Agatha All Along – Episode 3 “Circle Sewn With Fate” Recap & Review

Through Many Miles

Episode 3 of Agatha All Along starts with Agatha walking with her makeshift rabble of witches along the road. The witches discuss the fact that the coven is after them. There’s a meta-joke about Agatha (and by extension the audience) not remembering who Sharon is, but we also learn that apparently anyone can become a witch with the right training.

Agatha points out that the Road is going to test their skills. One trial for each. When Billy (because remember, this is Wanda’s son as confirmed by the trailer subtitles) tries to talk, it appears there’s a sigil on him. This is a redaction spell that hides something. His name and origin, in this case.

While monologuing, Agatha loses Sharon Hart. Sharon stumbles into strange quicksand, and she tells us she’s catching her breath. Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard but the witches do eventually save her from her predicament.

The gang are told not to wander off, and it’s just as well that suddenly a brilliant orange light shows the way forward, right to a strange house in the distance. The gang wander in and it turns out all of their outfits have changed too.

Sharon is excited about the kitchen, while the gang find a card with a riddle on one side, which happens to be the First Trial. And of course, if you didn’t know that this was written for middle-aged wine mums, the gang find a bottle of wine. Honestly, this show writes itself.

There’s a mention of Mephisto in the midst of this, followed by a countdown timer beginning. The gang have got less than 30 minutes to figure this out. So of course, it’s time for a glass of wine or two. The gang decide to take their “girl talk” to the sofa but Agatha, tellingly, doesn’t drink.

To reflect those in LA who end up having too much plastic surgery, the gang then wind up with swollen faces. For a while anyway. It turns out this is a poison called Alewife’s Revenge, which spins through a series of different states before death.

The gang demand Agatha drink too so they can all face this together, given the trial. Sharon suddenly starts hallucinating, remembering when Wanda tortured the entire town of Westfield and was told “Nobody knows how much you sacrificed” because she wanted to save her imaginary children.

In order to solve the case, the gang need to concoct an antidote. However, in grabbing the ingredients, each of the witches find themselves confronted with a demon from their past. Of course, we get mummy issues, daddy issues and some horror images too, before the gang all return to the living room.

Unfortunately, the house ends up underwater. Jennifer organizes traffic, as they put their ingredients into the sink, and we even get some cooking tips too.

Jen starts to lose control, so Agatha gives a pep talk about how amazing she is, despite the fact she hates her. Specifically, she tells Jen that nobody can take her knowledge. It does the trick, the concoction is complete and the gang drink the antidote. They make it just in time, as the oven opens and gives them their route forward.

The group save an unconscious Sharon and slip down back onto the road once more. Unfortunately, it would appear that Sharon is dead.

The Episode Review

In episode 2 I posed the question – who is this show for? And in episode 3, we actually get that answered. It turns out Agatha All Along is for middle-aged women who like to drink wine, have a passing curiosity about superheroes and like fashion. Now, as a 36-year-old British male, I’m very much not the demographic for this show, obviously, but that’s not a particularly broad audience to work with.

However, a show like this can still work. Hell, as someone who watched every episode of Gilmore Girls and Sex and the City, there’s still fun to be had with it. Unfortunately, there’s nothing fun with Agatha.

The show is predictable, slow, and ponderous and has set itself up to crawl through these different trials, all whilst spewing clunky exposition and reaffirming our characters when they have a crisis of confidence.

It’s a shame because there’s potential here but Agatha All Along is Agony, Agony, Agony and that doesn’t look like changing anytime soon.