As a holiday gift, Netflix has given us an episode of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, with everyone’s favourite teenage witch. This was likely the only special for the holiday season that featured demons and baby-stealing, knife-wielding ghosts.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when it was announced this was happening. Would it just be a bit of fun, spinning its wheels, giving us a holiday romp with some witchy sass? Or would it be a proper episode, enriching the mythology and furthering the plot?
Wouldn’t you know it – A Midwinter’s Tale somehow did both. A demon Santa? Amazing. A chat with Sabrina’s long-dead mother? Awesome. Relationship and plot development? Cool, thanks!
So even though we’re hanging off a cliff (who were those creepy three dudes, you guys???), and we now have to wait until April for the rest of this tale, this episode was a fun reminder of why we like this show so much.
The episode opened on some happy family times were Sabrina reminded us of how sad she is. I was relieved to see our girl hadn’t changed too much since the last time we saw her (during a certain slow-motion walk that suggested she might be a tad more evil than she once was).
They were getting ready to celebrate the winter solstice; a time when the veil between the living and the dead is thin, so you must put a yule log in the fireplace to ward off cranky and/or mischievous spirits.
Meanwhile, Ms. Fakewell was praying to Satan to give her a new plotline, because the one he gave her last season had run its course.
Sabrina’s trust in Ms. Fakewell is a useful plot device, and can be funny at times, but it will get old fast. I hope season 2 brings progress in revealing her true identity, and possibly having her switch sides and become a reluctant ally because you all know that’s my favourite thing.
In the beginning of the episode, Sabrina was all, “I’m giving my friend’s space!” and in this scene she was all, “let’s do a seance!” Baby steps, girl! Anyway, they were like, “no thank you?” and so Sabrina moved on to her next target and gave Harvey some enchanted pencils.
He was NOT into it, you guys! Not one bit. But he took them because he’s a polite little guy.
Roz visited Susie where she was working as an elf for Santa, which was apparently a dream come true because Susie is the damn cutest. As she was walking away, Roz had one of her ‘cunning’ visions of Santa as a demon.
Hahahahahahahahha WHAT?!?! We didn’t see the vision then, only an intense close-up of Roz feeling uneasy, but we later learned she saw the demon turning Susie into a wax figurine. So naturally she just WALKED AWAY, only allerting Sabrina & Co about the dangers after Susie went missing. C’mon, Roz! Get it together!
Meanwhile, Ms. Fakewell didn’t want Sabrina’s mom spilling the tea, so she built a voodoo gingerbread Spellman house (LOL) and poured water down the chimney to put out the protective yule log.
All I could think about was how that part of the gingerbread is now soggy and inedible, which says way too much about me.
The lack of yule-log-protection let in some cheeky ghosts, but not before Sabrina and Girl Band seanced up her mom.
Her mom spoke through Agatha, and it all boiled down to, “this shit is shady.”
I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about how disappointed I am that Sabrina has forgiven Agatha and Prudence so readily for the cold blooded murder of my beloved Tommy. Sure, Agatha got her throat slit and she had to resurrect herself out of a pit and whatever, but still. They murdered Tommy and I’m just not sure Sabrina should be quite so chummy with them so soon.
ANYWAY.
Aunt Zelda caught them seancing and was pissed, thinking Sabrina had put out the log to get better reception to talk to her mom.
Meanwhile, Susie woke up to find herself in a bit of a supernatural pickle.
That did not seem like a good time. Oh, and neither did this:
GAH. Honestly. This made me yelp. Whatever had gotten in through the chimney took possession of the corpses and tried to stab up My Crush Ambrose. Then they initiated a fun game of dodge-knife with Hilda. And as their pièce de résistance, they had Zelda and Hilda run all over the house chasing a crying Leticia, only to find her in a pre-heating oven.
Turns out these crafty little gremlins are “yule lads”; orphaned spirits adopted by Gryla, an eccentric witch who ate her own son one time.
The Aunts summoned Gryla to come and fetch her kids. They gave her a snack and some booze as an offering, and juuuuuuuuust as she and her brood were about to leave, baby Leticia started to cry. Gryla was like, “Imma take that baby,” and Zelda was all, “nuh uh, witch!” but then a mediator popped up.
Sabrina’s mom came back, drew a circle on the floor and then told them to tug Leticia until one of them let go. Gryla won because Zelda wasn’t super into the idea of ripping a baby apart (fair enough), so lil’ Lettie was taken away.
OR WAS SHE??
It was all a ruse! Sabrina did the ol’ switcheroo with a spell that her ghost-mom taught her, so Leticia was perfectly safe.
Then Sabrina got the chance to ask ghost-mom questions about her mortal/witch relationship, and ghost-mom was all, “nuh uh, it’s the pits, abort, abort!” She also said her unfinished business was making sure Sabrina had a family, and now that she sees her lil’ girl is taken care of, it’s all good. See ya never, Purgatory!
QUESTION THE FIRST – do we think that was really her ghost-mom? When she was seanced, she couldn’t talk except through Agatha, she was scared, and she was handing out warnings. Then the next time we see her, she’s all “I am ghost-mom the almighty, fear and heed me, for I shall show you the way.” Also, sure, she could have picked up a spell from her husband, but… probably not, right?
QUESTION THE SECOND – if that wasn’t her real ghost-mom (it for sure wasn’t, right?), then whoooooooo wasssssss itttttttt????? Ms. Fakewell? The Actual Devil? A new player? An illusion?
Such intrigue!
Anyway, then Roz (finally) showed up to tell them about Susie being kidnapped by the demon she saw in her vision YESTERDAY. They decided to recruit Gryla to help, who was honestly SUCH a good sport about everything, and took out the demon because she’s not cool with anyone who hurts children.
Poetic justice. Gotta love it.
After some soul-searching and cold-hard-logic, Zelda decided to have Leticia raised in seclusion by a witch named Desmelda (sounds like FUN, ammiright?). This was quite sad because they had all come together to keep Leticia safe and were gelling as a new little family. But the end of the day, STEALING A BABY WAS STRAIGHT-UP BONKERS, so… yeah, give her up.
QUESTION THE THIRD – Leticia will be coming back into the story, right? Otherwise, what was the point of this?
Speaking of sad, Sabrina had given Harvey’s dad some magic eggnog to cure his alcoholism, which Harvey appreciated, but was still freaked out by.
Harvey is not doing awesome with all the witch business. He gave back the enchanted pencils and asked Sabrina not to do any kind of magic around him anymore. This is where Sabrina proved herself to be 10000000% more mature than I am, because I would be all, “if I didn’t do magic, you wouldn’t be alive”, but that’s just me, and why I have no friends.
In the closing moments, while My Crush Ambrose was reading a classic ghost story, we got a load of these guys.
WHO THE??? And now we have to wait until April to find out their deal! Oh man, that’s a dirty trick, show, but I still love you.
Well, that’s it! What did you guys think? It was quite nice to see all our witchy pals, even if it was only for but a moment, leaving us wanting so much more.
SOME STUFF
- HIlda’s “coming” when they thought a ghost was at the door was perfection.
- WAS THAT REALLY HER MOM, YOU GUYS???
- Does Luke know who the baby is?? Isn’t he tight with Blackwood?
- Where was Susie’s ghost-aunt? I feel like almost being turned into wax is an ideal time for some ghost-aunt advice.
- Speaking of missing people, I was bummed not to see Alessandro Juliani as Dr. Cee this episode. Something to look forward to, I suppose.
- The opening scene featuring a young Sabrina and Susie going to see Santa was fun, especially when you realize the “poor kid” the adults were talking about was right there in his waxed form, listening.
- IF that really was Sabrina’s mom the second time around, she dropped a pretty big hint about a possible Sabrina-sibling. “I too lost a child…”
- This episode wasn’t My Crush Ambrose-heavy, so I didn’t have an opportunity to give him a caption. Just so we’re not left wanting…
Okay thanks bye! Have a nice time!
Toni Watches 