‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale’ Recap: Jingle Spells

Happy Solstice, sisters. The winter holidays in the Spellman house is very different, especially now that it harbors five witches. Well, four and a half. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale picks up where last season ended, with Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) as a full witch and baby Leticia joining the Spellman household after being kidnapped by Zelda (Miranda Otto) from Lady Blackwell for her and Hilda (Lucy Davis) to raise. Once again, the Yuletide traditions of the Spellman house take a turn for the worse as other witches, spirits, and demons intervene with what was supposed to be a quiet winter.

First, the Harvey of it all

Things with Harvey (Ross Lynch) didn’t exactly end well, with Sabrina screwing up her necromancy and forcing Harvey to kill his brother’s soul-less body. Of course, Sabrina tries to clear the air with some Yuletide spirit, giving him a set of magic colored pencils that never wear out and giving his dad some special eggnog that makes him stop drinking. Harvey is understandably still not cool with all of it.

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Sabrina needed some advice from her mom, which she wanted to contact during Solstice.  She calls up the orphans and organizes a seance, which Madam Satan Ms. Wardwell (Michelle Gomez) screws over and quenches the Yuletide log meant to keep spirits away. Spirits get in and wreak havoc in the house. And the worst part is Sabrina didn’t get what she wanted from her short connection with her mom (Annette Reilly).

What about the children?

Since the quenched log incident, childlike spirits have entered their home to play dangerous pranks on them. The witches summoned witch Gryla (Heather Doerksen), their mother who lived in the mountains. She comes over, but as soon as she hears baby Leticia cry, she wouldn’t leave without her.

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Sabrina’s mom pops by and gets to decide to whom Leticia belongs to. The babe is laid down in a circle and both Zelda and Gryla have to play tug of war with her as the rope. Zelda backs out, and Gryla takes the baby and the spirits with her. Of course, Gryla doesn’t actually take home Leticia. It turns out Sabrina and her mom gave Gryla a decoy. Oh well.

In the final moments with her mom, Sabrina asks about why she hasn’t crossed over. Her mom reassures her that she was fine. She also offers advice to Sabrina about Harvey. Well, not so much as advice but more of something she already knew but needed to hear from her mother. The next day, Harvey confronts Sabrina, saying that the magic stuff was too weird for him to accept.

Fucked-up Santa

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Susie (Lachlan Watson) finally got to play an elf in mall Santa’s workshop. The guy playing Santa kidnaps her after, where he turns out to be a demon that traps children’s souls into wax figurines. Luckily, Gryla comes to the rescue. The demon learned not to mess with a vengeful mother.

With all the chaos that surrounds the family, Zelda decides to give up the baby to Desmelda, the witch who lives in the forest, where she can be safe.

‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale’ Overall Verdict

Ironically, this holiday special was a little bit more bone-chilling than the other episodes. There was definitely a couple of jumpscares here and there. Sabrina yet again gets in trouble with antics that make situations worse for the Spellman house, which is nothing new. The holiday special definitely gave a taste on what to expect. Will Sabrina patch things up with Harvey? Will she be able to keep her human life intact? There’s still a lot to look for next season.