Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Agatha All Along Episode 3.
Agatha All Along has gone more places in just three episodes than many shows dare to go in an entire season. So far, we’ve been in Westview (Agnes’ Version), Westview (Agatha’s Version), and even had a taste of the Witches’ Road. In Episode 3, we quickly learn that the Witches’ Road is much more than just a beautiful, deadly forest that might be perpetual night (as a vibe). On its path, there will be even more locales our coven will have to conquer, aligning with the different elements. First up? Jennifer’s trial, AKA the water test.
What Is the First Rule of the Witches’ Road in ‘Agatha All Along’ Episode 3?
We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Quite a bit happens before we make it into the mansion straight out of Huge Tiny Lies. (I see you still making satirical TV references, Jac Schaeffer. You can take the girl out of the sitcom world, but you can’t take the sitcom world out of the girl. And a Nicole Kidman reference, no less? We come to both AMC Theaters and the Witches’ Road for magic.) Teen (Joe Locke) is ecstatic they’ve made it to the Road, dreamily stating it’s exactly how he pictured it. Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) replies that it suits him. Aww, very sweet.
Unfortunately, not everyone is so thrilled to be here — especially since the Salem Seven chased them down there. Sharon Davis (Debra Jo Rupp) is the most upset, declaring that this is essentially a kidnapping. She also really doesn’t understand how this strange forest is under Westview. She’s part of the town’s historical society, and they’ve never come across anything quite like this. She has reason to be worried, considering they’re up against their worst fears via trials designed to test them and their knowledge of their craft. To make matters worse, they don’t exactly have access to their powers at the moment — at least, not in the traditional sense.
Teen reminds the coven they can all use analog magic — a traditional kind that requires real craft — but that’s about all he can say, still unable to communicate his name or personal information. Lilia (Patti LuPone) knows this is due to a sigil, and is immediately suspicious that Agatha’s behind it, which offends her greatly. Sigils are beneath her. She tells them to never mind the Mystery of Teen anyway, as the real prizes lie at the end of the Road for each one of them: Jennifer’s (Sasheer Zamata) magic can be unbound, Lilia can reverse her fortune, and Alice (Ali Ahn) can find out what happened to her mom. All Mrs. Davis wants is her purse back (it’s from Talbots!), which is rapidly being eaten by a quicksand-like patch of mud. The coven saves her right before she can become fertilizer for the terrifying plants. Rule number one: Don’t stray off the path.
What Is Jennifer’s Trial in ‘Agatha All Along’ Episode 3?
Mrs. Davis’ spirits lift when they approach a beautiful beach house, thinking maybe they’ve reached the end. Teen states that’d be a serious bummer, earning side-eye from the coven — and from me. Seriously, who is this kid? They walk into the house — the decor of which gives Teen “middle-aged second-chance-at-love vibes” (which I am choosing to believe is a reference to Agatha and Rio, though perhaps that’s me being a delusional shipper) — and each of them gets a change of clothes to match the aesthetic. Thank god they’re all sleek and fabulous, making everyone slay, because the doors do not open back up. They’re fully M. Night Shyamalantrapped.
Agatha hopes there’s not a wedding in store — or, god forbid, a baby shower. Ironic, to say the least, considering Jennifer tells Teen to watch his back with Agatha since she traded her own child for Book of the Damned. Teen doesn’t believe it — nobody knows what actually happened, after all. There are also rumors that Nicholas is dead, a demon, or an agent of Mephisto. Jennifer still cautions him to be careful. “I doubt she’d even recognize her own son if he showed up at her doorstep,” she quips. Yikes.
Between dragging Agatha, Jennifer finds a riddle, which Sharon realizes is talking about wine with alarming speed. This woman clearly loves herself a wind-down beverage, and I respect that, but chill, Sharon. They pour everyone a glass (sans Teen because he’s underage — something Agatha doesn’t care about but everyone else seems to), and Sharon predictably gulps hers down first. Everyone else follows suit (sans Agatha, who sneakily pours hers in a plant), and a 30-minute timer begins.
Nothing much happens at first. Sharon doesn’t know the first thing about non-fictional witches, which turns Lilia into the “old man yells at cloud” meme. Alice tells Teen about a tattoo her mom made her get when she was 13 watching her play Red Rocks in Colorado. It’s a warding symbol, she says, since all the women in her family are cursed. Teen sympathetically admits a lot happened to him at 13, too.
The soft moment is interrupted by Sharon’s face looking positively busted, puffing up like a balloon. Everyone else’s begins to do the same, and Agatha attempts to hide her still perfectly normal head. It’s in vain, though, as she’s immediately busted. Though the swelling subsides quickly, Jennifer knows this is just the beginning — they must have ingested Alewife’s Revenge, which can cause delirium, hallucinations, loss of motor function, and even death.
Agatha’s certainly not inclined to drink the wine now, especially considering that it’s cheap, but she reluctantly throws it back when Teen threatens to if she doesn’t. Her reaction to the idea is uncharacteristically strong, which begs the question: Why does she care so much about protecting this kid when she doesn’t care if most people live or die and, frankly, hopes that it will be the latter most of the time?
What Does the Coven Hallucinate in ‘Agatha All Along’ Episode 3?
Thus begins phase two: hallucinations. Because she drank it before anyone else, Sharon is first to fall victim to this, having flashbacks of seeing her husband die at the dinner table in WandaVisionEpisode 1, and begs Wanda to let him breathe. The others attempt to ignore her highly disturbing cries and help Jennifer brew an antidote. One such ingredient they need is petroleum, which Agatha and Lilia find in Jennifer’s skincare line packed in the cabinets of the house’s bathroom. Jennifer claims her products are all organic, but Agatha knows a snake oil salesman when she sees one.
While Lilia and Agatha are rummaging through the shelves, Lilia blurts out, “Try to save Agatha.” Agatha is confused, seeming to think Lilia is talking about the present moment, but my theory is that this is tied to a memory referencing something in Agatha’s past. Could Lilia be feeling guilt for not saving Agatha from her mother and coven trying to burn her at the stake? Save her from going fully to the dark side all those centuries ago? In addition to the Agatha-related blurt, Lilia also gets a vision of a young girl who asks her if she wants to see in Italian. Lilia is then disturbed by the vision of a dark figure creeping up behind a zombified woman. She frantically states that “they’re all dead,” which leaves Agatha even more puzzled.
While Alice and Teen are scouring the house for more ingredients — eucalyptus essential oil among them — Alice gets a vision of her mother flicking a lighter and informing her that her grandmother died. Though she was thousands of miles away, she could feel it when it happened. “It’s my turn now,” her mother says. “It’s going to kill me.” Alice screams, disturbed that she can’t protect her mom any more than her mom can protect her, and Teen does his best to comfort her.
Jennifer has decided the house’s large kitchen sink can act as an impromptu cauldron and begins to prepare it to make their antidote. However, she also has her own hallucinated demons to battle in the form of a man in a doctor’s coat who calls her an inconvenient woman and tells her she’s nothing, attempting to drown her in the sink. To make matters worse, there’s a high tide rising outside and threatening to break through the window that Agatha cracked earlier while trying to escape (nice going, Harkness). The clock is ticking — quite literally. There are only three minutes left on the timer. Jennifer gets to work mixing the potion, with Teen coming in to save the day by suggesting a sous vide can make their cauldron bubble. Agatha is no help, as this is when her hallucination finally kicks in. She hears a baby crying and, to put it mildly, freaks the hell out. When she goes to investigate the pram, what she sees isn’t an infant but the Darkhold itself. Maybe there’s some credence to Jennifer’s constant accusations of child sacrifice after all.
Who Dies in ‘Agatha All Along’ Episode 3?
After they get Agatha under control, they each pluck a single strand of hair from their heads and add it to the cauldron. They all now must clear their minds and align their intentions — only then will the water glow the correct color. Except, much like their struggle to open the road, it doesn’t work at first. Agatha gives Jen a pep talk, saying that, despite always hating her, she’s left her alone because the work she was doing was important. “You can be that witch again,” she tells her. “They can take your power, but they can’t take your knowledge.”
With that, Jennifer locks in and realizes they’re missing a key ingredient: The blood of the unpoisoned. Agatha grabs a knife, thanks Teen for being underage, and gives his hand a quick slice. With Teen’s addition, the antidote finally glows blue, and they all drink it. Sharon is, predictably, not doing so hot, so it’s a race to the finish to force her to ingest it. They succeed in the nick of time, and having passed the test, the oven opens for them to exit.
Lilia’s not too keen on this being their ride out (it happened to a friend of hers once — she had a lovely house, too!), but considering the lack of options, they go down, down, down the oven’s slip ‘n slide back to the road before the house can flood behind them. The physical comedy of this can’t be overstated. It’s silly in the best way. Though they manage to drag Sharon out before she can drown, they realize the poor woman hasn’t made it. Poor Sharon. At least she died doing what she loved — drinking wine.
Agatha All Along Episode 3 tells us the days of exposition are fully behind us — we’re in the thick of the woods, and the plot, now. And the plot’s shaping up to be very interesting indeed. Schaeffer has given us some delicious breadcrumbs (yeah, that’s another Hansel and Gretel reference — deal with it) to nibble on and ponder in terms of each character’s backstory via the flashbacks, and Agatha’s relationship with Teen (and Nick, who’s haunting the narrative to the extreme) continues to be intriguing. It seems like the show is going to turn into our coven solving magical escape rooms every week, with the consequence of failing death like a whimsical Squid Game. I’m all in.
New episodes of Agatha All Along drop every Wednesday at 9 PM ET on Disney+.
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