Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina finishes its fourth and final season with a jam packed finale complete with shocking twists, cosmic horror, and a devastating death. The series puts a darker spin on the Archie Comics character Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka), a teenage witch coming into her powers. It also takes place in the same universe as Riverdale, with both shows being created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season 4 picks up where season 3 left off: thanks to some time travel, there are now two Sabrinas. Sabrina Spellman lives on Earth, attending both Baxter High and the Academy of Unseen Arts, while Sabrina Morningstar rules Hell. Meanwhile, the Eldritch Terrors summoned by Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle) descend upon Greenwood, bringing chaos and horror to the small town.
Since Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season 5 isn't in the works, the last episode had quite a lot of elements to wrap up. It opens with the death of Sabrina Morningstar, who was killed by the final Eldritch Terror, the Void. Sabrina Spellman, wracked by grief, has to figure out a way to stop the Void before anyone else gets hurt. Here's what happens in the end of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season 4, and what it means for the franchise.
The Void is the eighth and last Eldritch Terror, following the Darkness, the Uninvited, the Weird, the Perverse, the Cosmic, the Returned, and the Endless. It is an all-consuming end to everything, making it a more horrifying threat to Sabrina and her friends than any of the other Terrors they've faced so far. After mourning Sabrina Morningstar's death, Sabrina Spellman enters the Void in the hopes of trapping it forever within Pandora's Box.
However, the Big Bad in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina's final season won't be defeated so easily. Sabrina's friends and family summon her soul back from the Void before it is fully trapped, and some of it comes back with her. Sabrina now houses a piece of the Void and is unable to control it: she makes several people disappear, including Harvey's (Ross Lynch) father, Prudence (Tati Gabrielle), and Roz (Jaz Sinclair). She exiles herself and encounters Father Blackwood, who promises to teach her to contain the Void.
Of course, Blackwood's intentions are not pure. He plans to sacrifice Sabrina on the Winter Solstice and join her piece of the Void with the rest of it. He would then trap the Void in an empty archway - a containment field - and consume it and inherit its powers. It's a diabolical plan, but what else can be expected of one of the show's most consistent antagonists?
None of Sabrina's friends will stand for Blackwood's plan. On the Solstice, they blind him and free Sabrina. However, Sabrina tells them that they will have to sacrifice her in order to stop the Void from consuming her and the world. She also tells them that they can save the people she accidentally trapped in the Void, but only if everything goes according to plan.
Aunt Zelda (Miranda Otto) and Aunt Hilda (Lucy Davis) plan to drain the Void out of Sabrina and into the containment field while Sabrina holds it in check. Harvey and Ambrose (Chance Perdomo) will enter the Void to save the people within and place the other Eldritch Terrors inside, so they may be trapped for good along with the Void. Finally, Nick (Gavin Leatherwood) will open Pandora's Box and finish trapping the Void - along with everything else inside. If everyone can do this quickly enough, Sabrina can survive her bloodletting and the Void will be defeated.
While Sabrina's aunts call upon Hecate to protect her during the ritual, they see a woman in black silently watching over the proceedings. The woman is a call back to Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season 3, episode 7, "The Judas Kiss." She is a banshee, or a wailing woman: an omen of coming death.
In "The Judas Kiss," the banshee stood outside the Spellman mortuary after Zelda had been shot by Ms. Wardwell (Michelle Gomez). Her presence signaled that a member of the Spellman family would soon die. In the finale of season 4, she represents the same thing: an omen of Sabrina's death. In season 3, she lingered by the mortuary for a long time, likely because Zelda's was in between the realm of the living and the dead for a long time. However, in season 4 she only appears briefly, most likely meaning that Sabrina's death is approaching much faster than Zelda's had.
Even though the plan to defeat the Void works, it comes at a steep price. In a polarizing choice for Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Sabrina dies. Her death may not be the most surprising given the circumstances, but what's truly a shock is that, even in a show full of magic and necromancy, Sabrina stays dead. Aguirre-Sacasa has stated that he will continue Chilling Adventures of Sabrina in comic form, hinting that she will return in a different medium. However, since season 4 was the show's last, the Sabrina viewers got to know over the years will not be coming back.
While Sabrina is dead, she is comfortable in the afterlife. She's in the Sweet Hereafter instead of Hell, most likely due to her selfless sacrifice. The series ends with her boyfriend Nick joining her there, telling her he drowned in the Sea of Sorrows. The on-again, off-again couple plan to face eternity together.
Not every member of Sabrina's circle gets a definite ending, with many of her best friends' final scene being her funeral. Couples like Harvey and Roz and Theo (Lachlan Watson) and Robin (Jonathan Whitesell) mourn her together, and it's implied they'll stay together for a long time. Prudence dismembers Father Blackwood with a chainsaw. He is unable to die, as he bears the Mark of Cain, but she plans to spread his remains across the world, so he will never reform.
Aunt Hilda and her husband Doctor Cerberus (Alessandro Juliani) move back into the Spellman mortuary in order to keep Aunt Zelda and Ambrose company, as well as grieve the loss of Sabrina together. Meanwhile, in Hell, Lilith stabs Lucifer (Luke Cook) with the Spear of Longinus, the only weapon that can kill the Dark Lord. Whether he dies is unclear, but Lilith does claim the throne of Hell. Since Prince Caliban (Sam Corlett) is still trapped in the Void, it appears her claim will go unchallenged.
The ending of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina celebrates her sacrifice in order to save her loved ones. Sabrina has so often been selfish throughout the series, making several choices that put her friends and family - even the whole world - in danger. However in the series finale, she acts selflessly and saves the world.
That being said, her death and the subsequent reunion between Sabrina and Nick do not work as an ending for this show. To begin with, Sabrina has been in greater mortal peril than this final sacrifice many times and has always survived. The fact that no one even considers necromancy adds to how unsatisfactory and abrupt her death is.
However, the worst part of the ending has to be Nick joining Sabrina in the afterlife. While it's not stated outright, it is heavily implied that Nick killed himself in order to be with Sabrina. Ending a series by romanticizing suicide is irresponsible, and it gives viewers the completely wrong message leaving the show. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was a fun, campy romp through an intriguing world of witches and demons, and to end it in this way is disappointing and a stain on an otherwise enjoyable series.
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January 05, 2021 at 05:46AM
