Sabrina miraculously returns after the missionary attack, leaving everyone amazed as she performs miracles trying to save Ambrose from the guillotine.
Harvey carries the unconscious Sabrina to Hilda, who says they have to leave the bolts in while she deals with Ambrose, whom she hasn't stitched up yet.
Nick demands answers from Harvey, who tells him about Sabrina's strange abilities moments before, but Nick says it doesn't make sense. The kids Sabrina saved chime in on Harvey's side, comparing her to a god. Ambrose convulses, with HIlda unable to heal him despite her clotting spell, and suddenly Sabrina sits up and says she can help. With the arrows mysteriously gone, she approaches and touches Ambrose, declaring that his heart is strong and his wounds are healing, which immediately happens. Stunned murmurs begin, and Nick tells Harvey he should go. Harvey refuses, but Sabrina says it's not safe for him there, and offers to walk him out. On the way, he says she was like the X-Men's Phoenix. She doesn't understand, so he explains how the Phoenix Force possessed and saved Jean Gray when she was on the verge of death, saying Sabrina didn't look like herself when she was floating. She admits she doesn't know what possessed her, but says she's fine and will see Harvey at school. She thanks him with a kiss on the cheek, which Nick sees. At home, Sabrina is soaking in the tub and tells Salem she doesn't know how she returned, and to her surprise Nick shows up. He says he would've been in there to help her if he could've been and reveals he heard her say how Harvey is always there to catch her. Though this situation is uncharted territory, he says he wants to stick with her, and they start making out. The next day, Ambrose and Hilda express concern for Sabrina, as she was never a healer and they don't thinks he could suddenly turn out to be one. They want her to stay home until Zelda returns, which Ambrose reminds them is his execution. He feels even after saving the school, Blackwood won't pardon him, as the only ones who know what truly happened are him, Blackwood, and dead Leviathan. Hilda suggests they huddle around the fire since it's a rainy day, but Sabrina says it might clear up, and uses her new powers to brighten the weather. At Baxter, she learns Wardwell stayed home for the day and decides to research on her own; Wardwell is in fact talking to Adam's doll gift as a stand-in for him. She laments having lost him, but says he made her weak and she needed to remember who and what she is. Tossing the doll into the fire, she says it's time to burn a monster, and her cross inverts once more.
Sabrina talks to her friends about everything that happened, and after she admits she healed Ambrose with a touch, Roz surprises her by asking her to heal her eyes.
She explains her dad might try to send her to a school for the blind, and she worries she might not come back. Though Harvey looks apprehensive, Sabrina agrees, saying she doesn't even need spells to do it. They enter and lock the bathroom, where Sabrina turns on a sink and raises her hand. Moments later, she tells Roz she now just has to wash her eyes out. Harvey comforts the nervous girl and Theo leads her to the sink, where she splashes her eyes. She is soon able to see again, and tearfully thanks Sabrina. Hilda astral projects in, happy for Roz but explaining they have to get to the Academy to see Blackwood, Zelda, and the council. Once Sabrina leaves, Roz embraces Harvey, but he still seems anxious. Sabrina meets with Blackwood at the Academy but says her defending role was solely to protect witches, even if her actions seemed miraculous. He requests that she be more formal with him, as he's now the Anti-Pope, but Councilman Methuselah (William B. Davis) reminds him it's an interim position. He asks how a first-year half-mortal could levitate, kill angels, and revive witches. Sabrina responds with the myth of Pandora's Box, calling it a tale of revenge and asking if Blackwood really wants to open the box. Appalled, he snarls to not threaten him, but she snaps that he should be thanking her, which Methuselah agrees with. He continues that they need to deliberate, and he wants them all to remain in the Academy during this time. Blackwood permits Hilda time with Zelda, and Methuselah adds that while Sabrina and Nick can roam the school, Ambrose has to be locked up again. Mr. Kinkle approaches Harvey, who is drawing a picture of the possessed Sabrina, and offers work in the mine to get out of his head. Harvey says he might just do so. Sabrina and Nick discover everyone is afraid of her, and he points out how strange the situation is, with some people call her deeds miracles. She admits she doesn't know how she helped Roz; he says her actions aren't possible with their magic, and she theorizes that it could be a result of her being half-mortal. She believes her dad's desire to mix witches and mortals was based around a new powerful breed, and wants to spread his gospel. They're wondering how to do so when Melvin (Tyler Cotton) and Elspeth (Emily Haine) sit with them. Hilda becomes worried about Zelda, who talks happily about a music box and demands she be called Lady Blackwood, and her husband be "his holy eminence." Zelda seems more focused on tea than Ambrose or Sabrina, saying they're Blackwood's matter. She repeatedly asks Hilda how she takes tea, only to put sugar in.
Sabrina spreads her father's beliefs to other students, claiming Blackwood's parth would be their ruin.
Prudence enters and argues that mortals only fear and hate them, and they shouldn't listen to her dad just because he married a mortal. Sabrina knows there's no point in arguing, and Prudence laughs at the thought of her leading everyone, so Sabrina makes red petals fall from the ceiling, to her surprise. In the Greendale mines, Harvey breaks from the group after hearing a voice calling for help from a blocked area marked "13." His dad startles him away by reminding him how dangerous the mines can be. The witch council decides Sabrina and Nick can return to the Academy, but she protests when they declare Ambrose will be executed. She explains how Leviathan was inside him during the attack, and Hilda reminds them he helped the Academy, so Methuselah gives them 24 hours to bring Leviathan. Once they leave, Blackwood says they should fear more than just Ambrose, but Methuselah laughs at the would-be Anti-Pope for fearing a schoolgirl. Blackwood counters that if she has these new abilities, she's a threat to their hierarchy, as students might believe she's more powerful than the Anti-Pope or the counsel. Prudence interjects that Sabrina might love Ambrose enough to perform a miracle, so Methuselah agrees to use lethal action if she does so to interfere with the execution. Sabrina waits at Dorian's bar while Nick retrieves Leviathan's body from the trash. Dorian asks how they could use a dead familiar, so Sabrina revives the mouse. Leviathan claims he knows the truth about Blackwood and is willing to testify, so they leave to get him to safety, but the unnerved Dorian calls Blackwood. He orders Zelda to find and annihilate the mouse so it can't be revived, and she robotically leaves the room. Meanwhile, Wardwell welcomes a man into her house and directs him to the bathroom. He finds a strange body in the tub, and she murders him with a hammer.
Sabrina leaves Leviathan in a cage while she visits Hilda in the green room, where her aunt is appalled to learns he resurrected Leviathan and says there's always a cost.
Sabrina doubts this, believing she's tapped into a new kind of magic, but Hilda says she's racking up a cosmic debt, and Zelda enters the house. While Sabrina and Hilda bicker, Zelda quietly fetches Leviathan and puts him in a grinder, which the others hear. Hilda realizes Blackwood has her sister under a Caligari spell, which renders her a somnambulist (sleepwalker) he can control, likely with the music box from earlier. Once given a description, Sabrina uses her powers to summon the box, and Hilda crushes a picture of Zelda that was inside, breaking the spell. Horrified at her appearance, Zelda spills about Blackwood's plans to topple the Spellmans, having been aware during her whole entrapment but unable to act. She says they have to work quickly to save Ambrose, but warns Sabrina not to cause a miracle or underestimate the powerful council. Hilda suggests that she and Zelda could be the ones to act instead of Sabrina, who will have everyone's eyes, so Zelda has Sabrina return the box and leaves. Meanwhile, Prudence visits Ambrose and mocks him for belieivng Sabrina will save him, but asks what his cousin is, horrified having seen her return to life. He snaps that she should ask Sabrina, and she says she might. As she leaves, he admit to being terrified, but she urges him not to be, as he'll be dying with honor, and blesses him. Back in Greendale, Wardwell uses the man's body as a sacrifice and removes one of her own ribs, which she places into the scarecrow body. Together once more, the Spellmans have a chance to save Ambrose, and though Sabrina starts developing a following, Harvey and Theo make a discovery in the mines.
References are probably my favorite part of this episode, in particular one from Zelda's condition and Hilda figuring it out.
Hilda tells Sabrina that Blackwood has used a "Caligari spell," which is a reference to the classic German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. A rather strange film, it follows a series of murders surrounding the mysterious Dr. Caligari and his somnambulist Cesare, whom Caligari says can predict the future. Cesare predicts a man's death, and when this comes true the next day, the question arises of if Cesare is guilty, or if Caligari is controlling the sleepwalker. This is the situation Zelda is in after marrying Blackwood, who uses the spell mostly to make her an obedient wife, but also to further his goals. Hilda of course is quick enough to catch the trick quickly, as it's clear from the start Zelda isn't herself. Just look at the bright dress she's wearing. It certainly becomes blatant when Zelda insists on being official toward her and Blackwood, as she asks for her sister's tea preference, which along with being something she'd likely know, she asks again moments later in the same manner. The sad and terrifying aspect to this spell is how Zelda is aware of her actions the entire time, yet unable to do anything, even call for help. A prisoner in her own body, she's completely dependent on the hope her sister or someone will realize something's amiss and save her, which of course happens. Just imagine spending weeks under someone's control, not just having to listen to them, but with your body literally doing whatever they say while your consciousness is stuck trapped in your body screaming for help. A more blatant non-religious reference comes at the start, when Harvey compares Sabrina to the X-Men's Jean Gray and the Phoenix Force. As Harvey stated, the incredibly powerful Phoenix Force saved Jean, but it then took control of her, going on a rampage. Comparing them is a great way to express Harvey's fear in a way he understands, as he already fears magic, and now he's seen a terrifying Sabrina do impossible things. What I also like about this is that he's not just expressing fear; he's concerned for Sabrina's well being, as he thinks she could be in danger. There are also blatant biblical moments in this episode, but I mean what can you expect when they're literally making Sabrina the Anti-Christ? They've already said they're going to have Sabrina do things mocking the Nazareth, and this episdoe she revives and decides to start spreading a gospel. Wardwell's strange scarecrow creation is another reference, as she removes her own rib to create it, and of course there's only one thing she'd call this creation. It's an obvious twist on the original creationist story of Adam and Eve, in which God took a rib from Adam's body to create his wife. I enjoyed the improvement with Harvey we see in this episode, especially in regards to his fear of the mines, which he manages to go into. Despite his childhood experience, he now knows he's going to discover something in there, and after coming across path 13, he and Theo do just that. Also great was Mr. Kinkle, whom we've heard more than seen since Sabrina got him to quit drinking, and he's definitely a lot better. One of the last things we saw from Mr. Kinkle was him angrily declaring Harvey should've been the dead son and almost hitting him. Not the best dad, clearly. This time around, we never see him really get angry at Harvey, even when the young man wanders in the mines toward path 13. Even suggesting going to the mines is different. Before, he was violently adamant that Harvey would work there, but this time he says there's no pressure but believes it could help him clear his mind. When they're in the mines and Harvey wanders, he seems angry at first, telling him he could get lost, but it's quickly obvious he's just concerned for Harvey's safety. The plot with Roz was good, as she finally decides that, after having treated Sabrina so poorly, she wants to give magic a chance and let her restore her sight. While it's great she can see again, I feel more anxious about the situation, like Harvey, and Hilda, as I feel like there are going to be consequences. Sabrina thinks she's tapped into a new magic, so she doesn't deal with equal trade, but I don't see how she could really do that in this world. I'm wondering if her actions are sort of like Roz's tarot vision: she goes about her business performing these miracles, while someone else, likely the Dark Lord, takes the necessary sacrifices to make the magic work. Along with this is the possibility that they've lost a great advantage in Roz having her cunning ability, as we don't know yet if she has it now that she's not blind. Her grandma seemed to view the curse as a gift as well, as it let them see things they never would've been able to before. If it wasn't for the cunning, Sabrina would be dead right now since it showed Roz the impending missionary attack in time for her to warn her friend. We see Blackwood take a bit of a fall this episode, as although he initially has Zelda working for him, he doesn't fully comprehend Sabrina's powers, and the Spellmans are able to get Zelda back to normal. Entrapping Zelda was rally a careless move, I'd say, as he wanted to make himself look traditionally respectable, but allowed her to hear all his plans. I once heard that the best way to keep up a ruse is to remain in character even when you don't think anyone is watching, but Blackwood doesn't do this. He's so convinced that Zelda is on his side and under his spell that she is able to see through him when before she was smitten. Before their marriage, she was more devoted to him and knew nothing, but now she knows much of his plans and sees his trickery. Dorian's betrayal was somewhat unexpected, since he has thus far helped Nick due to their friendship, and I wonder what made him go to Blackwood. He tells the priest he has no allegiances to anyone but himself, so I think it's more that Sabrina's impossible abilities unnerve him. With the show getting darker as time goes on, we're about to see something pitch-black as the season nears its end, especially with Wardwell returning to ruthlessness.
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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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