For a story about Satan, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has
in many ways stayed away from the lustfulness so often associated with
hell-bound behavior, at least in the case of its titular character. Instead, Sabrina
is repeatedly described in terms of her virginity, and has a notably chaste
relationship with her boyfriend for most of the first part of the season.
But in this episode, she and many of the other characters
are forced to contend with a lot of the complexities that come with being
sexually active. The ones who are a bit more comfortable with the notion fare
better. Zelda is going into the next phase of her relationship with Father
Blackwood with open eyes, Ambrose and Prudence are having a grand old time
together, and Roz, minus the oddness of dating her friend’s ex, just gets a
mild case of sex blindness. Or whatever, it might be something else.
Sabrina, on the other hand, gets to deal with a slightly
heavy-handed version of what happens when you date someone with a lot more
experience than you have. They might just have an ex they’re not quite as over
as they claim to be, and she might show up at the most awkward moment possible,
wearing a weird dress, and then you have to kill her, and…OK, only parts of it
are things other people have experienced. But it’s all very complicated for
Sabrina, who’s struggling with the decision of whether or not she’s ready to
have sex, and whether or not the person she should have sex with is Nick. She
does seem to be mostly moving on from Harvey, but getting over an ex doesn’t
necessarily mean that the next person you meet is one you should actually date.
And Nick remains a frustratingly opaque character. This was an awfully big lie
he told her, but he does seem legitimately upset about what happened with
Amalia. Do we believe he ran off from Dorcas without anything happening?
Hilda, generally the more chaste of the two aunts, finds
herself facing off with a sexy demon. It’s an unexpected turn to her thwarted
romance, but she seems ready for the challenge. But it’s Wardwell who has the
most unexpected romantic turn of the episode. The show finally acknowledges
what’s been lurking in the background for a while now—that she’s a powerful
demon trapped running a public high school for unclear reasons—and now she’s
particularly annoyed at living the life of what she assumes is a boring
spinster. At least until Adam, as played by Whedon-verse favorite Alexis
Denisof, shows up. His uncanny ability to avoid getting murdered by her and
also prevent her from murdering other people suggests there might be something
else going on here, but it’s hard to imagine that turning into anything good
for Ms. Wardwell.
Lilith has many mythical stories, but the one with
particular staying power is the one the show seems to be running with, which is
that she was Adam’s first wife, who demanded equality with him and was then
cast out of Eden in response. The Lilith/Wardwell of the show has always been fully
committed to her life in service to Satan, and this is the first time she’s
really been remotely affected by someone unconnected to him. What would that
relationship look like, with Lilith having millennia living as a demon behind
her, and possibly still bearing the hurt of that first heartbreak? There’s a
version of this show that refocuses completely on Wardwell that I would 100
percent watch.
The downside to touching base on (almost) everyone’s sex
life means that this episode felt like it had about 15 different plotlines
going in it, which gives it a strange sense of being both very long and too
short. Theo has a life-changing conversation with his father, in a scene that
manages to be both very tense and very heartening, but because the episode has
so many other loose ends to tie up, we’re left to wonder if Theo even told his
friends it happened. But it is very good to see Theo have multiple positive
interactions about the life he’s living now, even if it’s a little hard to
believe Billy is in earnest. There’s realism, in terms of how hard it is to
come out as trans, but after a while you’re starting to tell a story in which
only bad things happen to trans people.
So we move on with Sabrina looking as lost as ever about
what to do about Nick, but with the added facet that she just killed his only
family. Relationships are complicated.
Stray observations
- It was a really nice touch that Sabrina went to confide in
Roz about having sex. Even if she is a supernatural demon teen, it’s always
good to talk to a friend about potentially losing your virginity. And it’s a
good character moment to remind us that these two have an emotional connection
to each other, since so much of what we’ve seen so far has been about them
struggling with surprising discoveries and various nemeses. - Lucy Davis’ delivery of “I can spell it” in response to
Zelda taunting her about her inability to say “sex” was definitely an episode
highlight. Because Hilda is so often called on to be the reasonable,
heart-warming aunt, it really feels like we’re missing out on what a great
comedian Davis is. - “As if I haven’t tangled with my fair share of sex demons.”
Who among us hasn’t, etc etc. - Sabrina has to take “berries of phylaxis” before the big sex
party, which doesn’t seem to be a real thing, but is presumably a play on
prophylactic, so I’m glad to see the Academy practices safe sex. The mortal kids
also had a very in-depth list of contraceptive options at their school. - Why in the world does Sabrina stare at her own cousin making
out with someone for so long?