We did it. We finally made it to the Academy of Unseen Arts. I don’t know about you, but once I saw the chapter titled ‘Witch Academy’ I got super excited. How can you not be excited to see the private Academy dedicated to teaching the dark arts? I will say, I was expecting to see a bit more…witchery. Not like, people poof-ing each other into animals or her pointing a wand and causing something silly to happen. But I was hoping to see more than her going to what was basically music class. I’ll get to that though.
So Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) is now in the confines of the Academy, a place where the Weird Sisters (Tati Gabrielle, Adeline Rudolph, Abigail Cowan) pretty much reign supreme. I know they’re antagonists and mean to Sabrina, but I just think they’re so cool. As with most clique-y girls with a superiority complex, they almost immediately begin hazing our heroine by putting her through “The Harrowing.” Turns out witch hazing is serious business though because they’re putting her through trials that could literally kill her.
Sabrina is also given an Acheron Configuration, which is an arcane puzzle, “a test of your mental and actual dexterity,” as Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle) explains it (personally, I think that’s a terrible explanation). Basically, things are pretty bleak at the Academy for Sabrina, save for the one friend she seems to have made, Nicholas “Nick” Scratch (Gavin Leatherwood), who is, I have to say, quite charming.
Meanwhile, Roz (Jaz Sinclair) is staying with Susie (Lachlan Watson) and we find out she has a weird secret. Her Uncle Jesse is living upstairs, confined to his room due to an illness he began to suffer following an experience he had in the mines. All Susie can really tell us is that he saw something and then this “illness” began. I feel like you can probably guess that his illness isn’t normal and also every scene involving them even walking up the stairs to his room gave me the creeps.
At Sabrina’s house we have Hilda (Lucy Davis), stuck due to her excommunication, decides to help Ambrose (Chance Perdomo) astral project (send his spirit in place of his actual body) to go on a date with a guy named Luke. It’s super cute. However, astral projecting is against the rules as only the dead are supposed to walk the astral plain, so while he is finally getting (sort of) out of the house, he is also putting himself in terrible danger because the psychopomps may mistake him for dead and take his soul to the other side.
I found this episode to be very chill-inducing, mainly due to the harrowing ritual. Kudos to Sabrina because, man, that got really disturbing, really fast. And she had to endure these trials for many hours. I don’t know the exact number but they went from lights out until dawn, so I’d say a good 8 at least. And the ending. Like, holy crap, that was unexpected.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, ‘Witch Academy’ OVERALL SCORE: 8.5 / 10
This was a really good episode that allowed us to explore new threats and gave us insight into others. It also gave Sabrina another chance to make a difference and better lives other than her own, showing the true heroism of her character. My main issue was, I know they don’t know Madam Satan (Michelle Gomez) has possessed Ms. Wardwell, but are witches really so oblivious to dark creatures/people? I feel like they should have some kind of sense. She literally just waltzes around their house and not even Zelda (Miranda Otto) picks up something strange about her or notices the whatever it is she did? Seems a little too easy, in my opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxTsfuMq3O8
