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agatha all along - familiar by thy side - william and lilia
Television

Agatha All Along – Familiar by Thy Side review S1 E6

Jeffrey Lyles , , , , , , ,

Familiar by Thy Side takes a detour along the Witches’ Road to explore the origin of young Billy Maximoff and how he’s arrived outside of Wanda’s fantasy land in Westview.

But first, a flashback to William Kaplan’s Bar mitzvah where he’s having a pretty rocking party with his friends. During the party, he goes to a Palm Reader, who just happens to be Lilia. In reading William’s palm, she sees the dark future ahead and advises him to just enjoy the now.

While a clearly creeped out William leaves, she crafts a sigil, placing it in his coat pocket. Per the sigil rules, she can’t remember the person she created the sigil for either. William and his friends can’t fully shut the party down as an incident with the anomaly in Westview triggers an emergency with a warning for everyone to return home.

agatha all along - familiar by thy side - william and lilia

That emergency was the big showdown in Westview with Wanda, Agatha, Vision, etc. William’s parents (Maria Dizzia and Paul Adelstein who deliver really strong supporting performances in a short amount of time) speed back to their house, but veer off the road and they hit a tree. Familiar by Thy Side doesn’t have a cruel ending in the expected manner.

Both of William’s parents survive, but it seems that William did not. “William” wakes up calling for Tommy just as the police officer his parents flagged down arrives on the scene. In another interesting likely not a coincidence, that officer was Alice.

William’s parents seem to be acting somewhat weird as he can hear traces of their thoughts. Maybe it’s not them, but William who is experiencing some issues with amnesia thanks to the accident. William keeps reciting to himself in a mirror that he is William Kaplan as if trying to make himself believe it. William’s bedroom with the posters of witch-theme properties was very interesting and foreshadows why he was the ideal candidate.

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Three years later, William is making out with his boyfriend, Eddie. William catches a stray emotional thought from Eddie and decides to come clean about his past — namely that he died but came back to life. William knows something is different with him but can’t quite figure it out. This takes him down a long winding online search where he stumbles onto a mysterious, shadowy figure who agrees to meet him.

It’s Ralph Boner, who’s been left a traumatized mess by Agatha. This scene was decent, but it’s played up for laughs like the WandaVision appearance of Ralph, who would really make for a perfect scarred victim caught in the fray between Agatha and Wanda. With the humor cut just from this interaction, Familiar by Thy Side would have been so much more impactful, but this big moment gets hindered somewhat by the need to gloss over heartfelt, emotional drama for laughs.

agatha all along - familiar by thy side - ralph boner and william

Ralph mentions Wanda’s children, the speedster and his mind-reading brother, which triggers William at the thought that Tommy is actually somewhere out there too. Thanks to some helpful keyword searching, William is able to track down Agatha. This is the flip side of their initial encounter back in episode 1. And this time, we get to hear him say he’s Billy Maximoff.

The figment of Wanda’s mind, Billy, was able to cross over into the real world thanks to the bad for him, good for Billy timing of William Kaplan’s death. Agatha claims she figured it out from their first meeting but was sure after his power outburst took out the rest of the Coven. She deduces he’s trying to find Tommy. While he can feel his brother’s spirit, what are the odds Tommy inhabited the body of a teenager named Thomas at the same time? Well, actually with Scarlett Witch involved, those odds aren’t exactly terrible as already has been shown…

agatha all along - familiar by thy side - billy and agatha

Familiar by Thy Side ends with Agatha agreeing to help Billy, who wisely doesn’t trust her much at all. Hard to question that mindset. This was a solid episode that explained the season’s big mystery. It did feel like William/Billy’s interactions with the Coven would be more significant than just happening to run into them at various points over the last few years, but it did put them on the same playing field.

Familiar by Thy Side didn’t lose momentum with the flashback-heavy episode and with the final three episodes en route, things are about to get very interesting.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney

After checking out Familiar by Thy Side, revisit the first season of WandaVision available on 4K on Amazon.

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