Last week on Agatha All Along, we learned why Billy Kaplan (Joe Locke) is so eager to be on the Witches Road: he wants to find his lost brother Tommy. After banishing the other witches away, Billy must work his way down the road with the help of Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn).
This week's episode, "Death's Hand in Mind," interestingly enough, does not start with the two of them. Instead, the focus is on Lilia (Patti LuPone). Why is that the case? And did we get a Lilia-centric episode?
Find out the answer to those questions below, and remember that there are MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
Agatha and Billy walk down the Witches Road...
Sidebar: If you're wondering what happened to Rio, who was with the coven until not long ago and then vanished, this episode gives you some answers, which I'm happy about. Give us more Rio, give us more Aubrey Plaza! That said, Agatha won't answer Billy's questions about her, instead pushing the conversation toward controversial topic: Billy's mother, aka the Scarlet Witch. Is she actually dead? Agatha believes so; I mean, she did see what appeared to be Wanda's body...right?
Those questions are put on hold as the two arrive at their next trial. This one is a doozy. I loved the eerie castle vibes and the outfit switch to classic movie villains. Agatha was the Wicked Witch of the West, complete with green skin, while Billy transformed into Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.
Inside the spooky mansion, Agatha and Billy find a table in the middle of a room. "Your path winds out of time," reads a message. Billy points out some Tarot cards nearby. As soon as he grabs them, it's game time.
Billy tries to do a reading on Agatha, but he gets the reading wrong and swords start to fall out of the ceiling. It's a dangerous game, and someone really talented in Tarot has to be around to play it. I wonder if they know such a person...
The story of Lilia
We cut back to Jen (Sasheer Zamata) and Lilia, who are alive after drowning in the mud Billy snapped them into. There is a lot of weirdness in this moment because Lilia is discombobulated from the fall, and Jen is trying to get her bearings as well. I loved watching these two together. They were all kinds of chaotic, and I was here for it.
Now, it will be confusing to explain what happens next, so try to follow.
Lilia says something she said back in the fourth episode to Alice (Ali Ahn), and as she is saying this, it pulls her back into that very scene and moment. She then finds herself in a moment from the third episode, and finally is sitting in front of a woman from her childhood, during the Renaissance. This woman is speaking in Sicilian and curious to know how long Lilia has been traveling. However, the Lilia we see is a young teenage girl.
You may be asking yourself, what the heck is going on? Why is Lilia being thrown around trough time like this? What does it all mean?
When she finds herself back with Jen in the present ot the Witches Road, she realizes that this is something that happened to her when she was a young girl. She often would live life being pulled across different moments past and present and future, and it seems to be happening again, but in a much more aggressive manner. Time, after all, is just an illusion.
The Trial
Eventually, Lilia and Jen find themselves in the midst of the trial that Agatha and Billy are in. You may be curious as to who Lilia and Jen transformed into upon getting to the trial...and you'll love it! Lilia is Glinda (the Good Witch) from The Wizard of Oz and Jen is the old Evil Queen (in her old garb and wrinkly skin) from Snow White. It's pretty awesome, and honestly a bit fitting, if you ask me.
Through the better half of the episode, Lilia is pulled back and forth to different moments which all lead back to the trial. Ultimately, she is the one that can solve it with her knowledge of Tarot and time. It's interesting to watch her knowledge grow and expand through each moment, to the point where when she finally settles down to solve the trial, she isn't mad at Billy anymore for what he did to her and Jen.
Lilia uncovers each of the cards that need to be set down to solve the trial, including identifying herself as The Traveler. She has always been attuned to others. Her empathy is why she still feels guilty over not being able to save her coven from the plague.
As each card is laid and identified by Lilia, the trial reaches its climax. The swords are no longer falling from the ceiling, but the ceiling itself lowers down on them until the very moment Lilia solves the trial...and uncovers a huge truth about Rio Vidal's identity.
Ending of Agatha All Along Season 1, Episode 7 explained
After arriving at "The Destination," Lilia finds herself pulled back into a memory of her and Jen on the Witches Road. There is, however, someone else there with them: a hooded, dark figure appears out of the shadows, and it is none other than...RIO...or nope, it is Death. Yes, Rio is indeed DEATH! Flashback to the moment where it was revealed that death was in the room with them. It's all coming together folks!
Back at the trial, Agatha promptly places the Death card in the middle of the table to stop the ceiling from skewering all of them. It is then revealed by Lilia to them all that Rio is Death.
Alas, this revelation is one of the last things that Lilia tells her fellow witches before sacrificing herself for their safety. This was something she couldn't do for her former coven, and is happy to do now. It is a sad and gut-wrenching moment to say bye to Lilia so abruptly after watching the journey she just went on. She had to make this decision because the Salem Seven had been following her and Jen around all episode. They make their way into the trial room so Lilia takes the Tower Reversed card and makes it so the entire room flips upside-down. She, along with the Salem Seven, are impaled on the swords below. R.I.P. Lilia.
The very final scene of the episode is Lilia as a young Sicilian girl attending her lessons. It's a full-circle moment if I have ever seen one!
And just like that, we are t-minus one week away from the finale of Agatha All Along. It has been an insane journey, and the revelations have never really stopped coming. The recipe for chaos and disaster that lives within Agatha has been at the forefront of the season all along, and I can't wait to see how it all comes to a shocking end next week. I don't know what is going to happen, but I am going to strap myself in for a wild ride!
Grade: A
Catch new episodes of the Marvel show Agatha All Along every Wednesday on Disney+ at 6:00 p.m. PST.
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