CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA Season 3: A Bloated Third Venture To Hell & Back

Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a teen horror series developed by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, based on the Archie comic book series of the same name. One would’ve expected this teen-centric witch show to be picked up by the CW, largely because Sabrina Spellman is part of the Archie comic book realm — more specifically Riverdale, another successful Archie property developed over at the CW. However, if the first season of Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina taught us anything about its content and ambitions, Sabrina’s irony and devilish characters would’ve never survived on the CW. With bolder and darker intentions, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina prospered on its playfully vile plot machinations, as opposed to just indulging a young audience with more teen angst — that said, still expect a lot of teen melodrama, but with witches.

Part 2 Overview

In the little town of Greendale, Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) and Harvey Kinkle (Ross Lynch) were the essential teen romance that kicked off the series. All throughout the first season, they interacted like high school sweethearts, perhaps even soulmates. Unfortunately, they called off their romance in Part 2. To catch Harvey when he falls is Roz (Jaz Sinclair), one of Sabrina’s best friends, who has recently embraced her own cryptic superpower: the ability to see the near future. Harvey and Roz get together, leaving Sabrina to fall into Nick Scratch’s (Gavin Leatherwood) devilishly handsome embrace. Hilda Spellman (Lucy Davis) and Dr. Cerberus (Alessandro Juliani) got together. Zelda Spellman (Miranda Otto) got married to Father Faustus Blackwood (Richard Coyle), but only to take control of the Church of Night. Mary Wardwell, a.k.a Madam Satan (Michelle Gomez), was duped by Satan into consuming Wardwell’s original fiancé, Adam (Alexis Denisof), after getting dangerously swept up in the life of the human. Theo Putnam (Lachlan Watson) didn’t get a romance of his own, but he came out as transgender.

If you didn’t know already, but Father Blackwood is a misogynist, creating the Judas Society, which entitled the warlocks with more power than the witches. In order to keep this power intact, Father Blackwood killed the Anti-Pope after Sabrina attempted to show the Anti-Pope proof that her father foresaw a more progressive future for the Church of Night. When Satan dethroned Father Blackwood of the title of the Anti-Pope, Blackwood poisoned most of the Church of Night, prompting Ambrose Spellman (Chance Perdomo) and Prudence Night (Tati Gabrielle) to track Blackwood down and kill him.

In Part 2, Sabrina became even more powerful. She stopped Roz from becoming blind, controlled the weather, and summoned witches and warlocks from the grave. As it turns out, she was being groomed to be the Herald of Hell, and she was destined to be on Satan’s side as the human world caught fire. To prevent this prophecy from unfolding, Ambrose helped Sabrina create a doppelgänger of herself, containing all of her witch faculties. Unfortunately, once Sabrina killed her doppelgänger, she unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy thanks to Lilith. After learning Sabrina is the Dark Lord’s daughter, and is meant to be the Queen of Hell, Lilith feels betrayed because she was expecting to rule by Satan’s side. Lilith ends up helping Sabrina trap Satan in Nick’s body. Nick was originally ordered by Satan to get close to Sabrina, but he developed real feelings over time. Nick sacrificed himself as the human vessel because of his betrayal to Sabrina.

Part 2 left us with Lilith as Queen of Hell, and Zelda as High Priestess of the Church of Night. Sabrina got her powers back, and she pledges to get Nick back from Hell with the help of Harvey, Theo, and Roz. Oh yeah, the real Ms. Wardwell is also back from her slumber.

Part 3 Finally Bit Off More Than It Can Chew

We open to Sabrina at the gates of Hell, trying to force her way in to save Nick. Harvey’s concerned, as should anyone if their friend is striving to open the gates of Hell. Part 2 concluded on a reasonably dire note: Nick’s in Hell, currently being used as a prison for the Devil. It simply felt like more time would be spent in Part 3 exploring Sabrina’s efforts to rescue her boyfriend, yet this plot thread is resolved after “The Hellbound Heart”, the first episode of Part 3. Sabrina, Roz, Harvey, and Theo venture to Hell, and budgetary restrictions clearly obstructed how much detail the showrunners can put into the overall appearance of Hell. Admittedly, there’s a deserted beach, an uncanny forest, a field of corpses being gnawed at by crows, and a dingy room containing the infamous seat of Hell. But as expected, very few demons are seen roaming around, and very little time is spent in these unearthly locations. For what it’s worth, the production design is deliciously sepulchral (the occult world still has a bioluminescent movement to it), and the costume design is ravishing (Lilith always dominates in a dress). Thankfully, the series has relied less and less on the excessively distorted cinematography, which gave way to mannered shallow depth of field and post-process chromatic aberrations. That said, primeval witchery still palpably plagues the community of Greendale with harsh tints of grey and red, upholding a mystical ambiance.

When Sabrina rescues Nick from Hell, Part 3 goes full speed ahead. “Drag Me to Hell” is the second episode of Part 3, and it unfolds just like it sounds. “Drag Me to Hell” is the best episode of the season, perhaps even one of the more interesting episodes of the series. Now crowned Queen of Hell, Sabrina must physically guide sordid souls to Hell. How is a teenage girl supposed to do that? The episode only gets more spellbinding and morally intricate. But similar to the rescue mission, this predicament ends rather quickly. Of course, we can’t forget about Caliban (Sam Corlett), a scheming and brawny slice of meat who challenges Sabrina to a hunt for the Infernal Artifacts, three unholy items that will officially crown the rightful ruler of Hell.

Elsewhere, Prudence and Ambrose spend their days looking for Blackwood, and wallowing in sweet romantic bliss. Chance Perdomo is still immensely memorable as Ambrose, providing swift quips and nuggets of knowledge with such innate sincerity. Tati Gabrielle still compellingly portrays Prudence with modest anger and brimming confidence. They end up finding Blackwood in Scotland, a location that is underutilized, possibly because of budgetary limitations. Production-wise, the showrunners are yearning to explore all of these colorful locations, including the fiery pits of Hell. More often than not, they don’t succeed in exploiting these settings.

Sabrina Spellman continues to be an interesting character, who hasn’t really made the best decisions, nor does she make many here. However, Kiernan Shipka was born to play Sabrina, our recalcitrant teenage witch who may act this way because she’s like every other capricious teenager, but her chthonic genesis certainly has an influence in how she reacts. In Part 1 and 2, Sabrina fluctuated between bouts of courage and self-created chaos, tipping her toe ever so slightly in the dark side, but never fully embracing it. In Part 3, Sabrina becomes a wholly realized character. She’s still airily reckless, but more capable of charming the audience with her charisma.

One of the prime conflicts this season is that the witches are losing their powers, essentially because Lucifer is not too happy being condemned by them (speaking as they now pray to Lilith). At one point, Lilith describes that Lucifer’s gifts originate within him because he’s a fallen angel, sentenced to reside in Hell. And Lilith doesn’t inherent Lucifer’s capabilities to bestow power to her followers. The coven of witches must find a novel method to reinvigorate their witch abilities.

Now in a debilitated state, the Church of Night witches are facing a new threat: a carnival gang of Pagan witches, who are keen on summoning the Green Man, a god that represents nature and renewal. Amongst this Pagan group, there’s Pan (Will Swenson), the deceiving leader who carries a mysterious demeanor and a piercing leer. Pan’s trusted companion Nagaina (Vanessa Rubio) is a gorgon, like the fabled Medusa. Another recurring face is Circe (Lucie Guest), a sorceress who can turn humans into animals — and she commonly exercises her magic on men who offended her.

Roz and Harvey face relationship troubles, while Theo’s love life flourishes once the adorable Robin Goodfellow (Jonathan Whitesell) comes into town. Roz, Harvey, and Theo also get caught up in Sabrina’s world, as the Pagan witches prove to be a threat against their group as well. Jaz Sinclair’s Roz, Ross Lynch’s Harvey, and Lachlan Watson’s Theo are a fairly likable bunch, and they’ve grown into their characters. For Hilda and Zelda, they are still annoyingly arguing about not wanting the same things. In a grim turn of events, Hilda undergoes a startling transformation. There are many character conflicts at play in Part 3, and only eight episodes to juggle every sub-plot. The showrunners end up biting off more than they can chew.

Part 3 Suffers From A Lack Of Dread

Ever since the first season, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was mostly executed as a teen show. Even so, it was so unconventionally comical, warped, and sardonic. I, for one, fell in love with Sabrina’s irony. Through the bibbidi-bobbidi-boo and the teenage angst, there was always a lurking aura of horror, seeping through the cracks of Sabrina Spellman’s seemingly normal life with a teenage boy. At one point in Part 1, the Devil is literally stalking Sabrina by upholding the veneer of her principal. In Parts 1 and 2, Lucifer was an all-powerful beast. Woefully, Part 3 loses that sense of dread and horror that pervaded the first two seasons. Now the Devil is throwing puerile tantrums, numerous sub-plots muddle Sabrina’s perspective, and the antagonists are rather silly and underdeveloped. Oh yeah, Blackwood is still evil.

Part 3 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina didn’t quite deliver on all fronts. The carnival of Pagan witches was a peculiar and comminatory bunch, for sure, but they also felt contrived. The lingering presence of Caliban left more to be desired. And the incessant need to underscore teen romance hinders the show’s integrity. Not to mention the added elements of diegetic music (Roz, Harvey, and Theo are in an angsty pop-punk band, surprise!), and the nauseating musical numbers from the cheerleading squad. It’s safe to say that Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is deploying more inspiration from Riverdale — a decision that ultimately backfires.

Witchcraft aside, there’s enough teenage melodrama to go around, and a fair share of moral dilemmas to toy with. How does someone get condemned to Hell when nobody is completely perfect? Who decides, or how do they decide? What does Hilda’s transformation say about fear? And how will Sabrina’s choice in the finale impact the story? Is Sabrina’s choice morally wrong because she unfairly tinkers with time and fate?

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 3 Promises A Weighty Part 4

Part 3 is the weakest season of the series yet. Even so, there are fleeting moments of greatness: Sabrina’s duties as Queen of Hell, Hilda’s frightening transformation, Nick’s self-destruction, and the finale’s perplexing twist, which promises a frightfully drastic fourth season that’ll have to yield the implications of it. The key players — Sabrina, Roz, Harvey, Theo, Hilda, Ambrose, Zelda, and Prudence — have grown into their roles, maintaining the momentum of this bloated season with impressive verve and assurance. But it’s Sabrina Spellman, played by Kiernan Shipka, who keeps one spellbound.

Have you seen Part 3 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina? If so, what are your thoughts on it? Let us know in the comments!

Part 3 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is currently streaming on Netflix!