Agatha All Along Episode 7 Review: Lilia's Tarot Trial Is the Best Episode So Far

Agatha All Along season one, episode 7, Death's Hand in Mine, drew the verdict from one of us that it was the best episode so far. It's a powerful episode built around Lilia's tarot reading and her broken sense of time, and it really felt like it was bringing everything together in the most cohesive way possible. One of us added that the show just keeps getting better and better.

Lilia's tarot trial pays off the season's clues

The flashbacks were a highlight. They show the clues and how they correspond to the cards and the imagery. The standout was the Three of Swords, where Agatha cries over Teen and the branches behind her look like three swords coming out of a heart.

The tarot avatars landed too. Alice appears as the Knight of Wands, powerful with her fire, and Jennifer appears as the High Priestess. Glinda's look was spotted early, and the Wizard of Oz nods were set up in the previous episode through the posters in Billy's room. The timing also lined up with the Wicked movie, which was due out soon at the time.

The writing guides you through Lilia's confusion

The episode recalled the movie Arrival, where Amy Adams' character borrows information from other times to help in the present. It wasn't clear whether that was intentional, but it felt much the same. At first you're frustrated with Lilia, trying to keep up, until she takes the steering wheel of her own life to help her friends.

Lilia had seemed wacky and zany, but her odd remarks turn out to be premonitions delivered out of sync. When the pennies drop, it's a cool feeling. The writing was "a perfect balance of taking you off course just enough but really the whole time there's a steady hand guiding you on course." Ending on Lilia beginning again, now self-assured and unafraid, felt optimistic. Her performance had to move between confusion, almost like someone with dementia, and someone who's got it all together. One reaction captured it: "this is an episode I would revisit just to see how they did it."

Remember yourself

Lilia calling herself a forgotten woman, and being told to remember herself, was poignant. It was tied to how many women describe feeling invisible as they get older, when experience and knowledge become their strength. It was also read as a philosophy for anyone who feels forgotten, "such a simple but enlightening thing to hear."

The Agatha and Teen opening fell short

The opening with Agatha and Teen was less satisfying than hoped. Agatha reverted to her bad witch persona instead of the character she had grown into after the last episode's consequences. For one of us, the favorite Agatha moments are the glimpses of vulnerability Kathryn Hahn shows, and the moments when she's being hilarious. Teen was more candid, but there were no answers to his question of whether he is Billy or William.

The fall and the dreamlike look

There was hope that the fall Lilia anticipated was the one already seen, a misdirection compared to the end of Fight Club. Then the image of her falling again in that dress connected the dots. There was also a wish to see Lilia flip the card back, but that wasn't her path, and she knew it.

The dreamy visuals probably came from lens choices, filters and post-production, creating a surreal space where you feel trapped like Lilia until she's free. Strong writing, imagery and acting made it a powerful episode.