Photo: DIYAH PERA / NETFLIX / DIYAH PERA / NETFLIX
When I saw the title of this episode, my first instinct was to write in my notes infinity, like a Netflix episode? Sorry, sorry, I’ll stop. And credit for who is due: this episode is great! It is strange and disturbing, but it still has a logic coherent enough to make sense. It is a goal and brings many good jokes about the program we are watching and the program within a program and television in general, but not to the point of collapsing on itself. It is playful and fan-service without sacrificing history; I think even if you weren’t a fan of the 90s Sabrina, the part about aunts who are not the “real” aunts would still work. (However, if you are new to Sabrinaland and disagree, let me know why in the comments!)
We are in the alternative cosmos, similar, but not quite like the one in which Spellmans reside. In this world, Morningstar is the “new” Sabrina, suggesting some assembly lines from Brinas before her that were eliminated for obscure reasons – they are sent to “the green room”, whose purpose is initially a mystery to us – and to her the whole life is a television program. It is not exactly a reality show; it’s more like the show is their reality. Everyone is a sound stage. No one is allowed to leave. Don’t change your lines. Everything that happens on the show becomes true in the world “outside” the show, although we find that there is really no world outside the show for most people in this cosmos. When Morningstar tries to take a walk to clear her head, she discovers that the doors open on brick walls. All books are blank. Very Pleasantville!
An interesting tip about who’s in control here comes with meals: it’s all canned tuna and milk. Hmm. Who do you know who could thrive on this diet? If you guessed Salem the cat from the start, aim for you! (It took me a minute, I’m not too proud to admit.)
Morningstar also realizes that it is stuck in a time loop. It’s the same day in October every morning. Salem arrives and Morningstar asks if he can see about the lack of his magic mirror and if he has heard of the Eldritch Terrors. He says he will work on the former, but with no data on the latter. HMM.
In the meantime, Morningstar tries to follow the flow as she works to find out what Terror she may be dealing with now. (THERE WAS ONLY EIGHT. There are only two left, and one is the Void! Honestly, how hard is it to remember them? No one wrote that down?) When Morningstar arrives on set, she finds out that her real aunts are here, but are only replacements for her aunts. from the 90s. Salem is a talking puppet and the star of the show. Lillith, or Wardwell, whoever it is, is helping Blackwood, the director. For today’s pictures, Morningstar is dressed in a cockroach. (“For your motivation,” Blackwood tells her … revealingly (sorry!), “Think about Kafka.”)
Later, she goes to the Baxter High set, where alternate reality versions of her friends await her. Harvey is her boyfriend on set and off – she reacts in shock to the “unprofessional” language in her kiss, and Harvey replies that, duh, they are together. “It’s canonical!” Morningstar is everything, aren’t you dating Roz? Roz’s perfect answer: “I wish! Writers would dream of giving me a boyfriend. ”(Nick, lurking in the background, is Harvey’s replacement.) Since in this world they are really dating, Harvey invites Morningstar out later.
Morningstar tries to tell her alternative-Hilda about her true identity: that she is married to the prince of hell, and she is the queen, and obviously that makes her seem completely upset. Hilda said: “The last show you were on looks AMAZING”, but now they’ve scored great shows at the “oldest show in history”, which means that Morningstar must give up his previous life and be fully committed to … be whatever it is is.
At Harvey’s, over a milk and tuna dinner (great food for making out), Morningstar realizes that Harvey has those portent Terrors doodles framed on his walls. This Harvey thinks they are just a harmless gift from the art department. Oh, Harvey, an innocent idiot in every dimension. Harvey tells Morningstar that he gets the scripts from Wardwell’s binder because it takes time to learn his lines; could she rehearse with him? As they read, Morningstar realizes: This scene it really happened. Is that what Harvey said to Sabrina on her 16th birthday? Harvey suggests that they watch the pilot together, and Morningstar is horrified to find that her real life (and, for us, the previous seasons of this show!) Are in it is cosmos, the show they’re doing. I love Harvey’s nonchalant response to his outbreak. “I understand, I don’t like watching myself either.”
Morningstar runs away and opens a door that she should NOT open. Behind it is the green room. Blood is everywhere and it looks like a scary, almost underwater version of the mortuary hold. Just corpses everywhere. Also: Ambrose! “Judging by your headband, you must be the new Sabrina.” Thanks to HECATE this guy is here! Ambrose reports that he is making cat food for the Eldritch Terror to consume. What terror is that? The infinite. The infinite… is SALEM. Well, it’s the kingdom and so is Salem. It’s complicated, but go ahead. Ambrose cracked the case, so Salem banished it, and now all Ambrose does is put the bodies in a meat grinder and turn them into the food I assume is in all those cans of tuna. Ambrose is defeated – he says there is nothing they can do because they are also 1 with Endless. It’s all pretty damn good.
The next day, Morningstar records a scene with Roz, who is going blind in the bathroom at Baxter High. Somehow, Prudence and Agatha are also here. That’s when Morningstar discovers that what happens at the “show” also happens to the inhabitants of the cosmos: Here, Roz is really losing his sight. “Silver lining: at least being blind gives me a bow!”
During the craft services, Morningstar talks to her real aunts, who tell her that they used to play the aunts – “big hits, fan favorites” lol – but have been downgraded. Unfortunately, they also don’t know about Eldritch Terrors, but they share this scary little detail: the substitutes sleep under the main characters’ beds. (Under Sabrina’s bed: Elspeth, wearing a platinum wig.)
That night, Morningstar discovers Caliban among the crew and throws himself into his arms. “We can’t talk to the cast,” he says, and he also doesn’t miss being an actor. See, in the cast, he was “nonstop taking off my shirt and being objectified”. I know right? He loves his new job, in which he decides when and takes off his shirt. Morningstar tells him that in another universe, they are married and love always finds a way, and Caliban responds to that … by taking off his shirt. Never change, Caliban! Oh, he is also building a vacuum, which is the Void. The empty! AAAHHH.
Morningstar wakes up Harvey, who helps her sneak into Wardwell’s to get tomorrow’s pages early. (In another big wink, Wardwell is sleeping on the couch because they never built a room for his character.)
Morningstar brings the entire cast together to explain what is what. They need to find their magic mirror; they must escape before it is too late. She’s been here for maybe a day and a half and probably everything she’s saying seems totally confused, but everyone has to trust her. The 90’s aunts insist that there is nothing to worry about. The writers release a big new feature on the show every year! It doesn’t matter if it is “the murder of a beloved character, or a wedding” or whatever: as Zelda from the 90s says, “Actually nothing changes, everything just starts over.” How do they know that? The 90s aunts refuse to say.
The next morning, the Morningstar calendar shows that every day after this one just … ended. When she arrives on set, her boyfriend has been replaced: Nick is Harvey now. It is rumored that Harvey was sent to the green room. Nick, very methodical, does NOT like not being called Harvey. Morningstar falls behind for being a needy actress with a lot of irritating questions for Blackwood, like “What is my motivation, vis a vis the Void?” Blackwood explains that he is only the director and the only person authorized to revise the script is the principal writer, who is … who? No one knows or is willing to say. But Morningstar quickly learns that the lead writer is, of course, Salem, the plush animatronic cat.
They have a big shuttle in which Morningstar explains everything we need to know and Salem replies: “This is all an exhibition. Why are you telling me this? “Salem thinks Infinity and Void can coexist, but Brina points out that all the pages in the script go blank after Void arrives.
During filming, Morningstar is talking to fake 90s aunts about preparing for Void, and she boldly leaves the script. She says she is going to the store to buy some candles and, basically, hell has collapsed. It turns out that the aunts of the 90s are servants of the Void. As Morningstar and Salem flee, these aunts start to look like the terrible monsters they really are. In an extremely clever and thrilling chase sequence, Salem “writes” all of his executioners out of combat – “Zelda suddenly sprains his ankle!” – while fleeing to freedom.
Morningstar wants to save the others, but it’s too late: Caliban is dead. Ambrose is dead. Nick is shirtless and soaked in blood, but he is also a servant of the Void who now wants to be called Harvey. “I am yours only boyfriend. “Salem slips him on a banana peel. Hey, why mess with a classic?
Salem opens the gate behind which the Morningstar’s magic mirror waits, and they dive through it and it breaks and then … dun dun DUNNNN to continue!
Continuous mysteries: I mean … literally everything ?! But my big question, and I hope our final answers are: Can there really be two Sabrinas, or is it necessary for the balance of the cosmos to have Morningstar died in transit? I wonder if this season is trying to build a showdown for the throne of hell and the disappearance of Morningstar means it will be Caliban vs. Lillith vs. Adam? Or are we just going to abandon this thread of the plot because, despite the ample opportunities and endless episodes, we are finally running out of time?