, who. is this original game's developer, and. it says Parker Brothers Salem,

Massachusetts. And I think it's an. interesting detail. It is where the. company was located in real life. Behind. Teen is a poster for Point Reyes, a. location in John Carpenters's horror. film, The Fog. And based on this poster. and the other poster that we see in this. cabin, a Redwood National Park poster, I. think this cabin is supposed to be set. like in California. Teen opens up the. Ouija board and reads the directions. And notice that in this trial and both. of the previous ones, it is always Teen. who finds the clues for whatever the. trial is. It could be that he's the. youngest, most eager to make this trip. down the road, or there could be.

something more to it. I just wanted to. point it out. Lilia notices the back of. the directions and Teen says it's for. ages three and up. And this has to be. important, right? Like, I don't know if. it was when this vintage board was made, but Ouija boards are commonly known for. being ages eight and up. You don't want. a four-year-old talking to spirits. So, I think the age being three and up is. not only another example of the power. three made in Mother Cone, but I think. it's also a reference to the age. Nicholas Scratch was when he died. Episode 3 made it seem like he was a. baby, but this episode reveals his voice.

crying, "Mama, stop." And it sounds like. it's a boy around the age of three. >> Mama, stop. >> They all place their hands on the. planchette and it glides over the. letters. M R S H A R T. >> Yep. On the reaction, like many of you, I read this as Mr. Shart. And uh I hate. to bring this up when it comes to Sharon. Davis, but you know, when someone dies, one of the first things the body does is. release the bowels. But, you know, I. don't think that would technically be a. shark. Is a shark by definition is.

flatulence. You think is dry gas, but. then surprises you with something more. And that's not what a corpse is doing. A. corpse isn't like trying to fart and. going, "Oh no." But if Mr. Hart, aka Mr. Davis, died from a heart attack, uh, Shart might have been the first warning. sign of that heart attack. I'm sorry for. spending so much time on this. Let's. move on. But we should have known from. this moment that only Agatha would call. Sharon Davis Mrs. Hart. And so, this is. obviously a very, very funny prank by. Agatha. And Katherine Han does a solid. at Deborah Joe Rup, >> bringing chills and thrills and bringing.

on my own early demise. And right away we see how Agatha is. breaking the rule by taunting the dead. The next word the planchhat spells is. >> D E A T H. Death. [laughter]. >> That laugh is another clue that Rio must. be Mistress Death. And it might be her. moving the planchet at this point. It. spells out what death wants. Punish. Agatha. And it looks like Aubrey Plaza's. arms are tensing the most to actually.

move the planchette. And in this wide. shot, as the lights flicker, you can see. her smiling while the rest are panicked. and notice that death doesn't want to. kill Agatha. She just wants to punish. Agatha and torture Agatha. Then the. planchet spins by itself and the board. flies off the table as the room fills. with disembodied shrieks. And again, keep your eye on Rio for all this. She's. always completely enjoying the moment. Over the screaming, Lilia shouts, >> "I hated this the first time. >> Lily is being weird again.". >> I'm assuming this is a call back to. episode 2 when Agatha and Teen were. first meeting Lilia in her kitchen and.

she turned and screamed and covered her. ears in a similar way. That moment was. her flashing forward to this moment. And. when Jen turns on Agatha to punish her. for her crimes, Rio again can be seen in. the background, reveling in the coven. turning on Agatha to humiliate her. She. does this weird kind of like, uh-oh, what she going to do? Teen tries to. defend Agatha. But. >> familiars don't get a vote. >> Oo, the ice that Teen gives Jen when she. calls him a familiar is similar to when. Agatha letter says, "Come, pet." And. that seems to be the final straw that. elicits the reaction we get from him. He.

does not like being called an animal. The lights go out and Agatha has. disappeared and something drips on. Teen's shoulder. Probably Agatha spit. and he looks up to see Agatha possessed. crouched against the ceiling. We've seen. this kind of imagery in Hereditary when. Tony Colette was kind of crouched. against the ceiling, you know, like and. the face makeup is obviously a nod to. The Exorcist along with a contortion and. the spiderw walk in this distorted deep. voice. [screaming]. Lilia flips on the lights and Agatha. disappears again and there's an insert. of this robot toy marching around which.

is also a reference to a shot in. Poltergeist when some supernatural. shit's happening. Next, they see a white. glowing vapor floating down the stairs. which looks a lot like the iconic ILM. visual effects from the 80s. The ghost. in Poltergeist when it comes down the. stairs and what first appears inside the. Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the. Lost Arc, a white wispy vapor that turns. into a horrifying woman. This vapor. takes the form of Ebanora Harkness, Agatha's mother, Kate Forbes returning. from Wavision episode 8. Rio says, >> "I hate ghosts.". >> Another mistress death clue, I think, because death would hate ghosts because.

these souls refuse to let go and to move. on into the afterlife. Evanora says that. her unfinished business requires them to. finish the witch's road without Agatha. to punish her in that way and to leave. Agatha with her mother, but Rio SAYS, >> "NO, NO WAY. A MINUTE AGO, you were. ready to slit her throat.". >> Yeah, well, her mother can't have her. Notice how Evanora sneers at Rio. And. there's a particular antagonism between. the two, which becomes even more. interesting when Evanora says this. >> You were born evil. I ought to have. killed you the moment you left my body. >> Yikes. Even all the other people in the.

room. Just take a moment to see how mean. that is to say. So, here's what I think. happened. And I go more into this in the. upcoming episode of the sneak peek on. Sunday, but I think Evanora and her. daughter Agatha were part of the. Saleomite Coven in 1693 Massachusetts. And they established a pretty. wellorganized matriarchal society that. had their own way of handling their. problems. But Agatha as like a younger. girl wanted the Darkhold for herself. Maybe to revolutionize society so that. witches don't have to live in the. shadows, but could like seek vengeance. against the men who exiled and tortured. them. And to do so, she would need the.

Darkhold to become, she thinks, let's. prophecy in the Darkhold, the Scarlet. Witch, and learn magic above her. station. So she makes a deal to get the. Darkhold in exchange for her son, Nicholas Scratch. But she can't bring. herself to do it. So she turns to. mistress death to do it for her. This. could be why the sailmites called Agatha. a freak of nature. Mor's monstro notai. Mistress death could resent Agatha's. mother, Evanora, for punishing her. daughter just for having this rebellious. relationship with death. And perhaps it. was death who gave Agatha the power to. absorb witch's powers when they try to. blast her. That's at least my theory. after this week. But Jen realizes.

there's no flood or fire here. >> The only danger to us in this trial is. Agatha Harkness. >> Yeah, she's not wrong. On the break. room, we speculated that this might not. even be Agatha's trial at the end of the. day. but really a trial that ultimately. serves her familiar teen who truly is. the one who communes and connects with. the ghost Nicholas Scratch and walks. away with new abilities. When the. witches try to leave, Agatha shouts, >> "I can be good. Please." [music]. >> This is what Agatha pleaded to the. Salemmites when she was on trial in. 1693. >> Please, I can be good. No, you cannot.

>> And Alice steps in to save Agatha, blasting Evanor's ghost out of her. And. Lilia says, >> "Night of wands.". So, the Knight of Wands is one of the. tarot cards we've not yet discussed. It. represents decisive action and. determination, often associated with. fire, but we'll see if Lily is shouting. this will have any additional context in. a future episode because trailer footage. in that castle location where they're. all wearing Wizard of Oz cosplay with. the swords that fall down on that table. that they're facing are tarot cards. And. I think her trial is going to revolve. around tarot card reading. But after.

Evanora exits her body, Agatha cannot. help herself and reaches forward. This. is not an accident. She chooses to do. this to actively change the sorcery from. orange to purple just as she did with. the Saleommites and drains poor Alice's. life force. But Teen notices the Ouija. board planet shifting around and asks, "Who are you?" And the answer is this. >> And I c H O L A S S R A T C H. >> Nicholas Scratch. >> Yes, a bit of Joe Lock's English accent.

crept in there, but some big takeaways. here. The fact that Agatha could hear. him say Nicholas Scratch tells her that. Nicholas Scratch was not the name Teen. was saying under the sigil. That's how. she knows that he's not Nicholas. Scratch, so he must be Wanda's son. And. then there is something that happens. after, and this got me emotional when I. watched it. >> Mama, stop. >> Wa. So, I know you might be able to. interpret this moment as maybe the ghost. of Agatha's son, Nicholas Scratch, possibly sneaking into Agatha's body. after Evanora leaves and that it was.

maybe Nicholas Scratch draining Alice, not Agatha doing it. But I don't think. that's what happened there. I think she. was just hearing her son, hearing the. ghost of young Nicholas watching this. happen and frantically trying to reach. out to Teen through the board to try to. get his mother to stop hurting people. And just his name would be enough to get. Agatha to come to her senses. But the. fact that the voice comes through as. words, "Mama, stop." Tells us that. Nicholas was not a baby when Agatha. sacrificed him, but a boy ages three or. older, one capable of understanding on.

some level what his mother was doing to. him. And that is pretty heartbreaking. And the way this boy's voice echoes from. beyond, recalls the way Wanda heard. Billy and Tommy's voices calling to her. in the Wanda Vision postredit scene. [screaming]. >> So teen sobs over Alice's corpse. This. was the witch she bonded with the most. on the road and the witch who actually. overcame generational trauma from her. mother. Something Agatha fails to do. with her mother, Evanora. Agatha tries. to explain. I didn't. Sounds like she.

was going to try to say, "I didn't mean. to. We talked about this on the break. room, but I feel like Agatha doing this. when she gets blasted at this point is a. reflex from a decision in the past to. gain this ability long ago. Being bad is. just such muscle memory that she cannot. really be good." She later says, >> "I couldn't I could control it." Yes, you could have. >> It's just kind of an interesting. question. If you can't control an entire. lifetime of being this way, but you kind. of feel guilt about it, is that alone. enough to make you a good person? So, a. hatch opens to exit this cabin and Rio.

watches Agatha go curiously. But then. Rio looks down at Alice, and this is the. last time we see Rio in this episode. She doesn't follow them back up to the. road. I think as Mistress Death, she. might have stayed behind to fy Alice's. soul into the afterlife. Outside on the. road, it now glows yellow. The road, the. roots, even the sky have kind of a olive. green color. And Agatha ignites some of. Rio's orange sorcery in her palm, but. snuffs it out. Lilia says, >> "Death comes for us all.". >> And Agatha's reaction to this line. suggests that she's wondering where. exactly death, aka Rio, is in this.

moment. Billy says that killing people. to serve one's own agenda is not for. him. And now, in an episode that is. clipped along at an insane pace, we slow. down and we turn the camera from teen to. Agatha, and she leans in and whispers in. the creepiest voice, >> "Are you sure?" I don't know how we. could interpret this as any other way. than Agava just owning her role as the. villain of this series and Teen stepping. forward as the hero opposing her. I. think even the camera movement and the. fact that this is coming at the end of. episode 5, the midpoint of this run.

makes this a literal turning point, reestablishing the new trajectory of the. series. But also, I think this is meant. to show Teen's perspective as he sees. Agatha as a true monster. It's kind of. meant to justify his coming Night of. Wands action. Kind of like the shot of. Scott Farcus in a Christmas story as he. was just taunting Ralphie going, "Why. are you going to cry, little baby? Come. on, cry for me." And then Agatha says. it. >> You're so much like your mother.

>> At this point, Agatha must be referring. to Wanda Maximoff. Even if we learn that. teen is Billy Kaplan and he's born to. Rebecca Kaplan with no genealogical. connection to Wanda Maxmov, Agatha sees. in him a connection to the Scarlet. Witch. So Billy Kaplan, Wickan's origins. in the Marvel comics are pretty. complicated. Wikcan was introduced as. Billy Kaplan in the Young Avengers. comics, the son of Rebecca Kaplan and. Jeff Kaplan, but he was established to. be really kind of like a reincarnated. soul of one of Wanda's children from the.

events of House of M, the reality warps. Before that, in the 80s, the twins in. the West Coast Avengers comics who were. later revealed to be fragments of. Mefesto's soul. Wikcin really is just. understood to share that cosmic link. with Wana Maximoff and that's why he has. the powers of witchcraft. He is kind of. in a sense her son, but involves like, you know, Meto the multiverse. Reed. Richards getting in there and splitting. up Meto's soul. It's just kind of a. mess. So, I think the MCU is now trying. to simplify that backstory by. establishing that Billy could just be. some piece of Wanda's soul when she was.

crushed at the end of Multiverse of. Madness. And that piece of her soul. respawned in the body of the closest. thing to her son Billy that existed in. the 616 universe, Billy Kaplan of East. View. either when he was like still a. fetus or an infant or maybe when as a. young teenager around the age of 13, he. nearly died in that near death that's. reported in the headline under Joe. Lock's name in the credits. Now, how. would this connect to the sigil? Well, Jack Schaefer said that the sigil's. design was meant to look handwritten and. rushed and amateur even. Sans serif was.

the term she used. And I think Wanda. might have placed this sigil on the boy. to keep him safe from Agatha. I think we. have to now let go of the theory that. Nicholas Scratch could be in the body of. Teen. I think Nicholas Scratch is a. whole separate entity from Billy Kaplan. But Billy Kaplan might just remind. Agatha Nicholas Scratch. But then Rio. ended that when she told Agatha, "That. boy is not yours." And now perhaps teen. shouting Nicholas Scratch kind of broke. the sigil so that Agatha is now able to. see him as he is with his cosmic link to.

her old foe, the Scarlet Witch, his. divine mother. And if there's any doubt. that Agatha is referring to Wanda. Maximoff in this moment, listen to the. music as she flicks her two fingers off. his chin. [music]. Oh my god. This is the theme of Kristoff. Beck's Wision closing credits music that. played at the end of every episode. Just being creeped out at the end of. every episode of Wision made this seared. into my memory. And by using the Wanda. Vision theme music, they want us to see.

Teen as a Scarlet Witch's heir, someone. empowered with Wanda's spirit, the OP to. Agatha. Teen's fingers ignite with blue. sorcery. The same kind of gestures that. Wanda Maximoff would do when she was. getting real serious in facing Agatha. Lilia and Jen grab Agatha and their eyes. glow blue because he is controlling. their bodies. Two powerful witches. That's impressive. They throw Agatha in. the mud and she sinks in, releasing one. final air bubble. And the teen throws. Jen and Lilia in the mud too and they. sink. Now, why does Teen use Jen and.

Lilia to throw Agatha? Well, think about. it. He knows if he uses his magic on. Agatha directly, Agatha will be able to. absorb it. Now, I do not think that Teen. knew that he had these abilities the. entire time or that he's been like. deceptively hiding these from the. others. I don't think we've been seeing. that many layers in Joel's performance. I think he's been pretty authentic. I. think this was part of himself that was. hidden to himself and not until his. successful completion of the trial. connecting with Nicholas Scratch and. most importantly Agatha confirming to. him that the Scarlet Witch is his divine.

mother was he able to activate these. powers. We end the episode with Teen now. wearing a blue crown. It has two points. on the brow which are quite similar to. the shape of the crown of the Scarlet. Witch. Costume designer Daniel Salon. posted on Instagram this description of. it. This crown was a result of a. beautiful and exciting collaboration. between propmaster Russell Bobett and my. team. We pulled inspiration from the. concentric lines in Damascus steel and. also ripples in the surface of water. With a beautiful blue chrome ombre paint. treatment, we finally arrived at this.

powerful crown. You'll just have to wait. and see what else is revealed as his. full identity is revealed in future. episodes. Damascus steel, a process of. combining two alloys into one metal. object like a dagger, like Rio's dagger, and ripples of water. recalling Jen's. trial based on water. Together, we kind. of have the two biggest threats to. Agatha that she has seen this season. So, this is not spoken aloud, but this. is a pretty unambiguous coronation of. teen as Wiccan, the Marvel hero, member. of the Young Avengers, who is of course. depicted in the Marvel comics as having. a blue crown. We should also note that.

in the tarot cards for the series, the. tower is depicted with a blue crown at. the top as lightning strikes the top of. it, causing a fire and multiple blackd. witches falling to their deaths. Could. this be a clue that Teen will brutally. kill the Salem 7? Over this final shot, we hear Billy Eyish's You Should See Me. in a Crown. >> You should see me in a crown. >> Using Billy to introduce Billy. We see. what you did there. This song has been. featured in a lot of shows like in. Marvel's Runaways, Only Murders in the. Building, in Euphoria, but you know, you. have to use it here. It's so perfect.

So, we have to ask, by submerging Lilia. and Jen in the mud, does that mean Billy. Teen is taking an evil, selfish turn. here? On break room, Jessica theorized. that he's just kind of moving everyone. to the next part of the witch's road and. that maybe that road just leads through. the mud. Trailer footage does show. Agatha looking muddy in some of these. shots. So, she is going to crawl her way. out of that mud at some point, but we. should remember that Wanda Maximoff also. had a habit of controlling people and. just flinging their bodies out of sight. when she just couldn't deal with them. anymore. This is a breakdown of Agatha. Allong episode 6, Familiar by Thy Side. Pitch your tent campers because the.

boner is back. Evan Peters returns as. the mystery cameo of the series in a. completely unhinged scene of a. heartbreaking Billy Maximoff William. Kaplan origin story. This episode is. titled Familiar by Thy Side. The. familiar of the coven normally being. Billy, the teen at Agatha's side the. whole time. But now we learn that the. familiar face he longs to have back at. his side is that of his brother Tommy. This lyric comes from the second verse. of the ballot of the witch's road. Primal night giveth sight familiar by. thy side. If one be gone, we carry on.

spirit as our guide. In past episodes, I. assumed this part of the song referred. to the losses that we've incurred along. the road, Sharon, Alice. But now, Agatha, whom the showrunner Jack. Schaefer, identified as the spirit witch. of this coven, is really now the spirit. as our guide. I'm wondering if the one. begone could refer to either William. Kaplan being gone or just Tommy being. missing. And now Agatha is just kind of. Billy's unidal spirit as his guide. We. open this episode on William Kaplan.

preparing for his bar mitzvah. He. tightens a blue necktie. Not just the. color associated with Wiccan, of course, but blue and white are the colors. associated with Judaism. In the Young. Avengers comics, while Billy Kaplan's. moniker is Wickcan, he does not practice. Wikah in the way that real world Wiccans. do. He was raised with a reformed Jewish. upbringing to parents Jeff Kaplan and. Rebecca Kaplan. William opens this. cabinet to the Torah scrolls that are. wrapped in this velvet cover. But the. doors of this cabinet form a tree with a. light from behind at the top, which I. assume in this context is some religious.

ornamentation, but in the context of. William/Billy's future, it reflects the. trees of the witch's road. The same can. be said for the table decorations at its. reception later, but we'll get to those. We see these programs read East View. Synagogue celebrate the magic mitzvah of. William Kaplan. Later, we'll see in. William's bedroom Houdini posters. So, I. assume that William just had an interest. in slight of hand magic as a kind of. hobby, but of course also foreshadows. Wiccan's magic abilities and might even. led to them. Joe Lock with an incredible.

singing voice recites a traditional sung. blessing, translating roughly as, "Praise the one to whom our praise is. due. Praise be the one to whom our. praise is due now and forever. We praise. you, eternal God, sovereign of the. universe. You have called us to your. service by giving us the Torah. We. praise you, oh God, giver of the Torah. Now, the Torah comprises the first five. books of the Hebrew Bible. And it is. unrolled here. And Billy reads this. passage. And this is actually Leviticus. 10:1 and 10:2. And they made an offering. before the Lord of a strange fire which.

he had not commanded them. And a fire. came out from before the Lord. And he. trails off from here. But this is the. story of Nadav and Abihu, sons of Aaron. Nadav and Ahu were burned to death by. the Lord. Aaron was supposed to be. burning incense, but his sons lit the. incense with what's called a strange. fire. And they made really three errors. here. Lighting the incense was supposed. to be a priestly duty. It was supposed. to be done by one person and not two. And they used a strange fire or a. foreign fire, not the Lord's fire. Now, there are many interpretations of this. passage, but some see it as a warning.

against cutting corners or or following. improper procedure. And what's really. sad about this is Aaron was told not to. mourn his sons over this. Now, there's. probably some connection here with. Billy, following the proper method of. everything on the Witch's Road. Also, maybe a connection to the idea of two. boys, Billy and Tommy, being sacrificed. here. Maybe even a connection to Jeff. and Rebecca, not being able to fully. mourn their son because they don't know. he's dead. But, you know, I'm not going. to pretend to be a a Torah scholar here. You can kind of draw your own connection. there. At the reception, the lighting is.

again blue, the Wiccan color, and again, these tree centerpieces with these. hanging charms. We have to wonder if The. Witch's Road, as we've been seeing it, could be a creation of Billy Maximoff. And could it be possible that some of. that design influence could have come. from some part of William Kaplan, who. might still just be living on with him? I just really, really don't want William. Kaplan to be dead despite the fact that. he probably is based off of this. episode. Now, part of William's magic. party theme is to have these tents for. things like palm readings. And if you.

see on the left, astral mapmaking, actually following her astral map is. sort of what Wanda was doing. astral. projecting and the W vision postredit. scene. And yeah, it's a little odd to. have this kind of thing in a bar. mitzvah, but you know, he is reformed. Jewish, not Orthodox. And sometimes palm. readings are just something you can book. for themed parties like this, especially. for a kid who's just really into magic. Inside, he meets Lilia Calderoo. >> Are we looking behind us or ahead? >> Ah, another clue that Lilia's. consciousness is toggling through time. She may have to ask herself this. question often. Behind William when he. walks in is a tapestry showing the tarot.

card of the tower. We've talked about. the tower in reference to teen before. The version in the show has a blue crown. at top it. Clearly a reference to. Wiccan's blue crown. In tarot, the tower. when upright as it is here represents. sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, awakening. But later, Lilia. suddenly exclaims the tower reversed. Since tarot cards can have different. meanings when they're flipped and. they're just upside down or reversed, the reversed version of the tower means. averting disaster, delaying the. inevitable, resisting change. So rather.

than just the change or the awakening. itself, it's our struggle against that. change or chaos that you know is coming. So I think for William this means sudden. violent change is coming for him. Sure. But Lilia wants to give him a way to. resist that change. And when William. sits down, the tapestry behind him on. the right depicts a tarot card of the. wheel of fortune, which represents. change, cycles, fate, decisive moments, luck, [music] fortune, unexpected. events. It's kind of along the same. lines, but in this case, it's not always. negative or chaotic, but rather just the. turns your life can take in which you're.

not really in control. Inverted, the. wheel of fortune means bad luck, lack of. control, clinging to control, unwelcome. changes, and delays. And really the big. question of this episode with the soul. of Billy Maximoff from Wandis Hex. claiming the now unoccupied vessel of. William Kaplan at that precise moment. Was that just random luck timing or was. this willed to happen either by fate or. by the Kaplins being run off the road at. that precise moment by some particular. suspect? And we should note that all of.

the versions of the tarot cards for the. Agatha series were marked with the sigil. in the corner. And now I think we confer. that to be Lilia Calderoo's personal. signature. In Lilia's crystal ball, she. sees him in his future goth teen. clothes, the form that Billy Maximoff. takes. And this reflection is upside. down. And behind him, both the tower and. the wheel of fortune are inverted as. well. So this is a life path of William. when those tarot cards inverted meanings. are manifested. Lilia has read William's. palm and tells him that his lifeline is.

broken in two. And she just describes it. as a new you. But clearly William is. destined based off of this to have two. souls in his body. When Lilia suddenly. says the tower reversed, I want you to. listen closely to the chime that. follows. And editors, please amplify the. sound there. Ah, did you catch it? There is a chime. and then a little hiccup interruption. So why do we hear this? Well, Lilia says. she remembered something. So, I think. her exclamation of the tower reversed is.

referring to some flash from the future. for Lilia's upcoming trial, which we. know from trailer footage will involve. tarot cards. And it seems like that. trial will involve Lilia physically. inverting the tower to defeat the Salem. 7. So, Lilia, unstuck from time, is. remembering something from her future. Joe Lock has said that episode 7 is the. best episode of the season. I think it. is going to be the Lost Constant episode. of this season with Lily Caldru as the. Desmond figure. William says that he. loves the vibe of this place.

>> It's very early Arento. >> Ah, we brought up filmmaker Dario Arento. when we referenced his 1977 film. Sesperia for episode 4, but he says. early Arento, so he could just be. referencing Sesperia. That was one of. the last films to use Technicolor dye. process which gave it the trippy colors. and it was really the first in the. trilogy about three witches. But I think. it's actually referring to 1975's Deep. Red, which features a psychic medium, you know, like Lilia here, who during a. conference gets overwhelmed by the sick, murderous thoughts of someone in the. audience. And then later that night, she.

is murdered with a meat cleaver. And. also, yeah, it's fun that William is. referencing a Sicilian filmmaker when. speaking with a Sicilian divination. witch. She tells them to enjoy the now, baby. It's the only thing that's. certain. For a witch mentally jumping. around in time, the present is the only. place that she can really trust. But I. like how this also implies that the past. history is not trustworthy for her. And. she has a point because our memories all. the time alter our past, the way we look. back at them to just suit how best to. get us through our present days. And. it's also a clue how for Billy soon will.

not be able to remember any of William's. past. And then this moment happens as if. in a trance. Lilia draws the sigil on. what the Disney Plus audio description. calls a small wooden rune. So, it is. confirmed Lilia Calderoo placed the. sigil on the body of William Kaplan, a. sigil that stayed on this body even. after Billy Maximoff's soul took over. This does explain why in the Wanda. Vision postredit scene and throughout. Multiverse of Madness, Wanda was unable. to find a version of her son, Billy, in.

the 616 universe and had to go out into. the multiverse to find her son. It's. because her son was buried in the body. of a person concealed with a sigil. spell, preventing any witch from knowing. his identity. really could say. everything bad that happens in. Multiverse of Madness is Lilia's fault. But why did Lilia do this? Presumably. just to protect this young man or even. the soul of the young man who would. possess this body soon from any. nefarious witches like Agatha. Or maybe. she knows the destined future for the. Scarlet Witch and wanted to send the. Scarlet Witch on that path to force her. to reach the end because she knew how.

much of a danger the Scarlet Witch was. to the multiverse. Either way, this. trance-like expression on Patty. Leapone's face suggests that this is an. action some future version of Lilia is. extending backward in time to this. moment to cause. So, Lilia drops the. tile in William's coat pocket, and you. can see the exact moment the sigil takes. effect, and Lilia suddenly has no idea. whose coat this is. Patty Leone, such a. good actress. We see William at a table. with white rabbits and bottles at the. tree centerpiece. I'm wondering if this. table is like an Alice in Wonderland. theme. Those bottles could be an eat me.

versus drink me bottle. Cops show up and. inform Jeff Kaplan about the West View. anomaly. And precisely at 5:02 p.m., everyone's phone's ping with emergency. alerts. I do wonder why if it's like. retracting and condensing, everyone's. freaking out and has to go home. But I. guess we should assume any movement in. this creepy ass hex just one town over. It's freaking everyone out to think, hey, our town could be assimilated next. On the rush home over the radio, they. hear this. >> My wife and sauces, >> my husband and his indestructible head. These are the voices of Vision and Wanda. from the very first episode of Wanda.

Vision when Wanda levitated some dinner. plates and smashed them into Vision's. head. >> My wife and the flying sauces, >> my husband and his indestructible head. >> Now, you may ask, why right now would. they be hearing on the radio audio from. several days prior in the first era of. Wanda's Hex if we were supposed to be at. the end of it? Well, we learned in. Wision episode 4 that the CMBBR, cosmic. microwave background radiation of the. Hex causes this kind of distortion. effect where often old reruns of the. sitcom could broadcast out later. And as.

the hex is collapsing, it makes sense. that highlights from all areas of the. Hex could be beaming out, particularly. going in reverse order back to that. first 1961 era. We see the hex shrinking. behind the tree line, but they take. their eyes off of the road right as. they're passing a welcome to East View. sign as a truck is on the wrong side of. the road. A Dodge Ram causing Rebecca to. swerve and crash into a tree. Now in. America, we drive on the right side of. the road. This truck was on the wrong. side. There's no reason Rebecca would. have even had to have swerved if that. truck wasn't being an idiot. So, was.

this Dodge Ram driver just distracted by. the hex as well? Or could it have been. some force of fate intending to force. the Kaplins off the road? Could it have. been Mr. Steph Rio behind the wheel? It. would make sense why Rio has been. particularly focused on how this kid is. still alive. The car slams into a tree. right on the backseat door where William. was sitting and it is bloody. Actually, with the red blood and the blue tie, he. is now kind of more in his Wiccan. colors. So, as I predicted, this was the. near-death in West View reported in the.

headline in the end credits title card. beneath Joe Lock's name and maybe even. the car accident in East View that Agnes. talked about in episode 1, where blood. stains were found in the back seat and. two airbags were deployed in the front. seat. But Agnes did bring up that car. accident as a more recent incident. linked to the Jane Doe that she found in. the woods believed to be Wanda Maximoff. So, I'm not sure if that is also. connected, but we do hear William's. heartbeat thumping to a stop. And then after [music] a silence, we. hear this.

>> And then a very healthy heartbeat. returns leading to. >> Tommy. This is incredible. With simple. sound effects and zero visual effects. needed, just a great performance from. Joe Lock. We understand that William. Kaplan of East View died. That Billy. Maximoff from Westview, Wanda's. artificial creation, was coming to his. own end as the Hex collapsed and that. that Billy's soul reincarnated in its. now empty body. In Wanda Vision episode.

9, we never heard this good night. exchange between the brothers. We just. followed Vision Wanda downstairs after. Wanda left the boys with this line. >> Thanks for choosing me to be your mom. >> And I just think it is so sweet that. these two boys said good night to each. other after that. perhaps knowing what. was coming or maybe not. This is a far. simpler Wiccan origin story than what we. get in the comics where Billy Kaplan. Wikcan is introduced in the Young. Avengers comics and revealed to have. been the reincarnated soul of one of. Wanda Maximoff's twins from the House of. M event and years before that the West.

Coast Avengers event where these twins. were pieces of Meisto soul being. puppeted by Master Pandemonium and then. later scattered across the multiverse. The way the MCU has been structured, I. prefer this. It makes a bit more sense. from this point forward. The identity of. the kid in this body is the character. played by Julian Hillyard in Wavision. To be clear, this is not the version. played by Hilliard in Multiverse of. Madness. That was a real corporeal form. of Billy Maximoff who existed and still. exists in the 838 universe. Now, while. it lines up coincidentally that Billy. found a body of a kid named William, who.

happened to be nearby, I do think that. William being so interested in magic to. begin with kind of primed his body to be. such a suitable cosmically faded vessel. And yes, that would mean that from this. moment, Billy Maximoff is a 10-year-old. in the body of a 13-year-old. But we. also have to acknowledge that the. 10-year-old Billy was really the product. of like a warped, rapidly progressing. sitcom pocket reality where in episode 5. alone, he jumped from baby to age five. and then from age 5 to age 10. So, he's. always just been having to adapt to fit. whatever circumstances he finds himself. in. But we also have to remember what.

Billy and all of the Hex really were. They were Wanda Maximoff's grief. manifested. And grief in Wanovision was. defined as love persevering. Love. persevering at any cost. So this boy was. a soul constructed out of that grief/lo. designed to embody what Wanda felt she. most needed to process her pain. And now. that narrowly tailored piece of magic. through either Wiccan's fate prophecied. in the Darkhold temple or just grief. love's innate nature to persevere in.

whatever form possible has forced this. piece of Wanda's magic into this awkward. vessel. And this must at first feel like. a nightmare or even hell to Billy. He. thought he was going to peaceful slumber. after a stressful few days of his dog. dying, Uncle Petro freaking them out, a. creepy Agatha babysitting session, then. Agatha choking him and his brother, and. then Ralph Boner freaking them out, and. then sword director Tyler Hayward. shooting at him and his brother, and. then his mom battling the creepy witch. Agatha over the town. And they all. thought everything was well, but now the.

nightmare continues. Now, the East View. cop who finds him is Alice Woo Guliver. Remember, in episode 2, it was mentioned. that she used to be a cop. >> Your old lieutenant convinced me to give. you a shot, but you've been nothing but. bad luck. >> Now, why doesn't Alice remember Billy. from this moment when she sees him later. at the mall? The sigil, that's how. powerful the sigil is. It gives all of. them a kind of face blindness or a lack. of memory for who this kid is. Alice. seems to be wearing a necklace under. that uniform that could be her amulet. So, at the hospital, Billy hears the. thoughts of his parents. Billy's.

telepathy is something that we saw Billy. Maximoff use in Wision, specifically in. this scene with Agatha in episode 7. >> I like it here. You're quiet, Agnes. on the inside. >> Which in that moment implied that unlike. everyone else who he cared about in his. life, he was unable to hear Agatha's. thoughts, which could mean that either. she meant less to him or maybe that she. has guarded her mind from outside. invasion. Kind of like the concept of a. clemency from Harry Potter. Billy. responds, >> "Please don't fight." This is something. that Billy Maximoff would say from the.

feuding between his parents and W. division episode 5 as the credits. rolled. Remember that creepy moment? It. was this fight was probably something he. and Tommy heard from upstairs. Back at. the Kaplan home, Greg the dog barks at. Billy because dogs are super intuitive. I think Greg in particular knows that. Billy Maximoff was a dog owner whose. doggo is now 6 feet under. Dogs always. know. Even if a different multiversal. version of you had a dog who died under. suspicious circumstances, this new dog. is going to bark at you. Jeff and. Rebecca, despite being wonderfully. wholesome, patient parents on the. outside, cannot hide their Gen X anxiety.

storms on the inside. He looks scared. Oh my god, this is so hard. When will he. remember? Oh, the doctor said no to. stress, but it really feels like. restaurant. What are we supposed to do? How do we fix this? I just want him. back. MAYBE SEEING HIS ROOM. WHAT IF HE. NEVER REMEMBERS? What if he just stays. like this? This is his favorite. restaurant. Lost, anxious, alone. There. has to BE SOMETHING. WHAT IF MY SON? WILL HE BE OKAY? WHAT AN interesting way. to display generational trauma. Billy. was already created as a way to express. a woman's grief. Now he's forced to hear. every bit of anxiety from these new. parents and feel like he's kind of a. murderer of the son that they had.

before. In Williams room, that kid had. multiple Houdini posters showing. Williams interest in magic. There's a. poster for Mystic Rock, something every. Friday. Now, the map on the wall is an. Italian engraving depicting the land of. Cocking, which is a mythical world of. self-indulgence. It has lakes of. meatballs and diamond rain and rivers of. wine. Among the board games above is. Hang on Harvey, which really just. reminds me of Harvey the White Rabbit, the play by Mary Chase and the Jimmy. Stewart film about the invisible rabbit. puka that only Elwood Dow can see. On. the break room, Gina actually had a.

really interesting theory that Tommy's. soul could have entered the body of. Senor Scratchy the rabbit. The painting. on the wall near the mirror is. reinforcement of the spectacles by Rabbi. Lace. This is a vintage lithograph. On. the right are posters for Disney's Alice. in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of. Oz, which is actually the same artwork. as what we see in the closing credits of. every episode, and the 1985 film The. Black Cauldron. Now, The Black Cauldron. ends with three, which is resurrecting. the main character's dead friend. There's also a poster for Asetig Island, an island split in half. Half in. Maryland, half in Virginia, kind of like. William and Billy being split in two.

Maybe I'm reading into that. There's a. pennant for East View, and then a poster. for a classic Disney film, Bet Knobs and. Broomsticks. and then a poster for a. movie called The Goofballs, which seems. like an homage to the Goonies. On the. shelf, there are figurines from the. Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch, Tormentine the Scarecrow, Dorothy the. Lion, and the Tin Man on the Yellow. Brick Road. Beneath that, there's a toy. castle. And a little later, we see that. there's a book series beneath the map. for the Wizard of Oz books. It really. does seem like a lot of Williams. hobbies, hobbies adopted by Billy, could. have been things that inspired the. design of the Witches Road. In fact, I.

think you can look throughout this room. as it evolves from here and 3 years. later and find pieces of everything. we've seen in the witches road in this. room. Billy repeats, "I am William. Kaplan." As he's reflected in two. mirrors, showing the two different. identities he's grappling with. So, we. jump to three years later. Billy is. parked with his boy Eddie played by. Miles Gutier as Riley. In the Young. Avengers comics, Billy's boyfriend is. Teddy Alman, aka Hulkane. Hulkane is not. actually a Hulk. He's a crease scroll. hybrid born as Doric VI. It remains to. be seen if Eddie is going to be the. teddy from the comics. Later, he's.

wearing a sleeveless shirt, which is. kind of Hulk Lane's look in the comics. He's always suns out, guns out. But. Eddie also later mentions aliens as a. theory behind the Westview anomaly, which I don't know, could connect to. Teddy Alman's extraterrestrial origin. I. guess we'll see. Billy is now adopting a. goth look, which makes us wonder if this. was a trajectory William was on postbar. mitzvah, or maybe just a personality. path Billy would have been on, or just. something realized in the amalgam of the. two. They kiss and Billy hears Eddie's. thoughts about wanting to say, "I love. you, William Kaplan." He explains that. his telepathy only works when he's.

around people he cares about and feeling. intense feelings. And he reveals that he. died on the day of the accident and. still doesn't remember anything from. before and that he lied about recovering. so that his parents wouldn't worry. And. that is super sad. But despite hearing. that William Kaplan is not William. Kaplan, Eddie accepts him. And it's just. such a wonderful romance between these. two. Billy says, "Because I love you, too. You love me too. >> Between this and I love you 3000 from. Avengers Endgame. Or in this episode, we. love you more than we could ever hope to.

communicate in human words. In. Spider-Man Homecoming, Aunt May and. Peter Park are saying I larb you. I just. love these various ways people in the. MCU say that they larb each other. Billy. takes Eddie into his room where now it. looks like Billy did not take down. anything William had up but only just. added to it which just feels like such a. respectful gesture to the memory of. William Kaplan. The Wizard of Oz books. are still there. They were previously. below the mirror. Now they're just. tucked in a lower shelf. On the very far. left is a poster for Brian de Palmus. carry. Also in this area are some of the. triangular string lights that we saw in.

the cabin in episode 5. Just another. example. The witch's road being. decorated with Billy/Billiam's. interests. And to the left is a Lorna. Woo poster. Now behind Eddie are some. posters for the craft and saw and a. trans lives matter flag to the right. behind him. Above the posters are phases. of the moon and in the top left are some. leaves hanging from a mobile in front of. the light and these look like the leaves. from the witch's road. So Billy lays out. all these researched articles. We can. see strange occurrences persist to haunt. Westview residents. It's been three. years since the horrific incidents that. shrouded the town of Westview with an.

orange dome of fear. But is it really. gone or is it simply dormant? Insight. into the unknown by Dr. James. Sublefield. Hey Dr. Jim, orange ain't. red. That was a starlet hex, not an. orange one. But thankfully we see. Westview covered by a huge red dome and. then examining the red dome anomaly and. its impact. And they put an apostrophe. in its when they did not need it. Dated. February 15th, 2026. And I am so. grateful whenever the MCU set designers. and prop masters actually get the years. correct. And then we see the photo of. the Titanic, perhaps this photo, and. we'll see why the Titanic is relevant a.

little bit later. Then a map of New. Jersey, and you can see a star mark at. Trenton with a handwritten note. These. six towns all link to the seventh town. where are eight and nine. Lambertville, a real city in New Jersey, is circled. with an A near it. And I believe. Mercerville is also circled. I'm. fascinated by this and what it could. mean. But it may point to the question. I've always been asking. Why Westview? What is this historical significance of. Westview as a location of all these. events? And there may be some kind of. like interesting energy vortex in New. Jersey for whatever reason. Eddie. reveals that the public was told that.

the Westview anomaly was an Avengers. training exercise gone wrong. I love it. I assume it was the DODC who covered. this up. It's also interesting that the. government will want the public to think. that there's still some active Avengers. lineup despite the fact that the. Avengers seem mostly inactive. Billy. shows Eddie the video of Jennifer Kale's. probiotic candle mask tutorial followed. by a video of the Westview Anomaly. Beneath that YouTube window is a message. thread with Craft Crazy 17, a message. thread that I assume is with Bonerrific. 69. And Billy zooms into the hex wall to. show one of Wanda's runes, the ones that.

she used to turn the tables on Agatha. and take her powers during that battle. So they meet in a dark parking garage, a. very Watergate [ __ ] scenario. Ralph Boner, Evan Peter's character from. W division. Now, some issues have always. existed with Ralph Boner. One, Marvel. faked us all out, thinking this was an. X-Men Quicksilver crossover cameo and. then revealed it was just a gag, referencing awkward sitcom recastings. and Matt Shackman's Growing Pain's. co-star, a character actually named. Boner. But this Quicksilver fake out was. a big bummer for us. Two, Ralph Boner.

was the name Monica Rambo read on his. actor head shot while the Westview Hex. was still in effect in the episode 7. Modern Family era. Since all the. Westview residents names change inside. of the Hex, he should have had some. different name outside of the Hex, but. that doesn't seem to be the case now. Also, there was a deleted scene included. in the W division steelbook release that. hinted that the idea was to confirm that. Ralph Boner was FBI agent Jimmy Woo's. missing witness. >> Keep an eye out for our missing witness. We still need him to testify. Should be.

easier to spot now that everything's. back to normal. >> Oh yeah, baby. This a scene with Ralph. Boner directly contradicts that deleted. scene. Like if Ralph Boner escaped. federal witness protection and was like. on the run, he wouldn't just have this. house in New Jersey that he was living. in now worried about the property value, right? This is just one of many examples. of a deleted scene in the MCU not being. canon. And that's okay. >> [clears throat]. >> As Ralph recaps in the scene, he was a. West View resident, an aspiring actor, living in what I assume was a house.

inherited from his relatives, because. that is a nice house for someone who's. struggling to get acting work. He. happened to live near the plot of land. that Vision had bought for Wanda. But. when Wanda started the Hex, he was. warped with everyone else in Westview. And when Agatha arrived, she took over. this house and he was warped an. additional time to be her Oscreen. husband, Ralph, whom she puppeted as. kind of this Uncle Jesse style cameo. starting in Wavision episode 5. We see. now that Ralph is wearing animal bones. in the shape of a cross on his bucket. hat. Lisa on Twitter said that this. might be Sangoma healing, referring to. the traditional healers of South Africa.

in the Zulu tribe, who will use the. bones of animals and sea shells for. spiritual healing. Ralph also appears to. be wearing an evil eye around his neck. It really seems like Ralph's paranoia. has led him to cover himself in a. variety of superstitious tokens from. across cultures to cover his bases. Even. the way he crosses the bones on his hat. look like the way overly superstitious. folks will cross sticks or their fingers. to form a cross to desperately ward off. vampires. It also kind of looks like those bones. are forming the hands of a clock with.

the ring configuration around them, which I guess in this case kind of make. it look like it's forming 325. Inside. his jacket, it looks like a chicken. foot. And later he retrieves what seems. like a baby alligator skull figurine to. ward off negative energy. But my. favorite of all these, under his trench. coat, Ralph seems to be wearing a shirt. reading to be or not to be. A reference. to Shakespeare's Hamlet, of course, and. to Ralph's unstable mental state as he. pers his own existence. But the fact. that the shirt makes a pun out of the. quote with bumblebees has to be a nod to. the long-lost Beekeeper of Wision, the.

sword agent, who we never followed up. with. Evan Peters does an incredible job. in the scene, properly expressing the. trauma that average folks in the MCU. would have suffered from these weird. Avenger level events, especially as. someone who underwent two mind controls, one from Wanda and one from Agatha. Hijacked my life. Ralph says that Agatha. made him take a nice lady hostage in his. attic, referring to Monica Rambo in the. Wanda Vision finale, and said that he. was a terrible influence on the kids. And he reveals this and I poisoned a. dog. >> Oh no, not Sparky. Now, this is.

interesting because in the Agatha Allong. song, Agatha owned up to killing Sparky. herself. >> And I killed Sparky, too. [laughter]. >> Ralph says that Wanda and Vision had. twins in the Hex, and that Wanda is. dead, and that Vision reportedly was. used for parts by sword. It sounds like. part of the government coverup involved. keeping secret the White Vision project, Project Cataract, who was assembled from. scraps of Vision's corpse from Wakanda. Ralph said that he had to leave behind. his entire Blu-ray collection. You can. actually see the stack of Blu-rays in. the closet where Agatha ties Billy up.

And we learned that Ralph has a one-man. show in Pamis, New Jersey. Another. reminder that this guy is a struggling. actor. And Gina, who comes from New. Jersey, also pointed out that Pamis. apparently is a town where a lot of. comedians will have to put up shows when. they can't really get gigs in New York. City. Now, I've been pointing out in. past videos that the end credits have. left some open title cards for future. cast members. The Pentagram over. Westview and The Girl with the Witch. Mask. And now for episode 6, Evan Peters. appears over the Westview map and the. actors for Jeff Kaplan, Rebecca Kaplan, and Eddie appear over the next one. So. Billy goes home and we see how much Jeff.

and Rebecca try to keep up with their. goth teen son. They're super supportive. of his relationship with Eddie. There's. a magic coffee table book and Rebecca. offers to watch a psychological horror. film. So Billy puts on Lorna Woos cover. of the Ballad of the Witches Road. In. this room, in addition to her poster, we. also see the same Fleetwood Mac Rumors. live album poster that we saw in episode. 4. Billy looks up to see his own. drawings of the sigil. It's pinned above. a sheet with several demon runes from. the lesser key of Solomon. And in the. upper right corner, that is a symbol for. Payman, famous from the film Hereditary.

This is a symbol that appears on. surfaces throughout the Hereditary film. as a clue for the cult's influence on. all these events. Hail Payman. Billy's. post-it notes read, "Permanent sigils. active for long periods of time. Sigils. can be made into art pieces or hidden on. other objects. Can be recharged to. strengthen and revitalize the active. energy. And then destructible sigils. activated by being destroyed creates a. burst of energy that gives the sigil. power. Write carve or singe sigil onto. paper, food, wood or object and destroy. by fire or force. And by force is how. Billy squeezes to crush this thing. Now.

the smaller sheet behind the laptop at. the bottom are alchemy symbols. These. are involved in the medieval believed. process of being able to turn any. material into gold. And between that. sheet and the demon symbol sheet is this. blue post-it note with a Norse binding. rune, which is basically two runes on. top of each other. Billy writes in the. fates of Wanda and Vision and Tommy and. Billy. And it's just one of many. instances in this episode that they. really emphasize that Wanda is in fact. dead. They really do not want to set up. any expectations that Wanda could appear. in a living form on the show. Billy.

searches Agatha online and we see sites. like the Macabra Wiki, which is a. comprehensive encyclopedia of all things. that come out after dark, created by two. blood witches from Salem. We also see. the witchy resource. And then onto. dreddit, which is a really fun turn of. phrase for a horror and true crime. version of Reddit. Witchy Girl Black. asks if any witches survived the SWT, which is not Star Wars theory. It's. Salem witch trials. Fourth level warlock. posts about the Saleommites. And then. the young children who escaped, referring to the Salem 7. Sam Witch. posts an old Victorian era photo of.

Agatha Harkness, reminding us of old. vintage photographs of men who look like. Nicholas Cage and County Reeves. Billy. uses this to do a reverse image search. which reveals that Agatha was apparently. a survivor of the Titanic in 1912. Another newspaper headline reports on. the Hindenburg Zeppelin explosion in. 1937 which Agatha also mysteriously. survived. I suppose the idea is that. Agatha and Rio assuming that Rio was Mr. Steth just went on all these famous. doomed voyages in the early 20th century. and thousands died but Agatha and Rio. just had a blast sneaking away alive.

from them. It reminds me a lot of the. way Loki season 1 established that the. god of mischief was the infamous DB. Cooper. But next is my favorite detail. this episode. A 1972 surveillance photo. showing Dolly Parton slapping the [ __ ]. out of Agatha. Headline asking if this. is the real Jolene. Dolly Parton's. Jolene. Such a good song. Famously. centers around this figure of Jolene. I. beg of you, please don't take my man. Dolly pleading with this woman named. Jolene who apparently had stolen her. man. And Dolly has never confirmed who. the real Jolene is. It's rumored Jolene.

might have been based on several women. in her life, but you know, famously she. was married to someone who cheated on. her. And onto Bruhaedia. Bruha being. Spanish for witch. Billy reads that. Agatha's last known whereabouts were in. Nashville, Tennessee in 1973, which is. where and when Dolly Parton recorded. Jolene, which would be like a year after. that slap. It also lists under Agonist. Powers, Succubus Powers. Succubus. obviously involving some sexy time stuff. and would explain how she might have. been able to steal Dolly's man because. no man in his right mind would ever. leave Dolly. The Burha PD page also.

speculates that Abigail Adams, the. second first lady of the United States, wife to John Adams, was also a witch. Just worth remembering that Agatha. mentioned that she had disrupted the. Daughters of Liberty at the campfire in. the past episode. And right when he. reads that Agatha is the only known. survivor of the witch's road, Lauren. Woo's chorus kicks in and Billy puts it. all together. To find what he's missing, his brother Tommy, he must go down the. witch's road with Agatha. And I love the. implicit kinship with the Woo family. Alice pulled him out of the wrecked car. and Alice's mother's voice rings in now. to tell Billy how to find his brother. I. mentioned the beat tracks on Lord Woo's.

album back in episode 4. But here we see. the aside, the witch's road and then. Miles to Go, which is a nod to the. Robert Frost poem. Miles to Go before I. sleep, a poem about death. Next, Ember. and then Something Wicked, obviously not. Do Something Wicked This Way Come spoken. by the witches of McBth, which again are. depicted in the painting and Agatha's. home. and then call the corners. And. based on trailer footage, the final. trial seems to be set in a recreation of. the morg with that purple analog clock. on the ceiling of that room with all the. metallic drawers. Billy opens a spell. book to read about a release spell where.

it says that it's most effective during. a waning moon. And we see that Billy has. scribbled what a waning moon will look. like and made a little written note. about the difference between a waxing. and a waning moon. And we see the Latin. phrase that Billy chanted in episode 1. Dimmit xhawks carmine. And according to. our Twitter Latin expert, Mad Latinist, this is kind of a misspelling of this. phrase that translates to release her. from the spell. The spoken parts that we. hear from Billy translate to release. this cursed woman. Release this cursed. woman. By my spell, release this cursed. woman. I also appreciate the written. warning in this book. Caution, the.

person formerly under the binding spell. might be disoriented and then blame you. for the binding spell that they were. previously under. Billy gets a text from. Eddie who summed up the completely. unhinged Ralph Boner meeting the night. before with tonight was crazy. And then. Eddie texts Billy this. You're my black. heart. Woah. So, the fact that it is a. black heart cannot be coincidental. In. episode two, on the list of witches that. Lilia wrote down for Agatha to form her. coven in place of a final name, Lilia. just drew a black heart. And we assume. that meant Rio, who had told Agatha in. episode 1, that she has a black heart.

and it beats for Agatha. Now, I think. that black heart might actually. represent Billy because Agatha does need. Billy and his connection to Wanda along. this road, whereas Rio is really an. invasive antagonistic presence really. just along for the ride. We revisit the. events of episode one, but from Billy's. point of view outside the house. In. Billy's eyes, he sees the objective. reality outside of the Agnes of Westview. illusion that Agatha was living in. >> I say to her, "So, has the suspect been. seen in the last 24 hours?" She said, she says, "Only on Tik Tok.". >> And we see that she's wearing Ralph's.

favorite shirt, the Boner Family reunion. pitch a tent shirt. I raise my flag full. staff and stiffly salute this boner. joke. But I also just love the idea that. the shirt was a result of either the. Boner family leaning into it and just. all agreeing to a self-deprecating joke. about their name. Or maybe just some. sweet aunt of the family could have made. these shirts for the family without. realizing what she did. And yeah, you. actually can get one of these shirts at. nerdriot.shop and it is a great holiday. gift option and support what we're doing. here and pop in a blue shoe to support. what we do here at New Rockstars. But.

what's interesting about this framing in. the shot, Billy only sees Agatha and the. curtains cover the part of the room. where Rio would be sitting. We never see. Rio's form outside of Agatha's point of. view within the spell or outside of. everyone's point of view along the. witch's road. You might interpret this. as Agatha might just be talking to no. one or Rio could just be in her mind. But if that were the case, I think the. shot would show just an empty couch. across from Agatha. The curtains are. concealing something from us. So if Rio. is Mistress Death, this show is waiting. to reveal death's true form. Billy.

steals Agatha's brooch. And it's amazing. to compare this side by side with the. way the chase took place in episode 1. In episode one, it was more. action-packed, a back alley street chase. like something that you'd see in a show. like Maraveese Town. But now in reality, it's a completely awkward, clumsy tumble. for both of them off the roof. In. episode 1, Agnes slips off the roof. after Teen has ninjaed to the ground. Now he slips after turning around to see. her slip. And now we see he's much. nicer. He stops to ask her if she's. okay. He did not do that before. Instead. of a gun, we see that Agava has stuck.

the spray handle of a garden hose on her. waist. Whereas the sprint was much. faster in episode 1, now Billy runs into. a garbage bin and Agava immediately. cramps up. Instead of Billy being run. over by Miss Hart, now he just runs into. an open door of Sharon's Mercedes. Wow, really got a life insurance payout from. Mr. Davis. We similarly can place. Agatha's interrogation of Billy side by. side with the scene in episode 1 just to. see the fun differences. Whereas in. episode 1, Teen was very moody and. silent, non-compliant for most of the. interrogation. Now he just openly tells. her why he's there. >> What were you looking for in my house?

the respect of your peers and a. fulfilling home life. >> What were you looking for in my home? I. came here with a somewhat unorthodox. plan. >> Agatha looks up at the Mc Beth witch's. painting, which we know from episode 1, in her eyes is the mirror window, which. would lead to Rio on the other side. And. we got to play the kick side by side. here. In episode one, it was a power. kick that launched him out of the chair. Here, it just kind of hurts him as a. kick would. As before, Agatha asks if he. wants to keep poking the bear, but now. Katherine Han and Joe Lock stay in it. for way longer. >> No, you do not. >> No, I do not. Don't do not want to poke.

that. >> Yeah, it is clear from this that a. Catherine Han and Joel lock are just on. the verge of breaking. It's super funny. Episode one showed Agnes dramatically. clicking her pen just once, but now. Agatha clicks it just way too many. times. Off, on, off, on. And she does a. slightly altered version of the. transcribing part. >> Or totally lying. Totally lying. Let's find out. Hey, >> but notice on the second one, it kind of. sounds like Kathern Han did a weird. vowel stretch on out. Kind of like an.

exaggerated Philly accent. Remember when. Herb was like down by the wooter? >> Is it my der? >> And when she's murdered, >> they murdered my der. >> I'm afraid too. >> It seems like Billy is just pointing out. the obvious to Agatha and that's enough. to cause her reality to break apart. And. Billy uses this moment to chant the. Latin. Agatha [clears throat] ties him. up and throws him in the closet with. Ralph's Blu-ray collection. And we. immediately transition to the next. morning once Agatha is in her bathrobe. This is after her fight with Rio again. We never see Rio from Teen's. perspective. Like we don't see Agatha.

leave for the morg, but we know now that. Billy must have started the job of. releasing Agatha from Wanda Spell, but. then Agatha went somewhere else, somewhere that we still have not seen. with Rio, somewhere where a body would. be to complete this release. So, where. was that morg in reality? Was it in. Agatha's living room? Was it in her. basement? Was it in her backyard? There's still more to this timeline that. we do not know. So, we flash ahead to. the episode 2 moments where the teen. said who he was, but instead of a sigil, we now hear a name. >> My name is William Kaplan.

>> Agatha asks him again, and he clarifies. with a different name. >> I'm Billy Maximoff. >> So, Lily Sigil worked both for the. William Kaplan identity and the Billy. Maximoff identity. So, we're back on the. road. Agatha pulls herself out of the. mud that Billy had sunk her into, forcing her to lose her glorious coat. that she's been wearing. We now see. Billy upside down again. The tower. inverted, right? But without his blue. Wiccan crown, just with his hoodie over. his head, he crushes the sigil rune in. his hand. Now, it's not clear what Billy. was even trying to do when he submerged.

Agatha in the mud or why Agatha was able. to get out while Jyn and Lilia are still. somewhere down there. But I think losing. Alice just caused Billy to have an. honest Wanda Maximoff style outburst of. grief that caused him to do this. performative show of force to let Agatha. and let everyone else know how truly. powerful he is. He's been hiding it, but. he cannot hide it anymore. And I think. after he had to get dirty digging a. grave for Sharon along with Alice, I. think he just wanted to muddy up Agatha. to put some dirt in her eye. Agatha. says, >> "You and your mother have the same tal.

which is. >> Yeah, notice how Billy says which is, but it kind of sounds like he's saying. witches." Agatha tells Billy not to feel. guilty for his talent. That he survived. like witches have been doing for. centuries. >> You saw an opportunity, an empty vessel, and you moved in. >> vessel. It's impossible for me to not. draw a comparison to the ship of thesis. concept when it comes to Billy and. William. Like, if William's body is the. same, but the soul was replaced by. Billy, is he still William? Is he Billy, but with the same DNA and same hobbies. and same interests as the previous. vessel? Well, both are the true teen.

Neither are the true teen. Remember in. Wed Vision, Vision concluded this. Perhaps the rot is the memories. The. wear and tear of the voyages, the wood. touched by Thesus himself. Basically, Vision was saying memory is what forms. one's identity. Billy has no memories of. Williams past before he was 13. Nor did. he seem to have memories of Wanda and. Vision and Tommy since he really needed. Ralph to fill that in for him, but he. does have this cosmic link to Wanda, who. I think is the thesis of this metaphor. She was the one who created him. It was. magic from Wanda's hands that created.

the soul of Billy. And therefore, he is. now the ship of Thesius. And with every. new life experience he goes through, every wave he crashes through, he. further solidifies his right to exist. Agatha says, >> "So you broke the rules. Big deal. That's what kept you alive. >> Clearly, she's talking about herself. now, especially when she said this at. her trial. >> I did not break your rules. They simply. bent to my power. >> Agatha is able to deduce what Billy. wants. Find Mama. >> She chose a town full of strangers over.

her own flesh and wires. >> Flesh and wires. Such a mean way to. refer to Vision. He's more than wires. She also calls him. >> Robo Papa. Lord knows where he is or in how many. pieces. >> Reminder that following Agatha will be. an upcoming Vision Quest series. following White Vision, which Marvel has. said will be the third part of this W. division trilogy. Agatha remembers Billy. has a brother. >> There's two of you. You're after Toby. >> Toby? >> How'd that get in there? >> Also, Toby is the girl's nickname for.

the demon in the Paranormal Activity. series. Billy and Agatha are finally. honest with who they are to each other. and how they're both just using each. other to get down the road. This episode. was titled Familiar by Thy Side. And I. don't think Billy qualifies as Agatha's. endlessly loyal familiar anymore, but. rather what Yajen Z kids out there call. an OP, the successor to the Scarlet. Witch of equal power, equal impetence, and equal short-term codependency, unable to kill his partner, but a. partner nonetheless. This is a breakdown. of Agatha Allong, episode 7, Death's. Hand in Mine. A brilliantly constructed.

episode that reframes this entire series. as a masterful act of divination by a. forgotten witch. This episode's title is. Death's Hand in Mine. An obvious setup. for the big confirmation this episode. that Rio Vidal is in fact Mistress. Death, the ex-lover whose hand Agatha. has been holding from the beginning. The. phrase comes from the beginning of the. second verse of the Ballad of the. Witches Road, marching ever forward. neath the wooded shrine. I stray not. from the path. I hold death's hand in. mine. We learn this episode that all.

paths lead to death. Death is the. ultimate destination for us all. It. comes soon as for Lilia this episode. And I think we learn that there is a. comfort in death accompanying us from. the beginning. A sort of relief that we. don't have to be in control of our. destinies. We just have to accept and to. be able to see this journey. I'm. reminded of the tale of the three. brothers in Harry Potter and the Deathly. Hallows where the cleverest brother. hides from death with a cloak of. invisibility until he and Death can. finally depart from this life as equals. That's where I feel Lilia really ends. her journey this episode. a 450-year-old.

witch who hid from death her entire. life, finally reaching relief and. closing the loop of her very confusing. life. But the opening seconds show Lilia. in extreme close-up, her eyes awakening. in a state of panic from this. interesting hazy yellow filter with some. dark shadow moving in it. What is this. shadow? Is it the silhouette of the. prophecied scarlet witch when she. appeared to her younger self in the. yellow glow of the mindstone? the witch. that Lilia might have foreseen if she. placed a sigil on William Kaplan and. Billy Maximoff, knowing that he would be. Wanda's son and sent the Scarlet Witch.

elsewhere on a desperate search that. would lead to her destruction? Or is the. shadow in the yellow glow the part of. the witch's road that Billy tossed her. out of? Is it the warm Sicilian sun over. her lessons with her maestra? Or is it. the murky yellow glow that surrounded. her maestra in her death vision in. episode 3 where Mistress Death made her. first appearance that death really. recreates for Ailia in this episode? I. think it's all of these things, but. above all, it's just death. But not a. painful violent death. A gentle embrace. A gray rain curtain rolling back,

revealing a swift sunrise. Or perhaps. what the youngest peveral brother saw. when he unveiled himself from under that. cloak to join death's friendly embrace. Maybe I just have Deathly Hallows on the. brain. Because, well, an announcement. here for lovers of all things witchcraft. and wizardry. Starting Saturday, November 9th, New Rockstars will embark. upon a new road, a Harry Potter rewatch. Every week, we're going to have super. in-depth analyses of each of the eight. Harry Potter films from 2001 to 2011. We. rewatch these movies every year during. the holidays. And for years, a lot of. you have been requesting us to revisit.

them with proper Easter egg breakdowns. We actually have a lot to say about the. legacy of this franchise and our complex. feelings that we've had growing up with. them. So, subscribe for an epic rewatch. series to end 2024. We see Lilia falling. through an endless black void, looking a. lot like Chris in Jordan Peele's Get. Out, falling into the sunken place. That's really how she has felt during. these lapses of consciousness throughout. her life. And her goal is to realize. what she's falling through and to. realize that she's not falling down, but. falling up. Like Miles Morales's iconic.

upward dive and into the Spider-Verse, Lilia is dressed as Glenda the Good. Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz. Ironically, Glenda is not the witch who. defies gravity. Glenda comes and goes by. bubble. >> We can't come and go by bubbles. >> Agava and Billy are now walking the. road. Just the two of them. >> I get a nose bleed trying that hard to. read my mind. >> In one division episode 7, when Agatha. babysat Billy and Tommy, Billy was also. unable to read her mind. >> It's because he's quiet. You're quiet, Agnes. >> And Agatha also refers to herself as.

Billy's old babysitter in this scene. Agatha seems almost desperate for Billy. to ask her questions, to be dependent on. her. But when Billy does start to ask. questions, we cut away from Joe Lock and. Katherine Han's faces. >> Okay, then where's Rio? >> Not that question. >> Makes me wonder if this exchange might. have been picked up in an ADR session, and originally could have been a. different question or questions that. were asked. This is the first time we've. seen the back of Billy sweater in. close-up. Joe Lock has said that this. show's amazingly talented costume. designer, Daniel Salon, stitched the. Scarlet Witch's crown on the back of. Billy's sweater, and I think you can see.

it here on the upper right shoulder. blade region. Agatha says Billy bought a. ticket to ride on this witch's road. Last week in an interview with the rap. head writer Jack Schaefer said that the. black heart text that Billy received. from Eddie was a confirmation that Billy. is indeed the black heart that Lilia. drew on her list of names for this coven. and that it's actually Rio aka death who. is the tourist of this group. Agatha. claims to be Billy's mom's ex best. friend. Saw what you did there. And. Billy pushes back. She's not my mom. I. already have a mom. Ever since Billy. entered William Kaplan's body with. hardly any memories of the hex, he had.

to piece together his link to Wanda and. vision from Ralph Boner. So, it makes. sense that Rebecca Kaplan is the most. maternal figure that he would know. Though, for all of you who worship at. the altar of Mother Scarlet Witch, this. is pretty hard to hear and this boy. needs to be put in timeout. The way he. says, "I have a mom," though also feels. pointed at Agatha, like he's trying to. dig at her own mommy issues with the. absent mother figure, Evanor Harkness. Absent because she killed her. And. remember, Evanora said in front of. everyone else that Agava was born evil. and that she wishes she killed her the. moment she left her body. Yeah, we're.

not forgetting that one. But Billy takes. the bait and asks if Wanda Maximoff is. really dead. >> Yes. No, maybe. >> Okay, come on. Last episode, it made it. seem like the show really wants us to. think that Wanda is permanently dead as. a form of expectation management for the. episodes to come. But now, as we're just. looking ahead to one more finale week, seems like Marvel might be wanting to. keep the door open for a possible return. of Wanda beyond this show. Billy asks if. Agatha saw a body. >> Yes, I did. >> Did anybody else? >> It's hard to say. >> Now, the music here are the three notes.

of the W division credits theme from. composer Kristoff Beck that we pointed. out in episode 5 when Agatha told Billy, "You're so much like your mother and rad. his chin." The corpse that Agatha saw, though, which we did not see the face. of, is what she's referring to here. We. just cannot fully trust this answer. because this corpse only appeared with. an Agatha illusion when she was under. the spell. Agatha wasn't there at Mount. Bunagore. Who knows what she was really. looking at over by the creek in the. water, but it is a common rule in TV. shows and films. Unless you see a body, and unless you see the life go out of. that character's eyes, they ain't dead.

Agava ends this chat. >> Hey, you want straight answers? Ask a. straight lady. [laughter]. >> Along with I'm your mom's ex best friend. and Billy joking that he's the queer ant. instead of the quirant. It's just nice. to see this series knows its audience. and really just trusts its audience to. let it be itself. The leaves of the. witch's road are now yellow, making it. an appropriate yellow brick road. The. trees around them here look especially. menacing and graspy, like the terrifying. trees that throw apples at Dorothy and. Scarecrow. Seriously, I would always. fast forward through that part. I don't. like his voice. I don't like his face. I. don't like his twisty stump. I don't.

like the way he manhandled Judy Garland. I don't like that he tore chunks of his. own flesh off of his body to hurl his. projectiles. It's like some psycho. pulling out his teeth and throwing them. at you. I don't like it. The next trial. is a large medieval castle, which seems. to confirm my theory that each of the. trials locations are the homes or a. place inspired by the home of the witch. who was on trial that episode, filled. with something they don't like. So, Jen. was in a Martha's Vineyard beach mansion. filled with poison wine. Alice was in. Lorna Woo's recording studio home, and. it was filled with Lorna's generational. cursed demon. Agatha was in her Salem.

cabin, and was filled with girlfriend. sleepover [ __ ] And now Lilia is in. her 16th century Sicilian castle filled. with pop culture witch cosplaying. designed to irk her stance against the. Halloween industrial complex. Billy. brings up the theory that we posed. before that Agatha might never have. actually been down the witch's road at. all. I think Billy might know that. because much of the decor of the witch's. road are things inspired by things in. his bedroom in William Kaplan's life. Like he's saying that for one to truly. to be experienced in the witch's road. would mean that you would have to offer. one's own creativity to help manifest.

these settings instead of you know just. showing up to these parties that someone. else planned and designed which Agatha. has totally been doing. Agatha looks. truly shaken by Billy's accusation. I. think she might have entered the witch's. road but never completed it or took an. escape hatch. Maybe she even used death. to complete her final trial for her. Billy and Agatha walk up the road toward. the castle and it's cool to consider. that this castle beyond the ridge on the. set is probably not VFX. I think it's a. practical miniature that they built on. the set. So based on the scale of the. shot, it's probably like a model that's. just like 12 or 15 ft tall with holes.

for the windows lit from behind. The. drawbridge shows this stage of the moon. a waxing gibbus. We call this a waxing. gibbus is meant to represent a time of. refinement or preparation, a. developmental stage, something coming to. fruition. And while for Lilia, her trial. is meant to close the loop on her own. cycling for the coven as a whole, her. clarity allows her to give them all the. key advice to prepare for the road. ahead. So, to recap, in episode 3, Jen's. trial, the beach mansion, that was a. full moon. Episode four, Alice's trial, the recording studio, that was a waxing. crescent. Episode 5, Agatha's trial, the.

cabin sleepover, that was a blood moon. And episode 7, Lilia's trial at the. castle, this is a waxing gibbus. So, based off of what's left, unless they. give Billy's trial a quarter moon or. flip to the waning side instead of the. wax scene, I think Billy's trial will be. a new moon, the darkest time in the. lunar cycle. I love this smooth. transition as Agatha and Billy push open. the doors. The camera glides in behind. them and now Billy is dressed as. Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty and. Agatha as the Wicked Witch of the West. from the Wizard of Oz with a pointed. chin and nose like what Margaret. Hamilton wore. Agatha and Billy do this. performative turn and pose both framed.

perfectly in the beams of light formed. by the windows. When you rewatch this. episode, just look at what Kathern Han. is doing with her hands. There's always. interesting choices being made with the. hands. Agatha says, >> "She's based on me, you know.". >> Mhm. So, Elrank Bomb published The. Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900. Agatha. could be referring to that, especially. since we know there's going to be a. version of her during the Victorian era. There's a chance that like she met Bomb, but the MGM film that she's specifically. dressed as here came out in 1939. And. based on Agatha's look, I assume she's. referring to Margaret Hamilton's look.

and performance. So, presumably after. surviving the Titanic and the. Hindenburg, Agatha made her way to. Hollywood and really did a number on. Victor Fleming or Louis B. mayor, which. now lets us add to our list of offenses, not doing more to help Judy Garland and. all the other young starlets who were. suffering in the industry at this time. Maybe Agatha even contributed to that. suffering. Hey, Jody, take these uppers. Costume designer Daniel Sin posted on. Instagram that since Warner owns the. rights to the 1939 Victor Flaming Wizard. Vase film, and Maleficent and the Evil. Witch from Snow White are obviously. Disney animation, they still had to.

customize the designs to make them. unique enough and get these studios to. clear the costumes. Notice Agatha's. witch hat has a buckle and a stiffly. angled brim with purple lace on it. Margaret Hamilton's did not. And Agatha. wears a purple trim black jacket, which. Hamilton did not. I assume they also had. to do the pointed chin and nose to avoid. any possible conflict with the wicked. musical alphaba version of the character. whose stage and film rights belong to. Universal. Don't ever let this hat. shadow Agava's eyes. She will get very. offended. On the side of the deis. carved, your path winds out of time. And. I love the word play here because to.

wind out of time kind of implies a clock. winding down and losing time. Every. trial is on a fixed timer and this one. uses an hourglass, but also to wind out. of time also implies a path winding. spatially in and out of a linear. understanding of time. And the way. Lilia's path defies normal chronology. Obviously, your path winds out of time. will be what Lilia repeats at the end of. this episode when she realizes she has. to be the traveler. Beneath the English. letters appear to be some symbols. Later, when we see an overhead shot of. the table, we see these symbols match. the one on the outer ring at the top, showing the astrological zodiac symbols.

in an inner ring showing the lunar. phases. Billy picks up the tarot cards. That's what starts the countdown. And. once again, it's Billy picking up the. object that starts a trial. The welcome. card, the album, the Ouija board, and. now the stack of tarot cards. IA says, "There's no time like the present.". Which echoes what Lilia told William. >> Enjoy the now, baby. >> It's the only thing that's certain. >> Billy draws a first card. >> The horserawn carry. >> the chariot. Yeah, >> it's literally written on the card. >> Ha. Billy, as a Disney kid who would. appreciate Cinderella and Sleeping. Beauty, remember the 838 Billy and Tommy.

were watching Snow White in Multiverse. of Madness? This would be the term used. by someone with Cinderella on the brain. But Billy bullshits his interpretation, saying the chariot means Agatha is. fleeing something and the sphinxes. represent her mysteriousness. In. actuality, the chariot tarot card facing. up as it is here represents success, ambition, determination, willpower, control, self-discipline, and focus. Billy did have a pack of tarot cards in. his bedroom in episode 6, but it is. clear that he hasn't really taken the. time to fully learn this discipline. Swords dangle loosely over the heads. These are a reference to the swords of. Democles. Democles switched places with.

Dionis getting to be king and getting. everything he could have ever wanted, but the sword hung above his head and he. realized he didn't want that life. Dianis wanted to prove that with great. power is often accompanied by great. fear. So neither Billy nor Agatha want. to be in this hot seat. Next, Billy. draws the seven of swords, which Billy. says is about deception and betrayal, except Billy flipped it upside down, which he says means the opposite of. that, speculating that Agatha is being. truthful. Except, no, Billy, you're. wrong. Reversed, the seven of swords. actually means imposttor syndrome, self-deceit, keeping secrets, and that.

is literally what Billy is exemplifying. here by posing as an expert. Agatha. takes charge and begins flipping cards. seemingly at random, even chanting eeny. meenie mighty bow. We do get a shot of. all the cards that Agatha pulled. Looks. like the order in which she pulled is. this. the five of wands, then the two of. wands, then the world, the page of. swords, wheel of fortune, the hanged. man, and the t of swords. We could go. into the meaning of these, but really. since Agatha threw them out randomly as. almost a kind of mockery, I think you. could just look into the [music] meaning. elsewhere on your own. So, more swords. fall, the table turns, and the whole.

ceiling begins to lower. Very Temple of. Doom. And Billy says, "I wish Lilia was. here." And as if willing her into. existence of this episode's editing, we. cut to Lilia's eyes opening as she is. still reacting to the opening shots we. saw her in of her falling. >> I was falling. >> So, here's obviously where things get. really interesting in this episode. Heading into episode 7, I speculated. that this series might be structuring. Lilia Calderoo like the character of. Desmond Hume in Lost. Specifically, the. famous season 4 episode, The Constant, in which Desmond's consciousness becomes. unstuck in time, flashing around to.

different eras of his life as he. struggles to get a grip on reality. before his mind scrambles and he dies. A. warning sign being what Agatha said at. the start of this episode, a. nosebleleed. It seems as though the. theory was correct. Yay. However, I must. say this episode is actually doing. something far more technical. The. constant was an emotional character arc. that preached the healing power of love. that also deepened the lore of the lost. series. Death's hand in mine is more of. a puzzle box that connects the dots of. really every unexplained phenomena of. Lilia Calder's character. Something. closer, I would say, to the big twist in. Mike Flanigan's The Haunting of Hill.

House, the end of episode 5, the bent. neck lady, where a character that we had. been following upon her death is. revealed to be a ghost that we had been. seen at several key moments. And we. revisit each of those moments from her. perspective with her falling as Lilia. does through the floors of each past. memory. And I also brought up this. episode of Hunt of Hill House and sneak. peek last Sunday. So, yay. But what. really makes this special for Lilia are. the themes that this ambitious. structural device delivers, which are. actually, I would say, contrary to the. constant and the bent neck lady, and. I'll get to those at the end of this. analysis. This episode's writers, Gia.

King and Cameron Squires, had to both. understand the objective chronology of. Lilia's journey, but reorder it in a way. so that she would react to her. spontaneously leaping path in real time. according to her point of view. And that. point of view forms her character arc as. she reaches her catharsis through the. course of her trial in the weird curved. path that she takes. And each step of. that cathartic journey needs to be. driven by emotional heightening and. discovery and just her own accumulation. of knowledge. So, it's not just random. jumping. This is not an easy script to. write and they nailed it. So right here.

in this moment when Lilia said she was. falling, she's talking about her fall at. the end of this episode, which a moment. earlier she could only see is taking. place in a dark void and couldn't yet. discern the context of that fall or even. the actual direction of that fall. But. Jen assumes that she's talking about the. fall that they had shared minutes before. this down into this tunnel from the mud. that Billy threw them into. Between that. splat and now there was some other. conversation between Lily and Jen. We. learn it was a future Lilia looping back. to that muddy tunnel moments before to. inform Jen that the teen was Wanda's. son, but it actually comes as news to.

Lilia now. >> Teen is the son of the Scarlet Witch. How do you know? >> I told you. >> Now, the framing of this dialogue in. these Lilia scenes places the actors in. the center of frame, which is a Wes. Anderson type style that creates this. awkward comedic tension. But for Lilia, it's also a way that this episode shows. her perspective as she focuses directly. on the words of the person she is. talking to. does not get distracted by. the periphery around them and really. just struggles to link these puzzle. pieces of conversations from different. moments. Jen says, >> "You're being extra wispy, wispy, kooky.

Which is it? Am I wispy or am I. cookooky?". >> Nice. This is one of the nonsequitator. lines that Lilia said to Alice in. episode 4. >> Which is it? Am I wispy or am I cooky? >> But while Patty Leone said it as a. frenetic outburst in episode 4, now. episode 7 contextualizes it as just like. a kind of moody response to Jen in the. tunnel in the previous moment. This. episode depicts time slipping with. camera movements. The first one is a. lateral pan which helps orient the. viewer to see this transition as like. the turning of a page or even just. turning her head to someone else in the.

conversation. But then they use a creepy. dolly zoom on the next slippage which. shows how Lilia is now terrified by. what's happening as she pieces together. two moments that we actually assembled. in our episode 5 breakdown. >> Alice, don't try to save Agatha. Lilia, as we suspected, was relieved to see. Alice alive again and instinctively. tried to warn her to not use her powers. to save Agatha in episode 5. But it's. too late. The sentence actually just. finishes with Agatha back in episode 3. >> Try to save Agatha. Uh. >> [clears throat]. >> uh. Yes. I love this plan. >> The exact wrong person to give this.

message to. This idea of consciousness. displacement is a form of time travel. that I have categorized in past New. Rockstars videos as type seven aka. unstuck mind. Before Desmond on Lost, Kurt Vonagget played with this concept. in Slaughterhouse 5 with the character. of Billy Pilgrim. It's also the form of. time travel used by Wolverine in X-Men. Days of Future Past, which gets a. musical reference at the end of this. episode. And if you watched Agents of. Shield, there was a character of Robin. Hinton who had a similar condition. In. this instance, it really adheres to the. MCU's general philosophy when it comes. to time travel. What I have actually. called type four, this always happened,

aka destiny, predestination, fate. It. means that there is a fixed destiny for. all characters and that any steps they. take in their lives to travel back in. time, either through their bodies or. just their minds, doesn't change the. past. It just kind of fulfills their own. destiny and justifies the past to be. what it was always going to be. Never. mind the branch reality's mumbo jumbo of. Avengers Endgame. Even those. screenwriters couldn't fully commit to. it because they insist that old man. Steve Rogers at the end of the movie had. lived his whole life in the background. of the same MCU history the whole time.

we're watching phases 1, 2, and three. >> THE WHOLE TIME. >> WE ALL instinctively want to narrize our. own lives as being faded in some way. That's how we derive meaning. Unstuck. mind, though, is my favorite form of. fictional time travel because it. suggests that it's not us who change. history, but rather history that changes. us by giving us new insight as we dwell. on it. It reflects the way our minds. work every day as we zone out and just. relive memories that we are ultimately. powerless to change. Lilia loops back to. her maestra, played by Laura Bachelleti,

whom we saw in episode 3 in that. horrifying vision. Lilia is now in the. body of her young self, played by Khloe. Camp, whom we also saw in that episode. This garden looks like the same tea. table that made up Lilia's vision in. episode 3, except now you'll notice it's. all full of life and free from the. shadow of death. The maestra says, "Ah, you're visiting." As she can sense that. the girl she was just talking to now has. a consciousness of a witch over 400. years older. We pan from a young Lilia. to the maestra, then back to old Lilia. And it seems like they really just. swapped out Khloe for Patty in the same. tape. The maestra says that Lilia is. back in her first lesson, tea leaf.

reading, which Lilia claims she was. never good at. A narrative, the maestra. says that Lilia has always told herself, but is not true. She calls it the easy. road, as if knowing that Lilia is. currently on a road of a different kind. A complex episode structure like this. requires the bones of the act structure. to be quite rigid so that the viewer. doesn't get lost. And so, this first. visit to the Maestra is really the first. of three visits that designate the acts. of this episode. Like this meeting is. followed by a loop back to Jen in the. tunnel and then Lilia joining Agatha and. Billy in the castle. Then flash into an. even more chaotic memory trip. Then back.

to the maestrip for a second time. Then. back to the tunnel with Jen. Then back. in the castle where Lilia takes charge. of the terror lesson. But it's not. enough. She has to go through a final. chaotic memory trip that takes her back. to the maestro for a third time. And. then finally opens Lilia's eyes to the. moment she initially splatted down with. Jen, had all the answers and realized. that she needed to be the queen of cups. she was always meant to be. which lines. all the pieces in place and solves the. trial just in time for Lilia to invert. the tower and defeat the Sailless Seven. Again, that is three visits to the. Maestra, each about 5 minutes apart in. this episode's runtime for the three. acts of Lily's journey. And that's how. the script takes us on this wild trip.

without us feeling too lost. It's. actually a very organized episode. But. the maestro discounting Lilia being bad. at tea leaves is actually justified here. as Lilia gazes downward at the muddy. leaves and the camera swoops down into. the muddy tunnel. Really, this whole. trial is just a simple act of the. maestra teaching young Lilia her very. first lesson. She needed her future. older self to hop into her past body to. be able to look down at those leaves and. to see more experience and meaning, to. have the broken chunks of her life only. older women would know, to steer her.

past self, to be able to read tea leaves. and become the queen of cups. Kind of. like Wanda needing that vision of her. future self in the glow of the mindstone. radiation to gain certainty of her. destiny and to know that she can do. this. All witches need that guidance. from their future selves. Now, when Lily. returns to the tunnel with Jen, she's. frustrated to learn just more context, that her slightly future self will know, but not her present self yet, that there. is a subway station somewhere in these. tunnels and that the Salem 7 are near. We need to feel Lilia sinking deeper. into confusion and despair before she. can crawl her way out. But at least. Lilia to clarify a rule for the MCU.

>> The flow of time is an illusion, Jen. Most people don't realize that. Lilia is. giving her take on what the Loki series. established specifically in the season 1. finale which included this opening audio. sample as we were flying back through. the galaxy. We think time as a oneway. motion. >> This is a quote from Alan Watts 1972. lecture on time wherein Watts explains. how human beings are only able to see. time as linear when in reality events. from the past and the future could be. happening all at once. This line from. Lilia establishes that MCU characters. whose wisdom is rooted in sorcery or.

maybe just a technology so advanced it's. basically the same as sorcery. The. quantum theory of infinite universes is. not true. That we are all actually. living on fixed predestined life paths. that if our consciousness ever allows us. to step away and look back on that path, we could hop around and reexperience. different moments of that path. Lily. explains that when she was a child, she. experienced her life out of sequence, but only now those gaps have returned. and they're getting worse. We have to. wonder if the reason Lilia experienced. those flashes only as a kid is this.

journey on the road right now, looping. back only to her early youth to give. that girl the skills that she would need. as a beginner witch to set her on that. light path. Like that would explain why. Lilia would become unstuck only at the. beginning and at the end of her life and. not in between. A really cool visual. detail here when we cut back to Jen, the. yellow route behind her winds behind her. head as if to show that she is still. witnessing time in its normal linear. form. Whereas Lilia in the framing of. the scene is removed from the yellow. roots in the background. Kind of like. saying that she is detached from any. kind of flow of time. Jen asks if being. at the end means her full powers are.

returning and Lilia says, >> "I'm not so sure I WANT IT.". >> AH, Lilia's consciousness leads to being. pinned by Agatha in the castle. Why is. Agatha on top of her? Well, we will see. later in this episode as Lilia is. explaining the tarot board, a sword will. fall directly over Lily's chair and. Agatha will jump to tackle her to save. her right before the next lapse begins. We'll come back to this moment. So Lilia. has leapt past the moment she and Jen. found the castle through the. bookshelves. So that Lilia is now just. there in her Glenda the good witch. costume and Jyn is dressed as the evil. witch from Snow White who has appeared. in the closing credits of every episode.

But from present Lilia's point of view. since this is the first time she's seen. Billy since he plunged her into the mud. She rightfully accost him. >> We are not cool teenager. Damn using his. full name. >> It's a solid joke. Teen being like his. given name. Teenager being his first and. last name. Billy defends himself saying. that he didn't know he could use his. power. Joe Lock and Jack Schaefer have. suggested that part of Billy's powers. coming from Wana Maximoff means. emotional outbursts that just cause. collateral damage like this. But Billy. begins to dialogue with just the. thoughts that are in Lilia's head. >> If I'd have known, I would have.

Yes, of course. I would have used it to. save Alice. >> I love how much Lilia mourns Alice. Like. her go-to thought during this moment was. one of the first messages she said while. she was time slipping. Like, Alice, don't try to save Agatha. And now in her. head was something like, "Teeneagen, if. you had Wanda's power, why didn't you. save Alice?" Since the sigil has now. been broken since they last spoke and. Lily has calmed down, she remembers the. face as this boy from the bar mitzvah. And based on Billy's reaction, this is a. new thing for him as he realizes he and. Lilia had crossed paths before the. accident. Jen says that she's moved on. about Billy's actions.

>> at your prompting, Dory. >> So, Agatha is apparently seen finding. Nemo and is making fun of Lilia for. being forgetful due to her lapsing as. Dory is forgetful. Now, two things I. have with this. What if Dory wasn't just. forgetful, but was actually lapsing. through time. Also, what if Agatha never. saw Finding Nemo and only ever saw. finding Dory like some kind of. psychopath? But Agatha saying this in. Jen saying the flow of time is an. illusion, right? Tells Lilia that they. must be after that moment with Jen and. Lilia in the tunnel. And that sometime. in between then and now, Lilia has told. all of them, including Agatha, to.

forgive Billy, and that it must have. really freaked Billy out to have that. forgiving Lilia for one moment followed. by an angry version of Lily returning. That's why he said, "I thought we were. cool." When she pushed him, Lily. explains why she placed the sigil on. William. I saw what was going to happen. to you that night. I saw who you were. and who you would become. >> Lilia knew that William would experience. a car accident and have his body taken. over by the Scarlet Witch's son. And she. only knew in that moment because we are. going to see her flash back with that. knowledge to give herself that idea in. 2023 when this episode goes back to the.

tower reversed moment. So, everyone. panics as more swords fall and since. they aren't really participating in the. tarot exercise. And in that panic, Lilia. flashes back to the cabin sleepover IN. EPISODE 5. I HATED this the first time, >> which we previously linked back to her. moment in the kitchen episode two. [screaming]. >> But notice how Lilia doesn't fully. relive that moment with Agatha and Billy. in the kitchen. A detail I love here. Now from Lilia's perspective, she turns. back to Agatha and Billy to hear them. say, "Looks like we came to the right. place and are you all right, ma'am?".

Which were actually in response to. Lilia's initial scream. And now Lilia. goes back into her panic saying, "Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop." And when you go back. to watch episode 2's version of this, after Agatha and Billy say those lines, Lilia does turn her back to them and she. kind of waves them off. >> Are you all right, ma'am? >> So, that was really Lilia collapsing. away from them for just a moment to loop. back to her maestra. And I love that. they planted all these little. placeholders in there from the. beginning. The maestra asks what Lilia's. life is like 450 years in the future. Lilia says that she's not rooted in. nature, that she's not nimble at her.

craft, that she has no coven, and that. she's better off as a fraud and a hermit. because her memory of William reminded. her of her gig as a middle-aged fortune. teller at kids parties. She doesn't yet. have the confidence to complete the task. and thus must go back through another. loop of everything. This maestro session. includes a side view of this table, which Brandon spotted has a Latin. phrase, nav, expeditis system, seller. quamventus. Sorry if I mispronounced. that, but it appears to translate to be. as swift as the wind in your ship or as. the wind in your sails. Another instance. of a witch as a vessel, which makes us.

think of Lily Calder as a possible ship. of Thesius. Like she must lean back into. the most trembling phase of her youth. because that wear and tear on the planks. was the most identity forming part of. her life. The maestra says, >> "Your task is not to control, but to. see.". >> And from the maestra's point of view, we. look directly into the sunlight, which. takes Lilia back to the tunnels and not. back to her previous check-in with Jen, which would give her all the answers. But after it, when she's still in the. blind, she can't even inform Jen that. the next trial is tarot because Jen. already has that info. Jen is really. just running laps around her with bits. about champagne brunches that Lilia.

missed. >> Well, you did miss out on the champagne. brunch back there. >> Really? >> No. >> It's a good bit, but it's also a little. clue of what Lilia really needs. Some. camaraderie of drinking with her. girlfriends like they did in episode 3. >> I love you guys. >> What's missing is a coven. As we learn, Lilia finds Billy's spellbook, which he. lost in episode 5 sometime during the. Hexenbest in flight. In this light, we. can see a band across the center of it. that shows the phases of the moon. Just. another example of something from. Billy's life corresponding to the design. of the witch's road. Lily and Jen find. shelving their access point to the.

castle trial. So, in an episode about. Luke being back in a predestined. timeline, we must reference the. bookshelf of Christopher Nolan's. Interstellar. Remember Christopher Nolan. used Murf's bookcase as Cooper's window. through time and the way the beams of. light streak through the books here. recalls the lines of gravity through the. book pages that Cooper could kind of. pluck to communicate to Murf through. time in Morse code. That bookcase is. really an important symbol because it. represents how all the answers we need. in our lives can actually be found right. in front of us right there on the. bookshelf if you just crack open a damn. book if we can just open our minds to.

the possibilities in those pages. This. shelving also functions as a eureka of. illumination for Lilia because for the. first time she's able to will herself to. a precise moment she wants to get to the. moment Billy invoked her. It actually. kind of recalls Gandalf's line and. fellowship. >> A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggin, nor is he early. He arrives precisely. when he means to. >> But Lilia's version of that is this. >> Relax, baby. We're cool. >> This was the we're cool that gave Billy. his assumption in the earlier scene. And.

Lilia, having lived through that future. fight. Now it's just saying we're cool. Really is a way to apologize to Billy. and to make peace. Lilia now confidently. takes charge of the tarot challenge. Billy steps up as the quarant. >> Me? I I guess I'm the quirant. >> Yeah. Agatha always shits on Billy's. jokes like she did when he welcomed the. coven back in episode 2 with a little. pieces of granola bars. Billy asks his. question, >> "Am I William or am I Billy?". >> Interesting. So, he only has secondhand. fragments of memories from before 2023. And he will likely have to realize his. history in the final two episodes so. that really he can be both Billy and.

William. Lily explains a safe passage. spread. Center, the first card, the. traveler. The top front card is what's. missing. Back to the dealer's right, is. a path behind. Wounds suffered, lessons. learned. Back to the dealer's left, the. path ahead, a space for growth and. discovery. Center right, obstacles, center left, windfall, and directly. center on top the initial card is the. destination. Billy begins to draw the. cards. His traveler is the magician, meaning enormous potential and the. ability to turn all your goals into. reality. Kind of like Wanda's ability to. manifest her reality. This magician card. is a red robe and a type of crown that. Wiccan wears in the comics. What's.

missing is the sun, meaning good. fortune, joy, reunion. could also be. word play as the son as in Wanda's other. son Tommy because it is Tommy that Billy. wants a reunion with. Now Billy tries to. draw the path behind card but there's. another sword directly above Lilia and. Agatha tackles her out of the way which. book ends with the moment we talked. about earlier when Agatha was on top of. her. >> Agatha. >> and now we know that the end of the word. bag ended in that G sound which is going. to be the beginning of get off me. Instead, Lilia lapses back to Agata's.

basement back in episode 2 when she says. that. >> Get off me. >> And I assume you've all been catching. it, but every time Lilia lapses from one. moment in history to another, it comes. with this audio chime effect that kind. of sounds like an inverted chime. >> Get off me. >> So now the camera just swings around the. backs of the other instances this coven. was all together and we transition. behind someone's back to the weird. moment at the campfire in episode 4. You. know, we really kind of hated each other. in the beginning, but now.

>> But now, >> huh, Lilia, [laughter]. where do you go? >> But here, Lilia continues to smoothly. drift to the other untethered moment. from episode 3. >> You know, we really hated each other. from the beginning, but now. >> I love you guys. >> And the camera continues turning back to. Lilia with her maestro for the third. time. If Lilia was so confident with. Tero, why does she still not have. control over her slipping? Well, in good. story structure, this is really the take. step of the story. According to Dan. Harmon story circle, you have to give. the hero a taste of what they're.

seeking. And we're almost home, but you. have to push them one step further to. really make them earn it. Lilia. confesses the true reason she stopped. listening to her divination powers is. that as a girl, she foresaw a fever. coming to wipe out their coven and she. was powerless to stop it. Probably. referring to the great Italian plague. that was a version of the bubanic plague. of previous centuries that hit around. that time of Lilia's youth. This is what. Lily saw in her vision episode 3 when. Rio as death made her first true form. appearance on this series. The mistress. shrugs and says. >> death comes for us all. >> This is what Lilia had said while.

passing Agatha and Billy back in episode. 5 after Agatha killed Alice. >> Death. comes for us all. >> I love the idea that Lilia already knew. the answer. She just needed to hear it. again. And so now the camera swings the. other direction from before to the left. now. And rather than it being a lapse. transition, Lilia stays in this moment. I was falling. >> I will fall. >> Her mysterious plunge was not a. forgotten memory. It's her future. destiny. Knowledge and acceptance of.

one's fate is one of the most powerful. gifts because now you can plot out every. move of your endgame. And so now Lilia. sees the code of the Matrix. She loops. back to the very first moment that had. eluded her. The moment after she and. Lilia had splattered in the tunnel after. Billy threw them in the mud. I love the. makeup detail of making Patty and Sashir. the muddiest. Now, to signal this to the. viewer, it's so satisfying to see Lilia. just finally rattle off all the context. that she had been fishing from Jen. throughout the episode. >> The son of the Scarlet Witch. telepathically kicked us off the road. We sank beneath the surface and now. we're here. Agatha is in the trial with.

Billy. Son of the Scarlet Witch, try to. keep up. It's a divination trial. Tarot, we've got to find the bookshelf. >> And I love this because it's all a. relieved, rushed rant from Lilia, and it. just comes out as a verbal exposition. dump that Jen would just take in, but. you know, obviously naturally dole out. in tiny increments to Lilia. and their. later walks down the tunnel. But what I. also love about it is if you were to. order this chronologically, we as. viewers would probably cringe at this. clunky exposition dump and call it bad. writing. But now in an inverted. structure, as a character so relieved to. have all the answers, it comes out as. catharsis. So now when Lily looks ahead,

she sees two paths. One with the yellow. routes that would take them under the. road to the castle. Another to a subway. station, the one that Jen mentioned. before. This train car is a sign reading. WV Metro, presumably West View Metro. Sharon talks about this Metro line back. in episode 3. All I would have expected. to see down here were remnants of our. failed public transit system. >> It's not clear if this is a literal. train line or just kind of a magical. manifestation of the road, but it seems. like it's kind of designed to be an. escape hatch, an exit door. The fact. that there's even an exit door, though, to the witch's road makes me think even.

more that Agatha was on the road before, but maybe even took or built this early. exit before she could finish the road. The Salem almost 7 passed through. and. the way their hoods are draped over. their head pieces that go behind their. heads. Kind of looks as though their. giant heads are bowed forward, but. they're walking backwards. This group. has always looked very creepy. And now. that Lilia sees her own version of the. road ahead of her, she loops back to the. castle. The road winds out of time, she. says. She gathers up the cards, and she. casts herself as a traveler. This. montage of the cards that Lily flips are. all exact recreations of the tarot cards. that we have seen all season long. And. each of the time she exclaimed these.

cards in past episodes all align now to. form her safe passage. The answers were. there all along. The traveler is the. queen of cups with young Lilia realizing. her mastery over tea leaf reading. What's missing? The three of pentacles. community. The singular voices waiting. to harmonize because Lilia needs a coven. of friends. We see her three of. pentacles eviction notice where she. wrote the coven list in episode 2. The. path behind the knight of wands. Alice. makes the same pose with her arms that. the knight makes with the staff on the. card. Actually, that eagle shield above. the knight on the card was also on the.

flag that had just snapped off from the. lowering ceiling representing Alice's. death. The path ahead, the high. priestess. We see Jen standing in front. of the painting glowing just like the. high priestess on the card. And that's. why Lilia tells her that she's a path. ahead as her gift on the way out. Obstacles, the three of swords. We see. Agatha from Lilia's vantage point at the. end of episode 4 when three branches. were behind her forming that shape as. she was grieving over Billy's near. death. The windfall, the tower reversed, the fall. We see Lilia's view of William. in the tent and his future form of Billy. with a tower reversed in the crystal. ball which leads her to the destination.

And now the episode structure does. something very clever. We laugh back. even earlier. the exact moment of the. splat, the truth that was hidden from. her all along but in plain sight. Rio. steps forward from the darkness. And. Lilia remembers that hot mic moment in. episode 4. The death spelled out on the. Ouija board in episode 5. And now stands. Aubrey Plaza as mistress death in the. exact pose of the death tarot card. dagger in one hand, black heart in the. other. Interesting design though. Half. of her face is twisted into a skull. because you know death is a hooded skull. as we see in the Thor Love and Thunder. cosmic entity chamber. But they keep.

Aubrey Plaza's eyes because her eyes are. just so huge, so iconic. We need to also. recognize her as Aubrey. And notice how. she is wearing a green crown as she is. the original green witch. Realizing that. death is the destination retracts the. sword ceiling. The iron maiden opens and. a new tunnel with green roots is on the. other side signaling the final leg of. the road being a battle of Agatha versus. Rio/ death which trailer shots have. shown will be set under a green shaded. sky. Like the Wizard and the Wizard of. Oz, Lilia leaves each of them with a. gift. She tells Agatha, >> "When she calls you a coward, hit the. deck." Hm. The mid-season trailer showed.

Agatha ducking under some piece of. debris that blasted out toward her in. her fight with Rio. She returns Billy's. spellbook to him. A spell book that we. should remember contained the Latin. phrase, "It's not easy being green.". Which this show's language consultant. confirmed directly to me on Twitter was. not a joke of her own, but an order. directly from the show's producers. So, I think it's actually a clue. Lilia. tells Jennifer that she's the path. ahead. And yes, Jen must have some role. to play. A promo poster showed Sashir in. the morg trial. Jessica Clemens. theorized that the morg will be where. death stores all of her claimed souls. The Salem 7 rat crawls out of the. bookshelf. Now Gina I believe actually.

identified all these. We see Jane. Austin's senses its ability volume two. Tom Bird volume two by Charles James. Lever. Edward Bulmer Lightens Leila aka. the siege of Granada volume 36. That. same author is Paul Clifford and what. will he do with it volume 9 John. Glasworthy's under a book by NFS. Gruntvig a Dutch philosopher poet and. historian in the early 19th century. Jeep aer's stem dig three kaj monk. mundave's dagen. or ind artiller and then Raquel Welch's.

autobiography beyond the cleavage which. is Gina's favorite detail in our. favorite episode the animal forms of the. Salem 7 enter the room and we see the. crow fly overhead and then there's this. cool shot where we actually cut back to. Patty Leone as a camera swings around. her and the human forms of the Salem 7. are already set in that shot standing up. Lilia flips the tower which was. previously inverted to now be upright to. represent sudden upheaval in the tower. defies gravity. [screaming]. Interestingly, we also see the hourglass. turn, suggesting that hey, maybe Lilia.

might might have actually given herself. more time. While all of the Salem 7 fall. initially, we do only see five of them. hit the sword surface. This could be. just the ones who fill the frame of the. shot and they want to imply that all of. them died. I think all probably are. dead, but we did note on the break room. that two of them can turn into animals. that fly, the crow and the cicada. And. the tower tarot card shows two figures. exiting the tower. Lilia hangs from the. table when she decides to let go. Like. Natasha Romanov, her hand was clutching.

right on the word path because now she's. leaving her place on the path by her own. choice. In the opening shot, Lilia was. panicked as she fell, but now a look of. relief and elation fills her face. We. don't see her hit the swords, but we. have to assume this is her end. She's. not falling. She's ascending into. clarity and into vision. And as this is. an episode about time not having a. linear end, one of the few liberating. aspects of predestination is that it. grants us a form of immortality because. we constantly circle back through our. beginnings. For Lilia, she goes back to. her very first step on her path to. becoming a witch. >> Let us begin. >> And so, in a way, when we die, we never.

really die. We just kind of go back. through our life and learn new lessons. The credits music is Jim Crochy's time. in a bottle, which was also featured in. X-Men: Days of Future Past. The scene. when Evan Peters of Quicksilver speeds. so fast through the circular kitchen of. the Pentagon prison that time from our. point of view slowed nearly to a stop. Such a fun nod to Evan Peters, but also. perfectly encapsulates the desire to. control time, which Lilia finally. bottles in this episode. Now, I went. into this episode thinking that it would. be like lost the constant. In some ways, the way Desmond's human and Lily. Calderoo experience time as unstuck is.

similar, but thematically these episodes. are about very different things. The. constant is about finding purpose in the. middle of one's life to love another. Death's hand in mine on Agatha is about. finding purpose in the twilight of one's. life. Purpose in death. Death does come. for us all. And we all reach a point in. our lives where we fear that we might be. past our prime, thinking that the best. things we'll ever do are behind us. But. you never know. The final minutes of. your life, the wisdom and gifts that you. bequeath to your survivors on your way. out the door. Sometimes [music] that is. the most important thing that any of us. will ever do. You have to live for those.

final minutes. And sometimes just the. simplicity of what that mission is can. give the rest of our very confusing. lives perfect 2020 hindsight and. clarity. Now forgive me for putting. interstellar in your head again but you. know there is a Dylan Thomas quote. Do. not go gently into that good night. Old. age should burn and rave at the close of. day. Rage rage against the dying of the. light. After this episode I prefer the. maestra's version. >> I will fall. Yes. What will you do with your. remaining time? This is a breakdown of. Agatha Allong episodes 8 and 9. Follow.

me my friend to glory at the End and. Maiden Mother Cone. Everything you might. have missed in these two episodes. Let's. start with episode 8. Follow me my. friend to glory at the end. These are. the normal ending lyrics of the Ballad. of the Witches Road, the sacred version, not the new cover that we hear in. episode 9, which ends with wherever it. may bend, I'll be there at the end. And. that's because Follow Me My Friend to. Glory at the End is a false promise made. by Agatha to all the witches. used the. song to learn to stealing their powers. She was not friends with any of them and. there wasn't glory at the end for any of.

them. The structure of these final two. episodes is a similar misdirect. Agatha. all along provided no glorious ending. with prizes the way many Marvel Disney. Plus series have aimed to do sometimes. unsuccessfully. No fireworks really. This series ends with two episodes. The. first one ending with a bang, a pre-. finale followed by an actual finale that. feels more like an epilog. We open. episode 8 back in Agatha's sleepover. cabin from episode 5 as Alice Wu Guliver. lies on the floor after having her life. force strained by Agatha. Yet she's back. appearing healthy wearing her Hot Topic.

clothes. The camera glides over her body. into this overhead angle as Rio's. blacktip fingers brush her cheek. And. then the camera rolls into this upside. down position so that it looks like. Alice is upside down. And if you. consider that Lilia was really falling. up into the sword ceiling in episode 7, this would be the same pose she would. have ended up in. This camera movement. is especially creepy considering death's. fingers come in from below. Yet, when it. rolls over Alice to show that angle of. the room, there is no one standing. there. Around Alice on the rug are torn. pages from a book I couldn't identify. But the pages mention a Mr. Melu and a.

Sue and a cra. Since the episode 5 trial. was an 80s sleepover, I'm going to. assume this is from some teen paperback. like Sweet Valley High or Babysitters. Club or Camp Sunnyside Friends. And. speaking of 80s to '90s kid stories, listen to the music here as Rio presents. herself. This is the same kind of instrumentation. used in the Nickelodeon series, Are You. Afraid of the Darks theme. So, this is. where Rio was in the final minutes of. episode 5. It would be after this when. Rio would then present herself to Lilia.

in her truer skeletal form in episode 7. It's an act of kindness here that Rio. does not present her skull face to. Alice, but rather a friendlier face to. guide her to the end as she respected a. witch who went down fighting Agatha. Now, when Alice was on the floor at the. beginning of the scene, it was just this. version of her. But now, when Rio points. over, Alice sees her true drained. corpse. In the '8s Clothes on the Floor, it's similar to the shots for the 1990. film Ghost. When characters die, they. don't initially realize they're dead, and they rise to their feet and then. turn back to see their corpse on the.

ground. Alice is in disbelief, saying, "This can't be the end. It has to be the. beginning." Another parallel to Lilia, whose death was followed by a looping. back to the beginning of her journey. A. good ending should always feel like a. new beginning. Alice follows Rio into a. green mist out the cabin doors. Notice. they don't go up out the exit stairs. that Agatha and the others took. They go. back through the doors from which they. came in the opposite direction on the. road. The green mist is similar to the. steam in the steam room in episode 3 in. the smoke and Lorna Woo's dressing room. from the fire. Now, to answer a question. some are asking, the ballot of the.

witch's road was a trick used by Agatha, but Lorna did not die by Agatha draining. her. Lorna died from the generational. curse demon in the fire. and Lorna had. thought that going down the road could. have saved her daughter Alice. Whereas. most other episodes opened with the text. of the episode title, this episode. delays it so that it comes right after. the Alice Rio prologue as if to suggest. its deaths beckoning to Alice like. follow me my friend to glory at the end. Reclaiming the phrase from Agatha's. false promise to a genuine celebration. of a witch who has died protecting. another to follow a friend to eternal.

glory. Jen pounds on the doors of the. Iron Maiden, screaming for Lilia. And. remember, Iron Maidens are torture. devices. And now Jen and Billy are kind. of being tortured with survivors guilt. Jen turns for a moment and. with just this earthy sound effect, the. Iron Maiden doors have transformed. offcreen into just tunnel dirt. Agatha. finds Rio back in the road and the dirt. around Rio's feet swirls as she seems to. be moving it telekinetically with her. fingers. Rio is back to wearing her. green crown. A crazy detail about this. crown. We often saw Aubrey Plaza from.

these episode 8 scenes. these shots in. the trailers, but in the trailers they. removed the crown from the shots. I. don't know what about a green crown. would have been a spoiler, but I guess. they just didn't want to suggest that. Rio had actually a higher power status. than the rest of them. Customer Daniel. Salon, who just give him the Emmy at. this point, went into detail on his. design for Rio's costume, how it's meant. to look like a fungal mcelium network. merged with her body, and within the. costume, it's meant to be a cycle of. blossom and decay. And he added a little. pet spider on her shoulder. In some of.

these shots, Agatha is framed with a. tree with three branches behind her. Once again, recreating the three of. swords tarot card from Lilia's. perspective in episode 7. And it's. because she is always mourning her son. Nicholas. Death realizes that Agatha all. this time was distracting her from. Billy. And indeed, we pointed out in our. episode 4 breakdown right before that. hot mic moment. Agatha jumped to her. feet right when she realized Rio had. been staring for too long at Billy. Death calls Billy an abomination. >> is disrupting the sacred balance. Hm. Anytime someone in the MCU calls some. matter of fate sacred, we have to.

consider the TVA's terminology of the. sacred timeline. Death is another one of. these cosmic forces who dislike Nexus. disruptors to the plan. Death mocks. Agatha for going on a walk with another. woman's son. >> on a road that doesn't stop. >> Yeah, Death I was about to say doesn't. even exist. The fact that Agatha stopped. her suggests that Agatha's still ashamed. that she made up the ballot of the. witch's road and feels awkward to be. caught in a lie thanks to Billy's. Scarlet Witch powers. Meanwhile, Jen. explains to Billy that green craft is. about growth and decay in constant flow. So therefore, it makes sense that Rio is.

death. Somehow, it also makes more sense. that Loki as God of Stories is also. coded as green and tends to the branches. of a tree that represents all of time. constantly growing, constantly decaying. They also wonder how Agatha and Rio met, and Jen theorizes over corpses. Jack. Schaefer brought this up to the rap when. asked why no flashback was ever included. showing Agatha and Rio's meat cute. and. Schaefer suggested that while one was. never written, the idea that they. discussed was that they might have met. in the aftermath of Agatha's trial over. the corpses of the Saleommites. This.

missing scene could have also. established the origin of the Salem 7 as. the daughters of the Saleommites. Death. says that Billy committed a violation by. stealing the life of William Kaplan and. that he's about to do the same for his. brother Tommy. But death can't just take. Billy because then he'll reincarnate in. another body. I believe this is because. Billy Maximoff was a Scarlet Witch's. grief manifested, aka love persevering, and that Wanda's magic means that the. grief love magic will always persevere. in whatever open vessel it can find. Agatha offers to deliver Billy to death, and Death makes one of the coolest exits.

ever. Aubrey Plaza pulls out her dagger. and actually slices a cut in the real. backdrop of the set and slips through. it. I love this for at least four. reasons. One, it's fully practical and. it demonstrates the true value of. shooting the Witches Road on a real. practical set. It almost feels like. something Oper Plaza could have just. improvised, although it was carefully. planned. Two, death exposing the road as. a theatrical Urers set is further hint. that it is a manifested dollhouse. reality of a teenager and that death. knows that. Three, it creates this. Truman Showesque trippy visual where the.

plane we thought was the distant. background is actually the immediate. foreground. And four, it's like a 10. times cooler version of the Doctor. Strange and Clea slicing a tear in. reality in the Multiverse of Madness. postredit scene where there was. obviously VFX there, but Rio is doing. the same thing, irreverently. transitioning across realms and. realities. This shot just demonstrates. that things can look a lot cooler when. it's practical. And Jack Schaefer. confirmed this to the rap saying that. the reason the road in our show is. practical is because Billy Maximoff is a. baby witch and he can't be creating. thousands and thousands of miles of. forest. So he created a backdrop and he.

created force perspective and he created. models and all of the practicality of. our sets is because of him and because. of his limitations of physicality. creating this world on the ground. underneath Westview. And so that moment. with Rio and the knife cutting the. backdrop that is Rio acknowledging that. she knows what's going on that she knows. Billy has created this witch's road hex. It also just is such a badass moment. And Schaefer goes on to say it was also. a nod to Wanda Vision. It was meant to. sort of have the Wanda Vision feels like. the jump cut moment, like the Vision's. head being crushed in, like all of our. weird sort of stepout moments, the.

beekeeper, because he had such a short. period of time where we were ready to. hint at the twist that Billy had to make. the road. And so, it was in that same. episode that we were like, we'll do this. sick moment. So, Agatha rejoins Billy. and Jen as they stumble back upon their. empty shoes that they left when they. embarked upon this road, making it a. full circle. And I like the detail that. part of the road that they were just on. with the green tint ends abruptly now. and becomes blue as it was when they. started. Agatha snaps that's it. And. notice she aims it at Billy because she. knows at this point that the road is his. creation. Now Jen's eyes drift from. Sharon's shoes to Lilia's and Alice's.

Billy looks down too. >> What are you going to do? >> Have them bronzed? >> Actually, when we see Billy's bedroom. later, he does indeed have empty pairs. of shoes that are bronzed. Billy puts. his shoes back on to enter the next. trial, which is very Wizard of Oz. The. way Dorothy putting on the Ruby slippers. really started her journey, and it took. clicking the heels of those shoes. together at the end to take her home. Agatha explicitly references this when. they get inside the morg. There's no. place like home. >> The final trial is an Earth trial set in. a morg made out of Agatha's basement. This makes me think that back in episode.

1, when Agatha, as Agnes, went to a morg. to find the Jane Doe corpse and found. Rio as she clawed her way out of the. spell, that morg location in real life. was probably just Agatha's basement. The. lights overhead are purple grow lights. emitting artificial UV radiation. Last. week I speculated that this final trial. might be a new moon. The darkest of the. lunar calendar with no natural light. reflected from the moon. That seems to. be the case at least down here. I know. it's a crescent moon when they go. outside. This room has five sides like. the pentagon that formed the door to the. road in the basement. Joe Lock has.

actually said in interviews that all of. the trial sets we've seen on the series, if you look at blueprints for them, a. base structure of five sides. The three. of them are all wearing medical gowns. and stripped down. Like, notice how the. piercings of Billy and Jen are gone. Every trial has a countdown clock. This. one has the overhead lights. They form. an analog clock, which reminds us of. Billy in episode 3 being unable to read. an analog clock because he's a kid. And. I guess they don't teach that in schools. anymore. But when these lights go out. completely, there would be no light to. grow anything. They recall how effective. Jen has been despite her being bound.

And Jen realizes that she must not have. had that doctor take her powers, but. that she actually gave them up. And. Agatha's sus reaction gives it all away. Agatha was the one who bound Jennifer. >> Didn't know it was you. It was the. 1920s. I did the odd spell for bank. notes. The patriarchy really shelled out. to shush a lady. >> So Jennifer Kale was not bound by the. greater obstitrician society of Boston. in the 1920s. She was a midwife who. presumably offered better care for. pregnant women. And to shut her up and. silence her actually more effective.

methods. These doctors turned to Agatha. the Harkness and paid her to place a. binding spell on Jen. I have to say that. it's a bit unfortunate that Jen's. backstory had to be pieced together. through two pieces of rush dialogue. One. by the campfire in episode 4 and now. Agatha's line here when every other. major player in this coven benefited. from show don't tell and got a full. spotlight episode. It's especially odd. since Jen made it all the way to the end. and Lilia told her that she was the path. ahead. And really, other than Jen. telling them that the overhead lights. were grow lights. I suppose something. she would know from her work growing.

herbs. Jen doesn't contribute much to. the final trial. And we still don't. really know if the doctor drowning Jen. in that kitchen sink was part of what. actually happened to her or just a. nightmare vision representing what she. thought happened. I just feel like Jen. was a victim of the episode structure, perhaps the budget. But I'm just. wondering why the beach house kitchen. couldn't have been turned into like a. 1920s hospital delivery room where Jen. could have talked more openly about her. past the way Alice did in episode 4. My. only thought is that maybe the writer's. plan was for Jennifer's conflict with. the obies to approach the subject of. reproductive health in a way that maybe.

Disney thought was too hot button for. the current political climate, but I. don't really have any evidence of that. Anyway, Jen rips out some of Agatha's. hair and wraps it around their wrist to. cast an unbinding ritual. >> You hold nothing. Say it like you mean. it though, Jen. >> That Agatha would use this moment to. flirt with Jen. Also, you hold nothing. is very much like the end of Labyrinth. You have no power over me. As the power. returns to Jen, a blast of air blows up. the drawstring of Sashir's gown, and we. see Katherine Han's hair float upward, which is an interesting effect since. they seem to be in a sealed room without.

any vents or floor jets. I just think it. looks kind of cool. A pink glow emits. from Jen's hands, the same color the. potion glowed in episode 3, when she got. the mixture right. Jen disappears. >> The road gave her what she was missing, and now she's gone. Now, you may ask, why then in episode 4, once Alice Woo. Guliver cured herself of her. generational curse, wasn't Alice Woo. released from the road in the same way? Well, my interpretation is that Alice. Woo wasn't just on the road to heal. herself. She also needed to fulfill her. calling as a protector witch, the Knight. of Wands. And that mission brought her.

all the way to her death in episode 5, because that role also was critical for. Lilia, connecting the dots in episode 7. Now that it's just the two of them, Billy doesn't trust Agatha to juice her. up. >> Liar. I want liar. >> Yeah. Billy shouts liar in her face, turning the tables after she did the. same thing to him in episode 1 and. episode 6. >> Or totally lying. Or totally. lying. >> Agatha offers to help Billy find a body. for his brother Tommy by guiding him.

through some meditation to think about. his final moments in Westview. We hear. Vision and Wanda from their goodbye. scene to the boys in the Wision finale. >> Your mother and I very proud of you. your mother and I very proud of you. both. >> Boys, thanks for choosing me to be your. mom. Boys, thanks for choosing me to be. your mom. >> And thanks for choosing me to be your. mom was a line that I very much. overanalyzed while breaking down the. Wision finale. Now that I'm a parent, I. understand it's a sentiment that all. parents feel when we're blessed with a.

child who's young enough to still want. us and need us. But there's also some. cosmic truth to it for Billy and Tommy, disembodied souls who now kind of choose. a new body with new parents. Billy hears. a soft breathing of his brother. And. then here's Vision's final line to Wanda. as the hex collapsed. >> We have said goodbye before. So it. stands to reason. >> We'll say hello again. >> We have said goodbye before. So it. stands to reason. >> We'll say hello again. >> But think about it. Since Billy was. upstairs for that conversation, Billy. must be using his telepathy to listen to. the minds of people that he loves. And.

I'm still holding that as a promise, said Wanda and Vision will reunite. someday. Agatha coaches Billy along and. soon his and Tommy's breathing become. synced. Breathing together. [sighs]. >> Yeah, there's a fun little edit there. We cut from spinning around the back of. Billy's head on the left side to a. profile shot spinning on his right side. as if we're now seeing the face of Tommy. sharing the space with him. Agatha seems. to understand that since Billy's soul. was a form of Wanda's magic, as was. Tommy's, that magic can be manipulated.

so that Billy can invoke the magic of. his brother and redirect it somewhere in. the world. Agatha grabs his head and. directs him to locate where Tommy must. go. At first, Billy says, "It's black,". and we flash to a nearly black frame, but with red shapes moving through it. Notice how these shapes interlock almost. at hexagonal angles. These red shapes. must be the red tinted CMBBR that made. up the hex wall and the roots of. everything Wanda conjured within that. hex, including Tommy. Really, we are. seen from the perspective of Tommy's.

non-existence, as he's just kind of like. Agatha's magical code. Billy says he. can't find a place, but Agatha says 120. bodies empty out every minute. I don't. know where Agatha got 120 as a. statistic, but reportedly 106 people die. on Earth every 60 seconds. Maybe the. death rate is just significantly higher. in the MCU. So, the Red CBR is beneath. the surface of lake water as if Billy is. surfacing through the watery. subconscious of his brother, and we see. hazy shots of a young man being pushed. into the water. This boy wears a dark. hat, a gray tank, shorts, and shoes, meaning he did not show up to this.

lakeside ready to go swimming. He was. dragged out here and forced in, probably. a non-swmer. We learned that this kid. was pranked and drowned in the water. They hold his head down. It looks like a. summer camp scenario gone arry. Perhaps. a reference to Jason Vorhees at Camp. Crystal Lake in the Friday the 13th. films. Billy shouts. >> to the people of the family. There's no. one to love him. He's got no one. >> Now, since the agit of the series was. somewhat consistent with Billy Kaplan's. family background, we should note that. in the Young Avengers comics, Tommy. Shepard was less fortunate. After the. Wanda Meisto backstory, the character.

Tommy Shepard was reborn to Frank and. Mary Shepard, who divorced when he was. young, leading Tommy to have a pretty. rough childhood in and out of juvie. Then he vaporized his high school using. his speed powers implying it was an. accident leading to Tommy being. imprisoned by the government and. experimented upon to turn him into a. living weapon. So whenever the MCU picks. up with the search for Tommy perhaps a. vision quest, it's going to be a very. dark situation for him. But the fact. that Tommy's origin moment appears to be. a kid being bullied, which would have. been bullied to death if not for Billy's. intervention here, it makes me feel like.

when we see Tommy next could be a story. about youth bullying. And my hope is. that this will be the predominant theme. of Marvel's mutant saga on the other. side of Secret Wars. Grounded stories of. how we treat each other, why we bully, why we oppress, why we retreat to our. tribal corners. And that is the story of. mutants in the Marvel world. And the way. Billy Maximoff found William Kaplan, a. vessel of a boy already primed to like. magic. I wonder if Tommy could have. found a kid already primed, maybe via a. mutant gene, to be a speedster. Billy. shouts, >> "AM I KILLING THIS BOY SO MY BROTHER CAN.

LIVE?" Of course, Billy didn't compel. the summer camp bullies to push Tommy. into the lake and hold him down. But. this speaks to Billy's own guilt for. taking over William's body. Some part of. him still thinks that by taking over. William's body, he killed William. When. in truth, he really just took over a. vessel that was already empty. Tommy. raises his head from the water and. breathes with new life. And Billy, achieving what he needed, exits the. road. And Agatha says, "Really just for. herself?". >> "No, Billy. Sometimes boys die.". >> Of course, she's talking about her own. experience with Nicholas. The overhead. lights tick down to three and we're.

reminded of the three of swords again as. well as the triple goddess of Agatha's. brooch. Beneath the locket of Nikki's. hair is a single dandelion seed which. Agatha plants in the crack of the floor. with her teardrop as water and says out. of death life. Now if you think about. it, Agatha is producing life with no. spell, no incantation from scratch. Her. final trial is to remember what it felt. like to create life without magic. Something she hasn't done since. Nicholas. Perhaps because she's worried. that things born without magic are. things you can lose. But death comes for. us all and death is what gives life. meaning. That's as true for us when we.

die as it is for those of us who have. lost someone and have to figure out how. to keep going. A dandelion grows and. blooms and Agatha escapes from the morg. to find herself in her backyard. Death. cackles on the rooftop. Yes, very wicked witch of the west. When. the wicked witch appears on the roof of. the cottage beside the yellow brick road. before hurling a fireball at Scarecrow, lightning flashes revealing the bottom. half of death's skull face. Agatha. claims she released Billy, but since. he's not here, Death is ready to claim. Agatha. >> I'M THINKING DEATH BY a thousand cuts.

>> Ah, a thousand cuts is the same death. Kilgrave compels Jerry's wife, Wendy, to. inflict upon her in season one of. Jessica Jones. John Collins, Avalash. Tanden, and Harold Proctor look up at. the green sky and assume another hex has. consumed Westview. This one green. instead of red. Agatha looks up at the. moon to see it's a waxing crescent, the. same phase it was during Alice's trial. in episode 4. >> Waxing moon, the fire phase. And so. Agatha applies what she learned from the. trial. How to fight fiery demonic forces. and pours salt around her to form a.

protective ring as they did in the. recording studio. Agatha chants in. Latin, >> expel, >> which death translates as expel this. evil. Death blows a kiss, gusting away. the salt ring and calls Agatha a coward. And Agatha remembers Lily's advice to. hit the deck after hearing coward. And. she ducks just in time to avoid the. kitchen sink. Death is throwing. everything at Agatha, including the. kitchen sink. Death uses roots to slash. Agatha's heel, giving us some super. cringy pet cemetery violence I was not. ready for. Agatha gets some water from. the hose and chants.

>> Our Twitter Latin expert Mad Latinist. cited Dr. Cat Dixon, the language expert. who works on the show to translate this. as wound be healed from the water. I. assume she's using the same moonlight. and water healing charm that Jennifer. Kale used on Billy in episode 4. The. lights of the house pop and death is. knocked aside and we see flapping blue. and red clothes on the laundry line to. foretell the next reveal. Wiccan in his. comic accurate form. Joe Lock told. Deadline that Daniel Salon designed the. Wiccan costume to be a patchwork of. interesting details like there are runes. on the jumper, a Wanda crown, and a.

vision mindstone on each side of the. leather 3D printed top. He also pointed. out that on the jeans he's been wearing. all season long are a square leather. patch on the knee that is the same. leather used in this final costume. and. that in episode 4 when he was stabbed, the jumper around would get redder and. redder and turn into the cape that he's. now wearing. So, this costume here is. really just a patchwork of what he's. been wearing all along this road. Daniel. Salon actually got into the technical. engineering of this costume, saying, "I. wanted to represent his origins in his. cape." So, we dimensionally printed the.

texture of the Scarlet Witch's costume. from Doctor Strange: The Multiverse. Madness on the outside and printed. Vision's iconically graphic cape on the. underside so that Billy's parents would. always be with him. I love that. sentiment. Again, give him all the. Emmys. Also, really fun detail. There is. an X in a circle visible on Billy's arm, which has to be an X-Men nod, which. would fit with my theory that the next. time we see Billy and Tommy could be as. incoming students to Charles Xavier's. Mutant Academy in the Mutant Saga. So, Wicken floats down, his hands glowing. blue as a Transformer shower sparks.

around him. It's just a very cool. entrance. He shows his faith in Agatha. by blasting her. His pose is similar to. his mother, Wanda's when she blasted. Vision's mindstone in Infinity War. Agatha's purple takes over the stream. and she holds it a little too long. before pinching it off so that Billy. starts to look a little drained and. Agatha's back in her dress from the. Wanda Vision finale. Agatha and death. and Billy engage in a twoon-one witch. duel kind of like Harry getting blown. back in Order of the Phoenix while. Voldemort and Dumbledore are going at. it. That's kind of what happens to Billy. here. Agatha and Billy agree that they. can't defeat death and Agatha says it.

should be her. But when Billy. volunteers, Agatha tells Death, "Yeah, just take them." Also, she says, "Fix my. yard. >> Don't you plant a few Aelas on your way. out?" Just a reminder that Sharon Davis. was going to teach Agatha an easy trick. for great Aelas before Agatha cut her. off and made her join her in her coven. in episode 2. But now Billy demonstrates. that he actually cares about Agatha as. he manages to invade her mind. >> Is this how Nikki died? >> Now Billy's wrong. It's not exactly how. Nikki died. But for Agava, the idea of. letting death take another innocent boy. away from her is just too much to. repeat. So she gives death what she has.

wanted in multiple ways and plants a big. old kiss on her and gives herself the. kiss of death. The interviewer at the. rap, Anita Ortiz, who has been doing an. amazing job interviewing Jack Schaefer. all season long, pointed out that both. of their eyes are closed in this moment. So, in a way, Agnes doesn't really get a. close-up view of Death's face. The life. finally drains from Agatha's body, and. she rapidly ages and rapidly decomposes. into a mossy mound covered in flowers. and mushrooms, most of them ag. And I. love this detail. If you look closely at. the skull, Agatha's final breath puffs. out as the skull collapses. And we know. that vapor will turn into a goose very.

soon. Billy and death stand in mourning. Billy finds the brooch and death turns. to him and wore the shot. It was an. actual practical prosthetic worn by. Aubrey Plaza and it looks sick. And I. think they did this because now it's. like sort of natural sunlight and they. just needed the detail on the bone. surfaces to hold up on the warmer studio. lights. Billy walks bruised and battered. through West View as a neighbor stare. and he raises his hood looking just like. Wanda did as she walked through West. View avoiding the stairs of others after. dropping the hex. Billy returns to East. View to Rebecca and Jeff and we learn. that he's only been gone for 24 hours.

So, the full Witches Road was only a day. in surface world time. While there was. probably some time dilation there, considering most of the episodes along. the road actually picked up right where. the last ones left off, it really didn't. seem to be that much longer than a day. that they were gone. Billy showers and. we spent a long time in this shot with a. camera low to the ground approaching his. bedroom, reminding me of the point of. view shot of death in the opening shot. of Alice. Now, this is the ghostly point. of view of Agatha. Billy wipes away the. condensation, triggering me from the. road scroll shot and secret evasion. Now. in Billy's room, we're able to see.

angles with different posters we weren't. able to see in episode 6. On the hallway. from the bathroom, there are posters of. fungi, like the mushrooms that dot the. witch's road. There's a poster for. Haxin, a witch film from the 1920s, of. course, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and a. poster for the Buffy the Vampire musical. episode, Once More with Feeling. We also. see Billy Eyish's When We All Fall. Asleep, Where Do We Go album cover, which is an album that contains You. Should See Me in a Crown, which played. when Wiccan's look was revealed. Also on. the door, we see a Poltergeist 2 poster. We also see a poster for Jennifer's body. and Trovlo and Evan Essence. Billy looks.

around at his room at the Lorna Woo. poster, the figurines of the Wizard of. Oz characters, including the green. skinned wicked witch, which is a shot. that appears in the credits of every. episode. What follows is a grand reveal. sequence edited in the style of the six. sense for the ending of HBO's Sharp. Objects, but most of all, the usual. suspects when the whole film is put into. a new perspective as a fantasy inspired. by random details that were in plain. sight throughout the movie on the wall. of the room. Our breakdown of episode 6. went into most of the visible details in. Billy's room and began to theorize that. this could be the case. Yay. But I must. admit, I'm surprised that the show. leaned so hard into it. I'm not used to,

you know, getting predictions right. Billy realizes the full design and. creation was his own doing. Hearing the. legend and willing it into existence. using the Scarlet Witch reality. manipulation powers inspired by his own. design influences, the trees and leaves, decor from Billy's room and Williams bar. mitzvah table centerpieces. The shifting. colors of the road maybe meant to be a. rainbow, an expression of Billy's queer. identity. Jen's beach house based on a. poster in Billy's room. Alice's house. based on posters of Lorna Woo and. Fleetwood Mac. Agatha's sleepover filled. with triangular string lights that Billy.

had in his room along with various board. games like Ouija. Lilia's castle based. on the tarot cards that Billy had in his. room and the Wizard of Oz figurines and. posters that he had in his room. And of. course, the hexenbesson was Billy's. suggestion and every first clue that. initiated the trial was found by him. He. was always the one pushing the others. along. Earlier, Agatha appeared. perfectly behind Billy on the witch's. road when he was talking [ __ ] about her. to Jen. Now, her ghost does the same. A. couple final details from episode 8. During the credits, the photograph of. the kid in the witch mask has been. updated to this image of a young Joe. Lock with that witch mask raised on his.

head. And photoshopped beside him is. Rebecca Kaplan actress Maria Dizia, who's also in Halloween costume. And we. also end with the Marvel television. presents and the final card on a. different background, Billy's bedroom, including his creepy ass noatu poster. lower on his door because of course. there never was an actual witch's road. before Billy created it using this kind. of decor. All right, moving on to. episode 9, Maiden Mother, Cone. Obviously named after the triple goddess. of Agatha's brooch, but it also. represents the three stages of Agatha's. life. The maiden when she was young and. put on trial by the Saleommites and. presumably first met death, though the.

episode omitted that flashback. the. mother when she was with Nicholas and. the crone in all the years afterwards. and began to transition into the ghostly. form she now takes. We open in the year. 1750 as a pregnant Agatha runs into the. woods fleeing something. We know she is. a fugitive who has pissed off most. witches in New England. But here she's. chased by these female choir vocals. which to me sound like the chanting. voices of the Saleommites whom she tried. to kill. We are 57 years after Agatha's. 1693 trial. Agatha stops at a fog draped. lakeside. I wonder if Marvel might have.

used the same lake that they used for. Tony Stark's home in Avengers Endgame in. the Atlanta area. The fact that there is. so much fog reminds us of the green fog. that Rio/Death took Alice into. It seems. like death is really setting the table. to take baby Nikki. Agatha slices a. lemon to clench her teeth on something. to take her mind off the labor pain. I. love that Katherine Han actually did. this in the shot. She sliced a lemon. against a tree and stuffed it in her. mouth. Now, where would Agatha have. gotten a fruit like a lemon in 1750 New. England? Well, she's a witch. She can. probably just conjure fruit out of time. and space. And she just didn't conjure.

food for Nikki. Keep the poor kid. skinny. You know, good for thieving. Agatha looks over to see Rio already. standing there. It's a creepy edit, but. it's also kind of sweet that Rio is. standing by holding this flower. This is. the same flower that I believe she was. holding on the rooftop during the battle. in episode 8. We are pretty sure this is. a ghost orchid. Orchids are often. representative of death and chosen as. funeral flowers as they symbolize love. persevering for the deceased. This one. is more purplish than white, but orchids. often range from white to purple colors. Aubrey Plaza appears to have been daged, at least with makeup for this flashback.

Her cloak and dress are fully green. Jack Schaefer told the rap that it was. really important for them to dress death. in a way to reflect the balance of life. and death. Not to show everything. withering around her, but to also be the. source of the decay from which. everything green on this planet sprouts. As a way to show that death isn't. something meant to be feared that much, but just something meant to be accepted. Agatha recognizes Rio, telling her that. if she takes Nikki, she'll hate her. forever. >> Please let him live. Please, my love, please. >> Jack Schaefer told the rap that Agatha. and Rio were lovers before this and that.

the writers considered showing the life. that the two of them had like in a. cottage, but they wanted to focus on the. Nikki story. Death has pity on her love, offering time, but not specifying how. much time. In a way, this uncertainty is. not a gift. It's the opposite of the. clear certainty that Lilia gains of her. end in episode 7. If death comes for us. all, arguably, it's a gift to know when. that's coming. For Agatha to gain a. small number of years could be seen as a. gift, but for an ageless witch who lives. hundreds of years after that, is a. fraction of that life weighing so. heavily on the rest of it worth it? I.

recognize this is a very deep question. to consider, and I honestly can't spend. that much energy thinking about it. Agatha gives birth to baby Nikki, a baby. that I can now speak from experience is. not a newborn. At least three months, I. would say, but very cute nonetheless. Agatha says she spoke no spell, spoke no. incantation. You were made from scratch. >> Hm. There are many ways to interpret. what exactly Agatha meant by from. scratch. But it's very clear that no. magic was used in Nikki's conception. By. scratch suggests the old-fashioned way,

and scratch is obviously suggested to be. the origin of his name Nicholas Scratch. I would think there must have been a. father unless from scratch means. something like a recipe and Agatha might. be using, you know, like a tear in the. dandelion seed in the morg trial, but. even that felt a bit like some kind of. magic. Jack Schaefer told Deadline that. there is a lot of story left and that. they had lots of conversations about. Nikki's father, but that she felt. ultimately for this story it didn't. matter. In our ending explained video, I. speculated everyone from old scratch. misto assuming Agatha didn't know it was. meto, I wish it was joking, second.

president of the United States, John. Adams. Agatha's Bruhipedia profile. mentioned succubus powers referring to a. feminized demon who has sex with men. while they're sleeping. Many online want. the father to just be death herself, pointing to some similarities, I guess, between Nikki and Aubrey Plaza's. physicality. Really, I just think Jack. Schaefer clearly didn't want there to be. a specified father. And the camera work. just breaks our hearts by focusing on. Nikki's baby feet and his pudgy little. fingers. Is a clutch Agatha's hair. Oh. god, I'm not going to let go of my kid. this week since Jen pulled strands of. Agatha's hair out as a process of.

unbinding. I feel like this could be. baby Nikki instinctively binding to his. mama. The camera glides away from Agatha. and Nikki across the lake through the. fog, which feels like the inverse of the. sweeping shots of the W division. postredit scene showing the camera. gliding in toward the lake cabin to the. witch who didn't have her son or sons. Nikki cries as Agatha finds a coven of. women singing green sleeves. >> Oh, I know you're not feeling well. >> Which is an old English folk song whose. melody is used, of course, for the.

Christmas hymn, What Child Is This? It's. believed by some that the original. lyrics of lady green sleeves talk about. a promiscuous young woman as at the time. green sometimes had sexual connotations. as in a green gown being a reference to. grass stains on a woman's dress from you. know but I think this is also just a. real reflection of Rio's green sleeves. like her literal green clothes and how. despite the time Agatha was given the. green is always following her now the. lyrics of green sleeves that the women. actually sing here are alas my love you. do me wrong to cast me off discardously.

and I have looked you well and long. delighting in your and they're cut off. In this context, it's kind of a breakup. song, right? Kind of reflecting the. breakup between Agatha and Rio. Agatha. seems to be wearing new clothes now than. what she was wearing when she gave birth. to Nikki, making me think that some time. has passed and she might have jumped. another witch between then and now. Agatha uses Nikki to hide her brooch. from view. She likely knows that her. reputation of what she did to Evanora. and the other Saleommites has gotten. around. The witch accepts Agatha and. Nikki with a Latin phrase. According to Mad Latinist on Twitter,

this means we accept to receive or. welcome you to our circle. The Latin. spell is what deactivates a security. spell on the stones that allows Agatha. to walk through. These witches sweep the. ground as golden dust floats and golden. dust is sprinkled nearby to grow some. mushrooms. Agatha is offered tea, but. then attacks. A light reflecting on the. trees goes from gold to purple. And if. you listen closely, we hear one of the. witches scream, "Stop! No!" Then another. witch shouts, "Who let you in?" And the. first witch says, "Sisters gather." And. then they all scream. So, what happened. was Agatha probably started attacking.

the least experienced witch of the. bunch, which triggered the other witches. to blast her defensively, which Agatha. then used to drain them all. We. transition 6 years later to 1756. A goat. passes us as a six-year-old Nikki. Scratch sits by a well. This actor is. Abel Lysenko, and he does a great job. this episode. Now, historically, 1756 in. North America was the start of the Seven. Years War, also known as the French and. Indian War between the American British. colonists and the Canadian French who. allied with some indigenous tribes. But. none of that seems to be affecting this. community. A friendly vendor notices how. frail Nikki is, which again suggests.

that rather than just feeding Nikki a. normal diet, Agatha sustains him only on. magic drain from other witches and might. have kept him skinny as part of this. scheme to draw sympathy, which feels. like child endangerment. But it's also. possible that Nikki was born with some. kind of like metabolic illness that made. it impossible to sustain himself on. normal food. Like this kid is on. borrowed time as it is. Nikki steals a. bell, and this is the same bell that. Agatha chimes to begin the Ballad of the. Witches Road. Nikki lures witches into. Agatha's house where she drains them, and we hear Agatha saying, "One can.

always rely on the kindness of witches,". which feels like a nod to Blanch Dewis's. famous line in Tennessee Williams'. street car named Desire. I have always. depended on the kindness of strangers. Blanch says that line at the end of the. show, cementing her detachment from. reality as a doctor leads her away. Nikki pets another goat outside. Now, in. Robert Edgar's The Witch, the goat Black. Phillip was a representation of Satan. But goats have commonly represented some. kind of demonic influence. I believe. they chose a white and brown goat to. avoid a comparison to black Phillip. But. it's still a bit demonic either way. And. this goat has a white pattern that I.

don't know kind of looks like a rune to. me. Nikki [laughter] asks the right. question. Can we live with witches. instead of killing them? And Agatha says. no. But it's not just selfishness. Agatha fears that if they were to stop. killing witches and keeping death busy. with those bodies that death would come. for Nikki. Meanwhile, Nikki sings this. >> Walk. the road. I walk the windy road. >> Ah, so what will become the deceptive. ballad of the witch's road really just. begins as a sweet innocent walking song. and walking songs come up all the time. in Tolken from the walking song that.

Gandalf hums as he approaches Hobbitan. >> and the one Bilbo sings as he ventures. out. The road goes on and on down from. the door where it began. This is why. Agatha thought the lyrics were of coven. too instead of of coven true because her. coven was always just with Nikki. Nikki. begs for normal food. >> Use your purple. >> Ah, using purple as like a tangible noun. is always so funny to me. Reminding me. of when Agatha used it this way with Rio. in episode 1.

>> Just let me get my purple back. >> What follows is a beautiful sequence. when Agatha and Nikki just run through. nature and enjoy witchcraft while. co-composing the original words of the. song. There's a road that's wild and. wicked. Winding through the wood where. all that's wrong is right and all that's. bad is good. Down, down, down the road. Down the windy road. For Nikki, this. song wasn't a trick. It was a. celebration of traveling with someone. you love and a message of hope that this. windy windy not witchy road could lead. to something good. Nikki blows a. dandelion. Of course, the same flower.

that Agatha will regrow in the Earth. trial. And pay attention to where these. seeds go because I think one of these. seeds will never land until a precise. moment. Really, all this plays out like. just their last good day, making this. lyric feel like foreshadowing for the. dreaded day to come. Tame your fears. The door appears. The time has come to. go. Now, this ballad is used as a pub. song that Nikki performs for money. This. is why Nikki's bedroom in episode 1 had. a plaque awarding him with best vocals. Agatha cases the pub looking for any. group of women larger than three. gathering and assumes based on her three.

mile radius stat that she told Billy. about in episode two. Within any. threemile radius, there will be a. collection of witchy enough people to. form a coven. >> That they are probably witches. Nikki. now looks paler and wears a hat that. makes him look sick. Nikki lets off a. cuff that at first seems like it could. be part of the script to induce. sympathy, but it's probably just a real. cough. As Nikki's already made the. decision to not allow Agatha to drain. this witch, >> I thank you, but no, my mother needs me. home. >> He coughs again down by the creek, and. we know it's not performative. Death is.

coming. Also, that red-haired witch is. playing with her own little amulet if. you look closely, showing how all. witches everywhere have this. representative flare. Agatha sings to. Nikki. >> I stray not from the path. Hold your hand in mine. >> Now, what's interesting is the later. lyric will be I hold death's hand in. mine. That's why Agatha changes it. because Nikki took death's hand. They. say good night with my blood, my tears, my bone, maiden mother crone. These are. the lyrics of later versions, but it's a. reminder from Agatha that Nikki is her.

blood, her flesh, and also her grief. Nikki awakens to see Rio with a green. flame waiting for him. She waves and. beckons, and it's interesting again that. death does not take her scary skeletal. form to Nikki. She wants to present a. friendly face so that death won't be. something to be feared, but just a. natural part of life that we can accept. Rio points back to Agatha, and Nikki. gives Agatha two tiny kisses. Perhaps. one for him and one for Rio. I just love. the idea that Rio might have been a. member of this family that Nikki might. have been able to see all this time,

unafraid of her, just seeing her as a. co-parent. He is the little peveral. brother who is under the invisibility. cloak but able to see death all this. time. And this double kiss ritual might. have been something that the three of. them did multiple nights and Agatha. never knew it. Like death might have. been using Nikki to kiss her love. because death couldn't kiss her herself. Death leaves Nikki across a foot bridge, a bridge that did not exist before in. the earlier shots, meaning that this is. a cosmic passage to the afterlife meant. only for these travelers over a river of. sticks that Agatha cannot cross. And now. it becomes clear Rio Vidal, river of.

life. Now, we should also note that. Nikki died creekside down by the water, which might be why in Agatha's mayor of. Easttown Hallucination in Wanda's spell, that's how dead Wanda manifested herself. to her. By the way, Jack Schaefer said. that Marvel execs instructed her to. reference Wanda Maximoff using the words. gone. Not dead, just gone. Make of that. what you will. Agatha wakes up to find. Nikki dead beside her. And she shouts, "I want more time." This is also what. she shouted in the Earth trial in the. morg when she was trying to grow Nikki's. dandelion. So Agatha buries Nikki and.

sings a funeral version of the ballad. I. have always known this road is cruel and. wild. I bury my own heart. Here with. you, my child. If one be gone, we carry. on. But every mile I go, with every bend. beyond the end, your mother loves you. so. She places a lock of Nikki's hair in. the brooch locket. And since in the morg. there is a dandelion seed under that. hair, that must mean that when Agatha's. distracted by this other witch who walks. up, one of those blown dandelion seeds. from Nikki from the day before has. wafted into that brooch to stay with his.

mother forever. This blonde witch asks. Agatha for a way to the road, showing. that Nikki's ballad has spread far and. wide among the witches as a possible. path to glory with her hat. This witch. actually must look like Sharon Davis. when she was gardening. So just. something about this look makes Agava. want to exploit. They assemble a covet. of witches singing the ballad and when. no door opens, Agatha does the routine. that she will later do with Lilia Jen, Alice, and Sharon. Call the pathetic and. invoke their wrath. But it works here. She drains them and the emaciated. corpses that fall are actually the same. ones that we saw in the Agnes of. Westview opening credits in episode 1.

Next, we see Agatha in Victorian era. garb, meaning late 19th century or early. 20th century. Actually, this probably. around the era in which Agatha survived. the Titanic voyage. And now that we know. that death was not with her for that, I. shudder to think what Agatha did during. that tragedy. Did she drain witches on. the boat causing a distraction that. caused the crew to not see the iceberg? Or was she huddled with some other women. and children on a lifeboat, drained all. of them to survive, and just kind of. chocked up the gray corpses to the cold? And when these Victorian witches fall, I. love how their falls sync with the words.

>> mother. [singing]. >> The next era looks like the 1930s. Now, I was thinking maybe the 1920s flapper. era, but no, their hemlines are. different and they wear jackets and ties. for some of them when movie stars were. changing fashion standards so that women. could get away wearing pants and ties. Specifically, I think this is the era. when Agatha rode and survived the. Hindenburg, making it 1937. Next is the. era I wish we spent more time in. The. good old 1990s when Agatha is made up to. look like Ferusa bulk in the craft. I. just rewatched the craft. It's awesome.

And I'm telling you, you can trace a. straight line from the craft to charmed. to Agatha all along. This montage takes. us to the present day Coven when Agatha. is shocked to see a door actually formed. on the basement floor thanks to Billy's. magic. And now caught in this lie, she. has to play along with it. Kathern Han. here breaks the fourth wall to look. directly at us like one of Maximoff did. in that creepy moment in Multiverse of. Madness. And that is what breaks us out. of this flashback to take us back to. Agatha's present chat with Billy when. she is a ghost. Boo. [screaming]. Agatha Harkness actually takes the form.

of a ghost in the 2016 James Robinson. Scarlet Witch run. The first story line. to introduce the Witches Road concept as. ghost Agatha is a companion guide to. Wanda Maximoff. So it makes sense that. she takes this role to Wanda's son. Ghost Agatha says that she took a. calculated risk, suggesting that she. planned to get past death this way, knowing that Rio doesn't like ghosts. >> I hate ghosts. >> But understands she still has a role to. play. Agatha takes any opportunity to. shade Wanda. And here she tells Billy. that unlike Wanda, he actually did. something interesting with his power. I. read this as like a meta line that. Agatha is more of a drama nerd who.

prefers practical sets and musical. theater to sitcom homages. Billy feels. guilt for creating the road if it meant. the deaths of Alice, Lilia, and. >> Mrs. Davis. Who? >> She didn't even belong on the road. to. know she's dead because of me. Yes, the. gardening lady. >> Ah, true to the end. Disrespectful to. Mrs. Davis. Agatha suggests that since. she was going to kill Jen and Jen. survived, Billy technically saved a. life. Jen's hand bursts out of the grass. outside West View, reminding me of the. shot in Brian to Palomus Carry. Jen, it. seems, may never know that the road. wasn't real until Billy created it. But. she flies away free, no longer bound,

and she passes a crescent moon that's. now red. Now, blood moons only get their. red color because the shadow of the. Earth is in that particular position. you would ever see a red waxing crescent. moon look like this. So, I choose to. believe this is a sign important that. the Scarlet Witch lives. Or maybe this. crescent moon is supposed to be pink and. it's meant to reflect the pink color of. Jen's restored magic. I wanted to be. Scarlet. So, Billy drives back to. Agatha's house where the front door is. boarded up. So, this would be after. Agatha's door was knocked down in. episodes 1 and two, but we should note. that that took place like a day ago. So,

I think the residents of Westview, they. looked up at that green sky and they. thought, "Uh-oh, maybe people should. stop going in this house." house. Billy. goes down to the basement and passes Mr. Scratchy's cage. I can't tell if the. rabbit is in there, but I hope someone's. taking care of that rabbit. Maybe it was. Harold Proctor. After boarding up this. store, he found that rabbit and he's. like, "Sarah, we got to take care of. this thing now." I just think this guy. kind of looks like a rabbit. It makes. sense to me now. Finding the doors to. the road still illuminated. Maybe. because it was Billy's magic that. created it. Billy traces chalk on the. floor to form a circle and a pentagram. And based on his pivot with the chalk.

from the circle to the first straight. line of the star, it seems like he never. takes his chalk off the floor and draws. a pretty good pentagram in one stroke, which isn't just impressive, it might be. the proper way to cast the hex. Billy. summons a spellbook and it zips right. through Agatha's ghost chest and she. seems to feel it. And on that same shelf. is the bell that Nikki stole in 1756. Billy reads in Latinasma. >> Mad Latinist on Twitter says this. translates to go toward the light, leave. the earth, do not be a ghost. This. account also points out that the. subtitles that you read on Disney Plus,

Valusum, relinqual. fantasmo, are apparently just gibberish. if you translate them from Latin. Agatha. says he can't banish her just with a. spell in a personal item, and it wasn't. him who freed her from Wanda's spell. doing the same, but then she backpedals. and says, "You did loosen the jar." I. think she's really saying that her. freedom was Billy's spell, but also. needed Wanda's death, plus Agatha. clawing her own way out with death's. encouragement. But Agatha refuses to. depart to an AFTERLIFE BECAUSE I CAN'T. FACE HIM. >> This confession allows her to finally.

make contact with the brooch. Another. nod to 1990s Ghost when extreme focus. and emotional honesty is the only thing. that allows ghosts who make physical. contact with the material world. But. it's not just Nicholas that Agatha. cannot face. She cannot face him knowing. that she used the ballad they wrote. together to do exactly what he asked her. not to do and that she killed witches. over and over and over again. Agatha. places the brooch on her ghostly form. now and the maiden mother crone are. replaced by just a purple glow. I. interpret this as Agatha has now gone. through the three phases of witchhood. from the triple goddess. Maiden as a.

young girl learning power above her. station, mother to Nikki, and Cone as a. covenless witch. And now as a ghost, she. has reached spectral status of. enlightenment. I have compared her to. Gandalf the White, a new illuminated. true form, final form of the character. Billy says that he's sure Nicholas would. forgive her of whatever she did. And. Agatha turns and says, "It's when you. say things like that that you remind me. of him." And now we finally understand. why Agatha emotionally transferred from. Nikki to Billy. It's not because they're. just simple witch obsessed familiars of. a certain age. It's because they give. complicated villains like her the. benefit of the doubt even when they.

don't deserve it. Billy recognizes that. a ghost form is really most appropriate. for the spirit witch of the coven spirit. as my guide and they decide to form a. new coven. Billy turns the doors into a. memorial headstone for Sharon and Alice. and Lilia and they open the basement. door to the light. >> Let's go find Tommy. >> End of series. In episode 5, Lilia. established a rule about ghosts in the. MCU. >> Emotion ties them to this plane. They. have unfinished business. >> For Agatha, that unfinished business is. to balance the scales with good deeds to. make up for how she misused Nikki's song.

to help find the neglected lost son of. the Scarlet Witch. And we are reminded. of the voice she heard of Nikki back in. episode 5. [screaming]. >> until that voice tells her it's okay. She's going to stay on this mortal. plane. Now, entering Blinding Light. isn't just a symbol of spiritual. enlightenment that these two reach, but. after a season of color-coded chapters, each color corresponding to a different. member of the coven. What we see as. white is actually all of the colors in. the visible spectrum of light merged. together. Therefore, the coven is again. united in perfect harmony. So, was the.

witch's road simply Agatha all along? Was it Billy all along? Does the fact. that the song was intended to be a trick. cheap in Lilia and Alice's sacrifices, especially knowing that it would be for. a teen's dollhouse pocket reality? Absolutely not. In my opinion, Billy and. Wanda's magic made the road real. And to. quote another famous wielder of magic in. a white glow similar to this series. final shot, >> of course, it's happening inside your. head, Harry. Why should that mean that it's not real? >> That's it. Thank you so much for joining. us on this trip down the road of Agatha.

all along. If you haven't already, check. out last week's revisitation of Wision. and our Vision Quest, We Did Your. Homework video. and then join us this. Wednesday evening, October 14th, for our. after show for Vision Quest episodes 1. and two. The shirt I'm wearing is our. Wanda's fast food design, Chaos is our. recipe, part of our Wanda and Vision. collection, available at our merch. store, nerdriot.shop. A special thanks. to one of our channel members, Ricardo. Martinez, for supporting us at the. executive producer level. Big thanks to. Studio Tech, Brian Kim, New Rockstars. editors, Joshua, Steven Herd, and Abby. Fel, and all of the supporting editors.

for their work on this video and all the. work in the past videos that contributed. to this compilation. Follow me at EA. Boss and hit that subscribe button. Thanks for watching and I'll see you. next time. Bye. [music]. [music].