Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina – Season 4 Episode 8 (Finale) Recap & Review

A Complex Void

The finale of Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina Season 4 starts as we catch up with the real living realm. Mrs Wardwell reads from Blackwood gospel about the void.

We then cut to our three teenage couples having a make-out session and discussing what to do for Sabrina’s upcoming birthday. At home, Sabrina and Nick are interrupted by Morningstar bursting out of the mirror. Barely breathing, she tells them that the void is coming and will destroy everything, before taking her last breath.

In the dungeon, Blackwood manages to control the voodoo corpse to pick him up while Ambrose relays to the aunties that the three orbs from the ro-cosmos have vanished. Sabrina knows that it is the Void so Ambrose decides to go to the academy’s observatory.

Sabrina stays behind and receives a visit from the trinket man. He gives her Pandora box in exchange for the imp, which can be used to contain all the evils of the universe and therefore trap the void. He explains she will have to open it inside the Void but the box might suck her inside along with it.

Sabrina writes a goodbye letter to everyone and casts a spell on her mirror to transport herself to the Void. She arrives in a white room with the word “The Void” written in big letters and small planets scattered all around her. After everyone finds out from Salem what Sabrina has done, they teleport back to the house and try to bring her back but in vain.

In the Void, Sabrina opens the box which starts absorbing all the planets around her while her Aunts realize that they can get Sabrina’s soul back and put it in Morningstar’s body.

They start their incantation just as Sabrina was almost done absorbing the void. This works but Sabrina is not happy as she was about to defeat it. Prudence called them back to the observatory and she shows them that the Void seems to have disappeared.

The next day it is Halloween and Sabrina’s birthday. Things are very strange though as items start to disappear around her while Lilith goes to Hell to tell Lucifer that Morningstar has been killed by the void. She makes him promise to restore her powers and reveals that the Spellmans are using her body for Sabrina’s soul.

Caliban is outraged and convinces Lucifer to get revenge. They plan to gather an army to strike the Spellman’s that very same evening. Caliban and Beelzebub head to the mines and release a legion of demons to possess the miners, including Harvey’s dad.

In the evening, the birthday celebrations get underway but the disappearances continue just as Lucifer and his army arrive at their door step. Lucifer demands to get his daughter’s body back or he will take it by force. She tells him she can have it so he asks her to bind her magic.

Both Sabrina and Lucifer cast a spell to do so and just as Ambrose takes his wand out, the possessed miners start attacking her. When they reach her though, they quickly disappear.

Lucifer returns to hell frustrated. When Lilith asks for her powers, he refuses. She stabs him with the Spear of Longinus, drinks his celestial blood then banishes him to the mortal realm. At the same time, back in the house everyone wonders what powers Sabrina now has. As she gets upset, people start disappearing again.

Ambrose takes Sabrina to the mortuary and notices that her body is now empty, concluding that she absorbed some of the void and therefore she is now manifesting its powers. Sabrina is devastated as she thinks she may have killed all those people, including Harvey’s father. She then decides to disappear to protect everyone.

Nick then has an idea to finish what she started by using the box to trap the void. Since he gave her one half of his locket, he wants to use it as a beacon to lock on to hers to find her and the box. Since he is going to space, Ambrose wants to use The Weird’s body in the octopus and turn it into an Eldritch terror mask.

Sabrina has banished herself in the mountains of madness. She is visited by Father Blackwood who claims that he knows how to control and contain the Void. He offers to teach her and she accepts when he tells her he knows where all the disappeared went.

Two weeks later, Prudence, Roz, Ambrose and Agatha arrive at the temple of the Void and are greeted by Faustus. They all enter the temple as Faustus tells them that the priestess will come out for her daily feeding. Sabrina, looking very weak, steps out and is helped by Blackwood who explains that she has taken a vow of silence.

The three new weird sisters join hands and learn that Faustus is looking for the rest of the void to bring it down to Earth as he wants the power for himself. They realize that the altar will be used to sacrifice her.

The sisters then start controlling Sabrina, despite her protests. She absorbs Roz and Prudence and tells Ambrose she will see him again at the end. Ambrose and Agatha return and relay what has been happening to the rest of the Spellman’s. Nick then also returns with Sabrina’s body and the box. Together, they hatch a plan to go back and extract the void from Sabrina.

Back in the temple of the Void, everyone arrives just as Faustus is about to kill Sabrina. They show him they brought all the terrors including part of the Void inside the box. Faustus takes the box but just as he opens it, it explodes in his face as it is a fake one filled with magical gunpowder, which blinds him.

Sabrina explains that she has learned a lot about the Void and that the disappeared have gone inside the void, and therefore inside her. She wants Zelda to carry on with the sacrifice so they can open her out to allow Harvey, Nick and Ambrose to go inside her. She will be able to control the Void and absorb all the other terrors. She wants Nick to go inside it as well to draw the rest of the Void with the box.

The ritual gets underway as Zelda opens Sabrina and invokes Hecate. As a strange white liquid pours out of her, it creates a gate where Nick, Ambrose and Harvey step inside. Sabrina sees her life flashing before her eyes and starts saying goodbye to her friends and family.

Suddenly, all the disappeared come back followed by Ambrose, Prudence and Nick who have released Pandora’s box. Unfortunately, Sabrina is now dead after being emptied of all her blood.

We then cut to the funeral of Sabrina and Morningstar as her friends and family gather to honour her life. In the academy, they have now erected a statue of Sabrina, replacing Hecate. The aunties sadly look at the statue and Hilda tells her she will move back home with Dr Cee. Zelda cries and asks Hecate why she didn’t preserve her.

Prudence visits her father as she wants to make sure he doesn’t cause trouble again. She uses a chainsaw and plans to scatter parts of him in all corners of the realm.

We then cut to a white room with the words “The Sweet Hereafter” written on the wall where Sabrina is sitting on a bench. Nick appears, which surprises her. He explains that he swam the sea of sorrows to be with her. Now they can be together forever and the two kiss as the series comes to an end.

The Episode Review

After a great penultimate episode, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina ends with a disappointing finale. With too many convoluted plot points, this last chapter felt very rushed and failed to bring decent conclusions to many of its characters.

While I understand that the writers probably had another season planned, perhaps they should have spent less time with the monsters of the week and a little more on its secondary characters.

Too many ideas were forced into the end plot and some didn’t really make much sense. One of the worst offenders was the Weird trapped into the Octopus and made into an oxygen mask. As the episode went on, it became more and more complex and I almost lost myself in this overly busy final plot.

I understand that they needed a big finale with a great evil but unfortunately this unnecessary complexity removed some of the tension of the episode. I would have also preferred seeing more of the showdown between Lucifer and the Spellman’s, which was over way too quickly as well.

Many of the secondary characters were put on the back burner and we are now left to wonder what will happen with them. It is a shame too as the series had a lot of potential this season, especially after the last episode. Sabrina’s death is quite surprising and could make sense, but it is how the show reached that point that’s the biggest issue.

This final part will certainly leave the fans divided; it had some enjoyable and good episodes but definitely feels let down by a confusing and over-complicated conclusion that left me scratching my head on many occasions. It is a shame too as the show had the chance to be one of the better fantasy and mystery teen dramas out there but sadly, ends on a confused whimper rather than a triumphant roar.