Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

Wherein we learn who Teen really is

Spoiler Warning for Familiar by Thy Side

I loved this episode, the origin story for Teen which takes the audience through how a Reform Jewish boy named William Kaplan ended up with the spirit of Billy Maximoff. 

While I could leave me review at that, let me wax lyrical about all the ways I loved this episode for however many words it takes.

Firstly, Joe Locke.  Standing ovation.  He gives a stellar performance all the way through this episode.  He’s sweet and adorable as only William Kaplan when we meet him at the beginning of the episode, three years before at his bar mitzvah – the traditional coming-of-age ceremony in the religion. 

Sidenote: Do I really believe Joe Locke is thirteen years old here?  Not really.  He plays younger very well, and the costuming choice when he returns home and looks in the mirror suggests youth, but no, he’s not a believable thirteen years old.  But, here, unlike other times in this show, I’m fully immersed in the story enough that I am willing to suspend disbelief and my logical knowledge of the reality to believe in the moment that maybe what we’re seeing is Billy remember himself at that age.  Equally, I’m willing to suspend disbelief that twenty-one years old Locke is sixteen too.   

As the car accident happens and William wakes up as Billy during the moments that Wanda’s Westview spell disperses, his portrayal of the confusion, frustration and fear that he feels is so beautifully acted by Locke.  Cut to three years later, and the realisation of who he is and his immediate want to find Tommy, to be reunited with his twin – his acting in that moment when he puts it together that if he walks the Witches’ Road he could find his brother – my heart all but melted.

Bravo for his performance which anchors and carries this episode wonderfully.

Bravo too for the direction, production, costuming – everything in this episode is done incredibly well.  I loved Lilia’s palm-reading tent in particular, but Billy’s bedroom deserves a shout-out for set-design. 

Bravo a third time for the storytelling throughout this episode.  While the framework of Billy’s origin is taken straight from the comics with a twist, (comic Billy Maximoff’s spirit was reborn as William Kaplan rather than taking home in Kaplan’s body), the episode neatly takes us from just before that event to the present moment with Billy and Agatha on the Road.  In doing so, it really fills in the blanks. 

We see it was Lilia who placed the sigil on William Kaplan just before the accident, her palm-reading at the bar mitzvah giving her a vision revealing William Kaplan’s fate – that his lifeline was broken in two, that The Tower Reversed signalled perhaps Billy Maximoff’s unwillingness to let go of his existence as Wanda reversed her spell.  It gives a reason for why Billy does not remember who he really is as soon as he becomes William Kaplan.

Loved too seeing Alice in her previous profession as a cop responding to the accident. All the witches have small cameos here showing that they did exist in the area before the events of this series and so always had the potential to become a coven.

We see Billy’s journey to discover who he is as he brings his boyfriend Eddie into his inner turmoil and the secret of knowing he wasn’t really William Kaplan and trying to find out who he really is.  It’s a good storytelling device as it allows the audience to be told the exposition of Billy’s search so far given the time-jump and the set-up for the meeting with Ralph Bohner.  The clandestine meeting in the parking garage gives Billy the missing pieces of the puzzle; that Wanda had kids, twins.  It also shows how Billy got informed about Agatha Harkness.

I love the scene in Billy’s bedroom where, without spoken words beyond the song playing, it shows how Billy puts together the plan to find Agatha, release her from Wanda’s spell, and convince her to travel the Road so he can find his brother.  It’s brilliantly done.

The next part which shows the events of episode one from Billy’s perspective – from his breaking-in, trying to escape, and the ‘interrogation’ by Agatha to bring us full circle…that is just hilarious and so, so funny.  (Loved, loved the line of ‘I don’t want to go back into the closet!’)

The black as we cut back to the Road after we see that Billy did tell Agatha that he was Billy Maximoff at the house, admitting to himself out loud, is so well done to give that moment drama and allow the audience to fully absorb his identity.

Finally, the confrontation between Agatha and Billy which ends this episode – chef’s kiss.  It returns us back to where we left off from the last episode and gives us something of a resolution to that moment where Billy sends Agatha into the swamp.  Yet it also serves not only to pick up where we left off, but to reveal that Billy’s power is not stable and so he is not all-powerful, not yet. Was it a necessary de-powering? Possibly not, but it is more realistic than him suddenly have complete mastery over a power he’s only just manifested.

I love this storytelling, the structure of this episode.  Admittedly, from a series’ perspective, the pace of the overall show is impacted by the decision to keep Teen’s identity a secret, and for a whole episode two-thirds of the way in to be dedicated to explaining it.  It does slow us down on the Road in the same way that flashback episodes in The Acolyte (2024) slowed down things there.  Yet unlike in that show, this does just enough in my opinion that the pacing is not impacted too, too badly. In particular that final scene provides just enough advancement on the Road, coupled with the more important advancement in the relationship between Agatha and Billy, that it doesn’t feel like it’s wasted time.

Moreover, the whole episode is so well-acted throughout, selling the story, relationship and events at every turn.  That final part with Agatha and Billy is so important.  Kathryn Hahn plays it very well.  Less the condescending needling which saw her being tossed into the bog, but still a measured mocking as she correctly deduces why he’s on the Road in the same way she did with the other witches when she recruited them.  The truce to continue onto the next trial is very well-played with their new dynamic now in effect.  Hahn pitches Agatha perfectly here.

Billy’s parents are played to perfection by Maria Dizzia and Paul Adelstein; loving and playful proud parents who are confused and terrified by what happens to their son in the first part, and back to supportive parents three years later despite the transformation of their son into Billy’s Gothic teen self.

Shoutout too for Evan Peters returning to the character of Ralph Bohner who was cast by Agatha to pretend to be Pietro Maximoff in Wanda’s fantasy sitcom spell.  It was one of the most scandalous misdirects of WandaVision (2021) and one which drew a lot of criticism from fans.  This appearance though almost rescues that whole awful reveal and makes good use of the character as Billy’s source for the truth about what happened in Westview.

I love the portrayal of the relationship between supportive Eddie, played very well by Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Billy.  Billy is an openly gay character in the Marvel comic universe, and the decision to retain that in this Disney Plus show is marvellous (pun totally intended).  While there had been a signal that it would be when we saw Eddie’s picture pop up on Billy’s phone in an earlier episode, here the full relationship is on show; they adorably kiss, exchange ‘I love yous.’  Eddie is so supportive of Billy’s search for who he is.  It is fabulous.

Indeed, the low-key yet front-and-centre representation within this episode is great.  From the Jewish religious ceremony at the beginning to this very positive step in the direction of showing an openly homosexual relationship in the Marvel universe finally.

Obviously, with Eddie’s introduction there is the hint of a new mystery – will Eddie ultimately turn out to be Billy’s comic boyfriend Theodore ‘Teddy’ Altman, otherwise known as the Hulkling? The mystery of what has happened to the other witches is also dangled.  Rio remains at large, and while Agatha suggests that Billy killed Lilia and Jen, the fact that Agatha herself lives gives lie to that.  As he tells her when she faces him with his killing of them, he’s not her.  There is also the still ongoing mystery of what happened with Agatha’s own son.  While the last episode made it clear he was dead, how he died is still to be fully explained. Not to mention the brand new question: will Billy find Tommy at the end of the Road?

There are still enough mysteries even with Billy’s reveal to keep the viewer hooked to find out what happens next.   

In conclusion

I might have mentioned that I really, really loved this episode.  I was captivated from the beginning to end, happy to give up my logical self and be immersed fully in the story being told.  Here’s hoping that the rest of the Road, and the all-important finale, lives up to the quality of this.

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