Agatha All Along Season 1 Episode 4 Review: If I Can’t Reach You Let My Song Teach You

Agatha All Along Season 1 Episode 4, “If I Can’t Reach You Let My Song Teach You,” conjures up some heat as the next trial is put out for our coven.

As one member’s life gets cut short, another is put in her place but it opens up a can of worms for Agatha as more of her history gets uncovered while Alice has to confront her past.

The episode puts Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) and her group further down the Witches’ Road with fire as the next element in the trials. After burying Sharon (Debra Jo Rupp), the coven is now one witch short.

All was not lost, as they filled that vacancy with a summoning spell that teleports another member in the form of Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza), much to Agatha’s dissatisfaction.

Having Plaza be a part of the story again brings in an incredibly delicious performance from her.

Seeing how her character makes everyone other than Agatha feel uncomfortable brings an unlikely member of the coven into the mix. For someone unpredictable and crazy, it does feel weird to see Rio be a team scout in this episode helping out the team.

Rio does come off a bit like a villain on this show, so hopefully, we can see some more of her true colors come to light. There was a tease in Agatha All Along where more of Agatha and Rio’s past relationship gets explored. It does often come off like the show is embracing the queer representation but not fully, so perhaps that’s all that the viewers may get here on the show.

Like much of the season so far, it seems like we are getting more information on these witches and how they came to be in their predicament. We’ve discovered some details about Alice (Ali Ahn) as viewers while learning about her mother’s journey to the Witches’ Road and how much it cost her life. Even though this was Alice’s episode, it does feel like Ali was sidelined and wasn’t given enough to work with to stand out truly.

The production of this installment is on par with that of the previous one as it tackles yet another era. After entering another house, we find our coven in 70s clothing and vibing with that style. What we didn’t expect was a musical number that fit in with the plot of the hour as the coven formed a band to pass the trial and uplift the curse that was put on them much like it had on Alice.

The information regarding the curse wasn’t explained too well, leaving some confusion on how Alice got this family curse in the first place.

That part of the story wasn’t executed well and leaves an underdeveloped character for Ahn to work with. It should feel like Ahn could’ve taken the lead on taking down the curse for this trial, but it seems like Katherine Hahn is more in the forefront.

Patti LuPone continues to deliver as Lilia with her scene-stealing dialogue. She is hilarious and also becomes the wise woman of the group with her premonitions on her peers. Here’s hoping we can get an episode this season showing what’s going on with her and the connection she has to the undead.

The trial felt shortlived from the last episode, but there was some heat going around in the drama department. It is abundantly clear that Agatha has an attachment to Joe Locke’s Teen, possibly because he could be her son who was teased this season.

This development does give a lot of emotional weight to Agatha as a character, making for some interesting things to come.

Even though this felt somewhat of a disappointment with Ahn’s character, this week’s episode of Agatha All Along delivered on giving the rest of the cast some vibrant personality mixed in with some drama.

These trials aren’t just testing these witches physically, but emotionally as well once they confront their traumas head-on. As we are only halfway through the season, the journey through the Witches’ Road continues to improve as we walk down the path.

What did you think of this episode of Agatha All Along? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Agatha All Along streams Thursdays on Disney+.

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