Summary
Chapter 12, “The Epiphany”, kicks off Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 2 superbly, with a heavy theme of gender equality.
This recap of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 2, Chapter 12, “The Epiphany”, contains spoilers.
Chapter 12, “The Epiphany”, is a fast-paced start to Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 2, with Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) having unusual nightmares about a wailing baby and demons dismissing her approach. The darker start enlights with boppy music, as Sabrina is determined to take on the world again, vouching to focus on her witch studies, and take a sabbatical from Baxter High.
The theme of gender equality is rife in Chapter 12, with Susie Putnam (Lachlan Watson) striving to join the boy’s basketball team, and Sabrina challenging the Top Boy position from Nicholas Scratch (Gavin Leatherwood), who welcomes the test, but Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle) not so much, who feels this is a men’s club, not a position for a woman. “The Epiphany” confirms they have to partake in three challenges, and whoever wins the best out of three becomes Top Boy, with Sabrina keen to re-model it as Top Person.
What is clear is that sexism is high in this community, and it does not help Sabrina’s paranoia that the men are trying to dismantle her, even going so far as accusing Ambrose Spellman’s (Chance Perdomo) boyfriend Luke Chalfant (Darren Mann) of sending trouble her way; every time she prepares for a challenge, a demon attacks her. Meanwhile, Susie gets bullied for trying to play basketball.
With Blackwood refusing to grant her a postponement to offer more time after the demon attacks, the challenges begin. Challenge one is about knowledge, and the Weird Sisters help her cheat in the quiz – Chapter 12, “The Epiphany” shows the solidarity of women trying to fight the common cause to rid the societal structures within The Academy, even with Blackwood’s growing distrust to the new wave.
Chapter 12 sees Hilda Spellman (Lucy Davis) worried about Sabrina, asking her if she ever wants to return to Baxter High so she can be with her mortal friends. We get an emotional scene, with Sabrina admitting that when she signed the Book of the Beast, she assigned herself to follow the Dark Lord’s bidding eventually. Her distance approach to Baxter High is so she doesn’t hurt her mortal friends.
The second challenge involves potion-making, which provides a peak-witchcraft moment in the series. Whoever spoils the potion has to drink it, and Sabrina loses, but she gains the applause of the crowd for her bravery – her female empowerment is making the rounds on the Academy.
In “The Epiphany” she learns of Susie’s determination to join the basketball team, so to provide the support she attends the trials and uses magic to help her. She becomes the star player, and in a moment of recognizing her own identity and revealing it to others, Susie tells everyone her name is now Theo. Sabrina, in a moment of happiness, becomes saddened by her mortal friend’s euphoria, getting flashbacks to signing the Book of the Beast.
As the last challenge comes to the fold, Sabrina is kidnapped by a demon, but Mary Wardwell (Michelle Gomez) saves her. Sabrina accuses Nicholas of sending the demons, but from the description, he recognizes them as the Three Plague Kinds. In the third challenge, they work together to find out who has been sending the demons; but in a moment of clarity, the demons sound out their plans to stop the “half-witch” from ascending, not giving much meaning to what the “half-witch” will ascend to. Blackwood banishes the demons to hell and irritated by Sabrina and Nicholas’ behavior he makes Ambrose Top Boy.
“The Epiphany” ends by setting up the next episode. Zelda Spellman (Miranda Otto) questions her relationship with Blackwood, stating they should keep it professional once the mourning period is over; Nicholas and Sabrina go for drinks together, and come to the light conclusion that the demons are wanting to stop her from becoming the High Priestess; Harvey Kinkle (Ross Lynch) confesses to Rosalind Walker (Jaz Sinclair) that he misses Sabrina, while she imagines kissing Harry.
You can read the recap of Part 2, Chapter 13 by clicking these words.
