Welcome one and all to Multiversity’s very own ‘Witching Hour,’ in which we take a look at Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Join me every Monday for your weekly recap. After a week off we’re back and we’re mixing things up a bit. In this week’s episode, a fortune teller comes to town and with her, a series of vignettes of what could be in the lives of Greendale’s finest. Warning, spoilers ahead.
1.Sabrina
This week’s episode is a strange one. I’ll give the show it’s due and I’ll say that I appreciated that something stylized and unique was done. That kind of format is what made the show enjoyable to me when it first aired and the stylized episodes I took a liking to have been absent. The format of this episode is very akin to that of “Chapter Five.” In that episode, we were shown glimpses into the Spellman’s dreams.
I feel as though this episode is of lesser quality though. In “chapter Fifteen”, a fortune teller comes to town during a rainy day and sets up shop in Dr. Cerberus’s shop. She reads the Greendale crew their fortunes through tarot cards. Sabrina is up first and it’s exactly like the episode of The Simpsons when Lisa is told her future. Sabrina unloads her concerns over her love life onto this stranger.
Naturally her vision is of Nick Scratch and the Weird Sisters. Playing off of Sabrina’s jealousies and fears the fortune teller shows Sabrina that the Weird Sisters would kill her in a magic show put on by Nick. Sabrina isn’t convinced and that’s when the fortune teller warns her that “the cards read us.” She says it’s not Nick that Sabrina should worry about, but her trust in him. The fortune teller plants doubt in Sabrina’s mind, which will lead her to question her faith in Nick.
2. Theo
Theo has a vision that he steals a metamorphis potion from Hilda. Although feels male, he still has the body of a female. THe metamorphis potion will help Theo tranisition into the male he wants to be. The potion acts at first like a shot of hormone therapy and gives Theo a more masculine body. But slowly he finds that his body is changing radically. His arm turns into a tree branch.
Theo runs to Hilda and she tells him he can reverse the effects of the potion, losing his body or Hilda can chop Theo’s arm off while the potion retains its effects. Theo elects to lose the arm and in a bloody scene, Mr. Putnam chops his child’s arm/branch off.
The fortune teller tells Theo that this was only a warning not to steal, and to seek help early. It’s some solid advice and by his reaction, it’s almost certain Theo will heed her warning.
3. Rosiland
Mrs. McGarvey shows Roz attempt to regain her sight with an advanced operation. Roz’s sight comes back and things get a little hot and heavy with Harvey. That is until her dad tells her that their church helped to pay for her surgery through donations. She comes to realize that her dad might be a little crooked and tremendous guilt crushes her.
To pay it forward and rid herself of her guilt, Roz volunteers to keep a blind child, Audrey company. It’s implied that Roz’s eyes came from this girl in a truly disturbing moment. Once again, Mrs. McGarvey says that cards don’t set anything in stone, they’re more like a mirror. Roz ends up telling her father that she no longer wants the procedure paid by the church.
4. Zelda
Next up, Mrs. McGarvey shows Zelda her potential unholy wedding day. Zelda is reminded of baby Latisha and how she was sent to be raised by Desmelda, the old witch in the woods. She decides that she must tell Father Blackwood of her deception and when she attempts to retrieve baby Latisha, she runs into a young witch, claiming to be Desmelda. It turns out that Desmelda killed Latisha which granted her youth.
Being the scum he is, Blackwood consorts with the centuries old witch, now in the body of a twenty something. Zelda comes away from this vision feeling that her secret should remain secret.
Continued below5. Harvey
In Harvey’s vision he goes to a summer art program. Despite his concern for Roz he decides to go. His roommate, Howard is a troubled artist with some unnatural muses. He has paintings of the apocalypse and our good horned faced devil. Howard also describes “old ones,” ancient demons and gods. This vision serves to show that Harvey isn’t alone in his dealings with the weird. Harvey wakes one morning, to find Howard hanging from their ceiling. He then peers beyond the void and we’re shown a doorway to another dimension.
This is the probably the only thing worth noting. The possibility of Lovecraftian demons entering the picture is something I’m rather interested in. And given Harvey’s history with demons, maybe he’ll be the gateway to these potential subplots.
6. Ambrose
Ambrose envisions Father Blackwood inducting him into the Judas Society, Blackwood and Ambrose forge a weapon (made from the most misognistic misogyny) to kill his aunts and Sabrina. Upon doing “the deed” Ambrose is a full fledged member of the Judas society. Ambrose also pulls a card that freaks him out and he storms off.
7. Recycled Ideas
This episode was purely filler. It did nothing to move the plot forward and just recycled the fears and anxieties of characters that we’ve seen before. While I appreciate the use of a stylized episode, “Chapter Fifteen” fell flat and wasn’t that important, or entertaining in the slightest. And Mrs. McGarvey ends up being our most wicked demoness. It would have been more interesting to see a new villian, but Madam Satan will have to suffice.