A visit from Father Blackwood serves to somewhat ease Sabrina’s concerns over her impending Dark Baptism, though doubts remain. Meanwhile, she enlists the help of some unusual allies to teach some of the bullies at her school a lesson, just in case she won’t be there to watch over her friends much longer.

My one issue last time out with the show was that there was a weird sort of tonal dissonance whereby everyone seemed to be on the side of the ‘Dark Lord’ leaving me to wonder who to root for. Two minutes into this episode, that issue melted away. Sabrina’s interaction with Blackwood (played to perfection by Richard Coyle) leaves the viewer in no doubt as to where our heroine stands on the issue, but leaves an unpleasant impression that Blackwood isn’t necessarily to be fully trusted.

However, much like fellow witchy TV drama Charmed, CAOS has a serious case of social conscience, and it deals with that in a fairly on-the-nose way – where you stand on the issues it talks about will likely influence how much (if at all) this bothers you, though I suspect that if you strongly disagree with its stance, you aren’t likely to be watching anyway.

What’s charming about it (and again slightly jarring at the same time) is that whereas it is very explicit in its political leanings, it’s whimsically playful with everything else. There’s an absolutely horrifying moment involving Zelda and Hilda which the show inflicts on you and then deals with later in a very insouciant way, almost as if to say ‘What? You believed us?’ before sauntering along again on its playful way. It’s a juxtaposition of darkness and mischief that actually works to the show’s advantage, given the subject matter.

Back at school, Susie is in trouble after tangling once again with the jocks. Fearing that something serious might happen to her friend if she takes her baptism and leaves her old life behind, Sabrina turns to some unexpected allies for help in dishing out a little revenge to keep the bullies in check. It really doesn’t go where you think it might, and the end result of it is at once fitting for their (slightly one-dimensional) characters and refreshingly creative.

Ambrose is still very much the standout of the show – charming, dry and delightfully witty, there’s a sense there that he’s a genuine ally to Sabrina and more than a bit of a rebel against their two aunts. Or at least, against Zelda, the tyrannical mistress of the Spellman household. Lucy Davis continues to be utterly adorable as Hilda, lighting up the screen every time she’s on it and making the viewer want to hug her tightly every time she appears.

It all barrels along nicely towards the baptism itself, but even as she steps through the woods and kneels before Blackwood, there’s a sense that Sabrina isn’t wholly sold on what to do. What comes next is perhaps predictable but definitely exciting, and suddenly not only does the show fully have its identity but the stakes are raised in a very real way.

Verdict: In hindsight, the pilot episode really was merely a setup. This is brave, bold, and nasty in all the right ways. A little too on-the-nose with its politics it may be, but this show knows exactly what tone it wants to go for and it nails it with every shot. Count me very much on board. 9/10

Greg D. Smith