Colour Theory of Life and Death: AGATHA ALL ALONG

how colours show Alice's gradual acceptance of Death

The opening three minutes of Agatha All Along Episode 8 "Follow Me My Friend/To Glory at the End" are full of revelation and resolution.

I (Mel), however, am limited by time and space, so will look at how the scene’s colour theory delineates the two ‘worlds’ of Alice and Rio . . . after a real quick examination of how framing, POV, and disorienting camera moves and editing, also separate Alice’s life and death.

note: photos are lightened to easier distinguish elements within a still frame

Simple Does The Trick

This exchange is deeply moving, all the more for Rio’s profound words being delivered matter-of-factly.

“That’s it? That’s all the time I get?”
”If I had a nickle.”
“This can’t be the end . . . I can really do something with my life now!”
“You’re a protection witch.”
”Yeah!”
”You died protecting someone.”

The scene cuts between Alice and Rio many times, but like the words, the shots are simple: two medium-front-on, two closeup-side-view.

Colour theory holds further layers; green shows up in Rio’s background for the first time, and will come back soon.

Disorientation and POV

We’re outside of Alice (and she’s also outside herself), so the scene doesn’t frame things from Alice’s literal point of view, but shot choices, editing, and colour keep us within her experience — the camera move is dizzying because Alice is off-kilter.

Instead of using one move like the opening shot, this sequence uses several edits to the same subject. This completely different technique still keeps us with Alice, and demonstrates her denial and dawning realisation.

Rio and Alice are seperate in their own frames, as they are all scene. When Rio points, Alice glances that direction before quickly averting her eyes. Because we’re ‘with’ Alice in her denial, the scene avoids looking where Rio pointed, and switches to a closeup of Alice.

From here the scene cuts to a medium shot of Alice looking at Dead Alice, then a shot from approximately her dead body’s POV, then another shot of Alice looking at Rio.

Counting the move-and-rack-focus from Alice to Dead Alice, that’s six shots of Alice in a row, all medium or closeup, all keeping Alice (or Dead Alice) centre frame.

Like the opening camera move, this sequence is intentionally-strange-but-not-confusing. Editing from a character to a similar angle on the same character can be disorienting, but these cuts work with Alice’s motions, and keep the colours consistent.

While Alice is distinguished from Dead Alice by hair, clothes, etc, the colour wash in her shots and most of the scene so far is purple, establishing purple as the world where Alice is/was alive.

We’ve finally arrived at colour theory!

Colour Theory

The scene has made clear Alice’s world is purple, while Rio’s world has been established as green through the series. The colour throughout is mostly purple with green accents only in Rio’s shots because it’s Alice’s scene and Rio is the facilitator — which is rather a nice way to look at Death!

The other techniques are still in use: keep it simple; be disorienting but never confusing; remember whose POV we’re in and who we’re empathising with.

At first Rio is still mostly lit in purple because Alice still sees Rio as part of her world, another person she walked the Witches’ Road with.

More green appears in the background behind Rio, demonstrating Alice is working to avoid Death the same way she averted her eyes earlier.

But as Agatha’s entire story shows: we can shut our eyes, reinvent our lives, hurt those around us and ourselves, but eventually reality will catch up to us.

As Alice faces that reality and prepares to cross from her world to Rio’s, green gently creeps across the entire scene.

Then (in my favourite shot!) Rio and Alice share the screen for the first time all scene, and the frame is practically split in half.

Alice still trying to avoid Death by staring into the past, Rio a shadowy apparition moving towards the future, each wholly set against their own colour.

When Rio turns and asks “are you ready,” for the first time her frame is entirely green, only a hint of purple reflected off Alice’s world mixed in the green on her face.

Alice says ‘no,’ but the question was ritualistic formality. As Alice stares at her body, green colours the left of her frame. Death encroaches on her world as purple recedes, showing Alice’s hold on her life and past world loosening.

Alice accepts her fate, and turns to follow Rio.

The final shot shows Rio guiding them from purple room into engulfing green; Alice passing from her world into Rio’s, from life into death.

The doors swing closed on their own, cut to black, title appears

tying its words directly to Alice — whether to accept the end of her life was glorious, to believe she’s walking into glory, or both.