Evil Twins?
Agatha All Along 1.7 “Death’s Hand in Mine”
This is the tarot episode I was told about. From my knowledge of tarot, they got it pretty right. My knowledge, though, is relatively limited.
The do a tarot reading with swords over your head scene was amusing. So was somebody turning into Elphaba.
“Am I William or Billy?”
You know the answer already, kid.
At least they stop the people pursuing them…but at such a high cost. This isn’t the kind of show that pulls any punches and it borders on horror a lot…although I’d put it more at dark fantasy.
That line is often pretty dotted, though, just saying.
Two more episodes and I have to decide what to watch next…
Agatha All Along 1.8 “Follow Me My Friend / To Glory At The End”
Honestly, this would have worked better as some kind of double episode, because knowing there’s one more episode coming…makes it feel like the last episode is going to be an Extended Epilogue.
It looks like Agatha cuts a deal with her ex, Death, to get William to turn himself in. Death isn’t pleased about him stealing somebody else’s body.
She then turns around and helps him find a new body for Tommy. Somewhere. Because we do have to have both twins.
And then it looks like she kisses Death and dies, and Billy leaves the road and goes home.
Except he’s still on the Road, because of course he is.
Or is he? Did he do all of this?
One more episode should tell us what’s really going on, but I think it’s Inception shit and he’s still on the Road.
(If it turns out to all be a dream then the people who recommended it will…I will have WORDS).
Agatha All Along 1.9 “Maiden Mother Crone”
Oh, good, not all a dream.
Just all a con. Agatha invented the Witches’ Road as a way to lure other witches so she could vamp on them…after her son died.
Until Billy came into the picture with his chaos magic. She convinced him it existed…and thus it did.
He feels like he killed the witches. Agatha points out that she was going to kill all of them, and one escaped.
(The only survivor was the Black lady. Nice touch).
Wait, isn’t Agatha dead?
Yup. She’s a ghost. Billy does try to banish her but he’s pretty half hearted about it and now they’re teaming up to hunt down Tommy.
However, there’s a witch out there who may not be too happy with them…
Looks like a second season or a sequel show is planned here, with ghost Agatha and Billy.
Overall, pretty solid. I don’t think I liked it as much as the people who told me to watch it thought I would, but…it was quite enjoyable.
Next up is The Acolyte.
The Acolyte 1.1 “Lost/Found”
Okay, so…this wasn’t well received. I hope not because the protagonist is a Black woman, but…
The people who liked it really liked it, though.
A Jedi Master has been murdered, apparently by a failed padawan who now works illegally on the rim as a mechnic…trained to go EVA and do external repairs. The law requires all these repairs be done by droids.
Her former master goes to find her. Turns out she has a supposedly dead identical twin who’s the real killer…an Acolyte. A Dark side Force user hunting Jedi.
This is going to get real interesting real fast, and the lead has a complicated task playing both characters.
Part of me is going “not another Jedi-focused series” but I do see some potential here. The first episode is mostly set up, introducing characters and the plot, which might be a little slow for a short series, but let’s give it a chance and see where it goes.
The Acolyte 1.2 “Revenge/Juatice”
Mai has been conditioned to think the four Jedi who failed to save her family are appropriate targets for vengeance. And she thinks Osha is dead.
This is kind of a mess. Whoever Mai’s master is, they were able to shield her life force so the Jedi thought she was dead. No doubt once she’s taken out the four Jedi he’ll have some other use for her.
But why is she not allowed to use weapons?
There’s some spectacular fight choreography in this episode. Osha, though, seems a very…reactive…protagonist. Every she’s done so far has been in response to her sister’s actions or something somebody else did. This is only episode 2 of 9 so hopefully…
The Acolyte 1.3 “Destiny”
Disney does like their flashback episodes. I’m glad we got this one, though.
Mai was the one responsible for everyone dying, for which she blames the Jedi.
“The Jedi do not take children.” Yeah, right, it’s what they do, constantly!
What I don’t really like about this is they are really leaning into the evil twin trope. Mai is already evil at what, 7 years old? I mean, 7 year olds can be nasty, but they are writing her as a baby sociopath here.
I’d rather she’d been manipulated by somebody. The coven clearly aren’t evil so it’s not their fault.
It feels like she was born to be dark side, and I don’t like that. YMMV of course.
They did give us a way to tell them apart if we can get Mai to reveal more of her face, at least.
I’m honestly…I’m at “I don’t regret watching this but I’m not upset it didn’t get renewed” level with this one.
The Acolyte 1.4 “Day”
Back to the present. Osha tries to leave, but is talked into staying and going with to help capture Mai. Her Force powers also appear to be returning.
Meanwhile, Mai decides she doesn’t want to do this anymore, and is going to turn herself in.
Both groups are now hunting down a missing wookiee Jedi on a wooded planet. This is more than a needle in a haystack.
It’s a tiny needle, there’s more than one haystack, and they don’t have a magnet.
They don’t find him…because as soon as Mai decides to stop her mission, her master shows up, and he’s capable of overpowering several Jedi.
This is not good…