Summary
“Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Eldritch Dark” gets the final installment off to a rocking start with an established premise that will serve well for the rest of the story.
This recap of Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season 4, episode 1, “Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Eldritch Dark” contains significant spoilers.
We recapped every episode — check out the archive.
The opening
Season 4 begins with Faustus chanting in Eldritch rather frantically. Suddenly, his candle goes out. He announces that the Eldritch terrors are upon them. In the woods, miners in gas masks kill a man named Gus, and then they extinguish a fire nearby; the group then move towards Greendale. There’s nothing like a dark start to CAOS — we’ll miss this.
A normal day it seems
After the dark start, “Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Eldritch Dark” flits to Sabrina who is ready for the day, choosing her clothes and then having small talk with Ambrose. She then joins her friends at school who are talking about a miner who died last night; this was Gus. The conversation moves quickly as Roz explains how she’s dismayed about how they’ve canceled sex education. Sabrina is a little irked about how she’s the only single one in her group. Meanwhile, Ambrose notices a miner in a gas mask and has concern on his face. But more importantly, Sabrina feels something is missing from her life; she appears empty-looking with her normal-ish life.
Handing out titles and interested men
At the Academy, Zelda brings a new dawn and hails their Mother. She states that Hilda will embody the new Mother. She gives Prudence the Maiden title which shocks Sabrina. At this stage in the chapter, Sabrina seems alone despite different men asking her out who she isn’t interested in.
Can I visit myself?
Sabrina tells Ambrose she wants to visit Sabrina Morningstar in Hell and to see if she needs help being Queen. Ambrose advises against both versions of Sabrina being in direct contact as it could have consequences. He tells her to put that idea to bed. Sabrina is wondering if she chose the wrong life.
Taking down Bloody Mary
At the school, student Billy sees a bloody ghost in the bathroom and freaks out. Sabrina meets up with her friends to talk about it, and she believes it is Bloody Mary. They organize to summon her spirit at midnight. When they summon Bloody Mary, they search for her in the library. Sabrina banishes her, but before she was banished, all the blood splurges all over Harvey. Sabrina likes to be useful to society, and fighting evil seems to be the only way to feel fulfilled.
The miners are becoming prominent
As Sabrina makes her way home, she sees a person with a miner with a gas mask, and she doesn’t think much of it. However, as the miner approaches the house, Zelda faces the figure. A male voice torments Zelda’s mind. Hilda tells the miner to stop. When she takes the gas mask off, there’s no face, and it disappears.
The Eldritch Terrors
The next morning, the family wonders what the miner is all about. Ambrose looks at the bodies of the dead miners, and he has a theory. He believes they have revengeful ghost miners. Ambrose performs necromancy, and the miners chant about the Eldritch terrors. Ambrose remembers Blackwood Faustus planning on releasing the terrors.
Planning to stop the darkness
Prudence believes her father is behind it. Suddenly, the lights turn off, and Ambrose believes the avatars of Darkness are doing it. Nick joins the conversation, and they wonder how they can stop the Darkness from leaving Greendale. Sabrina offers to generate light. Ambrose advises against it, but then Sabrina reminds him that there are two of her. He tells her to keep contact to a minimal with Queen Sabrina.
Visiting the Queen
And then “Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Eldritch Dark” gives the audience what they want; the prospect of seeing two Sabrinas together that was spiced up in season 3.
The Queen of Hell Sabrina Morningstar is enjoying an inferno party with Caliban. Sabrina enters the party disguised as a minion to talk to her other-self. The pair catch up on their different lives. Sabrina tells the Queen that a pool of Darkness is about to take over Greendale and they agree to help each other. Meanwhile, Zelda and the others cast a boundary around Greendale to try and put up a defense.
Distracting the miners
Miners walk towards Greendale as the Darkness begins to shroud the area. Theo and Robin distract them to the fairground. Nick turns off the lights; Harvey and Roz use flares to get their attention as they are attracted to light. Nick leads a chant.
Fighting the Darkness
Sabrina, Queen Sabrina, and Ambrose go down to the miner tunnels, and they sense great evil. Queen Sabrina goes down to the bottom first to start the light. They are trying to banish the Darkness. While it starts to work, a voice tells Queen Sabrina that no-one loves her; it’s a tormenting voice, and it works on her. It plays on the insecurities of the characters.
An extra hand
Sabrina heads in to help. Queen Sabrina believes no-one loves her and that she deserves to be alone in the Darkness. Sabrina tells her that they will always be loved as long as they are there for each other. Both Sabrinas chant together to banish the Darkness. The darkness torments both Sabrinas now — Zelda and the others at the Academy refocus their energies to help them. They are praying to Goddess Hecate, and it works. There was a lot of implied emotions shrouding these scenes, and it worked well.
There are more terrors to come
Ambrose is impressed that they managed to defeat an Eldritch terror. Meanwhile, Agatha apologizes to Faustus that they failed. Faustus explains that there are eight more Eldritch terrors and each more is harrowing than the next. He has many plans to overthrow the world.
The ending
At school, Sabrina approaches Carl and asks him out on a date. At the academy, she asks Melvin out on a date. Zelda and Hilda notice that Sabrina is in a lighter mood. They notice she’s wearing a red headband as well, which is unexpected. It turns out that both Sabrinas are still hanging out together. They are secretly best friends. This will surely have consequences, especially after Ambrose fretted about it.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season 4, episode 1 gets the final installment off to a rocking start with an established premise that will serve well for the rest of the story. We are still wondering why this is the final season.
Additional points
- Ms. Wardwell seems to remember her recent experiences.
- Marie LeFleur is continuing her relationship with Zelda.
