Things Heat Up With The Old Ones During The Hare Moon In ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ Part 3, Episode 4 — Recap
Spoilers through Episode 4 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina ahead.
Now that the Old Ones are more out in the open and Sabrina’s coven is becoming more and more desperate without their powers, things are getting interesting in Greendale. Or, rather, more interesting than they normally are for the witches in Sabrina’s coven.
Sabrina’s secret is out
The fact that Sabrina’s aunts are powerful witches doesn’t stop her from keeping secrets from them often. But thanks to their waning powers, they hadn’t noticed a lot. Like Nick/Satan in the basement of the Academy of the Unseen Arts or Sabrina’s romps back and forth to Hell. They also didn’t know that she was the new Queen of Hell, but the cat’s out of the bag on that one this episode.
As expected, Zelda is furious while Hilda tries to keep the peace and play Devil’s advocate for Sabrina. However, Zelda throws in a lot of harsh truths towards her niece, like the fact that it wasn’t as much of a burden for Sabrina as she lets on. She enjoys power and craves it too, so she wants to be Queen, despite her outward appearances. And finally, someone calls out her savior complex as well, and rightfully so. As much as the audience wants to root for the girl, it’s difficult sometimes when her own desires peak through her actions. And whether it’s all for selfish or selfless gain, Sabrina takes on too much sometimes with her need to save.
Zelda also has a point when she says Sabrina chose her Hell deeds over her coven, by leaving them and not dealing with the fallout of dethroning Satan. Not to mention, this is further seen when Nick drifts further and further down a dark hole and Sabrina doesn’t seem to notice too much.
The coven tries to restore their powers with a little heavenly help
With their powers almost nonexistent at this point, Sabrina goes to Hell to find how to restore them to the coven. She thinks that because their power comes from Lucifer, that as his daughter she can recharge the battery on it, in a way. However, after speaking with Lilith, it turns out that Lucifer’s powers come from him being an angel. They are celestial, coming from Heaven, not infernal and Hell-born as they suspected. Sabrina figures that if she can drain an angel’s blood and have the members drink it, they’ll be alright. Dorian throws a wrench in that plan, but they still try to put the blood to good use later on.
Meanwhile, Roz, Harvey, and Theo go snooping at the carnival after Harvey finds the snake dancer has a new, inappropriate rendezvous with his dad. The Old Ones’ identities become more and more clear, with the Greek mythological connections. These Pagans are also not messing around, and Roz is feeling the heat of the Old One’s Medusa-like powers.
The Old Ones are not letting up on the coven
The coven decides to gave their powers back during the Hare Moon with the little angel blood they have left. The Old Ones show up and say they’re celebrating their own holiday as well. Things, of course, get intense.
The satyr talks to Zelda, trying to get a feel for who they worship and Circe is highly offended when Hilda reveals that her familiar is a spider. It gets very territorial with a lot of “We were here first” but ultimately, the Old Ones sabotage the Hare Moon. They coven still doesn’t have their powers and Dorcas and Agatha are in grave trouble.
Nick and Sabrina’s “angst” comes to a head
Zelda says, “I detest teen angst.” Well, you’re not in luck if that’s your boat because there’s a lot of it near the end of the episode. Sabrina finds out about Nick’s sexcapades and is distraught about it, which makes sense. But in the woods, after the Old Ones leave their Hare Moon festivities, Nick really lays into Sabrina. When she tries to finally understand his trauma and get to the root of what’s bothering him, he tells her.
Nick describes the weeks of torture that felt like decades. The humiliation and pain he endured from Lilith and Satan. He had “no rest, no peace” the whole time; it was a place of pain and burning and freezing, all in one. He’s so heated; when Sabrina says she’s sorry, he’s incredulous since that won’t be enough for all he’s gone through. “You made me sacrifice myself for you,” he tells her. He did all that to protect Sabrina, but he concludes that she wasn’t “worth it.”
In the end, Zelda decides that it’s probably best to release Satan from Blackwood so that he can beat the Old Ones for them and restore their powers. “Better the Devil you know than the Pagans you don’t,” Ambrose points out. But, we’re still left with a bleak end; Nick is convulsing thanks to something Lucifer gave him, Satan’s gone, Roz and Dorcas are stone, and the coven’s powers are completely gone at this point with a mounting threat. Dark indeed.
