Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season 3 ends with the Pagans resurrecting the Green Man and killing almost all of Sabrina’s friends and family - that is, until she goes back in time to fix everything. However, the season finale’s time loop also creates a plot hole regarding Caliban’s victory over Lucifer and Lilith.
To recap, Sabrina and Caliban are engaged in a race for the throne that requires them to find all three pieces of the Holy Regalia. The final item is Judas Iscariot’s thirty pieces of silver, which Sabrina finds in the tomb of Vlad the Impaler. She returns to where Judas is entombed in stone in the ninth circle of Hell, and he asks to feel the weight of the silver in his hand one last time. Sabrina obliges, only for Caliban to reveal that he has disguised himself as Judas to trick Sabrina into giving him the silver. What’s more, he has already engineered a coup and imprisoned Lucifer and Lilith, leaving his path to the throne clear once he seals Sabrina in the stone.
Sabrina remains trapped for decades of Earth time, until eventually a future version of herself - who has saved the world from the Pagan uprising - arrives to free her from the stone. It’s then Sabrina’s turn to go back in time and stop the apocalypse. However, instead of rescuing herself from the stone, she comes up with what she thinks is a better plan. Sabrina gets to her past self before she can be tricked by Caliban and warns her, leaving Caliban stuck in the stone for eternity while one Sabrina rules over Hell, and the other returns to Earth. So, what’s the problem?
How Does Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Time Loop Work?
There are actually two potential plot holes raised by Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s season 3 finale time loop, but one is easier to rationalize than the other. A question that remains unanswered is how exactly Sabrina was freed from the stone in the first place, so that she could in turn save the world and then go back to free herself again. If Sabrina originally managed to escape by herself (or had help from someone else), then it wouldn’t have been necessary for her to go back to Hell and free herself. If she didn’t escape by herself, then that means there’s an infinite time loop of Sabrinas freeing Sabrinas, with no actual origin point. In time travel theory this is known as a predestination paradox, or causal loop.
The Plot Hole: Lilith and Lucifer’s Defeat By Caliban
Sabrina breaks the time loop when she reaches her past self earlier than she’s supposed to, so that she can create a world where two Sabrinas exist. However, there’s an incongruity that exists even before she does this. In the original timeline, Caliban defeats Lucifer and Lilith and traps them in stone before Sabrina returns with the silver; but in the second timeline Lucifer and Lilith are still free - with no interference from Sabrina. When she returns to Pandemonium with the final piece of the Holy Regalia, Lucifer and Lilith give no indication that Caliban has even attempted a coup.
Why weren’t Lilith and Lucifer defeated by Caliban in the second version of the timeline? We could be charitable and say that some action by Sabrina created a butterfly effect that changed things. Realistically, though, it’s probably just a plain old plot hole. Of course, by the time fans get to that point their brains may be too scrambled by the time travel dynamics to notice.
More: Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina Season 3 Ending Explained
