“Darkest hour, awaken your strength”

If you had asked me first Agatha all the timeWhen the fifth episode, “Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power,” aired, I could have bet that it would focus on Lilia’s trial. You get through the trials of the supporting witches – Jen, Alice and Lilia – relatively quickly and then give Rio, who has the most history with Agatha, a beefier episode for the sixth entry and a bigger episode for Agatha's trial in episode seven. Two more episodes of Marvel's standard CGI battle-heavy climax, sandwiched by a big Teen reveal that ties this promisingly different and distanced series to the larger MCU, and you have a competent, if conventional, miniseries. We all learned our lesson: we hope that Marvel would finally break their formula after this WandaVisionThat's a disappointing finale, isn't it?

But the pre-episode recap gave me a hint that this wasn't going to turn out the way I thought it would. First, a scene WandaVision: Agatha's original coven, led by her mother in Salem, Massachusetts, attempts to kill her in 1693. Instead, she turns the tables and kills them all. Then a few scenes from previous episodes of this show, all focused on Agatha. Eight minutes later, Rio confirms it: This is Agatha's trial.

Before we get to the trial, however, the episode begins with the Salem Seven – who, we learn, are the children of the witches Agatha killed in 1693 (“A “wild, hive-minded circle out for revenge,” as Rio describes them) – meet Agatha's new circle. “The moral of the story, children, is always: finish what you start,” says Agatha. “Besides, mercy is overrated.” Unfortunately, there's no time to indulge in Kathryn Hahn's impeccable reading, because these witches have to leave yesterday. And what do witches do when they have to get somewhere quickly? Lilia isn't happy about it at all, but Teen is right: they need to break out the brooms. Cue Aubrey Plaza, which serves a direct offering The Wizard of Oz Reference two episodes in a row and let out a delicious Wicked Witch of the West cackle as they hurtle through the sky. The CGI here isn't great, but it feels intentionally cheesy and cheesy, fitting the tone of the scene. They crash-land before their next trial, which, much like the last episode, appears to take place in a cabin in the woods.

This time, however, it's more 80s teen sleepover vibes than 70s excess. In another change, the moon phases mural that normally adorns the outside of the trial's entrance door is located on the interior wall. The connection is also clearer: “A blood moon,” says Lilia. “When the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest.” Teen is confused that this points to Agatha, but Rio explains that there is no one better at communicating with the dead than someone who has killed many people . It's not clear why Agatha's trial has an '80s theme, although I suspect Rio knows the answer to that too.

A Ouija board flies off the shelf, all the digital clocks start counting down on a 30-minute timer, and Agatha's trial begins. Here she is standing in front of a wall; lash out, try to distract. Delay the inevitable.

It is not clear to me how this process would end if Agatha did not let go of the planchette. Using the tablet, the ghost identified himself as Death and said he wanted to punish Agatha. It is only when Agatha releases the planchette that her mother's ghost appears and tells the others that they must leave Agatha behind and complete the Witches' Road without her in order to punish Agatha and complete this trial. Before Evanora Harkness (Kate Forbes) shows up, the coven considered various methods of punishing Agatha, but none of them were as specific as this one. If Agatha hadn't let go and summoned the spirit, they wouldn't have known what Evanora wanted from them.

Not surprisingly, Jen is the first person to throw Agatha under the bus and try to leave her behind. Teenager protests and stands up for her. But amidst all of this, it is Agatha's exchange with her mother that forms the emotional core of the episode. “Why do you still hate me?” asks Agatha. “You were born evil. “I should have killed you as soon as you left my body,” Evanora replies. Even Jen has the good sense to look a little embarrassed after hearing that.

Agatha all the time has spent four and a half episodes establishing its main character as a manipulative liar who plays with other people's emotions to get what she wants. In the second episode, she tries to get the other witches to destroy her with their powers so she can steal them. However, it's such a transparent attempt that it feels like she's not even trying; She does it more for fun than any expectation that it will actually work. But the intent is clear: she would undoubtedly steal the power of one of her allies if she had the chance. That's why the final scene in the cabin works so well. Agatha's mother possesses her and Alice attacks Agatha with magic to drive her mother away, but Agatha strips Alice of her power instead. Teen breaks the spell and stops Agatha from torturing Alice when he sees the planchette moving again on the Ouija board. This time it's Nicholas Scratch, and when Agatha hears her son's name, she falls silent. “Mom! Stop,” screams a disembodied voice. This is her real punishment. The attic ladder falls down; Alice falls to the ground, dead.

Back on the road, Agatha subsequently claims that she couldn't control it and that she didn't kill Alice on purpose. Teen doesn't believe her, and it seems like Jen and Lilia don't believe it either, although they're both strangely calm about it. That's what Jen says they're all here for: taking back their power. “Death comes for all of us,” Lilia adds.

Agatha is a witch who lives in the space between truth and lies: she gladly accepts rumors, even evil, terrible rumors, if they obscure the truth. She uses people's perception that she is an incredibly cruel and dangerous witch to keep them at a distance. You can see the turn in Hahn's brilliant acting here as she figures out how to use this situation to her advantage. She uses Jen and Lilia's tacit approval as a cover and no longer tries to deny that she intentionally killed Alice. I think she was actually telling the truth; It was her mother's ghost that drained and killed Alice, not her. But everyone already knows that Agatha is a murderer; Recognizing another corpse will only strengthen its legend. So Agatha does what she does best: she becomes defensively cruel, lashing out and hurting others to protect herself. The episode's final exchange confirms what everyone suspected from the start:

Teenager: “So this is what it means to be a witch? Kill people to serve your own agenda? No. Not for me.”
Agatha: “Are you sure? You're so much like your mother.”

Teen is Billy Maximoff, Wanda's son. His hands crackle with blue energy while Jen and Lilia's eyes take on a matching hue. They throw Agatha off the road into the quicksand and she disappears into the dirt. Billy then throws Jen and Lilia into the quicksand. I think Rio is still in the courtroom, so it's not a total party pooper (and we all know the show will at least bring Agatha back in some way). A crown that looks very similar to the Scarlet Witch's crown materializes on Billy's head as the music begins: “You should see me in a crown,” sings Billie Eilish.

It's a mic-dropping moment, one of those extremely rare moments where an on-the-nose music cue is actually perfect because it's so obvious. Here Billy simultaneously announces his arrival and his legacy, a warning not to mess with him. You could see the twist from a mile away – it was no surprise that Teen ended up being Billy. But the way the reveal played out was so perfectly constructed that it didn't matter if we all knew what was going to happen. The surprise in “Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power” wasn’t Teen’s identity; that was it Agatha all the time managed to create a perfect reveal that actually felt earned.

Crazy observations

• • Kathryn Hahn's impression of Debra Jo Rupp is S-Tier.
• • So many questions about Billy – did he know who he was all along? Or did the memories and strength come back in his darkest hour, as the episode title suggests? Based on the look he gives Jen after she tells him, “Confidants don't get a vote” (around 3:30 p.m.), I think he's been playing them all from the start. In any case, it's a brilliant taster of that something You can only tell what's about to happen from Joe Locke at second glance, and then it's so obvious that you wonder how you missed it the first time.
• • Other board games lying around the cabin include: Clue, Pente and Sweet Valley High.
• • When they use the Ouija board, behind “Teen” there is a poster for Point Reyes National Seashore that I can only assume is a reference to John Carpenter's The fog.
• • Agatha wears a jersey with the number three on it; Teen says the Ouija board is suitable for ages three and up. Real Ouija boards are recommended for ages eight and up.
• • In the last episode, Lilia blurted out “Three Swords.” This time she says “Knight of Wands.”