“Death’s Hand in Mine,” the seventh episode of Agatha All Along, makes a persuasive case for being the series’ standout: its scrambled timeline turns Lilia Calderu’s apparent non sequiturs into clues, and Patti LuPone gives those fragments a moving human center. That judgment is subjective, but the episode’s form, performance and payoff make it more than a showcase for a clever twist.
Spoilers ahead for the episode, including Lilia’s fate and Rio’s identity.
Why the episode’s fractured timeline matters
Lilia’s experience of time is not presented in ordinary sequence. The episode moves among moments from her life, so a line or action that first seems misplaced later acquires context. Rather than pause to explain the phenomenon from a distance, the episode makes the viewer feel its disorientation—and then invites us to reread what we have already seen.
The payoff is especially strong in the way the episode reconnects Lilia’s earlier tarot-card utterances to the group’s later trial. What looked like stray remarks become parts of a pattern. Forbes critic Erik Kain found the explanation satisfying, while GamesRadar+ emphasized how the chapter recontextualizes earlier scenes. Those are critical responses, not an objective consensus, but they identify the episode’s central achievement: its mystery is built from character details already in view, rather than from a last-minute explanation detached from them.
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The tarot trial turns the fragments into action
The coven’s trial gives the episode’s temporal puzzle a present-tense purpose. A tarot reading and a perilous tower place Lilia’s knowledge and choices under pressure. The episode does not use the cards merely as decorative witchcraft: their meanings and the spread shape how the characters confront the danger.
That structure also makes the resolution more than a solution to a timeline puzzle. Lilia helps the other witches escape, then remains behind to face the Salem Seven. The choice gives the episode’s accumulated fragments emotional consequence. Understanding where her moments belong sharpens the force of what she decides to do with the time she has.
Rank #2
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LuPone makes Lilia’s shifting perspective legible
LuPone has to connect different versions of Lilia without flattening them into a single explanatory performance. She gives the character’s jumps in time an emotional continuity: uncertainty, wit and conviction can coexist, even when the scene itself refuses a straightforward chronology. The episode is tightly focused on Lilia, and LuPone makes that focus feel earned rather than like a pause in the ensemble story.
The physical production contributes to the climax. Showrunner and episode director Jac Schaeffer said the writers deliberately scrambled the order, calling the construction difficult: “I love non-linear storytelling. I’m so enamored of it, but I knew it would be so excruciatingly hard.” In a separate description of the tower-fall shot, Schaeffer said, “We had Patti LuPone on wires, man! We put her up in the air (laughs).” She explained that the sequence combined LuPone performing on wires with footage of the tower against a blue screen. The result grounds the episode’s supernatural imagery in a striking performance rather than relying on the concept alone. TheWrap’s interview with Schaeffer also identifies Cam Squires and Gia King as the episode’s writers.
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Does it deserve to be called the series’ best?
“Best” is a verdict, not a measurable fact. The case for this episode rests on how well its parts reinforce each other: the timeline structure supplies the mystery, the tarot trial turns that mystery into a test, and LuPone’s performance makes the final choice matter. Gizmodo’s October 24, 2024 review called her turn clever and emotional; Forbes said the episode was the series’ best “this week”; GamesRadar+ called it one of the spin-off’s best and praised LuPone’s performance along with the set design and costuming. Rotten Tomatoes’ episode page describes LuPone as the emotional linchpin in its critics’ consensus.
There is a fair counterpoint: the intense focus on Lilia leaves less room for Agatha, a trade-off GamesRadar+ noted. Whether that is a flaw depends on what a viewer wants from the episode. As a character-centered chapter that advances the coven’s story and makes its formal experiment pay off, it is among the series’ strongest; calling it the single best remains a matter of taste. Gizmodo, Forbes, and GamesRadar+ offer the reviews behind those assessments.
Rank #4
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Episode details and where to watch
Rotten Tomatoes lists “Death’s Hand in Mine” as season 1, episode 7, directed by Jac Schaeffer and written by Cameron Squires and Gia King. The listing gives it a TV-14 rating and an October 23, 2024 release date. See the episode listing and critics’ reviews.
Agatha All Along is listed on Disney+. The platform cautions that availability varies by region; its page describes the series as a 2024 fantasy series starring Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Patti LuPone and Aubrey Plaza. Check Disney+ availability in your region.
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