Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Chapter Twenty: “The Mephisto Waltz”
Directed by Rob Seidenglanz
Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

* For a recap & review of Chapter Nineteen, “The Mandrake” – click here
* For a recap & review of Chapter Twenty-One, “The Hellbound Heart” – click here
Way back in the bowels of history, when “everything outside the Garden was a vast, stony wasteland,” Lilith (Jenna Berman) wandered in the wilderness until she found a man, Lucifer Morningstar (Luke Cook). He picked her up, then she helped him heal. She was the “first witch,” not only the first woman.

Back to present day.
From the mines, Lucifer once again emerges from the depths.
Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) and Nick (Gavin Leatherwood) tell the aunts about what’s going on, as per Madam Satan (Michelle Gomez). The “hordes of Hell” are coming. Lucifer’s going to subjugate witches, warlocks, and humans alike to rule over every last scrap of the Earth. He’ll take Sabrina as his “child bride.” Aunt Zelda (Miranda Otto) and Aunt Hilda (Lucy Davis) go about setting up the Spellman house with spells. Soon, Harvey (Ross Lynch), Roz (Jaz Sinclair), and Theo (Lachlan Watson) come looking to help their real friend, not the one who stuck them in mandrake pods. Everyone’s banding together against the gathering forces of darkness on Greendale’s doorstep.

At the Academy, Prudence (Tati Gabrielle) goes to Agatha (Adeline Rudolph) and Dorcas (Abigail F. Cowen) about her plans to “kill” Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle). She’s sick of being part of the legacy of misogyny Faustus is planning on leaving behind. The Weird Sisters begin attempting to put a curse on the High Priest. Prudence’s search for a father figure, like so many of us, has led her astray, and, in a sense, she’s become an arm of the patriarchy by working to destroy other witches. This is the internalised misogyny of the patriarchy and of the Church of Night.
At the Gray Room, Dorian (Jedidiah Goodacre) finds Lucifer strolling through his doors in “angelic form.” He wants to find Lilith, who’s waiting nearby. She isn’t happy with him, especially since what she was promised is being given to the young Spellman witch, leaving her in a “supporting role.”
The Spellmans are trying to figure out the Apocalypse. Sabrina suggests it’s possible her father colluded with Satan to give him his daughter, to help usher in the End of Days. Zelda won’t believe it. Awfully suggestive that Edward wrote a whole manifesto based around mortals and witches uniting, then he married a mortal and had a half-human, half-witch with her. Madam Satan comes to see the family and demands the young witch come with her. She reveals herself to them finally as Lilith, convincing Sabrina to go along to see the Dark Lord.
The only one allowed to go with her? Salem.

Faustus, along with Prudence, goes to see Lucifer. They speak about Ms. Spellman. And Morningstar is unimpressed with the Church of Judas. He’s subjugating the church to the will of Sabrina, who’ll become his queen. Naturally this disgusts Blackwood. He’s at the will of his Dark Lord, despite his hatred of the young witch.
All the same, Faustus is an egomaniac. He goes back to the church pretending he’s been given the greatest blessing by the Dark Lord. He has his congregation engage in a Satanic communion. He uses it to poison his flock, apart from Prudence.

Let’s go stop the apocalypse

Sabrina questions Lilith about why she’d bend her knee to Lucifer, given she’s so powerful on her own. The older witch tells the younger of what it was like back in the beginning of time. At first, their relationship was wonderful. Things started changing as Lucifer found his own body changing, becoming a “thing of darkness.”
Sabrina goes to meet the Dark Lord in his original form. They have an antagonistic talk about what he’s given her. She says she never asked for anything. He believes she enjoys her powers. He wants her to “blow the horn of Gabriel,” which will open the Gates of Hell. He plans to “dance the Mephisto‘s Waltz” with her. He’s been manipulating her in every way. Including through Nick— a deep betrayal. Much worse is the fact Edward isn’t even Sabrina’s father: it’s Satan. She’s the Antichrist, for real. (This means their union will be incest, too.) GOOD LORD!

“There is no such thing as choice.
There is only my desire.”

A great Ru Paul’s Drag Race reference comes when Sabrina decides “Not today, Satan.” She refuses to be subjugated to the Dark Lord. She won’t have the legacy of her family, the memory of her mother and father, all tainted by his patriarchal control. They’ll need every single bit of help they can get, meaning they may need Lilith. She does know him intimately. She knows he isn’t a god, merely a “creature of the cosmos.”
Harvey, Roz, and Theo are at the Gates of Hell in the mine. Roz uses the Cunning to look past the door, seeing Satanic sigils. Harvey attempts to draw them by Roz showing him mentally, in hopes it’ll be like Howard’s paintings keeping the Old Ones at bay just outside of reality’s doors.

In the woods, Sabrina meets Lucifer. The plan is to lock the Dark Lord in place, then stab him with “daggers forged in the ancient city of Megiddo” (love this connection to The Omen). The Spellmans, and Lilith, enact their plan. Lucifer pulls the daggers free, stating only the “dagger of Longinus” would kill him a.k.a the Holy Lance used to pierce Jesus on the cross. He holds Zelda and Hilda with the daggers at their throats. Satan says, unless his daughter blows Gabriel’s horn, the aunts will die. So, Sabrina has no choice.
Thus begins the Apocalypse.
At the Gates of Hell, Harvey, Roz, and Theo wait to see if the sigils work. Something grabs Theo from beyond the doors, though his friends keep it from hauling him away. Hands and tentacles come through the crack barely confined behind the gate.

At home, the Spellmans receive a frantic visit from Prudence with her Weird Sisters in tow, trying to find a way to reverse the poison. Zelda and Ambrose try teleporting more members of the church back to the morgue, hoping to cure everybody. Sabrina looks for a way to change the Apocalypse. She goes back to her father’s notes and wonders if the Acheron Configuration could bind Satan. Nick soon astral projects into her room trying to offer his help.
Singing “Masquerade” from Phantom of the Opera, Sabrina greets Lucifer on his throne. A ball is presented to the King of Hell. The young witch takes a seat next to Lucifer, as she’s crowned the Queen of Hell— Sabrina Morningstar, proud lady of Pandæmonium, Maiden of Shadows. Everybody hails their new queen. The father-daughter/husband-wife pair dance the Mephisto Waltz together. Sabrina asks for Greendale as a gift. The Dark Lord hears the crowd chanting. Ambrose throws the Acheron Configuration between his cousin and Satan. The box opens enclosing the Dark Lord. Only the configuration will not hold him. Lilith holds him in place. Nick sacrifices himself, binding the Dark Lord to his own flesh and blood. Then, Ambrose puts him to sleep.

They take the unconscious body of Scratch to the Gates of Hell. Lilith will take Nick back down there, to keep Lucifer trapped, and watch over him. She’s given the crown to take her place as the Queen of Hell. She offers Sabrina “two gifts“: the restoration of her witch abilities, and something else they’ll discover later.
Soundtrack note: Good use of “The End” by The Doors here.
Love the moment when Prudence decapitates the statue her father had built. Down with the patriarchy! She and Ambrose plan to track down Faustus and kill him. The remainder of those at the Academy, cured of the poison, are at the Spellman house. Is it now the “Church of Lilith“? Zelda’s taking her spot at the top as High Priestess. Maybe things are finally changing for the witches.
Harvey, Roz, Theo, and Sabrina are now deeming themselves the “Fright Club” to combat the forces of evil in their town. And Ms. Wardwell woke up from her deep slumber, no longer dead or a pawn for Madam Satan— the second gift from Lilith?
What will life be like for Sabrina now? She’s become “something else” more than half-witch, half-mortal. There are so many new, different things happening in Greendale for her and her friends. Are we going to see Salem more in Season 3? Sabrina’s planning to go to Hell to find Nick with the Fright Club. MANY DEVELOPMENTS TO COME!

Thankfully the series is renewed up to Season 4. Lots of adventures ahead.
Father Gore’s a huge fan. Long live the power of women.