Sabrina fights back when the Dark Lord gives his first request to win a bargain with Wardwell, and as Sabrina's friends find new places, Zelda faces scorn at the Academy.
Satan demands to know why Lilith summoned him, so Lilith explains the situation with the kings and asks what his plans for Sabrina "ascending" are.
He reveals that Sabrina is to be his prophet after the gates of Hell open, but Lilith feels Sabrina isn't worthy and will argue against anything she deems evil. Since Lilith says Sabrina's soul tilts toward light, the two make a deal, that if it does, Lilith will be Satan's prophet and queen, and if not, she'll stop questioning him. He travels to the Spellman house, and reminding Sabrina she can't defy him since she signed his book, tells her to begin following his orders by stealing a pack of gum. Sabrina tells the others about the visit, but Zelda refuses to know what he told her to do, believing it to be a sacred covenant between her and their lord. They admit the Dark Lord has never come to them with any orders, and Zelda explains they're tests for some followers to prove their dedication. Sabrina asks what happens if she disobeys the Dark Lord, and Zelda reveals that even if the task is murder, she has to do it, or she and those around her will be punished. Sabrina tries to steal a pack of gum at Cerberus' store, but Wardwell steps in and questions her. She decides not to take it, much to the nearby Dark Lord's annoyance. At the Academy, Shirley snaps at Zelda as she enters Blackwood's office, where she learns the school will soon have their play, The Passion of Lucifer Morningstar. Blackwood strangely reveals the play will be different this year; he wrote the adaptation, and fired Shirley from co-director and elocution coach when she protested some of his writings. With Ambrose playing the "false God" and Sabrina the understudy for Lilith, Blackwood asks that Zelda take over for Shirley. Another play is happening at Baxter High: the students learn they have to pair up and memorize scenes from Romeo and Juliet. Roz, now worried but interested in Harvey after her vision, agrees to be his Juliet and perform the kissing scene when he says he hasn't spoken to Sabrina in a while.
At the Academy, Prudence wonders if Sabrina is jealous that Dorcas is set to be Lilith opposite Nick, rather than her. Sabrina finds Prudence's lustful comments about Nick creepy, and leaves to memorize her lines.
Sabrina realizes Dorcas is a terrible actress, and the Dark Lord begins whispering that it should be her role, pointing out a nearby rope connected to a sandbag. She considers it and envisions Dorcas's resulting death, then declares she won't do it. With everyone concerned, she tells Zelda she wasn't talking to anyone, so her aunt simply dismisses everyone to lunch. Back at Baxter, Theo (formerly Susie) draws attention by entering the boys' locker room, where the others mock him, asking for the "show" of him disrobing. Noticing everyone watching, he instead grabs his stuff and leaves angrily. Nick approaches Sabrina during lunch to ask if she'll run lines with him; he explains he's not "feeling it" with Dorcas and wishes she'd been cast instead. Sabrina says she finds Lilith to be a subservient character, and Nick makes her nervous by going through Lilith and Lucifer's first night together. Zelda questions Blackwood's changes to their texts, specifically Lilith running helplessly through the woods rather than providing for herself. He compares Zelda to Shirley, so she steps out for air, only to hear cracking sounds and move just as a gargoyle's head falls from the staircase. Shirley and others from the coven enter, saying there must've been a crack in the statue Sabrina starts thinking of Harvey and recoils as Nicks touch. She suggests he practice with Dorcas and pops an apple slice in her mouth, then sees the Dark Lord, who makes her choke on the apple. She wakes at home, where Hilda explains Nick teleported her after she choked, allowing Hilda to save her with the Heimlich maneuver. Sabrina tells Hilda the Dark Lord was responsible, and her aunt, realizing it's about what he wants her to do, reveals he tasked her with something before. Hilda received a wooden box with a button, and pushed it as ordered. Horrified at the thought of what she might've unleashed, she smashed the box, but found nothing. Realizing the Dark Lord just wants to know they'll do what he says, Sabrina worries that doing this task will make it harder to resist his next one. Hilda suggests Sabrina return to Baxter, saying the Satan is strongest at the Academy and desecrated church and her friends can help her like she's protected them.
Sabrina returns to Baxter, and though Roz is happy to see her the next day, she feels awkward around Harvey, and as the talk turns to the plays, she is shocked to hear about them playing Romeo and Juliet.
She decides to get her own partner and winds up with Billy Marlin. As she watches Roz and Harvey, she again hears the Dark Lord, who growls that Harvey is hers. In the girls' locker room, Sabrina is happy to see Theo, but learns of the trouble he's having. She gives him a rope to tie a knot in, which will make Billy trip in practice, and starts taking her shirt off, but Theo notices three slashes on her back. She goes to Wardwell, who calls the marks "The Devil's Claw," a physical sign of his grip on her soul, and the inflamed look means she's defying him. Sabrina tells her about the gum order and says it's not a big deal, but Wardwell quickly says it is, because evil is like an avalanche, accumulating over time. Though she's the one who convinced Sabrina to sign, Wardwell says this was with great purpose, while being forced to steal gum is petty and against free will. Wardwell says there's no way to trick the Dark Lord, who Sabrina says is always lurking, and it'll be a battle of wills and nerve that the mark measures. She claims that following the path of light and trying to be good could shrink the mark. Dorcas continues to flub up her readings for the play, so Zelda steps in with her own reading. She is impressed with Nick's performance, but suddenly starts gagging and coughs up a frog, which Prudence says is Shirley's familiar. Sabrina practices her scene with Billy, but gazes at Roz and Harvey. Billy asks about the situation, and she says it's fine and orders him to leave Theo alone. Smirking, Billy goads Sabrina into feeling angry about Roz and Harvey, and the Dark Lord whispers at her to knock over Roz's milkshake. Like earlier, she snaps that she's not going to, drawing everyone's attention, and she storms out, leaving Billy confused. Sabrina returns home as Zelda, fed up with Shirley, prepares to cook her familiar, but Sabrina is more interested in pizza, and Hilda suggests her sister go for Shirley instead. Ambrose determines Sabrina wants things to ward of the Dark Lord, and suggests onions, as he hates to cry since supposedly the last time he did was when he fell from grace, and nailing horseshoes above her doors and windows. Ambrose admits the Dark Lord had a task for him once, to write a letter to an old classmate who'd had a crush on him but was now a man with a family. She asks what was in the letter, but Ambrose painfully says he'd rather not say. Though she takes his advice, Sabrina soon finds herself still stuck in this game with the Dark Lord, and facing the consequences of defiance.
Well, I'm glad after watching this episode that it was a vast improvement on the previous, with both Sabrina and her friends' storylines.
I love the situation of Sabrina taking part in the story of Lilith and Lucifer, especially because they're obviously leading to her getting the part over Dorcas. There is a heavy comparison in this episode of Sabrina's current situation with Sabrina's, and I enjoyed how it played out. Right at the start, we see Sabrina doesn't think much of Lilith, believing her to be subservient, which honestly surprised me. It's true the way Blackwood presents the story, Lilith seems a weak figure, but I would figure Sabrina knows their true beliefs and like that she wanted to be Lucifer's equal. A theme I'm starting to notice is the idea that Sabrina thinks she can easily rise above the horrible customs of her people, only to find it harder to fight back than she originally thought it was going to be. For Sabrina, it initially seems that everyone around is just going along with everything in the church, but we see more and more that some wish they could fight back. Zelda has started realizing problems with the church whenever Sabrina is threatened, Hilda has faced torment since the beginning, and even Ambrose has shown disdain for some practices, like this episode when he had to prove himself to Lucifer. Thus far Zelda seems to have been the only honest one when she said Lucifer has never given her a task, which could be because she has questioned less. Though she's had her issues, Zelda has had more advantages than Hilda, and Ambrose, despite being a man, has suffered because of his actions with the Vatican thanks to his need of a father figure. Sabrina's test is a way of showing that despite fighting so hard against the Dark Lord, beating him is a more difficult challenge than she'd anticipated, and she's now in a similar boat to every other witch and warlock. Like I said, the focus of this point is comparing Sabrina to Lilith, whom Sabrina at first seems to look down on, though their stories seem similar. The play the Academy puts on suggests Lucifer seduced and tricked Lilith to win her allegiance, planning to give her a powerful position. Lucifer might not have tricked Sabrina like this, but he's grooming her for a high position like he claimed to be doing with Lilith. Whenever he has shown up to Wardwell, she has instantly seemed to shrink in his presence, as like the witches, she's stuck doing whatever he says. Similarly, Sabrina is now finding that no matter what she does, disobeying the Dark Lord results in pain for her and those around her, just like Zelda warned. Just a few episodes after signing the book, it's even more abundantly clear than before that the "free will" she was promised is a bunch of crap. The biggest sign of this is how Sabrina ends up marked with the "Devil's Claw" and it grows the longer she takes to complete the Dark Lord's task for her. This is a clear reference to a belief I remember hearing a lot on paranormal investigative shows that three scratches are a demonic mocking of the trinity. The episode has other references as well, starting with the name, The Passion of Sabrina Spellman, matching The Passion of the Christ. Late in the episode is one that I found funny, but also a bit odd, because Harvey is seen with an Archie comic. I don't know how this works in a world shared with the Archie characters themselves, but it's still entertaining. This time around, I was also intrigued with the human side of things, though somewhat with the exception of Roz becoming interested in Harvey. This just made me roll my eyes and dislike Roz, because I know it's just a way to further push the love triangle started when Nick was brought in. Typically people are against dating someone their best friend was with, especially in such a big case as Sabrina and Harvey. Roz is occasionally shown as apprehensive, but that is easily tossed aside in favor of making goo-goo eyes at Harvey, and not acknowledging it, even to Sabrina. To be fair, I don't know how Roz would go about saying "I had a vision of me and Harvey kissing," but she should at least acknowledge the situation since Sabrina finds out she and Harvey are slated to be Romeo and Juliet. Theo's story more had my attention as he tries to deal with the guys being jerks, and surprisingly asks Sabrina for magical help with them. Unlike what happened with Harvey, causing him to hate magic, Theo actually seems interested in the art, and is willing to be around it. I also in general like how the show decided to bring in "Theo," rather than just continuing to have Susie the tomboy. It's good to have representation, even if these characters can be hamfisted and dramatic, and I hope Theo standing up for himself is a positive picture for transgender people who struggle with their identity and discrimination. Zelda had a sort of storyline in this episode as well, and I liked how she is now in a power play against both Blackwood and other witches. She already pulled an incredible move against Blackwood last episode by shutting down their "meetings" until he makes them official. Now, she also has to deal with others from the coven who are aware of what she's doing, and both hate her and are jealous of what her situation brings. Zelda has always been top-dog, so being bullied is a new experience, and it actually allows her to bond with Hilda in a way to get revenge. She spends much of the episode the brunt of their violent and humiliating jabs, and at first thinks the best solution would be killing Shirley's familiar. With Hilda's help, however, she comes up with something that is terrifying and shows the others they shouldn't mess with her. There were a few moments in this episode that had the annoying blurry look during magical moments, specifically when Sabrina chokes, but this wasn't a huge deal. The performances were fantastic, and kept me interested in the story and how relationships are developing this season. I'm excited to see where things go, and am glad this episode stepped things up after the obnoxious and laughable beginning to the season.
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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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