Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina Season 3 Review: Cheerleader By Day, Queen Of Hell By Night

When we last saw Sabrina, her father (Lucifer) was imprisoned inside her boyfriend Nick's body. Ambrose and Prudence were off in search of Prudence's father Faustus. Having tricked Satan, Lilith was the Queen of Hell. And the members of the Church Of The Night and Academy Of Unseen Arts were no longer worshiping the Dark Lord. As always, there's a lot of mythology to unpack in season 3 so let's get right to it.

The show opens with Sabrina and her crew (ex Harvey, his new girlfriend Roz and Theo) heading into Hell to save Nicholas. Oh and the kids (minus Sabrina) have formed a band. Sabrina becomes a cheerleader instead. It's good to have hobbies. Meanwhile the demons in Hell arent hip to either Lillith or Sabrina Morningstar sitting on the throne. The Plague Kings (Beelzebb, Asmodeus and Purson) offer up Caliban as an alternative. He's made of clay and is the Prince of Hell. Sabrina met him when they were searching Hell for Nick. Caliban wants to restore stability to the nine circles of Hell and turn Earth into the 10th.

Sabrina and Caliban must compete for a throne in a series of competitions. These will last throughout the season. But more on that later. In the meantime, Sabrina is still Queen. Lilith serves as her regent and shows Sabrina how to perform her duties. They include such things as dragging souls to Hell and reviewing contracts with mortals. Of course, Sabrina has her own way of doing things. She refuses to send anyone to Hell who is undeserving. This causes lots of blowback from the constituency.

Zelda and Hilda reopen the Academy. Zelda makes herself director. Ms Wardwell returns to teaching high school. She's none the wiser as to what Lilith has been up to in her body.

Prudence and Ambrose track Father Blackwood to New Orleans and eventually to Scotland. There he tells them that, thanks the Lucifer being dethroned, the "old ones and eldritch terrors" are returning. Prudence is about to off Blackwood but the teenagers he was about to sacrifice (Judas and Judith) plead with her not to. It turns out they are the babies Leticia that we saw last season. That's because time has passed very differently for Faustus than for them. I personally dont find this story line very interesting but it gives us some plot points we'll need a bit later.

A carnival comes to Glendale. Everyone will be there. The Fright Club (Harvey and company's band) will be playing opening night. Town newcomer Robin and Theo begin a relationship. They kiss on the ferris wheel. The carnies are not what they seem. The head barker (known as Professor Carcosa) is actually Pan. he's joined by Nagaina (the snake charmer) and Circe (the fortune teller). Remember the old gods Blackwood was talking about earlier? These are pagans that worship them. They are on the lookout for virgins and have Harvey, Theo and Wardwell in their sights. Since Roz is a seer, they turn her into a pillar of stone so she cant interfere with their plans.

Sabrina and Caliban continue to compete over the Unholy Regalia. First up is King Herod's crown. Sabrina retrieves it but its then taken by Caliban (so he wins the first contest). Next up is retrieving Pontius Pilate's bowl. Sabrina wins that one so the score is 1 to 1. We'll save contest number 3 until the end of the season.

Nick continues to have problems adjusting to life without Lucifer. He's worried that the Dark Lord activated some kind of evil within him that he cant control. This puts a strain on his and Sabrina's relationship and they break up.

Our coven and the pagan witches finally have a showdown during the Hare Moon celebration. Zelda suggests doing this ceremony to distract themselves from the fact that their powers are diminishing (because they no longer worship Lucifer). The pagans are celebrating their own holiday of Ostra. The pagans give the witches three days to surrender. However, it turns out surrender was never an option. They want to drink all the witches blood. With what's left of their powers, Zelda and company send out a distress signal to any wayward hedge witches. Gryla (we met her last season), Marmbo Marie LaFleur (Prudence and Ambrose met her earlier this season), Mother Hubbard, Pesta, Sycorax, and Dezmelda arrive.

Robin (who is secretly working for the pagans) tells our kids that the pagans plan to resurrect the oldest god, the Green Man, by sacrificing virgin blood. Robin wants no part of it and switches sides.

In the midst of the fight, Nick lets Lucifer out. He hides in Father Blackwood's body. He's after Lilith for betraying him. She's hiding as Adam in Mary's house.

Hilda and Dr Cerebus are still going strong. He asks her to marry him. She agrees. Unfortunately during the Hare Moon celebration, Circe cursed Hilda for keeping spiders as pets. She slowly turns into a giant spider and has a taste for human blood. Zelda agrees to shoot her (knowing that she'll resurrect Hilda from Cain's pit that's in their yard). Next Ms Wardwell shows up and shoots Zelda leaving her near death (because Faustus told Mary the Spellmans were witches)

Lilith separates Faustus from Lucifer in exchange for his "seed". Lucifer will not kill her (at least not yet) because she is pregnant with his son. In exchange she gives Faustus the "mark of Cain" so he cannot be killed. He teams up with the pagans to use a secret passage into the building to kill all the witches in their sleep.

The last test for Sabrina and Caliban is collecting Judas' 30 pieces of silver. Sabrina opts for doing the job the hard way. She must retrieve it from Ivan The Terrible (ie the first vampire). In a surprise twist, Judas turns out to be his father.

At the beginning of episode eight things are looking dire. Hilda is dead (buried in the yard). Zelda is dead (killed by Blackwood). Robin the hobgoblin is dead. Harvey (being the only virgin available) is sacrificed to the Green Man. All the townspeople are dead.

Caliban tricked Sabrina into giving him Judas' silver. He becomes the King of Hell. He entombs Sabrina, Lucifer and Lilith in the same place that Judas was previously.

There is a time jump of several decades. Sabrina arrives and frees herself (yes, there are NOW 2 Sabrinas) from the stone. Everything is shot to Hell (literally). The pagans have taken over Earth and turned it into something out of "The Walking Dead". Only Ambrose has survived. Caliban has been defeated and killed. Hell has been emptied.

But everyone works together to restore the balance. Zelda and the witches pray to Hecate and resurrect Hilda. Dr Cee emerges from the cacoon that HIlda spun for him. Roz and Harvey finally consumate their relationship. Theo and Robin are all snuggled up. Prudence and Nick turn to each other for support. I guess her relationship with Ambrose is over. Despite almost everyone else surviving, Prudence's sister Dorcas is dead and Agatha is with her much hated father Faustus.

Sabrina is free to be a teenager for a while. The OTHER Sabrina takes her place as the Queen of Hell. With having two Sabrina's cause problems in the future? You betcha!

And in a surprise twist, Zelda and Marie share a kiss. I guess that means she'll be sticking around for a while. And good thing. They might be my new favorite couple. Also, the witches are going to need all the help they can get because there are even worst powers to fight next season. Faustus, Agatha (remember Dorcas is dead), Judith and Judas are still up to no good. Faustus hatches whatever was in that egg he was carrying around and declares "it's the beginning of the end". Is that thing supposed to be Cthulhu... cause this is sounding a lot like Lovecraft. Stay tuned.

Grade: 4 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" delivers another action packed season as teenage Sabrina tries to juggle being a high school student and Queen of Hell. Lot's of new characters are introduced this time around including: Caliban (the Prince Of Hell), newcomer Robin Goodfellow some pagans and a number of new witches (including Mambo Marie). I'm happy to see that Ambrose and Prudence get to play a bigger role this season. Michelle Gomez as Lillith/Madam Satan/Mary Wardwell continues to delight. And the aunties Zelda (Miranda Otto) and Hilda (Lucy Davis) round out this EXCELLENT cast. I continue to enjoy the humor of the show. When trying to explain why Lillith still looks like Ms Wardwell she says "a face like this is hard to beat". I also enjoyed the crossovers with Riverdale. One of the Southside Serpents visits the bookstore and is promptly eaten by Spider Hilda. Too funny!