The ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ Ending Explained

What happens to Sabrina and her family during the season finale?
Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina Cover

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a roller-coaster of a season. It is not the Sabrina the Teenage Witch audiences might be familiar with, but then again, it has character motivations and actions that are out of place. The show breaks the 10-episode first season down into a few different arcs, and, some episodes that feel like a monster of the week setup. We get mini-arcs such as Sabrina’s 16th birthday, Susie’s uncle, and some bad business that goes on with Kinkle family. But there is one thread that weaves itself through the entire season. Someone has sent the being inhabiting Miss Wardell to the mortal realm to make sure that Sabrina signs the Book of the Beast. Despite many attempts throughout the season to separate Sabrina from her mortal friends, she continuously fails. And that’s what leads to the final episode of season 1.

Spoilers Below

Wardell is not the teacher that Sabrina had been friendly with during the early moments of the first episode. She is known as Madam Satan and she had inhabited the body of the high school teacher Wardell to get closer to Sabrina. Her entire raison d’être is have Sabrina sign the Book of the Beast, the same book that Sabrina said she would never sign at the beginning of the season. This is all because Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) wants the best of both worlds. Sabrina doesn’t want to pledge herself to Satan and give up her mortal friends. She wants the power of being a witch, but the freedom to do what she chooses, including being with her mortal boyfriend Harvey Kinkle.

Madam Satan tires of the games she has used against Sabrina and takes things to another level. She raises the Greendale 13, 13 witches who were killed by the town of Greendale during the witch trials. These women have no remorse towards the town and plan to summon the red angle of death that will kill the firstborn of mortal and witch alike. Every member of the Spellman family is pushed into different directions as they try to save those who are precious to them.

Aunt Zelda (Miranda Otto) was summoned away from protecting the mortals of Greendale to attend to Lady Blackwood. Zelda had promised Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle) that she would deliver his children and Lady Blackwood has gone into labor. Zelda delivers the news to Father Blackwood that he only has one child because it had consumed the twin in the womb. She gives Father Blackwood his healthy baby boy and heir, but she is keeping a secret. Both twins were born but one was a female and Zelda assumes that Father Blackwood would kill the girl given he has gotten his heir and because Lady Blackwood has perished during childbirth. Zelda takes the child and plans to raise her with the help of her sister Aunt Hilda (Lucy Davis), but Hilda has her own plans.

After being excommunicated from the coven, Hilda took up extra work in Greendale’s bookstore, Cerberus Books. There she develops a romance with the owner of the store (played by Alessandro Juliani). He gives her moral support while she tries to protect the mortals in Greendale High School. Hilda is smitten with him and after the events at the high school, she gives him a kiss. He seems pleased at this development, but while he is walking away, it appears his eyes change and there is a music cue. Our bookstore owner might not be of this world. This new relationship has motivated Hilda to move out of her sister’s room.

Sabrina’s cousin, Ambrose (Chance Perdomo) gets whisked away from the Greendale into the witch realm by his boyfriend, Luke (Darren Mann). There is something strange about their relationship that Ambrose hasn’t picked up on yet. It would seem that they are in love or at least lust after each other, but there are still questions on Luke’s character. Did Luke kill that warlock is at the Spellman Mortuary at the beginning of the season? That’s one question we don’t have the answer to yet.

Harvey Kinkle (Ross Lynch) is tired of getting the help of witches after Sabrina botched Tommy Kinkle’s resurrection. In fact, Harvey is just about done with Sabrina after she continuously lied to his face about being a witch. That doesn’t mean that Sabrina still doesn’t care about him though. She asks warlock and love interest Nicholas Scratch (Gavin Leatherwood) to protect Harvey from the Greendale 13. Harvey beings to realize how much Sabrina cared for him even if it is too late.

To stop the Greendale 13 and the red angel of death, Sabrina is manipulated to sign the Book of the Beast by Madam Satan. Only by signing the book can Sabrina get enough power to overcome the witches and save her friends. Even if that means having to leave all her mortal friends behind. Sabrina signs the book, gets a new hair color, and says goodbye to her mortal friends. The victory is in the hands of Madam Satan and Sabrina has given up her freedom.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina leaves on a bummer of an ending for Sabrina, but luckily season 2 is already filmed and the story will continue. There are plenty of loose threads open for each of the Spellman’s as they face a new reality of Sabrina being a tossing her mortal lifestyle behind. What this means for Sabrina’s mortal friends and Harvey remains to be seen, but Sabrina now has the power to challenge most of her foes.

Max Covill: News Writer/Columnist for Film School Rejects. It’s the Pictures Co-host. Bylines Playboy, ZAM, Paste Magazine and more.