Agatha All Along Episode 3 recap: Through Many Miles of Tricks and Trials
Marvel/DisneyAgatha All Along Episode 3 sees the titular witch and her coven face the first of many terrifying trials found on the Witches’ Road.
While Episode 1 and Episode 2 of Agatha All Along built up the dangerous journey Agatha and her coven would have to face on their journey to their hearts’ desire, Episode 3 gave fans their first look at how scary the road to glory can be.
The group are definitely not in the Scarlet Witch‘s Westview anymore as their first task on the Witches’ Road forced them to confront some of their deepest, darkest fears.
Episode 3 also dropped one of the biggest hints as who the series’ potential big bad could be, so let’s jump in and discuss what went down but, before we get into the full recap, be warned: major spoilers ahead!
The journey begins
Marvel/DisneyThe episode starts with the title card, “Through Many Miles of Tricks and Trials,” letting the audience know the coven in for a plethora of obstacles during their quest to seek ultimate power.
Each member of the coven has different reactions to being on the Witches’ Road from Teen saying it was “just like I imagined it,” to Lilia and Alice discussing the fact that they never thought the road was real to begin with.
Sharon quickly cuts into the group’s musing by accusing them of kidnapping her and then trying to use her cell phone to “get the local authorities involved.” But, unfortunately for her, Verizon’s coverage doesn’t reach magical dimensions.
Lilia, Alice, and Jennifer then call out the fact that the group was chased down into the road’s cellar doors by Salem’s Seven, aka the show’s big bad (for now).
Jennifer brushes off the group’s existence as “Agatha’s problem,” but Alice reminds her that the Seven are now something they all have to deal with and Teen asks if it’s because “covens share blessings and burdens alike,” indicating that witches live by a strict code when bonded into a coven.
While Sharon still thinks the group is underneath the town of Westview, Jennifer angrily confronts Agatha for bringing a non-witch with them on the road as it “puts us all in danger and we don’t know what we’re up against.”
Lilia then recalls the lyric “tame your fears” from the Witches’ Ballad and puts together that the coven will have to face their worst nightmares in the form of trials while on the road in order to get to the end.
The group then asks Agatha how the trials work as she’s walked the road before and she explains that each stop will be used to test the knowledge and skill of a single witch. So the trials will put them all in danger as a group, but only one member will have the power to save their lives.
Teen gets very excited over the idea of being in the presence of true witchcraft, which prompts Jennifer to ask him who he is and the mysterious symbol covers his identity yet again.
Marvel/DisneyLilia then realizes that a sigil spell has been placed on Teen to hide who he is from the group. She automatically thinks Agatha put it on him, but she denies it.
Teen doesn’t understand what a sigil is or the fact that he’s been put under a spell in the first place, so Alice explains a sigil is used to hide someone from witches.
As a popular theory states Teen is actually Wanda Maximoff‘s son, there’s a chance the sigil is hiding his identity so Agatha doesn’t attack him. There’s another theory on who Teen could be, but that comes up later.
While the group wants to try to lift the sigil in order to uncover who Teen is and who put the spell on him, Agatha refocuses their attention on getting through the trials on the road and the women agree to “crack him open later.”
Although the coven is ready to get things moving again, they’re once again stopped in their tracks when Teen realizes Sharon walked away from them while they were interrogating Agatha.
Still believing that she’s in the mortal world, Sharon sits on a mossy tree trunk and places her purse next to her as she tries to figure out her next move.
Marvel/DisneySuddenly, an inky black ooze starts to suck her purse inside its depth and, while Sharon tries to retrieve it, the ooze ends up almost taking her down as well until Alice rushes in at the last moment and saves her.
Agatha then explains the first rule of their journey: don’t ever step off the road unless you want to be killed.
The group agrees to stick together and it’s only then that Jennifer sees a beach house by the ocean in the distance, signaling the coven has arrived at their first stop on the road.
Life’s a beach
Marvel/DisneyOnce at the house, the group sees the markings on the door are the phases of the moon and the one that’s highlighted is the water phase aka a full moon.
The group enters the unlocked home and their outfits are instantly transformed into more beachy, linen wear. Agatha explains that the road changes for the coven, so this won’t be the last time they’ll be going through some sort of outfit swap.
While searching the house for clues, Teen comes across a fancy card on the fireplace mantle that reads: “The Witches’ Road cordially invites you to the First Trial.”
Jennifer takes it from him and flips over where a riddle is written on the back: “My age has no value. I’m no fun alone. I mess with your mind. My tricks are well-known.”
Sharon then discovers a bottle of wine with five glasses sitting on a table and the coven agrees to drink it as the riddle was pointing them in that direction.
Marvel/DisneyThe group breaks into little pairs in order to find a corkscrew and Jennifer takes the opportunity to warn Teen to “watch your back with Agatha.”
While Teen rebuffs Jennifer’s advice, the potions witch then tells him that most of the magical world believes Agatha traded her son, Nicholas, for the Darkhold aka the Book of the Damned.
Teen is visibly unnerved by this revelation, which could be just pure shock that the witch he looks up to would do something so evil or act as a piece of evidence for the theory that he is Agatha’s son in disguise.
Jennifer goes on to explain that no one knows what happened to the child and many believe he’s either dead, turned into a demon, or became an agent of Mephisto, Marvel’s version of the devil.
This is the first time the name Mephisto has ever been spoken in the MCU as many fans believed he would play a role in WandaVision due to his close comic book connections to the Scarlet Witch. While it’s unclear how the devil fits into this world, it’s now confirmed that he will be a part of the show going forward.
Down the hatch
Marvel/DisneyAfter finding the corkscrew, Agatha, Sharon, Lilia, Alice, and Jennifer take some of the wine as Teen is underage and therefore can’t legally drink.
Sharon quickly knocks back two glasses to deal with the stress of being tricked into going on this mission and, once she does, a 30-minute timer begins, signaling that the trial has officially started.
While the rest of the women sip their wine, Agatha quietly pours hers out into a plotted plant only for the glass to be magically refilled as the road expects everyone to drink in order for the group to move on.
The coven then starts to bond over small talk where Teen asks Alice about a tattoo she has that’s the witches’ symbol for warding off curses.
Alice explains her mother made her get it when they lived in Colorado at the age of 13 because “all of the women in my family are cursed”, to which Teen responds, “A lot happened to me at 13 too.” It’s yet another piece of the puzzle to Teen’s identity that could be tied to either popular theory.
The chitchat is cut short when Jennifer realizes Sharon’s face has swollen up dramatically and one by one each woman, except Agatha, suffers the same fate.
Jennifer quickly deduces from the swelling symptom that the wine they drank was laced with the poison Alewife’s Revenge. She tells the group that they need to come up with an antidote fast as they’ll experience heart racing, hallucinations, and eventually death.
Agatha tries to escape the house by throwing a candlestick at the glass window, but it just leaves a big crack in the middle of it.
Sharon soon passes out from the poison and the group wrestles Agatha into finally drinking the wine so they can be in the trial properly as one coven.
Since Jennifer is the member who’s a master at potions, she quickly takes charge of the situation and sends the group out in pairs to look for the ingredients she needs to create a cure.
The nightmares come to life
Marvel/DisneyWhile looking for petroleum, Lilia goes into a trance and repeats the phrase, “Try to save Agatha,” to the witch herself, but goes back to normal before she could explain what she meant by that.
Teen and Alice are tasked with getting eucalyptus which leads them to the house’s sauna. While inside the steam room, Alice hallucinates her missing mother, August, who screams that she “can’t protect” Alice from whatever is killing the women in their family.
Jennifer is alone in the kitchen trying to turn the deep sink into a makeshift cauldron when she’s attacked by a man in an old-timey doctor gown who refers to her as an “inconvenient woman” before trying to drown her in the water-filled tub.
Lilia is led astray from her mission with Agatha by a little girl in regal clothing who asks in Italian, “Do you want to see?”
She then walks into a room where a woman’s corpse dressed in similar clothing to the young girl is propped up at a table. The woman’s eyes then open before Lilia sees a hooded figure with a skeleton face walk up from behind.
Marvel/DisneyAs she runs out of the room, she bumps into Agatha and, screams in Italian, “She’s dead! They’re all dead!”
The teams end up reconvening in the kitchen where it’s apparent they all know each of them experienced a personal hellish hallucination, except for Agatha as she drank the wine last and is suffering the symptoms at a slower rate.
Cooking up a cure
Marvel/DisneyAfter dumping each of their assigned ingredients into the sink in a specific order, the mixture turns pink, which worries Jennifer as she realizes that the mixture will need to boil in order for it to turn into the correct shade of cerulean that indicates it’s safe to drink.
Teen dashes to find a sous vide, a kitchen tool that heats water to a specific temperature so meat can be cooked evenly, and explains he knows what it is because “his dad loves his.”
Jennifer then tasks Teen to stir the mixture counterclockwise with his dominant because, as the only person who didn’t drink the poisoned wine, he isn’t suffering from loss of motor function like the rest of the women.
The potions witch instructs everyone to pull out one strand of their hair and put into the sink to complete the recipe but, before she could take hers out, Agatha finally suffers her own nightmare hallucination as she sees a baby crib in the kitchen.
She walks over to see what she presumes will be her son lying inside but, when she pulls back the blanket, she’s greeted with the cover of the Darkhold.
Marvel/DisneyTeen asks what she sees upon seeing the horrified look on her face and the tears in her eyes, but she brushes him off, which he doesn’t seem to take well.
After adding in everyone’s hair, the mixture then turns green, frustrating the group as the timer is now down to two minutes until their deaths.
Jennifer starts to panic, but Agatha gives her a pep talk and tells her, despite her being bound and unable to use magic, “No one can take away your knowledge.”
The witch then figures out that the antidote needs the blood of the unpoisoned, so they cut Teen’s hand open over the sink and the mixture finally turns cerulean.
Each of the witches, including the unconscious Sharon, drinks the antidote and suddenly the oven door in the kitchen opens to reveal an exit back to the road just as the window crack bursts open and the house begins to flood with seawater.
As the group celebrates their victory and Jennifer pats herself on the back for getting them all out safely, Teen reveals not everyone made it out as he tells the coven, “Sharon’s dead.”
Agatha All Along Episodes 1-3 are streaming on Disney Plus now. For Episode 4, check out our guide to the Marvel show’s release schedule. You can also read about why Jonathan Majors won’t be in Agatha All Along, and check out all the upcoming MCU movies and shows.