Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

Progress as the Road gets back on track

Spoiler Warning for If I Can’t Reach You, Let My Song Teach You

This week’s episode has aspects that I truly love and enjoy, and yet others which irritate me like there is a stone stuck in my shoe just occasionally rubbing me the wrong way. 

That stone is everything that I hated about the previous episode wherein it was a boulder almost blocking out the rest.  Here it irritates the most in the first act wherein the witches bury the dead Sharon and summon another witch – Aubrey Plaza’s Rio.  Here, the performances by the ladies occasionally flicker to ‘we are women play-acting as witches’ rather than ‘actresses embodying a character who happens to be a witch’ through the scene. 

They are not helped by the weak dialogue as they enter the blame game on why Sharon died.  Sasheer Zamata’s character, Jen, is particularly let down by the dialogue here which seems more suited to a teenage girl than a well-aged witch long past her teenage years.  It results in an inability for me to suspend disbelief through much of this part. It was only with the solidly delivered performances through the Summoning ritual that things started to turn around for me, (although Plaza’s newly arrived Rio also feels a little ‘girlish play-acting’ for a moment as she skips down the path after Agatha). 

The arrival of the house heralded another sign of hope for me.  While the house in the previous episode felt like a painting and only a painting, here with it being more encased by the forest, it feels more organic to the Road, and comes across as a real house rather than an effect.  The Escape House part is formulaic, but it feels less apparent than in the previous episode.  Perhaps having introduced the ‘formula’ in the previous episode, the show felt it could tone down the more obvious signposting going forward.  This in turn tones down the generic feeling that took me out of the show last week.

Once the curse happens and Lilia falls foul of it, the stone stops irritating me completely.  Beyond this point, there is a suspension of disbelief.  The curse pain is played incredibly well by all actors affected – they seem like they are truly in pain.  The fire threat looks real, the effect of the curse is great with the demonic appearance, the make-up on the scars is well done, and the coven truly seems invested in the song as a spell.  There is no hint of play-acting rather than acting. 

Ali Ahn gives a great performance as Alice through this part as she learns her mother has been protecting her since death with her version of the ballad.  Her character transition as she realises her mother’s love is truly touching and carries through into the final act where she can admit she feels sad rather than angry in the wake of learning the truth.  As someone who has lost a mother, the emotions felt real.

What also felt very real was Kathryn Hahn’s performance of Agatha from the moment of Rio’s arrival.  Her performance lessens from ‘Obviously Evil Witch’ to ‘Complicated Woman.’  Her byplay with Plaza as Rio is great.  They have wonderful chemistry together and bounce off one another wonderfully.  Both feel ‘real’ when they interact with each other.  The scenes between them also help to build out clues to what happened between them in the past.  Not enough is given to be explicit, but enough to demonstrate they are former lovers who have hurt each other.  The scene where Agatha and Rio embrace, where they almost kiss, only for Rio to gently tell Agatha, almost incongruously that Teen is not Agatha’s son is fabulous, because that kind of moment could only be done by an old friend or love and so feels wonderfully organic.

The chemistry and relationship between Agatha and Teen is also wonderful.  Joe Locke gives a tremendous performance as Teen throughout the episode and is one of the highlights of the show for me.  His conversation with Agatha also plays as very realistic as he asks her bluntly whether she put the sigil on him only to be told that she doesn’t know.  The hints that perhaps Teen thinks he is her son, that she thinks he may be her son, are nicely planted.

The other aspect I have to call out as well done is the tension of whether Teen would die.  By killing Sharon at the end of the last episode, and because Teen is not part of the coven, there was a real ‘will he die?!’ tension as they carried him out and Jen healed him.  That healing also served to bring growth to Jen’s character too.

There is a nice weaving throughout of the witches’ stories.  More and more information is being shared on their individual traumas and situations; Jen healed Teen and that seemed to bring her healing from her binding; Alice understood she was being protected by her mother and lost her anger.  It gets the audience more and more invested in the characters themselves, outside of the wider mysteries.  I’m interested to know what’s in store for Lilia, for Rio and for Agatha herself.

In conclusion

By the end of this episode, it feels like the show has gotten back on the right road to a great series.  There is character development and mystery; there are great performances which feel real and emotive; the chemistry between the cast is gelling.  I’m hopeful, and very much hoping that the stone in my shoe has gone.

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