Moderator: Chief Couch Potato Kylie

THE SPECS:

Who: “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” is an American supernatural horror teen drama based on the Archie Comics book of the same name created for Netflix, which means that all episodes are available to Netflix subscribers exclusively, as it is Netflix produced original content.

What: Developed for Netflix by Archie Comics’ chief creative officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” is centered on the Archie Comics character Sabrina Spellman, portrayed by Kiernan Shipka, and also stars Ross Lynch, Lucy Davis, Chance Perdomo, Michelle Gomez, Jaz Sinclair, Tati Gabrielle, Adeline Rudolph, Richard Coyle, Miranda Otto, Lachlan Watson, and Gavin Leatherwood.

SYNOPSIS

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a dark coming-of-age story that includes horror and witchcraft. Sabrina Spellman (Shipka) must reconcile her dual nature as a half-witch, half-mortal while fighting the evil forces that threaten her, her family, and the daylight world that humans inhabit.

When: Season 2, Part 2, was released to the Netflix streaming library on December 31, 2020, with a total of 8 episodes.

Where: The action is set primarily in the fictional town of Greendale, the comics-based home of the Archie Comics version of the Sabrina Spellman character. The time is undetermined.

Why: To find out why individual podcast panelists started watching this show, listen to the Season 1/Part 1 podcast episode via the link below!

How – as in How Was It? – THOUGHTS

Couch Potatoes Unite! has covered Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (or CAoS) since the beginning! You can listen to prior episodes here:

Season 1/Part 1

Season 1/Part 2

Season 2/Part 1

Frequent CPU! contributors and panelists often suggest shows for CPU! to cover in our podcast episodes – loyal listeners should have picked up on this particular trend by now. Well, with the emergence of the CW’s highly popular Riverdale and sister Netflix show Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, acknowledged by both networks to be set in the same universe if not on the same network, several frequent CPU! ers became decidedly atwitter (not a Twitter) and began encouraging podcast coverage of the whole shebang in short order.

Thus, herein we offer a Season 2/Part 2 recap of the final segment of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, in which our panel continues to remark upon the very dark tone of CAoS compared to its idyllically drawn source material and/or to its television predecessor, Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Kels, Selene, Jenn, and Jessica return to the Water Cooler tonight to continue to ruminate in-depth upon the production values, performances, writing, and dark mysteries of this decidedly macabre and, now, canceled show. To wit, they also Look Back at the whole affair, now that all is said and done, in Canceled Corner, given this chilly adaptation’s short TV shelf-life.

This episode was recorded in November 2021, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of the second season’s second and final part. Listen at your own risk, and let us know what you think by commenting below!

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Remember, new episodes and blog posts are published weekly! Next Wednesday, a new panel convenes Around the Water Cooler for the purpose of Catching Up on a popular, star-studded HBO drama initially set to be a miniseries but which has elongated into two acclaimed seasons, ripe for discussion in a two-part mini-podcast series of our own. Stay tuned for the wine and philosophical waxing when we digest Season 1 of Big Little Lies, next week.

Lingering Questions

1) Why does the Eldritch Egg affect time? Did the Egg create a time bubble around the lake where Father Blackwood (Coyle) hides with Judith and Judas, in which Judith and Judas seem to abnormally age? Do the time effects stop when it hatches?

ANSWER: Unknown. The show never fully explains the Eldritch Egg or the time fluctuations or Judith and Judas’ abnormal aging. We only know that the Egg affects time, not why or how.

2) Are the Old Ones the Eldritch Horrors, and what horrors will we actually see in Part 2 of this season?

ANSWER: Yes. The Eldritch Horrors are labeled thusly: the Dark (based upon the Lovecraftian Darkness); the Uninvited; the Weird (which looks like a baby Cthulu, if we are being honest); the Imp of the Perverse; the Cosmic; the Returned; the Endless; and the Void.

3) What hatches from the Egg? Is it Cthulu?

ANSWER: Did the Egg hatch?! The internet says it was full of fetal fluid. What that fluid becomes is anybody’s guess because the Eldritch Horrors emerge from all sorts of origin points.

4) How does Father Blackwood find Judith and Judas in the dollhouse by the finale of Part 1?

ANSWER: Unknown. The entirety of Judith and Judas’ appearances in this series are underdeveloped, underwhelming, and underutilized.

5) Will we see more of the Hedge Witches that form the spell circle with the coven in the finale of Part 1?

ANSWER: No.

6) Where did Judas Iscariot go, since Sabrina is imprisoned in his rock in the Part 1 finale?

ANSWER: Back to the Ninth Circle of Hell, presumably, but it is not otherwise explained, as much of this show is not. Listen to tonight’s episode for rants.

7) Why is Sabrina dressed like Queen Elizabeth I in the Part 1 finale?

ANSWER: Unknown. Gross hubris as Queen of Hell or something?

8) Will both Sabrinas, the original and her out-of-time doppelganger, survive in the next Part? If not, which one will (or will neither of them)?

ANSWER: Yes! And they talk to each other and even hang out (le sigh). Listen to the podcast episode for details.

9) Will we see Edward Spellman in the next Part, and will he see either version of his daughter? Does he return in the form most familiar to the viewer, as the guide Zelda (Otto) sees in the Part 1 finale, or in some other form?

ANSWER: Not exactly. We see a version of Edward, brought forth by the Eldritch Horror known as the Returned, but he does not recognize his daughter, neither Sabrina Spellman nor her doppelganger, Sabrina Morningstar.

10) Will the Sabrina doppelganger be unseated from the throne of Hell and how? Will the unseating be caused by Lucifer and Lilith’s (Gomez) unborn child?

ANSWER: She is unseated in that she (SPOILER) dies helping Sabrina Spellman, the Earth-bound Sabrina, defeat the Eldritch Horror the Endless in a mirror world in which Sabrina the Teenage Witch crossovers occur, to the delight of many of our panelists. The child has no part in these events as Lilith is, ultimately, convinced to (SPOILER) kill her newborn child in a shocking turn of events. Listen to the podcast episode for details.

11) Will the existence of two Sabrinas further upset the balance between Heaven, Hell, and Earth? What does upsetting the balance truly mean?

ANSWER: Yes! According to Ambrose (Perdomo), the existence of two Sabrinas causes the cosmos to collide onto itself, all while the Eldritch Horrors exploit this happenstance to further bring on the end of days. It’s all such a situation, and we discuss it in tonight’s podcast episode.

12) Will we see Hilda (Davis) and Dr. Cee get married?

ANSWER: Yes!

13) Why did Lilith choose Ms. Wardwell’s form to appear to Sabrina initially in the first season? Was it really just because Ms. Wardwell is Sabrina’s favorite teacher?

ANSWER: Unknown. This is never (further) explained beyond that suggestion.

14) CAOS has been canceled by Netflix. How will it all end?

ANSWER: Not well. Listen to the podcast episode for rants.

15) Will we see the pagans again – the ones who survived, anyway, including Robin Goodfellow?

ANSWER: Robin Goodfellow hangs out, in a romantic type way, all season with Theo (Watson), but he is the only “pagan” we truly reunite with this half-season.

PARTING SHOTS

Our panel, resignedly, returns to its previous unanimity concerning its ability to recommend Chilling Adventures of Sabrina to other viewers by virtue of the fact that the panel regards the series’ final part, with a qualified exception in panelist Selene, as its universal least favorite of all available parts. In tonight’s episode, the panelists meditate upon the messy execution of this segment’s story threads and the writers’ almost pathological inability to capitalize upon interesting story ideas introduced but never developed or connected together in a satisfying way, of which there were many that were strung together in a continued convoluted spiderweb of plot, so much so that the panel was struck somewhat dumbfounded by the fact that the writers and producers were ultimately able to weave any of it together at all, though the least stable weaving certainly emerges in the show’s final eight episodes. Primarily, in tonight’s episode, the panel ponders several (more) instances of unrealized story potential, particularly as a negative for this half-season but also as the final note on a downward trend that had been evolving from the series’ promising if ultimately unsatisfying initial eight episodes.

Thus, the panel, unanimously, no longer recommends the show, except only in an exceptionally qualified manner, to anyone, at least beyond the first season, certainly, though Chief CP Kylie and some of the others cannot find it in their hearts or minds to recommend the series at all, having been thoroughly frustrated by the show’s chosen storytelling pastiche since the beginning. The panelists, by and large, enjoy the original spin applied to this adaptation, the overall visual aesthetic, the soundtrack of songs underscoring the action (though not necessarily those sung at times by the cast), and the supporting characters, especially Michelle Gomez as Mary Wardwell/Lilith/Madame Satan, even as most if not all of the panelists find Sabrina herself, whether as written and/or as a result of Shipka’s portrayal, to be wholly problematic and detracting to their overall enjoyment of the series. The panelists further opine that any would-be viewer should be prepared for a tale that, though centered on the familiar, somewhat saccharine characters of the decades-old Archie Comics, is nothing like the Sabrina Spellman of the comics or of the fluffier “Teenage Witch” variety played by Melissa Joan Hart in the late nineties and early 2000s. In any event, our entire CAOS panel contingent finds themselves, at the last, disappointed by the show’s final attempts at satisfying story execution and regards the show’s cancellation as deserved, in the end, given that the writers could not truly fully execute the spells they were weaving, despite the bevy of good ideas and inspirations on which they were drawing to attempt to bring the character of Teenage Witch Sabrina into a relevant, modern, horror-driven context.

THE FUTURE OF THE SHOW

Canceled! Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was canceled by Netflix after four parts or seasons or two seasons with four parts (however you want to measure it), which are currently available to stream on Netflix.  Did you watch CAoS from beginning to end?  Let us know in the comments, and tell us what you thought of any or all of its seasons or parts or whatever unit of measurement you are using! And stay tuned!  Though our CAoS coverage is complete with the publication of this episode, don’t be surprised if it makes an appearance or two in upcoming discussions, from time to time.  

In the meantime, from our coven of witchy wannabes to you, thank you for listening to our episodes pertaining to Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, all of which now officially end. To discover other shows discussed by CPU!, check here.  For now, we bid you adieu!