In Review: Agatha All Along (S1 – EP6) Familiar by Thy Side

Synopsis: Familiar Teen is much more than he seems, and his connections to the rest of the coven are revealed.

The Story

Familiar by Thy Side is the big info dump episode where much of the story gets revealed. The episode begins where last week left off with Teen accidentally killing the coven members and having a massive flashback due to the aftershocks of using so much power. In the flashback we see Teen assuming the identity of a young William Kaplan who is undergoing his Bar Mitzvah with his proud parents in attendance. Only they are not really his parents and the body that William is occupying doesn’t belong to him. Throughout the story, the layers get peeled like an onion via William’s connection to the Witches in Agatha’s coven. Firstly we see William visit a fortune teller who happens to be Lilia Calderu and a little later in the story William is watching a YouTube beauty tutorial, which Jennifer Kale hosts.

All of these clues lead William toward finding Agatha Harkness as we see elements from the pilot episode replayed but from a completely different perspective until it is revealed that William is actually Billy Maximoff and he has sought Agatha out to help him find his brother Tommy.

The Acting

Joe Locke puts in a solid performance as Billy Maximoff and the journey that his character goes on to reveal pretty much what everyone had guessed was both Entertaining and fun. I’m not at all Jewish so only know a little bit of the Jewish culture, which is mostly from TV and Films that have watched over time. But I thought the Bar Mitzvah was handled fairly well and respectfully. I thought Paul Adelstein and Maria Dizzia were brilliantly cast as William’s proud and somewhat annoying parents. I also enjoyed seeing a positive father-son relationship during the scenes between William aka Billy and his onscreen father.

Overall

A fairly good episode that sets the stage for the final couple of episodes that are yet to come. As in will only get more fun from here out as we see the complexities of Billy’s somewhat necessary relationship with Agatha.