As Sabrina's friends prepare for an eventful Valentine's Day, she and Nick have a dark encounter while celebrating the church's Lupercalia holiday.
Sabrina and the others are still at Dorian Gray's club, and she sees Ambrose making out with Prudence. She asks if Luke will get jealous, but Ambrose shrugs that he's on a mission for Blackwood, and Prudence says they're preparing for Lupercalia.
Sabrina knows this is the equivalent to Valentines Day, and though Nick says it's a lot of hype, Prudence says no one who has signed Satan's book is so innocent. At the Spellman house later, Zelda explains that Lupercalia is a lusty, pastoral celebration started in Caligula's Rome, and named for Lupercal, the cave where a she-wolf raised Romulus and Remus, Rome's founders. While it was originally about health and purifying the city, she and Hilda say it's now more about sex. It has three events: witches and warlocks are randomly paired, they have a night of "unholy abstinence," then there's a "hunt" ending in an orgy. Sabrina is happy to hear the event is voluntary, but Zelda says everyone does it and there's no better time to start having sex, much to Hilda's shock. Zelda says it's a night about sensuality and pleasure, not shame and regret, but Sabrina agrees with Hilda that she doesn't think she's ready. She explains she figured her first time would be with Harvey, and now that it's not she wants it to be with someone she trusts. Zelda brings up Nick, whom Hilda doesn't trust, and gives Sabrina the Lupercalia books that will teach the festival's rituals. Creepily that night, Nick astral projects into Sabrina's room to say there's no pressure from him to join in Lupercalia, as long as they get to hang out somehow. She tells him her feelings about wanting someone special, and he asks if that could be him. Sabrina simply says they'll have to see if they get paired up, and Nick says to leave it to him before disappearing, since a psychopomp arrived. Sabrina reminisces looking at the necklace Harvey gave her, then puts it away to look into the Lupercalia. The next day at Baxter, Wardwell is annoyed seeing all the Valentine's decorations and humiliated at having to keep up the schoolteacher charade. Stolas suggests she poison the punch at the school dance, and she realizes that while she can't harm Sabrina, killing her friends could help her forget about her problems. Harvey surprises Roz with a card he drew her, then asks her to the Sweethearts Dance. She says she already bought tickets with Theo, but realizes he was asking her as a date, and he awkwardly agrees they can just go as a group of friends. At the Academy, Zelda looks happily at the decorated hall, with Blackwood agreeing the holiday "gets the blood pumping" like none of their others. He starts complimenting her, saying how she looks young and fertile, but she reminds him to get to business, so he has Ambrose begin the matching. As Sabrina approaches, Dorcas tells her to not even think about matching with Nick, as it's her turn since the other Weird Sisters were the previous years. Like a game of musical chairs, Ambrose plays a violin blindfolded while the witches dance sensually in a circle holding sheets tied to a pole. Nick sneezes as Sabrina approaches, and Ambrose suddenly stops the music, but before Sabrina can mount Nick's lap like the other pairs, Dorcas shoves her aside. Smug at first, Dorcas is horrified when Sabrina sits on the only remaining boy, revealed to be Nick, while she's sitting with a boy named Melvin who wore a glamour. Over at the Cerberus Book Shop, Hilda enters despite not being scheduled, pointing out to Cerberus he hasn't scheduled her much lately. She brings up the kiss they shared, but he says it shouldn't have happened even if they felt something. He reminds her he's his boss, but says her quitting wouldn't change anything, so she leaves him with a Valentine's card she made.
Roz meets Sabrina at the Spellman House to tell her about Harvey. Sabrina accepts the situation and admits she's basically dating Nick now.
Meanwhile, Mr. Putnam asks Theo about the Valentine's celebrations, asking if he wants to wear a dress and puzzled when Theo says he'd prefer a suit. Theo slowly explains his thoughts and always feeling like a boy, and though Mr. Putnam says Theo's always been his best girl, he says he feels best when people refer to him as a boy and suggests his dad start by calling him Theo, after Dorothea. Though struggling to accept the situation, Mr. Putnam quietly says he'll do so and agrees to take Theo for a new haircut. That night, Ambrose tells the witches and warlocks about the coming event, where they'll go into the woods in pairs, strip down, and anoint each other in oils to take in the Goddess Selene's energies. Though abstinence is encouraged, he says the Dark Lord likely won't mind some uniting, and Prudence passes out baskets of milk, blood, oysters, figs, and cherries. Blackwood steps in to warn everyone they have to stay together all night and shouldn't stray from the path, as all sorts of lust-filled creatures will be out this night. He gives the go-ahead and Ambrose blows a horn. Zelda finds an extra basket, which Blackwood says would be a shame to waste. Sabrina shares her nervous feelings with Nick, who admits to being terrified, as although he's been in an orgy before, he's never been with a mortal or half-mortal. He says Sabrina is special and he doesn't want to mess up what they have. Concurrently, Blackwood is pleased to be in these woods with Zelda again, despite her decision about their relationship; she says celebrating Lupercalia couldn't hurt. Sabrina and Nick, now stripped, smear blood on each other's foreheads and wipe it with the milk, with Nick claiming they for some reason must laugh as they do so. They then lie down to soak up the moon until dawn, while elsewhere Prudence and Ambrose are getting frisky until they hear a wolf, which worries even Blackwood. As it sounds close, Sabrina and Nick decide to leave. They return to the Spellman house, where he suggests they just celebrate Valentine's Day instead. He claims he won't miss getting to do certain things since he hopes they'll be together for Lupercalia next year, and they decide to go to the Baxter High dance. Zelda, who also returned home, finds Hilda sobbing, and learns about Cerberus turning her down. Urging her to compose herself, Zelda says she's a huntress, not a common woman to be brushed aside, and encourages her to seduce Cerberus.
Back at Baxter, a man surprises and confuses Wardwell at the school with flowers and talking about how he's happy to see her after months away.
Though puzzled, she pretends to know him and he leaves for their cottage. She asks her assistant about the man and learns he's Mary Wardwell's fiance, Adam. Sabrina finds Harvey and asks if it'd be weird if she and Nick came to the dance. Harvey stiffly says it'll be fine, and leaves. Wardwell arrives home to find Adam has prepared dinner, and even fixed her sink and flipped her cross right-side up. While massaging his neck, she asks about the charity he's working with, Physicians Without Frontiers, and grabs a knitting needle to stab him. He says this was his last trip away and stands before she can attack, then gifts her a fetish doll he got from the Shona people. Blown away, she says she loves it and he kisses her, then brings up the Sweethearts Dance and decides to chaperone with her. At the Kinkle house, Harvey teaches Theo, now with a shaved head, how to tie his tie, and the two are blown away when Roz enters, looking stunning. At the same time, Nick arrives at the Spellmans,' where Ambrose compliments his tux and says he's saving his energy for the Hunt. Sabrina comes down in a red dress. Nick is stunned, and Hilda surprises by entering in a racy look of her own. She goes to the bookstore and shakily tries to seduce Cerberus, but he suddenly turns monstrous.
At the dance, Adam stops Wardwell from spiking the punch, and Roz admits to Harvey that while their situation is weird for normal people, it's not a big deal considering what they've been through recently, and they agree it's nice.
Sabrina and Nick arrive, with the latter ecstatic to experience this with the former, and teh night goes on with Sabrina and Roz trading somewhat sad expressions. To Theo's surprise, Billy approaches him to apologize for how he's been acting, as while he might not get to play basketball, the doctor said he's lucky he didn't break his neck, and he's tired of bad things happening to him. While Sabrina and Nick decide to sneak off, Harvey tries to kiss Roz, but she stops him to tell about her powers. In the library, Sabrina and Nick are enjoying themselves when a werewolf appears. They run, and Nick, after sealing a door behind them, calls it "Amalia" and banishes it. With some onlookers, Wardwell calls them to her office where Nick explains Amalia is his familiar whom he grew close to after his family died. She got obsessively jealous as he got older, so he banished her to the forests at the Mountains of Madness. He feels Amalia might've sensed his connection with Sabrina, and Wardwell warns that her old high priest had a cougar familiar that mauled his wife and baby. In such a case of rabid jealousy, she says the only option is to kill the familiar. Meanwhile, Roz tells Harvey about her powers but assures hims he's not a witch, and while he admits weird things are a trigger for him, he thanks her for her honesty. The two kiss, and as she feels it was different from her vision because her premonitions usually lead to bad things, he says nothing bad will happen. That night, Adam pleases Wardwell with a foot rub, and though Stolas protests, she is beginning to like the setup. With Lupercalia coming to a close, Nick has to make a tough decision about Amalia, and Hilda, Zelda, and Roz all get surprising discoveries with their relationships.
This episode was another sort of mixed bag, though I did like it for the most part, especially with the Cerberus reveal.
One of the aspects I really like is how the witches are celebrating Lupercalia, giving fantasy rituals to a real festival that actually coincided with Valentine's Day. With a bit of searching, I'm even finding that figs and milk were actually important to the celebrations, though I'd assume not in the way this show had them. I feel a bit dumb at the moment as I'm only now registering the exact coincidence between Nick and Amalia's relationship and Lupercalia. The holiday has its roots in the story of Remus and Romulus, like Zelda said, Rome's founders whom a wolf raised. At first, Nick's familiar being a wolf seems to just be a coincidence in that there is some mystery to the situation, as even if the event is related to wolves, everyone seems surprised there's one so close. Until we learn about Amalia, Cerberus serves as a red herring, as Hilda's encounter at first makes it seem like he's a werewolf. When we do learn about her relationship with Nick, however, it adds to the Lupercalia coincidence, as just like Romulus and Remus, she raised the orphaned Nick. Speaking of Hilda and Nick, one of the things I didn't really understand was at the beginning of the episode, when Hilda reveals she doesn't trust the young man. Now there has been plenty of reason for fans to question him at times throughout the show, since he got in the way of Sabrina and Harvey, and has a charming nature that worked against him in terms of suspicion, like when he and Sabrina vied for top boy. For Hilda, however, there is little-to-no reason to distrust the boy. Her experiences with them have included him helping Sabrina try to figure out her demon issue and teleporting Sabrina home when she was choking. Without Nick's help, Sabrina could've died, and Hilda commended his quick thinking at that point, but now doesn't trust him for some reason? This could be a hint from the writers that he's got a secret agenda; I even questioned him in this episode because he kept harping on how Sabrina is half-mortal, as if that's the key reason he's with her. However, having Hilda be the one that doesn't trust him doesn't make sense to set this up, because she actually has ample reason to have faith in him. Another more minor moment that just made me question the writing was when Roz tells Harvey about the Cunning. Explaining her powers, she says she gets premonitions, and specifies that they aren't always about the past, but sometimes about future events. This is a clunky bit of dialogue, because it's completely redundant. I don't know if they were trying to say Harvey, who isn't the brightest, doesn't know what premonition means, but her specifying her visions as "premonitions" means they're of the future. On the other hand, there was plenty that was enjoyable about the episode, like when Prudence tells everyone about the items they have for Lupercalia, and stops in front of Sabrina, a known virgin, to say the "cherries are for popping." In this scene there is also comedy with Dorcas, who is off to the side and in a huff about not being paired with Nick for the night. Obviously not content being with Melvin, she constantly stares at Sabrina and takes her basket from Prudence angrily. Wardwell is also in a great situation storywise, now having to deal with the real Wardwell's fiance, ironically named Adam. I loved the moment she discovered the man's name, as the look on her face is exactly the kind of shocked "are you kidding me" thing you'd expect. Obviously, Wardwell wants nothing to do with the mortal at first, almost stabbing him with a knitting needle as she massages his neck. However, we see a change in their relationship as the episode continues and his charms start to get to her. Adam is clearly a nice guy, and the fetish doll he gifts her is the perfect thing to win over the demonic Madam Satan. Especially after recently seeing the play about her relationship with Satan, which Michelle Gomez played to heartbreaking perfection, having a man who now cares about her and helps her out has to be a happy turn of events. One of the shining moments on the human side of things is when Theo comes out to his dad and requests things that will make him be happier. The scene comes off as clunky, because of how awkardly Theo tries to approach the topic and the way Mr. Putnam responds, even if he accepts it, but that's exactly what I like about the scene. This isn't an easy situation for either participant, and there's no guide for how a a person should come out, especially to a parent. Theo is clearly unsure how to tell his dad what he's feeling, and ends the talk by breathing heavily, likely happy with how it went but still anxious. Mr. Putnam, meanwhile, is learning that his daughter has come to identify as a boy, which in his mind changes their relationship. Although they're the same people, they're in a completely new situation, and I was glad he was a good parent who wants to support Theo's realization. There's also support later from Billy, that like Theo, had me pretty suspicious, but I'm willing to accept that his broken leg could've given him a change of heart. I was also happy with how, despite the relationship between Roz and Harvey growing strangely fast, she told Sabrina about it. Before it had seemed like the writers were heading for a drama situation with the relationships ruining everyone's friendship with Sabrina, and there is of course still going to be awkward about it, but the kids are trying to maintain their friendship. There are also changes to the relationships between Zelda & Blackwood and Hilda & Cerberus, with the latter even affecting how the sisters interact. I've liked how over the course of the show, Zelda has come to express a more sisterly, protective role previously covered by her bullying attitude. Finding a sibling upset because of others is never a happy moment, and in this episode Zelda returns home to find Hilda in tears because of Cerberus. Rather than just mock her sister, Zelda pumps her up, encouraging her to have confidence and go for the man she wants. Although I had mixed feelings about some of the moments in this episode, I like how it went in the end, and the ending set a dramatic situation for one character.
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