You should see him in a crown…
Recap
The Salem Seven have made it through to the Road because the coven left the door open when they summoned Rio. The seven turn out to be the children of the witches Agatha killed when she destroyed her coven, which Agatha claims is evidence that you should always finish a job. The group decide to get off the Road by enchanting branches of a tree to create “broomsticks.” They fly into the sky during a blood moon, but the Road eventually pulls them back down to the next trial.
The new house is a cabin and everyone is dressed is ‘80s sleepover gear. The group knows this is Agatha’s test because of the blood moon, and the trial starts with a Ouija board. The Teen reads the instructions, making it clear that removing hands from the planchette will result in releasing a spirit. When the group starts, the spirit reveals themself to be “Mrs. Hart” and when Lilia accidentally releases the planchette, Agatha is possessed by Sharon… except she’s faking it. The group try again, but this time they are joined by Death, who tells the group to “punish” Agatha. Agatha backs away from the board, releasing a spirit. Jen insists that they do what the board told them and punish Agatha, and the group reluctantly agrees. The Teen protests, but she insists that familiars don’t get a vote. When she comes back with a rope, Agatha has vanished and the lights go out.
Agatha appears on the ceiling and is possessed by a spirit for real this time, attacking the coven. The fight ends and Agatha disappears, and the spirit finally reveals themself: Evanora Harkness, Agatha’s mother. She tells them that her unfinished business is for the group to finish the Witches’ Road without Agatha—she wants them to leave her daughter with her. Rio suddenly protests; she won’t allow them to leave Agatha with her mother. When Agatha asks her mother why she still hates her, Evanora tells her that she was born evil and that she should have killed her daughter the moment she left her body. She possesses Agatha again, and Alice moves to protect Agatha, knocking Evanora from her body, but the moment she manages this, Agatha begins sucking the power from Alice’s body.
The Teen rushes to the Ouija board to see another name being spelled out over and over again “Nicholas Scratch.” He calls it out and Agatha breaks her connection to Alice, hearing a young boy pleading with his mother to stop. Alice is dead and the Teen demands that the others do something, but the trial is over and they leave. The Teen asks Agatha why she did this and she tries to tell him that she couldn’t stop, she couldn’t help it. He doesn’t believe her, and insists that he wants no part of the way she does things, how she interacts with magic and gains power for herself. Agatha laughs at him and asks if he’s sure… after all, he’s so much like his mother.
She moves to leave, but Lilia and Jen are being controlled by the Teen and hold Agatha, bringing her to the side of the Road to be absorbed by mud. The same then happens to the two of them as power sparks in the Teen’s hands and a circlet of magic power appears on his head—looking much like the one worn by the Scarlet Witch.
Commentary
There is an art to the dreaded “reveal,” and damn if this one wasn’t flawless. Because they make it just a tiny bit confusing at the start, and then you’re plied with a set of cues, each sharper than the last, while your brain clicks together the pieces. Agatha taunts Teen for being like his mother, and anyone catching up might still wonder if she’s talking about herself after all this—if this is the long-lost son, even though we’ve technically just heard his ghost.
But Joe Locke did his freaking homework, and the way power sparks to life in his hands, that exact crook of his fingers, is pure Wanda Maximoff. Then the circlet materializes in his curls, and it’s abundantly clear who mother is. Plenty of fan videos and projects want to use Billie Eilish’s “You Should See Me in a Crown” for the immaculate vibes provided, but this is the first time I’ve ever felt like it was earned. And this is so much more interesting than making him Nicholas Scratch, despite the fact that many already guessed his identity from go: the choice to make this Billy Kaplan is more exciting in every direction.
First off, Nicholas Scratch is frankly a boring character in the comics, and there isn’t much to work with there. But more importantly, the idea of Agatha bringing Wanda’s son into this is simultaneously sweeter and nastier in all the best ways. We’re not sure how long Agatha has guessed at his identity, and how much of this is a desire to be a mentor/parental figure to someone versus the desire to get back at Wanda for leaving her in Westview under that spell. The idea that she gets the chance to know Wanda’s kid in her stead when that’s all the Scarlet Witch ever wanted is cruel, and a little petty to boot.
But she still clearly likes the kid. So that hurts too.
The new information we’re getting on Agatha’s abilities and history is… look, I’ve got an instant soft spot for narratives about parents who turn their children into monsters by treating them as such. And there’s very clear hallmarks of this in the way the Evanora talks about her daughter, the whole “born evil” schtick and her desire to keep Agatha to herself. The question of why it was so easy for her to try and kill her daughter in the first place, which never sat right from the first time we were shown that flashback to 1693.
But really, it’s Rio who gives us the clearest indication here. The way she jumps to Agatha’s defense after being completely down for all the previous chaos because her mother “can’t have her” is full queer-partner-protecting-significant-other-from-their-abuser in a way that’s still making me choke up as I type. Rio has clearly needed to do this before. And if it turns out that Agatha’s propensity toward absorbing power is something she was born with, that she was blamed for, and has never been able to fully control, that’s a very different foundation for her villainy.
Alice’s death and Lilia’s unmoored-from-time commentary makes me assume that there’s going to be significant backtracking and do-overs on this journey for a bunch of reasons, including the fact that you don’t bring Alice onto the Road where her mother believed she would be protected and then immediately off her after breaking the family curse. If Sharon had been the only one to die, I’d have bought it, but Alice’s story isn’t complete. And in many ways, the entire Road is Agatha’s trial, not just this piece of it. She’s in the process of learning so much, and there are choices she’s going to want to correct before this is all over.
But for now we’ve got to contend with a Wiccan coming into his power, and all the trouble that brings with it.
This episode was too short, of course. I really do wish they’d stop doing that.
Tarot Readings and Witchy Thoughts
- There’s commentary here about how broomsticks have become a cliché where witches are concerned, with Lilia complaining that they’re also linked to women’s domesticity, but broomstick lore is a bit more complex and frankly more fascinating. There are some theories that claim that “flying on broomsticks” are rooted in witching pharmacological practices, with certain ointments and poultices producing that sensation of flying and creating the association. But my favorite piece of background is that broomsticks (along with pointy headgear and helpful cats) were the sign of brewsters and alewives who hocked beer to their communities. Putting up a broomstick was a way to indicate to the populace that the next batch of beer was ready.
- I adore that Rio goes full Wicked Witch of the West as they’re all plummeting back to the Road.
- Kathryn Hahn’s impression of Debra Jo Rupp gets all the awards.
- We’ve had single trial shoutouts to different television shows in the previous episodes, but this one went full vintage horror with references to The Exorcist and Poltergeist amongst many others. (I’m sure some folks are thinking Stranger Things, but Stranger Things is nothing if not a wholesale ripoff of all those narratives, start to finish.)
- I like that the Ouija rules were observed! To the point that the Teen made sure to move the planchette to “Goodbye” before they left.
Next week, I assume we’ll find out what Rio is gonna do about the powered-up kid…
