A tarot card reader named Mrs. McGarvy arrives at the Cerberus Bookstore to give dark readings for Sabrina and her friends and family.
Hilda believes she and Cerberus will have time to themselves at the store thanks to a rainy day, though the door strangely opens and closes again.
It turns out to be a woman, Mrs. McGarvey (Veronica Cartwright). Having lost her umbrella and without money, she offers to do a tarot reading for them. As Hilda prepares a table, Sabrina enters with Nick, frustrated after a good movie because he was a late. She tells Hilda things have been weird since Lupercalia, and her aunt convinces her to have a reading done. Sabrina tells McGarvey how Nick being a "bad boy" has made her walk a darker path, since she thinks it might be okay doing so with him. Since his lie at Lupercalia, however, she wonders if she can trust him. McGarvey reveals her cards as "The Magician," who looks like Nick and she says is a handsome trickster few can resist, "The Three Swords," meaning his heart is pierced, and an upside-down tower.
In a vision at the Academy, Sabrina is jealous seeing Nick and the giggling Weird Sisters, who ask if they're doing a performance in a talent show Nick failed to mention.
He explains it happens every year and he wants her to be his assistant while he does stage magic. Prudence snidely and says she should after what happened with Amalia and Nick having "blue balls," which angers Sabrina. She asks him if he told them what they didn't do and if he's still seeing them on the side; he reminds her they're telepathic and claims he's only with her. He annoys her by calling her jealous, and she snaps that he flirts with everyone at the Academy. She says being his arm candy at the talent show isn't her style. At the show, he notices there are only girls in the audience and asks for a volunteer; everyone but Sabrina wants to, so he chooses Agatha and Dorcas. He puts Agatha in a box and saws her in half, horrifying everyone when they see her entrails spill out, but he reveals she's actually in a nearby wardrobe. Sabrina again sits defiantly when he asks for an assistant, so he calls up Prudence and has her step into the wardrobe so he can transport her to "the Other." She disappears after a chant, but her echoed voice says she doesn't like where she is. He performs another chant, but she doesn't return and starts panicking. As the flustered Nick tries to smooth things over, Sabrina tells him to call Blackwood or do something, but the now-calm Prudence enters, having bi-located. Sabrina finally agrees to come up, and he says he'll be making her float, quietly asking for her trust and assuring her he would never do anything to hurt her. Things take a dark turn, however, and though McGarvey says this isn't Sabrina's exact future, she gives the girl a suggestion on trusting people.
McGarvey later comes across Theo in the store and offers another reading, saying he seems like a boy with a burning question.
Theo's cards are the "Knight of Swords," as he's on a quest to find himself, and the "Wheel of Fortune," which begins his vision. In it, he comes to terms with how he'll always appear female even if he cuts his hair and changes his name, but Dorothea appears and tells him not to settle. She reminds him there are witches in town who could change him, and when he says the Spellmans could say no, she says to not bother asking and take what he needs. Theo breaks into their house and finds a Gendered Metamorphosis Spell, which he mixes up and rubs on himself, with Dorothea telling him to skip his worries and sleep. The next day, he finds his voice is deeper and he has a male body. The basketball team praises him after a good game, but he notices his arm is turning green and brown. He rushes to the Spellmans, where Hilda says he's petrifying into wood, and his only options are to completely reverse the spell or keep the spell and amputate his arm. Theo finds this to be a difficult choice, and his decision leads to a suggestion on seeking help from McGarvey.
Mr. Walker brings Roz, who is now blind, to the shop to wait while he goes to the bank, and McGarvey again pushes to do a reading.
She claims she feels somewhat foolish since Roz already sees a lot, calling her a cunning young woman, and says the cards tell her she feels guilty about something she'll do in the future. Roz admits she is considering surgery that she isn't sure is worth the cost, and we see the card McGarvey pulled in Lady Justice, who is blind. In her vision, Roz's doctor tells them about the surgery, and her dad says it's up to her regardless of money, so she agrees to it. To her extreme joy, the surgery is a success to the point she doesn't need glasses, and all her friends came to see and congratulate her. She and Harvey return to her house where she is happy to just see him, and he calls the doctor a miracle worker. Her strangely angry dad enters, saying the only miracles come from God, and suggesting she thank the congregation for their donations. Roz apologizes the next day, but Harvey shrugs it off, and she admits that while she believes in a higher power, she doesn't believe in her dad. She explains that he just asked the congregation for money and they gave it, just like when he needed money for other things, and she feels strange about accepting it. Since she can't give the gift back, he suggests she pay it forward, so she volunteers at a home for the blind, where she meets a girl named Audrey. Awkward introductions soon lead to an unexpected revelation for Roz, and the need to meka decision when her father returns.
Up next is Zelda, who chastises Hilda for forgetting to bake a wedding cake for Blackwood to try, so her sister suggests she get a reading.
Zelda scoffs at McGarvey's practice and says her "guess" that she has big changes coming is based on what was just said, but McGarvey reveals the "High Priestess" card. Intrigued, Zelda takes her offer, and McGarvey says there's something standing in the way of her plans, showing the "Hermit" card. In her vision, Hilda dotes over her, but Zelda snaps that she can't marry Blackwood until she tells him about Leticia. Hilda thinks it wouldn't be a good idea to do so, but Zelda is sure she can make him understand, and leaves to get Leticia from Dezmelda. Zelda treks into the woods and discovers Dezmelda is suspiciously young; her relative claims to have been blessed with youth after devouring an infant witch's marrow. Though Zelda is horrified, Dezmelda acts like it was a service for the baby and demands an invitation to Zelda's wedding, threatening to tell Blackwood otherwise. Though her wedding continues, Zelda finds a disgusting scene, and has a hard time accepting McGarvey's advice.
Harvey shows up for his own reading, where he is annoyed to see his first card is "The Fool," which resembles him.
McGarvey says he has two possible futures: one here, one in Rhode Island. She says they'll see his life outside Greendale and shows his other card, " The Hanged Man." In his vision, he's drawing a hanged man when Roz and Theo enter. Thanks to the Cunning, they know he got accepted to something, and want to know what. He admits he got accepted into the Arkham Colony for the Arts for the summer, but going would mean leaving Roz, which he doesn't want to do. She convinces him to go by reminding him it's his dream and Providence isn't far, so he goes and meets his roommate Howard (Nikolai Witschi). Howard's horror art impresses Harvey, and the strange man explains he's been working nonstop for a week and keeps strange hours. Harvey wakes one night to flashing lights and Howard muttering to no one while working on a piece. Howard claims he's talking to his muses, who only come out at night, and tells Harvey to go back to sleep. Later, Harvey examines Howard's monstrous paintings and discovers one that matches what he saw in the mines. Though Howardis angry that Harvey looked through his work, he has dark information for the young man that McGarvey says will become Harvey's purpose.
After this is Ambrose, who McGarvey says has many questions. He claims this isn't so, as he has good looks and a boyfriend with connections, but she counters that Luke is currently gone and Ambrose himself doesn't yet have these connections.
She reveals two cards for him as "The Hierophant" and "The Devil," which pleases him, and he enters a vision where Blackwood tells him about the secret "Judas Society" that serves him in the church. Blackwood says only time will tell is Ambrose is trustworthy like Luke claims, and asks for Ambrose's help with something in the desecrated church. Using alchemy and metallurgy, Blackwood says Ambrose will unlock his fundamental nature and full potential. During the process, Blackwood says Edward Spellman caused immense damage to the church, and Ambrose's 75 years of imprisonment made him soft. Unveiling the tool Ambrose made, Blackwood tasks Ambrose with "correcting his family to join the Judas Society, and Ambrose sees a terrifying third card.
Much like the episode with Batibat, this is a good look into the minds of the Spellmans, but this time around we also see things about Sabrina's friends.
Before, it was entirely around the characters' fears, but here it's also around stuff we are supposed to expect for their futures. For Sabrina, Ifeel like her issue with trusting Nick comes from more than just what happened with Amalia, though she might not realize it. Since the beginning of this series, Sabrina has found lies and betrayal left and right, Hilda has already said she doesn't trust Nick, and now this happens In her vision, she is able to reveal her frustrations to the fake Nick, talking about how he flirts with so many people, which she should probably tell the real Nick. By the end of her vision, Sabrina learns it's not Nick she should distrust, but I'm now suspicious of what she discovers because of McGarvey. It's clear from the beginning there's something McGarvey is hiding; there's no way she's just some tarot reader who happened upon the store during a storm. I guessed the truth about McGarvey early on, and though I won't say what it is, I don't think it's too hard to figure out. Her readings have clear intentions of manipulating the characters into certain courses of actions, and some of the cards are way too perfect for the moment, with the magician card looking exactly like Nick and Harvey's cards resembling him. I loved the exploration of how far Theo was willing to go to make his body match how he feels inside, and the metaphor in what happens. I'm not transgender, but I've though before about such changes that are completely impossible, and I know Theo is hurting being unable to truly see a boy in the mirror. I remember seeing somewhere that the way one person thought about it was that an issue they had with being misgendered was that even if the person wasn't being malicious, it just reinforced that others don't see them as the gender they are. Theo is managing to get people using the right name and pronouns, but when he looks in the mirror, he physically sees a girl. The metaphor I enjoy comes from how after transforming, his body is "hardening" and turning into "wood." I know that's literally what happened, but I put the quotes because of the obvious joke that after becoming physically male, Theo got wood. I'll leave it there. Roz's vision seemed to mostly be about pride, though what happens with Audrey could be a fear of what the surgery would require. She tells Harvey she believes in a higher being, but doesn't believe in her dad, and it's an issue of how people just give him money that he uses however he pleases. Roz always works hard and passionately at things she cares about, so perhaps she sees this as just getting a handout to get things without earning them. Then there's Zelda, who worries about her marriage to Blackwood and what might happen if he discovers the truth about Lady Blackwood's pregnancy. Along with being horrified at what might've become of the baby, Zelda worries about someone younger coming along and stealing Blackwood. Zelda is skeptical about the reading from the start, but she's obviously paranoid enough that the vision puts doubt in her mind. Harvey's dream returns once more to the mines, and in a way puts her in a similar situation to how his brother was in the past with school. Much like Tommy decided not to take a great scholarship to stay home with his brother, Harvey doesn't want to leave Roz behind. Unlike there, Harvey goes in his vision, but finds someone he can relate to in that Howard sees numerous demons from the "tunnel" in the closet like Harvey saw the Dark Lord in the mines. It's quite an odd coincidence that two boys who see things like this happen to be artists, and although Howard is more frazzled that Harvey at this point, Harvey is willing to hear him out and might've learned a method for fighting the demons. Apparently, Howard's name is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft, stories where ancient gods often made people go crazy, and this is reinforced with the school's name. "Arkham" is another reference to madness, matching the name of the infamous Batman asylum, so it's quite fitting that the young man went crazy here. Ambrose's vision just goes back to his issue of lacking a father figure and this making him susceptible to cult leaders. With how desperate he is the be accepted and find someone who approves of him, Ambrose worries what Blackwood might be able to get him to do. He didn't used to seem fully aware of this, not realizing how he was constantly doing whatever Blackwood asked without question. This time, however, he is aware he might be going down a terrible path, and worries that something happened to Luke. The other young warlock is another part of Ambrose's need for approval, as he loves Ambrose, though Hilda did slip him a potion. I hope Ambrose puts two and two together, because it would be a great development moment for him to realize he's going down a similar path to what landed him in house arrest in the first place. Along with giving us insight into the characters, this episode hints at characters letting their paranoia make some coming decisions, and had me wondering where this could take them.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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