Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina takes us into the world of the teenage witch like never before, going even darker and more compelling than its comic source material. The show is known for being much more socially conscious than the graphic novel, but it also delves much more deeply into the lore of the universe, which includes complex spell work.
Every time viewers turn around, there’s new magic being completed that absolutely knocks the previous show out of the water. Most of the impressive feats of magic are accomplished by Sabrina herself, which is no surprise given that she’s Satan’s own daughter.
Mandrake Swap
Sabrina is constantly trying to find loopholes in order to save herself and her friends. Most of the time it works out, save for a lot of kids at the Academy of Unseen Arts who’ve bitten the dust in the crossfire. When she had to perform the mandrake spell to create a doppelganger of herself, it was one impressive feat of magic, even if she wasn’t there to save her friends… from themselves.
Luckily Roz, Theo and Harvey have all learned the fine art of being scrappy as they deal with life as Sabrina’s friends, which often involves getting out of a sticky situation or two.
The Cain Pit
Bringing a loved one back to life is magic that most people wish they could use, and because of the Cain Pit on the Spellman property, Sabrina’s family is able to do just that. While its magic comes from the blood of Abel in Cain’s garden rather than any of the witches themselves, it still has some of the most impressive results of any supernatural occurrences on the show.
The magic Sabrina used to sacrifice Agatha back in the first part of the show in order to resurrect Tommy was also quite impressive, although things went sour fast, even after Agatha was resurrected in the Cain Pit.
Haitian Blood Spell
During part three of the show, viewers were finally introduced to various forms of magic, from a pinch of that of “hedge witches” to the lovely and formidable Mambo Michele Marie Le Fleur, Priestess of High Haiti. She’s just as intimidating as Auntie Zelda but also completely different as the self-proclaimed “Daughter of the Tiano people, faithful to Guinee.” This descendant of Marie Laveau adds a much-needed layer of voodoo to the show, which isn’t only about Black representation but other forms of witchcraft that are more powerful than we’ve yet seen.
Case in point: “Mambo Marie” performs a Haitian blood spell to help Prudence and Ambrose locate Faustus Blackwood, an impressive feat of magic that neither the witch nor warlock knew to do themselves.
Sabrina Enters Mortal Limbo
During the third installment of the show, we witness not only Sabrina but all of her pals enter and exit Hell so often that going there doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore, but when Sabrina entered the realm of mortal limbo in order to help Tommy with Madam Satan’s help in part one, it was very impressive at the time.
Not only was it incredible to see the two pull off, but Sabrina had to deal with the soul-eater. That meant seeing her own mother and facing her failure to save Tommy all while within this otherworldly place. It’s one of the many times she struggles to make everyone happy but falls short.
Sabrina Unleashes Hellfire
Madam Satan is a complex character but this is an episode where she’s at her worst, tricking Sabrina to sign the Book of the Beast to solve a problem that she herself created by awakening the Greendale Thirteen. Sabrina reluctantly agrees and is filled with a power unlike any we’d seen in the first part of the show. She unleashes Hellfire upon the Thirteen and the Red Angel of Death that they summoned, simultaneously protecting everyone while giving up her freedom from serving the Dark Lord.
It’s a pivotal moment in the series as Sabrina signs the book and embraces a power that she’ll wield at even greater heights throughout the rest of the show.
Nick Imprisons Satan
While many witches and warlocks take part in imprisoning the Dark Lord when he attempts to make Sabrina his queen, it’s Nick Scratch, the greatest conjurer since Edward Spellman and Satan’s own ex-henchman, who sacrifices his own body to contain the devil himself. It’s an incredibly selfless act that not only results in some serious PTSD once Nick is rescued and Satan is contained in Faustus Blackwood but ultimately breaks Sabrina and Nick up as a result.
The havoc that Satan wreaked upon Nick will be long-lasting and despite Nick’s power and the fan support of their ‘ship, Sabrina and Nick may not ever recover from this one.
Pagan Spider Spell
During the third installment of the series, Auntie Hilda, who is arguably the nicest witch on the show, makes a faux pas when she confesses that she keeps spiders as pets to one of the pagan witches, Circe. Hilda’s spiders are her familiars and treated well, but the pagans who invade Greendale, who certainly don’t represent actual live pagans today in most senses of the word, prefer for creatures to be free from humans.
When Circe performs a tiny spell on Hilda and transforms her into an enormous spider slowly over time, it’s simultaneously absolutely dreadful to witness and the most impressive form of revenge we’ve seen on the show.
Sabrina Performs Miracles
When Sabrina is resurrected by the Dark Lord after being attacked by witch-hunting angels and exhibits the most power we’ve ever seen her have in the series, it truly fulfills the title of the show. Her eyes turn white, her face is absolutely ethereal and she takes out the angels and resurrects the witches as if it were the easiest thing in the world to do.
Sabrina even scares those who love her as she saves Ambrose and continues to use her miracles to accomplish her goals until she learns that she is the Herald of Hell.
Pagan Green Man Resurrection
Like the hedge witches and voodoo practitioners in the third part of the show, the pagans who come to Greendale as a carnival troupe bring new magic with them to spice up the show. The god pan’s own magic, which drives Agatha mad and causes her to take out her own sister, is extraordinary in and of itself.
Witnessing the pagans sacrifice Harvey and take out everyone in town as they resurrect the Green Man, however, is one of the most impressive moments in the entire series as it leads to eventual chaos. The pagans even win over the Church of Night in the end, until Sabrina performs another incredible feat of magic…
The Time Egg
Faustus Blackwood’s time egg sure came in useful during the part three finale. Without it, everyone was lost and the world fell to the Green Man of the pagans who restored the earth (and turned all humans into plant zombies). It left a lot of viewers with questions, particularly when Sabrina, who should know better by now, refused to bond her past and present selves together in order to simultaneously rule hell and be a teenager.
Sure, using the time egg left the series in a more precarious situation than the one it began on with Nick Scratch in Hell, but it did restore almost everyone to life and save the world… for now.
