Showrunner: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Episode: A Midwinter’s Tale
The conclusion of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina left Sabrina in a rather problematic situation. She had broken up with Harvey to protect him from her Wiccan world, signed the Book of the Beast, seen her mother mysteriously walking in limbo, and meanwhile Zelda had stolen a baby who just happens to be the rightful heir to the council. In an unexpected turn of events, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina decided to create a bridging episode between season one and two with a ‘joyful’ Christmas theme. After the events of season one, Sabrina finds herself lost and confused. Unable to make peace with signing her name, she desperately wishes to speak with her mother to find out why she was walking in limbo and what exactly was keeping her soul from moving on.
We learn a great deal about the Wiccan Winter Solstice and the folklore surrounding Christmas. This was a rather nice take and welcome embrace of the Christmas theme while simultaneously having a perfectly twisted message. There are several wholesome scenes between the Spellmans as they light the Yule Log and discuss their newest member of the family: baby Letitia. However, as the plot continues, a few key characters are not as they seem. Susie’s part-time job as an elf beside Santa soon turns sour as they realise he is actually a demon who abducts children and covers them in wax. This is where the typical ‘monster of the week’ motif comes into play as this side quest ties in multiple storylines. The overall plot of the episode did have its interesting moments, but the character growth was weak and there was no sense of achievement after finishing the episode. Sadly, the only suitable way to describe this episode was as a ‘filler’ as nothing that interesting happened, no plot was majorly developed and some of the beloved characters actually became worse.
Unfortunately, Harvey’s character becomes increasingly more annoying. What started out in season one as some understandable trepidation of magic and sorcery has now developed into an overly sensitive whining bummer, damaging his character exponentially. While Sabrina’s character is rather unscathed, the signing of the Book of the Beast is merely mentioned rather than discussed. What does this mean for Sabrina? Has this changed her as a character? This was a major plot point of season one which left the audience feeling concern as Sabrina’s personalty seemed to have altered dramatically. However, when we return for this Christmas special, only her hair colour seems to have changed. The scenes with her mother are rather touching and definitely the highlight of this episode as we see this character grow and we finally receive some closure (mostly) on her mother’s character arc.
The overarching narrative of the haunting of the Spellman house was highly enjoyable as we got to experience some great jump scares and twisting of Christmas lore that connected the plot of the entire episode. The introduction of Gryla was perfect as she was menacing, yet suited to an episode about mothers and loss. However, as the episode concluded, I am not entirely sure what secrets are ahead for season two as three illusive figures emerge from the mines. Overall, this episode did feel slightly unnecessary as plot points from the main season seemed shelved, but it remained an enjoyable episode in its own right to spread some slightly morbid Christmas cheer.
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