Agatha and her coven have set off down the witches’ road and have already faced their first two tests. But this group seems to be keeping more than a few secrets and the next test is always right around the corner. The fifth episode of Marvel’s latest series sees the group facing some dangerous foes and being challenged by their toughest test yet.
The episode opens with several animals arriving on the road before we see that this is actually the Salem Seven in their animal forms. They transform back into their horrifying witchy selves and set off after the coven. Lillia sees this in a dream and wakes up the group to warn them. She explains that the Salem Seven got to the road because the coven left the door open when they summoned Rio as their new green witch.
Lilia explains that the Salem Seven is the children of Agatha’s original coven, whom she killed by stealing their power after her own mother tried to have her executed. Agatha spared the children only to see them become feral creatures bent on extracting revenge.
The coven tries to escape before realizing the Seven have them surrounded. At the suggestion of Teen, they decide to cast some magic, turning nearby branches into brooms, which they fly on to narrowly escape the Seven. However, after a few moments of flying high above the road, the road itself begins to pull the coven back down, resulting in Aubrey Plaza delivering a perfect Wicked Witch of the West impression. Back near the ground, they once again encounter one of the Seven but manage to escape right into the next trial.
Now inside a cabin that sees as though it is right out of just about any ‘80s horror movie, the coven has once again had their clothes changed to fit the theme. Teen’s outfit actually appears to be somewhat reminiscent of the familiar costume of Wiccan from Marvel’s Young Avengers in the comics.
The coven realizes they are in Agatha’s trial because of the blood moon, “when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest,” according to Lilia. A Ouija board magically flies off the shelf and a timer begins. Teen sets up the Ouija board and reads the rules of the game, the most notable of which is to not remove your hands from the planchette or a spirit will be released.
They begin to play and the planchette moves to reveal the spirit reaching out to them is Mrs. Hart. The planchette moves and Lilia’s hand comes off causing Agatha to become possessed by the spirit of their former coven mate. However, after a few seconds, the coven realizes Agatha is faking the possession. Reluctantly, Agatha returns to the game.
They ask who is here with them and the planchette moves again to spell “DEATH.” When they ask what the spirit wants, it spells “PUNISH.” With the spirit of Frank Castle ruled out, Agatha asks the spirit who it wants to punish. As expected it spells “AGATHA.” Agatha tries to cut the board off but it continues to spell her name until she eventually takes her hands off the planchette.
A shriek fills the room and things begin to fly around. With the coven covering their ears and panicking, Lilia exclaims that she “hated this the first time,” prompting Teen to say she’s being weird again. Lilia has some very interesting secrets hidden for sure.
Jen realizes they need to punish Agatah to pass the trial and, despite Teen’s protests, they all begin to brainstorm ways to do so. Before they can do anything though, Agatha disappears and the lights cut out. After a few creepy moments, Teen looks up to find a possessed (for real this time) Agatha on the ceiling. Agatha attacks the coven and nearly kills Jen before Lilia turns the lights back on and she disappears again.
After a creepy shot of a robot toy walking on it’s own in an apparent homage to Poltergeist, a ghost shows itself to the coven. The ghost reveals itself to be Evenora Harkness, Agatha’s mother, and Agatha emerges, no longer possessed. The ghost tells the coven they must finish the road without Agatha and instead leave her their with her mother. Ri refuses adamantly.
Jen tries to convince the coven to leave Agatha behind. Agatha pleads with them before the ghost once again possesses her and she lunges at Teen. Alice jumps in front of him and blasts Agatha with her power, which seems to surprise Alice. Lilia calls out another tarot card: the Knight of Wands, which represents energy, passion, inspired action and impulsiveness. The blast knocks the ghost out of Agatha. However, now freed, Agatha’s powers kick in and she steals Alice’s power.
As the coven screams in terror, Teen notices the Ouija board moving again. He rushes to it and asks who the spirit is. The board spells out “NICHOLASSCRATCH.” As we’ve pointed out before, Nicholas Scratch the son of Agatha Harkness in the comics. That appears to be the case here as well as much has been made about Agatha giving up her child to receive the Darkhold. We also saw the name on trophies in an empty child’s room in the first episode.
Teen calls out “Nicholas Scratch,” which draws Agatha’s attention away from Alice and stops the drain. We hear a child’s voice call out “mama, stop,” and a door opens, signifying that the coven has passed the trial. However, it appears it was too late for Alice and Teen rushes to his now deceased friend. He tries to wake her but Jen and Lilia tell him she is gone.
Agatha leaves, ahead of the group, and appears to be distraught until she realizes she once again has power. Teen finds her and accuses her of killing Alice on purpose and that all she was ever after was her power. Jen and Lilia seem to accept that this was Agatha’s goal all along and that it was more or less what they were all after. Teen refuses to accept that this is what being a witch means and Agatha’s expression changes. She begins to laugh and tells him he is so much like his mother.
Agatha walks away from Teen and we see blue energy start to form in his hands. Jen and Lilia, their eyes glowing blue, grab Agatha and Teen watches as they throw her from the road in and into the mud, which quickly swallows her. Teen then launches Jen and Lilia and they meet the same fate. We then get a closing shot of Teen’s face as he now wears a blew crown, much like that of the Scarlet Witch.
So it seems Teen is in fact Billy Kaplan, better known as Wiccan and the son of Wanda Maximoff. It also seems as though Agatha knew this all along and she never truly believed he was Nicholas Scratch, her son. Clearly someone is still playing a game here and we only have a few more episodes left to find out who.
Marvel’s Agatha All Along is now streaming on Disney+.