Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

Time is not a linear path for this story

Spoiler Warning for Death’s Hand in Mine

As someone who loves the time travel genre, I just adored this episode.  The non-linear storytelling for Lilia’s trial on the Road provides a wonderful frame for Patti LuPone’s outstanding performance, ably assisted by the rest of the coven.  It beautifully sets up for the double-part finale which will end the show next week.

It is difficult to put into words the sense of joy I feel about the non-linear nature of this episode.  Non-linear storytelling is not for everyone, and I would guess that some of the audience is going to hate this episode for the reason I love it.  It’s complex, it’s twisty, and it’s disorienting in places.  I immediately want to rewatch it so I can better grasp how everything has been knitted together. 

Indeed, it cleverly draws the audience into wanting to watch the whole series again to experience Lilia’s experience again from the linear perspective because the seeds for this episode have been planted all along the previous episodes.  Lilia’s ‘jumps’ of divination, where she’ll say something incongruous and seemingly out of nowhere, have been well-established.  Here those instances are knitted into the whole as the episode shows how they fitted together using the device of Lilia’s time-travelling spirit – time is not a linear path for this witch.

While the audience has known that Lilia’s words would resonate with a future event (Alice’s death already revealed two statements which Lilia had made suddenly coming together in an unexpected way), I loved getting to see these snapshots and as Lilia works out exactly how all the pieces fit together, so do we.  It all leads Lilia to successfully completing her trial, but more importantly finally accepting and owning her power. That scene of the tarot reading where she remembers how she named each card before, where she realises that she needed her coven to finally trust in her inner voice – that was just incredible. 

Patti LuPone’s performance is stand-out, a tour de force.  She brilliantly anchors the episode despite the disorientation.  Her ability to fully embody Lilia, to show Lilia’s angst and fearfulness, and in the end, her determination and strength through nothing more than her facial expression and body language means that Lilia is a fully-fleshed out character, one who the audience has come to deeply know and understand.

It makes the ending where Lilia makes the decision to accept her foreseen fall, taking a stand against the Salem Seven in order to protect the rest of the coven as the ‘windfall’, all the more poignant.  I did not want Lilia to die in this moment.  I did not want to lose such a wonderful character.  It was wrenching and bittersweet to see the shot of her falling repeated, but instead of her falling into the black at the beginning of the episode, we see her through the window of the castle falling to what we assume is her doom given we’ve just seen the Salem Seven get speared.

The final scene of a joyful Lilia, confident in her power, sitting down with her Maestra is moving.  The scenes with the Maestra are fantastically dropped in through Lilia’s journey.  Kudos to Laura Boccoletti who does a great job not overplaying the Maestra, instead embodying the Wise Crone in a non-stereotypical and grounded way which draws the audience in without any campiness destroying a suspension of disbelief.  Kudos also to Chloe Camp who in her brief moments as Young Lilia demonstrates the both the confusion and fear of Lilia before and the confidence of Lilia after.

Is Lilia actually dead? 

The Death card in tarot does not actually mean actual death or the personification of Death.  It means an ending, change, and transition.  I have hope that perhaps all the deceased ladies might be returned at the end of the Road since Billy’s reading had reunion as ‘what is missing’ – of course, this truly may just be a nod to his want to be reunited with his brother.  That remains a strong hook for the finale.

Two other hooks are laid down here by the tarot reading.  The first is Jen, the Path Ahead, the High Priestess.  What does that mean?  Will it simply mean that Jen will get her power back truly or will it mean that that she has a key role to play in the ending.  It’s intriguing.  The second hook is Rio as Death.  While that has been spoiled by the internet and product distribution early in the show’s life, the revelation here is creepy as Lilia makes the connection as she places the card for ‘The Destination.’  The short reveal scene with Rio showing up to the fallen Lilia as Death is well done. 

That scene is the only Aubrey Plaza scene we get in the episode, and Rio as a character, as a member of the coven, has effectively been missing now for two episodes which is weird choice.  Yet the trial of the Green Witch must be next so hopefully there will be more Rio in the final two episodes. 

Another valid criticism could be the length of this episode.  Similarly to episode six it comes in a little short.  In the watching of it, I really didn’t notice because it served up a fully satisfying and emotionally touching chapter.  Could elements of this episode have been expanded upon to fill another five minutes?  Perhaps.  But here it feels like the pacing and the timing is right to me.  An exception then to my deeply held belief that streaming shows should attempt a consistency to provide structure and to ensure an audience does not feel cheated.

Here I don’t feel cheated at all though.  The side relationship of Jen and Lilia as they find themselves in the tunnels below the Road and make the journey back to the trial together is lovely, and beautifully acted by both LuPone and Sasheer Zamata.  Jen’s decision to continue rather than exit because Lilia recognises her as a ‘sister in the craft’ is touching and there is a sense as Lilia nudges Jen out of the castle and makes the decision to stay that they have truly found a friendship and a bond.

Of course, the other side relationship here is Billy and Agatha picking up from where they left off in the previous episode, and solidly played by Joe Locke and Kathryn Hahn.  There is a hilarious nod to the Internet/fandom question of whether the Scarlet Witch is actually dead as Billy’s asks Agatha.  The banter between them is well done and enjoyable.  I loved the ‘Prove it’ line that Billy makes when Agatha claims the Wicked Witch of the West was based off her.

I did love the costuming in this trial with the Disney Evil witches making an appearance, but without this being overplayed – even Hahn keeps the cackling similarity to flashes rather than making a meal of it. It is a nice symmetry for Lilia to be the balance to Hahn’s Oz character by being dressed as Glinda, the Good Witch; a character who sets Dorothy on the Road in a similar way to how Lilia determined the coven.  Nice too for Jen to be cast as the Evil Queen Hag given her beauty-product business. 

Billy as Maleficent is an interesting choice regardless of whether Locke has the cheekbones for it.  The film of Maleficent (2014) was very much a redemption story wherein it is Maleficent’s familial love which restores a character from suspension back into living.  Similarly, it is interesting timing for Agatha to be the Wicked Witch of the West just ahead of Disney’s release of Wicked (2024), which is a redemption story for said witch. 

Will any of this have meaning going forward?  Time will tell.

In conclusion

This is another good episode.  I loved it from start to finish. 

I’m interested to see if Agatha All Along can stick the landing on Halloween with its two episode finale, but this episode has me definitely hooked to find out. 

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