Agatha All Along episode 5 leans fully into the spooky season and vibes established in the last episode with an even more frightening episode. The coven must escape their new enemies while Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) is forced to face her past.
After surviving the fire trial of the previous episode with the help of Alice Wu-Gulliver's (Ali Ahn) protection spells and saving Teen (Joe Locke) from the brink of death, the coven takes a rest on the Witches' Road until Lilia (Patti LuPone) is disturbed by a vision where she realizes the portal they opened to summon Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) in the previous episode is still open and the spine-chilling Salem Seven have made their way onto the Witches' Road after narrowly escaping them in episode 3. Rio knowingly tells Lilia to reveal the origin of the Salem Seven, the orphaned children of Agatha's original coven whom she killed by absorbing their magic, even that of her mother Evanora Harkness (Kate Forbes).
Agatha, unwilling to face another of her past consequences, urges the coven onward until they are trapped by their spectral adversaries. Teen continues to be useful despite not formally being a part of the coven and suggesting a hexenbesen, or the stereotypical witches' broom, to escape. The coven initially refuses the idea as being cliché, but with their enemies imminent, they quickly make the best of it and craft brooms for their coven with Agatha and Rio's awkward exchange of brooms subtly underscoring their mysteriously complicated relationship revealed in the previous episode.
As they soar into the night sky, Agatha and the group briefly revel in the freedom of flight before the road sends them hurtling down to ground level and near the cabin that houses all the trials, and they quickly rush through the door of the cabin and into the 80s to face the third trial. While searching for the clue to begin the trial, Rio once again perceptively notes that the trial is for Agatha. Lilia notes that the blood moon by the door represents the layers between the living and dead being at their thinnest. Rio slyly remarks, "Who better to commune with the dead than someone who's put so many in the grave?" right as Teen stumbles upon the catalyst of the trial, a Ouija board.
With 30 minutes on the clock, the team must find out the purpose of the trial and how to complete it to continue down the Witches' Road. When the team plays, the board seemingly reveals that it is "Death" coming to "punish Agatha" for all of her transgressions. The board spells out "Mrs. Hart," which seemingly causes Agatha to be possessed by the spirit of the friendly neighbor they lost during the first trial.
However, this turns out to be rouse by Agatha, who continuously avoids addressing the gravity of any given situation. The joke suddenly shifts after the power goes out and Agatha disappears from the table. The coven searches for the dastardly witch before a bit of drool drops on Teen from above, revealing a terrifying and pale Agatha perched on a beam on the ceiling in an homage to The Exorcist. This time Agatha is truly possessed; she skitters across the room on her hands and feet while fighting the coven and almost choking Jen to death before Lilia cuts on the lights to temporarily dispel the spirit possessing Agatha.
The spirit is revealed to be the ghost of Agatha Harkness' mother who says that Agatha was born evil before attempting to possess her once more. As the ghost swoops in, Alice, brimming with magic after breaking her curse, shoots a blast of protection magic at Agatha, forcing the ghost from her body. Freed from the grasp of her mother and finally feeling the power she's so craved since she "lost her purple," Agatha reverts to her old ways and forcibly drains Alice's magic, leaving her a wrinkled corpse in her wake. Agatha only stops absorbing the life force of her comrade after Teen asks the Ouija board, "Who are you?" to which it responds, "Nicolas Scratch," the name of Agatha's long-lost child who pleads for her to stop.
Agatha slinks away from the coven after the exit opens up, but the coven, ever moving forward, catches up and calls Agatha out on her power-hungry behavior. As they escape, Lilia worriedly says, "Death comes for us all" in what could be another of her clairvoyant episodes like the moment in the previous episode where she yelled out, "Alice no!" which foreshadowed Alice's untimely demise. After being derided by the group, Agatha taunts the mysterious youth by saying, "You're so much like your mother" before beckoning for him like an animal.
A spark of blue magic flickers from the hands of Teen, revealing there to be more than meets the eye to the overzealous lover of witchcraft. Suddenly, the two remaining members of the coven, Jen and Lilia, with blue energy in their eyes, grab Agatha and throw her into the mud that almost ate Mrs. Hart in episode three before a pulse of that same blue energy knocks them into the pits, sending them seemingly to their demise.
The episode ends with a final look at Teen wearing a crown that bears a striking resemblance to the crown worn by the Scarlet Witch.
Agatha All Along episode 5 "Darkest Hour/Wake Thy Power" tackles the idea of family and loss while revealing the inner machinations and demons that move a character as complex as Agatha Harkness.
With such a turn coming at the midway point in the series, there can only be more mysteries ahead for the tenuously-tied coven in the upcoming episodes. Could the enigmatic Teen be one of Wanda's children we first saw in 2021's WandaVision? And where is Rio?
