Agatha All Along: Circle Sewn With Fate / Unlock Thy Hidden Gate
September 19, 2024 4:55 AM - Season 1, Episode 2 - Subscribe
With old foes in hot pursuit, Agatha and Teen gather a desperate coven to walk The Witches’ Road.
Poor Sharon. I hope she's okay.
posted by Faintdreams at 5:45 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]
posted by Faintdreams at 5:45 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]
Relevant trope: Putting the Band Back Together. And a reminder--as if we really needed it--that Agatha is really pretty evil, or at least has done some seriously bad stuff; if nothing else, she put the multiverse at risk by introducing Wanda to the Darkhold. I was especially amused by Sasheer Zamata as Jennifer Kale, playing the character very differently from the comics version (and making me wonder if we might see Man-Thing or other characters from Werewolf By Night); the business with the jade eggs seems like a direct crack at GOOP, and I was thinking, boy, they probably don't expect to get Gwyneth Paltrow back ever, do they?
Speaking of comics, the version of Salem's Seven here is way different from the comic version, which is a fairly standard-issue supervillain group. (One of them is called Vakume, who does indeed have vacuum-based powers; I wonder if their resume lists experience as "supervillainy, some light cleaning.")
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:10 AM on September 19 [4 favorites]
Speaking of comics, the version of Salem's Seven here is way different from the comic version, which is a fairly standard-issue supervillain group. (One of them is called Vakume, who does indeed have vacuum-based powers; I wonder if their resume lists experience as "supervillainy, some light cleaning.")
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:10 AM on September 19 [4 favorites]
Joe Locke's "Teen" is a precious baby and I love him. One of my favorite tropes is "older man takes a young girl under his wing" and this is the opposite. I think that's the point. There are a lot of things in comics where an older male character "adopts" a younger woman. I love Agatha bonding with "Teen" (we know who he is, but ... let's go with it anyway).
I love Agatha's gathering of the witches. Everyone hates her and she hates everyone. I love it.
This show is definitely thriving on its cast but it's so great.
Kathryn Hahn continues to be perfect.
(I love Debra Jo Rupp & I imagine she'll be more than some little neighborhood lady.)
I am a comics nerd & while I've been ambivalent on a lot of the MCU, I'm all in on this. Musical theater comic book witches are my aesthetic.
posted by edencosmic at 5:17 PM on September 19 [3 favorites]
I love Agatha's gathering of the witches. Everyone hates her and she hates everyone. I love it.
This show is definitely thriving on its cast but it's so great.
Kathryn Hahn continues to be perfect.
(I love Debra Jo Rupp & I imagine she'll be more than some little neighborhood lady.)
I am a comics nerd & while I've been ambivalent on a lot of the MCU, I'm all in on this. Musical theater comic book witches are my aesthetic.
posted by edencosmic at 5:17 PM on September 19 [3 favorites]
Teen as Agatha's pet/"familiar Toto" continues to be enjoyable. Why is he silenced without his knowledge?
"WELCOME COVEN," lol. "They are old granola bars, I didn't have much to work with."
Patti Lupone and Sasheer Zamata (looking glam!) are fun times. I love Jen's pink.
"It wasn't a name, it was a black heart." Ooooh.
"Am I supposed to know this song?" That song is surprisingly catchy for the season.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:08 PM on September 19 [2 favorites]
"WELCOME COVEN," lol. "They are old granola bars, I didn't have much to work with."
Patti Lupone and Sasheer Zamata (looking glam!) are fun times. I love Jen's pink.
"It wasn't a name, it was a black heart." Ooooh.
"Am I supposed to know this song?" That song is surprisingly catchy for the season.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:08 PM on September 19 [2 favorites]
I hope we don't do comics spoilers here. I have no idea who Teen is supposed to be and I'm fine with that.
posted by Pendragon at 11:24 AM on September 20 [9 favorites]
posted by Pendragon at 11:24 AM on September 20 [9 favorites]
That song was fantastic and sold me on the show.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:41 PM on September 20 [1 favorite]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:41 PM on September 20 [1 favorite]
Like two bars into that song I was like "Oh right! Bobby & Kristen Lopez did the WandaVision music!" And that song sounds like something straight out of one of the Frozen movies, in a good way.
I also have no idea who "Teen" is supposed to be and am fine with finding out when the show gets there, but it's intriguing.
Debra Jo Rupp setting up to be this season's secret weapon.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:35 PM on September 20 [1 favorite]
I also have no idea who "Teen" is supposed to be and am fine with finding out when the show gets there, but it's intriguing.
Debra Jo Rupp setting up to be this season's secret weapon.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:35 PM on September 20 [1 favorite]
So, I'm enjoying this, and went ahead and did a rewatch of WandaVision to remember everything I need to remember (though I haven't gotten up the energy to rewatch Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness yet. I have limits.)
So my thoughts in re: all that are:
1.) Damn, but WandaVision on the whole was stupid good. Just wildly inventive and masterfully intriguing and with a lot of trust in the audience to engage even when it was doing something so different and not explaining anything. Enough trust to even playfully troll the audience in a number of different ways, even. Experimental and dark and funny and genre-bending all in service of a story about processing grief in sympathetic but ultimately destructive ways.
2.) That ending, though... I wish I knew how many pitch drafts that ending went through, because it's not just that it leaves so much unresolved, or that it's "ambiguous." It's that it's non-committal. And after 8 episodes of masterwork character study into Wanda Maximoff, that it ends such that we don't have any real sense of the character's arc over the course of the series is a betrayal of the boldness that defined the first 8 episodes, and I have a feeling that it came directed from on high to leave it open which way she was going to go, so that they could make that decision later. Which is chickenshit.
3.) But still not as bad as what they did to the character in 2 Doctor 2 Strange, which pissed me right off. It's not even that she couldn't have made for a good villain, but that they made her one by retreading her character development from the much-better WandaVision in such a way as to have had her regress in terms of morality and even sanity. It boiled all of the greatness of WandaVision down to "I just want my kids back," and that was a huge disservice even if they hadn't killed her off at the end. They did Wanda real dirty, in other words.
And so, what I want from this show more than anything, even if Elizabeth Olsen is never coming back to the MCU, is for them to somehow, some way, un-fuck that character assassination. I have no idea what that would look like, but even posthumously sending Wanda off on a better note than what we got would be a big step in the right direction.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:16 AM on September 21 [11 favorites]
So my thoughts in re: all that are:
1.) Damn, but WandaVision on the whole was stupid good. Just wildly inventive and masterfully intriguing and with a lot of trust in the audience to engage even when it was doing something so different and not explaining anything. Enough trust to even playfully troll the audience in a number of different ways, even. Experimental and dark and funny and genre-bending all in service of a story about processing grief in sympathetic but ultimately destructive ways.
2.) That ending, though... I wish I knew how many pitch drafts that ending went through, because it's not just that it leaves so much unresolved, or that it's "ambiguous." It's that it's non-committal. And after 8 episodes of masterwork character study into Wanda Maximoff, that it ends such that we don't have any real sense of the character's arc over the course of the series is a betrayal of the boldness that defined the first 8 episodes, and I have a feeling that it came directed from on high to leave it open which way she was going to go, so that they could make that decision later. Which is chickenshit.
3.) But still not as bad as what they did to the character in 2 Doctor 2 Strange, which pissed me right off. It's not even that she couldn't have made for a good villain, but that they made her one by retreading her character development from the much-better WandaVision in such a way as to have had her regress in terms of morality and even sanity. It boiled all of the greatness of WandaVision down to "I just want my kids back," and that was a huge disservice even if they hadn't killed her off at the end. They did Wanda real dirty, in other words.
And so, what I want from this show more than anything, even if Elizabeth Olsen is never coming back to the MCU, is for them to somehow, some way, un-fuck that character assassination. I have no idea what that would look like, but even posthumously sending Wanda off on a better note than what we got would be a big step in the right direction.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:16 AM on September 21 [11 favorites]
Elizabeth Olsen is going to be at NYCC. It could just be a photo op circumstance but I also don't think she'd just do it for the money at this point in her career.
I do think the end of Doctor Strange 2 left the huge door open that Wanda wasn't actually dead and this show really points to that, yeah, probably not. Or at least, there's a maybe. I'd love see more of Olsen as Wanda in not such a terrible way.
posted by edencosmic at 5:53 PM on September 21 [3 favorites]
I do think the end of Doctor Strange 2 left the huge door open that Wanda wasn't actually dead and this show really points to that, yeah, probably not. Or at least, there's a maybe. I'd love see more of Olsen as Wanda in not such a terrible way.
posted by edencosmic at 5:53 PM on September 21 [3 favorites]
And after 8 episodes of masterwork character study into Wanda Maximoff, that it ends such that we don't have any real sense of the character's arc over the course of the series is a betrayal of the boldness that defined the first 8 episodes
Yeah, Marvel be like this, sadly. They can never seem to stick the landing, which isn't great, but it's also frustrating because the potential is there, but someone always seems to pull the creative team back. So as much as I'm curious where this show is going, I'm leery of getting too invested.
But still, fingers crossed. Season 2 of Loki ended very well, so there's hope!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:57 PM on September 21 [2 favorites]
Yeah, Marvel be like this, sadly. They can never seem to stick the landing, which isn't great, but it's also frustrating because the potential is there, but someone always seems to pull the creative team back. So as much as I'm curious where this show is going, I'm leery of getting too invested.
But still, fingers crossed. Season 2 of Loki ended very well, so there's hope!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:57 PM on September 21 [2 favorites]
Damn, but WandaVision on the whole was stupid good.
Aaand now we may be seeing the disney-fication. Instead of mind bending twists of meta storytelling across many media themes, we have a "cute quest" down a dangerous road by an ad hoc group of dowdy potential Disney Princesses.
Okay, a super dangerous quest where everyone will die. Okay, at least one or two.
I certainly enjoyed the first two, they moved fast, clever quirks, probably more cultural references than I could catch, but hope the 'road' diverges quickly. And gets an RDJ cameo:-)
posted by sammyo at 7:01 PM on September 21
Aaand now we may be seeing the disney-fication. Instead of mind bending twists of meta storytelling across many media themes, we have a "cute quest" down a dangerous road by an ad hoc group of dowdy potential Disney Princesses.
Okay, a super dangerous quest where everyone will die. Okay, at least one or two.
I certainly enjoyed the first two, they moved fast, clever quirks, probably more cultural references than I could catch, but hope the 'road' diverges quickly. And gets an RDJ cameo:-)
posted by sammyo at 7:01 PM on September 21
Wanda was absolutely done wrong by Strange and the Multiverse and if there's any place we'd run into a ghost, echo, or alternate of the Scarlet Witch it would be a liminal space like the Witchs' Road.
The other brief theory I had about Teen was that he could be a fragment/variant of Loki, pulled from a point in life before his bad choices became irrevocable. The hidden name and backstory would then be symptoms of having been transplanted. I'm pretty sure that's wrong but it could be made to work if you squint.
There's also the question of who was properly supposed to stand as Earth for the coven. Rio is our most likely subject, given they're not going to waste Aubrey Plaza by dropping her after two episodes and there's our excuse to drag her onto the road. Teen is another possibility, with a symbol for his name because his name can't be perceived. We can then take it that the portal opened because it co-incided with Teen deciding he needed to be Anywhere But Here very hard, and being Earth attuned enough to provide the last push of energy to complete the summoning.
posted by Karmakaze at 7:52 PM on September 21 [1 favorite]
The other brief theory I had about Teen was that he could be a fragment/variant of Loki, pulled from a point in life before his bad choices became irrevocable. The hidden name and backstory would then be symptoms of having been transplanted. I'm pretty sure that's wrong but it could be made to work if you squint.
There's also the question of who was properly supposed to stand as Earth for the coven. Rio is our most likely subject, given they're not going to waste Aubrey Plaza by dropping her after two episodes and there's our excuse to drag her onto the road. Teen is another possibility, with a symbol for his name because his name can't be perceived. We can then take it that the portal opened because it co-incided with Teen deciding he needed to be Anywhere But Here very hard, and being Earth attuned enough to provide the last push of energy to complete the summoning.
posted by Karmakaze at 7:52 PM on September 21 [1 favorite]
Karmakaze: I think we're absolutely supposed to understand that Rio was the Green Witch in the coven. She specifically refers to her "Black Heart" in the first episode.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:05 PM on September 21 [3 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 8:05 PM on September 21 [3 favorites]
Enjoying the Wizard of Oz references. A woman crushed by a house (probably) in Ep 1. Here, the witches and "Toto" abandon their "slippers" at the start of the road.
posted by SPrintF at 12:52 PM on September 22 [1 favorite]
posted by SPrintF at 12:52 PM on September 22 [1 favorite]
Mrs Hart (who is not Mrs Hart but Sharon) is the green witch, y'all. With the green thumb and the gardening apron? It's pretty obvious.
If we pick up on the foreshadowing in the first episode, Teen is Nicholas Scratch, or maybe not. Sometimes foreshadowing is really just fucking with the viewer.
Also, if Aubrey Plaza is actually Lenny from Legion... Wow. That's a real, horrifying choice.
posted by fiercekitten at 2:27 PM on September 22 [6 favorites]
If we pick up on the foreshadowing in the first episode, Teen is Nicholas Scratch, or maybe not. Sometimes foreshadowing is really just fucking with the viewer.
Also, if Aubrey Plaza is actually Lenny from Legion... Wow. That's a real, horrifying choice.
posted by fiercekitten at 2:27 PM on September 22 [6 favorites]
"she's really most sincerely dead" ( first ep) also from Wizard of Oz.
posted by emjaybee at 6:59 PM on September 23 [2 favorites]
posted by emjaybee at 6:59 PM on September 23 [2 favorites]
I am also digging the Wizard of Oz references right from the beginning; they're subtle yet obvious and don't really telegraph where the end's going other than a "at the end of the road you get a heart and you get a brain and you get da noive and I get to go back to Kansas status quo". Love Debra Jo Rupp as local gardening lady cum ersatz earth magician and completely oblivious to what's going on other than "yay, I have new friends and they're all so cool!"
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:55 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:55 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]
So when I first saw the teen I said "Is that the Merlin guy?" which it wasn't, but unfortunately despite saying that my strongest association with Colin Morgan is as Jethro ("We've broken down... IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!") in the Doctor Who episode Midnight, and the fact that he wasn't given a name means my partner and I now just think of him as Jethro. "Aww, look at Jethro with the rabbit." "Oh no, Jethro is experiencing the horrors." Etc.
Anyway, so many fun characters here. I am super curious how well Lilia's random tarot pronouncements will actually fit the situation--as I've seen lots of fiction using tarot throw around those references with no real understanding of the traditional meanings of the cards (and not enough grounding to twist it or do something new in a way that feels clever instead of superficial). But her reference to the Three of Pentacles seemed apt; I don't know enough about Jennifer to know if the High Priestess fits (any more than it would for the other witches--though she gets points for "the sacred feminine" through that jade egg bit) so I'll be thinking about that as I see more of her character.
posted by brook horse at 8:04 PM on October 4
Anyway, so many fun characters here. I am super curious how well Lilia's random tarot pronouncements will actually fit the situation--as I've seen lots of fiction using tarot throw around those references with no real understanding of the traditional meanings of the cards (and not enough grounding to twist it or do something new in a way that feels clever instead of superficial). But her reference to the Three of Pentacles seemed apt; I don't know enough about Jennifer to know if the High Priestess fits (any more than it would for the other witches--though she gets points for "the sacred feminine" through that jade egg bit) so I'll be thinking about that as I see more of her character.
posted by brook horse at 8:04 PM on October 4
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posted by garrett at 5:14 AM on September 19 [3 favorites]