Agatha All Along episode 6 recap and review: "Familiar by Thy Side"

The best episode of Agatha All Along has finally arrived but is it too late? In season 1 episode 6, audiences finally learn the true identity of the teen, catching us all up to the present situation on The Road. Who is the teen and why did he actually seek Agatha? Let's find out together!

Familiar by Thy Side

The entire episode is the backstory of the teen whose name is Billy Kaplan. Billy's Bar mitzvah goes as planned, as he reads from the Torah and celebrates afterward with close friends. But when he visits a palm reader, who just so happens to be Lilia, everything goes awry. She mentions that there are two when it comes to Billy but doesn't explain why.

When he leaves, she writes a sigil on an item and places it inside his jacket. This is the same sigil that appears over his mouth when he tries to tell Agatha and her coven who he is and where he's from.

The Bar mitzvah celebrations end early when emergency reports about Westview are sent out. As Billy and his parents head home they notice the red protective dome that Wanda placed over the town. In the process, the car crashes against a tree and Billy dies. While his parents seek help, he awakens, suddenly no longer Billy Kaplan.

When his parents return, Alice, who is a police officer, aids in his rescue. Since the accident, Billy is able to read minds but over the years he has continually worried about his brother Tommy while hiding his constant state of turmoil and confusion.

Billy confides in his boyfriend about the accident and together they discover that the dome Wanda placed over Westview had witchcraft symbols. He comes in contact with a man who was at Westview and together they go to meet him (we also see Jenny advertising her products in an online video advertisement).

The man is none other than the fake Pietro whom Agatha sent to Wanda, claiming to be her real brother as seen in WandaVision (honestly this was a brilliant idea). He doesn't make it a secret that Agatha (who Billy asked about after reading Pietro's mind) ruined his life. He confesses to all the horrific things she made him do including killing Wanda's family dog, Sparky. He warns Billy not to seek her out and yet that is exactly what he does.

After learning more about Agatha via hard-to-find websites (while listening to Alice's mother and her band on a record), he learns how to break her from the spell Wanda placed on her. Thus, we catch up to episode one where he breaks into her home, she catches him and proceeds to question him while still in her home (under the spell Agatha believes it to be the police station).

After breaking Agatha free and beginning the process of going down The Road, we come full circle. Agatha escapes the swampy, muddy ground where she learns that Billy is Billy Maximoff and that he is actually on The Road seeking to find Tommy.

Agatha finds the discovery interesting and the two move onward to the next trial. But what happened to Lilia, Jenny, and Rio? Why didn't Rio show up in Billy's past? And why does Lilia act like she did not know placing the sigil upon him?

Best episode of the season but...

It's a little too late. It's a shame really as there are 9 episodes in total and we are, arguably, halfway to the season 1 finale.

Agatha All Along has been subpar at best (sadly not that memorable at all) and one thing became glaringly clear this episode: the side plots are better than the actual plot. When the season opened with Agatha as a police officer trying to solve a crime, that was interesting, and effective but cut short.

When we finally learn who Billy is and how he came to find himself on The Road with Agatha and her coven, it was very gripping and had me glued to the screen. Everything else, not so much.

While the episode answers a lot of questions, it leaves audiences with a few questions that I mentioned above. Whether these questions will be answered in a later episode or be completely forgotten remains to be seen at the moment.

The show has suffered from similar issues since the beginning and yet it still confuses me how Billy knows more about witch lore than the actual witches. I do love that Billy's true personality is shining through, threatening Agatha, and distrustful of her. But what will the next trial be and what becomes of Agatha, Billy, and her coven?

What did you think of the season 1 episode 5? Agatha All Along season 1 episode 7 airs on October 23 on Disney Plus.