S04.E08: Chapter Thirty-Six: At the Mountains of Madness

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

The darkest days of the void arrive as Sabrina struggles with grief and regret. Can she summon the strength to overcome an endless cycle of destruction?

Series finale dropping Thursday, December 31, 2020.

[AnimeMania]

That was disappointingly unexpected.

Sabrina Morningstar's dead body was sliced up pretty good, when they put Spellman's soul into it, it healed up really quickly. Maybe they had a spell to heal fatal wounds, they just forgot to use it before.

The "Spear of Longinus" could have taken care of Blackwood. They didn't use the dice cup of Baron Samedi, they didn't even ask him/her to be there to oversee the paint spill blood letting or to revive either Sabrina. Where did that "cool" Endless Salem get off to? Did they miss destroying one of the Eldritch Terrors? Is the Mortal Realm and Hell still collided with each other, I am not sure they showed that fixed. Did they ever find or read Sabrina's letter, they probably read it out loud but I wasn't paying enough attention, there was a lot of yakking in this episode. Caliban you shouldn't have been so thirsty, they might have saved you as well.

With Roz staying at Harvey's house acting like a stereotypical Preacher's Daughter, I am surprised Roz's father didn't have any objections, he was pretty strict before and almost nonexistent now. Harvey's father was a lot more tolerant as well.

Where did Nick and Sabrina end up, Heaven's waiting room? You would think they would be in Hell, if killing an Angel doesn't send you to Hell, I don't know what will.

[Primal Slayer]

While the overall season was decent...this last episode was a mess. The Void just ended up being a letdown. Sabrina having to die and Nick killing himself to be with her...messy. They may have tried to pull a Buffy but they failed. I believe this wasnt filmed with it being the end of the series though? So killing her was again, stupid. 

[NeenerNeener]

9 hours ago, Primal Slayer said:

While the overall season was decent...

Yep, this wasn't the worst final season I've ever seen (The Terrors were good as a concept), but I wish they hadn't killed off the lead and love interest. That's becoming a cliche in genre television.

[SourK]

It felt a little bit Good Place-like to me, but I was somewhat okay with it up until the random ending where Sabrina dies and then Nick kills himself to be with her and the show is just... cool with that? Also I thought the point of getting Sabrina's other body was that they had some way to save her by switching bodies again, but I guess they just wanted the box.

Low key, my favourite part was when Ambrose tried to cast on Father Blackwood, and it didn't work, and Prudence looked at him doing that for a full second, and then just seamlessly kept talking like he wasn't even there.

[greekmom]

That was a crappy end. The person I think I will miss is Prudence. She had the best character growth overall.

The death of Sabrina was unnecessary.  They could have done better with the character.  Then adding Nick on top it was just adding fire to the flame.

I expected better

 

[Chaos Theory]

I didn’t mind the show killing Sabrina.   If anything the season felt a bit rushed.  Like the showrunners were blindsided with Netflix cancelling what was a popular show and they rushed an ending that was both heartbreaking (Sabrina dies) and happy (Sabrina and Nick end up together in the void).  

If anything my biggest disappointment was the lack of development with Mary  Wardwell.  I liked her and Blackwood as a pairing and would have liked more with them and her decent into his religion.  

Edited January 3, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[Mabinogia]

I really didn't care that Sabrina and Nick died. At least this way she can't put the entire universe in danger over and over because of her selfish hubris so I guess that's good. 

I was just happy Lilith FINALLY got the best of Lucifer. For a show that seemed to be trying to be super feminist, her constantly being used and abused by him was getting tiring. 

I liked and disliked the last season overall. I found the concept of the Terrors interesting but not sure what Blackwood's idea was, was he suicidal and wanted to take the entire world out wit him? Did he think he would be the only thing left after the void? Was he just insane? I always had a hard time taking him seriously as a villain so I never really paid much attention to him.

While the Terrors were pretty clever, I do agree that the whole thing seemed rushed. I will assume that was because it was the end and only 8 eps and they didn't want to give any of them up so each one was wrapped up in an hour. 

I am glad the show is over, as I think it was running out of steam, but wish they had given the writers more eps this season to make the terrors actually seem like they were challenging. It just seemed too easy to defeat them since we only got an hour for each one. 

Still, despite it's flaws, and the fact I think they were running out of ideas, I'm gonna miss this weird, crazy little show. I thought it was visually very appealing and even if they drove me nuts at times, I did enjoy the characters, well, less so the human teens, but the witchy characters were all great. 

[LadyChaos]

I have to admit, I wouldn't have liked it that both Sabrina would've ended up dead but I could've lived with it. However, I have a serious issue with the show runners having Nick commit suicide to be with her. I'm not okay with that. I get that upon filming they weren't expecting to be canceled, but regardless it's still not okay.

I will say that there is some speculation that the show isn't really canceled. Might just be wishful thinking, but there are a lot of loopholes left open. Like Sabrina is clearly in the in between, if going by the paintings.... so how did Nick know where to find her?

[Sakura12]

Well that was a disappointing ending. The terrors were an interesting idea, but they were taken out pretty easily. I also don't understand why they were treating the 2 Sabrina's as different people entirely. One of them was just Sabrina from a few minutes earlier. Giving them the different last names helped with telling them apart. They still weren't different people. So having Lucifer call her false daughter makes no sense. 

I can tell they were blindsided by the cancellation, since a bunch of stories were suddenly dropped or thrown away. Like Lilith's son and whatever Caliban was doing. 

I also would've thought with Sabrina being the selfish egotistical person she was, we would've seen her chilling in hell with Lilith. But I suppose I could go with she still has celestial blood so she was able to get to special purgatory. But I'm not sure how Nick got there. And the fact that he killed himself. 

They should've gone with the Lost ending and said Nick lived his life then when he died he went to find her. 

[AnimeMania]

This would have made a great running gag for the next season if all of those wax flakes from the Wax Golem that Sabrina made that went down the drain, turned into a boy that Sabrina liked more than Nick. I am not that fond of Nick and don't think he should be endgame. The boys would show up at different times based on how big the flake was that went down the drain.

[Mabinogia]

21 hours ago, Sakura12 said:

I also don't understand why they were treating the 2 Sabrina's as different people entirely. One of them was just Sabrina from a few minutes earlier. Giving them the different last names helped with telling them apart. They still weren't different people. So having Lucifer call her false daughter makes no sense. 

That confused me too. They were both the same person it was just Sabrina once again wanting her cake (being queen and ruling hell) and eating it too (being a teenage cheerleader hanging with her friends), so she split herself in half so she could just do both. Hell, the Mandrake was more of a "this Sabrina is a different person" than Spellman and Morningstar. Which is why, when the Mandrake Sabrina died I felt something, when Spellman and Morningstar were deciding who should die I really couldn't have cared less. I do think "rock, paper, scissors" was just about the level of decision they needed, since it really was "will I stay and rule hell or will I go back to Earth and hang out with my friends". 

I would have been fine with most of the show ending with the "regular" cosmos ceasing to exist as Salem's Endless cosmos took over as the "real" world. 

[SparedTurkey]

Does the ending means that Salem will die too? That makes it worse

[Primal Slayer]

On 1/4/2021 at 11:34 PM, SparedTurkey said:

Does the ending means that Salem will die too? That makes it worse

They made Salem so unimportant that I doubt he's tied to Sabrina anymore.

[CarpeFelis]

Have I forgotten something, or what happened to the cemetery by the Spellman Mortuary? Both Sabrinas were buried there. Previously Zelda would repeatedly kill Hilda and every time Hilda was buried there she came back to life. Why didn’t the Sabrinas?

[GaT]

On 1/7/2021 at 3:22 PM, CarpeFelis said:

Have I forgotten something, or what happened to the cemetery by the Spellman Mortuary? Both Sabrinas were buried there. Previously Zelda would repeatedly kill Hilda and every time Hilda was buried there she came back to life. Why didn’t the Sabrinas?

Yeah, that's true, maybe that was supposed to happen next season? And if one Sabrina is there, why isn't the other one?

I felt this entire season was a real drag, I had to force myself to watch. I got really tired of Blackwood, the terrors, Lilith & Sabrina, & what happened to Sabrina's hair at the end? She still had the headband, but her ends were sticking out. Her hair had always been styled no matter what before, did they lose the hairdresser on the show?

[Quark]

I didn't like that Sabrina died, and hated even more how Nick killed himself to be with her, but I did like the season.

Would be happy if this show returned one day.

[Blue Plastic]

On 1/3/2021 at 8:35 PM, Sakura12 said:

They should've gone with the Lost ending and said Nick lived his life then when he died he went to find her. 

At first that's what I thought was happening, a la the ending of "Titanic" when Rose dies as an old woman and is reunited with Jack in the afterlife.

Having Nick kill himself is really BS.  I can't believe they did that, even if it was meant to be quickly "rectified" if they'd had another season.  (That almost makes it even worse because real-life suicide is final of course.)  That's probably why they went with having Nick kill himself because they were going to "fix" it, and if they'd had him die as an old man then it would have been really awkward when Sabrina got resurrected.

They would have done much better to show a determined Nick declaring his intentions to bring Sabrina back.  Even if they weren't getting another season.  It's not like the ending they went with offered any closure or even made sense in a magical world where they have a Lazarus graveyard.  I was waiting all episode for Sabrina M. to come back to life and then they go kill off Sabrina S. too.  WTF even?

On 1/6/2021 at 1:56 PM, Primal Slayer said:

They made Salem so unimportant that I doubt he's tied to Sabrina anymore.

I've always hated this the most about this show.  Ridiculous but it's how I feel.  Salem could have been an awesome addition to the show IMO.  They should have gotten an actress who could work with cats, sorrynotsorry.  They kind of did include him more this season, even including the animatronic version, which I liked.  But still grossly underused.

On 1/7/2021 at 5:22 PM, CarpeFelis said:

Have I forgotten something, or what happened to the cemetery by the Spellman Mortuary? Both Sabrinas were buried there. Previously Zelda would repeatedly kill Hilda and every time Hilda was buried there she came back to life. Why didn’t the Sabrinas?

^This.

Question:  Was there a woman dressed in black (hat, dress) standing in the chamber while Sabrina S died?

Other complaints:

If Sabrina M's body was damaged enough for her to die, how was it able to house Sabrina S and keep her alive?  Magic, I know, but still internally inconsistent.

What happened to animatronic Endless Salem?

Still hate all of Sabrina's friends and they can all DIAF.  That includes Nick although he is less geeky than they.

What in the hell was Father Blackwood trying to do?  It was evil for the sake of evil and therefore I couldn't take him seriously.  His motivation needed to be fleshed out a little more.  Maybe he thought he would become the void and be able to create his own universe or something?

Zelda and Hilda would never have just given up trying to bring Sabrina back.

[ICantDoThatDave]

I thought this season was just bad. 

_ Too unfocused with so many plotlines.

- The supernatural stuff was dull & repetitive. Far too much "let's all chant in unison while making constipated faces" to solve problems. Also nothing really seemed as *dark* as the first couple seasons. Where was the creepiness earlier seasons had?

- They really ramped up the CW-ness of the show, too, it seemed like.  Sabrina's lonely, no wait now she's casually dating, no wait she just needs to be alone, no wait she'll go to Build A Boyfriend, no wait a new guy shows up, no wait Nick is her One True Love for eternity!

- On a semi-related note, they really leaned into Sabrina's Mary Sue-ness: all the boys want to date her, all the girls admire her, the adults defer to her, she's always right, not to mention making her Class President out of nowhere & even winning Battle of the Bands (that "Sweet Child of Mine" cover was painful). Plus all the supporting characters just turned into tools Sabrina could use as needed. Ambrose was basically just Magic Google this season.

-The massive plotholes others have mentioned. The worst to me were the disappearing Endless & Sabrina M's body being so beat up (from what exactly?) she died but then completely healed moments later so Sabrina S could inhabit it

- And finally, what was truly unbearable: WAAAYY too much singing!!

[tennisgurl]

That sure was an ending I guess. On the one hand, I can appreciate that Sabrina finally took some responsibility for her constantly wanting to have her cake and eat it too and almost destroying the world a few times, so her sacrificing herself is somewhat fitting. On the other, her dying seems almost too easy, I wish that instead of letting herself die and going off to heaven is less of a good ending than her finally using her chosen one super special self to try and actually fix the mess she broke and we ended the show with her having to live with the consequences of her actions instead of dying a martyr. Plus, its just a real downer note for the show to end on, especially Nick drowning himself to be with Sabrina and that being the "happy" ending. Oh yeah, two teenagers who killed themselves heading off to the great white room of the beyond, great message there for the teen audience. I would have been happier if they said that Nick lived a presumably long life and reunited with her much later, just looking like his young self, but I guess that was less dramatic. I was also annoyed that we get no real closure for the rest of the characters, other than Hilda apparently moving back to the house (with Dr. C?) and Prudence is finally getting rid of Blackwood for real. We have no clue what happens with everyone else, and I don't really need to know everything that happens to everyone for their whole lives or anything, but I would like to have some idea of what the characters who didn't kill themselves are going to be doing. The last shot we got of most everyone was them crying over Sabrina's graves, I would have liked to see them moving on. 

Where the hell did Endless Salem puppet go? I was very invested in that puppet! I am glad that at least Salem got a bit more to do with Salem, but I hate that he was such a small presence in the show, he was always the highlight of the 90s show. 

The Terrors were a cool idea, but the actual ending with The Void turned out to be really anticlimactic. The Pandora's box thing was a fine idea (and I really enjoy the mysterious Trinket man who kept showing up) but it all just ended in the first twenty minutes after a whole season of build up. In general the whole season had a ton of ideas that were never really followed through on, you get the feeling that the writers didn't realize they would have to wrap up everything this season and were in a frantic rush to get things finished. Granted, that has always been an issue with this show (great ideas, anticlimactic follow through) but this season was when it was most obvious. 

That all being said, I did mostly enjoy this season and I will miss this weird weird show. It had consistently good acting, fun characters, and its mix of campiness, creepiness, and heart always made for an entertaining ride. Even when it wasn't very good, it was almost always a ton of fun. 

[Blue Plastic]

Everyone on this show must want a recording contract. Too much singing indeed.

I forgot to add another observation. All the sexually active teen couples hung around in one or the other’s bedroom for what seemed like hours at a time (even sharing a bed all night). It was like they were living together and/or married. Is that what the kids are doing these days?  They don’t worry that their parents or guardians will walk in on them in a private moment?  It kind of gave me anxiety.

Edited January 11, 2021 by Blue Plastic

[JonasArm]

21 hours ago, Blue Plastic said:

Question:  Was there a woman dressed in black (hat, dress) standing in the chamber while Sabrina S died?

 

On 12/31/2020 at 10:09 PM, AnimeMania said:

Where did Nick and Sabrina end up, Heaven's waiting room? You would think they would be in Hell, if killing an Angel doesn't send you to Hell, I don't know what will.

I'm pretty sure the woman was their Dark Mother Hecate, which would mean that it is in her realm that Sabrina and Nick end up.

[Mabinogia]

6 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

The last shot we got of most everyone was them crying over Sabrina's graves, I would have liked to see them moving on. 

Don't be silly. They couldn't possibly move on when super special most magical and amazing Sabrina is gone. I assume they all just ceased to exist without her. lol

Seriously though, they probably all heaved one giant sigh or relief that that little pain in the arse was gone and maybe they could go a week without the world being in some Sabrina Induced crisis of the most epic proportions. They probably threw a party. 

As long as Hilda, Ambrose and Lilith got their happy endings and Faustus has been scattered to the far ends of the Earth I'm good. 

I do agree with those who find the romanticizing of suicide to be with your true love in extremely bad taste. There is nothing romantic about killing yourself to be with your just got back together after being broken up girlfriend. BLECH

[MaggieG]

I didn't like this ending too much but overall I enjoyed this season and the show as a whole. I too would have liked some closure on the other characters. So with Lilith killing Lucifer, is she now ruling hell? Also, what is Mary Wardwell doing? Is she traveling around the country telling Sabrina's story? That was a little odd. It almost feels like they could have one more season and it'll be everyone trying to get Sabrina and Nick out of wherever they are.

I know Caliban was nobody's favorite but I wanted some scenes with him and Sabrina M in hell showing their relationship. Judging from their body language right before Sabrina M went into the mirror, they did seem to really like each other. Plus she was happy to see him in episode 7.

For my fellow Riverdale watchers, did anyone notice during the battle of the bands episode, the band members that were killed by Satanic Panic were the same actors that played Brett, Donna and Joan on Riverdale? Our favorite Stonewall Prep students 😆

One of my favorite scenes was during episode 6 right before Dorcas left and she whispered in Agatha's ear, which brought her back to normal. Then Agatha and Prudence hugging. I may have shed a little tear.

So Marie was basically Papa Legba the whole time?

Random but I loved the Spellman house. So spooky. I would totally live there lol

[Mabinogia]

11 hours ago, MaggieG said:

One of my favorite scenes was during episode 6 right before Dorcas left and she whispered in Agatha's ear, which brought her back to normal. Then Agatha and Prudence hugging. I may have shed a little tear.

That was a lovely moment that shows how much they really were sisters without being blood related. One of the most surprising things for me over the course of the show was how much I came to love Prudence. In the beginning I loved to hate her because the actress was great but the character was quite horrible, but the character actually grew a lot over the course of the show and her love and care for her sisters was a big part of that. The look on her face when Agatha was lucid again was just pure love. 

I'd totally watch a show about Prudence travelling the world scattering bits of Faustus here and there while fighting baddies all Buffy style, with Ambrose by her side, natch.

[SourK]

On 1/11/2021 at 2:41 PM, Blue Plastic said:

I forgot to add another observation. All the sexually active teen couples hung around in one or the other’s bedroom for what seemed like hours at a time (even sharing a bed all night). It was like they were living together and/or married. Is that what the kids are doing these days?  They don’t worry that their parents or guardians will walk in on them in a private moment?  It kind of gave me anxiety.

Same. I think shows aimed at teens usually follow a rule where they try to make the characters seem a little older than the target audience, because that's part of the fantasy, so it's not totally unusual for high school characters to act like they're in college, but there were several times this season when I was like, "This feels like the relationship you have at 23, not 17."

On the other hand, the set they made for Harvey's room was really nice. Like, nice decorating, nice lighting, they set up nice angles to film it from... I don't blame them for wanting to keep putting scenes there.

On 1/14/2021 at 9:06 AM, MaggieG said:

I know Caliban was nobody's favorite but I wanted some scenes with him and Sabrina M in hell showing their relationship. Judging from their body language right before Sabrina M went into the mirror, they did seem to really like each other. Plus she was happy to see him in episode 7.

One thing I didn't like about the Two Sabrinas plot line is that, as of this season, it was always super clear that we only needed to care about Sabrina Spellman, because she was the real, real Sabrina, and the other one was extra. It feels like that shouldn't be the case.

Not to drag obscure sci-fi shows into it, but one of the coolest things about Farscape was a story arc where the main character got cloned, and then the show treated both of them as being 100% the main character until one of them died. That made the stakes feel a lot higher, and the death hurt a lot more.

On 1/14/2021 at 9:06 AM, MaggieG said:

For my fellow Riverdale watchers, did anyone notice during the battle of the bands episode, the band members that were killed by Satanic Panic were the same actors that played Brett, Donna and Joan on Riverdale? Our favorite Stonewall Prep students 😆

I did notice that, and I don't know what it means, except maybe an Easter egg for us?

[methodwriter85]

So that was the ending. Definitely felt like Netflix blindsided the Powers that Be and they went went with this. It felt pretty rushed, like the ending of the Australian t.v. show Glitch.

I generally enjoyed this show, but I felt like this show lacked any real emotional pathos compared to Buffy seasons 1 through 5. And it's not even on the acting- no one on the show is laughably bad. Basically it kind of felt like they'd constantly take back things that were done and thus I could never feel the emotional depth of any loss on the show, save for Harvey's brother.

It was a fun show, though. I did like that they realized that Harvey and Sabrina didn't have much chemistry and stopped trying to force it. I do really enjoy Ross Lynch and I wasn't thrilled he was saddled with such a wet blanket character. Here's hoping that he gets casted in a decent Netflix romantic comedy.

Edited January 30, 2021 by methodwriter85

[Rushmoras]

So, finished the whole season and... um... how do I say this... but... what the fuck was this season even?

Spoiler

Eldritch terrors reduced to what you would normally call monsters of the week, no real over-reaching plot, seeming important things - preparation for the upcoming evil to be precise - sidelined by unimportant things (e.g., weddings, karaoke sessions, who gets with who questions) etc. Probably the most what moments were when everybody kept telling how those Eldritch terrors were beyond God itself, cannot be dealt with etc., but they were dealt with without any ceremonies whatsoever and not blinking an eye, and that was every episode. Why even make them such a big deal, I don't understand, if you're just going to dispose of them like some random monster of the week material?

And the last episode... I mean, it might be that my memory is fading of the events of previous seasons, but why didn't they simply resurrect Sabrina in their family's graveyard? I mean, Hilda resurrected Zelda numerous times in Season One this way. Did something happen to the holy ground or something? I mean, I remember Pesta doing something to it in the previous season, was she desecrating it or something and because of this it was unusable? I don't remember, seems like an oversight to me at this point. Sorry.

On the other hand, I liked the practical effects and make-up in this series, but judging the whole plot as a whole? Waisted potential. Does not even hold a candle to the first two seasons at all (at least in my opinion).

Also, so many questions left unanswered in this season that I'm seriously shocked 😕

Edited February 26, 2021 by Rushmoras

[methodwriter85]

10 hours ago, Rushmoras said:

On the other hand, I liked the practical effects and make-up in this series, but judging the whole plot as a whole? Waisted potential. Does not even hold a candle to the first two seasons at all (at least in my opinion).

The problem with the show is that the stakes never felt that real because almost every.single.death.on.the.show.was.undone. Seriously, what is that? I didn't even feel bad for Nick and Sabrina because I figured that at some point in this universe they'll be resurrected and we just won't see it.

The closest this show ever got to making me feel any kind of sadness was when Sabrina kills her Plant Clone, and Harvey's brother. Otherwise the show lacked any real emotional core.

It was a fun trifle for the most part, but it just never reached the heights of Prime Era Buffy (season 2 through season 5), which managed to balance humor/campiness with emotional pathos.

Edited February 27, 2021 by methodwriter85

[shrewd.buddha]

On 2/26/2021 at 1:57 PM, Rushmoras said:

what the fuck was this season even?

I very much agree.  
Everything felt forced this season and the cringe element hit heights never before seen.
The only thing that really stood out for me was how committed the adult actors were . . . they seemed committed to doing their best with the ridiculous situations they were given. 
 

Edited February 27, 2021 by shrewd.buddha

[Mabinogia]

On 2/26/2021 at 1:57 PM, Rushmoras said:

So, finished the whole season and... um... how do I say this... but... what the fork was this season even?

Maybe they were trying to make it easier for us to deal with the show ending by showing that they had completely run out of good ideas. 

[bettername2come]

Okay, that ending was stupid. I’d say I’m disappointed but I don’t care enough. The original series was better.

[cleo]

Um don't they have a cemetery where dead people come back to life?

Terrible writing.

I liked ep 7 much better.

Liked Prudence with the chainsaw. 

The plot was interesting with the void but a dumb ending given what they had written before. 

I also really disliked the 2 Sabrinas but I suppose it could have been worse. At least there were no Potential Sabrinas heh.

The statue puke.