Kathryn Hahn returns as Agatha Harkness in the two-episode premiere of “Agatha All Along” on Disney+. This “WandaVision” sequel follows Agatha as she quests to return to her former glory — stripped from her by the Scarlet Witch in the previous series. To do so requires her to delve back into the mysterious world of witches only briefly touched on in “WandaVision.”

‘Agatha All Along’

Episode one starts off with an “episode” of Agnes of Westview, immediately throwing us into the familiar setup from “WandaVision,” where each episode was set in the style of a different TV show. This particular show, referencing “Mare of Easttown,” follows Agnes, a detective, investigating a small-town murder case.

This, of course, is but an illusion built to imprison the mind of Agatha under the spell of the Scarlet Witch. After meeting Rio (Aubrey Plaza) and an unnamed “Teen” (Joe Locke), the illusion begins to crack, and with further encouragement from Rio, Agatha is able to break free of the spell. 

This brings us to the real world, where we find Agatha has been living amongst the other denizens of Westview as they all try to continue their lives after being set free from Wanda’s spell at the end of “WandaVision.” Agatha’s reawakening leads to her realizing that all of the characters from her enchanted world were the various residents who have been under the impression that Agatha was just a weird neighbor. 

Now fully cognizant of the real world, Agatha assesses her situation, realizing she is completely powerless, a situation she is determined to correct. After a tense, nearly fatal drop-in from Rio in the real world, Agatha learns that her past will be coming after her as she is no longer protected by her magic from the wrath of all the witches she wronged in the past.

The mysterious “Teen,” whose identity is hidden from her due to some magic obscuring any visual or audio identification, admits to knowing much about Agatha and that he came to set her free in the hopes that she could help him in his last steps to becoming a magic user. This comes in the form of walking the “Witches Road,” a mysterious process that is the origin of Agatha’s previous rise to power. This, however, requires the presence of a coven, meaning Agatha needs to make some witchy connections again and quickly.

Agatha has the teen take her to the location of multiple witches who, mostly reluctantly, agree to help them, along with a rather unsuspecting neighbor, Mrs. “Hart” (Debra Jo Rupp). As a group of all black-clad witches (the infamous Salem Seven) descend upon the new coven’s location, they just narrowly open the door to the “Witches Road” after an impressive musical chant. The second episode ends as the coven takes their first steps down the enchanting blue leaf covered path of the “Witches Road.”

Kathryn Hahn’s return to her character is spectacular. Initially, she played Agatha unknowingly playing Agnes, which was its own acting brilliance. Hahn leans hard into the tropey-tv detective, which often feels bad, but that purposeful bad acting is interspersed with cracks of intense character moments of clarity that remind us this is all an illusion. Then we return to the real Agatha, and it’s right back to that wicked and interesting character we met in “WandaVision.” It’s also interesting to note that unlike previous Marvel villains being set up to become some sort of anti-hero, Agatha (at least currently) still seems to be her original bad self with no plans of changing. 

When Agatha first revealed her true self in “WandaVision,” we were only given a brief introduction to her past and the universe of witches apparently existing in the MCU. “Agatha All Along” does a good job setting us up to follow Agatha while also introducing natural exposition for these new subjects. This also leaves us interested in what’s to come as we receive these glimpses of the “Witches Road,” other witches, and new rules for their magic.

Joe Locke’s character is its own interesting mystery. Any time he tries to identify himself, a magical veil obscures his mouth, or a magical silence falls around just his voice. So not only are we following Agatha’s quest to regain her powers, we also watch as she contemplates this twist. (And yes, we know who he is, but the way they play with the mystery is fun enough that we’re willing to play along).

This series also plays a little with the horror genre. There are the mysteries that come with the murder investigation happening in “Agnes of Westview,” but then they lean further into it with the “Salem Seven.” When these seven black-veiled witches arrive to presumably kill Agatha, the tone shifts. They move unnaturally, unleash hair-raising screeches, and even crawl down stairs “The Grudge”-style. 

Though a little slow to start, “Agatha All Along” sets up an interesting anti-hero with a haunting draught of fun and mystery that currently has me under its spell.

We’d give this two-part premiere 5 witches out of a coven of 7. 

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The post ‘Agatha All Along’ Two-Part Debut: The Season of the Witch Begins & We’re Ready for More appeared first on WDW News Today.