Hoping for resurrection (repeatedly)

In episode 1, when Rio blasts through the door and attacks Agatha, she asks her "How long has it been, Agatha? Since you acquired the darkhold, you hid behind all that dark magic. But then you lost it. And now ...touch"

Please rewatch the show

And imagine Rio was a man while you watch

If you still think "Poor Rio" and "How could you, Agatha" afterwards, then I can start considering whether Rio is the sole victim here.

And their hostile dynamic in the end

After watching the finale the first time I really wasn't sure anymore what I thought about Agathario.

If they actually mutually love each other,

if it's a toxic one-sided thing that Agatha just plays into for her benefit and to survive.

If they maybe were in love once but then being in Death's constant company grew too much for Agatha and she wanted to be left alone. And Rio just won't get the message

Or maybe the mutual relationship just ended when Agatha couldn't forgive Rio for not using her powers to save Nicky. And now they're pining.

After the finale it really looked like the whole thing was quite toxic and sort of one-sided, especially after Agatha wanted Rio to "let her go" and not "pursue her anymore" as part of the deal at the beginning of episode 8.

HOWEVER, I have become completely obsessed with the finale. Just watched it for the 5th time again and

I've also come to the conclusion that Agatha does love Rio. As the person Rio appears at. She just resents Death. When they make the deal in ep8 about Rio never showing her face to Agatha again when she dies.. Agatha looks really put out that Rio actually agreed to it. I think she was trying to manipulate Rio.

Agatha's goal was to protect Billy. That was her goal from the moment Rio showed up on the road. She said herself that she was trying to distract Rio from Billy (and his true identity). And I think she did it again with this deal.

Effectively, if Agatha ends up handing Billy over to Death, then Rio would have to stick to their deal and stay away from Agatha forever. Obviously, after all these centuries, Agatha assumed that Rio would never agree to that, or not be able to go through with it. As a result, she would maybe not take Billy at all to avoid having to fulfill her part of the agreement.

I think that was the "calculated risk" Agatha took that she mentioned to Billy in ep 9 ("Btw I didn't sacrifice myself for you, I took a calculated risk"). Of course she could have referred to returning as a ghost, idk. But I think it's a possibility. But I digress.

My point is, I do believe that Agatha does not actually want Rio to disappear from her life forever. She merely tried to use Rio's love/obsession as leverage to protect Billy.

I might be wrong. I might be delusional. But I think it makes sense.

On the topic of their strange new dynamic in episode 8, when there was so much softness before: I think that also makes sense.

In episode 4, Agatha was getting attached to Billy, all the while remembering the time she spent with her son. She was also thankful that Death spared Billy after the second trial. All in all, she was feeling sad, and maybe melancholic, and overall glad that Death gave her special treatment again (with Billy, in that moment). So of course she was having a moment where she maybe missed their relationship and love. And was also sharing some of her grief with her ex, who might have been a big part of her dead son's life.

The softness makes sense here.

And the playfulness before that also makes sense, since Agatha probably spent centuries killing witches (partly) for Rio. So it's like old times for them, being on the road and massacring people. Yey.

BUT, in episode 8, there are no positive feelings flying around. There is no reason to be sad, or grateful or turned-on etc. Rio tells Agatha directly that she wants to collect the soul of another kid that Agatha cares about. And Agatha can only think about all the terrible experiences she's had because of Death (or at least she blames Rio for them in any case).

So they revert back to their disagreements and hostility. They end up back at the beginning - in episode 1, with Agatha fighting for her life, cause Rio wants to take her more than anything (pun intended I guess). Obviously even more than she wants to claim Billy's soul.

So, again. There is love, but there is also resentment. And for me it made perfect sense that there was no softness in their fight in episode 8. They are like any ex-spouses who hurt each other in the past. In good moments of shared memory, they want their old happiness and love back and wonder if there is a chance. But when the reason for these old hurts becomes apparent again, they go back to hating each other.

For them, that means Rio trying to collect her due (as Death), and Agatha trying not to get killed by her.

I've seen quite a lot of people wondering why exactly Agatha killed all these witches - to distract Death from Nicky? Or for power?, etc.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought it was strongly implied that when Nicky gets hungry (even as a baby) he'd only get satisfied and stop crying after Agatha killed witches. As if their life force was feeding him. When she meets that first coven in the woods, just after Nicky is born, she says to them "we haven't eaten in days" and Nicky is crying. And he only stops crying after Agatha killed them.

Later on, when he's older, he tells Agatha at one point that he's hungry and asks if she could cook something for him. Her answer was "I cannot heal your sickness", as if it wouldn't matter if she cooked anything for him, because that is not the sort of nourishment he needs.

So I think that Nicky needed the life force of other witches to survive. Maybe not fed to him directly in that sense, but Death needed to receive life in order to give life to him.

So Agatha didn't just kill to keep Death busy and distract her by leaving a line of bodies behind so Rio wouldn't come for her son. Nicky actually needed it to survive like food. In my opinion at least.

Just my thoughts about the finale. And completely without structure. But damn, I needed to write this down.

Not what I expected but loved it so much

Strangely didn't make me cry while watching but it's such an incredibly sad and satisfying resolution to the Witches' Road story

They set it all up perfectly with how Billy created it. The road IS real, but it's also true that Billy made it.

The KISS. AND THE WAY SHE TOUCHED RIO'S FACE WHILE FLOATING AWAY

"Why don't you want me" 😭😭😭

The fact that Nicky and Agatha made the ballad...I am not ok!!!

Rio took him while Agatha was asleep OMFG no wonder Agatha hates her

It turned out to make so much sense that Rio is trying to kill Agatha and that Agatha hates her. The dynamic seems so logical now. I only don't get why Rio was trying to physically hurt her in ep 8 before they kissed. This whole struggle seemed kinda cruel. For someone who claims to love her.

Omg the way that Rio let the flowers grow on Agatha's grave, I AM NOT OK

And how Agatha kept killing witches for her son. That's so heartbreaking, I can't even. And then she kept going because it made her feel good for a moment. Like a drug addiction 😭😭😭

And I'm so glad that she is a ghost. Like, I wouldn't have recovered if she'd have permanently disappeared. And that Billy and her are a coven now - it's literally what I wanted most from this series ("spirit as my guide" OMG😭🙌🏼)

And in a way, Agatha and Rio are together now. In the truest way. Maybe the only way that's possible. Like, they are actually endgame. Tho it sort of seems a bit like a toxic relationship ngl. Rio is definitely in a strong position of power in this. And she may not actually take pleasure in hurting Agatha, but she's not too averse to it either. Idk. I'm still happy about it tho. It's such a difficult, unique and compelling dynamic. Like, I've already seen people complaining online that they killed off the lesbian and that there wasn't a happy ending. BUT THERE WAS. They literally ended up together, wdym?!

(She planted flowers in the yard on her way out 😭🤌🏼)

Also, she came back after all and they are looking for Tommy now together! So she's going to return! And I'll get my mentor relationship. So happy about this.

Also glad that Jen survived in the end. I didn't really care about her before, but the way she smiled when she got her power back changed everything for me.

Surprisingly I smiled a lot during the finale. Idk why. Logically, I should have cried. But the happy stuff got to me more intensely than the sad stuff for once.

Honestly I wish it would have made me more emotional. But it was too expected, I guess.

Also, I'm begging to get a backstory for Agatha and Rio. Like, they already knew each other when Nicky was born. And they looked like they had already broken up. So, where is my lesbian backstory?!

The fact that Rio let Agatha keep her son for 10 years at all is such a prove of her devotion. Man I'm on my knees.

And it's so devastating. Nicky basically died because he didn't wanna kill more witches. But then Agatha just kept killing them anyway. No wonder she's afraid to face him in the afterlife.

On another note....she's so pretty as a ghost 😍🔥 like. What?! The new dress, the hair, the makeup. Absolutely love it. They could have kept a bit of the black, but I still love it very much.

Without going into explicit spoiler territory, but characters suddenly gaining huge insights for no reason? That clandestine meeting at the end with the meta references? Corlys and Alyn's conversation that seemed borderline ooc? The whole Tyland plotline?

What I hate about this whole debate is that it is hurting DT the most.

Calling him a bigot and misogynistic is completely insane - anyone that knows anything about him understands that. If he's "the problem" then what does that say about the rest of the world.

Making this thing about Badenoch's (and DT's) race and gender is another insanity. He did NOT tell Black women to shut up, twisting it like this is only prove that this is being blown out of proportions and weaponised. Why would the prime minister feel the need to add anything to this anyway?

DT told Kemi Badenoch to shut up, not women, not black women, only her, and others who disrespect trans people the way she does. That he is white and a man has nothing to do with anything (When exactly has that become a reason to disqualify an opinion anyway?) and the fact that Badenoch makes it all about her own race and gender honestly confounds me - imo, as a woman, it's degrading to only be seen by your gender and not simply as an individual with (political) opinions.

However, as much as I cannot stand Badenoch, I do think that phrasing it the way DT did was stupid. While I completely agree with the sentiment, it was easy to misinterpret and saying that someone shouldn't exist is not the best or kindest thing he could have done to state his opinion on her policies. I appreciate what he was trying to say, that he was saying it all in defence of LGBTQ people and the trans community in particular, but sadly the way he did it is now backfiring on him.