The fourth part of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is upon us. And we’re ready to find out await new frights await in the dark. The third part of CAOS left us fumbling for answers about the mysterious Eldritch Terrors. And about the possibly earth-shattering paradox created by Sabrina. Though sadly, these eight episodes will be the last of the series. But we’re still hoping for some epic battles and wonderous witchcraft along the way. We’ve got a sneak peek at how the first episode went down and what it spells for Sabrina, her coven, and the Fright Club.
*SPOILER WARNING*
CAOS wastes no time in introducing the first Eldritch Terror, called upon by the evil Father Blackwood. It’s not just a terror that goes bump in the night. It is the night, a horrible, all-consuming darkness that preys upon your deepest insecurities and fears. Sabrina and the Fright Club aren’t too concerned to start off, though. It’s been a minute since any big bad has trolled the woods in Greendale. And Roz and Harvey and Theo and Robin have been busy getting cozy in the downtime. Meanwhile, Sabrina feels as though her friends have left her behind.
The coven has also gone through a transformation, sending their prayers and supplications not to the Dark Lord anymore but to a more feminine deity, the goddess Hecate. All looks well on the outside, and we’d be sitting pretty if we hadn’t just seen a group of ghostly miners inhabited by the darkness spill out of the Greendale Mines and start choking people a la Darth Vader.
We find Sabrina in a rare time of peace in her life. But it seems she isn’t content with the downtime. She wants to be back in action and longs to go back down to Hell to visit with the other-self she created in the time loop, Sabrina Morningstar. A reunion between the two witches could be a cataclysmic event that unravels the very fabric of the universe. Still, Sabrina wants to risk it – more so because she fears she’s made the wrong choice in choosing to return to her mortal coil.
The Eldritch Terror we meet in this episode is unnervingly relevant to the feelings that have been brewing in the past year in the pandemic and quarantine turbulence. The darkness which breeds fear also preys on those who are isolated. Sabrina herself is struggling with her feelings of being left out of the loop when it comes to her friends. That is, while literally being torn in two as a teenager on Earth and a queen in Hell. We see the darkness terrorize Zelda, petrifying her physically and emotionally using her most profound fears against her. Sabrina realizes she doesn’t stand a chance facing the entity alone. It’s only by asking for help from the Fright Club, the coven, and her own alter that she can staunch the darkness’s great power.
Father Blackwood reveals that this is only the first of the Eldritch Terrors. There are eight in total, each more hideous than the last. And there are only eight episodes in part 4. That means at the very least there’ll be on Terror to deal with per episode if not a couple packed into one. That might mean a tight squeeze plot-wise as this episode was already a bit rushed trying to fit in the entire storyline.
Sabrina’s storyline is provoking. She’s made a new friend outside of the Fright Club – her Hellish counterpart, only distinguishable by her red hairband. We wonder what sort of mischief will be caused by a double helping of Sabrina. And though Sabrina contained the darkness, it nearly broke her – and that was just the first of the Terrors. What will happen when she inevitably has to face the promised horror ahead of her known as The Void?
