Review: Agatha All Along, “Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End” and “Maiden Mother Crone” | Season 1, Episodes 8 & 9

Agatha’s finale walks an uneven road

Photo: Chuck Zlotnick (Marvel/Disney+)

It was fascinating to watch the first half of tonight’s two-part finale knowing there was another episode in store. By all accounts, “Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End” is exactly the sort of rushed special-effects-heavy bonanza Marvel’s Disney+ shows so often serve up as their finales. The episode opens with a bunch of exposition, quickly gets the Coven of Misfits through the final trial and off The Road, then jumps into a backyard battle between Agatha and Rio. It all has the feeling of a big, slightly hollow MCU finale, right down to the new costumes everyone gets. There’s a world where this show really does end with Agatha sacrificing herself to kickstart Billy’s superhero journey. Except that’s (mostly) not the story Jac Schaeffer is here to tell. Instead, Agatha ends as it began: with a whole lot of tricks up its sleeve—some for better and some for worse.

Let’s start with the good first: This season of Agatha All Along has been so engaging that it’s easy to miss the fact that we actually haven’t learned a ton about our leading lady yet. Before tonight, we knew she had a son called Nicholas Scratch and that she used to date Death. But those things are more so mysteries than meaningful character development. Her meatiest episode was her trial back in “Darkest Hour Wake Thy Power,” which also happened to be the shortest episode of the season. But the first half of “Maiden Mother Crone” finally fills us in on at least a little more of Agatha’s backstory.

In 1750—almost 60 years after killing her first coven—a pregnant Agatha goes into labor in the woods. When she looks over and spots Death, however, she knows her baby is doomed to die. But because Death is her lover, she’s able to bargain for more time with her son; allaying pain in the moment only to face years of anxiety and an even greater pain in the future. Still, what desperate parent wouldn’t make that bargain? The whole thing has the feeling of a haunting short story or a tragic Greek fable. And that’s fitting because it turns out this season has been built around a fable all along.