We’ve all been there. We’ve all been between the ages of 10 and 13, watching a movie or a TV show, when the main character defiantly yells to their parents: “I’m 16! You can’t keep treating me like a child!” or something along those lines. Our angsty pre-teen souls raged against the parental oppressors for not letting them go to the dance, or marry someone they just met, because how dare they? How dare they regulate their child’s lives like that? How dare they attempt to teach them responsibility? How dare they use their further developed frontal lobes and decision-making skills based off of a lifetime of experience? Who do they think they are? Responsible adults? Please.
And then one day, we watch that same scene, with that same angsty adolescent, and find ourselves aligning with the very characters we previously deemed as the villains. We agree with the parents.
This season of Sabrina gave me that same eerie feeling, as I found myself distressed over Sabrina’s decisions, wondering why she was messing with the fate of the worlds over some high school drama.
Without giving too much away, I will say that I have arguably never been more annoyed with a main character in my life. This season of Sabrina threw our heroine into the midst of some major unbalance of the realms, and as if that weren’t enough potential for chaos, she’s introduced to the use of time magic as well. If you’re anything like me, you spent your childhood days watching Back to the Future. At the very least, you’ve probably seen that one episode of Wizards of Waverly Place with the time spell and the deja-vu, so you know messing with anything in the space-time continuum is a dangerous game with some real consequences.
We know Sabrina loves horror and fantasy movies from all her time spent at Dr. Cerberus’ picking apart plot lines and analyzing the subtext of the films over milkshakes with her friends. Not to mention, she is a literal witch and should probably know about and have a little bit more respect for the balance of the universe and such. Despite all that, and even though she already has two seasons worth of chaotic mischief and life-lessons under her belt, Sabrina continues to just do whatever she wants.
Oh, Hell is in unrest and therefore there is unbalance in all the realms because she keeps rejecting her role? Time to join the cheerleading squad! Warned about a time loop, and given explicit instructions on what to do, so the world doesn’t fall into ruin? Ignore them completely, it’ll be fun!
While I have mad respect towards Sabrina for not wanting the centuries-old patriarchy of the Church of Night to bring her down, and while I 100% agree that everyone should have a choice in who they want to be and what they want to do in life, I also believe that we have to take responsibility for the choices we make. I think my main issue with Sabrina isn’t so much that she follows her heart and all that do-your-own-thing stuff we’ve been taught since we were little, it’s that she isn’t just messing with her own life. It’s the lives of literally everyone. And she still doesn’t take a second to think it through first or take any responsibility for the consequences when everything goes sideways.
All that being said, you know I still binged this season in two days. I am living for the pop-culture references in the season, and the budding of Harvey’s band. I am LIVING for Theo owning his identity, making moves in the romance game and still keeping all these jocks in check. I had a great time riddling out where the story would lead, and how our beloved characters would get themselves out of the latest mayhem. And you KNOW I will still be watching season 4 when that hits the screen. Maybe Sabrina will redeem herself, or maybe I will just fall further and further into mom-mode.